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Author Archives: Wendy

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Jennifer’s smile (05-November-2018)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jennifer’s smile is one of the joys of teaching the July-December 2018 Evangeline Class.  She is always ready to learn with delight.

Her face is aglow with the joy she feels at doing something she was desperate to do.  “I couldn’t wait to get computer skills,” Jennifer says.  She had never heard about Evangeline until her friend’s mom told her about us.

One of the five students we eagerly welcomed from the nearby Cape Town colored community of Ocean View, we are pleased to be part of the intentional bringing together of groups that, in a post-apartheid legacy, can be not only far apart, but sometimes, hostile to each other.  In our classroom they get along very well and appreciate each other’s language and culture.

While Jennifer has had some entry level employment, she was forced to quit her job when her mother became seriously ill and then because of her death when she had to care for her siblings. She earns some income as a baby sitter for two children but she wants to do so much more with her life.   She says: “I want to learn to sew not only to help others but to create my own styles. I want to see people wear my clothes.”

“I enjoy everything and I am learning a lot,” she says but she is especially thrilled with the Bible lesson.  “Now I understand the Bible more, I can go home and read it to my daughter,” she says.  “Before I just did not understand any of it.”

With twenty- two others, Jennifer will graduate on Saturday December 1 and be awarded her computer certificate and her new sewing machine.

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Evangeline July 2018 Graduation.Latest 

Evangeline Ministries had a delightful celebration on Saturday July 7 when nineteen lovely young women received their certificates, Bibles and sewing machines, reward for six months of committed work. The glowing smiles and even better, the stirring stories of personal change and growth in skills and faith, all demonstrated what a change EM makes in the lives of the students sent to us by God to touch their lives with His great love and Hope! We thank you for your support of this ministry and continue to ask you for your prayer and financial support.

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High School Students learn to Sew at Evangeline.

Eighteen students at the Masiphumelele High School signed up to learn sewing skills at Evangeline when offered them the chance. They are learning fast under the superb teaching of Namgamso, our Sewing Instructor. I met a few of them and it was heart-warming to see them working on the same sewing machines used by our Life Skills women. I asked them about their future hopes. They have big dreams! they want to be lawyers, teachers and engineers. They love Math and they want to “make a lot of money.” All of them were eager to learn new skills and sewing offered them a chance to learn to design and sew their own clothes. One said, “I want to “open my own business.” Who knows what will happen but we are so pleased to partner with the high school in this venture and we pray for these young ones a life, far better than they now experience in the township.

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It All Started Here!

When I arrived at class one day this week, Phumza was waiting to greet me. “I just had to come to tell you all that is happening in my life, : she said. When Phumza finished her semester in July 2015, she could not attend graduation because she had suffered many injuries in a car accident in Durban where she was attending a funeral. She was an outstanding student. Fully recovered, Phumza has a growing cake and food business. and is currently enrolled in a three year program of Hospitality and Business at a local college. She is sewing as wel!. When her daughter needed a track suit for school at an expensive price, Phumza said she purchased the materials and sewed it for one third of the cost. Her dream is to own her catering company, And Phumza said,” it all started here at Evangeline.” She will soon cook lunch for all of the students. “I am so grateful, I just want to give back,” she says.

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She Taught Me English!

I went into one of our leading food stores to purchase cakes for our Evangeline class lunch. Every day, we serve students a nutritious sandwich, a piece of fruit, a drink and a small treat. When the cashier needed an authoirzation for my purchase , to my delight the person she called, Nokubonga, was an Evangeline Graduate. When Nokobunga saw me she cied out in delight and told everyone around her, “This is the lady who taught me how to speak and I am so proud to meet her here.” She is the Front End Controller of the store.I’m in charge here,” she told me with a broad smile.” I could not stop praising God for another wonderful confirmation of Evangeline Ministries in Cape Town!

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A visit With Melody

One of our recent graduates, who lives with her family in Masiphumelele was both a time of praise and deep pain. In spite of all of the challenges of a shack, a too small place and no running water inside, Melody and her husband are hopeful as they are about to restart a small food business. With help from wonderful donors, they have purchased equipment to cook and vegetables to sell. It has been quite some time since I entered a shack and I had a wake up call again to see how much our Evangeline students must fight to just make a decent living.


With a hurting heart I went to the store to purchase something for Melody and was overjoyed to meet Unathi, who graduated in our December 2017 class. If anyone had asked me who would get a job in that class, I would not have chosen Unathi. But then I remembered how she was determined to graduate, even after illness had forced her to drop out from our class in 2017. She never gave up and has an entry level job which helps her now to take care of her family. She proudly posed in her uniform for me and took many selfies. Yes we are making a difference!

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Meet Anoxolo, one of the liveliest students in our January-July 2018 Evangeline Life Skills Class.

 

One of the few students who were born in Cape Town, Anoxolo survived tragedy at the age of ten when both her parents were killed in a taxi accident that almost claimed her life too. During the fire that engulfed the taxi, Anoxolo was badly burned with terrible scars today that cover most of her upper body and arms, and which, from time to time , require hospitalization. Raised by her grandmother, Anoxolo moved from another township to Masiphumelele to live with a relative who supported them. Although she did not pass her high school exams, she was accepted in a special fire fighters program in one of the national parks. When that program ended she was accepted in a library program to read to children in English and Xhosa, something she sill does every week. Because her grandmother sewed her clothes, Anoxolo was keen to learn sewing and since she had never had the opportunity to have computer lessons, she readily came to Evangeline when a friend told her about the program. “I want to learn to do English better, ” she said. “” I want to sew school uniforms and I want so much to learn the computer.” Anoxolo recently lost her thirty five year older sister, but has not missed class because of this recent grief. grateful for this chance she now has. “I am very happy to be here,” she says.

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Melody’s kindness

Melody graduated in 2017 and has now decorated our Graduation hall twice. Distressed about her housing situation she came to see me in tears. We prayed together and believed God would bring her family through this crisis. God did hear and answer and they were able to complete the building of their shack. I packed a good supply of towels and sheets and took them to her. In what is so unusual for many needy people here, Melody sent me this note. “Thank you Wendy, the sheets and towels are nice. I liked them. I gave another lady some and she was happy.” I answered”:” What an act of Christian love on your part. God bless you for sharing. God will supply all of your needs.”

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Betty And Her Bible

For months Betty an 2014 Evangeline graduate has been asking me for a Xhosa Bible. Up until last year, I asked students to choose whether they wanted a Xhosa or English Bible. As well I have purchased Bibles in the Soto language and also had a French Bible donated. Currently, we use English bibles to strengthen their English. A few weeks ago when I purchased the English Bibles, the Holy Spirit reminded me about Betty’s request. Betty caught up with me this week and again asked if I remembered to purchase the Bible. Yes, I said and opened out locker to give it t her. She let out a cry of pure joy that just filled my heart. “Now I can read my Bible every day and in church.” She had also run right to the sewing room and was reading it to others. When I asked where her English Bible was she said her son had taken it and he too is reading the Bible.

 

 

 

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Wishes You A Merry And Blessed Christmas

Evangeline Ministries wishes you a Merry and Blessed Christmas. We rejoice in the message of the angel to the shepherds: ” I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people…a Savior has been born to you, he is the Messiah, he is the Lord” (Luke 2:10-11). Thank you for helping us to share this good news of hope and joy with disadvantaged women in Cape Town, South Africa!

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