This week began the first school holidays of the year, a much needed break for students and teachers alike. During the school holidays Camp Sonshine Africa runs a holiday club to give the children of Maitland Garden Village something fun to do - keeping them off the streets, occupied and having fun while in a safe, caring environment. This is the first holiday club that we have run that has not been sponsored by Cape Youth Care - the local organization that we partnered with. Cape Youth Care has unfortunately had to close down due to an unexpected and very sudden complete cut of government funding. Camp Sonshine Africa has fully taken on all the projects in Maitland Garden Village that Cape Youth Care were funding. Camp Sonshine Africa has no magic source of funds, but we believe in these programs and that God will provide what we need. So far this year has been financially stressful as we have literally had to cut all program costs just to be able to pay staff. So, to run a holiday club we had to charge kids to attend. Even in charging them we did not fully cover our costs and activities such as our planned Easter Egg hunt were going to have to be changed into looking for spray-painted rocks - not even almost as fun as finding a chocolate egg!
Early this week I had a random call from a local business saying that they wanted to help - this never happens, people don't just call us wanting to help. Anyway, even taken off guard I excitedly arranged a meeting with the company manager. They have been looking for a local NPO to help out in whatever way we need help, they found our website and called up! I told her about the programs that we run and what we had planned for the school holidays, she asked where we were getting our Easter Eggs from, I explained that I did not know and that we were hoping that someone would be able to provide these for us. She told me to consider it done and the next day she dropped off a massive bag of assorted chocolate and marshmallow eggs! She also said that her staff would like to be involved on an ongoing basis by giving of their time and possibly even financially. I was astounded and grateful and also felt a little foolish when I remembered the promises that God has given us - that He will provide for our needs and that what we ask will be given.
Little kids get this concept, I have had the amazing privilege of hanging out with my (almost) 2 year old nephew who is visiting from England. He does not worry about how he is going to be fed or clothed, he just knows that he parents will give him what he needs. He is also not afraid to ask for things, around afternoon tea time he comes up to the nearest adult saying "bikkie, bikkie (biscuit, biscuit)". He has no doubt about whether he will receive one, he knows that because he is asking, he will get one. He is not the slightest bit perturbed if one person says "no", he simply asks someone else; he may eventually resort to giving hugs and kisses to get one and at that point you simply cannot say no. (Now I know that if this became a constant request all day long his parents would not allow this as they do ultimately know what is best for him, but one biscuit a day is quite reasonable). Seeing his faith and trust in getting what he needs and even what he wants makes me know why God asks us to come to Him with the faith of a child.
On top of all this we were doubly blessed when I was able to collect 3 massive bags of clothes, school supplies and fun stuff that a team from NorthPoint Church in Atlanta, USA had brought over. I was so privileged to spend the day with them as we hung out with some of the Garden Village children and went into their homes. Their amazing generosity and kindness was overwhelming especially bearing in mind that they got all these things together to bring over before even meeting these children and families. THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!
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