09/06/2026
Newsletter
Greetings from Horizon Thusanang in Limpopo, South Africa.
We would like to express our deepest gratitude to all our child sponsors and everyone who faithfully supports this ministry. Your love, prayers, and generosity are making an eternal difference in the lives of vulnerable children. May God bless you abundantly!
Over the past few years, we have experienced a steady monthly decline in child sponsorships as children graduate from the programme and some move on to become equipped young adults who are positively impacting their communities and the economy. While we celebrate these success stories, the number of new sponsorships has unfortunately not been enough to replace those leaving the programme. As a result, many children are still waiting for someone to stand with them and invest in their future.
For an orphaned child, sponsorship is about far more than food, clothing, and daily necessities. One of their greatest needs is the sense of belonging — knowing they are loved, valued, and not forgotten. Through Horizon’s after school centres, these children find stability, hope, encouragement, and spiritual guidance.
For every child in our programme, and for the many still waiting to be sponsored, this support is life-changing. And for a sponsor, it is an opportunity to truly transform a life. Your sponsorship becomes a gift with eternal impact, as many of the children come to Christ through our afternoon Bible clubs and are nurtured daily in the Word of God.
We have witnessed many wonderful success stories over the years.
One of these is Alphios Mashau. He had lost both his parents in a horrific car accident and he was left in a coma for two weeks with severe head and spinal injuries. When he regained consciousness, doctors believed he would remain paraplegic because of the extent of his injuries. But God had other plans for this him, and within weeks he was able to walk again. Alphios was a young boy when he was enrolled at our Sekgopo after-school center.
At our center, he gave his life powerfully to Christ and boldly began sharing the Gospel at school and within the center. His foster family, who were not Christians, opposed his faith and eventually forced him to leave their home. Through God’s grace, we were able to locate another family member who took him in and helped to raise him.
After graduating from high school, his sponsor paid for him to study at a theological seminary, and recently he graduated with honours! Today, this dynamic young man is preparing to be powerfully used by God. Stories like his remind us of the incredible impact one caring sponsor can have on a child’s future.
Recently, I came across an article about the Bushman, or San people, of Southern Africa. These indigenous hunter-gatherers, living mainly in the Kalahari Desert of South Africa, Botswana, and Namibia, have preserved a rich culture and way of life for thousands of years.
Author Laurens Van Der Post spent years among the Bushmen, listening and learning, trying to understand what much of the modern world has forgotten.
The Bushmen of the Kalahari in South Africa speak of two kinds of hunger.
The Little Hunger is the hunger for food. The need for something in your belly — a fire in your body that must be fed to stay alive.
But then there’s the Great Hunger.
The hunger for meaning.
The hunger that lives deeper than the stomach — in the chest, in the bones, in the silence behind your eyes.
It’s the ache to belong. To matter. To know why you are here.
He said the most dangerous thing in life isn’t sadness. It is emptiness — the slow, bitter erosion that comes from living without meaning.
We chase money. Status. Comfort. We chase happiness like it’s the point.
But happiness is fleeting. Meaning is enduring.
Because once you’re doing something that matters — really matters to your soul — it doesn’t matter whether you feel good all the time.
You feel right. You feel connected. You feel like you belong to something bigger than you.
And in that belonging, even the hardships become sacred.
One remembers that we are not just bodies to be fed, but spirits to be fulfilled.
And maybe that’s the real hunger we’ve been trying to feed all along.
What powerful wisdom from an ancient culture. This message spoke deeply to my own heart, and I hope it will speak to yours as well. Sponsoring a child can become part of your legacy — a beautiful way to help meet the “Great Hunger” that so many children experience as they long for love, hope, stability, and purpose.
We would like to ask you to prayerfully partner with us and become an advocate for a child who is still waiting for sponsorship. Please share this vision with your church, your family, your friends, and others who may have a heart to make a difference — even those living in another state or country.
There are also tax benefits available when donating through Horizon International.
May the Lord richly bless you, and we hope that one day you may visit Limpopo with a future GO Team and experience first-hand the joy of serving these precious children.
In Christ,
Andries and Nelly van der Merwe
Regional Directors – Horizon Thusanang
