We have had a very interesting month with so much support from so many people. We are truly blessed. There is still no movement on the new baby home front as all the magistrates were in recess for this month of May, so all court cases were put on hold. We have now been evicted from our land for 3 months with no progress happening on the new buildings. We are finding this extremely frustrating as our present home is just too small for our needs and is falling down around us as the roof leaks badly, the tiles in the passage are now lifting because of the roof leaks and paint is peeling off the walls in some of the rooms (with help from the toddlers too!).
On the 1st, we had an amazing visit from the Honourable Mr & Mrs Ashraf, Consulates for Indonesia and Morocca. They have been faithful supporters of ABC since 2018 and Mr Ashraf donated the first 2,000 bricks to start work on stage 3 of the new baby house. They asked us about the land issue and we informed them of what is happening and immediately Mr Ashraf offered his help to us, as he is a close friend of King Mswati. He also met our Lozi and offered her a job working at one of his companies, Swazi Pharm, down in Matsapha. He is willing to train her further and we are so grateful to the Ashraf family for all their help and care towards us and ABC. Sadly, for us and the amazing help that she has been to Robyn for the past 19 months, Lozi left us on the 7th, to start her new job and her future prospects that are now available to her for her career. She is close enough to come home and visit us, as she now has a company car for her own use as well, and she has been given free accommodation. God is so good and we are so thankful.
Schools reopened on the 5th, for the 2nd term, and Robyn celebrated her birthday on the 13th. Aunty Cebile started her annual leave on the 6th and Aunty Tema returned to work on the 10th. Robyn has had to say ‘no’ to babies again this month as we are so full and Social Welfare are not moving our older toddlers as per the agreement. Everytime Robyn enquires about them moving, she is told: “we are working on it!” It is very frustrating to us, as we now have 4 X two-year-olds in the home and they are into everything taking up a lot of our time. We run a toddler school every morning for them to stimulate them and to teach them the basics of body parts, colours, counting, puzzles, etc, and they love to learn. They are learning siSwati and English and already can speak in both languages.
Then on Saturday the 31st, we received a surprise visit from the Woolworths team who brought us beautiful, warm tracksuits for all our babies and also 60, yes 60!, X 1,8kg tins of Lactogen #3 baby milk formula to help the home. We had a lovely time of fellowship with them all and were very encouraged by them. Robyn shared our story with them and they were very touched by the work we are doing in caring for these babies.
James 5:16b – The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much (KJV)
Prayer Requests:
- Please continue to pray for enough funding for the daily running of the baby home and for us to complete the new buildings. People are struggling and children’s homes are shutting down because of a lack of funding to run them.
- Please pray for our land court case, as we are still waiting for a court date, and we desperately need to finalise it and move into our new home.
- Please continue to pray for good homes to be found for our babies who need to move from our home once they turn 2 years old. We have 4 older ones, over 2, that need to move to more permanent homes.
- Please give thanks to the Lord for His continual provision for the baby home
- Please give thanks to God for all that He is doing in ABC!
We are extremely grateful to everyone who assisted us with finances which allows us to continue to pay the staff, the rent for this house and all other necessities needed to run the baby home. Our words cannot express our gratitude to everyone who supports us, who prays for us and encourages us to keep on going. We are extremely grateful to everyone and appreciate all that everyone does to assist us with the running of the ABC baby home. Without you, we cannot survive. THANK YOU!
God bless you
Gerry & Robyn
