Winter in Johannesburg can be sunny and beautiful one day and bitterly cold the next. Often as I sit by a heater or snuggle in our warm bed on a bitterly cold day, I wonder about the many who don’t have these comforts. I sometimes pray that God will have mercy on them, especially the children and the aged. But that’s about as far as I get.

Fortunately there are those who do more than just think about the plight of the disadvantaged. Theo van Rooyen is one of those people. I recently heard him say “South Africa has a lot of hungry people. I felt I needed to make a difference.”

And that’s just what he is doing. Every Saturday morning, Theo, along with his friend, Bryan Andrews, gives out homemade soup (three big pots which he personally makes on Friday) and fresh bread (30 loaves) plus an orange or an apple to about 40 to 50 homeless people on a busy corner in Randburg. Grace is said, interest is shown to each one, and sometimes a tract or Bible is given. The folk have come to view Theo as their pastor, someone who genuinely cares about them and wants to help in some small way.

Why does a successful, well travelled business man spend his Saturday mornings feeding the homeless? Theo told the people in our church that when he was in the army a fellow in his troop mentioned that he was there because God wanted him to be there and he was someone who honoured God in every part of his life. He lived what he believed. Most guys only did what was necessary, doing as little as possible. But this guy did everything to the best of his ability. After Theo heard a presentation that this fellow gave about Jesus, he, along with 15 others, gave his life to Christ. That was in 1974.

The Scripture that God seemed to put on Theo’s heart from those early days as a Christian is John 21:15 where Jesus asks, “John, do you love me? Then feed my lambs.” But at that stage Theo didn’t know how he was to do this. Then as the situation in South Africa worsened with the recession, unemployment, and the influx of foreigners to our cities, he felt he needed to do something. Theo asked himself “What does Jesus want to do with my hands and my feet?” When a friend of his invited him to help him out at his soup kitchen, Theo did and has now taken it over since his friend emigrated.

Theo is sometimes asked, “What difference can feeding 50 people make when there are millions of starving people in this country?” He tells the starfish story of the young girl throwing back starfish that the waters had washed up on to the shore. One by one she threw them back into the sea and when she was asked what difference can it make when here are so many starfish, she answered, “It made a difference to that one!”

We can make a difference to the ones and twos and threes in our little world.

If you would like Theo’s soup recipe, or if you'd like to help out, please contact him through the church office.