OUR PRAYER FOR YOU IN THIS NEW YEAR

“ May the Lord bless you and keep you; may the Lord cause His face to shine upon you and be gracious to you;

may the Lord lift up His countenance toward you and give you peace”

Numbers 6:24-26

Mabopane Foundation’s New Year began with an unexpected delay. As most of you know, the Board of Directors had a hard decision to make due to COVID-19. After much prayer, it was clear to us that the Mission House must be closed temporarily for the month of January. Pop-Up Sales as well as drop off donations were suspended to protect our precious volunteers and our faithful shoppers as much as possible. This required a step of faith. In the meantime, before any request was made, God touched the hearts of two amazing partners who were led to make up the revenue that would be missed for Ya Bana Operations by suspending the January sales. One donation came from an overage from a partnering church’s benevolence fund and the other from a treasured Pop-Up Sale customer and friend. We thank God for all of you! We appreciate your tremendous love, support, and prayers for this ministry and for our beautiful Ya Bana family!

“Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.”

Romans 12:12

HEARTS AND HANDS

After the last sale of each year, we take advantage of this one-time opportunity to do a deep cleaning of the Mission House and engage in various projects inside and around the Mission House and surrounding property. This is a huge undertaking! The saying, “Many Hands Make Light Work” is so true!

Our valued and very talented Ron Whitehouse came to our rescue once again. He filled in nail holes and painted walls, trim, and ceilings throughout the Mission House as well as some furniture. We are blessed beyond belief by his commitment to take care of those things with which God has entrusted us.

Two of our regular volunteers went above and beyond the call of duty to help with the cleaning of other areas. Anne-Moir Shelton did a deep clean of the beautiful Jewelry Boutique making it sparkle even more; and Elizabeth Jones scrubbed down the Man Cave where she volunteers her time and efforts to display our “manly items”.

Brew Believers Bible Study Group who already volunteers on a regular basis came out on two separate occasions to help with big projects such as moving furniture, taking down our tent for the winter, and cleaning off the roof, gutters, and Mission House grounds. Richard and Sarah Hall came out to help Becky and Stanley with various projects and were such a help.

Men at work

And last but not least, Stanley’s Gifted Hands Cleaning Services partnered with us and did our entire Deep Cleaning of the Mission House and Carport area totally free of charge. Thank you Stanley and Renee Wilson for your generosity in helping with this HUGE task! May God bless you and your business abundantly.

I can’t tell you what a blessing it is to have such dedicated and amazing volunteers using their gifts by serving God at this place of ministry! We invite you to “Come and see what God has done, his awesome deeds for mankind!” (Psalm 66:5) at our first sale of the new year on February 11th and 12th. You will be amazed!

MINISTRY OPPORTUNITIES

Did you know that with just a few hours each week, or bi-monthly, you too can really make a difference and impact the life of a child?

If you, your Bible Study group or business would like to find out how, please call our office at 919-362-8974 for more information. There are so many opportunities and ways you can serve no matter what your schedule looks like..

Updates from the village by Naomi Brink

Click here to access the video referenced above (on facebook)

ANSWERED PRAYERS

Thank you so much for giving towards the amazing $25,000 Matching Grant. Because of your generosity, this gift was more than doubled! For the very first time, Ya Bana has a Scholarship Fund set up for continuing education and/or job skills training. And just in God’s perfect timing!

These precious Ya Bana children are growing up so quickly. Aphelele and Mpumi (left to right) have just finished high school and are awaiting news from their college applications. This is the help for which we have all been praying. Please continue to join us in prayer for all our children and thank God for the provisions He makes.

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

Jeremiah 29:11

BIKES AND SO MUCH MORE!!

Our thanks to everyone who supported our Special Invite Night held at the Mission House just prior to our Christmas Open House in November. Thanks to you, a total of thirty sturdy mountain bikes of various sizes were purchased and delivered to the Ya Bana children on Christmas Day. The children were elated to say the least! Praise God, a cycling company called Singletrack in South Africa partnered with us to help make this possible. They not only gave us a cost reduction but also agreed to train a couple of our older students to do regular maintenance and make future repairs on these bikes.

Many years ago, we also had wonderful donors who helped purchase bikes for Ya Bana. They provided years of enjoyment. But, as you can imagine, over time with so many children sharing the bikes and riding on the rough terrain, the bikes were in constant need of repair or rebuilding.

This has given us an idea. Share the joy of riding with children in the community! It is our hope to reach out to our friends in the city of Pretoria to participate in a “Bike Drive” in which used bikes are collected, cleaned and repaired to be sold at a minimal cost to our community friends. This would make it possible for many of our neighboring children to have a bike of their own for perhaps the very first time. “Ya Bana Cycles 4 Kids” (a possible name for a small business) would give Ya Bana a wonderful opportunity to train and encourage future entrepreneurs, teaching business skills and financial best practices. We can even imagine holding a Bike Rally one day where our young bikers along with their chaperones could go out into their community sharing the love of Christ! Thank you for making it possible to dream big and imagine how exciting it would be to not only supply “fish” but teach others how to fish.