The question was directed at Martie le Roux by a young girl she was helping with her studies.

The girl looked up from her schoolwork, her rich, dark eyes making contact with Martie’s bright brown ones. 

The girls live in Onseepkans, a small farming settlement in the marginalized Northern Cape area of South Africa, just south of the Namibia border. 

There is very little opportunity in the settlement. There aren’t really any jobs to speak of; the settlement doesn’t even have a grocery store, just a few tiny trading posts.

Without an education, a young woman from this area’s future tends to hold little except pressure from her family to get pregnant, which increases the amount of welfare a family receives and also demonstrates fertility. 

But the options for continuing education are scarce. After completing the highest level available in Onseepkans, they must relocate to another small town to continue their education. 

Several of the young women from Onseepkans who attempted this option returned home, unable to sleep at night for fear of boys from the adjoining dormitory sneaking over and taking advantage of the fact that there is very little supervision or protection. 

Martie le Roux is the eldest daughter of our partners, Gerhard and Elmane le Roux. She has grown up committed to her parents’ calling to share Jesus with anyone who will hear of Him and working hard at Onseepkans Mission.

Eager to deepen relationships with the young women and share Jesus with them, Martie began tutoring those who were interested so they could eventually pass the national exams and graduate. 

It was during one of these tutoring sessions that the question was posed to Martie. The young woman had attended a funeral that week where Gerhard le Roux had spoken.

He shared from Isaiah 58:1, “Cry aloud; do not hold back; lift up your voice like a trumpet; declare to my people their transgression…”

The phrase “do not hold back” had gripped the young lady. She’d gone home and re-read it in the Bible she’d been given by the le Rouxs. 

Because of the relationship she’d built with the young woman, Martie had the opportunity to explain that the Lord does not want us to keep quiet about our sin, but wants us to confess it so that we can receive mercy. 

With the help ITMI supporters provided, the le Roux family, in the desire for more ministry opportunities, is enclosing another one of the porches of their home so that Martie can use the space to tutor the girls. The le Rouxs still need to finish some of the work, like adding a sliding door, a ceiling, floor and paint. 

“It is a privilege for me to assist these girls. It fills my heart with gratitude when I see how the Lord works in their lives,” writes Martie, who recently passed her own exam (South African equivalent of GED) with good marks.

All of the girls Martie helped had failed math in the first quarter of 2021, but recently passed their grade 9 exams! 

It is also encouraging that through Martie’s sessions with them, they are beginning to take responsibility for their studies, a principle that is uncommon in this culture. 

When you really think about it, learning this personal responsibility is a prerequisite for understanding one’s culpability for his or her sin and grasping one’s own need for Jesus as Lord and Savior. 

Thanks to your involvement in the le Roux’s ministry, the path to an understanding of the Gospel is being laid out before these young women from this mostly forgotten community.