Just when your feeling down!

It's been said before and no doubt will be said again that life in Zim is not an easy one. Not just for us but for every one who lives here. This last few weeks has been had as we often feel restricted what we can do to help people and it does get you down. But God is so good and all it takes is an afternoon like today, hanging with the kids and seeing them so happy to make all thats frustrating fade into the background. It's then we can see that we are in fact helping by just being here.

Progress for Orphanage

Chaising Bubbles!

We are slowly moving towards registration for the orphanage. We had another two inspections last week. It's a slow process but at least it is moving. The Zim Government sset this last weekend aside as a weekend to focus on peace reconcillation and forgiveness. Three things that are really needed, not just in this country but in every country and in every life.

We have many 'only in Africa' moments, this morning was one of them. Some of the children came two breadfast with bags of stones, turns out the school wants to build a new building so all students are required to bring 2kg of stones for this new building.

Reuniting a Cat!!

Dion and Calvin

(new pictures but resolution isn't great so I hope you can view them okay)

24 July

A young boy came to the church today holding a cat that looked just like the one we found. It turns out he bought 2 from a plot and had lost one last week. he has told there was a cat at our church so came looking. I took him to our house and reunited him with his cat. Its a bit sad but we are glad he is back with his owner.

Last night we had some frinds over for dinner. We treated them to pizza. None of them had ever had pizza before so it was so nice to see them enjoying it. They do so much up here and we would be lost without them so it was a great way to be able to thank them.

25th July

We had a record 106 children at kids club on Friday. As you can imagine it was a busy afternoon but it was great fun.

Porridge supplies

Leon, learning to read!

This morning was a very exciting moment........we came to the end of our first 25kg bag of porridge. Only another 22 bags to go before the end of August when it expires!

A challenging week

part if the feeding program

Sorry our updates have been a bit irregular, it's not from lack of things to say, it's quite the opposit there is much to say, to much for a text. This week has been a challinging one. Our house keeper no longer works for us and our friend wants to help us but is worried that others will think she 'stole' the job to be closer to us. Jealousy is such a big issue here and it's sad that others jealousy is preventing her from doing what she really wants to do.

In other news Dion has had a flu and Bek has a 2nd shadow, her name is Vanessa.

Visa's at last

It has finally happened after 4 months and much frustration we have our working visa. This is a huge relief for us as it was causing a great deal of problems trying to get them!

Bek and Ashley who looks after our housework and laundry

We are enjoying our 3rd day in a row of sunshine. Althoug it seems

it is still 2 cold for most people and its quiet at the church. Neither Dion nor I are the garden type however we have rather a large vegi garden outside our front door. So we have been making the most of the sun and working in the garden. Dion staking up the tomatoes and I have been harvesting snow peas and carrots. I think our thumbs are turning green or is that brown from the dirt, i'm not sure.

It's Winter!!

Dion and Dan

The cold and windy weather has been joined by its friend wet weather. Not to bad yet, just drizzle. The good news is that for the first time in weeks we got into a warm bed last night thanks to our trusty Zimbabwean hot water bottle. Its a water bottle with very hot, not quite boiling water in it :)

Not quite as nice as my Australian hot water bottle it doesnt dtay hot for as long but it does the job/

Its winter

Todays top temp 12 degrees plus wind, lots and lots of wind. You just can't get warm, not even with 5 layers, a beani, a scarf, a hoodie, goloves and 2 pairs of socks!

Note from Susan: Spoke to Bek on Tuesday night, they are still having problems with their working visa. I won't go into details, but all the paperwork is correct, but there was a timing issue that has in turn caused some finanicial issues. Please pray that this final hurdle is overcome quickly or they will need to leave the country until it is sorted.