Greetings from Jabulani Zimbabwe!
It’s high Summer, the temps are in the mid 80’s and we have had our first rains already. The children have just finished school today for the Summer holidays and Dorothy and I are looking forward to rest and fun having just returned to JABULANI after a wonderful fundraising trip to USA and a quick drop-in to our family in Northern Ireland!
It has been a crazy few months for our children. Grace has been studying hard for her GCSEs next year, she has sat her mock exams and now knows she needs to put a lot of work into her studies until the final exams. She is doing 10 subjects and the pressure is on! Grace is a studious girl and wants to succeed, we are believing great things from her and she is trusting in the Lord. Please pray for Grace.
Hope, Blessing and Joseph are all in Form 2 and did mid-term checkpoint exams for their prospective GCSEs in 2 years’ time. Much hard work is needed for them to get the results they desire. They all work hard but can’t seem to reproduce the effort expended with grades that match the work they put in. They are all trusting the Lord and have great expectations as they enter Form 3 in January. Please pray for them all.
Joseph is leading the sound and video ministries in our Church and is ably assisted by Blessing, Grace and Hope. They enjoy serving in Church and also going to the youth meetings on Friday evenings and Sundays. They are growing and developing into beautiful young people and we are very proud of them all. They make friends easily and are highly thought of by teachers and peers.
The six little girls are now 6 big girls! Esther continues to sing at Church and in school and is taking part in a Chinese singing competition next week as well as swimming for the school. In fact the school swimming team is actually made up of all 6 of our girls!
Sarah is her usual loud and bubbly self with an expectation to be first in everything and captain of every team she plays in, what a girl! Faith is her quiet self and feels very proud of making the swimming team as she is not really into sports whereas Ruth has won all the year-end trophies and certificates for cross country and swimming and athletics!
Hannah has also won swimming certificates and tried hard this term. Please pray as they all enter Grade 7 next year, their final year of primary education that they will thrive and achieve good grades in all subjects not just sports!
Abigail has been made a school prefect with lots of responsibility and we are so proud of her, she is a sweet and lovable, hard-working young lady and this is a worthy honour. Some of our other girls were in the running also but everyone is very happy for Abi, may God bless and use her throughout the year.
Kuda is well and unbelievably we will be celebrating her 16th birthday next week, we were told she would be dead after 6 weeks when we first found her in 2007, she was so sick, we can only praise God for His hand upon her and the great work of Dorothy and our staff plus visiting Physio’s etc have put into Kuda over the years, she is the very heart of JABULANI!
All the staff are well though unfortunately, Tina will be leaving us at the end of the year due to family circumstances. She has been with us for 3 years and has been a wonderful worker and friend to the girls, we will miss her as she goes. Tiri has been driving a lot this past term up to school and church and youth clubs, shopping etc while we have been away, we thank God for safe travels and God’s hand of safety upon him, he is a great and safe driver!
May we finish by wishing you all a very Happy and Christ-filled Christmas! May Jesus be the reason for your season and may 2024 bring blessings in abundance to you all. We are very grateful for your love and prayers, for finances and blessings, we count you as valuable members of our JABULANI team. God bless you!
Onward in Jesus, Alan and Dorothy