Schubartpark: What an experience!

On 22 September 2011 the residents of Schubartpark were evacuated after their protest became violent and City of Tshwane officials had to step in to stabilize the situation. The immediate result: The homeless population of Tshwane doubled within a matter of hours. That evening PEN opened its hall to the community and for the next couple of days between 140 and 180 women and children were sheltered every night. Simultaneously Tshwane Leadership Foundation opened their community hall in Salvokop to ±70 men. Because of the need for even more shelter, we approached the Dutch Reformed Church Pretoria and they graciously provided their church hall in Arcadia. The facility at Bosman Street unfortunately had to be closed down on the 26th of September due to building alterations to the hall.
This opened up a new and truly remarkable chapter in the story. Echo Youth Development, who helped to manage the Arcadia shelter from the moment we opened its doors, offered to stick it out until every last woman and child there were helped with a place to stay. These young people did a wonderful job and created a loving community of God’s people around the women and children. They also took responsibility to seek accommodation or a loving home for mothers and their children. Churches all throughout Tshwane came and stood alongside us during this time and literally showered us with support in all sorts of ways. Someone bought a hundred mattresses. Others provided baby necessities. Still others, provided food. A number of Christian families took in a woman and child into their homes. Churches provided loving hands to help during supper times. It was such a wonderful experience to see how God’s people united during this crisis and worked effortlessly to care for these women and children.
The good news is that as of today every single woman and child have been helped to find a place to stay. We honour every home, every church and every individual that made this possible through their personal effort or financial contribution to our disaster and relocation fund. This means in effect that we are able to close our emergency shelter in Arcadia
The bad news is that not everyone is helped as of yet. Homelessness is still a very big issue in our city. Our involvement in Arcadia also highlighted a number of issues that the church can and should be involved in on a much bigger scale - prostitution, job creation, health and education, to name but a few. Hopefully, we will be able to address some of these issues and with the support we now know we have, it will be possible to tackle these issues one by one.
God put the responsibility to be involved with the people of Schubartpark on our shoulders. We have won a battle, but the war against the “powers and principalities” is stronger than ever.
Please keep on praying for us in order to align ourselves with the vision that God has for his city.

To Him be the glory!

Things that thorn us in the night....

Do you have some things that keep you awake at night? The things that keep me awake in the last phase of 2011, touches on the well being of those who are closest to me, the financial security of PEN, the challenge of being true to our calling and vision in every situation that crosses our path; be it the building of a new clinic, or be it our involvement in the future plans for Shubartpark and Krugerpark. Then there are all the every-day thorns, of funding the Sea holiday, trying to better the salaries of the personnel of PEN, and don’t forget the effort to save the environment and the rhinos....
Yes, I have always been a girl for a cause. I have to have something to be focussing on that needs a new and wonderful plan! I can get caught up in fixing things, but then gets reminded very soon, that I need the fixing first and then need to switch from fixing to caring. Real caring brings understanding and mutual responsibility. That may in the end, lead us to fixing.... I am learning on a daily basis that the things that thorn me in the night, is helping me to understand our current world better. They are the things that make us sensitive and keep us in touch with the people we love (and the ones we are still learning to love). May the things that thorn you in the night, become small reminders of the things that are important, though not always urgent. May your thorns be the forerunners of the beautiful purple carpet of flowers that we are all looking forward to. May God use the things that thorns us all in the night, to facilitate the flowers that can follow.

Come BEE a part of PEN!

Sally phones at 09:45 to enquire about the exact location of the PEN offices, before her 2 hour appointment at 10:00. Our offices are located directly behind the Bosman Street Church on the corner of Bosman and Vermeulen Streets, in the city centre of Pretoria. It is from here that our marketing team kicks off with a short tour, showing people who are interested in getting involved the various great initiatives and programs of PEN.
You see, Sally is a very important person to PEN. She came to visit PEN to acquaint herself with all PEN’s activities in order for her business to make an informed decision about donating money. In this instance a CSI contribution. There is, after all, about 55 000 non profit organisations in Gauteng (according to statistics) and not many that offer businesses a BEE (level 2, score 88.46) and/or 18A tax exemption certificate.
PEN invite businesses and corporates to come and be part of the dream for our city and to lend a hand and support us financially. For further information on how to up your BEE score or on 18A Tax exemption, contact Martha at 012 323 6688 or martha@pen.org.za.
Martha Venter (PEN: Resource Developer)

Spin2Care 2011

6 people, 2 bikes and 1 goal: through awareness, raising funds for inFusion! This was the recipe for the 10th of September.
inFusion held their annual Spin2Care Fundraising event at Brooklyn Mall. We chose to have a different approach this year where we had only two teams participating. The yellow team was from the Tshwane Metropolitan Police Service & the green team represented inFusion from PEN. It is really wonderful to welcome the Tshwane Metropolitan Police Service as one of inFusion’s partners and their willingness to give themselves to make a difference in the lives of our teenagers and young adults. During the two hours the cyclists amazed us with their speed, endurance and their vibrant team spirits. At the end the yellow team won with 70.09 km on their clock! We would like to thank our sponsors who helped us make the event reality: Biltong Trommel in the Kolonade Centre, Soapbox Promotions & Gifts in Brummeria, Lionels Spinning Studio and Brooklyn Mall.