This was one of the busiest months we have had as the Hearts That Hope family.
We have “Stock-A-Shop” running and it keeps gaining momentum. We currently have big corporations getting involved, companies such as Coke, Unilever, Tradeport, Flash, and potentially many others. It has been so much more for us than just restocking these 330 Spaza shops with R7500 ($500) worth of stock. Every time we hand out the vouchers we do it at a local church and both myself and our Zulu pastor share the gospel with the shop owners, most of which are Muslims from Northern Africa. To get to share the love of Christ with them has been so exciting. At the beginning of November, we will be done with the whole of Ilembe District and start our second phase in Kwamashu, Inanda, and possibly even Eshowe and Matubatuba. It has been great to see God move in such a powerful way from one of the worst days in KwaZulu-Natal history. A small idea was given to Lyndall in her bedroom on a Saturday morning after the riots have led to the stocking of over 340 spaza shops with the promise of many more to come.
It is also exam time for the Hearts That Hope children and that comes with lots of studying. We now have 8 of our children that have to write exams. As they get older and more out of the junior primary phase the stress placed on them greatly increases. Some of our children really struggle with retaining knowledge, so studying takes lots of time. For us as a family getting good grades isn’t of utmost importance but building good character is. So we like to teach them what happens when they do put in hard work and how that can change their outcome. If they fail but fail giving it their best, with a great attitude we are happy and go out and celebrate that. We love seeing our children come home with great reports from the teachers commenting on how their character is developing more than the marks they are getting.
I’ve also been spending a lot of time coaching basketball to the HTH boys and at Northwood High School. For our HTH boys, they have gotten in their first 4 matches against local schools and won them all. For Northwood, I’ve seen an amazing turnaround and we are playing at an elite level and I’m getting to mentor these boys in such a cool way. At the moment we are the top high school team in all of South Africa. It has been such a fun adventure to be on and again been amazing how God is using my talents to influence others with the gospel.
Another exciting adventure that is coming up is that I will be traveling to the USA again. This is an important time for us to meet with our sponsors in person and update them on all that is happening. We also desperately need to do some more fundraising as the past 2 years have financially been a struggle at Hearts that Hope. I will be in Washington from 18 November to 1 December. To all our USA supporters we will be sending out an email with more information tomorrow.
Next month we will be sending out all our individual child updates and year-end newsletter. We love sending these out as they are a wonderful way to celebrate the progress that has been made during the year.
Please pray with us as Kent prepares to go fundraise in the USA. Please also continue to pray for our “Stock-A-Shop” campaign as we continue to witness first-hand the difference we can make. We also please ask for prayer over our children as they prep for their end-of-year exams and tests. November is going to be a busy month and we would so appreciate your prayers of support.