South Africa
In 2009, the le Roux's house caught fire. They were ministering at Moreson Farm, a place for recovering addicts and those in need, just outside Cape Town. This was before they moved to Onseepkans in the Northern Cape area to reach people there with the Good News.
In 2009, the le Roux's house caught fire. It was devastating, but it revealed a new way to reach out...
Gerhard says,
"We discovered that the old house was built on a solid bank of horrible yellow clay, totally unsuitable to build upon, unless the foundations were properly reinforced. This of course explained the terrible cracks in the walls of the house before the fire.
While we struggled to overcome the challenges that we now were facing, the rest of the mission’s activities continued. People came for help as usual and one day I noticed one such gentleman sitting with a bucket full of this yellow clay.
I asked him what he was doing and he replied that he thinks that the clay is good for pottery. We took some of the clay to a nearby pottery, he made some items on the wheel from the clay, and this was the start of my interest in pottery.
We obtained a few wheels and a kiln, I learned to master some basic skills, and visitors to our mission without giving too much criticism, sympathetically bought a few pieces in support of the mission.
Then God called us to Onseepkans in 2011. This became a new challenge altogether.
Moreson Mission was not interested in continuing with the pottery without me, so we had no other option but to cart the whole pottery in bits and pieces to Onseepkans.
The beginning years in Onseepkans were difficult times and there was no real time or market for the pottery. I also had to change from an electric to a gas kiln for the firing of the pottery, and this was all completely new to me.
Many times I would ask the Lord if it is still His will that I should continue with the pottery, but every time I wanted to quit someone would donate some piece of pottery equipment to us. We began to realize God still has some special plan for the pottery.
Recently, I asked some of our young chess players whether they would be interested in pottery classes. Their overwhelming response amazed me! I now regularly give pottery classes for free to the children from the nearby community."
The le Roux family helps children develop concentration skills while building relationships with them through a weekly chess club.
Onseepkans girls have fun mixing clay during pottery class.
Gerhard teaches a local youth.
Elizabeth le Roux helps the girls during pottery class.
Steve Evers has advocated for and served the ITMI partners as ITMI Director since 2001. Approximately once a year, Steve visits with ITMI partners in their countries and brings stories back to encourage supporters. Steve enjoys photography and mechanics, (both hobbies that have greatly benefited ITMI partners!) Prior to becoming ITMI's Director, Steve served on the Board of Directors for 4 years. Steve lives in Arizona with his wife, Darlene.
