We have had a really great month in our new house in Mbabane. With only 5 babies and 4 aunties, it is quieter, less busy and more relaxed. We are finding it very convenient to be in town and so close to everything, which saves us a lot on fuel for our vehicles.
On the 11th, José, who was one of our first babies into ABC in 1996, celebrated his 30th birthday marking 30 years of ABC Ministry as well. Gerry gave up his job at the sugar mill in 2004 for us to continue full time in this ministry of caring for and saving babies and God has been so faithful to us all these years. There were many times when we felt to give up, but knowing that we are the only emergency placement baby home in Swaziland and that we were making a huge difference in the lives of these little ones, has kept us going. All thanks and glory goes to God our Father for making this possible for us.
The babies are all doing well and enjoying the extra attention that they are receiving from all of us. The twins, Peter and John, who are now 3 months over 2 years, are going ahead in leaps and bounds. John is the active one and loves to run everywhere all the time! We have to watch him constantly because he is into everything. Peter is slowly gaining his strength from a very traumatic and stressful first 20 months of his little life. He no longer needs the oxygen and is breathing well on his own. He is bumhopping everywhere and is learning to walk. They always encourage us and give us hope when we look at them because they are such miracles. They just shouldn’t be, but miraculously they are.
Cade who is now 3, and aunty Alice’s little daughter, Azande who is 4, needed to go to pre-school and kept asking us to go. So we prayed about it as we didn’t have the finances to send them. All our Twins: John & Peter pre-schools are privately run and very costly. At the end of January, Robyn got a call from a lady who runs a kindergarten just up the road from us asking if we have any little ones who needed to attend preschool. She then informed us that her school runs a ‘benefit’ program and she would like to put Cade and Azande on it which means that they receive free everything: school fees, uniforms, bus ride to and from school and a hair cut from their private barber whenever they need it. How amazing is our God! We were all so amazed at this provision by God. Cade and Azande now attend Kidsville Kindergarten and are loving it.
Sam continues as our gardener/driver and our ‘go-to’ man which is an enormous help to us, filling in if we need to be away for the day and helping us to run the home. He also loves on the babies and helps us with them.
This month we had the ladies from a team from Oregon USA, headed up by Pastor Bill & Sharon Johnston, visit us on the 16th. Robyn was so blessed to be able to share ABC with them and for them to spend some time loving on the babies and encouraging us. We also had a visit from Kathy Proff and her son Connor, who visited us from the USA for 3 days. Kathy is writing ‘Robyn’s Story’ for Robyn, and we hope to be able to put it out during this year sometime. All proceeds from the sales of the book will come to ABC, especially towards the new ABC buildings.
We have been given a court day for our land issue which will appear in the supreme court on the 18 May. We feel that it is still such a long way away but know that God is in control and that this is His fight for His land and His baby home, so we rest in Him and trust Him to help work it all out for our good and for the plans and purposes that He has for the baby home.
