September 5, 2013 A good day with a happy ending.

One of the things Sister Stumm and I have been working on here is helping the members feel like part of a Gospel family. We have taught parenting lessons, marriage lessons, worked with the members on how the basic family structure should be to help a family draw closer to each other and the Lord. We have taught them job search skills, how to interview and present themselves and the importance of following up after the application has been turned in. We are trying to help them develop skills that will place them ahead of the group. Here in South Africa as well as most places there are many people and few jobs so they must stand out in order to be considered.

With the young people I have been trying to encourage them to do well in school and look ahead to mission and higher education. Most want to get a good education but see little opportunity to achieve it because of the poverty most live in. Not being able to receive much help from their parents and with few jobs available they have developed a fatalistic attitude and consigned themselves to labor jobs to meet the needs of life.

One of the Senior Missionary Couple, Elder & Sister VanSickle, who are serving an employment mission came up with the idea of helping return missionaries get into the grass cutting business. They provide direction and a cutting machine. The young men must secure jobs, keep records and continue to expand their business.

Here in Port Alfred there is a great young man who is diligent in every aspect of life.  He is at every service project, goes out with the missionaries numerous time each week, is active in his quorum, helped his dad build their home and is very attentive to his two younger sisters. He is a great example of one who strives to do what is right. Taking the lead from the other couple and with the volunteered help of a friend back home I have set up a way for this young man to earn money for his mission and to help fund his education once he has returned.

We came to an agreement and this is what it is.

His Part: must secure and maintain a minimum of 8 lawn jobs, pay a full tithing 10 %, put 50% of earnings toward Mission and then university, 20% towards business expenses and the rest is for him. He must open an account for the Mission and one for the business, keep accurate books and have them review monthly with a person I set him up with. Every 3 months he will meet with a local business man who has agreed to help review his progress, challenges and receive directional help on his business.

My Part: easy, buy the machine and safety gear needed and smile.

To the VanSickle’s for their inspiration and my friend back home who wishes to remain anonymous but has made this whole thing possible. Thank You.

We are making our big trip to Port Elizabeth today to purchase the string trimmer for Sinalo Nteyi to begin his lawn cutting business.  We picked up his dad, Patrick, to go with us.  We stopped at the Barris’s on the way to drop off some things from Sister Cockbain and pick up her watch which she left there the day before.  While in PE we picked up an item for Tim Cockbain (we only got a little lost…they have a lot of streets with no names on them), then we picked up the new window for our car, then Makro to get a vacuum and microwave for our boarding.  We decided we might not have enough room in the car for the trimmer, so we stopped by Elder and Sister Sherbert’s and dropped off our newly acquired possessions and talked for a while.  We then went to lunch at Fish Tales (fish and chips). Then to the lawn store to buy the trimmer!!! With the trimmer purchased (with a few extras like earmuffs) the total came to around R4400.  We then went back to the Sherberts and unboxed our other purchases and were able to get them into the car.  We got back to Port Alfred around 5pm.  Here is Sinalo with his big smile on record!! 

We dropped Patrick off and went back to boarding to unload our stuff and then back to Patrick’s for his EQ presidency meeting.  We then left about ten to seven to go to the Cockbain’s for dinner. 

Fresh caught cob for tonight's dinner

 It was nice…fish and chips and a great dessert…a decadent brownie with ice cream!!  We went home full and tired.