» Who We Are

Wortelgat Outreach Trust

To bring Christ through the wonder of relationships and creation

Wortelgat Outreach Trust runs a Christian camp for church, schools and other groups offering programmes with spiritual, leadership, team building, adventure, educational, life skill and environmental components. We use these programmes to invest in people’s lives, enabling them to respect and understand the wonders of God’s creation.

Our facilities include the Stables Camp which has unique limestone buildings set among milkwood trees on the edge of the Klein River lagoon and comprises 56 beds in lofts and cabins, dining hall, meeting hall, equipped kitchen and braai and fireplace facility. The Gecko Bush Camp is a rustic, environmentally friendly camp, completely secluded in an ancient milkwood forest. It is built with thatch, wood, reeds and stone, with boardwalks linking the equipped kitchen, lapa, ablutions fired by a donkey boiler, sleeping bungalows, tents and old ox wagon, also used as sleeping quarters. Shareholders of the Trust make their own self-contained cottages available for adult groups for purposes of retreat, marriage enrichment, Alpha courses, cell and leadership groups.

Activities include canoeing, swimming, sailing, volleyball, table tennis, abseiling, hiking to beach and mountain pools, obstacle courses, orienteering, rafting, a Scripture Tree Trail, Solitaire, night hikes and sleep-outs.

“Must we always teach our children with books? Let them look at the mountain and the stars up above. Let them look at the beauty of the waters and the trees and the flowers on earth. They will begin to think, and to think is the beginning of real education” (David Polls).

We have one basic rule: “Respect” – it covers respect for God, each other, the facilities and the environment. We have many groups passing through our experience and we know that the camp ministry is a very important tool to deal with all of the above. At the end of the camp there is always an improvement in behavioural patterns, decisions made on important issues like being drug-free, caring for the environment, a bonding and sharing of problems with people they can trust and for most it certainly males a difference in their lives in some way. The most important decisions are those that make a decision to follow Jesus – we share the gospel as the opportunities arise, bearing in mind our rule is respect for each person’s choice.

Alongside the running of camps, Trustees and management have an Alien Vegetation Removal programme which also serves to educate people, especially children, on sustainable environmental practices. We are members of two conservancies, namely the Walker Bay Fynbos Conservancy south of the Klein River lagoon, and the Kleinriviersberg Conservancy north of the lagoon.

Wortelgat is a non-profit organization run by Trustees who are represented y Scripture Union, Overberg NG Kerke as well as members of the See-Eike Homeowners’ Association, to whom the property belongs and who have put up all the finances for development.

Pat and Lorraine Diederichs, ex-educators of 28 years, manage and run the camps and programmes, assisted by Jannie Nel and Melody Schweyer.