The Mustard Seed

Last week we were able to go to a place called “The Mustard Seed”, which is an organisation / ministry which has been running in Bulawayo for about 5 years after Brother Garvin was invited from Jamaica (where the program originated) to setup here. This is a well setup ministry helping in so many ways

The Abandoned Babies Home has been set up on the outskirts of Bulawayo on the drive to the airport. They have only been in this house for a short time but are well recognised with Child Welfare and the police; even though they are not registered as an orphanage the local authorities are still bringing in abandoned babies to be cared for. The house is currently full having 13 infants to care for. It is so sad to hear how some of the infants are found. On Sunday night a young girl who was only 4 hours old was delivered to the home by the police; they had found her in a park (this is good story compared to other cases). It is also unfortunate to see that a majority of the young ones orphaned also have HIV and need medication to keep them healthy. This home is well staffed with young volunteers from the community coming to help look after the infants on a rostered basis. These volunteers are encouraged to help by getting provided with a certificate for child care after also doing some formal training. Much to our amazement when we went to visit this orphanage we found Daniel; the baby which Jodi and I fell in love with last year in the abandoned babies ward. He is doing very well, but he has turned out to be quite a moody little thing. Jodi just thinks he needs a couple of BIG smacks to get him into line.

The School, orphanage, medical centre and church has been set up in one of the semi rural areas about 20 min out of Bulawayo; the Mustard Seed ministry has set up an awesome facility for the surrounding community. They are providing young children with free education as well as meals during the day. They are also housing young school aged orphans and also providing them with education as well. Currently the children’s classroom is a section of field, but they are in the process of getting a classroom build which as been donated by one of the overseas consulates. One amazing story we heard from Brother Garvin was about the Christmas parties for the children in the rural area which have been run over the last three years. On the first year they had the party about 300 children came; the next year 500 and this last year ... 800 children; all the kids got a present (donated by locals) and had a fantastic time on jumping castles and being involved in a whole lot of other activities. This ministry also provides the older teenagers with work experience; as they build more buildings on their ground they have the teenagers help and get trained in manual labour (such as building, painting, plumbing). It is great to see the vision of Brother Garvin and all the ways in which this ministry can expand and help even more people.

Patience .....

Finally we get to blog ... we have been trying all week to log on and blog but we could do absolutely nothing ... the locals just say "only in Zim ...". Something Jodi and I will have to get used to.

Happy reading ....

What a week ...

Well I have experience the frustrations of Zim this week. I was happy to go to the baby’s home again this week but after arriving at 9.00am none of the children had been bathed yet and they were still in their old frayed pajamas. So, after a bath and a smearing of Vaseline the two boys were clothed in old tattered clothes and training undies that were stretched and did not fit; the two baby girls were layered in old hand knitted outfits, then with wrapped in blankets and then accessorised with old shabby beanies (it wasn’t even cold). The major frustration came from the fact that we had bought a large amount of donated clothing over from Australia (which they had asked specifically for) and instead of using the new pajama’s and undies (that would have fitted the boys) and the clean and well fitted jumpsuits for the girls they were packed neatly in a cupboard not being used at all.

On a happier note, Andrew & I are working well together on the Willow Park venture. Andrew had to get use to the idea of sharing his project with someone. I had not intended to get involved with Willow Park, but felt that God had been putting in my mind the excitement & vision that Andrew has for the camps. I had not shared with Andrew my feelings before we left home & still didn’t tell him until it became evident that the babies home was not going to work out in the capacity that I had hoped. I feel that this has been Gods way of telling us to stick together & work together. I still regularly go to the baby’s house, but as there are problems with the application process to get the house open the house is just simply being – it is stagnant in its works & not at all what they had hoped it would be. So God has given me a new passion & vision & luckily for us we work really well together (when we are not being stubborn).

(Andrew’s Turn now … it’s about time too; gee Jodi can go on …..) This week has been a very productive week … Jodi has re-organised my office … oops I mean our office so we can both fit in. We have been able to sort through all the camps that are coming up and put them into a completely new filing system; we have even produced a budget with profit and loss statements and projected earnings and expenditures … things are definitely on the move (in the office anyway). We went back out to Willow Park on Tuesday to have a detailed look into all the buildings … last week we mentioned repainting the dining hall, that is no longer on the agenda … the whole building has to go. On closer inspection we noticed that most of the walls have massive holes in them and the ceiling is missing mass portions of k-lite … it will be easier and less expensive to start from scratch. We have decided to go with a traditional feel and get a hut thing made around the existing cement slab, it will not be cheap, but it will definitely be more effective than trying to fix what is already there. The dorms also need a thorough re-vamp … don’t worry we won’t be demolishing those … after a good clean up and a lick of paint they will be as good as new. Furnishing is also needed; new tables and chairs for the dining hall and fixing the current bunk beds in each of the dorms (they are extremely bowed). None of this will happen over night, but we know that God will move things a long … at His pace not ours.

Life in Zim has been treating us well; I was able to have my first game of golf last Friday. I have to admit, I didn’t do too bad … the course is definitely different to the ones back in OZ with the fairway grass being about waist height on a majority of the holes and a lot of the water hazards being just dried dirt … and surprisingly enough I only lost 2 balls, my best statistic yet I think. On the home front we still have not found a place to rent yet but we are certain that something will come up very shortly … we have smooth talked a real estate agent and she is on the mission of finding us a house … bless her little white cotton socks. Power cuts have been getting more regular throughout Bulawayo, just in the last week we had more that one each day lasting at least an hour on each cut (no one knows why … it is just put down to being a way of life). There are rumors that water restrictions will be getting tighter with a limit being reduced from 300 lts per day to only 250 lts per day … this is not so tight for a small household, but for places like the Crisis Pregnancy Centre who house 8 – 12 girls at a time it makes it very difficult.

Look forward to sharing again soon.

Cheers,

Jodi and Andrew

What happend last week in Zim???

This week we have mainly been in the office looking over the coming events at Willow Park and prioritising all the things that need to be done in getting the park into a more reasonable state of affairs. The main thing to get cracking on at the moment is the dining hall … all the walls are stained with mold and out of the 30 odd chairs that are in the hall about half of them actually resemble a proper working chair; all the others have no backs, not bottoms, wonky legs etc… and the tables are all chipped and looking very old and run down. We are hoping to get out again to Willow Park again this week to choose a new colour and organise the grounds men to repaint the dining hall. In reference to new dining chairs and tables, that is another story. I went to price new tables and chairs the other day and to purchase 10 tables and 60 chairs it will cost around $2,000 USD, and considering the price per person per night works out to be around $0.19 USD, it will take a lot of saving … there just has to be a cheaper way.

(Jodi’s Turn) Most of my week this week has been spent in the office with Andrew trying to work out pricing structures for Willow Park. I did manage to get out to the abandoned babies house. The way that the house has been set up is fantastic for the children with very happy and cheerful cartoons on the walls of the playroom. I spent a few hours there playing with the two little boys; they are both three years old. They were quite well behaved; they just loved having someone play with them. I barely made it in the front door when I heard “who are you? Let’s play!” I was saddened to see that the two boys were in one room on their own & the two baby girls (about 6months old) sitting in rockers were in another room on their own, while the four women in the house just sat around. After a bit of colouring in, reading & an adventure outside exploring the yard we came back inside only to discover the babies were still sitting in the same spot. I took the boys into play with the babies & the girls had a great time just watching the boys play. I noticed very quickly that for six months old these girls did not reach for anything you put in front of them, let alone put stuff straight in their mouths. It is a better environment for them to be in than the hospital, but they are still not getting the attention given to them that they need.