The first guest in the safe house
By Nella Verschuur
After months of waiting for the shipping container from the Netherlands, the beds, chairs and tables could finally be assembled during the first week of February. Four simply furnished rooms were ready for use. It was not yet entirely clear when they would be used, but suddenly things went very quickly. The first guest arrived two days later.
Unpredictable
Perhaps this says something about how things are done in South Africa. Planning the construction, furnishing the rooms and putting them into use, all goes differently here than in the Netherlands. Often there is no carefully thought-out plan. And when there is one, it is fluid. For us as Westerners it is sometimes difficult to understand this. In the case of the Safe House, it is important to realize that you are dealing with unexpected situations in which you have to provide care. After all, you don’t plan for a woman and her children to end up in an unsafe situation.
Makgoa, makgoa!
The first guest is a woman with three children. When I walk up to them, I hear them shout, ‘Makgoa, makgoa!’ That means, ‘White person, white person!’ I realize that these children know me. And indeed, they are children who normally visit our Bible classes in our other center, the Garden of Hope. Now they and their mother are living in the Safe House.
Helping And praying
The woman is nervous. Yesterday, she was beaten up by her husband again. There are tensions in the relationship, partly caused by poverty. It is not yet entirely clear to me whether alcohol or drug problems also play a role. The social worker and the police are looking into the case, and I try to show sympathy. I listen to the stories, give the children a hug, and we pray together.
We pray to the God Who knows everything, sees everything, and controls everything through His power. The God Who knows the sorrow of this woman and children, as well as the questions she asks, ‘Why am I alive? Why do I live in poverty? What will happen to me and the children?’ I have no answers to that, but in prayer we may bring all sorrows to the Lord, of Whom we read in Psalm 10 verse 14, ‘ Thou hast seen it; for thou beholdest mischief and spite, to requite it with thy hand: the poor committeth himself unto thee; thou art the helper of the fatherless.’
'Let go'
After the woman has been in the Safe House for three days, she can go stay with her own family in another region in South Africa. With somewhat mixed feelings I watch her leave. This woman has told me something about her mother and family as well. These stories make me worry about the situation there. We will also not see this mother and children in the Bible classes anymore. Will they carry the Word of God with them? Will they continue to pray to the God Who lives? We have to ‘let go’ of this woman and her children. Well, we should not just let them go and leave them. For us as workers it is also true, ‘For thou beholdest mischief and spite, to requite it with thy hand.’ We have to give all the work, all the questions, all the worries, all the sorrow, all the souls, into His hand. May I ask for your prayer? Let us pray together, again and again, that we may give all the work that we may do for the people here in South Africa into His hand.
