South Africa

South Africa Mission Trip Blog 2018

Check the South Africa October 2018 Blog HERE.

Check the South Africa May 2018 Blog HERE.

South Africa Mission Trip 2015

Check the South Africa 2015 Blog HERE.

South Africa Mission Trip 2013

On August 11 seven people departed from Hopewell to begin a nearly two-week mission trip to South Africa. The group includes HUMC members and people from other churches who have answered the call to serve (Lauren Baldwin, Tony Brantzeg, Tracey Fernandez, Jill Halverson, Jen Lisowski, Dick Pry, and Leah Ranalli). The team will be building another home (house #18) for Mosaic to help them expand on their self-sustainable orphan care model, and, of course, they will also pay a visit to Aunt Suzie and the elderlies. All of the travelers will return to the US on August 24th, except Jen who will spend a little more time in South Africa visiting other ministry partners. Please pray for all of these individuals and praise God for bold missionary efforts out of Hopewell UMC! Thanks be to God!

You can read the team's Mission Trip Blog right here!

Click on the icons within the Google map below to learn more about Hopewell's many ministry partners in South Africa. Our current Missions Coordinator in South Africa, Jordan Ridge, is based in Potchefstroom.

Hopewell's outreach effort in South Africa is multi-faceted. Our work has partnered us with many ministries already working to address the enormous problems created by poverty, racism, and the AIDS pandemic in particular. Hopewell has had a full-time presence in South Africa since 2008, beginning with our first Missionary Jen Lisowski (left in the photo), and continuing in 2012 with our new Missionary Jordan Ridge (right).

Jordan, like Jen before her, is based in the town of Potchefstroom throughout the year. Her mission includes identifying ministries that Hopewell can partner with on a long-term basis. You can read about her experience in South Africa here. In addition to Jordan's on the ground presence, Hopewell has sponsored mission trips, comprised of youth and adults, to South Africa for the past four years.

Hopewell's current mission in the Potchefstroom region supports the work of several dynamic ministries that are providing care for families and children who are living with AIDS. Those ministries include:

Ikageng Daycare Center for the Aged

This daycare center exists to give elderly women in the Ikageng Township a safe place each day to share meals together and receive training in cooking, gardening, and sewing. While many of these women struggle with their own physical and sometimes mental ailments, they also provide loving care for other elderly women in the community.

Mosaic Community Developments

Meyer and Louise Conradie, a young South African couple, are making great strides toward the God-given vision of building a self-sustainable model of caring for orphaned children in South Africa. The Mosaic concept addresses economic, social and infrastructure development through: job training and creation, after school programs, a large preschool, parent training, and construction of homes in Ikageng. The homes, built by volunteers (our Hopewell family has physically helped to build several of them!), are rented by families caring for children orphaned by HIV/AIDS. Recent construction included a community center, which houses the Made by Mosaic business (see below), a large kitchen, and room for after-school activities. To read more about this incredible project and view their videos, please visit the Mosaic website at www.mosaicsa.org

Made by Mosaic

Made by Mosaic was launched by Jordan Ridge in September of 2011 as a for-profit arm of Mosaic in order to create jobs in the surrounding community. The business currently has approximately 20 employees, including Mosaic foster parents and residents of Ikageng. Products offered by Made by Mosaic include knitted and crocheted goods such as scarves, blankets, and shawls, as well as baked goods. All materials and ingredients used in Made by Mosaic products are sourced from South Africa, and all yarn used in knitted and crocheted products comes from another job creation project in Cape Town. Make a difference and shop Made by Mosaic today!

Cape Town Area

In the general Cape Town area, we support H.E.L.P Ministries, a hunger project providing a daily lunch for school children. We also have provided salary support for a librarian and a computer lab teacher in addition to other financial assistance and physical volunteers at the Nederburg School, a public primary school located near Cape Town with approximately 720 students.

Hopewell Mission Trips

Members of our congregation travel to South Africa to work alongside Missionary-in-Residence Jordan Ridge and our ministry partners on an annual basis. Check out our latest mission team's daily blog to get a feel for what these adventures are all about.