When I was a little girl, it was a tradition that in the first week of December, my paternal grandmother would take my two sisters and me shopping for our Christmas dresses. These were the days before neighborhood malls so we would be driven into the city center to one of the large department stores. The Christmas decorations and music filled my senses while store assistants rushed around bringing dresses and shoes and frilly socks for my grandmother to inspect. Us three girls all got exactly the same outfit, including a little monogramed handkerchief to place in our little-girl handbags. The day ended with a lovely lunch in the department store café. It was a day of the year that my sisters and I waited for and anticipated with much joy.  For us, this day marked the beginning of the Christmas season.

Meet Victoria.  About seven years ago Victoria was diagnosed as HIV positive.  As a result of her condition, she became critically sick with tuberculosis of the bones and severe arthritis, which left her confined to bed and a wheelchair.  One of Orchard: Africa’s partner pastors learned about Victoria and added her to his home-based care roster. With the training and support he regularly receives from Orchard: Africa, he was able to provide care for her. 

Over the past few months I having been reading and re-reading, again and again, the apostle John’s account of the life of Jesus. I see how Jesus chose, as his closest disciples, flawed and unqualified people. Without any credit to himself, Jesus covers the mistake (and pending embarrassment) of a friend at his wedding. With kindness, he engages with a woman who behaves and believes very differently to himself.  Jesus does not avert his eyes from a severely disabled person but rather has compassion and heals him. When a large crowd is hungry, he feeds them, even though he knows that many of these very people will turn against him and reject him. 

This month our North West Impact Center donated 1,200 seedlings to a community center in Ramatlabama Village. The Tsholanang Community Center is a predominantly women led initiative. They have helped over 100 members of their village, many of whom are elderly with little income, establish home gardens.

October is my favorite month. In South Africa, it is springtime. The long, wet winter on the southern tip of Africa is over. The birdsong in the morning comes earlier and sundown lingers, giving children more time to play outside in the cool evening air.  Our garden at the foot of the Helderberg mountain is in full spring bloom with bees buzzing and swallows swooping. The farms that surround our town are splattered with blossoms and bright green as fruit trees and vineyards burst from their winter gray. Did I mention that October is my favorite month?

This month, a team from First Baptist Church of Glenarden in Maryland, USA, presented a marriage seminar to a selected group of our pastors in the Northwest Province of South Africa. The delegates were made up of a diverse group ranging from very newly married couples to those married for over 40 years. 

The bus bumped along the road, finally bringing Tia back home.  It had been a grueling 10-hour journey from Cape Town to the Eastern Cape and another 10 hours back.  Traveling to her home village to attend a funeral was an unexpected expense, one she could not afford. It was the dead of winter – a bitterly cold time to be traveling. The icy wind and the dust seeped in through every crevice of the rickety old bus.  Tia had borrowed a travel blanket from one of her neighbors to keep her warm on the trip.  After returning home, Tia discovered that she had no detergent with which to wash her neighbor’s blanket. 

I like to take walks, especially in the freshness of a new day. Whether I am in my home country of South Africa, or in my transplanted home of Arizona, I am blessed to be surrounded by mountains. These craggy giants provide my morning walks with a sense of awe.  I often wonder about the people, thousands of years ago, who saw these very same mountains in the morning, and were filled with peace, like I am.  

Mayaeyane is a small village situated 61 km (38 miles)  west of the city of Mahikeng in the North West Province of South Africa. The unemployment rate is very high in this community with most families dependent on monthly government grants.

A world stage seems so big, so full of power, so above the ordinary. I think of the Olympic stage that is currently showcasing athletic wonders that leave us awestruck. Or what about the stage of politicians from a superpower country that grasps our attention and urgently points to our future, instilling fear or making promises that cannot be kept.

Meet Thenjiwe Busakwe. In 2021 we started our Women’s Empowerment Program (WEP) with 20 candidates from different communities in the Western Cape of South Africa. These women came from different walks of life, none of them had any source of income, most of them came from backgrounds of lack, abuse and discrimination. These circumstances had caused harm to their soul.

The wet of winter in the Western Cape of South Africa has me dressed in my warmest sweatpants and oversized, fuzzy socks. I do not plan to go outdoors today. I am camped by the fireplace, sipping a steaming drink. Our ancient oak tree is reflected in the water pooled around the paving on our patio. Beyond that, silver drops glisten on the indigenous plants of our garden. This is winter on the southern tip of Africa.

Meet the “A” team or rather the O: “A” team at the NW Impact Center. At the beginning of every month our Northwest team embarks on a very meaningful logistical process. They procure and prepare the necessary support supplies for each partner church based on their programs and program level needs. The A-team then transforms into a D-team as they deliver and distribute these to each of the partners that needs assistance.

Tshepiso is a cook in the very remote village of Mayeyane where Life of Purpose church runs a feeding project for about 200 children. The church does not yet have a secure structure in this village where they can permanently store the food, the stove, and pots for the project. Tshepiso not only opened her heart to serve the vulnerable children of her community, but she also opened her house to be used as a temporary base from which the church-run feeding program operates. This means that at any given time, her small yard is full of children.

My mother had the liveliest of blue eyes that were truly a window to her soul. When she was happy, they danced brightly and made my heart sing. Anger turned them a deep blue and I knew to tread lightly. As a child, I learned a myriad of emotions simply by glancing at her face. My mother was a complex person who I loved dearly and hated ferociously, all in one day. She passed away far too young, almost three decades ago, and I still miss her so very much.

Zimkhitha is a preschool teacher for the Fountain of Hope preschool in the Western Cape of South Africa. For Zimkhitha it is an emotional experience to see her 6 year old students from last year in their new school uniforms and going to “big” school. She is proud of them. She looks forward to a new beginning each year, meeting the new students and getting to know their personalities. The first few weeks are bumpy as the children tend to cry for their mom when they are dropped off at school. They soon settle, she says, and learn to enjoy each other, their new environment and their lessons. Zimkhitha says that helping little children to love to learn brings her much joy and happiness.

My husband and I have recently moved into a new house. We have moved often in our married life. Sometimes I wonder what it must be like to live in one place for decades - the proverbial “forever home”. I imagine this to be familiar and comforting - like a pair of old slippers and a well-worn bathrobe.

This is a leap year. This odd 29th day in an oddly short month. Our Gregorian calendar records 365 days in a year. This is all good and well, except that it takes the earth 365 days, five hours, 48 minutes, and 56 seconds to make its way around our sun. So, there’s this little bit of time to account for and we make room for these hours every four years.

Zimkhitha is a preschool teacher for the Fountain of Hope preschool in the Western Cape of South Africa. For Zimkhitha it is an emotional experience to see her 6 year old students from last year in their new school uniforms and going to “big” school. She is proud of them. She looks forward to a new beginning each year, meeting the new students and getting to know their personalities. The first few weeks are bumpy as the children tend to cry for their mom when they are dropped off at school. They soon settle, she says, and learn to enjoy each other, their new environment and their lessons. Zimkhitha says that helping little children to love to learn brings her much joy and happiness.

At the bottom of our African garden, beyond the rockery and down the brick steps, there is a spot where nothing will grow, except a very old and very large tree. I have tried all kinds of ground covers, shrubs, and plants but they just refused to thrive. I had mostly given up on that patch and allowed it to be the end of the map where dragons be and no sane person goes.