Xhosa Gospel Mission has very recently acquired land in Scenery Park. The size of the land is 9000 sq ft. We purchased this property from the Salvation Army. It has been a long time coming, so we are very thankful!  It took 2 1/2 yrs to purchase the land. This land adjoins our children’s home. On this land we will be able to build 2 more children’s homes. This will be an amazing development. This will give the children a playground. There will also be space for a garden. We are looking at development as soon as the Lord provides for us to build the homes.  Donations and volunteers are needed.  Here is a Google map of the land:

January 15, 2014 marked the first day of school for Achuma ('Smiley,' 8 years old) and Ayabonga ('We are Thankful,' 9 years old).  They live in one of our children's homes.  This was an exciting day, and we are happy to hear that they had a good first day of school!

That these children are receiving education is wonderful.  Here is a quote from Wikipedia, from an article titled Education in South Africa, viewed 2/15/14: "According to the national census of 2011, among the South African population, 35.2% of black/African, 32.6% of coloureds, 61.6% of Indians/Asians and 76% of white citizens have completed an education of high school or higher. 41.7% of the total population has completed an education of high school or higher, whereas 8.6% of the population aged 20 years and older has not completed any schooling.[4]"  That is a rather sad statistic!  

The children housed in the Xhosa Gospel Mission's homes go to different schools, and there are fees for these schools.  The small children go to Kindergarten schools. The fees are $12 (US dollars) a month, which would equal $144 a year.  The older children are at various public schools. The fees for their schooling are $7 a month, which equal $84 per year. The school fees come out of a government grant of $80 per month, per child. This covers school clothing and other clothing, food, school fees, and transport to schools, if the schools are not in the area.  One child travels by taxi mini vans to school. We have a contract for 2 of the children to go to these schools which are far away. The rest are within walking distance from the homes.