A group of believers has spearhead discipleship opportunities for the youth of Stone Hill using activities like wrestling, soccer, handball and crafts as catalysts to build relationships with the youth.

Stone Hill girls with their crafts.

The Stone Hill wrestling team surprised everyone by winning the championship!

Through activities and relationships built while doing them, the youth are learning that they have value. They are discovering how a trustworthy, godly adult lives.

They experience the novelty of safe relationships.

They encounter Jesus through His people.

Stone Hill youth connect with believers through outreach activities.

One of the ways the South African believers could demonstrate God's love to families in Stone Hill was by replacing tumble-down shacks with structures that were more sturdily constructed.

They also provided mattresses for many who were sleeping in the dirt inside the ramshackle lean-tos.

Local physician, Dr. Bradley Kuhn, after a family has been blessed with an upgrade for their shack. 

Carrying a donated mattress for a family in need.

With the help of ITMI supporters, a Community Center was constructed out of three shipping containers placed in a U-shape. The cover was added to create a courtyard where Sunday services and events could be held.

The Community Center houses a meeting room, a weight room where the youth can channel their energy and frustrations in a positive way and a kitchen for food outreaches.

ITMI Partners, Charl van Wyk and Mark Parris fellowship with young men from Stone Hill at a Bible Study in the Community Center.

As part of local believers' outreach in Stone Hill, ITMI supporters helped set up a small medical clinic, which Dr. Kuhn oversees.  For residents of Stone Hill, medical care was mostly out of reach.

If a Stone Hill resident needed attention, their only option was to pay for transportation to a clinic in town. For most, this was prohibitive. But due to the distance, most of the time, they were turned away.

Local hospitals will accept patients first come, first serve and once they've accepted the quota, no more will be admitted, regardless of the severity of the condition.

The message received by the impoverished of Stone Hill? Your life doesn't have value.

But the message delivered by this clinic is that they are valuable bearers of God's Image and He is calling them to Himself.

The small but impactful Stone Hill medical clinic from the outside.

Dr. Kuhn inside the medical clinic.

The Stone Hill Early Childhood Development Center 

ITMI supporters helped establish the Stone Hill Early Childhood Development Center, so that parents who have employment have a safe place where their young children are supervised while they are at work.

For many in Stone Hill, work hours are long, and children are left unsupervised for much of the day, perhaps without food.

At the center, children are protected, cared for, and taught from the Bible.

Dr. Bradley Kuhn at the center's entrance.

A safe space for the young children in Stone Hill to learn and grow with supervision.

Graduation rates in Stone Hill are dismal. Students face incredible challenges.

Imagine struggling to find transportation to school if you lived in an informal settlement outside town and couldn't afford a vehicle.  If you arrive, you find your teacher absent without a substitute. Often. Or being taught every day by a completely unqualified teacher.

You face challenges at home, too. Your one bedroom shack has a dirt floor and no table. Your (probably single) mother can't help you - she dropped out, too. She will often be working long hours to make ends meet.

You don't have access to books or the internet to help you. Yet you still have to reach certain standards to pass the grade.

The math and science education in South Africa continually ranks in the bottom 5% of education systems worldwide.

Sadly, if the basics are missed, and they often are, most may never catch up. This leads to failing and dropping out, perpetuating the cycle of poverty.

When the Mark and Cindy saw this cycle, they opened a tutoring center in Stone Hill, equipped with "school in a box" tablets containing a full curriculum through 12th grade.

The Soldiers for Christ group is a group of young men who have come to know the Lord through the various outreaches in Stone Hill. They have pledged to serve Jesus in their community by protecting others, helping them and studying God's Word together.

The Stone Hill Soldiers for Christ meet to study the Bible with ITMI partner Charl van Wyk and Mark Parris.

As an extension of ITMI's Project Joseph, Charl van Wyk and his team set out to make the food provision outreaches more sustainable by growing vegetables on their church's property with which they could feed the poor.

This outreach in Stone Hill feeds about 150 children every day, providing nourishment during this critical time of brain development.

These daily meals help prevent learning problems later in life. Charl writes, “Many children that suffer with learning problems later in life, have been found to have experienced deficiencies and challenges that are traced back to their early time of development.”

Dr. Bradley, Charl’s co-worker, and brother-in-law, adds,

“Studies show that children who are not nourished complete approximately four grades of schooling less than other well-nourished children. Subsequently, this causes them to earn less later in life, they are less likely to have healthy families and are ten times more likely to succumb to childhood illnesses.”

Charl’s prayer, and that of his team, is that the children of Stone Hill would be healthy and able to read and understand God’s Word. That they would be the next generation of those who obey our Lord’s command to “disciple the nations.”

These Soldiers for Christ were able to earn some income for working the garden. Charl and his team used this opportunity to disciple the boys on Biblical financial principles and they put them into practice! 

The garden. 

As relationships were built through outreaches, the local believers began having church services. Initially, they were in the covered courtyard of the community center, but eventually, they were able to gain use of a nearby church building.

Though the building was in need of renovation, it provides a warmer meeting place than the courtyard. 

Stone Hill church service.