Dear Friends of Jabulani,
Greetings from a hot Harare, the weather shows no sign of abating and it is very tiring and draining most days with high temps and little respite. The children are enjoying swimming and relaxing at weekends as they are very busy with lots of homework every day during the week.
Things have not improved much on the food side of life, the costs continue to escalate weekly and without the help of all our dear Jabulani friends we would be in real trouble but we are trusting God for all we need and He is showing Himself to be always faithful praise God! We continue to import most foodstuffs from South Africa every month and are grateful for those friends who have expressed a desire to help us with our groceries monthly.
The children have finished their first term at Maranatha PS and enjoyed it very much. We have had a few hiccups as they settled in but we praise God for generally good behaviour and great teacher feedback on our children. Grace finished 1st in class and was awarded a merit badge and special assignments by her teacher and Esther also got a merit badge for hard work and effort! Blessing and Hope are established members of the athletics team with Blessing breaking the school record in the 75 metre race and they have travelled to other places to represent the school! How proud we are of all our children.
All the children love to read and are very keen to learn, the children rise at 5:15am each morning then after breakfast they catch the school bus outside Jabulani at 6:40am each morning and return on the bus at 4:30pm so its an extremely long day. They do homework and wash some of their clothes before having dinner and then off to bed at 7pm....they are exhausted at this time and are happy to sleep and rest.
We noticed Ruth wasn’t hearing what we were saying sometimes and took her to an audiologist who has just recently informed us that Ruth has quite chronic infection in her ears and hearing loss. This will mean she will be wearing hearing aids from Easter onwards, she is such a sweet child and so happy to be back with us. All her TB symptoms have gone now and she has a clean bill of health but her immune systems are very low and her ear infections will be ongoing unfortunately, but we are praying that God will touch and heal her hearing and give her relief. Please pray with us.
Kuda and Joshua are in good health please pray that they will not catch colds or flu as we move towards our winter as this really causes them distress and problems. Thank You!
Dorothy and I are returning to Ireland for a visit in May and will be preaching around the country and hope to meet some of you friends while there.
If you would like us to speak at your home or Church or just meet up for a coffee contact me on alan@jabukids.com
We look forward to spending time with our family very much, my Mum was taken into hospital a few weeks ago but has made a good recovery and returned home again. As we approach the first anniversary of my Dads passing it will be good to be there with Mum.
We thank God for His protection during the cyclone which caused so much devastation in the eastern part of our country, many people lost their lives and homes and the relief effort is ongoing.
We have been able to help in a small way but it will take a long time to get so many people back to a normal way of life. Pray for those who are on the frontline helping the poor and needy.
We have been looking for a special bath seat for Joshua and Kuda as they are growing very much and our co workers need something to help bathe the children in comfort because of their growth.
We have found these excellent chairs in Northern Ireland and have been advised these are the best available, so we are asking if anyone would like to help us purchase 2 of these chairs, they will be different sizes to help the children as they grow. If you feel you can help please contact me on the email address above, God bless you.
Please pray our children have a great Easter holiday, that Dorothy and I have a fruitful time as we fundraise in Ireland and that God’s blessing would be on us all even as we are apart for a while! Many thanks to everyone who loves, prays and supports Jabulani in any way, we love you and thank God for you.
Love from Jabulani,
Alan and Dorothy
