Special guests from South Africa

(posted by Paul Zilmer & Norm Fadelle)

We were privileged to have a visit from Lucas and Leona Scheepers, from Johannesburg, South Africa. The Scheepers are working full time in the Lord's service, primarily serving in the townships that surround Johannesburg. Several of us in the Champaign County ecclesia have had an opportunity to work briefly with them, and have seen the wonderful results first hand.

Since Lucas and Leona were in the area, we put on a special event in the mall where our BEC is located. The mall management let us use the large space in the center of the mall, at no cost (other than a small charge for the sound system). We advertised the special presentation, and made sure all of our current and past students knew about it.

Eventually, we had about 50 people in attendance. Many were from our ecclesia and the Bloomington ecclesia, and even as far away as Rockford and Chicago. We also had a number of friends of members, several of our students, and we think some who came from the advertisements. It appeared that we even had some who saw us there and stopped to listen.

Lucas talked about the Community Outreach Program Trust (abbreviated COPTrust), which sponsors the work. One hundred percent of donated funds go directly to help people, since no admin costs are taken. Workers such as the Scheepers are supported by a US-based foundation. There have been a number of projects, including a Bible Education Centre in Johannesburg. But the majority of the work is in the townships, where many of the black citizens of South Africa continue to live in terrible poverty.

Leona spoke in more detail about the projects relating to creches (pre-schools) in the township of Tembisa. Under an overall umbrella called the CUDDLE project, several sub-projects are providing concrete help to hundreds of the small, informal pre-schools in the township. One effort that has been spectacularly successful is the Creche Course, which teaches the pre-school teachers how to teach. Without such training, the creches are little more than warehouses for the young children, and they end up starting school at a terrible disadvantage. Through training, examples, and follow-up, the quality of teaching at the creches is improving dramatically. To date, 200 creche teachers have been trained, and there is a waiting list of 200 more wanting to take the course.

Also part of the CUDDLE project is providing upgrades to the physical locations of the creches. This includes painting, shelving, carpet, toys, and education materials.

After the presentation, everyone was invited to come back to the BEC for South African desserts, and to talk with Lucas and Leona. (That's Leona in the white blouse.) Many accepted the invitation, and good conversation continued for quite some time.