In case you don’t remember, this is Gerhard le Roux. Gerhard is showing me around the farm and all the changes there are to see since I’ve been here last. He and his wife, Elmane are the “parents” of ITMI’s project, Moreson Children’s Haven. They have a total of 8 children, some adopted when the state brought them because they had no where else to go, and some biological.
The le Roux family lives on Moreson Farm in community with several other families. The whole farm is a ministry operation. The Farm has room for recovering addicts who want to be free from their addictions. This freedom comes through the teaching of Truth, and they are lead to repentance. They have had success in helping addicts become free from addiction without the use of supplemental chemicals or drugs.
There is also a body of believers that meets on the farm for worship each Sunday. Gerhard is characterized by grace and humility, and as he follows Jesus’ example, the rest of the farm is characterized this way, as well. It is humbling and refreshing to spend time with this family of believers. Where the white truck is in the photo at left, the future pottery work area is hoping to be built.
First, meet the le Roux children. Although I don’t typically spend a ton of time with them while I am there – they are in school and have their own activities – I’ll share a little of what I know about each. The le Roux children are very involved with the farm community. There are many other small children on the farm that the le Roux children help with and keep entertained, and they have lots of freedom and safety on the farm to be in other families’ homes. There is a wonderful community attitude on the farm – even though it is customary to knock when you enter someone’s home, it almost seems unnecessary because there is such unity among the Family of God on the Farm. They all exhibit a refreshing “everyone helps everyone else” mentality, so the children are free to visit the other family’s homes when they like.
This is Elizabeth le Roux. Age-wise, she falls into the middle of the le Roux brood. She has a delightful smile and a sweet spirit. 
Jurie le Roux is extremely affectionate. He enjoys crawling into your lap at just the right time, but he is also all boy, and loves living on the farm. I don’t think I can remember seeing Jurie with shoes on the whole time I was at the farm. I told him my feet would have frozen off if I ran around like him. He just smiled and enjoyed the attention.
Duma le Roux. Quiet and thoughtful with a sweet disposition and wonderful smile, he works really hard at his school work. Everyone should get the chance to meet Duma. He is a special young man, who has a beautiful voice that is being developed to sing during the church services on the Farm. Duma was literally a gift from God to Gerhard and Elmane.
This is Loretta le Roux. Lorretta seems to really enjoy studying. Like her brothers and sisters, she has a very sweet spirit. Loretta has some challenges with her eyes, which she needs our prayers for dealing with as she grows.
This is Naomi le Roux. Last time I was there she acted a little needy – not in a bad way, it was in a very sweet way and never in disobedience to her parents – but just seemed to want a lot of affection – which “Uncle Steve” was glad to give. But this time I noticed, she acted so confident and didn’t seem to need or want as much attention. Its beautiful to see her growing in confidence in her position in her family and in Jesus’ family. Naomi likes to help around the house, and she works very hard in school.
Martie le Roux is the oldest le Roux child. She embraces her role as firstborn with gusto, exhibiting many typical firstborn traits. She does well in school, and even helps tutor some of the younger children. She is very gregarious, confident and outgoing.
Talita le Roux, is close to Marta’s age, and is one of the older le Roux children. She is growing into a well-rounded young-lady, happy and well adjusted. She does well in school and is committed to her role as one of the older children.
This is William, the le Roux’s youngest boy. He seems to always have that cute little smile on his face. He also is always watching the older children to see what they are doing and how he is to act. Willie, as he is called, has the blessed benefit of great older brothers and sisters to show him the right way, they way they were raised.
Under the beautiful, blue Malmsbury, South African sky, Moreson Farm is a busy thriving place. Water for the many people and animals living here is provided by this water tank. Its about 5-feet tall. The water is pumped from the well then to elevated water tanks around the farm to supply the farm’s water. 
This is Gerhard’s office. From here he runs the farm and prepares trainings and messages. It looks quite a bit larger than it is in this photo because of my wide angle lens.
This is Gerhard and Elmane’s bedroom. Where I am standing to take the picture, the entry of the house is behind me, and this is the only way you can go through the house to get to the back of the house where the sitting room, kitchen and other rooms are. This room is basically an expanded hallway. As the only route between the front of the house to the back of it, allowing extremely limited privacy.
This is where the le Roux kids sleep. They sleep multiple kids to a bed right now. To the left you can see the entrance to a small unfinished bathroom, which is shared by all 10 of them. When I asked Elmane if some how someone wanted to bless them what would be their greatest need and she responded that helping them finish their bathroom would be the biggest help right now.
This is a sitting room at the back of the house, where the family gathers to be together. It used to be their school area, but the classroom has now moved elsewhere which we’ll see later on the tour.
This is the le Roux’s kitchen table. Not everyone can fit at the table, so sometimes the family has to eat in shifts. A couple women live with them and help with cooking to feed the large family.
Last spring, an electrical fire damaged part of their home. Thankfully no one was hurt in the fire and their kitchen and bathroom were preserved. The damaged section has been removed as you can see to the left of this photo.
This is the missing damaged section from another angle. The yellow portion to left is the outside wall of the kitchen, and the brick portion to right is sitting room.
With regard to rebuilding, Gerhard told me that they are trusting the Lord for the necessary funds to pour the slab and the footings Then they could easily build a little “stick and mortar” building or “windy” building (we might call it a lean-to or shack) that would give them some more room to work with until the walls and roof could be rebuilt more permanently.
A friend of theirs who is an engineer recommended that they must have the clay tested to determine the movement characteristics. If the clay in this area is not stabilized , it would considerably increase the cost of a suitable foundation. In the worst case they would have to choose a new spot on the farm to rebuild. Gerhard wants to have clay tests done early in 2011 to determine the direction ahead. Hopefully the tests will have a positive outcome, in which case they would go ahead and build a home on this existing site
The fire was a disaster…but God is GOOD! Beneath the part of the house that burned, they discovered the farm has a section of raw clay that was pure enough to have some value. The creative farm workers intend to cultivate the clay, using it to create pottery to hand-paint and sell.
One main benefit of the pottery for their ministry farm is that throwing and painting pottery is a very therapeutic activity for some of the people they are helping on the farm.
