2010 — TODAY
Sixteen years on one small hill.
We did not arrive with a plan. We arrived with a question: how can we be useful to you?
Ntshongweni is a rural community in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, marked by the long shadows of HIV/AIDS, unemployment, and the daily weight of generational poverty. It is also — and this matters more — a community of staggering generosity, of grandmothers raising seven grandchildren on a single pension, of young people who refuse to give up.
Our work has grown slowly, on purpose. Since 2010 we have taken twenty-one trips and provided consistent, ongoing support through bi-annual wires for sponsored families and specific projects — always under the guidance of the Holy Spirit and Pastor Mandla Thwala, who leads the work on the ground. Every project has begun in response to a local need — around kitchen tables, at garden gates, and during home visits on the hillside. We are not interested in scaling away from the people we serve.
About the Work
Why Ntshongweni.
Ntshongweni is an isiZulu village in KwaZulu-Natal, in the Republic of South Africa. Its people are an ancient tribal group, but they have suffered terribly from the effects of Apartheid, HIV/AIDS, and natural disasters. During Apartheid, whole generations were forcibly removed from the cities and jobs, moved to “townships,” and denied education, healthcare, and even citizenship.
Because of illness and death, KwaZulu-Natal has a high number of child-led homes and gogos — Zulu grandmothers — caring for multiple children. The mission seeks to serve the orphan and the widow in their distress. This happens in a million specific ways — but there are eight main areas of work.
Eight Areas of Work
What sixteen years of “yes” looks like.
Housing
$4,500 family home · $2,000 single home · $1,500 plaster & paint · $1,500 furniture
We have built or done large remodels on close to thirty homes. Most are for child-led households who lost their parents to HIV/AIDS. After a home is built we plaster and paint, then furnish it with beds, kitchen cabinets, and sometimes a table. We continue to visit homes, like families, need ongoing care.
Food
$100 feeds a family for a month
Sponsored families receive a monthly food package. On trips we deliver ten to twenty emergency packages to people Pastor has identified as the most in need. We now carry hot plates and kettles along on deliveries so families can use what we bring right away.
Uniforms & Clothing
$50 per uniform · $100 clothing budget per person
Uniforms are required to attend school in South Africa. We fund uniforms for our sponsored children and others in need, and take specific folks clothes shopping on our trips with a budget they are accountable for.
Education
Certifications, trades, college — plus transport, phones, computers
Our goal is to get at least one person per family some form of post-high-school education. We currently support two students in full-time programs; one in logistics and one at a police academy; along with the transport and equipment they need to get there.
Healthcare
Direct payments to a trusted local doctor
Public hospitals for native South Africans are challenging; families are required to bring bedding and food when a loved one is admitted. Pastor has a relationship with a doctor in a nearby town whose services we pay for directly. There is no insurance system to lean on.
Funerals
$1,400 funeral · $600 headstone
We have lost four young people since the mission began. It is deeply important to us that children without parents are honored as our own at the time of burial. Zulu funerals last two days and include the whole village; a tent, food, custom, and a proper headstone.
Activities for the Kids
Ranges by group size — our largest was in the low forties
Every trip we try to do one fun thing together: the beach with a braai, King Shaka Aquarium, art class, a game preserve, the Nelson Mandela Capture Site; usually with lunch out at a restaurant. When trips align with school breaks we hold VBS.
School Support
Backpacks, supplies, furniture, books, fans
Pastor leads regular devotions and visits at the local schools and the Catholic girls' school. We have furnished backpacks and supplies, replaced classroom furniture, and brought books, plates, cups, and even fans for hot classrooms.
Current Projects
What we are working on right now.
JoJo water tanks — six homes
The city runs on rolling water shut-offs. None of our homes have running water, so when the community supply is off, it is truly terrible. A JoJo — a water-collection barrel with gutters — costs $500 per home. We are starting with six.
A one-room home for Sanele
Sanele has been with us for fifteen years. Now that he, his sister, and his brother are all older and back home together, the current arrangement no longer works. We are raising funds to build him a one-room home of his own.
Elizabeth — quarterly food
Elizabeth runs a small orphanage in Botha's Hill, about twenty minutes from Ntshongweni, caring for eighteen children. We have provided food and completely replaced the roof of her main building along with the doors and windows. Now we are covering food during school holidays — when all eighteen kids lose their school breakfast and lunch — at $350 per quarter. Pastor buys and delivers.
Mpume — finishing school
Mpume works at the preschool attached to the church. She never matriculated. Pastor is working out what she needs to finish, and then what further education would help her provide for her family.
Mlondi — driver's license & a new phone
Mlondi is currently at the police academy. He needs the class fees for his driver's license and a working phone.
The next wire for these projects goes out at the end of September.
How We Go
See a need, pray, then meet it.
The sky is the limit for the variety of things the mission does. The team tries to see a need, pray about it, and — if led — meet it. During food deliveries the van carries hot plates and kettles. On home visits the team takes note of anything else that presents itself.
Stateside, collections are run based on what Pastor requests, and the items are carried on trips: tennis balls, soccer balls, hygiene kits, clothing, coats, school supplies, backpacks, reading glasses, medicines, games, dolls, scissors, nail files and clippers, notebooks, pens, flashlights — whatever is asked for.
The visiting team rents a van and stays in a nearby town about twenty minutes from the village. It has been the mission’s joy to host many different friends over the years. It is truly a joy to serve.
The Timeline
How it actually happened.
2010
The first visit
Members of our group made the first trip to Ntshongweni in 2010. Our hearts were wrecked by the children. What began as a short visit became a relationship — we were welcomed into homes, fed from gardens that had little to spare, and asked one quiet question: will you come back? We did. From that first trip on, we stopped counting heads and started keeping names. Each orphan, each widow, each gogo raising the next generation became part of a record we still keep today.
2011
The first family we supported
The Duma family, four orphans who needed a roof over their heads and repairs to their home. We can still hear the voice of Nhlala, the oldest brother, coming down the hill as his home was being repaired, yelling “I am winning” in isiZulu.
2013
Creche and early ministry formation
Trips settled into a rhythm. Food, Bibles, clothing, and steady support for the local creche began to define the work. Small classrooms of preschoolers became one of the most consistent places we showed up — year after year, name after name.
2017
Food, family visits, and the gogos
The grandmothers — the gogos — became the pillars of everything. We spent our days walking hillsides with food parcels, sitting in kitchens, praying with widows raising grandchildren, and learning that the most faithful work in Ntshongweni was already being done by them. Our job was to come alongside.
2021
A home for Ntombikayise and her family
When we first met Ntombikayise in 2018, she was living in a single room with her four children, one grandchild, and two nephews. She had also recently been struck by a car and struggled to walk. In 2021, by the grace of God and through the generosity of friends and supporters, her family received a new home with two bedrooms and a kitchen. Returning to paint that house alongside her children left our hearts full — a reminder that housing had become one of the most tangible ways love in action could take shape.
2022
Historic KZN flooding; power made perfect in weakness
In 2022 we saw the historic KwaZulu-Natal flooding firsthand and met families among the hardest hit. The single-lane bridge that leads into Ntshongweni — a quick crossing over the stream running beside the butte — was torn apart, adding time to every trip in. For the families on the hillside the losses were far greater: there is no FEMA, no homeowners insurance, no easy path to rebuild. We visited Zanele, whose home collapsed around her at night in torrential rain as she was walking inside; the ground itself gave way and the family now shelters in the small rondeval that remained standing. Another mother and her two sons lost half of their home, and the sewing school at the church was destroyed — though a new sewing operation on the old church soccer field kept those jobs in the village. In the middle of loss we found faith, strength, and gratitude that families were still together — a living picture of Paul’s words: “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”
2024
Joe; a decade of friendship, now a husband, father, and taxi driver
Ten years ago, Joe was a boy in Ntshongweni who loved cars and driving. On one trip we took Joe and his friend Nhlanhla — known to everyone as Lucky — down a quiet country road in the valley by the butte to try their hand at a manual-transmission rental car. Almost certainly not in the rental agreement, but the boys did great, and they loved it. They did not have family around to teach them that kind of thing, and it was a joy to fill in. Fast forward to today: Joe is a taxi driver, married to Zodwa, with a three-month-old son, Luzelande. Knowing Joe for over a decade — a family half a world away — is the kind of thing that once would have sounded impossible. It brings to mind the scripture, “For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” God knew we would be connected with Joe before any of us were born. We are grateful, and eager to see what the next ten years hold.
2025
The difference eight months makes
We met Gogo Ngcayi in November 2024. Although not everyone was in that first photo, nine people were living in a metal house at the bottom of a valley, with no locking door and few nearby neighbors to help after the crime and insecurity the family had already endured. By June 2025, through God’s provision and the generosity of friends, that same family was standing in front of a secure new home on safer ground, no longer tucked away in the valley. The transformation from fear to joy was unmistakable. We were especially thankful for Judy and Jessica spending time coloring with the children and for the chance to sit with this beautiful family in their gratitude. Their dependence on God brings to mind Jesus’ words, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” In that humility and trust, this family drew us closer to God too.
2026
Friends of Ntshongweni Mission, Inc.; a new chapter for a long friendship
After sixteen years of trips, relationships, and shared work on the hill, the mission took a formal step: Friends of Ntshongweni Mission, Inc. was incorporated in the state of Florida (EIN 42-3267759) to steward this work with greater transparency and continuity. Our federal 501(c)(3) application has been submitted to the IRS; tax-exempt status is pending and has not yet been approved, so gifts given today are not yet tax-deductible under section 170. Nothing changes on the ground — the preschool that started with twenty-nine children now serves sixty-four, gogos are still visited, homes are still built, and church on Sunday is still full. What changes is the frame around the work: a clearer way for friends in the United States to walk alongside Ntshongweni for the long haul. The video below is a glimpse of a Ntshongweni senior class dedication at the church, filled with joy and the beautiful sound of isiZulu singing.
“Such community here — being together in love creates joy in a dark situation.”
The Place
The hills we keep returning to.
Ntshongweni sits in the green folds of KwaZulu-Natal, between Durban and the Valley of a Thousand Hills. These are the views that welcome us back each year.
Hands On The Work
Side by side, brush in hand.
Visiting friends from the U.S. work alongside the Ntshongweni team on homes, classrooms, and community spaces — not as outsiders running a project, but as one crew finishing a wall together.
Friendships That Last
The same faces, year after year.
The children we met in 2008 are now young adults. The friends who first travelled with us still come back. The work is held together by relationships that have been deepening for sixteen years.
Health Support
Care can be quiet, close, and deeply personal.
Sometimes health support means clinic rides and blood-pressure checks. Sometimes it means the kind of tender care that restores dignity to a body that has carried too much for too long. We keep these moments close to the heart of the story because they show what presence really looks like.
The next sixteen years are being written now.
Your gift becomes a school uniform, a seedling, a ride to the clinic, a meal shared. Choose the area closest to your heart.