30th March 2006We hope you are having a good 2006 so far. Time has flown by since Christmas and it’s hard to believe its April already. We are settling into our new home well, and are enjoying life in Zim. We are off to South Africa tomorrow though for a conference, so are in for a long drive, but are looking forward to the MacDonalds, getting fuel from a pump, and nice chocolate! Although as I write this Sean is currently in hospital to stabilize his blood sugar levels, so won’t be joining me for the chocolate! He has been in for 4 days, and the Dr has adjusted his insulin requirements, so he will hopefully be released tomorrow morning.
The economy in Zimbabwe continues to deteriorate, inflation is now at almost 1000%, the highest in the world. It is making it hard for businesses to keep going, and institutions like schools and hospitals are struggling, so fees are constantly going up. However, it remains peaceful and has been relatively stable politically for the last few months. We have also had a long rainy season this year, which has been good for the crops, and we hope it will bring a big harvest and more food for people in the coming months.
Operation Joseph update
During recent visits to the Operation Joseph sites it was found that the number of people who have died from starvation and poor nutrition is much higher than last year, but there has also been more freedom to distribute food, which has hopefully helped.
At Operation Joseph we are moving away from distributing food, but will help farmers to sell their produce, and or trade it for seeds and fertilizer, which are currently scare in Zimbabwe. By doing this we hope the farmers will become self-sufficient and less reliant on donors. The farmers we have trained are getting better yields than farmers who are using the traditional methods of farming, and many are now able to save money from the produce they sell, and can buy seeds for the following season, educate their children and support their families.
Sean has been involved in a putting together a series of training videos that will be used throughout Africa to teach ‘Farming God’s Way’, which is the method that we are teaching farmers in Operation Joseph. It has been a lot of work, but the benefits will be worth it. Already there has been interest from many African countries, as well as China, Russia, Australia and India.
CEDAR Update
Running parallel to the Operation Joseph project is the CEDAR project, which Debbie is also involved in. It trains volunteers to care for people with HIV/AIDS and orphans. This project continues to go well and expand. It is now operating in over 60 communities across Zimbabwe, and is in the process of setting up a health and nutrition centre in Harare, where we will grow and process herbs that have been found to improve the health of people with AIDS.
Our church recently invited all 60 CEDAR site coordinators, 82 Operation Joseph site coordinators and 82 pastors from those communities to a training conference in Harare, which we call Reach The Nation. The aim of inviting the pastors was to inspire them to teach more about HIV/AIDS in their churches and to take more responsibility for the poor, sick and orphans in their communities.
Oasis Update
As you may have picked up we are working more and more with our local church, and so have reduced the time we work at Oasis. We know that many of our financial supporters began supporting us whilst we worked full time for Oasis, so we would like you to feel able to move your support to Oasis Zimbabwe directly if you would prefer to support their work. For those who wish to continue supporting us personally Oasis UK will continue to send us your support until another route has been set up, and you will be receiving a letter soon letting you know how this will work. Please e-mail us if you would like any clarification.
For now we are still helping with administration, overseeing the Oasis Global Action Teams and running the Youth Leaders Training Course. We will maintain strong links to Oasis so will continue to send you news. Currently the first intake of girls at the Tanaka project are all moving on, most are continuing with their education at local or boarding schools, and others have found work and are moving into their own accommodation. Sadly one girl died of AIDS, leaving behind her 1-year-old daughter who she had named Tanaka after the project. Please pray that suitable guardians will be found. 15 new girls will be moving in at the end of April.
Outside of work we have also been involved in school missions and youth camps. Our cell group is going well and we have just finished ‘purpose driven life’, and are planning to plant 2 more groups from ours in the near future.
It is quite difficult to describe exactly what we are doing, so apologies for the long e-mail! Hopefully we will be able to put some photos onto a website soon, which will help, but we will let you know.
Upcoming dates:
New Frontiers Conference in South Africa - 1st April – 4th April
Camping in South Africa for 2 days - 4th April-6th April
Oasis team arrives – 12th April
Oasis team retreat – 21st April-24th April
Oasis youth workers graduate – 24th April
Boys Camp – 27th April-3rd May
Reach the Nation Conference – 5th June-9th June
Visit to UK – June 29th-July 28th
