The Deed Is Home!

The Deed of Transfer for Berakah's land, finally on site at Berakah

​Berakah's land was purchased nearly two decades ago, but confusion amidst changing municipal regulations and shifts in leadership in the 90s caused the transfer to never complete. The last three years have been marked with hard work from Chandra, a few volunteers, a board member, two staff members, and even a lawyer who volunteered his time as Berakah had to dig through years of old records and battle through mountains of red tape.

The prayers and support of our sending team were such a huge part of this!

​Last year, after another hurdle arose, Chandra sent an appeal to pray. Within a week, the circumstances changed in Berakah's favor. Your prayers cut some red tape, too.

join our team

The Big Day

We'd waited all year last year. Fought through some more red tape. Chandra provided paperwork. She rearranged the paperwork and gave it again. And, again. And then again. She sat in long queues in dingy old government buildings. She made phone calls. She sent emails. Staff members traveled to municipal offices, having to set inaccurate billing right. A local lawyer prepared and submitted documentation for free.

Then finally in December, just before we left for Christmas in Texas, an email arrived that said everything was in order and we should have a Deed of Transfer within a couple of weeks.

We arrived back in Pretoria on 10 January and started watching our email boxes. A week went by. Another week went by. Then at the end of the third week, an email arrived instructing Chandra to appear at offices in city centre (downtown Pretoria) to sign and receive the Deed of Transfer on Tuesday 31 January.

Tuesday morning finally came, and Chandra drove from our home in Pretoria East about 45 km to Mamelodi East to meet Sophie, the founder and school principal of Berakah. Together, they traveled about 30 km to the city center office.

And sat in one more queue.

Two hours into their wait, I was messaging Chandra, asking Chandra for updates:

She didn't respond at first, then she answered with a flurry of pictures.

Sophie, the founder of Berakah and its daycare principal, signing the Deed of Transfer

​We are beyond excited about today's breakthrough! Celebrate with us! God is so good!

The Deed of Transfer, an answer to years of prayer and the reward for years of hard work!