New year, back to work!

Makadini! (See, I’m really getting into the Shona culture here...!)

I hope you’re all keeping well and have got back into the swing of things this new year. How are the resolutions going? I pray that God is already moving in your lives this year. A verse that has stuck with me so far is Hebrews 12:28-29:

    “Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to     God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.”

It’s beautiful. We have a firm foundations in God, a firm hope. Therefore we should serve him out of gratitude and worship for what He’s done for us. And that has been my inspiration this year as we’ve been going back to work.
It’s been a couple of weeks since I last posted anything, so here’s an update on what’s been going on, what’s new, and what’s about to happen...

Pre-School Programme:
We have moved away from Mbare for now, so that we can experience some different pre-schools. We are now working in Epworth, where Oasis have a lot of targets for the next three years as they focus more of their projects there. Each time we go into the pre-schools, we try to reflect the love of God in what we do - showing kindness, giving each child individual attention, and praying for the kids each week. On Wednesday mornings we have been going to Margaret Treacy pre-school, based at the Catholic church in Epworth. This pre-school is fairly well-resourced, and the teachers are very organised. We have thoroughly enjoyed the work we’ve done there - it has been a lot easier to fit in there than at Mbare, since it is the start of the new school year rather than part-way through the last term! These past couple of weeks we have read stories to the children (from an adapted children’s bible, mostly), taught a new song, done an art activity with them and played games. The children - 55 of them in total so far - are all fairly confident, and we can already see improvements in their English. They love singing - they have lots of rhymes in Shona and in English, and we taught them “Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes” and, just this week, “Who’s The King of the Jungle?”, which they all thought was brilliant (teachers included!) It’s been a lot of fun teaching them English in subtle ways - for an art activity we drew round our hands, and from there we could teach them some colours and practise their counting skills. We have found that parachute games go down a treat as well - they adore running underneath and just generally getting very excited! This group of children, and the teachers, loved playing with the bubbles we took along with us last week. It’s nice to think that we can bring in new things for them to do, which so often in the UK we take for granted, whereas here it was something really special, and really fun, for them to play with. Their joy is contagious, that’s for sure.
The other pre-school we have been working at is quite a contrast. We have had a maximum of 17 kids there, but they’re all equally willing to learn. We have done some of the same things with them (we were so proud when we returned and they could remember how to play Duck Duck Goose - they had been practising, clearly!) but we also made music shakers (boxes with rice in them, basically) which they had a lot of fun playing with. Some of them have very good rhythm, while others might need a little more practise!

Foundations For Farming:
Our hearts were crushed when we returned to Oasis from our holiday to find that our maize patch had overgrown with weeds - though the maize itself had still managed to grow too, thankfully. But since then we’ve been working hard at it in the afternoons, getting used to using a hoe to weed, and it is now back to clear land! It has been heavy work, so we’re very thankful for the good weather God’s given us, and for the pool back at the house we’re staying in. We’re all quite protective over the land though, and I’m happy to say that some of our plants are now over a metre tall - yay!

Jewellery-making:
We’ve been making some more jewellery - some of which will be coming home with me to sell, so I hope you’re all ready to stock up on some fine pieces of hand-made wearable art!

Northside Community Church:
From our busy Christmas schedule at the church, we are now back to our regular Friday/Sundays there. Wow Kids, the Friday afternoon kids’ club, has started again, and yesterday we were talking about Elijah being fed by the ravens - and everyone made their own paper bird. It’s been good fun there, as the kids listen well and we can bring some new ideas to them. We’ve also started paired reading again - it’s lovely to hear the children’s reading skills improve as time goes on.
A lot of our time at Northside has also been spent making powerpoint presentations for various people and various things - this weekend is the church’s 38th anniversary celebration, so we have made a slideshow of photos from their past year, which has been interesting for us as we’ve been able to see what actually goes on in the church elsewhere. We’re back to leading kids’ groups on Sunday mornings as well - my Grade 3 class is lovely, and I’m excited to spend more time with them.

Hands of Mercy Orphanage:
Last weekend we visited an orphanage about 40 minutes’ drive out of Harare. Again, little old Geoff managed to hold up on the dirt tracks, in the heavy rain - we’re so proud of him! Anyway, at the orphanage they’re setting up a new feeding programme in the nearby rural area, starting this week, so we were helping clear out the area they are using for it - weeding, cutting back grass, cleaning pots, etc. It was really interesting to go out there, and we also got the chance to play with the kids - who again loved the parachute games, and dodgeball and volleyball and things too. It was great! The family who run it were so lovely, very welcoming and said we could go back any time, so I think we’ll probably pop back there when we next have a bit of time. God’s really given them a heart for the poor in that area, and it is so encouraging to see them doing something about it, so we’d love to be involved a little more. We all felt that it was nice to experience a different part of life in Zimbabwe, and by meeting the orphans and going to church there (a congregation of 10, including us) we definitely experienced something we never could at home.

Prayer requests:
Thank you so much for your continued support in prayer - we all agree here that knowing we have friend and fimily praying for us back at home encourages us so much! Over the next few weeks we have some exciting plans, so we have a few prayer requests...

• our maize plot - we are praying that God will provide the weather conditions it needs to grow big and strong. We really feel it is something that will make a difference to people once it’s grown, so we want to be able to do it to the best of our ability!

• our team - we’re all very aware that the end is drawing ever closer, so please pray that we will be able to complete everything God has set out for us. We are also praying that we will have the energy to continue, and will not miss home too much.

• Fuel prices are continually rising here, which is stretching our budget a bit, so please pray that we will be able to cope with the changes and find a way to keep up all the work we’re doing while keeping to our transport budget as well.

• Pray for the children at the pre-schools and at Northside - they all need to know how special they are to God, and how valued they are. It’s so important a truth that we feel some are not hearing at home.

• Please pray for our continued safety here - we have heard of violence in the rural areas because of upcoming elections. This has not yet affected us in town at all, but we are simply praying that God will continue to protect us and keep us from danger.

• As we travel to Nyanga, in the Eastern Highlands, next weekend, and then onto Mozambique the following week, please pray that God will protect us on our journeys. We also pray that He will open our eyes and hearts to new things He wants to teach us - life in Mozambique is very different, so we are excited to experience something completely contrasting to our life in Zim.

I know I keep saying it, but thank you so much for all your support (I'm assuming people are still reading this, aha!) I will write again after our travels!

God bless,

Jo xx