The Jennie Marsh Trust

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• 2: About Us
  • 2.1: Mission & Vision
  • 2.2: Values
  • 2.3: Jennie Marsh
  • 2.4: The Team
  • 2.5: Our History
  • 2.6: JMT Website
• 3: Projects
  • 3.1: Equip
    • 3.1.2: Urban Mission Centre
    • 3.1.3: Christchurch Durham
    • 3.1.4: St Ebbes
    • 3.1.5: MAP Joburg
    • 3.1.6: Psalms
    • 3.1.8: JBC
  • 3.2: Enable
    • 3.2.1: Sports Plus
    • 3.2.2: Mozambique bible notes
    • 3.2.3: Kitgum sports equipment
    • 3.2.4: Vila Plantation
  • 3.3: Serve
    • 3.3.1: Ibanda orphan programme
    • 3.3.2: Thembalethu homeless
    • 3.3.3: Kitgum orphan education
    • 3.3.4: Vila orphan care
    • 3.3.5: Kitgum school resources
• 4: News
• 5: JMT Newsletter
  • 5.1: Archives
• 6: Upcoming Events
• 7: Get Involved
  • 7.1: Pray
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  • 7.3: Fundraise
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• 10: Photo Gallery
• 11: Contact Us

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Tuesday 2nd December was the night of the 2008 Thembalethu Christmas Party – a chance to celebrate Christmas and a year of Thembalethu’s work with all the displaced and homeless boys involved in the ministry – time for them to enjoy a good Christmas dinner, some entertainment and get the only Christmas presents they’d receive this year! JMT was able to play an extra special role this year, and Nick was able to be there on the night to witness it.

Thembalethu Ministries is a project JMT supports in Johannesburg, which reaches out and cares for mostly teenage boys and young men living rough on the streets of a local city area of Auckland Park/Melville. A separate charity, but working under the umbrella of Melville Union Church, the project provides a place for boys to come (now almost every day) and be fed, wash their clothes & selves, receive help with medical access and ID issues, get practical vocational training and Christian, and act as a bridge to services from other organisations (e.g. drug rehabilitation)

  
Over 50 boys sat down to Christmas dinner       Boys took turns to show off their dancing style!

The Christmas Party was quite simply a wonderful event – almost 50 boys (and 1 girl!) attended, and sat down to a proper Christmas dinner of roast chicken, vegeatables and potatoes – all cooked by volunteers. Drinking soft drinks and going back for seconds, many of the boys had not had a dinner like it for years; some were chatty and extremely excited, others were almost somber and shy at the overwhelming nature of what was given to them.  Touchingly, some wanted to take away the second helpings – either to see themselves through the next day, or to give to younger siblings or friends on the street.

After dinner, Dave West of MUC gave a short talk with the message of Christmas – reminding these boys of the love that God and the Church has for them, despite their troubles – and then followed the opportunity for the boys to ‘entertain’. In small groups, they came to the front and performed dances and songs, to the cheers of their peers – it was incredibly moving and great to part of.

              
Dave West hands out gifts funded by JMT/Bain      Boys show off their new jeans and t-shirts!

The final act of the evening was a surprise to all the boys – they were each given presents to take away; thanks in large part to the South African teams of Bain & Company and in particular to Janine Knight’s organisation – money had been raised to buy each of the boys a pair of new jeans and a t-shirt, as well as a big bag of sweets and chocolates. It’s hard to capture their excitement and their gratitude, as they lined up to receive them. They were overjoyed – some reacting by opening the parcels, putting on the jeans and dancing around… others, touchingly, taking their presents to open with siblings or on Christmas day, when they’d have nothing else to open.

An amazing evening – one which captured for me all the support, hard work and love that goes on over the whole year with the boys of Thembalethu, and which all your support and generosity enables.