Children of Promise restarts

By Julianna Jones

After a long hiatus owing to the pandemic, IsiThembiso Children of Promise recently resumed its Friday afternoon gatherings. The kids were so happy to be back!

Children of Promise was started over a decade ago with the aim to uplift young people in the township of Masiphumelele through gatherings, practical training and the hope of the Gospel. It’s run by a team of locals and cross-cultural workers from All Nations Cape Town and Youth with a Mission.

For many years, the lifeblood of Children of Promise was the gathering on Friday afternoons. But the team decided to stop them last year because the pandemic made such large gatherings too risky. 

In April, gatherings resumed. There is a younger kids group and a teenager group meeting each Friday. There is also a teen girls group that meets on Tuesday evenings.

IsiThembiso Skills, which teaches woodworking at a wood shop near Masi, has been meeting since January because it’s a smaller group doing the woodworking training.

Another big piece of Children of Promise is a yearly camp that brings the children out of Masi for several days. However, last year’s camp as well as this year’s have had to be canceled because of the pandemic. 

For more information about Children of Promise, visit their Web site at childrenofpromiseafrica.com

Please pray with us for the IsiThembiso team, which includes All Nations Cape Town members Machiel and Jessica Teekman as well as Liam and Rachel Byrnes. Pray for the local leaders on their team and also that God would raise up more locals to lead.