| What on earth are we here for? We're helping! |
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Translated from the article in
Beeld, Jun 16 2008, by Neels Jackson.
“Every piece of food and clothing
that you bring is something that we don’t need to go and buy.”
This is what Mr. Tiaan Coetzee,
manager of Uncle Ben’s Den in Hermanstad,
Almost 100 people are currently
residing there and they are very satisfied with their home.
“I don’t want to stay anywhere
else. If you leave here, you are ungrateful,” said Mrs. Kleintjie Gordon (66),
sitting on the porch in the sun, chatting.
“I stay very comfortable,” said Mr.
John van Zyl where he was enjoying the morning sun in his walking frame. He had
lost his foot in an accident and is currently waiting for a prosthetic.
But for Coetzee, keeping things
together is not always that simple. The burden is heavy and the income scarce.
They don’t receive any government
funding and about 80% of their residents pay for accommodation, according to
their means. The rest stay for free.
Coetzee also arranges outings to
collect money to cover the rest of the costs, but he is very grateful for
contributions like that of yesterday.
The residents also reach out with a
helping hand. Yesterday, a group of them scraped clean the bricks from a heap
of rubble, for their use in building a dining room.
Yesterday, Uncle Ben’s Den was one
of nine places where the congregation from Pierre van Ryneveld handed out heaps
of blankets, food, clothes and other needed provisions.
It ranged from places in the inner
city to the west of
This outreach action comes at the
end of 40 days in which the congregation asked themselves: “What on earth are
we here for?”
One of the answers that stood out clearly for them was that they must reach out together to people in need.
For more information on the 40 Days
of Purpose campaign please go to www.pdmsa.org |