Second Table Ministries
"The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself....'" Mark 12:31
Water in Mpumalanga Province
Clean water availability is a desperate problem in most rural areas of South Africa. The village of Kgautswane in Mpumalanga Province presents a classic example of this critical problem. Here is how most of Kgautswane's 10,000 residents obtain and transport their water:
Same Spring, Different Users
These trips are often made many times daily. Imagine the physical toll!
The new South African government established a priority to bring clean water to rural areas where it was not available. Plans were developed, and significant money spent on the geological work necessary to find accessible aquifers in the rocky foothills of this valley. Five good wells (called "boreholes") were located and put into operation, together with a reservoir and distribution system that delivered clean water to standpipes serving thousands of people in the valley. The system was finished after a series of delays and budget shortfalls that among other impairments, led to a hand over to the new local government entity without training and without the provision of qualified engineers and operators. After a few years of stops and starts most of the system is now inoperable. Most of the people in the valley continue to carry all their water by five gallon buckets. Kgaustwane is now plagued by new and growing outbreaks of cholera and other diseases usually associated with polluted water.
Working with community leaders, and leaders in URCSA and the DRC, STM has identified the engineer who had significant responsibility to design and install the system that was put in place. We have met together with him and now he has been asked by the local water board to design a system renovation that will get this back in operation. The revised system involves less maintenance and therefore will be far more sustainable. The system in the ground is a good one. Some repairs of the reservoirs are necessary as is some repair of the distribution system. Standpipe centered community operation systems must be established to guarantee availability and provide security. If this can be made operational it will provide fresh, clean water to some 80 standpipes and thousands of people throughout this part of the valley. Engineers estimate the cost to be about R2,500,000 (or appox. $350,000 at today's exchange rate).
STM has committed to raise $100,000 of the funds required for this renovation - provided certain conditions are met and the balance of the funds needed are obtained from other sources.
In July, 2009 STM and its collaborators in the Uniting Reformed Church of South Africa and the Dutch Reformed Church held a series of community meetings and then applied for government assistance to help complete the renovation. In July, 2009 the Sekhukhune District Municipality agreed to assist with further funding. Negotiations and fund raising efforts are underway to assure the project is fully funded and that local officials are properly trained in management and operation of the system.
Collaboration at Maranatha URCSA in Sebokeng
STM is also partnering with the Maranatha Uniting Reformed Church (URCSA) in Sebokeng and the Driehoek Dutch Reformed Church in Vanderbijlpark (both south of Johannesburg). Maranatha is a vibrant church serving in a difficult settlement area where jobless rates approach 90%. As with most other URCSA churches, Maranatha is significantly active in service to their community. Often they are the only safety net for people in desperate straights. Services they provide, in addition to the traditional worship and diaconal functions, include crime prevention initiatives, HIV/AIDS ministry, senior citizens services, substance abuse training and a variety of youth programs. As they serve, they grow. Our initial joint project was expansion of their church facility to help serve this growing congregation. The current membership has grown from 800 in February, 2009 to 1,200 today!
A likely focus for STM will be on Maranatha's daughter church, Klipkop. One must see to believe what they are using for facilities in this neighborhood. The "church" is a 12' x 15' corrugated shack with one window.
Children sing for us at Klipkop
Pit Toilet Seat
It is boiling hot in summer, leaks when it rains, freezes when its cold, and usually the wind whistles through the broken tin sidewalls. Behind the church is a pit toilet built like a teepee using sticks for holding up the old used fabric that serves for roof and sidewalls. The "seats" are made with spaced tree branches supported on each side by the frame for the toilet pit. There is no toilet paper or running water.
Church elders lead worship here each Sunday. They also provide a Children's Meals Program two days a week with food they must collect from where it is prepared at the Driehoek church, some 10 miles way.
STM is now discussing the acquisition of suitable land, where proper utilities can be provided and a church/community center can be constructed and operated to besst serve this poverty-stricken settlement.
Life in the Klipkop Neighborhood
Please contact us if you feel
compelled to help us in this
ministry - including possibly
some personal involvement.
Aliwal North
Aliwal North is a small city in a rural area in the Eastern Cape, about 150 miles southeast of Bloemfontein. As in most of South Africa, this is a city from two worlds. There is a small, white, mostly middle class world scattered in the edges, but the majority of people are desperately poor black folks whose families are packed into tiny corrugated shacks. One isolated neighborhood at the edge of town has about 300 of these shacks each packed with up to eight or ten people. 
They have just one water tap and one outdoor pit toilet for this entire community. Their frightful conditions are exacerbated by the steady influx of refugees from Zimbabwe now devastated economically and socially by the corrupt government of dictator Robert Mugabe.
They have just one water tap and one outdoor pit toilet for this entire community. Their frightful conditions are exacerbated by the steady influx of refugees from Zimbabwe now devastated economically and socially by the corrupt government of dictator Robert Mugabe. Our connection with Aliwal North is through BADISA, a joint ministry of the DRC and the URCSA Cape Synods. (BADISA is a Tswana word that means shepherd, care-giver and elder.) In South Africa, churches are a mainstay in providing whatever limited safety net there is for people in need. In Aliwal North there is a beginning working relationship with other Christian organizations in their efforts to serve some of the overwhelming needs in that community. Ministries underway include a creche for about 60 at-risk preschool kids, a soup kitchen where they regularly feed up to 100 children,
and a "Creative Hands" program where women are taught some basic craft skills in the hope of adding a bit to their meager resources.
and a "Creative Hands" program where women are taught some basic craft skills in the hope of adding a bit to their meager resources.A new project they have just begun would provide home and care for abandoned and at-risk kids. They have engaged a house mother who will care for a small number of kids in a secure family environment. The creche and foster care home are located on a parcel of land adjacent to the church. They pay rent for this, but now are threatened because the property owner wants to either sell or transform the buildings into rooming facilities which he feels would significantly increase his income.
STM is now in discussion with the leaders of the URCSA and DRC churches and others in the Aliwal North community, about expanding the existing church building to house the creche and the foster care home and provide a church/community center that will house other services in this poverty-stricken community.
Initial contributions have been received and in December, 2009 volunteers from the Aliwal North URCSA church erected the exterior walls and roof support beams. STM is now working with them to raise runds for the completion of the building which will be home to the
creche and the group home for orphans a
nd abandoned kids. 
creche and the group home for orphans and abandoned kids. This could be a great project for a North American church in partnership with the Aliwal North URCSA church and STM. Contact us if you are interested in connecting with us and with them.
