But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint. Isaiah 40:31 We all know the saying “busy as a bee”. Well, the busyness of life here at the Children’s Home continues as usual from day to day, very much like bees. As the schools are still closed there is so much extra work with thirteen children who would usually be at school. Agnes (our teacher) is kept very busy having the different classes at different times throughout the day. She also comes two Saturdays a month to assist on top of her normal duties. The schools have given mid-term test papers to be completed by each of the children and then returned to the school once it commences again. The children love to dress up and we have a box of dress up clothes. This keeps the children occupied for hours. To the left is a photo of Hamisi dressed up as a doctor, don’t you just love the glasses. A doctor in the making! The rainy season seems to be over. We praise the Lord for the abundance of rain this year. There has been so much that even the trees and plants were starting to suffer as a result, but have now livened up. The ground is drying out and will soon be rock hard once again until the next rainy season starts. We had a good amount of sunflower harvest but we were a little disappointed at the amount of oil that we were able to extract. The lack of sunshine this year has had an effect. Our maize harvest was not too bad and we benefited from the maize and bean harvest at the Farm in Ndevelwa. This will keep hungry mouths fed for a while longer. The rains were able to keep us supplied with enough water without using the borehole. It had developed a problem and we were unable to get the Land Rover close enough to lift the pump using the winch, as the ground was just like jelly with the rains. Last week we got close enough to lift the pump, discover that the problem was a split in the pipe and were able to fix it. It was time to check those hives again. So, we got suited up in our bee suits and proceeded to the apiary. We lifted one of the lids off the top after puffing some smoke around the hive. The smoke masks alarm chemicals that are released by guard bees or bees that are injured during an inspection and gives us an opportunity to inspect the hive. Moments into the inspection the smoker stopped working and the bees got very aggressive and defensive. Needless to say, we had to close the hive, retreat and wait for the bees to calm down, which took some time. We will have another attempt next week. There are five hives to inspect and we hope to be able to harvest some honey soon. “Busy as a bee”? Keep praying for safety here, for the children, our staff and ourselves. Pray against the widespread illness and fear that people have. One lady was asked why she had not been out at church. Her reply was that she didn’t want to get Coronavirus. But she still went to other places like the market etc. Thank you, for all of your continued faithful prayers and support that mean so much in these uncertain days. Love in Christ John & Pauline