Only the poor are rich...

This week has been really hard work! We have nearly finished essential work on Tariro House. I am moving in on Monday.

Someone has donated a cooker and we hope to find a fridge this weekend... somewhere, just lurking about!

I am learning what it really means to wake up every day and not know what will happen. So many people are giving so much to the Tariro Youth Project here, so many sacrifices, of time, effort, money and even material 'things.' We don't know where the project will be in a year's time, but it is growing bigger and bigger and greater and greater! At the moment we don't have enough funding to cater for all our needs, but I really do believe, for the first time in this whole project, that we will find funding. That gifts, furniture, money, staff and orphans will come! If we had everything, and even more than we needed, we wouldn't trust God.

St Paul writes about learning to live with everything, or nothing; a full stomach or an empty one; in pain or in joy... Jesus tells the women in Mark 5 just to have faith, simply to believe. Jesus calls ME to do the same, this very simple thing. Only now do I udnerstand what He means! Only now do I see that to be 'rich', you have to be 'poor'. I am being blessed beyond words, I am rich because God has chosen me to do this for Him.

I keep thinking, as the project gets bigger, that I cannot manage this, that there is not enough people to allocate jobs too, that I can't do this or that... actually, this is not about ME at all! In all of this, in learning to listen to God, I have to put the 'I' aside. I am not doing this project for myself or for my own name, but for God's, because I truly believe that God has a heart and passion for these children - for HIS children!

Only the poor are truly rich... to be rich means to give up everything... to be poor means to have everything - in Christ.

Love!!

Sunday

Yesterday was simply an awesome day for Christians in Harare, and within the Anglican Church worldwide.

At 8.30am we travelled to the football stadium for the consecration of the new Bishop of the Diocese of Harare. The stadium was packed with over 3,000 Anglicans and other Christians from around the world. There were over 25 Bishops and Arch Bishops, 50 or more clergy from the Diocese and others in Zimbabwe, and a choir of over 250! The service lasted about 5 hours. When the Bishop, Chad, received his mitre, bible and staff the whole congregation went wild and sang, danced, clapped and rejoiced!

We then went to the cathedral for the enthronement service. After breaking into the cathedral, because it was locked up and padlocked to prevent us going in, we rejoiced that Chad was now the rightful Bishop of Harare CPCA. Thousands filled the cathedral and blocked the road outside. Three of the ten bells were rung after the service in celebration!

This was a historic and proud moment for God's Church. Over the past two years they have faced persecution and attack, but today they all stood up to be counted for their faith and what they believe in. They stood up against evil and simply said, we will not tolerate it any longer. They stood up and believed! Our faith is made known in times such as this. There was a real sense of family and communion throughout the day.

Now I'm tired!!

I will post photos shortly!

Work begins!

Well I arrived safely into Harare on Tuesday afternoon. I managed to get my guitar over in one piece and with no added cost! Beat that!!

On Wednesday I went to visit the house I will be living in, and I must say how proud of it I am! It is a wonderful place, and will be even better when we've made it homely! Right now, we are painting the bedrooms, bathrooms and longue, after the new ceiling has gone in. This weekend we are hoping to replace the kitchen. We need more money of course already, but people are being so good donating lots and giving us lots. I have already met the neighbours, who seem jolly nice. Up the road is amusic director so he will come in handy at some point for our home, and also a couple who have their very English names on their gate, so I will make the effort just to go and say 'hello'!

On Sunday we are looking forward to the consecration service of the new Bishop of Harare, Bishop Chad. I hear rumour that the Archbishop of Canterbury is going to attend, but it is only a rumour at this stage... I will find out the truth on Sunday. This day will be a milestone for the diocese of Harare and a turn around for Christians in this place. This will be their freedom day!

This is just a quick update! The family here are looking after me really well and Ihope to move into our house next week at some point. I am having so much fun already, and the work is only just starting!

One Week!

One week left! Today I started packing, and I have to say that is is harder than I thought having to decide which things I take and which things I leave behind! I want to take a few photos of the family and of friends, but there is no room; a prayer book, but it weighs too much; my Bible that I write in, and jot all over, but it is simply too big! So... I'm down to clothes and a hymn book! Great! Today I said a number of times: 'why am I doing this, I don't want to do this, I'd rather stay here?'

I am forgetting my own sermon which I preached a few weeks ago. St Paul reminds us in Corinthians: ‘Though he was rich, yet your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.’ There is a lot more to life that just the 'stuff' we have. Jesus gave up everything for me, and it really doesn't hurt for me to give up a few things for Him, to do His will... he says in Mark, 'don't be afraid, just believe. Now go in faith.'

Today I begun to learn the simplest of all things, but yet the most hardest: 'don't be afraid, just believe.' Philippians 4: 12-13: I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little. For I can do everything, with the help of Christ, who gives me strength!

Two Weeks To Go!

Well, it is two weeks before I arrive into Zimbabwe for a years-length mission. My mission is to open a house for teenage orphans in Harare, with a charity I have created call the Tariro Youth Project (TYP). (you can check out the website at www.passionforzimbabwe.com)

Although I will be working with various people out in Zimbabwe, I cannot deny that I am scared about the project. We will be working with teenagers who have been orphaned at a young age, and who in their teenage years face abandonment again! I have to leave everything I have behind and enter into a place that is pretty much unfamiliar to me!

The next two weeks will be deciding what shorts, sandals and bible I pack and having one last puch to raise money for the project. The Tariro Youth Trust (UK) will continue to raise money when I am gone.

I will try and keep this blog updated with news and events and general excitment of my life in Zimbabwe...

I'm dedicating this project to everyone I love so very deeply... they know who they are...