Saving people when they face the worst

When you work for God, you’re unlikely to retire at 65.

So says Willie Jordaan, who with his wife Lina, manages the Manna Healing Centre at Oakura.

The Jordaans came to New Zealand from South Africa to join their family here after they stepped down from running churches.

‘‘We were praying that God would give us something to do,’’ Jordaan said. ‘‘If I was a mechanic, then I would probably retire, but when you’re busy with the spiritual side of life, I don’t think you ever retire.’’

A year ago they moved to Oakura to manage Manna, a non-denominational, Christian-run retreat for people in need. Guests there range from people in crisis and considering suicide, to others who need a few days respite from caring for loved ones.

‘‘We are not a hospital, we are not a clinic with medicines, we love people. That is one of the medicines in life, to love,’’ Jordaan said.

There’s no record of exactly how many people the centre, which opened in 1990, has helped, but it would number in the thousands, he said. Its six rooms were often fully booked.

‘‘I describe it in layman’s terms as a time out place for people who are not coping with life,’’ trust chairman Russell Martin, who helped build the centre, said.

‘‘I’m sure we have saved a few people from suicide.’’

The centre was built by a tremendous community effort after four people separately got the same vision from God about 1980, Martin said.

Two acres of land on the outskirts of Oakura was donated and garage sales and other fundraising began. As more people came to hear of the vision, the donations flowed in from around the community.

Volunteers, who included builders and farmers and people from various churches, worked on the project. It took 10 years.

‘‘The philosophy was they wouldn’t buy a brick until they had a dollar to pay for it,’’ Martin said.

Later, a calf scheme, where farmers raised calves and donated the proceeds to the trust, helped fund an extension to the original house and a separate cottage and house for the expanding staff.

Nearly three decades on, demand for the centre’s service remained steady, Jordaan said.

A simple combination of home cooked hospitality, willing listeners and time to reflect or talk was often a lifeline for people.

‘‘This is a place for people in need of healing and wholeness, we offer them a sense of family, belonging, to feel while they are here they are connected with everybody. We don’t have a lot of rules, of dos and don’ts and we offer them quietness and seclusion.

The Jordaans share the work with a team, plus volunteers, who provide a seven-days-a-week service.

‘‘Everybody that works here loves people, that’s why they are here. It’s a calling, not a job.’’

Jordaan said the centre’s mission was based on the original prophecy.

‘‘It said ‘in this house there will always be bread, no one will need to hunger and there will be wine, wine for joy.’ It’s not just referring to the bread we buy from the bakery shop, not the wine we drink out of a bottle. If you look at it and start analysing what is said there, it is still applicable. It’s not history, this is alive still today. Fashions have come and gone but this is still the same.’’