Vision for Fisantekraal Shalom Trust

Holger Lorentz

Currently MercyAIDS is run from our home and out of our garage.  Donations of perishable and non-perishable food are available from stores and companies, but we have not really pursued that because we do not have storage space.  To grow in the area of food distribution MercyAIDS needs storage and distribution space.

With that in place and after securing food or funds we would like to start a soup kitchen for Fisantekraal.  In conjunction with the School Of Ministry and/or volunteers, I had a dream for “soup and prayer” for a long time where people receive food but can also receive ministry if they wish.  The cooking could be done in one of the kitchens, but in the long run a separate kitchen space might be better.?!

We have contact with people who have experience in starting and running a garden project and who like to share it.  There is plenty of ground to start such a project for Fisantekraal.  People can learn gardening skills to set up gardens at their homes.  The people will receive some of the produce, the rest can support the School, soup kitchen and projects.  For this and to water the big grounds and sports field, borehole water should be cheaper in the long run.

I have a heart for job creation and training so that people can improve their lives.  I know people in our church that would love to pass on their expertise around computers.  If we provide a platform there must be people with all kinds of expertise and a similar heart to improve the lives of others less fortunate.  So we need space for different kinds of workshops.

The Fisantekraal clinic is running HIV/AIDS support groups, but more groups are needed.  Philippi Trust can provide the training and some of the garden produce and food donations can also be used to thank the group leaders.

In our work Kay and I often come across children in desperate circumstances who need to be rescued because they fall through the cracks and we presently do not have room to take them in ourselves.  Mid and long term there is a need for a place of safety for children (and their mothers?) until a good solution can be found (with the option of permanent care should there be no other solution).  This requires funds for a new suitable building and raising up of more staff and volunteers, some most likely with salary.  This could go along with a foster and adoption program.  This would be step by step as God leads.

Fisantekraal - a fresh perspective

Kay Lorentz

If ever I could relate to the scripture of the Spirit jumping in Elizabeth when Mary, pregnant with Jesus came to visit her, it was when I drove onto this land in April 2011.  The place I had dreamed of about for just over 4 years could be housed on this property in Fisantekraal.

I had been dreaming of a property to do community development since 2007.  In 2008 I made a  poster of the place I envisioned to share with others, later I received a prophetic word, from someone who had no idea about  it that confirmed to me that what I was dreaming was dreaming with God. 

By 2009 I was convinced that it was going to happen any day.  We looked at various properties but we found nothing suitable that would house the “vision”.  After years of praying for funding  for Fisantekraal to do the Resilient Kids program and counselling training we received funding at the end of 2009.  In 2010 we focused on Fistantekraal (full story on www.resilientkidssa.org.za) Having a property in this area was an impossible dream.

We carried on running camps at hired campsites and continued to be dissatisfied with not having a therapeutic space to work with children and youth as we dreamed.  The partnership with  School of Ministry students working with us in Fisantekraal was the start of the unfolding of the dream.  We looked for a venue.

By April this year we were desperate to have a place to work out the vision we were carrying in our hearts.  I voiced this to the staff of the Father’s House after our camp at Rocklands Campsite (a stunning campsite, but not suited for the work with the kind of children we focus on)  On this camp we had children that I then described as “hardened criminals” and they were only 10 years old.  I was desperate to have a space & time to work with this kind of child.

At our church the SOM had also got to point where a need for residential space had become critical.  Richard then took us out to the land – it was a delight when it turned out that it was in the community where we all had already been working.  None of us even knew about it? The facility could be used immediately.  The buildings we still in good running order etc.

However, in the months of preparation, working out the trust, doing business plans etc. the property has been seriously vandalised.  Copper wire, fittings, plumbing stolen.  This has been very difficult to see and I have not understood.  The words we get for this land speak of healing and justice.  The words speak of refreshment and beauty – why then was it getting so run down?  When all paper work was in place for us to go live with our capital campaign, more than one person told us that perhaps it was not the best time of the year!

In a prayer meeting last week a lady in our church again brought the scripture Isaiah 61 in the context of this land.  This is a scripture that we have prayed and used for years as a blueprint.  Why was it going to ruins?  Why were our supposed sources of funding not able to fund it now?

Yesterday, I met with a lady who was involved with the project  that ran there before us.  It was a church and it had an outreach element, a big dream that never was fulfilled… the dream very similar to what is in our hearts.  I came home and prayed and reread the scriptures God had given about the land and then it dawned on me. 

This land will be a real life parable.  The Christian community of Fisantekraal knew of this church and her vision.  The vision was lost because of financial planning that went wrong.  The entire thing was lost.  The sense is that it was literally rob, killed and destroyed.  BUT God has a plan for this land… He loves the people of Fisantekraal and what a testimony it will be when this is restored and the vision is restored?  God is restoring God, a God whose mercies are new every morning… He never revokes His purposes and plans.  He does this for a land because of the purpose of that land.

He can do this for every human being.  The enemy plunders peoples lives all the time.  He makes sure that he messes up God concepts and frustrates the vision of God for people coming to pass.  Sin messes with the original plan, but God has a desire to restore every human being to His likeness and their original purpose. 

This will be the message we will give on the opening of this project doors in February 2012.  God is a healer, redeemer and He wants to restore every individual and the place of Fisantekraal.