AFRICAN ORPHAN'S FUND UPDATE
After much prayer and rending of soul, Kathy and I felt it best for the future of the ministry in South Africa that we merge the entire ministry in Ladysmith South Africa with Place Of Hope.
Place of Hope is an extremely successful ministry, which under the leadership of Lourens Schoeman has 78 Village Care Centers for disadvantaged children. Many if not most, are orphans. Place of Hope is blessed with good funding, a find large staff, the backing of many churches in South Africa, funding from the South African Government, and the fine leadership of Lourens Schoeman.
The Ladysmith center is now a Training Center headquarter for Place of Hope. Place of Hope established a Model Daycare , Feeding Center, and Hospice center for dying children in our Ladysmith facility. The Model Daycare hosts over 100 children, is multiracial, and is the training center for hundreds of Village Care Center workers who care for thousands of children in surrounding areas outside of Ladysmith.
It is a ministry we always envisioned, but never realized with African Orphan's Fund. With the continuing eroding of personal integrity of our Zulu leaders, deep levels of corruption, and people heading ministries who clearly were not putting the welfare of our African Orphans as top priority, we decided to lease at no cost the entire facility to Place of Hope.
This incurred the wrath of some our leaders who were in the process of striping the property and selling equipment to fill their own pockets. The situation grew so severe that our Senior Zulu Pastor, in order to cover his illegal endeavors, threaten me with lawsuits bringing a lawyer to my home who insisted I was going to spend so long time in an African jail cell.
The whole thing was of course ludicrous, but what made the situation irrevocable was when our Zulu senior pastor's wife informed the congregation that contracts against the lives of several of our leaders had been secured; meaning the immanent danger of death was close at hand. Clearly, Kathy and I were not going to be able to stay in Ladysmith, South Africa any longer.
We dispersed the bulk of the Orphan's Fund money that we were holding in South Africa into the Indumiso Trust Fund. This is the Fund that provides for Mama MaJola's children. There is enough money in the fund to provide for 40 children per day for the next 10 years. This is due in large part, to the generous donation of the members of Fox River Christian Church; a church I deeply love and appreciate.
A new broom sweeps clean, and as such through the South African legal system I personally evicted Wiseman and Precious from the property giving them a severance package they did not deserve, but for the sake of the their two sons they did not leave empty handed. I offered them forgiveness should choose to seek it which they did not, and our now struggling church voted both of them out of membership for obvious reasons.
Very few if any will ever read this little blog on our web site. So, it is somewhat therapeutic that I write these words. The pain of many of our past supporting churches indicating that in some way we are quitters, betrayers, and out of God's will, the cold shoulder, and the fact that most of them just do not care, is probably the most difficult of all experiencing.
Yet, we are honored that Place of Hope and African Orphans Fund merged, and the vision God buried deep into my heart is being realized. My thoughts are often as that of John the Baptist when he said concerning Jesus, "He must increase and I must decrease." We take great heart that our ministry continues in success for Christ's Kingdom!
Kathy and I now reside in Eagan, Minnesota where I am pastoring the Chapel Hill Church. We praise God for this church and the priviledge we having in pastoring here.
It has been a great pleasure to serve all of our donors and wish God's very best upon you all.
Many Blessings,
Don & Kathy Mingo
Romans 8:28-30