Nearly 20 kms away from the city centre is Kleinskool, one of the most downtrodden and poverty-stricken areas in Gqeberha.
Gangsterism, drugs, alcohol and unemployment are extremely rife here and hopelessness and neglect seem to hang in the air.
The need is overwhelmingly great. One doesn’t know where to start and this task seems almost insurmountable.
As the church, our mandate is to be God’s hands and feet, to demonstrate His love practically to those around us. We have an unavoidable responsibility to help those who are struggling by walking side by side with them, until they can walk on their own.
God’s word is clear in 2 Thessalonians 3:9-12, that there is value in good, hard work.
Harvest Christian Church has a heart to help the families in this community regain their self-respect through the process of discovering this valuable belief that work is good and that when we work, we reap reward.
They run a ministry centre in Kleinskool that meets both spiritual and physical needs by using a “hand-up” approach.
Various community upliftment programmes are run from Monday to Friday and are aimed at equipping the residents in the area to become self-sufficient and to be able to provide for their families in the long term.
There is also a church service on Sundays (including Kids church) and a youth meeting on Saturday afternoons.
The Swop Shop, run on Tuesdays, is one of Harvest’s key ministries.
Pastor Alfonso Wessels, who heads up the Missions department at Harvest, got this idea from a township in Jeffreys Bay and has adapted it to suit the Kleinskool community, making it easily accessible for children and adults.
The general idea is to collect the flood of recyclable materials littering the streets, and to bring them to the centre to be swopped for basic necessities.
What a beautiful way to restore dignity and self-worth by allowing someone to have the option to choose for themselves what they want to take home.
The Swop Shop runs from 10am – 3pm (Tuesday). (2-3pm is for children after school).
Just after 9:30, the staff and volunteers come outside for a short devotion and prayer with those standing in the queue.
Everyone is given a number (first come, first served). One by one they enter to get their bags of recyclables weighed. They empty the bags out themselves into large drums.
Tokens are given per kilogram. (These tokens are swopped for goods)There is a waiting room where everyone can wait for their turn to enter the shop. It is equipped with a TV that shows short devotionals, as well as promos for the programmes running at the centre.
The shop is stocked with stationery, toiletries, non-perishable foods and fresh vegetables.
The cost of these items is substantially subsidised by Harvest Christian Church to make it affordable for all. Donations that come in via their Mercy Ministries are used to stock the shelves.
A large portion of the finances donated via the Poor Fund is sown back into the Kleinskool ministry.
They have started separate clothing sales once every few months or so, where all donated clothing is sold affordably, with the proceeds going towards purchasing goods from the wholesalers, which then stock the shelves.
An added bonus of this model is that it is beneficial to the environment.
Approximately 100 tons of recyclable materials gets taken off the streets in the area per year,
The money paid to the centre by recycling companies is used to employ an operator to run the baling machine.
This employee was originally a volunteer and now, thanks to the hard work of the community, he is earning and can feed his family.
Franklin Gordon, site manager at the Kleinskool centre, also runs the Swop Shop.
Chatting to him, one gets the sense of just how burdened his heart is for this community.
He firmly believes that we must be a beacon of hope and light where we are because, if we can impart that hope that we have in Christ to those around us, the whole community can change for the better.
There are stories of some of the grandmothers who have had to hand over their SASSA cards to the loan sharks (standard practise when making a loan), which only gets handed back once the loan is paid.
But, by using the Swop Shop, they have still been able to buy food for their families whilst using their grant money to pay back the loan and thereby getting their cards back.
One lady, on walking out of the shop on a Tuesday, said that she shopped well today because she worked hard.
The community is being uplifted both in the physical and in their mindset. Hope is becoming evident.
How you can get involved:
- Prayer is always welcome.
- Donations
- Volunteers – To help in the shop on a Tuesday.
- Start your own centre – There are communities in need everywhere.
Harvest is willing to share its working model and to help with training to get you started. (There are two other Swop Shops in nearby areas that Harvest helped set up.)
Give Adri a call on 041- 5813032 at Harvest Christian Church if you would like to learn more about getting involved or starting your own centre.
Louise de Vos
Small Groups and Worship ministry, serving at Harvest Christian Church