One Goal Given by God: Filled with Compassion

“Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion”

Colossians 3:12.

We sat down to talk to Sarah and her kids in her shack. She wept about Mercy, her 8-year-old daughter, who had never been to school. Mercy didn’t even know her letters or numbers. What was going to happen to her? Would she ever go to school? Would she ever learn to read and write? More tears.

Sarah has 6 kids that live with her in a small two room shack. She has no government grants and no family support but she sells candy and sweets to make some money. She earns about $20-30 per month selling candy. She gets a monthly food parcel from HOPE worldwide and we are sure that without it they would starve. She attends a Parent Support Group and has been learning a lot about Early Childhood Development. She seems excited about it but hopeless about getting out of her situation.

Our team arrived from Georgia, Texas, Tennessee, New Jersey, Kansas, and Connecticut and met many women like Sarah living among the shacks and dusty streets of Zandspruit. All of us came with lots of different expectations but we had one God-given goal: to be “filled with compassion”. We wanted to try to understand how Sarah felt, to feel how desperate, lonely and hopeless she was. We wanted to help her understand how God feels about her, to encourage her with God’s comfort and his support, to cry with her and help her with the comfort that God had given to each one of us. We simply wanted to give her a hug, a prayer, and a little money.

We felt grateful for all we have, ashamed that we had done so little, and hopeful that we can expand the tremendous work that HOPE is doing. The Parent Support Group members work together to help one another and Family Groups in the church adopt families just like Sarah’s. We are sure that they will. Compassion and comfort in the right hands and hearts can go a long way to help Sarah and her kids. Our prayer to God: Fill us with more compassion!

Thank you, North River, for your generous support through Generosity Sunday that helps these and other programs in Africa that transform countless lives.


Sarah in her shack

Mercy (toy car donated by Karamitas kids)