Moreson Children’s Haven and Onseepkans Mission
Location: Cape Town, South Africa
Timeline: On-going
Status: Currently operating
Topics: Orphaned and abused children, poverty, alcoholism.
The Need
South Africa is rife with devastation. Poverty and witchcraft lead to poor decisions, individually and culturally that further destroy lives. The people have turned to sex, alcohol and witchcraft to deal with their problems and these have just further ravished lives. Most cannot help but bring children into this teaming hopelessness, which is what children grow up learning, and therefore believe is normal. Many families live in one room homes, so the children witness every drunken sin the adults commit. The HIV/AIDS pandemic, corruption and further poverty is the result of this lawlessness, and the cycle continues, leaving orphans, widows, sick and dying people in its hopeless and overwhelming wake. Its a cycle of devastation as Satan prevents God’s image bearers from being all they were created to be.
As a result of lives languishing with utter helpless devastation, many children in South Africa are born unwanted by their parents, or to parents who are physically unable to provide or care for them, or to parents who succumb to death not long after they are born. Its not uncommon for parents to simply dispose of their offspring in any way that is convenient, whether that’s leaving them to survive in a make-shift hut on their own, disposing of them in a dumpster or dumping them on already overwhelmed and impoverished relatives.
Onseepkans, where the le Roux family currently lives and ministers, is an especially hopeless area. Occupied by coloreds who are socially ostracized and unappreciated as workers as a “half-breed” race. There are no jobs, no opportunities. Most live off of government social grants. They get grants for “returning to their roots” by dressing as their ancestors did and begging by the road or by having illegitimate children, and more children = more money. Its uncommon to find a young twenty-something woman who does not have 3-5 children each with different fathers. This idle laziness provides fertile ground for sin. Its uncommon to find a male in the community who is not constantly drunk and sleeping around, only to yield more illegitimate children who earn their parents more grants.
Alcoholism is devastatingly rampant in Northern Cape.
The only other source of income in the area is farming. Most farms are owned by white people, who have not managed to raise many crops due to a dilapidated canal system that no one can agree how to repair, so they generally keep animals only. Growing crops then becomes more challenging because the animals are not only encouraged by their owners to graze in others’ fields, but they also then destroy them by propagating the seed of an aggressive thorn bush called Besopes trees in their manure. These “trees” are bushes which can take over an area in the blink of an eye and are painstakingly hard to remove - only to have the area re-infected again by more foraging animals.
The History
Years ago, the le Rouxs opened their home to abused children which the local officials would leave in their care. They added three children to their biological original five and became a family of ten. They lived on Moreson Farm with a group of co-laborers in a tiny two bedroom home for several years, all the while, building up the farm to become self-sufficient and support the ministry of the Farm, which included a church gathering location, a ministry to individuals suffering from substance addictions and some youth ministry opportunities in the nearby community. With the help of ITMI, they were able to add a room or two to their home, creating better space for homeschooling, and a bigger space for the church to meet in.
Gerhard le Roux’s heart has long been soft for the plight of those living in the Northern Cape area. In 2011, he went along with a team of people from the Farm on a short-term mission trip to the area, where they presented the gospel and abstinence education information in schools and churches in several cities in the area. Some months later, a couple from the area near Moreson Farm came to them. The couple owned some property in Onseepkans, Northern Cape. The couple offered to give it to the le Rouxs if they would move there and minister in the area. This led to the family responding to God’s calling them to uproot from Moreson Farm and move to Onseepkans, where they currently live and minister.
Description
The le Roux family is a missionary family on many fronts. They’ve adopted three children who, along with the other children are receiving quality character training and Christian education as a part of the le Roux family. This loving family is passionate about following the Spirit’s leading on mission and engages positively with their community without becoming like it.
At Onseepkans mission, where they took residence at the end of 2011, they host a church meeting which community members immediately requested they do. The family is looking to use their land and home to benefit the community by educating and serving the community, as well as offering a church family to those who are interested. They are also actively building relationships with the local officials who are eager to utilize their help, and looking for ways they can enter in to the stories of those around them.
Surviving in this area will pose a big challenge for the family. They are now physically separated from their support system at Moreson Farm and accepting the challenges of feeding and educating their family in this forsaken area. They will have to overcome the challenges of growing crops in order to eat because the nearest market is too far away and fuel too expensive for them to be able to afford to get there. Elmane, who loves teaching will now be educating the eight children on her own with access to fewer resources.
Northern Cape is desolate and impoverished.
Children in Onseepkans listen to the gospel.
Some children pose for a photo in Onseepkans.
Goals
- Declare and demonstrate the gospel in the socially torn area of Onseepkans.
- Raise their children according to Biblical principles, in the fear and love of the Lord.
- Provide wise Biblical solutions to the overwhelming social issues of their community.
Needs
- Prayer for the Spirit to lead and guide.
- Prayer for open doors in Onseepkans.
- Funds to provide for the needs of the children and the mission.
Who’s Involved
- ITMI to provide oversight and US awareness.
- Moreson Farm co-laborers to provide logistical and spiritual support.
