Happy 2012!!!  Well we are now a family of 5!!  We welcomed our precious little girl Ella Thea Albertyn into the world on 6^th January. 

It has been a very special 7 weeks getting to know her – she has two doting siblings who love her very much and two parents that think she is incredible!!!  I’ve recovered well from my c-section and was so impressed with the care I received from my consultant – what an amazing man!!!  We were incredibly blessed with meals and visitors those early days.  My folks were life savers with school runs and swimming lessons in the first two weeks I could not drive and looking after the kids while I was in hospital, so that Mark could spend time with Ella and I - what a blessing!!  Mark's brother was a great chauffeur for the early morning school run at 7.30am.  He put up with me getting used to getting three kids out of the house on my own!!!  Mark’s sister was out for a week to help out and we loved seeing her and the kids loved time with their aunty! 

We also had a visitor out from the UK for two weeks – Diana – who is another ex-student of Mark’s from Benenden – it was so lovely to have her in our home and to share our crazy lives with her!!  We’ve also just had my good friend Debs out – what a treat to have someone who knows you well and you can just be yourself with.  Thank you Debs for blessing us with your company and Gary thank you for looking after your kids so that Debs could be here!!!  We really want to relish these early weeks with our precious daughter and feel sad that our lives are so manic that she literally just has to slot in!!!!  I’m loving not being pregnant and having my brain back after being so drugged for so many months!!! 

So what did the Christmas period hold for us?

Well the obvious – Christmas – which was lovely in our home with my folks, Mark’s brother and my Uncle.  We had no electricity for 6 days during that period so had to cook the Christmas meal at three different homes!  Mark was crazy busy with recruiting the new scholarship students, he sadly only took Christmas day off! 

We had a lovely civilised New Years with friends over a fondue and I found the weather extremely uncomfortable and couldn’t wait for my c-sec day to arrive – though Ella did give us a few scares and we thought we wouldn’t get to that date! 

We also thought if we did not do Matt’s party before Ella came it might not happen – so squeezed it in among scholarship testing, visits to the township schools, training up an administrator etc.  Yet again, it was a Thomas theme and Mark even dressed up as the Fat Controller!!  Much fun was had by all!!!  Can’t believe we have a 4 year old!  Love being his parents!

Project stuff!!

We have started the year well!  Our 15 have returned to the house eager to learn and we now have a further 8 students who we care for!!  They are a fantastic group of students who achieved outstanding O-level results.  It was a gruelling process for Mark to get to this point – we did an initial cut down to 80 from 270 applications, from 35 township schools and then Mark did a few days of testing and interviews to further reduce to 24 students.  One more day of testing and subject specific testing and decision time!!! 

Here is a picture of Ella helping out the day after she was born on my hospital bed!!! 

Once Mark had settled on the 8 students he felt would best fit the three schools who have given full scholarships, he paid a visit to the students and their families/guardians at their homes in the townships.  He went with Dinnis Banga (our brilliant house mother) and Hope (our new Administrator). All three of them were completely speechless and emotionally drained after having a brief glimpse into their lives.  They could not believe how much they had achieved with so few resources. Here is a collage of the people we met: (We were particularly struck by the very difficult livings conditions of Lisa, Pamela, Phillip, Taringana and Collen). The visits provided real confirmation that we have discovered some young adults that will have their lives (and that of their families) completely transformed.

The students have started in their new schools and are finding their feet.  We are so excited that our new 8 students did brilliantly in their O Level Examinations – these results only came out once they had started at their new schools – so Mark, as you can imagine, was hugely relieved that his selection process worked.

Pamela, Philip and Blessing have started at Gateway and they obtained the following grades :

Blessing – 10As!!; Pamela 8As 1B and Phillip 7As, 1B and 2Cs.

Lisa and Nyashadzaishe have started at Hellenic and they obtained the following grades :

Nyasha – 9As, 3Bs;  Lisa 9As 1B. They have A grades in all their chosen A-level subjects.

Taringana, Collen and Tinotenda start at St Georges on the 10th of February. They obtained the following grades:

Taringana – 10As!!; Collen 9As 1B and Tinotenda 7As, 3Bs.

The A’s here generally represent the equivalent of an A* in the UK.

Here they are!

Starting at these schools is a huge step for them socially, culturally and academically and understandably they were a little nervous. We have been working on getting all their uniforms and there was much excitement during this process.


A few of them buying their new uniforms:

The host families have provided a bedroom for the students and we have kitted the rooms out with bunk beds, desks and storage space as well as a rechargeable light to work with when there is no electricity. They will have all their meals at the boarding house and partake in the boarding house life fully, as the host families are all walking distance from our boarding house.  Nyasha and Lisa have been awarded Full Academic Colours at their school and we are so proud of them and that their results have been acknowledged in this way. 

Receiving their colous blazers from the Head

We hope that the other 6 might have some kind of acknowledgement of their accomplishments too!  We look forward to you getting know these new 8 students as well as our 15!!

The 15 students continue to be part of the USAP programme.  This has been a great opportunity for them.  They have also benefited from being part of this in a social sense as they have been invited to a few functions that the US Embassy has hosted - Jazz Evening, attended seminars, taken part in an Essay competion based on Black History Month etc.  This has been a great confidence booster for them!

During Diana’s visit she painted our logo on the boarding house wall – doesn’t it look great.  Our 15 students loved being involved in the process – amazingly it was the first time many of them had ever painted!!!  

Diana also assisted with admin work, helping the new 8 get their uniforms and set up a model UN club at Mark’s school.  Matt and Zoe had a ball with her too!!!!  She also did some extra maths lessons at a local orphanage which a few of our 15 students had arranged themselves, unprompted by Mark and I and have given up a few of their Saturday mornings to help the young boys with their Maths.  We joined them for their first visit.

Deb’s had a flying visit here!!!!  She helped with project stuff, which she thoroughly enjoyed.  She coached Netball and took part in Basketball, she came along to Bible Study and baked for all 23 students, she interviewed each one of them, visited the township schools where our 8 new students came from to thank the heads for putting these students forward for selection etc.  She managed to cram both Albertyn family stuff in among project stuff and we loved sharing it all with her!  She is a trustee of Makomborero in the UK and we know she will be able to feed back to all the trustees all she has seen!  We even squeezed a trip up Domboshava with her!!

Hope is our new administrator and she has quite literally been a life saver.  We work very well together, especially as she learns the ropes and we learnt together the process the 8 new students had to go through for getting ready for their new schools.  It has been a life saver having someone to do all the running around etc and we feel that she is an incredible asset to Makomborero Zimbabwe.  We were worried about how it would work having her office in our home – but she has slotted well into our crazy lives.

Two young guys, Mako (whose full name is Makomborero – how cool is that) and Josh have volunteered their time to run courses over the next year to help integrate the new 8 students into their new lifestyles etc.  What brilliant men they are – they have come from similar backgrounds to the students and have brilliant jobs and degrees under their belts now.  These two men will be able to speak to their hearts and minds and be relevant to these 8 students.  They are such a blessing and we appreciate all their input.

We continue to have amazing games evenings led by Sian.  What a gift she has in this area and the students love their evenings with her.

I continue to run bible studies and love this time with the students.  The 15 continue to have computer lessons and have a full co-curricular program.  The new 8 students fully partake in the co-curricular programme at their schools.

Please pray for us as we apply for a grant to purchase a minibus for the project.  We desperately need this vehicle for our work, as the cost of hiring and not having a vehicle at our disposal has been tough!! 

The Journey of Discipleship!!
We thought we would share with you a story of discipleship - the ups and downs of it and looking back now can laugh hysterically about the whole thing!!  So if you've never been to Africa you might find it hard to picture but I will try and describe things as best as possible!!!

We have a lovely young man who we have been discipling these last few months - we met him when we worked out in the rural areas in 2010.  He approached us a few months ago with a business plan for a chicken business - rearing chickens from little chicks till they were ready to be killed and sold!  We said that we would loan him the initial set up cost of $150 for the 1st 50 chickens.  The provisor was that he found a market for the chickens and paid us back within 6 months.  He signed a contract with us and off he went.  We got regular text message updates from him on the progress of the chickens, when he bought them, how much they were eating, growing etc.  D-day arrived - day of slaughter!!!  We got a phone call to say that he was struggling to find a market for half of the chickens - so the softies we are, we said we'd buy them for the boarding house and freeze them and use them each week till we ran out!!  Our only provisor for taking the chickens was that they be slaughtered at the boarding house so they were fresh and we knew they had not been sitting in the sun for hours!  Well on D-day - we got a text to say the chickens had be slaughtered and he was on his way into town.  This was obviously against our instructions - so now we had visions of these chickens, piled in a plastic bucket on the back of a truck, cooking in the midday sun!  Mark then went to the house we were going to freeze the chickens at and waited, and waited and waited.  Turns out the car they had hired to bring the chickens into Harare had been impounded by the police as it was not road worthy - so now this guy is on a local bus with the 40 chickens, heading into town and then having to catch another bus out to the boarding house.  Needless to say Mark and I were convinced the chickens would be totally rotten by the time they finally arrived.  Our house mum made the decision when they did arrive that they were ok!!!  So a bit of a journey but also an opportunity to speak into his life about following instructions etc!!!!

The kids!

Matthew!
Matthew has started nursery 5 mornings a week!  It has been a little bit of a shock to the system for him and he has found it hard adjusting to less time at home but he does love his new school.  He is totally obsessed with his cars and plays for hours with them.  Trains still feature highly but his cars are taken everywhere with him – even to bed!!!  He is a deep thinker who comes out with classic conversations and makes us laugh!!  He loves cuddles and is a tease like his daddy!!!

Zoe!

Zoe has started nursery 2 mornings a week and is loving every minute of it – to the extent she doesn’t even notice when I leave!!!  She is our go getter who is fearless!!!  A real carer – who loves fixing our sores etc!  She has taken to holding her little sister lots and loves surrounding Ella with every soft toy she can find!!!  She has a wicked sense of humour!!  She is such a girl – loves faries and princesses and Debs brought her the DVD of Tinkerbell – well it’s a favourite!!!  We are going through a lovely phase where she drops all her 's' at the beginning of words - e.g. special is pecial!, spoon is poon, star is tar etc.  Makes us giggle and we make her stay lists of things - cute thing is she can say 's' if it is followed by a vowel!!! e.g. sausage!  Love it!!

Ella!

Is our little chunky monkey!!!  Falling in love with her more and more and can’t wait to be interacting with her a little to figure out who this little person she will become!!!  Loving the new born cuddles and feel so incredibly blessed!!!  Sleep deprevation is so worth it!!!!!!!!!!!!  Time just goes far toooooo quick!!!!  7 weeks!!!!

We love all three of them so much and love seeing them interact with each other.  Matt and Zoe play beautifully together (most of the time) and I love eves dropping on their little conversations!  They both love Ella to bits!!!!

We hope this has given you a glimpse into our world the last few months!  We have found juggling family, project and Mark’s new job quite tough at times and Mark is weary!!!  Trusting we can find a solution to reduce some of Mark’s teaching load and hopefully enable him to come to bed earlier than 1am each night!!!  As a family we have missed him and he’s found it hard not being so involved in Ella’s life – but it is a season!!!  Please pray for strength for both of us!!  I’m very proud of my man but missing him too!

Here are a few photos:
Taken by Debs on an afternoon family walk

Mark and I on our anniversary night away!

Zoe and I at Matt's birthday party!

Cuddles with Mum!

Mum this is what straws were invented for!!!

How many babies can I fit on my back??!!

Matthew and Diana

Zoe chuffed as punch to be in a borrowed Snow White outfit!

Ella enjoying being outside

Zoe setting up a Teddy's picnic on the Kitchen Floor

Happy Valentine's Day! (Hijack!)

This is Mark writing - I was sitting doing a little work, thinking about my wonderful wife and kids (...as you do when you are marking a set of work on differential equations!) so I thought I would take a few moments to publicly say how much I love Laura and thank her for being the most incredible friend, wife, mother to our three children (...and the 23 "older children" we also look after).  There are times where I sit back and watch in awe as she goes about being mom, friend, organiser, carer etc (...I wish I could display as much compassion....).  I am just lucky, lucky lucky....dreams do come true!  Here are a couple of pictures that just make me know I am truly blessed.

We made it to the end of a year!!! Woo Hoo!!!

Apologies for the layout of this blog entry - had real problems with everything!!!  All photos are clickable to make them bigger sadly the text is tiny!

Well can’t believe we have actually done a year of the A-level Scholarship programme!  It’s been a roller coaster ride and Mark and I are pretty exhausted but at the same time feel quite proud.  We have now broken up for the holidays – our summer holiday and will be kept very busy with recruiting the new 8 for next year, setting systems in place for our new Administrator and moving over to Makomborero Zimbabwe – accounts, trustees etc.  So lots to keep us busy!!!  Hopefully all in place before little one makes its appearance on 6^th January – my c-sec date!  You will laugh – each day is mapped out with 5 days holiday over the next 6 weeks and who is working what day and doing what!!  I love things like that and Mark is learning to see their value – ha ha!!!

This has been our song this year!

Through it all you are faithful

Through it all you are strong

As we walk through the shadows

Still you shine on

So many broken promises

So many empty words

God of love and faithfulness

Have mercy on this world

You never turn or change

You never break the faith

Yesterday, today and always

Through it all you are faithful

Through it all you are strong

As we walk through the shadows

Still you shine on

God of unbroken promises

Always you keep your word

Glory, grace and holiness

Forever to endure

You are faithful

Jesus, you are faithful to the end

You are faithful

Jesus, you are faithful to the end

Matt Redman

So what has the rest of this term held for us!!

Internal Exams were written towards the end of term and the students did well.  Mark feels they are getting into the swing of A-levels and are beginning to reach their potentials.  We are so glad we gave them time before writing their AS levels.

All our students aspiring to become doctors were accepted onto a volunteer project into the big government hospital in Harare.  They work on the Children’s ward – which has been an eye opener to all of us.  Some of the children have been there for years and years, some are orphans who never get visits etc.  So it is wonderful to see them serve these children.  We have put together a little bag of goodies for them to take a long each week to do things with the kids and are looking forward to having some books to read to them too (coming in the palette from the UK – see below).  Our students have loved the opportunity to give back!

Excitingly our students have also been accepted onto a preparation for scholarship programme, which prepares you for entry into the top universities in the states.  We feel that probably only two of our students are potential candidates to receive a scholarship but the lady who runs the programme here will work with all our 15, building their confidence in application writing, interview process etc.  We are very excited about this and the prospect of possibly two of them making the grade!!!  What an opportunity for them!!

A wonderful little local church in Harare sponsored our Christmas Party for the students this year – Kingsmead Chapel you have been such an incredible support to us this year – thank you!!  I was able to buy each one of them a present and we had a fabulous evening out eating Pizza and wearing silly Christmas hats.  For many of them this will be their only celebration of Christmas and it felt so special to do something with them.  It was also great having some of their teachers share the evening with us.  Matt and Zoe were on a high all evening, especially as they had helped to wrap the Christmas presents and were my little elves handing them out!!

The four of us on the night!  In typical Mark style he was trying to compete with my tummy!

The last day of term we held our Prize Giving at the boarding house and invited special guests and teachers to share in the occasion.  It was a very special morning, filled with lots of emotion.  Mark and I struggled to hold it together through the event, as I think the reality of reaching a year (having started with not enough money for the first month) - God’s faithfulness has shone through!!  It was wonderful to acknowledge their achievements over the year, give out some funny prizes too and be able to celebrate the 15 and how proud we are of them.  For the main subject prices we said they could chose something off Amazon to the value of 7 pounds and someone coming out to visit will bring the prizes back.  I have loved seeing what they have chosen and the excitement of actually being able to choose something off the internet!!!! 

We were recently donated four bikes for the boarding house! Here are some of the students collecting them from our house!! It has meant greater freedom for them and quick runs to the shops for bread etc! We hope to add to our little fleet!

The big job of selecting the new 8 for next year has begun.  Mark and I have started the process of reading through the applications and trusting God that we are able to discern quickly in this initial stage who to invite for further testing and interviews.  There are 250 applicants and lots of work ahead for Mark!!  Pray for wisdom for him!

We have also hired a wonderful young lady called Hope who will be our Administrator from January - freeing me to be a mummy to a new born and Mark to do project work and teach at his new job.  We are looking forward to having her as part of our team.

We have also registered as Makomborero Zimbabwe and will be operating under this title from January.  We have appointed a local board of Trustees.  This will help us facilitate the administration of the Trust better.  We will continue to work with KST as some of our local sponsorship is through KST and this will be forwarded onto Makomborero Zimbabwe.

Wow it has been a busy few weeks with fundraising for the project!!! 

Movember Fundraiser – look at these crazy men who all grew moustaches for Makomborero to raise money for us – how humbling!  They are all ex-collegues of Mark’s from Benenden and we so value their efforts!  Thank you guys – you are fantastic!!  Also Steve Mansfield’s – one of the men pictured – his house did a Movember day and the girls all wore Moustaches in an effort to raise money for Makomborero.  We feel humbled!  Isn’t the picture of them fantastic!!!!  Steve thanks for your friendship and support of us – it is sooooo appreciated!  We miss the Mansfield’s lots!!!

Norris house!

An ex-student of Mark’s from Benenden – Steffanie Ho and some of her Uni friends have done a few  fundraisers to raise money to send out a pallet of books for us!!!  The first event they held was at Sainsburys, where they packed peoples groceries for them and raised 162 pounds in 5 hours, they also sold Krispy Kreme donuts - all 30 dozen in 3 hours and raised about 180 pounds then.  Their last event for the year will be a Christmas dinner held back in their home land of Hong Kong and proceeds will come to Makomborero!!  With the money raised the fundraisers will pack a pallet of books and ship it off to Zim they hope before the end of year.  We are so proud of them for their efforts, especially as they juggle uni life!!  Thank you all for your incredible support!

Another Zimbabwe fundraiser was held a few weekends ago organised by Ange Smith again!  It was an event for Mums and Daughters – a pamper morning.  It was a huge success and was wonderful to see mums and their daughters spend such special quality time together!  Thanks again Ange for all you have done for us this term!  You are amazing!

We have another special friend in Australia doing a fundraiser for us!  Helen Allott will be shaving her head to raise support for Makomborero on 17th December!  We are so proud of her!!  An amazing wife and mummy of 3 - who misses her home Zimbabwe so much!!  Thank you!!

We have some very exciting news - some very special friends from Malaysia, have arranged a substantial level of support for our project through YTL (a Malaysian Company)  This takes incredible pressure off Mark and I and helps us to focus on raising money for the current 15 and some of the big things we need to purchase for the project.  This support took us by total surprise and we feel incredibly humbled.

As ever thanks for all you support, love and prayers over this past year!  We could not have survived this year without it!!  The lives of the 15 students, Dinnis (House Mom) and Johannes (Handy man) have been transformed by all your efforts!

Family news!

I’ve had two fairs during the month of November for Zimbaby – the first was not so successful but the second was brilliant – an exclusively baby expo.  Hoping to generate more sales through those and am in the process of setting up a little shop at home so that things will be easier once baby is here to run from home!! 

The rains have come!!  We’ve had one lot of rain that came for about 5 days so hoping that the rains have arrived and that we will get more soon!  Things just transform and turn green so quickly – it really is beautiful and so hoping we can grow some grass!!!  Struggled on the really hot days, so it is a huge relief when it has rained!

On 9^th December I will have been married to my best friend for 11 years!  I can’t believe where the time has gone but in other senses can’t believe we ever were apart!!  Mark, each year I become more proud of you and thankful to God for you!!  You are an incredible husband – especially during my pregnancy – your patience and love is amazing, you are also the best dad in the world and I love watching you father our children!!  We have been blessed beyond words by some special friends who have given us a night away at a lodge just outside Harare.  So we leave Friday and return Saturday for 24hrs without kids.  We can’t wait and the kids will stay with my folks – which they are sooooooo excited about!!!  We have loved seeing such a special bond develop between granparents and our kids!!!  The kids love spending time at their home - especially swimming in their pool!!

I love Christmas time!!  We have something incredible to celebrate and also time to acknowledge all God has given us and see the blessing of family!!  I love it when the tree is up, Christmas music is playing and any excuse to do Christmas crafts with the kids.  It will be a quiet Christmas for us this year – just us 4 but will be fun!!!  We built a tree house for the kids Christmas present – which looks so lovely

and have treated ourselves to building a little shaded area off the front of the house so that we can enjoy sitting on our verandah without baking in the sun!  As a family we also took part in a city wide Orphans project – a huge party that was being thrown for Orphans in Harare.  Our church had to make 600 crackers (with a toy and sweets in each cracker).  We took our kids along to be part of the cracker making process and were proud of our 25 crackers we managed to make before their concentration disappeared.  It was lovely doing something with them that had a deeper meaning and Matthew definitely gets it.  He is very aware of orphans in this country and especially the orphans we have in the boarding house.  Precious caring boy!!!

I’m doing a Christmas craft morning for a few kids in a two weeks’ time before Christmas – which should be fun and hope to do some fun Christmas baking with our two kids too!!  It is our first Christmas in 9 years that we haven’t spent with other people, it feels weird but at the same time exciting to establish some of our own family traditions!!!!

We welcomed a new nephew into the world today!!!  We are so so excited.  It is Rich and Anni’s first little one and we can’t wait to find out his name and see pictures of the little fella!!!  My Dad and Mum have clocked up 6 grandchildren, with another one in a few weeks time!!  What a great Christmas present for our whole family!

My mum has been terribly ill this last month with a lupus flare up which took us all by surprise and she was touch and go for a few days in hospital.  Was a very emotional time but praise God she has come through and is responding well to the medications!  She is a brave and plukey lady and Dad is an incredible nurser and husband to her!!

My pregnancy has gone well – been tough on all the drugs I’ve been on to stop pre-term labour but also that has had its benefits as some of the other struggles I’ve faced in previous pregnancies have not happened due to the medication!  It is also the first pregnancy that I have gone without being hospitalised by 34 weeks – so that is definitely something to celebrate!!!  Mark has been incredibly patient and loving with me as the effects of the medication have had a huge knock on effect on the family.  I have my c-sec on 6^th January and Mark starts his new job on 9^th January.  So hoping to be home on the 8^th, so that we can be a normal family as quickly as possible.  Mark’s sister arrives on the 9^th to give us a hand – we can’t wait to see her – been nearly 2 ½ years – way toooooooo long!!!  We are thrilled at the miracle of life in me and can’t wait to find out what God has blessed us with!!!!

We are living a nappy free life at the moment!!  Zoe is potty trained and it was such an easy road - amazing how different each chid is!  Been so proud of her.  Matt is learning to ride his bike without stabilisers and is so excited about it!  Growing up too fast the both of them!!!

We've had another addition or rather additions to the family - 4 chickens - 1 hen and 3 babies!  They peck around our garden and then go to the coop each night and mummy produces an egg a day!!!  The cat hopefully will leave them alone - thankfully the babies are growing fast and will be too big to be of any interest soon!!  Can't believe how much they have grown since these photos!

Thanks to all of you for your love and support over this past year – we did it!!!  Just need strength and vision for the coming year!!!  You’ll only hear from us again once we’ve found our feet in the new year and introduce our new little one to you!!!  So I suppose the best way to end a year is to say – have a wonderful Christmas and a very happy new year!!!  For all of you in England - eat loads of mince pies for us, enjoy mulled wine, cheese boards and cranberry sauce!!  All things we will miss this Christmas!!! 

A few photos!

Oh Mum, we love chocolate pudding!!!!

Matthew wanted to be an earth worm for his end of term concert.  We feel so sad that his two mornings a week at his playgroup has come to an end - he has loved it.  Zoe will be going two mornings there next year and Matt will be going 5 mornings a week at his new place - I feel sad that he is growing up so fast but I know he will love it!

Matthew at his church concert!  Can you spot him!!