PEN is at the beginning of a very exciting year! Not only are we celebrating our 20th birthday in the inner city of Pretoria, we are also starting off a couple of new things this year. Proudly we have opened the doors of our new Sediba Hope Medical Centre and are excited about the prospect of enlarging our ministry circle in this way. The new centre however, necessitated a move of our outreach and music team to the Bronberg campus where the church graciously opened their doors to us. We spent two weeks revamping the old vestry to create a communal space for offices and ministry. We call it the Hub. From here we envisage reaching out to the people of Sunnyside and surrounding areas. Already we have done a community mapping of the area and are very excited about ministry possibilities. We ask that you pray with us for a very definite vision for this area. We need to identify strongholds of evil and people that we can partner with. We need to identify spaces where we can establish our own strongholds to minister in the most effective way possible.
If you want to partner with us, please call us at 012 344 1860.
 2012 is here! For some it means this will be the last year of human existence. Somewhere in December of this year, (according to the Mayan calendar) the planet will come to a cataclysmic end. For those of us however, who do not believe in Hollywood prophets, but put all our trust in a loving God directing us towards His purpose, 2012 will just be business as usual. Kingdom business. Here at PEN, we will celebrate this year our 20th Anniversary. We will celebrate because our God has started something very special in 1992 when PEN officially opened its doors and today we are still here to tell the tale. As a matter of fact, He has guided us these two decades to become an important vehicle of His Kingdom-thrust within the inner city of Pretoria. To Him be the glory!
We hope that you will partake in our festivities this year! We will make sure to keep you updated to what is happening when and where!
Don't forget to watch this space!
 On 22 September 2011 the residents of Schubartpark were evacuated after their protest became violent and City of Tshwane officials had to step in to stabilize the situation. The immediate result: The homeless population of Tshwane doubled within a matter of hours. That evening PEN opened its hall to the community and for the next couple of days between 140 and 180 women and children were sheltered every night. Simultaneously Tshwane Leadership Foundation opened their community hall in Salvokop to ±70 men. Because of the need for even more shelter, we approached the Dutch Reformed Church Pretoria and they graciously provided their church hall in Arcadia. The facility at Bosman Street unfortunately had to be closed down on the 26th of September due to building alterations to the hall.
This opened up a new and truly remarkable chapter in the story. Echo Youth Development, who helped to manage the Arcadia shelter from the moment we opened its doors, offered to stick it out until every last woman and child there were helped with a place to stay. These young people did a wonderful job and created a loving community of God’s people around the women and children. They also took responsibility to seek accommodation or a loving home for mothers and their children. Churches all throughout Tshwane came and stood alongside us during this time and literally showered us with support in all sorts of ways. Someone bought a hundred mattresses. Others provided baby necessities. Still others, provided food. A number of Christian families took in a woman and child into their homes. Churches provided loving hands to help during supper times. It was such a wonderful experience to see how God’s people united during this crisis and worked effortlessly to care for these women and children.
 The good news is that as of today every single woman and child have been helped to find a place to stay. We honour every home, every church and every individual that made this possible through their personal effort or financial contribution to our disaster and relocation fund. This means in effect that we are able to close our emergency shelter in Arcadia
The bad news is that not everyone is helped as of yet. Homelessness is still a very big issue in our city. Our involvement in Arcadia also highlighted a number of issues that the church can and should be involved in on a much bigger scale - prostitution, job creation, health and education, to name but a few. Hopefully, we will be able to address some of these issues and with the support we now know we have, it will be possible to tackle these issues one by one.
God put the responsibility to be involved with the people of Schubartpark on our shoulders. We have won a battle, but the war against the “powers and principalities” is stronger than ever.
Please keep on praying for us in order to align ourselves with the vision that God has for his city. To Him be the glory!
Tomorrow it will have been one week since Schubartpark has been evacuated. The crisis is far from over however. The homeless population in the inner city has almost doubled in one week and many people are still destitute. In the last week we ran two shelters, one in the Bosman Street Church hall and one, graciously provided by the NG Kerk Pretoria in the Arcadia Church hall. This was possible only due to countless donations of food, blankets mattresses, baby necessities etc. as well as many people jumping in from especially NG Kerk Pretoria-Oos and Echo Youth Development to be the bodies caring for the people overnight. Echo has also graciously took it upon themselves to try and find alternative housing for at least some of the ladies with small children. The city council is also still trying to find housing for 500 people, but it is a challenge due to a number of reasons. Yesterday we held a meeting in which we decided on a course of action. This is detailed in a letter drafted by Stephan de Beer, CEO of TLF, that also runs a shelter for 40 men in Salvokop, and I add this strategy here. Please consider it carefully. “We request you to consider the following support to us in this time, to sustain our attempt to support those who have lost their housing: - If you want to make your church hall, a house or another facility in your congregation / community available, either for this crisis, or for future emergency relief, please contact us, as we hope to secure the support of 20 churches in the city that would be available on a permanent basis for emergency housing, now and in the future.
- Since we have been tasked to accommodate women and children, if you would like to provide accommodation to such a mother with children until she is back on her feet, please contact us. This is an opportunity to practice very practical service in our city. And Jesus said: “I was homeless and you sheltered me”.
- If you cannot support with either of the above requests, maybe you would be able to consider financial support to help sustain this transition, as we have obviously not budgeted for this additional expense. Financial support would assist either to help displaced people return to their original homes, somewhere outside of the city, or even in Zimbabwe. It could also help with the food relief and other possible unbudgeted for items. It might even help to secure accommodation for people to settle down in a new place.
- Please pray for the leaders of the city, of the Schubart Park community, and of all residents and service providers in this time. Finding sustainable long-term solutions, and appropriate short-term solutions, require much wisdom, sensitivity and negotiations.
People are tired – both those displaced but also those responsible to care for them. We need swift action and a plan with time-frames and appropriate partnerships, for how the situation will be resolved in the short- and longer-term. We need your prayers in this regard.” There is now a very real possibility that we will extend the ladies shelter in Arcadia church until Friday. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us at 012 323 6688 or phone Anita at 082 9289378. Blessings! Francois Smit Senior Pastor: PEN
Last night we catered again for 180 destitute women and children in our church hall. About 60 others were housed in the Arcadia church and another 200 in Captured By Grace Church in the city center. The support we received was simply wonderful. God and his people really reacted in a way that few others can. As far as things stand for tonight and the weekend, it seems that we have adequate supplies to cater for 250 people for the next two days at least. We don't know what to expect. At this very moment people are being bussed to alternative housing/shelter provided by the Metro and it might mean that our numbers will drop as from tonight.
We will keep you updated about the situation and thank you again for all the love and support that Schubartpark's people experienced through you.
With love
Francois Smit
22 September 2011 would go down in our city’s history as the date when all of Schubartpark’s residents were evicted by the City of Tshwane. Whether this would remain so, we will have to see. As I write this letter lawyers representing the residents are in battle with lawyers from the City council to see if they can not halt the process that the Metro council has put into motion yesterday. Last night more than 150 women and children slept in our church’s hall and a 100 more were bussed to Salvokop to sleep in the community centre there. We don’t know how many of these people we can expect to show up for tonight. What we do know is that more trouble is brooding in the streets around Shubartpark and that vulnerable people will be left homeless and hopeless. It seems as if the Metro council don’t have much alternative disaster shelter. We therefore ask your urgent assistance.
We are in need of the following:
Hand soap, Baby Bottles, Nappies, Sanitary pads, bottled water, Fruit (apples & oranges), black bags, polystyrene cups, Purity Baby food and blankets. We also need people to prepare and deliver soup for ±250 people per day for the next three days.
God bless!
PEN Management
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