Articles

  Reg and Cynthia Schafer

Qwa Qwa Newsletter January/February/March2020

Reg Schafer (BI from 1968 to 69) and Cynthia Day (BI from 1967 to 69) met at YFC in Joburg, married, went to BI and now, a half century later, are serving the Sesotho people in Qwa Qwa, 55 kms from Harrismith on the Lesotho / KZN border. This is part of their incredible story of endurance and faithfulness in Jesus...

This has been a very different Good Friday. No church services. No lunch gatherings. Very different indeed. Yet Immanuel is with all his people far and wide, as we face a very challenging situation throughout planet earth. We pray for our world.

Mabolela Church.
Before the lockdown the Lord was working in the services and the Friday youth meeting, the Sunday School had an influx of children. Then came Corona virus. Before the lockdown was announced the church decided to close all services for a period of time. This decision was confirmed by the President’s announcement of the lockdown. Now we keep contact by phone, messenger and what’s app. The day before lockdown we rushed around to deliver maize meal to the needy in the church and in the Lusaka church.

Food Project.
Thank you to the His Place Church for their support over many years in providing finance that enabled us to provide food to many households over many years. Now with the lockdown in England, the church is not able to meet, so there are no tithes and no funds available for the food project. Yet the need is even greater now, as those who had piece jobs are no longer able to work and so family incomes have dropped drastically. Even those who had jobs have not been able to work, in many cases the sole bread winner, now those families are also in dire need.
The funds for the food project have dried up and now we are facing a big problem of food shortages in many homes. I hate to do this, but I am appealing to whoever is able to help us, to send funds to our food project. The bank account is listed below. For any overseas donors, could you please deposit into our Nedbank account, and mark it Food Project. This account number is also listed below. We have made this problem an urgent matter of prayer. Please pray with us. This is an urgent appeal.

If anyone knows how we can get in touch with those who are controlling the “Solidarity Fund”, set up by the President, please send us details so that we may pass the info on to those in need. Or, if you know of any other source where people in need can apply for help, please let us know so that we can inform people.

With the schools closed this has also adversely affected pastor Zwane who made an income by transporting children to and from school. We have helped them in the past, now we ourselves are battling, but still help where we can, but now we are asking for funds to keep them going during the shutdown. If you can give toward their upkeep, please bank into our Nedbank account and mark it Joseph. We will make sure he gets the money. Thanks

To all those who are praying for us and who give toward our personal support and the support of the ministry, thank you so very much. We appreciate you so very much. Please pray that in the current crisis the Lord will give us wisdom to serve the people and somehow to meet their needs. May the Lord protect you during this crisis. I pray Psalm 91 over you regularly.
This letter and appeal comes to you from my heart.
God bless and keep you all.
Much love in Jesus,
Reg and Cynthia Schafer.

 

Editor's note: If you have been touched by the story of the work in Qwa Qwa and would like to assist in any way, here are contact details for Reg and Cynthia

P O Box 74, Phuthaditjhaba South, Free State, South Africa. 9867.
e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Cell numbers: Reg +27 (0)81 710 7974 Cynthia +27 (0)81 525 4431
Using Scripture Union materials and programmes
Registration Number: 137-284 NPO

 

Taking a step back, here is a snip from an earlier newsletter, September 2018,  describing the work in Qwa Qwa.

''Please pray with us that the Lord will give us a suitable stand on which to build a community centre. The URGENT NEED is for a large hall with a kitchen, three storerooms, and an office. The hall needs to be large enough to run the Holiday Bible Clubs in, in cases of severe heat or rain. The kitchen is needed so that we can cook for the HBC and other church functions on the premises. The three secure and equipped storerooms are: for the food for distribution, clothes that we are sent for distribution, all the HBC and church equipment.

Recently we have been blessed with a large quantity of clothes, mainly for teenagers and women.  We need a place the clothing can be packed out neatly and people can come and see what fits them. I am finding the delivering of the food parcels very tiring. But it is better than having three, four or five people at your gate on a regular basis asking for food. The plan is to have someone in the office on set days during the month to distribute the food and clothes. The vision is to have a centre where we can have an orphanage; a home for the elderly, especially widows; recreational facilities for the children and the young people of the surrounding villages. The aim being to keep them from the taverns and all the evils associated with these.

Pray that the Lord will release finance to fulfil the vision. From the human standpoint, this is mission impossible; BUT OUR GOD is able. 

As Cynthia and I are both in our late seventies, we need younger people to come into the ministry to learn and to be introduced to our contacts, in order for them to take over the work from us. Please pray that the Lord will give grace to the young men and women we are training up, that they will grow up in Christ and will be able to carry on with the work when we are no longer able to"

 

credit: https://www.bloemfonteincourant.co.za/