HALFWAY THROUGH MY TRAVELS
Zimbabwe is dry; months and months without rain have left the country utterly dry, with brown and white grass everywhere, except where it can be watered from boreholes. Yet the jacarandas are out all round Harare, great towering masses of bluish-mauve blossoms; the sky is blue, the air is clear and it is wonderful to be back. On my first day, I met with Dr Beata Tumushine, a Tariro trustee, to hear how the young people are getting on in the House here. Mostly good. Three are at university, one has just got a good job in an insurance business, other milestones have been passed, and they plan to take on two more young people just leaving children’s homes.

One of these Homes has problems. Shearly Cripps Home has about 30 kids. Tariro has helped them recently do major renovations of their buildings. The children are fed and clothed and sent to school, but they do not do well. They have suffered so much trauma in their young lives and this needs to be addressed. So we need to set up a programme of counselling to help these youngsters with their deeper problems. We did this in our Harare house and the results were dramatically good. It costs a bit but it is well worth it. This is the only way we can help the kids at Shearly Cripps to cope with the difficulties life has brought them.

Our first trip out took us to the Holy Spirit Monastery, Gweru. Here I met Ebenezer, a delightful young man who has left school and is looking for a meaningful life. He works in a filling station and cares for his mentally sick mother. We are going to train him up in communications skills to improve the flow of information from Tariro to our supporters in England. We took him with us to Gonarezhou Game Park where we camped for three days and saw masses of elephant, buck, hippos and a few giraffe and zebra, and masses of wonderful birds.
In today’s Gospel, Jesus sent out his disciples to heal the sick, drive out demons and so preach the good news. I like to think that is what we are doing in Tariro. As we set off round the country to find out the needs of our young people and try to meet them we are helping to build young lives, give hope, show them what Christian love really is and so bring them into a closer relationship with Christ. It doesn’t look as dramatic as the miracles Christ did in Galilee but the results are amazing in transforming young lives. Perhaps, that is what Christian miracles really are: the transforming activity of God.
Thank you for all the support of prayer and money that helps us to do this work.
Nicolas CR