This nationwide project to spoil the wives of farmers in the drought stricken areas has touched many lives and have blessed many a farmer’s wife when she least expected it but most needed it.
In Bultfontein we came across some of the miracle stories related to this project as told first by a farmer’s wife, Desire Grobler:
A friend, Mariette Venter, walked into my business a few weeks ago and asked if I would be offended if she gave me a farmers’ wife gift box, since we are farmers in the area, although I have a business in town. She then said that she was going to deliver a gift to the lady that works for me too. The next day her husband, Leon, arrived with 2 gift boxes and left it on the counter for us. By the time we closed up shop to go home to our farms, I said to my colleague, Wilna, to just take any one of the two gifts for herself. I took the other and, driving home, I still reminisced that since there are so many people who may need this gift more than I may, I should rather consider to pass it on to someone else. None the less, I went home and later, sitting outside with my coffee, I opened the parcel and started unpacking the content. Amongst the things I found a small note with my name on that said: “Des, Wishing you well, I am thinking of you.” Love. Nelette. I phoned my friend, Mariette, asking if anybody gave her this specific gift to give to me, telling her that it had a note inside with my name on. She denied, sending me a picture of hundreds of parcels filling her lounge, telling me that she was at work and that she just asked her husband to take any 2 of the many parcels and deliver it to me.
The miracle continued. Furthermore I discovered 2 packets of medicine inside the parcel, with the name Mrs Wessels on them. Mariette told me that these gifts were sent from KwaZulu Natal. Good friends of ours have a sister, whom we happened to know and who happens to live in KZN, her name is Nelette Wessels! I got her number from our friends and phoned to let her know that her parcel, all the way from KZN, have reached me in the Free State. When I asked about the note with my name on, she explained that it was a note that she, a while back, wrote to a colleague going through a tuff time but she never gave him the note, he was also called ‘Des’. The note must have ended up in the parcel by accident.
I cannot explain how special and spoilt it made me feel to receive a personalised parcel, with my name on a note, sent from hundreds of kilometres away, one of thousands of parcels packed and sent all over the country. It left my husband, Nico, and I in awe to realise how God singled us out and spoilt us beyond what we could imagine, although we didn’t even feel worthy of receiving a parcel in the first place!
The second miracle story related to us by another farmer’s wife, Matty Marx:
Upon receiving my parcel, I (Matty) started to unpack the many lovely items, including lavender gifts – a booklet, some soap, hand lotion, etc. But NO NAME! Knowing about the personal note that Desire discovered in her box, I was expecting something as special but found nothing of the kind. I ended up feeling disappointed and disgruntled! I have been struggling with feelings of dissatisfaction for a while, for more than a year actually. I kept all the lavender items and shared the rest of the content with my domestic worker, Sarah. Later I decided to read the little booklet, thinking I may just discover something special after all. One day soon after I end up sitting in my special bay window where I suddenly notice the lavender that I planted outside a while ago. I pray that I may smell lavender without any movement or wind, even without the window being opened, as proof of Holy Spirit being present during my special time of worship. I needed to have a supernatural awareness of His presence. Then it struck me – my gift was filled with lavender items and yet I did not see anything special because of my own feelings of dissatisfaction! From that day forward I could start to deal with those negative feelings and grew in my faith, because of my unique, special gift.
My sister in Law, Isobel, also received a gift that really felt as if it was especially meant for her, filled with expensive items in a time when they were going through tuff times when her husband had no income. Another friend, Elmarie, confessed to a friend that she didn’t know how long she had to keep praying for relief of these tough times and weeks later she received a box and when she opened it she noticed a big card saying: “NEVER STOP PRAYING!” The rest of the content was quite ordinary BUT she needed that note on that day, God answered her in a very special way.
According to Desire, Mariette, who was responsible for handing out these gifts to farmers’ wives in the Bultfontein area, could testify to so many ways in which these gifts impacted the lives of the women on farms. Another lady witnessed how she could, for more than two years, not afford to buy any facial products and in her parcel she received expensive facial products.
All of these testimonies serve as witness to the knowledge and care that God has for all of our needs, whether it is for a personalised note, the smell of lavender or facial products, He cares and He will provide!
The blessed and spoilt farmers’ wives of Bultfontein.
