Lorentz Family Journey

2013 started with the publishing of the MercyAids website.  We had big dreams and  we felt clear of what it was we were called to.   Resilient Kid s goes on and this year we have seen a stirring of movement of renewed life... even after it looked like we had had to lay it down a year ago. At the same time I had taken on a role with the Connec t Network to help them expand their network goal of  safer communities for children in the Western Cape.   I felt this role was/is an important stepping stone to the unfolding of dream to see communities supported to effectively care for the OVC.  I had things in my hands I could bring to this dream... like two fish and five loaves. However, although clearer in our heads of what it is we have in our hands and what it is we are meant to be doing... the challenges and difficulties to keep doing it like we have been doing it has become extremely confusing in the last few months. I guess that greatest challenge has ...

In 2012 we started the year in a surrendered place.  We were already starting to battling with a place of difficulty of how things were turning out.  We had inside of us an understanding of what it was we were called to and we could see that over the years that we had come along side struggling organisations and individuals with a heart for orphans and vulnerable children.  We could see that we had influenced and supported... Doors opened up for me to go to different countries to give away what we had learnt over the years.  This trip took me on two life changing journeys.  My visit to Uganda and Liberia expanded my heart and my vision. Seeing a greater need of OVC beyond our borders, beyond Fisantekraal... A desire for neworks of support was born. With our new found clarity of who we are and what we are called to we started putting MercyAIDS in a clearer form...

As the funding for camps and training came in via Philippi Trust for training and camps in 2009 and 2010 we were able to with Barbara work out a more sustainable community model for growing kid's works at a grass roots level. Resilient Kids was born in 2009 out of the OVC program of Philippi Trust and shaped very much by the experiences we had had and the encouragement that we were on to something good.  We felt strongly at the time that the model could be adapted by any community wanting to get going with a work for the orphan and vulnerable child in the community. The model had to do with empowering local community people while equipping them with skill.  We had an amazing opportunity of seeing this happen in the Eastern Cape. By the end of 2010 we believed that to effectively do this work of training and equipping communities that we needed a training space conducive to this need.  A place where we could therapeutically work with the vulnerable adult and child. ...

Regina died at the end of 2007 and with her went our dreams of a bigger work for OVC in the Mfuleni area.  We tried for a while to knock on different doors to see if it was possible to keep on without her, but kept hitting dead ends. At the end of 2007 we heard about Patricia.  Here I think it is important to note that the entire time we were looking to get funding to take work in Fisantekraal to a new level.  Especially with OVC work.  We had started a nutritional support program for people battling a terminal illness. When I met Patricia we immediately kicked off a a relationship. We were able to stay involved with Nondumiso in Mfuleni and at the same time work with Patricia in Du Noon. Our dream to come a long side a organisation that works with OVC but struggling kept us involved in Mfuleni. We got involved with Patricia at the same time, she had an amazing heart for OVC and for people suffering with HIV.  It was in these years that I was working out t...

Holger had met Regina on a camp.  He spoke about her a lot and often refered to her as the Mother Theresa of Mfuleni.  I met her on my first camp and too was taken in by this amazing woman who loved children and used all she had to meet their needs.  She ran a huge soup kitchen and fed many many children every day. Holger and Regina worked together closely for two years.  We raised money and support to finish her home and expand her kitchen.  Regina and I started dreaming of our development plan for support structure for OVC that included psycho-social support groups and... we looked at halls, fields and were just about to run our first training together when we got the terrible call. Regina had died... We worked with Regina's daughter in keeping the home going.  Nondumiso is an amazing woman and she was committed to keeping her mom's work going but she also worked full time and really only wanted to have a home... she was very good to the children in...

In 2005/2006 we had a angel come and stay with us and help me with the kids so that I could get more involved with the counselling work.  She was a huge blessing to the family.  We would work hard at home and every now and again send Holger off to camp and he would come back and tell us all about his experiences.  My heart was awakening... Sarah came back to visit for two weeks after she had left in the September of 2006.  She challenged me to go on camp and she would come a long a help me with my kids... That was it... I was hardly on camp and I knew I was home... I was on the journey we needed to take... as a family.

In 2005, Philippi Trust where I was studying counselling at the time introduced a new  program.  It was a camp program for Orphans an Vulnerable children.  The first time I heard about it, was when the director at the time had just got back from a trip to the Eastern Cape and came to tell our dipoma class about his experience. I felt immediately in the deep side of me that Holger should get involved...  this sounded like the kind of thing he carried in his heart.

In 2004, we left YWAM.  This was a very painful decision.  We had loved our experience in YWAM and all the things we had learnt, but it was no longer a home for us. Richard Maybery the minister of the Vineyard Church at the time, met and prayed with us and encouraged us to get involved in a local community and start working out what God was saying to us... This is where our journey in Fisantekraal began... and the birth of our third child. While this was going on our supporters and family in Germany had started a TRUST to house our support and give governance to our work.  We had a covering church and support.

We moved to Beautiful Gate after an outreach with a team from Tyler in the North of South Africa.  Holger worked on the logistical side of things and I worked in the Pre-School.  We were pregnant with our second child and our first was in the preschool with me. We learnt a lot in these three years, but the shaping, shocking and defining moment was when children died of Chicken pox... the HIV virus in their bodies compromised their ability to fight it... 7 children in a small space of time.  It is sent us into an existential shock.  I decided to study.  It helped that I had a baby in me to to use as an excuse to get out of a very painful situation. Holger stayed with Beautiful Gate till 2003 and I stayed at home with my two children and studied... We left Beautiful Gate mostly I think because I could not see our vision to come along side organisations working with OVC to get them helped and be supported working out.  Toby and Aukje after sitting and l...

We married and moved to Texas where we did a school that challenged us deeply.  A school that was meant to train up teachers for the nations but very much revolutionized the way we looked at governments and people. It was in this place that we had our first child.  It was in this place where we got as a couple the first chance to explore what it meant to reach out to children in crisis. We joined the Mercy Works department on the base and for 3 years were involved with outreaches and relief projects that included China, Albania and Hondorus and others.  This was our experiential learning training ground. www.ywamtyler.org  is the place where we did the first five years of our marriage.  We learnt a lot about God, man and cultures.  We got to teach, serve, dream, work... play. It is with very fond memories that we look back on Ywam Tyler. We still have many friends that we are in touch with over Facebook and email and we know that we are going to h...

We have been in South Africa as a family for 13 years next month.  We left Tyler, Texas 13 years ago with a clear vision in our heads of how we were going to help with the orphan crisis in South Africa and Africa. Over the next few days, I am going to use this blog as a way to reflect on this journey we have taken as a family... Part of the reflection has to do with trying to figure out how to read the current place we are in. It feels like a crossroads...