“A quotation is a handy thing to have about, saving one the trouble of thinking for oneself, always a laborious business.”
&
“You are stronger than you seem,
Braver than you believe,
and smarter than you think you are.”
(Winnie the Pooh)
“How do you spell ‘love’?” – Piglet
“You don’t spell it…you feel it.” – Pooh
(Winnie the Pooh)
Thank you to Mike at tonysonblogger for the nomination!
Nestled among the tin shacks of an informal settlement at the bottom edge of Africa is a place of hope and safety known as iKhaya le Themba – Home of Hope.
Their vision:
We long for a world where every child has a hope and a future and the effects of poverty, trauma, and HIV & AIDS are no longer seen.
iKhaya le Themba is a NPO which was started in 2004 and has brought hope and a future to many families. It offers “holistic After School Care programs” to the primary school children of Imizamo Yethu informal settlement in Hout Bay, Cape Town.
The children receive a cooked meal on arrival from school and sandwiches before they leave to go home in the late afternoon…
There are two separate vegetable gardens. One for the children to work in and one for the parents to work in…
A very innovative compost heap and worm farm
I was privileged to spend an afternoon with the children working on a project for the next Sisanda Fundaytion fun day.
Busy preparing the room…
The children busy with the project…
Some of the finished projects…
Cleaning up afterwards…
“How do you spell ‘love’?” – Piglet
“You don’t spell it…you feel it.” – Pooh”
There is also the “SISTERHOOD”…
The Sisterhood are a group of teenagers who are mentored by volunteers – they call on volunteers from all walks of life – these volunteers enable, enrich and build into the lives of these beautiful young women. They meet on iKhaya le themba’s premises.
Some of the amazing staff and volunteers…
iKhaya le Themba believes that every child
“is individually loved by the all encompassing love of God.
It is this love that causes us to seek the very best for every child we work with in every aspect of that child’s life – physical, social, educational, emotional and spiritual. It is our belief that this love is able to bring fullness of life, freeing and empowering children to walk with God in His plans for them.”
I believed the promise God made to us in Psalm 37 “Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord, trust in Him and He will do this”.
Someone had prophesied over my life that God would give me the desire of my heart and a verse given in confirmation of this prophesy is found in Jeremiah 30:2 “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘Write in a book all the words I have spoken to you’”.
I had covered all the bases – I had prayed about the book, someone had confirmed it with a prophesy which was then followed up by a scripture verse and the book itself is very scripturally based. In fact a friend of mine who read the manuscript before I submitted it for publication had this to say “Actually, Noel, it would be a very good book if only it didn’t have so many scripture verses in it!”
I truly believed and had absolute faith that the book would be accepted for publication. I posted it off to three publishers – two of them never bothered to reply and the third one sent me a politely worded rejection letter. To say I was devastated is an understatement.
I was totally shattered and my faith and trust in God’s faithfulness was shaken. I spent days crying and weeks asking God why my book had been rejected.
After a period of time I started working on the manuscript again. I rewrote quite a few things and added some other things. I spent a lot of time in prayer and reading the Gospel.
Six years later I submitted the book to a partner publisher in America and they accepted it.
I know now that if my book had been accepted first time round it would have been one of the worst things that could have happened to me and my family. I would have taken all the credit and become insufferably proud. I would not have been able to cope with the public speaking that goes hand in hand with advertising a book. There was still a lot more healing that had to take place in my life and issues from my past that needed to be dealt with before my story was made public. I needed those years to grow in Him, to learn to rely solely on Him and to trust Him in all things. I needed that time to realize that God’s timing is always perfect and that He will not allow anything to happen to us – whether good or bad – until the time is right and He has equipped us to deal with the situation.
“Writing is the painting of the voice” (markamoment.com)
The other day my daughter and I were driving through the Karoo in South Africa. The scenery and the clouds in the sky looked amazing. Breathtakingly beautiful.
I turned to my daughter and said “I would love to be able to paint. To have the ability to paint a scene like this must be incredible”. She replied:
“But you are a painter, Mom, you paint pictures with words“.
That was one of the nicest things anyone has ever said to me!
Thank you precious daughter of mine xxx
Last week on the streets of New York I took this photo of a man whose money box was almost full – people were paying him not to vote for Donald Trump!!
This morning on the streets of Cape Town I met this young man from Somalia whose hero, when he was growing up, was Hilary Clinton. He named his cigarette stand after Hilary Clinton and is hoping she will win!!
On a recent trip to New York we visited Ground Zero – we also drove past the Engine 54, Ladder 4, Battalion 9 fire station.
On the morning of 9/11 the entire shift of firemen on duty that day, fifteen men in all, lost their lives rescuing those trapped and injured in the Twin Towers horror. These men were among the first to arrive at the World Trade Center – none of them made it back.
The first certified fatality on that day was a Franciscan friar and Catholic Priest, Mychal Judge. He also served as a chaplain to the New York City Fire department.
Along with the firemen from Ladder 4, he was one of the first people on the scene that morning and after giving the last rites to a dying fireman on the street, he turned and went back into the lobby of the North Tower. He walked willingly into chaos, destruction and mayhem in order to help his fellow human beings. He was killed by falling debris.
At his service Father Michael Duffy said the following:
“…he loved people and that showed and that makes all the difference. You can serve people but unless you love them, it’s not really ministry.”
{We, who are Believers, would do well to remember that – ‘you can serve people but unless you love them, it’s not really ministry’}
“He loved to bring Christ to people. He was the bridge between people and God and he loved to do that.”
He was waiting for his Firemen when they arrived in heaven. As Father Duffy said in the Eulogy “he was waiting for his Firemen in order to greet them with that big Irish smile. He’s going to take them by the arm and the hand and say, “Welcome, I want to take to you to my Father”. And so he can continue doing in death what he couldn’t do in life.”
Father Mychal Judge’s constant prayer was:
Lord, take me where you want me to go.
Let me meet who you want me to meet.
Tell me what you want me to say,
And keep me out of your way.
“The favors of the Lord are not exhausted. His mercies are not spent. Every morning, they are renewed. Great is his faithfulness. I will always trust in him.” (Lamentations 3:22 & 23)
Recently I asked my fourteen-year-old daughter what her idea of marriage is. Her reply amazed me. She said that her idea of marriage is like ‘the supper table’!
Below are some of the reasons she gave. I have taken her thoughts and expounded on them:
A happy and growing marriage should have all the above components.
A marriage should be a ‘place’ of togetherness, of enjoying each other’s company of being ‘fed’ emotionally.
Just as the supper table should also be a place of safety and love, so should marriage.
The world famous chef, Jamie Oliver, once said:
If you can eat with mates or friends or family, I mean, it’s such a brilliant thing isn’t it? If you feel really rubbish and you have a nice bit of food it makes you feel good, you know?
I was once asked what feeling the word ‘home’ invoked in me. My first thought was of Steven, my husband! The word home represents a place of safety, acceptance, warmth, love and security. I find all these things with him and in him.
As I continued to reflect on our youngest daughter’s idea that marriage is like ‘the supper table’ I was reminded of a game we used to play when our girls were growing up.
We would all swop places at the supper table and then take on the persona of the person whose chair we were now sitting on.
So if someone was sitting in my chair they had to ‘become’ me. They had to serve the food and take on the role as mother.
There was one memorable night when our middle daughter was me and I was her.
Throughout supper she kept asking me to pass the salt and for the rest of the time she basically ignored me every time I spoke to her.
There was always much hilarity during these suppers and more so when we discussed our various roles after supper.
On this particular night I asked Amy why she had ignored me most of the time other than to ask me to pass the salt.
She said that was the way I behaved towards her at the supper table.
Other than asking her to pass the salt I generally ignored her.
It came as quite a shock when I realized there was definitely an element of truth in what she was saying.
My heart ached that this was the way she perceived our relationship at the supper table but it also gave me an opportunity to start making amends and to start being more aware of listening to her when she spoke to me during supper.
Maybe it would be a good idea for husbands and wives to do this exercise on a regular basis.
To sit in each other’s places and to really think about how the other person is feeling.
For the wife and mother, it could have been a long day of work, of looking after and lifting children to and fro, of doing shopping and rushing to prepare supper with the knowledge that housework still had to be done and children prepared for bed.
For the husband it may have been a stressful day at work. He may have lost a major contract or had a fight with a client, his boss or a colleague. He may be worried about providing for his family and feeling like a failure.
Maybe by physically swopping places at the table and taking on the persona of our spouse, by putting their ‘shoes’ on and trying to imagine what their day was like and how they are feeling we may have far more patience, empathy and understanding towards each other.
Marriage often personifies the following verse
And why worry about a speck in your friend’s (spouse’s) eye when you have a log in your own? (Matthew 7:3)
We so often accuse our spouses of being selfish and uncaring and yet, maybe if we sat in their chair at the supper table every now and again we would view each other with more patience, love and understanding.
And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. (1 Corinthians 13:13)
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UNDER A JUNIPER TREE 