Greetings from a hot and sticky Harare!
The summer has arrived with full force and the mosquitoes and their friends are enjoying the feast at JABULANI every day...with no electricity to run fans we just have to grin and sweat it out!
Dorothy and I returned to Zimbabwe at the end of November after a wonderful time of fundraising in USA and we praise God for all our friends who hosted us, gave up their time, loved and blessed us in so many ways and of course provided finances to enable us to continue giving our precious JABULANI children a wonderful life. We thank everyone who have taken us into their homes and hearts, we are still in awe that we get the opportunity to travel and preach the Word of God to so many people and are warmly welcomed into many places which are now regular stopping places in our lives. We are totally blessed and praise God for health and strength to continue this ministry and to be used of the Lord in places that we only dreamed about many years ago.
While we were away Kuda had her 12th birthday...unbelievable... the years have flown by! We were told that Kuda would die within 2 weeks of us bringing her home but here we are 12 years later, what a God! Even with her cerebral palsy she keeps good health and every day she sings and listens to music and is very much at peace.
Joshua also had his 8th birthday and this boy is such a ray of sunshine, he loves listening to stories the children read from books and shouts with joy when he goes into the pool with all the other kids, these 2 special children are Gods gift to us all at JABULANI and they make our lives full.
Our children are great swimmers and Grace, Blessing, Daniel, Joseph and Esther were all chosen to represent their school and did exceptionally well at inter school races. Joseph and Daniel played soccer for the school team as did Grace and Blessing in hockey and Hope in the netball team, we are so proud of them all and thank all the staff at Maranatha PS for all the input into our children, they have enjoyed a great year at the school and are doing well academically also. Grace enters herGrade 7 year in January and this is a big year with a transfer exam in October before determining where she will go to High School, please pray for Grace as she struggles with Maths and Shona, she is working hard and is a studious young lady who we believe God has a great plans for and we know she will do her best.
Zimbabwe continues to present challenges everyday of our lives, the fuel situation is worse with queues everywhere for up to 2 days waiting on fuel to arrive, food in the shops is scarce and very expensive, we continue to import from South Africa, there is virtually no electricity, money is nowhere to be found and people have no jobs. It is a very dire outlook for the majority of people here, we have the poor coming to our gate everyday begging and needing help which is heartbreaking, inflation is running at 300% now and the situation is gloomy indeed, we covet your prayers for our nation that God would break in and help us in a miraculous way...only He can help us.
Everyone at JABULANI is excited about Christmas, we are grateful to God and all our friends who have enabled us to have food and gifts for all the children this year. The solar is working fantastically well, we have all the power we need to maintain a somewhat normal life in the midst of chaos, we are grateful to God and you friends for standing with us.
May we take this opportunity to thank YOU ALL for your continuing prayers and support for the ongoing work at JABULANI, we could not do this with YOU!
We pray Christmas will be a time of great joy and peace and that you will enjoy Emmanuel in your hearts and homes, WE LOVE YOU!
Merry Christmas and a Happy Christ Filled New Year 2020,
Alan and Dorothy and everyone at JABULANI
