The recovery of Drew Spruit

MBOMBELA – Andrew Spruit (48) and Rachelle Burger (53) have developed a strong bond with the children of Huis Betlehem over the past six months through their Looking Forward initiative.

Marlene and André van der Merwe currently look after nine children in the White River house of safety. These kids come out of environments deemed unfit for safe and acceptable childcare.

Since the closing of the Mbombela Huis Betlehem earlier this year, White River has had to fill the gap of caring for the children from both houses. This is a 24/7 full-time job, and they have not had a break for months.

To help reopen the house in Mbombela, a fund-raising golf day was recently held. It has helped, but more funding is needed to make the reopening possible.

Andrew says he can empathize strongly. “I was just like their parents. I had a serious gambling addiction and I used desperate methods, bordering on criminal, to cope with its financial and social consequences. I compromised my children and was never there for them.

“I hurt many people with my behaviour,” he says. “I was an absent, absent, absent father.

“We are taught from a young age that we must have God to be good. The problem is, we learn that if we don’t get all of those things right, we must be worthless.

“This, for me, is the root of all social problems – such as drug addiction. This fear of failure is what drove me to gambling and other addictive behaviour. Even when I was successful, I still felt worthless and just gambled everything away. I was empty in myself.”

For years Andrew tried to fight his addiction. He went to meetings and counted days of being clean. But whether he was gambling or fighting the temptation to gamble, the addiction consumed his life. Eventually he would always fall back into it.

Andrew explains, “My mindset was like when someone buys a Lotto ticket. In their mind they fantasise about winning the big money and how they will buy all their family houses and cars and everyone will love them. For me, that dream was not a fantasy. I really believed I would win one day and make it a reality.

“The strange thing is that I did win big once, but within six months I had gambled it all away.”

Having worked as the graphic designer for the adult sex industry in Johannesburg, Andrew relocated to Mbombela hoping the environment and lifestyle change would help. He only associated with Christians. Many of them told him he needed God to change his life, but as a staunch agnostic this did not make sense. In his view, God was a tyrant in the sky waiting to burn him for making such a mess of his life.

It did not take long for Andrew to return to the casinos. He misused company funds, was fired and back in a huge mess. He got to the point where he was on the verge of ending it all, he says.

Unemployed and broke, Andrew agreed to help out his then – friend, now partner, Rachelle, who he met at Neon Church. Petra Mountain Retreat was hosting a group of pastors from the USA for a week, and he agreed to help her and pitched in in the kitchen.

That was the beginning of their culinary adventure that has now grown into Grace Garden.

They wanted to give the teenagers at church a safe place to have fun on Friday nights, and started youth evenings. The congregation also used to have bread after church. He started making cheese to go with it. He Googled how to make cheese and started in a bucket in Rachelle’s tiny kitchenette.

When they heard about Huis Betlehem, they wanted to do something for the kids for Easter: a sponsored grocery hunt for the house. They promised to make them a nice meal too. “I was so broke,” Andrew says. “I ended up giving them Russians and chips. I was so embarrassed.”

But the day spent with the kids was one that changed his life. “I had R100 to my name, yet I knew everything was going to be okay.”

To remedy their embarrassment, they approached Pick n Pay White River to help, and they returned to Huis Bethlehem to make the kids pizza.

It was meant to be a once-off, but when they left they asked the kids what they wanted the following week. “Now we do it every week. Pick n Pay White River contributes many of the ingredients.”

At the same time, Andrew and Rachelle started getting orders for their flavoured cheese. When Rachelle was retrenched, Grace Garden became a full-time venture for them both.

“Everything just fell into place,” she says.

They now make seven different cheeses using 20 buckets daily, as well as homemade butter. Grace Garden also continues to run Looking Forward – R10 of every R100 spent for three cheeses is saved for the Huis Bethlehem kids’ special meal and other outings.

“The goal is to give the children something to look forward to,” Andrew says. “Kids in normal circumstances take a lot for granted. We believe Huis Betlehem kids, and hopefully many more in the future, deserve to have the things others enjoy while growing up.”

Andrew’s realisation that he, like everyone, was created to be loved by God, helped him conquer the gambling beast. It is a message he aims to share.

“I want the kids to know their value – that God is madly in love with them just the way they are,” he concludes. “Knowing that saved my life.”