I realise that I am not going to catch up every day so what I have done in this period of time is group the stories under headings.
Fires –
There have been a few fires around the last few days. One started during the day up “Babar” (the mountain that you always see near the dam and in the background of the shade house.) Another started at the very end of our road and that one burned for a few days. Matt and the guys went out to fight the one up “Babar” but it was a pretty small one fortunately. However the other one was a raging torrent that was just destroying everything in its path. It had gone down a road that a friend lives on and we knew she was away for the day, so Matt took the guys along the road trying to contain it to one side of the road – if it crossed the road and got away from them it would mean that it would have been a lot closer to us and could easily have come up the back mountain of our property! After seeing what a fire did last year while we were away we were not prepared for that. I just went along for moral support! The wind was crazy that day and did not help at all in stopping it. At one point the guys back burned from the road so that the fire was burning on itself, they left it for a brief moment and a gust of wind picked up this enormous flame and carried flames almost horizontally across the road. We thought that was it – they would never stop it. Matt and I rushed back home to grab a few containers of water to help out, but by the time we got back the guys had managed to contain it and were back on the other side of the road again. What a miracle – it could have gone bad! It continued to burn but they had managed to calm it down a bit and keep it away from our friend’s property. Fire – something that is so necessary yet so destructive when used for harm!
Children’s home tea cup joy
Some friends in Harare have taken it on themselves to help collect things for the Bonda Children’s home (the orphanage I help out at). We were able to pick up a few things when we were in town and I took it to them the one afternoon. The head nun wasn’
t there as she had gone to the hospital to see one of the girls. But the two nuns that were there came to the car and I started showing them what was in all the boxes. They were overwhelmed and could not stop saying thank you to me. I told them I was purely the messenger and that it was the Lord they must thank. There were blankets for the children, little cups with straws and a bunch of brand new curtains for their rooms. There were a few goodies that I felt would probably get broken if left with the children like glass water jugs and glasses and a lovely set of tea cups and saucers. This particular item brought great joy to the one nun; she is very short and wears these very large glasses, with the sweetest, gentle manner and radiant smile. I pulled out a box of the tea cups and saucers for her to see and she began to dance in circles singing “we can have a tea party; we can have a tea party!” It was so funny and she was being so genuine. The entire time I was there she kept saying how excited she was to have tea in proper tea cups! An elder from the Anglican Church (the orphanage is Anglican run as Bonda is entirely Anglican from the very beginning) came to say thank you too. He was so aware that it was something wonderful done and he too couldn’t stop thanking me. I felt embarrassed as it wasn’t me and it wasn’t about me. They sang a beautiful thank you Jesus song in Shona and prayed together saying how grateful they were to Jesus. It was so humbling in that these were mainly every day things that most of us have in our houses and take for granted yet they brought such joy to the children and ladies this day! Thank you God for tea cups!!!
Goat dogs
The other day our next door neighbor’s goats decided that they liked the tasty grass around our house. Fortunately they didn’t get into the garden knowing how destructive they can be – but I did see them up in what is going to be a herb garden, and I thought well if they are in there now what is to stop them going in there when there are herbs in there. Anyway the goats were outside the gate and they were also around Moses’ house being a nuisance, so I said to Matt well they are on our property, if the dogs went after them and bit them it wouldn’t be our fault! Probably not the most neighborly thing to think, but I just wanted the goats to learn that they shouldn’t be around here. I opened the gates and the dogs went hurtling up the drive way after them. After a few seconds they had disappeared into a bunch of small gum trees, all shoulder height, so it was pretty thick in there and I couldn’t see goats or dogs. I ran in after them and there to my complete amazement and annoyance were the goats, standing still and the dogs standing with them eating grass!!!! I could not believe my eyes. The dogs saw me coming and ran after the goats again to the other side of the drive way to another grassy patch and again stopped, sniffed the goats and enjoyed the tasty fresh
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