February 2009

Anathoth is the headquarters of Africa Upper Room Ministries. On five acres of land near Johannesburg, South Africa, it takes its name from the Jeremiah passage in which land at Anathoth is purchased as a sign of hope for the future. Anathoth is, for Upper Room Ministries, a sign of hope for the future of Africa. This newsletter from staff-person Roland Rink brings news from this important ministry.

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I recently received the following email letter from Rev. Ron Robertson. Ron is in charge of the Epworth Children's Home in the Eastern suburbs of Gauteng. He wrote:

Hi Roland,

Sorry about the late submission of material for your newsletter. I can't believe we are already at the start of February.

About Epworth Children's Home:

By way of background, Epworth is 91 years old this year. It started as a series of houses (for orphans) across the Reef and in Pretoria. In the 60's there was a move to bring them all onto one property and form a "Village" concept. It has also been an acknowledged mission project of the Methodist Church of Southern Africa over this entire period. However with the growing costs of running such an institution, the church has sadly played an ever-diminished role. There are now nine houses on the property in Germiston.

There used to be house parents running each house, but with the changes in the kinds of problems children are facing -- abuse, severe neglect, HIV/AIDS etc., it called for a far more professional approach with qualified staff. Each house is now looked after by teams of Child Care Workers -- 3 over a 24-hour period.

The children are divided into age groups and into boy and girl houses. The older teens are in a separate house for the development of life skills as many of them have no families to go to, and need to be able to stand on their own feet as far as possible when they leave. We currently have 82 children on our books -- we're registered for 90 children. Ages range from 4-18 years. There are one or two exceptions older than in this range.

The most recent addition to our development as a home is the Therapy Assessment Centre. Over the last four years we have been developing a program where we have a number of professional therapists in the areas of counseling psychology, educational psychology and, more recently, occupational therapy. Each of these has been in response to the needs that have become apparent while caring for the children placed in our care. For example, the HIV+ kids: depending on when they came into the system there could have severe developmental issues as well as nutritionally related problems. The professional staff are drawn from the local universities -- Masters Students doing their internship with us. Currently we employ eight such people.

The goal is to have each child in a therapeutic program geared toward their particular developmental needs, and cognizant of their individual histories. The problem that we are faced with is that while the Government sees the value of the model, they do not provide financial support for it in their subsidies. They only provide for "heads on beds"! Government supplies about a third of our budget. The rest we have to get by way of sponsorship from corporate companies, churches and local businesses that we invite into a partnership with us. This is ongoing and demanding work.

Many thanks. Apologies again for the late submission.
Yours, Ron

We at Africa Upper Room are considering ways in which we can partner with and assist this vital ministry. We are considering a levy on each book we sell that will then be donated to Epworth. Perhaps you have creative ideas as well? Let us know.

Other Updates from Africa Upper Room Ministry:

• As you might be aware, AURM has taken on the distribution of The Upper Room magazine, beginning with the January/February 2009 issue. It has been a wonderful teambuilding exercise, and we're delighted to have contact with our subscribers and friends through this work. Check out some photographs of staff (and casual helpers) hard at work.
• We're delighted that we have begun supplying the Christian Police Association of SA with copies of the Upper Room for use by 4,000 of their members. The initial response from the members to the November/December issue was exceptionally positive.
• We have also made a commitment to supply partially and fully disabled people with The Upper Room. In order to do this efficiently, we're supplying the Chris Burger/Petro Jackson Fund (mainly sports people) and the Western Cape Rehabilitation Centre with magazines to distribute to their members during 2009.
• We will continue with our regular supply of 5000 copies of The Upper Room magazine to waiting patients in 1500 doctors' consulting rooms across South Africa as well.
• The March/April issue of The Upper Room daily devotional magazine features a whole new look! It is lighter in weight, conveniently just slightly smaller, and has full color Upper Room book adverts on the inside front and back covers. We look forward to your comments on the "makeover."
• If you feel called to support any of the work we're involved in, please feel free to communicate with us either in Nashville or at Anathoth.

We go forward
Roland Rink