REPORT FROM SOSHANGUVE

You might remember that the project in Soshanguve got started last year as a result Zodwa getting married and moving to Soshanguve where her husband pastor Elias is an evangelical preacher. Zodwa brought nine young adults to Richards Bay to get trained in the Smart Choices program with our 2008 mission team. The following is the Soshanguve report written by Zodwa Gomba.

Office
2009 has proved to be a year of success and a bright future. We have been praying for an office where from the Soshanguve, Mabopane, Winterveldt and Mathibestad Ministries would work. In January God provided us with a beautiful and spacious office in the centre of Soshanguve Township. The rent is R2200 ($220) per month. We have started using it. We are sharing this office with Pastors’ Fraternal of Soshanguve. Through this networking we are going to serve our community. There are different ministries involved, Better Choice, Prison Ministry, Counselling Ministry, Discipleship training and Jesus Film. Dawie Peterson got us a sponsor who has paid the rent money for us for six months in advance. We trust God for further renting.

Training
We have had Better Choice training for five-days. Four members have joined our team. During our Easter Conference we will be training members from Victory Fellowship Church from Soshanguve under Pastor Ndala who was deeply touched by the program as well as members of our church (Ebenezer).

Teaching
We have started teaching in Tsibogo Secondary School. Teachers begged us to teach all their Grade 10 Students. We have done 2 classes and are left with 3 classes. Both classes went very well. We have decided to take a video camera and interviewed the Class Monitors and President of the School. They were deeply touched by the lessons. They were also excited about the fact that the School only started teaching grade 10 this year and they are the first Grade 10 group to be taught at that School, that coupled with the fact that America has had its first Black President, they consider themselves blessed to be sharing a coincidence with such a great country. So far this year 94 students from the Tsibogo School have received Smart Choices training. We are targeting 18 Schools in this township. There is a follow-up group from our church who will be running the spiritual movement in every school taught.

Projects / Networking
We have joined hands with other organisations dealing with HIV/AIDS Program. On the 13th February we visited Phakamonola School where all stakeholders were invited. HEARTLINES AND LOVE LIFE & BETTER CHOICE teams. I did a presentation about Smart Choices and afterwards the team dramatized the Thandiwe story to show how bad choices can affect one’s future. The whole day was set apart for an AIDS campaign. Love life team was giving blood tests to the community members & our team also went for testing.

Orphanage
Thank you very much for supporting the children. You are making a huge difference in their lives and your support is shaping a brighter future for them.
Sthembile and Minenhle are now with us. The reason we took them is that she failed her grade 8 and we realised that it was due to my absence. Minenhle was sickly and often absent from school. We may now bring the rest to Pretoria, (Sno, Phiwe & Skho). They all want to come and stay with us, we are renting the house we are staying in but we are in preparation to buy a new plot to build an orphanage.

Prayer Requests
• Pray for a computer, printer and fax machine in our new office
• Rent which is R2200.00 per month
• Pray for transport. At the present moment we are using one car, which takes only 4 people to the schools whereas we have 10 members.
• Pray for a projector. We are using one of the members’ TV set, we are afraid it can get damaged.
• Pray for the house where we can live with all the orphans, we are currently staying with 4 orphans and we have more in our church
P.S. Would you please print T-shirts for us since we’ve already started and the ones that we have are worn out as they are worn 3 times a week, we will appreciate that a lot.