Community members from Mbhashe in the Eastern Cape receive blankets from World Vision SA
God never seizes to surprise His children.
A few days before Christmas 2010, I was once again reminded of the surprising ways in which He discloses life’s truths to us. As much as I love the rains that nourish the soil with much-needed moist, it was with a bit of a sigh that I came to notice a nasty leakage in the ceiling of our living room.
Frustration aside, though, I commented to my wife: “Sometimes God gives us challenges like this to make us understand a little bit of what other people go through every time that it rains…”
That comment could not have prepared me enough for what I were to see a few days later when I met up with our Disaster Response Team members to pay emergency relief site visits to Dutywa and other communities within the Mbhashe Municipal area of the Eastern Cape. A tornado and heavy storms had created havoc and despair to the lives of those people. Ironically, World Vision South Africa (WVSA) has just embarked on a 10 to 15 year journey of transformational development within the Mbhashe area, trusting to bring forth sustainability and life in all its fullness to the children of Mbhashe.
When 1 452 houses in the Mbhashe area were blown away from the storms and floods that hit the area, it left at least 53 families homeless. Our Humanitarian Emergency Affairs (HEA) Manager, Stanley Maphosa immediately recalled from leave all key staff on the ground.
Michael Cekiso (Nkonkobe Area Development Programme [ADP] Manager), Buyiswa Qobo (Mpofu ADP Manager) and Moses Makalima (Acting Mbhashe ADP Coordinator) hit the ground running and conducted rapid assessments on the impact of the storms and floods. On Christmas day these dedicated and much appreciated members of staff sent their first Emergency Response Report on the initial assessments made.
During my visit to the affected areas, we distributed 147 blankets as our initial response. The area’s mayor recommended a spot for us to start with the distribution, and what followed was a heartbreaking story that I wasn’t prepared for.
On the night of the 23rd, a single mother looking after her child and her neighbor’s child realized that her mud house was about to give in to the hammering from the heavy rains and strong winds. She decided to move the children to safety, both aged around two years. She could only move one child at a time and so decided to start with the neighbor’s child, whom she took to the concrete pit latrine just 150 meters from the house. On her return to the house to pick up her own child, she was suddenly struck backwards by the front door as the mud house came tumbling down and crumbling right in front of her very eyes. By the time she reached her child and pulled her out of the rubble, it was too late.
How can I explain the pain that we saw in the eyes of that mother who had lost her only child?
They say that life is not about waiting for the storms to pass; it is about learning how to dance in the rain. May we all pray together that the 1 453 families that lost everything they ever owned will receive many uplifting surprises from Him; surprises that will make them dance to life once again.
sending...
