Hope at Hand Newsletter – March 2022

Hello everyone, can you believe the first 3 months of 2022 have flown by already? We are pleased to communicate that we continue with our Fathers work, serving others and constantly seeing His hand in all we do.

Food Parcels

We were able to distribute 293 of our normal food parcels from January to March 2022. In addition to these, 15 parcels were donated to REVIVE NPO for parolees upon their release as well as 15 parcels being given to a ministry in Kempton park called “Food for thought”

We were also able to give substantial food hampers to the following places:

• Hospice in Edenvale (as their grants had not been paid)
• Baby Bears in Alexandra township

These were received with great appreciation

Donations Received

• R10 000.00 in Makro vouchers enabled us to buy extra food as well as some luxury items. We were also able to help some elderly ladies in our community with parcels.
• 130 grocery buckets from Pick n Pay – these were distributed in Tembisa and Alexandra
• 200 punnets of grapes and some bags of apples received from Westvalia
• Bedding and towels
• 96 Fire extinguishers which were handed out in an informal settlement on the outskirts of Alexandra

Sustainable Projects –  Vegetable Gardens

Our signature garden was planted at the newDAY ETS premises in January and we are seeing great results of spinach, cabbage, beans, carrots, turnips and onions that we plan to make use of to make soup this winter.

Moses Senne, our pastor at newDAY Tembisa, who also distributes our parcels in Tembisa, was given some compost and spinach seedling to add to his little garden to help sustain his household. We strongly believe in each house hold having a patch of home grown produce and are hoping to introduce this in the near future.

Awareness Evening

Friday night 11 March we were thrilled to be able to share our Outreach with our youth. An informative video was aired and questions were answered. The children had an opportunity to assist in packing food parcels and the cherry on the top was the little notes of encouragement that the children wrote for each person receiving a parcel. This goes a long way in instilling hope and dignity to our recipients. The evening ending with ice cream cones and delicious chocolate source.

Homeless Outreach

In partnership with REVIVE (NPO)

26th January – 80 meals were prepared with savoury mince and samp as well as a cooldrink and taken out to be distributed to those struggling in our community

On Wednesday 23 March 80 meals consisting of chicken, lentils, veg, rice and a cooldrink were prepared and handed out to the folk on the streets of Edenvale.

100 sandwiches are prepared each month for the team from newDAY to take to the streets of Hillbrow as the team go out and minister the gospel. This ministry is so well received and the team come back blessed out of their socks!

Our Storehouse

It was an exciting yet sobering occasion on 3 February 2022 when our storehouse was officially named the “Alistair Mac Dougall Centre”. We are doing what we doing because this great man obeyed a call from God to start a soup kitchen in the squatter camps in Tembisa in 2016. A team would go out every Saturday with soup and buttered bread and serve the community, but most of all the love and joy of Jesus was shared, what an amazing time this was!! Due to the pandemic we were no longer able to serve soup in this way, so Hope@Hand food parcel ministry was born. Alistair went home on 12 April 2019 and is remembered .

Volunteers

We have built up quite a team of willing volunteers who assist us in our various projects and outreaches. We thank each and every one of them for their time and their love for Jesus, as well as the fellowship we always enjoy together.

We would like to thank you for your ongoing support and love.

Lots of love Lynda & Debbie