• When my family first arrived, we spent a couple nights in a hotel in the city to allow them to catch up a bit from Israel before coming back to the business of the center.  We checked in, took our bags upstairs, got settled, and then headed out with just handbags for lunch.  When we came back from lunch a few hours later, our key wouldn't work.  I went down to the front desk to inquire, and was told that we had been checked out when they saw us leaving (for lunch)!
• Tonight we went into the city for supper at a favourite pizza place (Mimmo's).  We ordered vanilla milkshakes and were soon informed that they didn't have vanilla, only banana, chocolate, and strawberry.  So, dad got a banana milkshake, mum a water, and Stephen and I cokes.  We waited and waited and were finally brought  one coke, a water, and an orange juice.  When I asked the fellow about the banana milkshake and the other coke, we were told that they only had vanilla milkshakes and were out of all other flavours!  
  

THABO 

Heaven received a rare treasure this last Friday as our Thabo (8 years old) died peacefully and was released from his frail and diseased body.  Heaven’s gain, however, is our loss and we miss him so much already.  Thabo came to Zimpeto over a year ago after being abandoned by his family because of his Aids and TB.  He has suffered a great deal in his short life.  The Aids and TB prevented him from gaining and sustaining a healthy weight, meaning that he was not able to walk.  After he spent about 4 months in the hospital without a great deal of improvement, we felt as a center that it was time for him to be loved and cared for in a more “normal” environment.  Since then he has been cared by one of my close friends here in a home with 4 other boys, and 2 Mozambican caregivers who have really loved him.  He’s had frequent outings to the pool where he would float in an “airplane,” to eat chicken at KFC, to play areas in the city, to eat ice cream at the airport, to see animals at a safari park, to enjoy the beach, to dance in others’ arms at church, and so many other rich experiences.   After being rejected by his family because of his illness, at Zimpeto, he was loved to life and into the arms of the Lord by hundreds in the midst of his illness.  Though his healing didn’t come on earth, we rejoice that he is running and dancing in heaven.

Thabo is the third of our kids to die since March and the first that I've been really close to.  I grieve because I miss him but also because I know how much he meant to my friend Vella who has been caring for him since January.  I grieve also because 4 little boys who really loved him have a lot of questions about where Thabo has gone.  Their little minds can't quite grasp the concept of heaven and death yet. Come to think of it, I'm not quite sure I can yet either.