Research shows that during the first 1000 days of life, nutrition is the fuel that drives early brain growth, providing the building blocks for a child’s cognitive abilities, motor skills and socio-economic development for the rest of their life.
According to UNICEF, approximately one third of children around the globe are developmentally stunted as a result of chronic malnutrition.
Some of these children are living in the informal settlement of Stone Hill, South Africa, where ITMI’s Charl van Wyk and Mark Parris have led an initiative to spread the Gospel, alongside Charl’s brother-in-law, Dr. Bradley Kuhn.
Some of those children are living in Stone Hill, South Africa
Stone Hill, South Africa is an informal settlement outside the Cape Town suburb of Durbanville.
Dr. Kuhn runs a thriving medical practice in nearby Durbanville, but spends much of his time ministering in Stone Hill.
As a professional, Dr. Kuhn understands how crucial the first 1000 days of life are for life-long health. Getting an Early Childhood Development Center operating in Stone Hill was an important first step that ITMI supporters helped Bradley and Charl with several years ago, and they are so thankful that the Gospel is being demonstrated to the needy in Stone Hill in this way.
With the capacity and available staff in the Early Childhood Development Center, it is difficult for Dr. Kuhn to watch Stone Hill families leave their toddlers unsupervised in their shacks while they work.
Dr. Kuhn in front of the Early Childhood Development Center.
Inside the Early Childhood Development Center.
Why don’t they take their children to the Early Childhood Development Center where they would be supervised, loved, educated and given proper nutrition all day long?
The center has to charge for its services to cover the expenses of the food and staff. Even though the fee is minimal, many families can’t afford to provide that benefit for their children.
When ITMI Director, Steve Evers visited Stone Hill, Dr. Kuhn expressed his desire to create a scholarship fund to help Stone Hill families who were prevented from the benefit by their impoverished condition.
The toddlers are taught Bible lessons at the center, but there is an even bigger kingdom benefit.
By caring for and valuing these small, vulnerable children from impoverished families, a new kingdom is being proclaimed. This is a kingdom where the weak are protected, the overlooked are valued and those who are usually pushed to the margins of society are treated like the bearers of God’s Image that they are.
As American believers, you will of course recognize this kingdom as the one Jesus demonstrated and preached.
But Stone Hill residents are familiar with this kingdom only insomuch as it is demonstrated to them by followers of Jesus as their counter-cultural actions reveal what Jesus’ kingdom is truly like.
This kingdom can be demonstrated to a Stone Hill family for $336 USD per child per year.
Our partners at Onseepkans Mission are situated in a rural town in the Northern Cape area of South Africa, within sight of the Namibian border.
The township of Onseepkans is a rural farming community, with little infrastructure or educational opportunities. Many locals live on social grants and are indebted to the local trading post. There isn’t much of a future for youth growing up in this town.
Onseepkans, South Africa
Though they may earn some sort of diploma or certificate from finishing school, it is barely worth the paper its printed on because the low quality of Onseepkans’ education is well-known.
To get educated, some have tried going to Pofodder, a distant rural town with a slightly better opportunity. Young girls who do that must sleep in dorms where many have been taken advantage of during the night.
Martie le Roux, the eldest daughter of ITMI’s Gerhard and Elmane le Roux, has found a way to mentor and build relationships with some of the young girls in Onseepkans.
Martie le Roux with a visiting friend.
Onseepkans girls Martie teaches regularly, being presented with a Bible at Onseepkans Mission.
Martie is pursuing her own diploma - the South African equivalent of a GED. This is a well-recognized certification.
Martie regularly gathers the interested young women in her living room and is teaching them the information they’ll need in order to get their own certification.
But the living room at Onseepkans Mission is a difficult place to hold class. There are constant interruptions.
Men from town meet with Gerhard, and the constant clamor from the mission kitchen, where the large le Roux family and others are fed from scratch daily and where the Daily Bread Bakery operates, feeding the needy in town and garnering Gerhard the opportunity to visit with people daily and share the Lord.
Martie’s deep desire is to convert a small structure on their property to a little classroom where the girls could study uninterrupted.
The le Rouxs need $1458 USD to turn one of the storage sheds on their property into a place where Martie can better reach these girls with the Gospel and equip them to make their contribution to the world.
“The challenge we face on the [Zambezi or Luvale flood] plains is obviously the distance. We’ve got thousands of square kilometers, and we’ve got few [workers].” ITMI’s Johan Leach says.
Transportation and supplies are challenges that must be overcome to take the Gospel deep into the Luvale floodplains. The evangelists can only go so far before they would have to return to Chavuma for water and supplies.
Evangelists taking the Gospel to the plains are limited by the supplies they can carry.
So in order to carry the Gospel further from Chavuma, Johan’s plan is to set up “forward bases” where evangelists can refill their water containers with clean, safe water pumped up from the river, filtered for safety and stored in an elevated water tank by a water pump and filtration system.
They can also restock their food supplies with vegetables from the gardens that will flourish because of this watering system.
During his recent visit with Johan and his wife, Lesley in the very remote Chavuma, Zambia, Steve visited the Forward Base in Mahina.
Mahina is a village located about 18 miles downriver from Chavuma that can be reached by boat during the rainy season and by vehicle during the dry season.
Mahina Forward Base on the Luvale floodplain in Zambia.
Steve presenting discipleship training to Johan's Hub Leaders and Overseers.
Johan’s team shared,
“Steve presented the Seven Areas of Life training (SALT) to our Hub Leaders and Overseers. Those that attended this training were immensely impacted. Steve was a great encouragement to the family and we are very grateful for the relationship with ITMI and supporters.
We thank Steve and ITMI for supplying the complete solar water pump and bulk water storage tank that resides at Mahina Forward Base.”
Johan recently took a team to Mahina to install the water pumps and tank at the Forward Base.
While the team worked, one of the team members, a student missionary named Zea, shared the Gospel with those living in the remote village as another team member, Joseph, interpreted.
Zea also gained the attention of some of the village children through games and shared the Gospel with them, too.
While the team works on the tower, student missionary, Zea, shares the Gospel with the village children.
The Leaches and their co-workers - particularly the faithful evangelists who are eager and ready to carry the Gospel to Luvale villages deep in the bush - are deeply grateful for the investment made by ITMI supporters to provide the water system for this forward base.
Those whose lives are about to be changed as the Gospel reaches their village don’t know it yet, but they will add their deep gratitude eventually.
Those whose lives are about to be changed as the Gospel reaches their village don’t know it yet, but they will add their deep gratitude eventually.
Lazarus Yezinai, an ITMI partner serving in South Sudan, is deeply grateful for the help ITMI supporters provided.
His household of 17 was in great need of additional space in the three-bedroom structure they lived in.
As they watched their mud walls slide away in the rainy season, they had to send some of the children who were in their care to sleep at neighbors’ homes until they could afford to improve the situation.
In the over-inflation and instability of South Sudan’s economy, without the Lord’s intervention there wasn’t much hope they would ever have the funds to do it. In response to this need which we shared with you in September, collectively, ITMI supporters provided more than enough to meet the Yezinai family’s needs!
The foundation for the new structure has been poured and the walls are projected to be up within a couple weeks.
Lazarus writes, “Please, my thanks to God in the first place and thanks also to ITMI administration for what you are doing and thanks to the supporters who are supporting my projects, I don't have anything to give them but my prayer to God for them is constant.”
The foundation of Lazarus’ family’s new home has been poured.
Lazarus prays for a young man, a “drunkard” who Lazarus led to Christ at a crusade. Lazarus preached Mark 11:12-15 and 20-23.
ITMI’s Adi and Ema Ban of Romania are thankful for the opportunity to visit the States this month, and are looking for places they can bless and encourage God’s people.
The Bans are internationally recognized as marriage, family and relationship teachers and counselors.
Arriving in Chicago on November 3, they will spend time at parents’ weekend at Wheaton College with their two youngest sons, Eduard and Thomas, before ministering at a Family Conference in Ohio. They’ll also be visiting churches in Florida and Texas.
“If you think there is a place for us to go and minister, let us know!” Adi says.
The Bans still have some openings and would love to be a blessing to God’s people.
ITMI's Adi and Ema Ban
If you know of a way people could be helped or reached through the Ban’s expertise on living a Christ-centered family life that draws others in to Jesus’ Kingdom, contact our office.
ITMI’s Bethesda Home, a ministry operated by ITMI’s Vio and Daria Pop in Romania, was a home where elderly, disabled widows were provided with round-the-clock care. Many of the widows that were cared for didn’t have family who could help them and couldn’t afford the care they needed.
The widows who stayed there were like family to Vio and Daria.
The widows who stayed there were like family to Vio and Daria.
As funding dwindled in recent years, they were not able to take on any new residents as beds opened up. The last living widow was eventually moved to another care facility.
But Vio and Daria aren’t done caring for the elderly and disabled. Many of these elderly Romanians cannot afford the food, utilities or medicine that they need.
The Pops, who also have intense physical disabilities visit these needy families, building relationships and bringing care packages that include food, medicine, and money for utilities.
In September, the Pops helped 9 widows, 2 elderly couples and 2 elderly ladies with cancer. One family they visited with a care package was an elderly couple who are raising their 3 grandchildren with disabilities. Another was a single mom caring for her 38-year-old son who is paralyzed.
They also provided help for two elderly mothers who are caring for their adult children with disabilities.
These are families that face enormous challenges. The Pops have the opportunity to come alongside them, offering companionship and assistance.
In doing so, they provide a demonstration of what the Lord Jesus does for His people as He comes alongside us, providing companionship and help as we face the disabling challenge of sin that we could not overcome on our own.
ITMI’s Andrew Gorski is thankful for three people declaring their intent to follow Jesus alongside the other believers of Amazing Grace Church in August through baptism!
One of them joined a Bible study group and invited a friend who also invited a friend. God had already been working in their lives, and it was the consistent study of His Word and the live testimony of the Bible study leader, Krystian, that really made them, “follow Jesus with decision, obedience and their entire lives.”
Three new believers baptized!
Krystian, the Bible study leader, is a full-time missionary serving alongside Andrew with Amazing Grace Church and Evangelical Poland.
We have so many more things to be thankful for!
ITMI supporter, we are thankful for you, too. It is your willingness to sacrifice and your commitment to missions that the Lord has used to accomplish these and many more wonderful things!
