Check mate......

In an effort to broaden the minds of students, the first chess class was given at the Charles Memorial Primary School. Mr. Mdu Msoni taught the basics of chess to 12 students and 6 of their teachers. The students come from grades 5 through 7 and they were all very eager to learn. They listened and looked attentively along with their teacher as Mr. Msoni showed then the various elements involved. They repeated enthusiastically the different pieces, "rook, bishop, knight, queen." It was very exciting to be there with them. By the end of the class they were able to set up the chess board, identify all the pieces and move them around the board. I asked the students if they enjoyed the lesson and they all said with smiles a very big "yes". I wonder what will be on their minds tonight.

In addition to Charles Memorial Primary School, chess will be introduced to La Lelani and the Ntshongweni Primary Schools. It think that this will be wonderful for the students as it will allow their minds to think in a new way and have some fun at the same time. Keep the students and Mr. Msoni in your prayers.

Zama's story

This past Friday Pastor Thwala found out about a young girl who is orphaned. Her name is Zama. One of the ladies in the sewing class brought it to his attention. So he asked Zama to come to the church to meet him and so that he could hear her story. At a young age she was given away to a lady who lived in Ntshongweni. Her mother did it because she was heavily into drugs and alcohol and she does not know who her father is. Zama grew up in Ntshongweni in the home of the lady she was given to and was verbally abused by the family. The lady who she was given to recently died and she went to live with a family member of that lady. The verbal abuse has continued in this new household. Zama is 17 years old and in grade 10 and has a baby. The father of the child matriculated last year and has moved to Johannesburg. When he asked if there was a way to find any family members she said that she did not know any of them and heard that her mother had passed away sometime ago. I met her at church on Sunday and she is very humble young lady.

Please keep Zama in your prayers.

School supplies.....

I want to send a big "THANK YOU" to all the teams that brought school supplies last year. I was able to give them to the children to help in getting them back to school. It's funny how sometimes we take things for granted. This afternoon as I was on my way to the homes I saw children coming from school and it made me sad to see that instead of a school bag all some of them had was a plastic bag and they were carrying their pencils and other things in their hand. I also saw a small boy, probably about 5 or 6 years old just crying his eyes out. I asked someone to find out what was wrong and someone stole his shoes at school so he had to walk home barefoot. It is only the second day of school.

Please keep the children in your prayers.

Happy New Year...... back to school

Happy New Year!!! The year has started off with a bang for me and I am ready to dig my heels in. Last week Pastor Thwala and I spent a few days meeting with the orphan families to get school information for the children. There are 92 children that will be going back to school on Wednesday. Today Pastor Thwala and I met with the caregivers in Pinetown to go shopping for school uniforms. I thought that it would go by quickly since folks would have already done all of their shopping. Not!!!!! The store was packed and it was sheer madness with folks grabbing pants, shoes, skirts, backpacks. After a long 6 hours we got most of what we needed to get the children off to a good start.

Please keep the children in your prayers as they head back to school. Pray for a good year for them and that they will get good marks. I ask this because the recent matric results across the country were not very positive. There were 18 schools that had a zero percent pass rate and across the country the pass rate was very low. Education is key to their future.