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Village Talk
**- Trinity Edition -**

Dear Friends of St Martin's,

Each of you have played a special role in the first year of our village, and we are grateful for your support. We are thankful to generous sponsors, and to those who have shared their time, ideas, resources, and their love. We have experienced first-hand the truth of Helen Keller's words, 'Alone we can do so little, together we can do so much.'

Trail Run

On 7 April, a trail run weekend for the benefit of our village was held at Luiperdkloof Trout Lodge. We are thankful to the sponsors of this event: Ignite, Water from Air, Luiperdkloof Trout Lodge, Meatmasters Vryheid, Coleman, and Voermol. The event attracted over 100 runners who tested their skills on 10km or 20km of rugged but spectacular terrain. Many of the runners camped at the venue, and enjoyed the warm hospitality of hosts Eckart and Kirsten Beneke of Luiperdkloof Trout Lodge. A special highlight of the event was the fact that St Martin's villager Thulani Tshabalala (worker at St Martin's chicken and vegetable farm) came 2nd in the 10km event. Thank you to Southeys, who sponsored Thulani's entry fee and running kit. Thulani is pictured accepting his running kit from Rose Southey.

Facts and Figures:

Start of Project: January 2017 / Official Opening: April 2017

Babies cared for: 6 newborns, 2 toddlers, 2 young children

Babies placed in adoptive families (after 3-6 months): 4

Returned to family of origin: 2

Young child passed to another place of safety: 1

Type of organisation: Temporary place of safety (In our home mother's name, who is registered with CMD through Social worker Gre Erasmus) & Non Profit Company (for St Martin's Village - PBO Nr. 930058969)

Current Capacity: 6 children from newborn up to the age of 6

Staff: Tracy Koen (home mother/social auxiliary worker), Sheila Sibiya, Duduzile Xaba and Philisiwe Sibisi (carers) , Nelisiwe Nkosi (domestic), Spamandla Sabelo Mtshali and Thulani Tshablala (gardeners/handy men/animal husbandrers).

Official Volunteers: Rosmarie Böhmer (Coordinator), Juliane Schütte (Treasurer), Liesel Beneke (spokesperson).

Board of Directors: Vaughan Southey (chairman), Lutz Böhmer, Pastor Thomas Beneke

Monthly Budget: Approx. R 35 000 (see financial statement )

Biggest Expenses: Rent (with the first right of purchase) and Wages

Community Enterprises (fund-raising, training and community building): broiler chicken project & community vegetable garden including pecan orchard

Medium term plans: renovate cottage at the back of property to accommodate carers, volunteers and possibly interns.

In the week after Easter a group of students gathered at St Martin's Village to help out with the chicken and vegetable enterprise. They also assisted at a holiday club which Rose Southey hosted at the Lutheran Church next door and with the Ignite/Luiperdskloof Trail run on the weekend. Before they came, they sent a generous donation which they had raised through a concert tour. Here is a report by Ivan Dedekind: in Deutsch & in English

In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ ” Acts 20 v. 35

A scene from the trail run: A temporary tented village set up on the farm for the trail runners.

Thulani Tshabalala and Mandla Mtshali give a good account of what they are up to at St Martin's Village.
https://newcastleadvertiser.co.za/150570/st-martins-makes-a-difference-one-vegetable-at-time/

From the pen of Pastor Thomas:
On Sunday we celebrated Trinity Sunday. What does the Trinity have to do with us St Martin's villagers? A 19th century father of the church - Wilhelm Löhe - wrote:

Out of mercy the Son of God became man; He lived, died, rose, ascended into heaven, and lives forever to practice great mercy. The motive and purpose of all His works is mercy, and mercy is that He desires for those who are His. Because His love and His Father’s and the Spirit’s love can only be mercy, so our love for the brothers and all men should also include nothing but mercy. The great basic command for our life is: “Be merciful, just as your Father in heaven is merciful” (Luke 6:36).

Practicing mercy is integral to who God is and what He does - our Creator, Redeemer and Sanctifier. Having been baptized into Christ, mercy is also integral to who we are and what we do. Thank God that He is not ashamed of putting us to work in His merciful interventions, giving our lives meaning and purpose!

Hilldrop Heritage Pre-Primary visited St Martin's village in May. The children enjoyed their tour of the vegetable garden, planting strawberry seedlings, and seeing the chickens. They also paid the St Martin's family a visit. We thank the parents and teachers for their generous donation of clothes and money.

One of our St Martin's carers, Duduzile Xaba, attended an Early Childhood Development workshop hosted at the LTS (Lutheran Theological Seminary) Preschool in Pretoria. She came back bursting with enthusiasm and new ideas, and we would like to thank Karin Niebuhr and the team at LTS Preschool for organising and sponsoring her attendance at the course.

Village Talk - Trinity Edition -

Village Talk
**- Trinity Edition -**