Growing and growing



A mentor teaching the children

'Hello. How are you?'

Last Thursday we travelled to Harare as there was a leaders conference with Steve Tibbert. I wasn't invited (I'm a woman) but spent  my time with Deb Norton who very kindly offered to put us up. She and her husband, Alan are part of the Westgate Church and Deb has set up a small education facility for children who can't access government education for one reason or another. It is called the Lighthouse and I had a lovely time with the children and 'mentors' who work with them. Here they are practising greeting each other in English. Deb's philosophy is that it is no good filling the children's heads with knowledge if the basic social skills and character are not there so the school puts a lot of foundational principles in place first. Some of what they teach is very like our PSHE teaching in England. 

Then on Sunday we had a combined service with the Hamara congregation. First of all there were dedications of children. They had never had a dedication service before, so any child under 11 could be dedicated. It was great to see all the parents bringing their children to God and entrusting them to Him. There is a lot of superstition in this culture that would tell parents that in order to keep their children safe, they have to do different things and perform different rites etc. So it was  a big thing for some to break away from those things and trust God for their families, risking the wrath of family members.

The service at Hamara

Here we are in the Hamara building singing and dancing. Do you call that dancing, Dave?

After this we went to the home of the farm manager to use his pool where 29 people were baptised!!The water was freezing and Taurai has been ill since. We have lit a fire in the evening for the past 3 days. I keep telling everyone I didn't come to Africa for this!! 

But at least there is almost guaranteed sunshine during most days as you can see from the pictures.



Waiting for the baptisms



 We are so encouraged by the growth of the church, as we realise it was almost exactly one year ago that we came to Trenance for the first time and met with the church at Richards Road where Taaurai and Tendai live now. There were about 40 adults and 30 children then. Since they planted out to Hamara in September and moved to the building in March the church seems to have exploded! We counted 120 people there on Sunday. 

More news soon, I