Newsletters

Grateful hearts in HBC

It is often at this time of year when food supplies are running short that you hear the most heart-felt testimonies of the difference that HBC is making in people’s lives. The support group at Naotcha HBC arranged to have a Christmas party and during a time of sharing about God’s goodness over the past year, many stories were shared of how God had met their needs through the HBC program. Let me share just a couple from the guardians…

“he was almost dead, people thought to put him on a bus to send him to his village to die. He couldn’t walk and had a chamber pot close to him since 2012 and we had to clean him up when he would soil himself. Now he can walk & speak again – God is doing wonders in him.”

“he was about to have his legs amputated because of Kaposi’s Sarcoma but this did not happen as he is now on treatment. God helped him thanks to the HBC and their untiring efforts towards helping him.”

 

And we want to add our gratitude to that of the beneficiaries for the many people who responded to our urgent request for help with HBC funding – the donations that came plus the recent notification of an allocation from International HOPE for AIDS for this year have been a great boost and will cover costs for at least the next 9 months. THANK YOU.

Faithfulness at Phingo OVC

I  (Jacky) made a recent visit to the Phingo OVC project and enjoyed telling the preschoolers the story of the prodigal son (and teaching the hokey cokey!), meeting some of the beneficiary families and eating goat and nsima! What I came away with was a strong sense of the faithfulness of the volunteers.  In the day care centre I chatted to the 4 teachers/helpers who are the same 4 who started back in 2008 who still faithfully come to support these young children each morning. One of the teachers told me how he even follows the progress of the kids once they go to primary school and is encouraged by feedback from the headmaster who tells them how the day care kids regularly out-perform the others. I also met a grandmother (pictured) whose family has been on the program since early days and the volunteers have walked through caring for her daughter whose husband abandoned her when she got sick and she was trying to care for her 3 kids alone. Now, following her death they are now caring for her as she takes up the challenge of looking after her grandchildren alone. This is typical of  the long term situations with no quick fixes where the volunteers faithfully visit  to bring practical, emotional and spiritual support for ‘as long as it takes’. Our aim is that all our volunteers should reflect God’s love and faithfulness in such a way.