Day 365 & Counting...

South Africa's 21 day lock down was announced by the govt on March 23rd last year giving us all just four days to prepare for the coming few weeks.

Life got a little hectic as we knew certain items would be banned from sale for the duration, and so many people went crazy with hoarding, and it wasn't just loo rolls!

So today marks the 365th day of that 21 day lockdown, and tomorrow, the anniversary of the lockdown beginning, sees it enter its second year.

Now I should make plain that our current lockdown is a far cry from the rigidity of the initial lockdown (South Africa had the world's strictest lockdown outside of communist China), but the fact remains that many of our civil liberties are infringed upon and life is far from normal.

The harsh reality of our current state of lockdown is that life is harder now than it has ever been for the poorest and most vulnerable, with queues for food at soup kitchens & community kitchens across the country growing. Also, many feeding programmes that were set up to serve children in their communities have had to broaden their scope of service to include adults, most notably parents, to ensure the children can be cared for to the best of their abilities.

Now it would be all too easy to criticise the govt's handling of our lockdown and the resulting economic meltdown, but I would far rather celebrate the true heroes of the moment...

Above right is Beaty who runs a local NPO called Macassar Village Of Hope. Beaty prepares 50lts of soup five times a week and initially set up to serve the local children. However she and the NPO are amongst the many who have had to face reality and start serving the adults too. She is a true hero of the faith!

So it was a privilege to bless Macassar Village Of Hope with 20 boxes of the peanut paste sachets.

Left is Mercia, she is a legend! This amazing lady has very little to call her own and what she does have she shares with the neediest and most vulnerable in her community. All I can say is it was an honour to meet her and a privilege to bless her with 10 boxes of the sachets.

What I love about both these ladies is that they immediately spoke about sharing the boxes with other groups also feeding people, and both have since sent me photos of the sachets being given out to those in need.

I truly thank God for such heroes of the faith!