Welcome from Zimbabwe

Dear Friends, we greet you in Jesus name whilst lying in bed having been knocked over with a flu bug which is rampant over Harare at the moment. We have been out of the picture for a week or so now which corresponds with the amount of time our phone has been down! major power cuts have been hitting us for months now which means you cannot rely on the phones, which run on batteries apparently, if we have no power which is true for 90% of the week then we have no water! The zim dollar has been devalued and they have knocked 10 zeros of the currency, YES 10 zeros, an apple was costing 50 billion dollars! it now costs 5 dollars with the devaluation, of course there is no money in the banks, the maximum allowed out when they have money is the equivelant of 50 UScents a day, it really is a battle every day to live and survive here in zim.....BUT GOD has been helping us, we lack no good thing, We are fortunate to be able to travel to South Africa periodically and get food etc which is ok for us but the local people have no such luxury, there is hunger and want on every corner, pray for us as we seek to source food for the orphanages and schools, it is available at times but only at US dollar rate at extortianate prices.

Some exciting news now re JABULANI CHILDRENS VILLAGE, after praying and speaking with various friends here in Harare we have decided NOT to pursue our original idea of building a whole new village for the children, there are a number of reasons, the main one being Government interference and then planning permission and Dorothy always thought we should be in the city rather than rural areas as the childrens opportunities for education and further up the line jobs would be limited in the rural areas.

So believing God is leading us, we have found a property on 2.5 acres of land just 5 minutes from our house in Marlborough for £70000 sterling Hallelujah! it needs some work done on it, a new kitchen, some more showers and toilets etc but it looks ideal for what we want to do. We hope to have the sale etc finished by mid September and then get the work done before Christmas which would enable us to open up in early january with our first babies ...Hallelujah we are soooo excited. The country is full of babies who have been orphaned and abandoned, especially here in Harare, we have some contacts in Social Welfare and we will have no problem getting 10 babies to start us. We will have the main house at the beginning for the first babies and then plan to build cottages for 6 children as they grow and move them in there, we hope to have around 24 children in total, perhaps more we will see what God says. We are still disturbed by God with this vision to rescue babies, this will not impinge on our CEF work as we will not be involved in the day to day running of Jabulani, I imagine we will be there at some stage of each day but our goal is to keep preaching the Gospel wherever and whenever we can amen

Please pray for this project, we need finances, people, favour with the authorities, energy! and lots more to make this happen, most of all we need GOD, who can do exceedingly more than we can ask or think Praise God...pray also for 300000 ( three hundred thousand ) Wonder Devotional books which have arrived in Zimbabwe for us to distribute at Good News Clubs and schools, these will be such a blessing to the whole country, we need favour with the Govt to distribute these, pray God will open the door. Schools close next week which means we will be involved with Holiday Bible Clubs in many areas of Harare, the team will be stretched but the children are waiting, pray for an outpouring of Gods Spirit on all our endeavours. We also have teacher training classes throughout August and the whole team are taking computer classes which will help us all to be computer literate!! some of us anyway!

Last but not least, Kuda continues to woo everyone who meets her, she is almost double the weight she was when we found her in the hospital, or was it she found us! she is nearly 5kg now, she will be 9 months on 10th August, despite what the doctors say about her we see her growing in every way, pray for her and us as we seek to raise her up in the ways of God and show her the love she needs so much. Our prayer is that she will grow in stature, wisdom and in favour with God and man....He who began the good work will complete it Amen Primrose is also a real blessing, a quiet wee girl who is full of fun and joy, she just loves being with us and is a real sister to Kuda.

All our love and prayers to you our dear friends,

Alan and Dorothy