Previous Projects |
Our projects included gricultural development, food and blanket distributions, embroidery projects as well as playgrounds at congregations With the support of our valuable partners SWAM
did in 2006: What others say: The Bushmen often don't know what their next meal will be and own rarely more than the clothes on their backs yet they have a faith unlike our own; they have been deserted by their government and forgotten by it's people yet they have a joy unlike our own; they have no tangible future yet they have a hope unlike our own. I was blessed beyond words just to have met them, and humbled just the same to be shown just what kind of a person I should aspire to be. Having been there, and seen the way the bushman live, I truly believe that any involvement by SWAM or Peace Portal in Namibia could do only good in the Bushman's lives.( Stacy Dryfhout, Surrey, BC) Recently we (Janis Lowe and Lynda Elke) had the opportunity to travel to Africa to join SWAM on a project. We only caught glimpses of the challenges of the region. The missionaries are desperately trying to get food to the hungriest, but many times it is too late. SWAM has been a major support to the missionaries and congregations in the region and hope to support many more projects in the future. God bless you and thank you for your continious support to SWAM. (Lynda Elke, Vancouver, BC) MOST PEOPLE remember The Gods Must Be Crazy, featuring the Bushmen of Namibia, in Africa. Recently South & West Africa Mission delivered 90,000 meals of dehydrated food, courtesy of Fraser Valley Gleaners of Abbotsford, with help from Peace Portal Alliance Church, to this impoverished people. (Audrey Nolte, White Rock, BC) Just a quick note to confirm that we are excited about the work SWAM is doing in Africa. As we managed the shipment of the on their behalf we are also happy that the shipment and the distribution of the contents was successful and of great benefit to the people of Namibia. (Philip Schatz, Manager, Material Aid Global Operations MercyCorps Canada) Thank you for the report and pictures, they are up on the wall at the plant. May God continue to bless the SWAM Mission in Africa. (Carl Goosen, plant Manager, Fraser Valley Gleaners)
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The Bushman and the Little School That Could Horseshoe Bay Christian School (HBCS) near Vancouver, B.C. has only 35 registered students. But in global mission, they have shown that small can still be significant. A year ago Jaco Jacobs, founder of South West Africa Ministry (SWAM), a development and relief mission, gave the small school a big challenge. Jacobs told the students that deep in Namibia a group of children of the Bushman tribe had lost their preschool when the teacher could not be paid. They also lost their daily school-lunch of porridge—often their only meal of the day. (The Bushman people were immortalized in the movie The Gods Must be Crazy, widely popular in North America in the early 1980s.) |
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Parents and teachers from HBCS swung into action to reopen the preschool, garnering gifts from Vancouver area businesses and raising $500 for SWAM. “It was just loaves and fishes,” says HBCS founder Maureen Cameron, “but God really multiplied it.” “The gift created such a stir in the village that hope was reborn, because somebody cared enough to give. The elders could not stop talking about it,” says Jacobs. Soon a Namibian development group offered to replace the broken down preschool with a new, custom made building. Today that preschool has grown from four to more than 20 Bushman children. Ellen Joubert, principal of HBCS, will travel to the village of Tsumkwe later this year. She intends to visit the preschool and deliver clothes and shoes collected by her Canadian students for the Bushman children. “I want to see the new school and I want to talk to the preschool teacher we have supported, meet her students and bring their pictures back to our HBCS students, who are so keenly linked to them. I want to discover other needs they may have and see just how our support can best be used.” Joubert will travel with her family, including her own two young children. She wants them to “experience how African children smile so readily even in the face of having so little. My own children will then understand how much Canadians have and can share with others.” Paul Beckingham For Faith Today |