Geeeee!

Relaxing at Hillside Dams

G is for Graham and Belinda, Jake and Beth who have recently been out for  a visit. It was so lovely to spend time with them and be able to show them what we have been up to. It was such a good time of sharing our hearts and being encouraged by them. But we are seriously missing them now! Gulp!!



Sarah singing happy birthday to Pieson

They really enjoyed visiting the gorgeous children at the ECD which has now been running for five weeks. The 24 children have settled really well and love playing with the toys. Many of them are from really poor homes so won't have had toys to play with or experienced structured activities before. We run the school very much like a reception class in he UK, so the children have free play, structured play and focussed activities based around literacy and numeracy. They have begun to join in the songs (sung in English) and love Ring a Ring o Roses which must be a bit double dutch to them!!    


X talking to the children about butternut seeds

G   is for gardening. Baba X spent some time with the children this week teaching them how to plant seeds and grow them according to Farming God's way.             
So far they have planted butternut and green beans and will be watering and weeding as well as eventually eating them as part of their education. X also talked to them about how amazing God is to be able to turn one seed into many as he cut open a butternut for them to see.


G is for more growing. The cabbages you saw growing at Lewis' have now all been sold. Many of them went to local supermarkets and here we are pointing them out in TM's! I think we look pretty glamourous! Since this, about 15,000 more cabbages have been planted  on the different sites.                                                    Our application for a renewal of our Residents permit Grinds on and on! We have been asked for more details in the last two days and are madly trying to get information together. The inspection of all the projects linked to the business took place last week and now we have to wait and see what happens. Its all quite exhausting and depressing as you get the feeling you are not really believed or wanted!

I will sign off here with a   GOOD NIGHT!

 

                

                    

Zim alphabet D,E,F

A...All is well, B...Bat safely removed. (see photo) C....Clearly its

Definitely better weather here than in the UK! Though the children (and teachers) who have been off school probably won't agree... The children here are back in full swing at school, although many of them have not been able to go as they can't afford the uniform, or the books, or the school fees and levies. I asked a lad who approached me as to whether I had any writing books at home, how many he needed to take to his new secondary school and he said 32!! He is desperate to go but his Gogo (grandmother) who looks after him can't afford the uniform or books that he needs.  His mum has gone to South Africa, a common story here. He is just one of many!!

E is for exciting news.. Hopefully the new Early Childhood Development centre will open next week. We have been busy visiting the families in the shacks that live nearest to the church building and collecting names of 4 year olds. We have a planning meeting next Monday and then its all systems go!! The school will be open Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays in the mornings during term times. So that's retirement out of the window then!!

Dave playing ball with the children after church.

More exciting news is that the first of the houses at St Peters has been completed and the occupants are a man of 93 and his wife. The first house they have ever owned! We were there at church where Dave was preaching a few weeks ago and were amazed to find 33 children in the Sunday School too.

Hows this for cabbages!

Following a few heavy downpours the vegetables in Lewis plot are looking very well. (Many thanks for the prayers for rain but keep going as we still need more!) and Dave is beginning to supply the new supermarket near us regularly. It is called Food Lovers Market which is very Dave don't you think?

Tomatoes with maize in the background at 1BD

The 1BD plot is also progressing, though not ready to harvest yet. It has caused quite a stir in the community and they keep talking about what the white man is doing. Not exactly what we want!! F is for Fence thieves too! X arrived at the site one morning to find that the top two strands of barbed wire running the entire length of the site had been stolen. $200 dollars worth! The new wire has been daubed with paint and is now connected to the second strand. You learn from such mistakes!
F is for Finishing.. I have written this over a two day period as I keep getting interrupted, so I just wanted to add that this morning we were up at 4.30 to go to help pick beans at Lewis'. We picked 80 kg (that's176lbs, for the oldies who still work in old money) with the help of X and 3 others. The word that comes to mind is FOOL and now I'm Flipping stiff!
It is very satisfying, though and Lewis can't believe that he is now a producer of top quality vegetables. Now I'm falling asleep so until next time.....ZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzz

ABC of Zim

A  is for arrived safely! We had a good journey. Thanks to John Gwynne who delivered us to Heathrow, SAA who flew us safely and the ever faithful X who picked us up at the airport! What a great time we had in England, but it just flew by too quickly and here we are again suffering in the heat!!!! Actually it rained here the night we were travelling. Yippee!! So it was ideal for planting those tomatoes and cabbages, yesterday, that Dave was telling you about.

 

B is for bonjour. It was very sad to say goodbye to so many family and friends but it was also extremely encouraging to us to know that so many read the drivel I write on the blog and that so many people are praying for us. Bags and bags of thanks to all those who sent us off with gifts of money, so generously given to the work out here. We will keep you up to date with progress... B is also for the bat that has taken up residence in our living room and which I will have to send packing at some time, when I can pluck up the courage and find some gloves!

 

C is for Christmas, gone but not forgotten. We have such great memories and a few photos to remind us. What a wonderful church  and family we belong to! Worshipping in English with such quality musicians was such a blessing. We now face the big challenge of making things sustainable here, if its at all possible. C is for communication... On opening the blog (having got the Internet re-connected as we were cut off because we weren't here to pay the monthly bill)I found that the last one I wrote 3 days before we left Zim didn't send so Ive sent it with this one. The January sale 2 for 1! How good is that?

Counting down again

Praising under canvas

I know I said the previous post would be the last before returning to the UK, but I couldn't resist just updating you on this last week in Zim!

Last Sunday was a special one for the New Frontiers churches here in Bulawayo, as we had a combined service at the New Creation site in town. Scott Marques was down from Harare and gave a very relevant message about being content in God.

It was so encouraging to see everyone together and that TLZ was the largest group there!

After the meeting we all ate together of spit roasted pork and beef, sadza and cabbage, prepared by the ladies of TLZ- fantastic!

TLZ guys in the foreground, including Ezra in pink with Martha!!

There were then games for adults and a 'jumping castle' for the children. It was a great social occassion especially for those from the rural and semi rural areas. It was also a sad day for the city church as it was the last day in Zim for Claire and Phil Biggs and their girls Hannah and Sophie, who have had to return to Birmingham to start life anew.

 



The girls working hard while Taps waits for food!!

On Wednesday we had a lovely surprise as our life group had organised a secret party for us to say goodbye! they brought loads of


food with them and a big chocolate cake. It was so thoughtful of them and we were totally overwhelmed... One of the highlights of the year, I think!




 

Countdown!

Counting down.... U.K. Here we come! Not long now....

This will be the last blog before we get back because I will be packing!!! We are soooooo looking forward to seeing all our friends and family and.... getting water out of the taps, eating cheese, butter and lamb, driving on smooth roads with NO road blocks, not having to queue up to pay bills every month, buying with plastic! The list goes on but.... we're NOT looking forward to being COLD! Its in the high 30's here but still no rain of any consequence so the maize hasn't been planted yet and the optimum time is before the 25th of November, so please pray with us for that!

Some of the cabbages yet to be planted

Zenzo said this was worse than going to the gym! (aching legs)

Here you can see (from the left) Lewis,  Zenzo and Kilion planting 3,000 cabbages on Lewis' plot. The next day they planted bush beans, beetroot and carrots. Behind them is spinach which is just coming to an end. Its great to be able to go and pick fresh vegetables for ourselves and the workers, just like at home!

 

Last week I was able to visit Morning Star, a farm in the Motopos owned by Chris and Norma (surname unknown!) I went with Ruth Biddulph who has been out here for 18months with BMS. She and her husband have had their work permits refused and have their second appeal in to Immigration who seem to be refusing to make any decisions at the moment with elections pending. So poor Brad and Ruth return to The UK a week after us not knowing if they can return. They expect a baby in March so will not be back until June even if they are allowed. We will miss them alot as they come to Thembalezizwe and are great fun. Brad has also been invaluable to Dave in the building process, so we are really hoping we see them again out here.

 

Helping the sewing ladies.

At Morning Star, Norma has been running a sewing group with some ladies for the past 3 years, so I was picking her brains and loved seeing the things they have made. When we visited the ladies were making Christmas tree garlands using fabric, beads and seeds. They get a small share of the profits and really make a social occasion of their weekly get together. They are all HIV positive and bring their babies with them. They also take extra work home with them to sew by hand. I'd love to see a similar thing happening inTrenance in the future to empower ladies there. The most difficult thing is to find a market for what is produced as Bulawayo does not have any tourist industry to speak of any more and nobody has any cash. So it will need some thought and investigation.

The whole group plus babies



What a lovely blanket!

On her last trip home Ruth had collected some beautiful hand made blankets that her Mother-in- law had made with ladies from her village in Devon.

Here she is presenting one to a girl from the local



village. She is an unmarried mother of 17 and her little boy is 4 months old. This time last year she was still in school but had to leave in February.

Chris and Norma also do alot of work with the local schools and have won some funding from the Roger Federa Foundation for the next three years to upgrade the schools and put training in place for the teachers.

The farm is in a beautiful setting in the Motopos but they too are having difficulties with water as their borehole is very low due to the lack of rains in this area. In Harare they have had quite a bit already!

Pleased to say the children's shelter at 1BD is now complete and they have been using it for the past 2 Sundays.

The chicken at Edmunds are growing fast after a set back with diseased and are now on a countdown to Christmas! Which brings me back to the beginning........ We are definitely counting down!!
P.S. I am finishing this off on Sunday 25th and it is raining raining raining!!!

Chick, chick,chick,chi-i-i-i-i-i-icken

As I am truly English I will talk about the weather first! It has warmed up a lot this week after a cool one last week. The trees and grass are greening up after a few showers but the real rains haven't arrived yet. We are hopeful that these will come next week so that Dave (not him personally) can get the maize planted. The men at 1BD site have dug 36,700  holes and put in fertilizer ready for the seeds! That's a lot of holes.. 5 acres of land in all.

They are now trying to complete the house ready for Tendai and Taurai to move in. The wall are being painted as we speak, but not by me, this time thank goodness! I have, however, been painting walls all of last week as a young man moved into our cottage in the garden yesterday. He is a friend of X and was wanting some independence from family. He is a member of New Creation church and seems a really nice guy and has a company car so living this far out isn't a problem to him. We would have loved to offer accommodation to a member of our church but we live the opposite end of the city which would have taken them out of their community and made getting about difficult for them.

The new broiler shed. The far end is sheeted up ready for chicks

Dave (yes he did a lot of the work) has just finished building a new broiler shed at Edmund's house. Last week we put in 350 chicks in his old shed and then 4 days later 500 chicks into the new house. The netting isn't in place on all of it yet as the lady who weaves it hasn't finished! She has a type of loom and makes it for a living. How cool is that!!!

You can see how cold it was last week as the little girl in the front is wearing a dragon suit and a coat!!! But the sun still shines..



Dave and Edmund unpacking the chicks from their boxes

There is a massive market for chicken here at Christmas so that's what these fluffy little things are destined for- -  A Christmas Feast!!    So far the chicken project hasn't made any money as there is always difficulty in getting people to pay up. They take chicken on the promise of payment the next week and next week never comes, so we have learnt the hard way! But we are beginning to build a market with a Supermarket and Hotel, so we don't think we will have any trouble getting rid of this present batch and getting paid.



500 little dickie birds sitting on the floor, one named...



As you can see they have a special drink (which is yellow), during the first few hours to help their stress levels. (I wonder if it works for humans??)     

 

 

The congregation at St Peters meeting in Anna's home (tent)

Church is going fine and we are managing to organise  things so that each week someone can get over to St Peters to preach. Graham and Sarah Giles will be the main contacts as they have a real heart for the people there but they are in England for the next 2 months so it is quite challenging for a small church like ours. Its also quite surprising to find that the tin shacks that the people of St Peters vacated are again being lived in by others. 



Playing musical chickens!

 

Lastly, Kidz Klub is still going well and being enjoyed by the children and adults! Here are a couple of pictures from last Saturday. We had about 70 kids this week and quite a few were new ones which was great. So I'll sign off here until next time......

 

Tendai and Ruth are chickens!

                                                                                                        



Exciting news!

Zenzo at 1BD

Meet Zenzo, a young man who has been working at 1BD since we started clearing the site. At first he lived in the building but now he and his wife live 2 hours walk away, but he is always at work by 7.30 when they start. Last week he asked if he could be born again and X, the site manager led him to the Lord!! A great encouragement to Dave and all of us and hopefully the first of many. He is such a hard worker and so appreciates having a job after being out of
work for so long.
                                                                                            The house is being wired and plumbed this week and is progressing well. The children have been meeting there for the past few weeks just to get them out of the sun, but now a start has been made on the children's building so hopefully they will soon have their own place to meet. 

We had an amazing time today, Sunday. Firstly we had our first meeting at St Peters, where the families have been relocated from the shacks. Taurai and Tendai, Graham and Sarah and Diva and Noma went over and they had a great time with 17 adults and 10 children there. So now Thembalezizwe has 3 congregations!

In Trenance, we had a guest speaker, an old friend of Taps, from Harare. The Holy Spirit really fell on people and many were set free and impacted by the message about healing of the heart. many people are bound by jealousy and by things from their past, so it was encouraging to see God moving so powerfully.

 

Sophie and Hannah outside their school

On Friday we were surrogate grandparents for Hannah and Sophie. Their Dad is an elder in the city church and each year their school has a grandparents day. We had the privilege of standing in as their grandparents are all in the UK. We were treated to tea and cakes, a short concert and then were able to look at their books. It was quite strange to see them still using the old fashioned desks with lids and to be sitting in rows, but it is a good Christian school although the fees are very high. All children have to pay fees each term here in Zim and they seem to go up all the time.

 

Kidz Klub number 5 went well on Saturday, although we have lost quite a few children to St Peters.

About 5 children brought friends for the first time so we keep encouraging them with extra sweets!!

The helpers are great but I am having a bit of an issue with reliability, so we will have to work on that!
 

We are well and doing fine. Please keep the comments coming!