Our New Fridge

Well … with a new house comes a new fridge … well maybe not a BRAND new fridge but new to us. Just to give you an idea of how ZAINY the prices are here in Zimbabwe, the fridge cost $15,000,000.00 (zim). I have included a couple of photos of the money I used to purchase the fridge … when piled up it was higher than a 300ml coke bottle and my wallet for the day was a box. Only in Zim … only in Zim.

Take a look at this!!!!!

Well, Jodi and I have finally found a house of our own … well not really ours, but we have found a house to rent. Rentals are a very rare commodity here in Bulawayo and we are soooo glad we have found this one. It is not too large and has all the things which we need (and want). The inside is a little worn and tired with HUGE cracks in the walls and VERY dirty walls, but the gardens and pool have been very well taken care of and it makes up for the inside. We have a nice sized main bedroom with ensuite, a room for Gabi and a room for any guests that may just pop in (this is a hint to any of our friends and family in OZ … just imagine a week or two in the Muller Manor Zimbabwe with most expenditures covered … one can only dream). The most bizarre feature of this house is that it has servants quarters on site; apparently this is the norm here in Zim … basically anyone who can afford to live in a house is expected to also afford a maid and gardener … all we need now is a person to blow a bugle and announce our names when ever we enter a room and we will be set.

Are you ready for the HUGE blog????

Well believe it or not, Jodi and I now have a little one running around our house … Just the other week Jodi and I were blessed with little Gabriella … let me tell you the story. About three Thursday mornings ago, Debbie (the YFC Director) came into our office, shut the door, and then asked if she could ask us something. “Remember a couple of weeks ago when I asked you to pray about a little girl who is having problems at home with her grandmother” she began; “Well things are getting worse and the little girl is really sick and the grandmother doesn’t want anything more to do with her. Will you consider looking after her?” Well this definitely shocked us as we were told only the week before that the grandmother didn’t want to give her up. Both Jodi and I knew it wasn’t something to take lightly and we started some hardcore praying … Well as to be expected He took control and later that afternoon (after taking her to the doctors for a check up) we started looking after “Pinky” (the name that she was being called; it is a common name for abandoned babies, even though she wasn’t abandoned). This name didn’t gel for us, as she was no longer abandoned, so we have named her Gabriella (Gabi for short).

Gabi is about 20 months old and was born in the Crisis Pregnancy Centre (a YFC ministry) by a 13 year old. Unfortunately the mother was too young to look after the baby so the Grandmother took it upon herself. My goodness it is a good thing that YFC followed up when they did. Gabriella was extremely dehydrated, malnourished and has a fungal infection on her lips, in her mouth and down her throat. She has been very poorly looked after in very poor conditions with little to no personal contact. She was so malnourished and had absolutely no energy … even being fed a bowl of porridge would make her puff and pant.

It has been amazing to see that each day Gabi has been improving dramatically. On the first day (a Thursday), she didn’t want to do anything except sleep while being held and didn’t want anything near her mouth. We were able to get a small amount of water in her mouth by syringe. On Friday we were able to get more water into her little mouth and she built up her confidence with us and began to eat yoghurt and small amounts of mealie meal with porridge. She was so badly dehydrated that it wasn’t until Friday evening that she did a number onesies (wee wee). Things are progressing really well, by Sunday Gabi was fully hydrated (I don’t think that Vic falls would pass this much water during the wet season) and she enjoys a good feed. We didn’t see any smiles or emotion on her face for the first three or four days but now it is hard to stop her from running around the house laughing and acting like an 20 month old should. Things are starting to improve for little Gabi, we are thrilled with God’s healing hand and being able to see her grow more and more confident with us both. Her infection has fully cleared up and she now only shows small signs of malnutrition.

Now is the time to show Gabi off to you all … the photo’s are in order from when we first started looking after her to just the other day … Happy viewing.

What a week for Willow Park ....

YWAM are a comin'

A lot has happened over the month of March in relation to Willow Park, it has been such a confidence builder. Firstly I was contacted by Matt Jenkins (the son Colin and Roslyn Jenkins … they used to come to South Pine Community Church) who is currently in South Africa with YWAM; he and his team will be coming into Zimbabwe (Bulawayo and Harare) to do some ministry training and Matt was wanting to know if they could do anything … My goodness, the amount of work that needs to be done around Willow Park is HUGE, the best thing is that they are all eager to do manual labour. They will be joining us for the last two weekends of May, they will be cleaning up and repainting the scullery (wash room for the crockery and cutlery) as well as dig up all the dirt on the tennis court (the court hasn’t been used for about 5 years and there is about 2 inches of dirt compacted onto the old surface). This has been a HUGE answer to prayer as we had only just begun to look at doing work around the campsite and we were wondering who could help us.

Yay ... A new program for Willow Park

The other answer to prayer was the provision of a computerised Property Management System for Willow Park. Currently we are recording all the reservations on slips of paper and then placing them on a large wall calendar, it is quite a large amount of work keeping track of deposits and keeping accurate accounts of future reservations and occupancy. The bonus of having a PMS is that it will do a lot of the hard work for us, such as keeping track of reservations as well as prepayments and deposits, it will help with occupancy and revenue forecasting, working out average room rates, yield management and setting up special rate packages (sorry for all the hospitality jargon), it will make our bookkeepers job a whole lot easier. Let me tell you how we got this PMS. I have worked with roomMaster (the name of the PMS) before at various hotels/motels in Brisbane and it is quite a good system; I tried my contacts in roomMaster Australia but unfortunately they were not licensed to provide the program to Zimbabwe, so he gave me the email address for the US roomMaster. I was a little unsure if anything would come of this request, but it only took one day and I got a reply. Chuck is the Sales Director for roomMaster US and he is also a brother in Christ … what a HUGE answer to prayer when he said that even though roomMaster could not donate the program, he would however pay for the program for us. God has definitely been showing Himself in many different ways and giving us further confirmation that this is where He wants us to be.

MAKE SURE YOU STAY TUNED TO THIS BLOG … THE NEXT ENTRY WILL BE HUGE!!!!!!!

Our First Visitors

Well we have said good bye to Steve, Kristy & Maddy, & I am so homesick. I wish they could stay with us. We had a fantastic week with them, we started off by showing them around town & it was great to see their reactions to the crazy things of Zim that we have gotten use to. Things like rusty cars with no wheels abandoned in the middle of the road in the city, or a furniture removalist pulling along a cart load of lounge chairs.
Wednesday
The next day we were off to Chipengali, an animal orphanage which is used as a zoo. You could see that back in the day it would have been a top of the line place to visit, but now it is just so overgrown & fences were rusty & the research institution is derelict. We saw a couple of Rhino & one was at the fence, it was so close that if we were game enough we could have reached out & touched it. Same with the Lions, the cages are nothing like the safety at zoos in OZ, here they were just rusty chain wire; Steve was about a foot away from a huge Lion & loved it. I must admit we all were a bit worried as we walked around & were finding gates open.
After spending so much time looking at the monkies, & the monkies spending so much time checking Maddy out (they seemed to be fixed on her) we went to Willow Park to show Steve & Kristy the purpose of us being here. They seemed to share our vision for the place & agreed that with time, money & patience Willow Park will be a most beautiful camp ground used for all sorts of outreaches.
Thursday
We set off to Antelope Game Park. We had such a fantastic time there last year that we couldn’t let them miss it. The first of our activities for the day was an elephant ride for Kristy & Andrew, next Steve joined them & they all went for a play with the lion cubs, while Maddy & I stayed at main camp & played together. The cubs were only three months old & it was the first time they had been introduced to the public. They came back with huge grins on their faces & soooo so many photos, & poor Steve- cat allergies.
After a massive lunch we decided to lay out on the grass under the shady trees to admire the beautiful lake, well it didn’t take long before we were all dozing off. For a short while it reminded me of being back in Brissy going for picnics by the river at New Farm Park with Steve & Kristy (one of my most favorite past times). We woke up to our guide telling us it was time for our safari, so we all jumped onto the back of the van & headed off for 1 ½ hours. I was a bit worried at first that Steve & Kristy had come all this way & not seen any animals in the wild, but just after the guide had finished telling us that there were only 8 Giraffe in the area so we would have to be lucky to see them, there they were – 7 of them. Also Zebra in the same place, they however were not too friendly & ran off pretty quickly, but the Giraffe hung around & we were able to stay & watch for quite a while.
Friday
We went to spend the morning with the kids in the Baptist Babies home. They loved having new people to jump all over, & it was interesting to see the differences in Maddy & the two girls there. They are all the same age & defiantly not the same in development. In the afternoon we went to Mustard Seed Babies Home. They have so many more children there, but also a lot more carers. I was hoping to introduce Steve & Kristy to Daniel (the little boy we fell in love with last year), but he slept the whole time we were there. At hearing some of the stories of how these babies were found, we were all in wonder of how any mother could do these things to their new born children.
Saturday
We went to visit Father Charles at a rural hospital. It was such a hot day & we struggled to keep up with him, but he was so proud to be showing us around the hospital grounds. The one thing I wanted Steve & Kristy to see the most (but was scared of how they would react, knowing how we had felt last year when we saw it) came in the afternoon. Father Charles took us to the Malnutrition ward. There were only three babies there this time, their mothers lying with them. It is a big shock to the system to see them & I know it touched Steve & Kristy & it will be a vision they will never forget.
Saturday night dinner was a real treat; the four of us went to the Nesbitt Castle. It is a castle that a man built for his wife, & later down the tract they split up & he became a recluse & the place became very run down. Year’s later two business men bought it & did it up & it is now the finest place to visit in Bulawayo. We got ushered from the car to the bar & served drinks & snacks. We were then read the menu & they took our orders. When the meal was ready we were taken up stairs, only to find out that we were the only ones there. We were served the finest three course meals & then had a look around the grounds. This place is superb, even by Western standards.
Sunday
Was a visit to show them the church we are attending & they loved the songs that were sung in the native tongue. After church we took them to our favorite coffee shop, they got to experience the layered latte & doughnuts. Kristy was quick to pick up that they are not like the ones at home, but when you don’t have any other option it soon becomes a fantastic treat.
So the week was over so fast, but it was so great to have them out to see us, we wish they didn’t have to leave so soon.

The Mustard Seed

Last week we were able to go to a place called “The Mustard Seed”, which is an organisation / ministry which has been running in Bulawayo for about 5 years after Brother Garvin was invited from Jamaica (where the program originated) to setup here. This is a well setup ministry helping in so many ways

The Abandoned Babies Home has been set up on the outskirts of Bulawayo on the drive to the airport. They have only been in this house for a short time but are well recognised with Child Welfare and the police; even though they are not registered as an orphanage the local authorities are still bringing in abandoned babies to be cared for. The house is currently full having 13 infants to care for. It is so sad to hear how some of the infants are found. On Sunday night a young girl who was only 4 hours old was delivered to the home by the police; they had found her in a park (this is good story compared to other cases). It is also unfortunate to see that a majority of the young ones orphaned also have HIV and need medication to keep them healthy. This home is well staffed with young volunteers from the community coming to help look after the infants on a rostered basis. These volunteers are encouraged to help by getting provided with a certificate for child care after also doing some formal training. Much to our amazement when we went to visit this orphanage we found Daniel; the baby which Jodi and I fell in love with last year in the abandoned babies ward. He is doing very well, but he has turned out to be quite a moody little thing. Jodi just thinks he needs a couple of BIG smacks to get him into line.

The School, orphanage, medical centre and church has been set up in one of the semi rural areas about 20 min out of Bulawayo; the Mustard Seed ministry has set up an awesome facility for the surrounding community. They are providing young children with free education as well as meals during the day. They are also housing young school aged orphans and also providing them with education as well. Currently the children’s classroom is a section of field, but they are in the process of getting a classroom build which as been donated by one of the overseas consulates. One amazing story we heard from Brother Garvin was about the Christmas parties for the children in the rural area which have been run over the last three years. On the first year they had the party about 300 children came; the next year 500 and this last year ... 800 children; all the kids got a present (donated by locals) and had a fantastic time on jumping castles and being involved in a whole lot of other activities. This ministry also provides the older teenagers with work experience; as they build more buildings on their ground they have the teenagers help and get trained in manual labour (such as building, painting, plumbing). It is great to see the vision of Brother Garvin and all the ways in which this ministry can expand and help even more people.

Patience .....

Finally we get to blog ... we have been trying all week to log on and blog but we could do absolutely nothing ... the locals just say "only in Zim ...". Something Jodi and I will have to get used to.

Happy reading ....

What a week ...

Well I have experience the frustrations of Zim this week. I was happy to go to the baby’s home again this week but after arriving at 9.00am none of the children had been bathed yet and they were still in their old frayed pajamas. So, after a bath and a smearing of Vaseline the two boys were clothed in old tattered clothes and training undies that were stretched and did not fit; the two baby girls were layered in old hand knitted outfits, then with wrapped in blankets and then accessorised with old shabby beanies (it wasn’t even cold). The major frustration came from the fact that we had bought a large amount of donated clothing over from Australia (which they had asked specifically for) and instead of using the new pajama’s and undies (that would have fitted the boys) and the clean and well fitted jumpsuits for the girls they were packed neatly in a cupboard not being used at all.

On a happier note, Andrew & I are working well together on the Willow Park venture. Andrew had to get use to the idea of sharing his project with someone. I had not intended to get involved with Willow Park, but felt that God had been putting in my mind the excitement & vision that Andrew has for the camps. I had not shared with Andrew my feelings before we left home & still didn’t tell him until it became evident that the babies home was not going to work out in the capacity that I had hoped. I feel that this has been Gods way of telling us to stick together & work together. I still regularly go to the baby’s house, but as there are problems with the application process to get the house open the house is just simply being – it is stagnant in its works & not at all what they had hoped it would be. So God has given me a new passion & vision & luckily for us we work really well together (when we are not being stubborn).

(Andrew’s Turn now … it’s about time too; gee Jodi can go on …..) This week has been a very productive week … Jodi has re-organised my office … oops I mean our office so we can both fit in. We have been able to sort through all the camps that are coming up and put them into a completely new filing system; we have even produced a budget with profit and loss statements and projected earnings and expenditures … things are definitely on the move (in the office anyway). We went back out to Willow Park on Tuesday to have a detailed look into all the buildings … last week we mentioned repainting the dining hall, that is no longer on the agenda … the whole building has to go. On closer inspection we noticed that most of the walls have massive holes in them and the ceiling is missing mass portions of k-lite … it will be easier and less expensive to start from scratch. We have decided to go with a traditional feel and get a hut thing made around the existing cement slab, it will not be cheap, but it will definitely be more effective than trying to fix what is already there. The dorms also need a thorough re-vamp … don’t worry we won’t be demolishing those … after a good clean up and a lick of paint they will be as good as new. Furnishing is also needed; new tables and chairs for the dining hall and fixing the current bunk beds in each of the dorms (they are extremely bowed). None of this will happen over night, but we know that God will move things a long … at His pace not ours.

Life in Zim has been treating us well; I was able to have my first game of golf last Friday. I have to admit, I didn’t do too bad … the course is definitely different to the ones back in OZ with the fairway grass being about waist height on a majority of the holes and a lot of the water hazards being just dried dirt … and surprisingly enough I only lost 2 balls, my best statistic yet I think. On the home front we still have not found a place to rent yet but we are certain that something will come up very shortly … we have smooth talked a real estate agent and she is on the mission of finding us a house … bless her little white cotton socks. Power cuts have been getting more regular throughout Bulawayo, just in the last week we had more that one each day lasting at least an hour on each cut (no one knows why … it is just put down to being a way of life). There are rumors that water restrictions will be getting tighter with a limit being reduced from 300 lts per day to only 250 lts per day … this is not so tight for a small household, but for places like the Crisis Pregnancy Centre who house 8 – 12 girls at a time it makes it very difficult.

Look forward to sharing again soon.

Cheers,

Jodi and Andrew

What happend last week in Zim???

This week we have mainly been in the office looking over the coming events at Willow Park and prioritising all the things that need to be done in getting the park into a more reasonable state of affairs. The main thing to get cracking on at the moment is the dining hall … all the walls are stained with mold and out of the 30 odd chairs that are in the hall about half of them actually resemble a proper working chair; all the others have no backs, not bottoms, wonky legs etc… and the tables are all chipped and looking very old and run down. We are hoping to get out again to Willow Park again this week to choose a new colour and organise the grounds men to repaint the dining hall. In reference to new dining chairs and tables, that is another story. I went to price new tables and chairs the other day and to purchase 10 tables and 60 chairs it will cost around $2,000 USD, and considering the price per person per night works out to be around $0.19 USD, it will take a lot of saving … there just has to be a cheaper way.

(Jodi’s Turn) Most of my week this week has been spent in the office with Andrew trying to work out pricing structures for Willow Park. I did manage to get out to the abandoned babies house. The way that the house has been set up is fantastic for the children with very happy and cheerful cartoons on the walls of the playroom. I spent a few hours there playing with the two little boys; they are both three years old. They were quite well behaved; they just loved having someone play with them. I barely made it in the front door when I heard “who are you? Let’s play!” I was saddened to see that the two boys were in one room on their own & the two baby girls (about 6months old) sitting in rockers were in another room on their own, while the four women in the house just sat around. After a bit of colouring in, reading & an adventure outside exploring the yard we came back inside only to discover the babies were still sitting in the same spot. I took the boys into play with the babies & the girls had a great time just watching the boys play. I noticed very quickly that for six months old these girls did not reach for anything you put in front of them, let alone put stuff straight in their mouths. It is a better environment for them to be in than the hospital, but they are still not getting the attention given to them that they need.

NEWS ALERT!!!!!

We interrupt this blog transmission for an important Bulawayo news alert. It has been alleged that around Bulawayo there have been sightings of strange but fascinating and gratifying phenomena’s that Australians don’t often see in coffee shops / cafes … LAYERED LATTE’S … News just in … our paparazzi have just given us photographic evidence …What joyous news for those lovers of coffee who live in Bulawayo.

Lifes little adventures

Time to update you all on our adventures in Zim … it has been a week since the last blog …. And well we have done a few exciting things:

Last Saturday we went to Arun’s place (Arun is our hosts old domestic) which is in a rural villiage about 1 hours drive out from Bulawayo driving towards Mutobo along some very rough dirt road tracks. Arun has a small “villiage” type set up where the Chief has allocated a plot of land for huts for Arun and his family / workers to live as well as a large plot for them to farm (both fruit and vegetables and live stock). Arun is able to grow a lot of mangos, banana’s, guava,spinach, chimolia as well as the usual crop of maize, the amount that is grown is enough for his family and any extra he sells to the local markets. The place where he lives is one of the most beautiful and peaceful places Jodi and I have been to.

On Sunday Des and Pete (our hosts) as well as Debbie (the YFC director) and her two girls (Maddie and Stephie) went out to the Mutopas game reserve for lunch. The lake where we set up for lunch was quite large and so tranquil; the whole scene was stunning. The lake was apparently home to many crocs as well as hippo’s … so as you could all imagine, Jodi (the fearless adventurer) wouldn’t venture any closer than 50m to the lake side. It was just after we had finished lunch that we heard a large grunting sound from the lake, as we looked over 3 hippo’s had their heads out of the water … Jodi and I switched straight into tourist mode and took quite a lot of photo’s as well as video footage … this was our first bit of game that we have seen this time through as well as our first ever sighting of live hippo’s.

On Thursday, Jodi and I went out to Willow Park with Debbie to check out the training centre that YFC are opening for teenage girls. There is still a lot of work which needs to be done to get the building in a worthwhile state, but things are definitely progressing well (expected to finish the renovations in about 6 – 8 weeks). This training centre will provide the girls opportunities to get trained in many skills such as sewing, cooking, house maid duties (cooking, cleaning, ironing, washing) as well as skills in setting tables and serving (so they can gain employment in restaurants) as well as computer skills (typing, using Microsoft office etc). The vision that YFC has for this training centre is fantastic and it will be awesome to see the girls complete these courses and hold a much better chance of gaining employment or starting their or businesses.

Another project which will commence shortly at Willow Park will be the farming of goats, pigs, rabbits and chooks. The main idea of this farming is so that eventually the training centre and camping area will be basically self sufficient and will not need to buy much meat from the markets. In time to come we are actually hoping to be able to sell either the meats or they live stock at the markets help raise fund to improve and upgrade the facilities and ministries at Willow Park.

Finally in Zimbabwe !!!!!

Welcome to our first blog from Zimbabwe. Both Jodi and I had a fantastic flight, the food was great, service was out of this world and the best thing was that both of us could get a few hours kip on the plane. One other thing to mention … if you ever have a stop over in Singapore for a few hours definitely choose to go to the Ambassador Hotel in the airport; very basic rooms, but gee did it feel good to sleep in a proper bed for a couple of hours, have a hot shower and get into a fresh pair of underwear for our next leg (Singapore to J’berg – 11 hours).

On Thursday we went for a walk around the town for a few hours & have found a small shopping centre called ”Bulawayo Centre” it is set up a bit like the ‘Wintergarden” in Bris, but on a much much smaller scale; it is definitely my favorite place. It has a café, trendy looking pub, optometrist, hairdressers, sports shop, cinema (which is about $1.00 entry), a few clothing & shoe shops and a supermarket. The supermarket is like our Woolworths at home, most of the supermarkets here are like small IGA’s. Apparently it is where the snootie people shop, but I think I may just have to go there for a bit of normality.

Next week we will be looking for a house, cottage (granny flat) or town house of our own to rent; the people we are staying with said we can stay as long as we want (which is really nice), but we think it would be good to settle in for ourselves as soon a possible. One thing we didn’t really think of was the set up costs for small items such as buying cutlery and crockery, linen etc… but we are in no hurry, all of this stuff will come our way at some stage.

The progress on the babies house has seemed to go backwards, it turns out that the application for final approval, which they were told was in Harare is in fact still in Bulawayo (it never got sent) and the case worker assigned to it has resigned. Another thing that has just happened recently is that the hospital where the abandoned babies unit was has now decided that it is a waste having qualified nurses babysitting healthy babies, so they have closed down the ward and have split up the infants into different wards. This causes a few different issues, most being that healthy babies are now in wards with ill babies and are now at risk of getting ill (and they don’t have any relatives to give them the care they will need). Hopefully the application for the opening of the Baptist house will actually leave Bulawayo and will be approved quickly.

In reference to the Baptist house, they now have 4 babies in the home, another 6mth old girl has just been brought in. Everything is basically set up ready for the infants from the hospital, they have a house mother and a newly appointed matron and a few locals to help look after the little ones.

Well it was great to blog and we will update as soon as more information comes to hand.

Jodi and Andrew.

Up .... Up .... and AWAY

Hi Everyone!!!

Well we will be off to Zim in a few hours. Finally! We are so sick of hanging around, waiting for this day to arrive. I have said goodbye to my family, which is what I have been dreading (that went better than I was expecting) – so just Harry’s family & friends at the airport to go.

Thanks for supporting us, we look forward to sharing our journey with you all.

We will update everyone when we arrive.

So much to do is such a small amount of time ...

Hello Again,

Gee it has been a while since this blog has been updated … I give my humblest apologies.

I suppose I should fill you all in on a few details so you know what Jodi and I are doing. Well on Monday, Feb 12 2007, Jodi and I will be boarding a plane to fly back to Zimbabwe … that means that in less than 3 weeks we will be leaving our family and friends in Brisbane and starting a new adventure. Let me tell you all, in that 3 weeks there is so much happening. Jodi finishes work at the end of this week and I finish work at the end of next week, we have to pack up all the stuff in our house and store the stuff we want to keep (see the attached photo), then we need to get the house ready for renters to move in (that is a HUGE job … we all know how messy Jodi can be … just joking J). During all of this we need to pack the items we are wanting to take over to Zim, unpack it all again to make sure we have everything, pack it up again, unpack it all because there could be a better way to pack it, pack it all up again and no doubt we will unpack in all again at the last minute because we have forgotten something and it just won’t fit at the top of the bag. My goodness, so much to do is such a small amount of time.

Well, that will be enough of my gas bagging for the time being, I will try to update you some more very shortly,

Use the blog Luke … use the blog ………

Cheers,

Andrew (Harry) and Jodi.

Things are on there way ...

Welcome back to the blog, sorry it has been so long since our last writing, things have been absolutely crazy with organising and preparing for our next trip to Zimbabwe.
House Renovations: Whilst we are in Zim, we will be renting out our house, over the last 5 years that we have lived here, Jodi and I have always put off doing any work, now there is not much time to go until we leave and we have a fair bit to do. The great news is that most of the work for inside the house is almost done, we just have to pack up all of the stuff we are wanting to keep and try to sell / get rid of all the stuff that we just don't need anymore. In reference to the outstide of the house, our retaining wall is almost complete (as seen in the picture) and the fixing up of our deck will be started in the next couple of days. Then all we need to do is get the gardens looking nice and we are almost done.
Raising Support: Over the next month or so, Jodi and I will be visiting other churches to gain further prayer and financial support. This will be an exciting time to meet new people and to raise more awareness of what is happening.
Fundraising: It has been awesome to see God working and speaking to people in helping Jodi and I get back over to Zimbabwe. At this stage we have about half of the funds that we are needing (through one off domations as well as people pledging to give money on a weekly or monthly basis). There is still a lot more work to be done ... One thing that we have learnt from our last trip over to Zim, is that GOD HAS EVERYTHING IN CONTROL. We know He loves us and that He does want us in Zim, so He is not going to abandon us or leave us and He will provide for us all that we need ... we just need to be trusting and patient.
Our Website: Our website is finally complete ... follow the link to www.zimbabwebound.com

We look forward to sharing our journey with you again, so please stay tuned.

Until next time,

Jodi and Harry.