Hope
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Two New Sewing Machines! Lydia’s Market now has 5 machines! Praising the Lord

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Madeline on the Left Lindiwe on the Right!

Hope:

I learned of a women named Madeline last Thursday when I returned home to South Africa. I was told from one of ladies in our Lydia’s Mission Sewing micro-business that Madeline was in need of help. I decided to go meet her and drove down many curvy bumpy roads that would be considered dirt paths in America and eventually came to a property with a barbed wire fence and a little pink blockhouse. It was Madeline’s house. She saw my car parked outside and came outside to see who I was and what I wanted. I had one of the sewing project women with me to help translate.

I learned that all of her family had passed away including her brother, her mom and other relatives and she was left alone. She lived in her family’s house with one child of her own who looked to be about 4 years old. She was raising 3 other children, all elementary school age, since no one else is left to be their parent. So here she is a mother of 4 children with no job trying to figure out how she was going to make it. Trying to figure out how to provide for these children. Did I mention that Madeline is only 23 years old? She was hopeless. I asked her if she wanted to be a part of the Lydia’s Mission Sewing Project and her eyes lit up. I began to describe the details of the project and the job expectations. She was very thankful and accepted the job. She could not wait until the next day when she would come to work for the first time. I learned later that day as soon as she went back into her house, she closed the door and began to weep. Madeline got a small glimpse of hope.

She came to work the next day and I let her know that she was important and valued by both God and me. I regularly provide food for the women as they work. Most of these women have children at home and will feed their children first before ever eating themselves. It’s just another way to value them and to show them that I am no better than they are. To me they are so much more than just employees, but daughters of God and sisters in Christ.  We prayed together, we sang together and we talked together. At the end of the day Madeline was so thankful, she was smiling and you could see hope had started to return to her. I have a donation closet of clothes, personal items, toys, house things…etc.  I let her pick out a handful of things that she needed for herself and the children. She started to cry, hugged me and just kept saying thank you very much!

Stories like Madeline’s are the reason I started Lydia’s Mission. To help show Christ and the hope He provides to women’s lives. To Partner with God to make a difference one life at a time by serving the women and children in South Africa.

 

Empower a Woman. Impact Generations.

Lydia’s Mission empowers and teaches women skills in rural South Africa to feed, educate, and care for their children by earning a living wage. When a woman begins to grasp her value in Christ through discipleship and Biblical training, her life becomes the first ripple of hope…that will last for generations.