The Mama and Papa

It would appear that we have been totally accepted by the church as we are now known affectionately as Mama Dean and Papa Dean. Nothing to do with our age I might add! Dave has preached at Thembalezizwe for the past two Sundays, from Luke 10. he really enjoyed it and hopefully so did the congregation as we added in some drama and made it very interactive. Andrew Wilson would be proud!!

last Friday we had another all night prayer meeting at the Hamara church building. This time it went on from 9pm to 5 am. A bit of a marathon but very good. To show how cold it was that night, here is a picture of Ruth trying to pray!! She and her husband are the only other white couple in the church and they are in the process of appealing (for the second time) against being sent out of the country because they haven't been granted a work permit. They are here with the B.M.S. and really feel called to Zim, so we are praying for success for them. Not only are they a lovely couple, Brad is a surveyer and has been so helpful to Dave in the planning of the church site.

Here are some of the dozens of children who came to the prayer meeting and slept on the cold concrete floor!

Some of the older ones managed to keep awake the whole time, though. Fortunately they are all on holiday from school at the moment. They have nearly 5 weeks off for Easter although there are no half term holidays here.

Here we are clapping to keep warm!! The weather is now very autumnal and the evenings are getting colder although in the day it is generally quite warm. There is no heating in the houses so it is a case of wrapping up warm in clothes or blankets, or alternatively just going to bed!! And, according to the locals it will get a lot colder in the next few months. No wonder there are so many children around here...                                                   We are still busy but not always feeling we are achieving that much as everything takes so long here, but apparently it is normal to feel like this at first. I guess we need to lower our expectations and just relax!! (Try telling that to Dave, though!)