A Day At the Farm

Kristi here. Yesterday we had the chance to visit the Philadelphia Farm with Olivia and Neil Hall.  This is a special place where they raise flowers. The Hall’s farm flowers as their living and some of the profits go to support the Hebron Community Projects.  Their goal is to support the farm workers and their families as well as have a place of retreat for those from Cape Town that could use a refuge.  Our church, SPC, has supported this ministry by contributing the funds to build the Life Center here.  The Life Center will be a place for the Farm workers’ Children to come for movie nights, games and fun.  They have started the clearing for a soccer pitch to have games and practices on this land as well.

We got to the building site and see how it’s coming along. It has walls and rooms and is ready for the roof!  And the soccer pitch is presently hay, but it is cleared and ready for grass once the irrigation system is set up.  We also took a hike from this site up the mountain as they have been clearing this for recreational use as well.  It promises to be a very fun place to go and find friends and activities for those kids that have nothing else to do while their parents are working on the farms.  Neil says that once this place is set up, he hopes to have person here at all times to welcome those that need it.  Many times, the police come and arrest parents working on the farms for being illegal workers and then their kids have nowhere to go.  This place offers a safe drop off place for the police to use.  Something we quite take for granted at home.  No one would ever think of taking a child’s parents away and not finding a safe stay for the children.

I have to say, this farmland is located in the most beautiful valley I have ever seen!  It is a vast space and is a never ending green landscape surrounded by beautiful rocky mountains.   It is breathtaking.  And the sunsets in the valley are incredible to see.  I have never seen a horizon that stretches on longer that the eyes can see.  And the hope that the farm workers will find here will also be a beautiful thing.  Many good things growing here on Philadelphia Farm.

Tomorrow is our last day in Hebron before we move on to Simon’s Town, the Cape of Good Hope, the Penguins and up the Eastern Cape.