Greetings! From Lindiwe and I, and the Christians in Zimbabwe, to all our friends and supporters in the U.S.
 
A lot has happened since our last News Letter. We have moved house once again, the house we were in was too expensive and too large for just the two of us. Our new home is a lot smaller and the rent is a lot less, saving us money each month but still quite adequate for our needs.
                                                                                                                                                                     
Zimbabwe continues to deteriorate politically at an alarming rate. Personal freedoms are being eroded on a daily basis. We recently drove from Bulawayo, where we live, to Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe some three hundred miles away, and we went through fifteen Police road blocks. At these road blocks, drivers are continuously harassed and fined for arbitrary reasons and the police pocket the “fines”. A journey of just a few miles becomes an ordeal of trying to avoid road blocks and crooked police.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         
 
On a more personal note, I have now had my Citizenship taken away and I have been declared an “alien”, no longer entitled to any of the benefits of Citizenship, this is in the country where I was born over seventy years ago. My Wife Lindiwe is a South African citizen, and my late mother was born in South Africa, so I am in the process of getting South African citizenship for myself. How ironic that South Africa will give me citizenship for a quite tenuous reason, when the country where I was born refuses or cancels my citizenship. We live in an interesting part of the world.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             Lindiwe and I are hoping to come to the U.S. in October/November for six weeks for you to meet Lindiwe and for me to renew old friendships and contacts. The hold up is on my side, I no longer have citizenship anywhere, and until I get my South African citizenship, I can’t get a passport to travel. This is in the process of happening, but takes time. Please pray for us as we are finding living in Limbo very stressful.   
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             As regards the work in Zimbabwe we are still very much involved in working with Aids Orphans. There are thousands of there children and the state does nothing for them. It is only Churches and various other Charities that do anything for them.   Lindiwe and I want to expand this work as much as we possibly can. Lindiwe has a natural report with these children, being a mother and grandmother, and speaking their language fluently as well as being culturally the same as them and their minders.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        We used to be able to get cheap corn meal; imported from South Africa, but now a local politician in Zimbabwe has organised a monopoly for himself, so we have to pay a lot more for the same product, we used to pay five hundred dollars for a metric ton of corn meal, now we pay six hundred dollars for the same amount. We work through a very dedicated lady called Betty here in Zimbabwe, she has a real heart for these orphans and their minders, but has no financial means of her own, please pray for Betty and others like her who give their all for these children. We would like to give these children more than just corn meal, and if we can raise the funds, we can bring high protein foods from South Africa to supplement the corn meal we are giving them now. Lindiwe and I can each import two hundred and fifty U.S. dollars worth of food stuffs a month with out paying exorbitant import duties, and this would go a long way to meeting their needs.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             Bible studies are on going, we have a very strong and faithful group that meets weekly in our home. We are a little more cramped for space since we moved home, but we still have a wonderful time of worship, learning and fellowship. Over the years Christians in the U.S. have sent me NIV commentaries which I make extensive use of in these Studies. I still preach for a Church in Bulawayo on a regular basis. This Church is a real mixture of people, there are white, black and Coloured people  (people of mixed black and white). Some speak English as a home language, some Shona and some Ndebele. This makes for an interesting mix, I speak all of these languages with a varying degree of fluency, so get on very well with all of these people even though I preached English only.   My wife Lindiwe has just completed a computer course and she is e-mailing this news letter, I’m  computer illiterate, so depend on her, she is  still new at it so please be patient with us.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  We love you All God Bless Richard and Lindiwe.