Spring 2020 Update

The last few months have been quite different for us here in South Africa, as it has been for each of you in your respective places. 

March started out with the sad news of the passing of my Aunt Edith Blumhofer.  Peter and I were able to fly to the US to attend her funeral.  We miss her and we are sad for the loss, but we are thankful for the hope we have in Christ to know that she is with him in Glory.  We got to see many of you!  We see God’s hand in the timing of this, as my aunt was still able to have a proper funeral, and we were able to be there for it.  We are so thankful for His provision and His grace to allow us to travel to the US and back again.  I was so happy to introduce Peter to some of you.  We hoped to see more of you but had to rush back to South Africa, as international travel bans were being imposed.  We made it home just 18 hours before the border closed!

A few days after we arrived back home, our government set out one of the strictest nationwide lockdowns that has been seen across the globe.  It was to last 21 days, but as in most other places, it has been extended.  A number of rules have been lifted and some have changed, but we are still in this lockdown and don’t know when it will lift.

As you know, Hands at Work’s five care points in Oshoek each have between 50 and 100 of the most vulnerable children in that community come for a meal each day.  They come for a meal, they play, they are cared for, checked on, and loved by local community care workers.  Hands at Work is considered an essential service, so we are able to continue providing food for children.  However, with the rules of the lockdown, we couldn’t continue running our care points as usual.  Kids could not come in crowds and eat together and stay to play.  What would we do?  After debating whether we should continue to cook or if we should instead deliver food, we decided that we needed to continue operating each care point in order to be a safe haven for these children.  It would have to look very different than normal in order to follow social distancing and rules of hygiene, but we needed to keep these care points open.  With schools closed, our children would not be receiving the meal at school that they normally receive, so they would be even more desperate for food.  With extra family members home, and women and children remaining behind closed doors, domestic violence can increase and no one would be able to check on the children.

Each of the five care points in Oshoek remains open and serving children.  Xolani travels there every other week, and visits the closer communities the weeks he is home.  Peter is unable to leave our property, so one of us always needs to be home with him.  I am sad that we will have to wait to go as a family to Oshoek, but we know that this is a small price to pay and we are learning to be patient.  None of our communities has been touched by the virus yet and we pray for God’s hand of protection over each of our care workers, children, and their grannies.

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This virus and subsequent lockdowns have meant many different things for God’s people around the world.  Some of you have experienced loss and grief; some of you have been sick; some are experiencing extreme loneliness, heightened anxiety, etc.; some of you have lost your jobs; some of you have been on the front lines for two months.  I don’t pretend to understand what any of you are going through but please know that our hearts are with you and we are praying for you.  God’s ways are not for us to understand but we trust Him and we pray that His name will be glorified throughout the earth at this time.