We have been in the UK for a short visit, attending a New Frontiers leaders conference in Brighton, and for Sean to visit doctors for his diabetes and hands. He has been put onto the waiting list for an operation on his hands so we may be back within the next few months. The conference was great, and 40 Zimbabweans managed to attend. We were involved in organising for them to get over for the conference, which involved booking flights, helping with visas and organising accommodation. It was quite a big exercise, but it seemed to all come together in the end, even with Air Zimbabwe (or Scare Zimbabwe as it is now known) canceling flights at the last minute!
The situation in Zimbabwe – The situation in the country continues to decline, and inflation is now reaching 1500%, with the unofficial exchange rate at almost ZW$1 million to £1. Power cuts and water cuts are more frequent i.e. at least once a day, and finding fuel remains a problem. Sugar is a scarce commodity, which Zimbabweans won’t drink tea without! There will often be long, loud queues outside the supermarkets when a delivery arrives.
Here is just a brief update on the various projects we are involved in:
Church Projects • Operation Joseph
May saw the start of the harvesting period, and we were able to collect data from the various Operation Joseph sites around Zimbabwe, and found that the yields achieved by our farmers, are up to 10 times higher than the average yields achieved in the country. OJ farmers are getting between 2 and 5 tonnes/ha, whilst others are only achieving 0.5 tonnes/ha. As a result
of this we have seen 
increased interest in Farming God’s Way from individuals, governments and the donor community. This year we are aiming to increase the number of farmers in our programme from 4,500 to 13,500.Just before leaving Zimbabwe we had our 16th “Reach the Nation” conference, where 80 FGW (Farming God’s Way) site coordinators and 65 CEDAR Home Based Care coordinators from around Zimbabwe come together for training. These conferences are run quarterly, so we are already busy preparing for the next one!
Sean has been working alongside a professional video company to produce a series of training videos and DVDs to teach people Farming God’s Way. There has been a lot of interest in the Farming God’s Way initiative, so the video and DVD training series will make it accessible to all. FGW is primarily an evangelistic tool for planting and strengthening rural churches with an emphasis on income generation. FGW is helping to alleviate poverty by improving crop yields and bringing the gospel by teaching biblical principles of farming
• CEDAR
The number of sites we are working in has increased to 62, so now 2232 households are receiving home based care! This last few months CEDAR has been focusing primarily on teaching the volunteers how to care for the orphans, and children infected with HIV/AIDS, as this is an important part of the CEDAR initiative, but the most difficult to see happen because of cultural expectations and pressures.
Here is an extract from a report that Debbie wrote for Tearfund last month on the HIV/AIDS situation in Zimbabwe:
‘The number of people becoming sick and dying of HIV/AIDS does not appear to be slowing down, and as a result of the deteriorating situation in Zimbabwe many people appear to be losing hope. We are finding that often people do not value life enough to change their lifestyles even though they know the facts about HIV/AIDS. Even young people are asking why they should prolong their lives as they are going to die anyway. UNICEF has found that “in sub-Saharan Africa girls are getting infected quicker and earlier than boys, as a result of older men having sex with younger girls, and there is evidence to suggest that a large proportion of new HIV infections are due to gender-based violence in homes, schools, the workplace and other social arenas. Forced or coerced sex renders a women even more vulnerable to infection, and the younger she is, the more likely it is that she will contract HIV.”
Personal news
Our church is involved in schools work so Sean has been helping to run weekly meetings at his old school for the CU, focusing on discipleship, and we continue to lead a cell group and help out at the evening service.
We really enjoyed seeing family when we were in the UK especially our nephews Luke and Isaac. Our next visit in July will include Debbie's brothers wedding.
Thank you so much for your support.
