Goodmorning all,

   We had a great week and are now heading into another busy one. Last week Busisiwe was able to start school for the first time in 15 months. She is doing grade 1, and according to her teacher doing extremely well. We were so blessed to have a dear friend help us get her into St. Michaels, a great english medium school in Manzini.

   Over the weekend all the girls on our team headed into Mbabane to be trained as house mothers for orphanage work. This week they will spend three days and three nights caring for two full houses of kids, while the full time hosue mothers go for a seminar. While the girls were away, the guys on the team and I visited a woman in the community near the land where we will build our new home. The woman, Gcinsile, there is extremely sick and being nursed by her mother, leaving 12-15 kids to take care of the homestead themselves, not all of which are hers. We have actually visited her everyday for the last three days to pray for her healing and to take food for the family. We ask that you join us in prayer for this sweet mother. The heart breaking reality is that this is most likely aids combined with TB, so I daily wrestle with the idea of what will happen to the home filled with children if the mother passes away soon. Therefore, we thus far have refused to give up on her and intercede daily for her ultimate healing and recovery!

   In situations like these we have been coming face to face with the effects of syncretism on our community, as this family and many others in the area are members of the Zionist church.(Zionist being a combination of Christianity and ancestral witchcraft and divining practices) Consequently, it is sure that the family, in seeking healing for their mother, engages in evil rituals to bring her healing. While I have been aware of this going on for some sime, I still feel so new to this realm of ministry and ask for your prayers for wisdom as we continue to minister in this community.  

   This week we are now beginning will be packed as well. The group of workers will come down from Bulembu tomorrow and Wednesday to put in the steel frame for the orphanage finally. Then Thursday we will head to South Africa for another check up for Nondumiso, and to pick up Mary's family on Saturday. Hope to update you more soon. Much love, Themba (Claud) 

PS- I got the quotation to activate a water source at two of the care points yesterday(Tembeni and Beveni), after sitting through a three hour meeting, and will be activating them within the next week. There was also another water source opened at another care point(Thulwane) this past week! A huge praise to have good clean water for the kids to drink and to cook with at these locations!