Patience is a virtue

Having spent 4 nights with our friends Mark and Heather who wined and dined us above and beyond the call of duty, we have now moved into our rented house. The furniture Mark and Heather were lending us has not yet arrived, so I managed to part Dave from his wallet and went out and bought enough furniture and equipment to make life very comfortable here! But seriously, we have been overwhelmed and so blessed by the generosity of our friends in Kings Church Eastbourne. Today I witnessed another miracle! I have been praying for 43 years for Dave to have the gift of patience and this was the day that he queued for over 2 hours in the blazing 30degree African sun to tax the car at the Post Office and there wasn't one word of complaint!! Halelujah..
Tomorrow we are going to visit an orphanage in Trenance and will visit the building which has now got the windows and doors installed. We will also attend our first life group meeting, so are looking forward to getting to know some of the church members better. Hope to send some pictures next time.

The Zimmers have arrived

Well here at last! An eventful journey in many ways but God was so good! We initially were diverted to Milan so were delayed for 2 hours and thought that we would never get our connection at Addis Ababa but our pilot phoned through to the airport to ask for the plane to wait and miraculously  we were able to run from one to the other before it took off!! On arrival at Harare, again it took just 20 minutes to get a visa, pick up our bags and get past the customs officer with only a cursory glance in one case! This was partly due, I might add, to Dave being over friendly, running his fingers through his hair and fluttering his eyelashes. I just played the 'old person' card and looked tired and pathetic..Taps had arranged for us to be picked up and taken to the coach station and we arrived in plenty of time. So thank you for your prayers.
We then had a 6 hour journey on a luxury coach but, unfortunately, all the luxury bits were broken. By this time we didn't care and dozed for a good bit of the journey, finally arriving in BYO at 8.30. After a great curry with our friends Mark and Heather we rolled into bed and slept.

During the journey we thought alot about Tuesday night at Kings and we want to thank every one of you for the fantastic, generous gift you gave us, the love you showed us in the cards and personal comments and also your prayers. You all mean so much to us and we will miss you immensely.

However.....WE WILL BE BACK!

SWAPPING Sussex for Zimbabwe

Dave and June Dean fly south this month (Jan 25^th) to begin a two-year African adventure. They will be working with the Thembalezizwe Church in Bulawayo, five hours south of the capital, Harare.   Kings Church is already linked to Thembalezizwe - a team has been out to help build a school there and church leaders, Taps and Flora, have been to Eastbourne.

There’ll be plenty of work to do but Dave and June are relishing the challenge:

“We need to get to know people and build relationships first,” says June. “But it would be good to start something like a Kids Club at the church.”

Dave will assist the church as it helps villagers set up micro-businesses producing items like textiles and furniture.  The church also wants to establish an agricultural training college.

“I want to see sustainable employment opportunities,” says Dave. “We’ll be talking to village chiefs to get their support.”

“We also want to see people’s spiritual and physical needs met and the church grow – as well as supporting Taps,” adds June.

The Deans joined Kings in 1989; Dave has been an elder for more than 12 years. But, since September 2010, they have been leading the team in Seaford so Zimbabwe was not on their radar. But when Graham and Belinda Marsh visited Taps earlier this year both felt separately that Dave and June should go to Thembalezizwe. When Dave and June went for themselves, they felt sure it was what God wanted them to do.

“So many things have fallen into place – big and small,” says Dave. “We know it’s the right move.”