VBS

A few weeks ago there was also the fabulous addition of two great men: Guy and Jeremiah. They came separate from all we are and were doing, just to help out. From doing research on line they got in touch with Glen Miller- the man behind Hands of Hope- and flew out here to do some much needed maintenance, plumbing, and electrical work. They've been quite fantastic and handy, especially in the light of John and my glaring lack of do-it-yourself skills. 

     Three days ago the rest of the team finally arrived, and we've been meshing together with them to see some more of the homes, giving them an idea of what it's like down here, as well as begin work on our Vacation Bible school program. On Sunday, we- the team- went out to Goshen Farm: 1000 acres of land donated to a Highfield Church that is being turned into a self sustaining village for orphans. last year a crew from Solid Rock came out here to start building homes on the farm and this summer one of that team has returned as our team leader- the fabulous Judge Tom Kohl. We had a church service out there with the locals and the team performed a hilarious impromptu skit based on the parable of the sower. We shared a few songs with them, and our own Andrew Bradey gave an exhortation from the great commission.

The day slowed to soccer and taking tons of pictures of the kids while some of our young ladies sang "this little light of mine" with them. All the kids love being in front of the camera and they break out into riotous hysterics when they see themselves in the camera. These kids are some of the first kids we'll be sharing VBS with this week. We're starting it monday at the Fernroad home with about 30 kids and it means a couple of things for this trip right now:

1) It means that we're working with another culture that we're all rather un-familiar with. To help, we have a crew of youth from a neighboring church that is helping us develop a program that will be a blessing to the kids.

2) It means that we're starting it today (as I write this at 12:45 am in my bed) with only a few days of co-ordinating, so we need the Lord to make up for our lack of prep time in working in the kid's hearts- not by our power God.

3) It means that in a weak we'll be doing it again for 300 kids, as opposed to 30 the first time around. 

We still have a lot of games, teachings, and crafts to organize and then execute for a lot of kids, so we'll be busy trying to keep up with our schedule here. But all this also means that 

4) God is going to work in the lives of kids whether we have a slick set up or not, and that this is a great time for us to just give up all the strength we thought we had, and lean into Him. 

So, as you read this, be praying for us and the two VBS weeks ahead.

Lastly, Im really terrible at blogging and keeping up at it, and Im trying to figure out how to put a slideshow up here so I can get a lot more pictures on. There is no way I can post all the stories and pictures here and my head gets over-loaded trying to handle all the possible content... this leads me to discouragement at having a blog at all and makes me want to gut it out, load it with gun-powder, and just light it off in the harbor to watch the whole thing go under in a blaze of thundering glory! ka-BOOM!! But... I persist. I might eventually figure out how to blog, but in the event that I don't, let's just go get coffee when Im back in the states, and I'd love to tell you all about it face to face. In the mean time, I will lay me down to rest, cause it's early, and I'll try not to worry to much about not being a world class journalist. Goodnight!

I mentioned deliveries, and here it is. These kids jumped up to help us load out these bags of ground corn, beans, kapenta, and salt. In the blue striped polo is our good buddy Farayi, supervising as usual. 

We've delivered food in the truck to nearly a dozen separate projects all over zimbabwe, with our recent trip taking us 170 kilometers into the bush, most of which was on less than dirt roads. Food is delivered once every three months to each of the homes and feeding schemes. A quick word on lingo: a scheme is good. It's a plan and a direction to benefit others, not a rouse to snooker people.   

John and I took a road-trip with Gary out to several projects deep in rural areas. Here, John shares a word from God to these kids. Most of them had never seen a white man, and none of them knew of america. 

It took a while for these kids to warm up to us, but eventually we had them playing tic-tac-to in the sand with us and trying to teach me how to make a bird noise with just my hands... I still can't do it, but I'll keep trying. 

These are most of the kids living at the 'Fernroad A' home, all in their uniforms before school. I absolutely love these kids. This home is part of three underneath the Philadelphia Project that Solid Rock supports. John and I spent four days at this home working on repairing the wood-tiled floors and painting it sweet and fresh. 

What's the work

There are a couple different elements of the work that we're a part of down here in Zimbabwe. Some is simply what Hands of Hope is up to, and others are what we are a direct part of as we visit the ministry here.

1) The feeding projects. Hands of Hope sponsors several different church across the country and partners with them to supply food enough for at least one meal a day for orphans of AIDs and other children in need. A feeding project willy typically start with 50 kids and grow as faithfulness and trust are built. The biggest project I know of is run by a man named Pastor Mtatu who helps to feed over 400 orphans.

2) Housing projects. It's the same idea as feeding, but with a roof overhead as well as food. Typically a group of two to three women are the aunties over a home that can have from seven to over a dozen kids, many taken in from the streets. There are about a dozen housing projects that I know of now with more on the way. The people down here are so loving and many of them do this work for orphans without any support. Pastor Gideon is a wonderful man who lives just outside the city of Buluwayo and has taken about eighteen kids under his own care to feed them and clothe them- all own salary. This is not to praise a man, but to show the love that lives through God's followers here in Zimbabwe. Many people plant gardens and farms to help ease the burden of feeding so many kids.

3) Along with the housing projects. Hands of Hope helps kids obtain a vision for the future, working at providing the kids with educations as well as a spiritual foundation in life, that they may grow, not simply to be healthy, but also to love and serve the Lord. It's not enough to give these kids food and shelter, but also reason to live and grow- They give these children the gift of dignity. John and I worked with three other men down here to paint a home here. I didn't see why we were doing it, thinking it wasn't helping anybody much, but Pastor Mtatu assured me that the beauty of the home is such a gift to kids, showing them their value and giving them a sense of something more- it helps give them worth.

4) Bulk buying and deliveries. We've gone out a couple times with the workers here to buy food in bulk for the feeding projects- They search all over the city because whoever has the best price is never consistent and even ten cents a kg can save hundreds if not thousands of dollars per three month buying period. After the food is bought, we load up this totally sweet truck and drive it around town to the projects, riding in the back with the food in case somebody tries to steal from us at a stop light (called a 'robot' down here, by the way.)

5) Visiting. A big part of what is happening here, something I wasn't expecting, is the visiting. People want to know how we are, how we find Zimbabwe, how the states are, how Obama is doing as president- a man from a village where no white man had been in ten years asked me if I thought a black man could be president, and if Obama was bringing the troops back to america as promised. We meet a lot of people most all of whom love to converse and be social, but the best ones are still the kids we see at the homes. They are a beautiful bunch of people who love the Lord. I promise, I'll get picture and stories of kids up soon. We have the blessing of making relationships with the people here and it's amazing to see how much of an encouragement we can be to a family of orphans and their aunties simply by spending time with them and being ourselves. They love that we've shown up to see them, it's probably the easiest work I've ever done, and one of the best ways -it seams- to lift the burden of life down here.

This is the main thrust of what's been going on with us on the trip.

Photos

Im working on getting some pictures up that I hope will be posted in the coming days. We'll get them soon.

Day off: Around town.

Farayi and I headed into town today after a pretty sleepy and easy morning. Pray for John, he's sick with a stomach thing so he couldn't join us. We hitched a ride into the city to hook up with a guy Farayi knows who was going to lead us on foot to bulk buy Kapenta, an inch long fish that's pickled then dried. It's super high protein so they buy it for the feeding projects. The streets are much more colorful on foot, and theirs a lot more to see on street level when you're not driving through. The street vendors sell things from air-time for cell phones, to belts, hats, and wallets. It's not unlike New York city, except for the size of it- it has what looks like a third of the people, and it's less glamorous, and it's a lot safer cause there's such good gun control, and the buildings are fewer and farther between, and there's no street performers. Other than that, it's just like NY. Anyway, we hoofed it through the city till we caught up with our mobile Kapenta dealer, but we found out she couldn't get us the fish till Monday and we need it sooner. We picked up another ride back home, empty handed, but we've got another lead on a guy who can get it to us sooner, so no worries.
Today has been the first day without a schedule or agenda, which has been really nice. It's pretty quiet to, so I'm glad for the chance to get some typing done. Right now our biggest challenges is hooking up a new printer to a computer that doesn't have a CD ROM so we have to download the drives online. Plus we're getting wireless Internet in the office, so when that gets up and running and the laptops get set up for it, we'll be able to have connections on four computers instead of just one at a time. It'll be great... when we get all the kinks worked out. Right now there are workers on the porch of the office re-packaging some of the Kapenta we already have into 1kg bags from 50kg bags. Later this week we'll drive those around in the flatbed truck to the different feeding projects. After that, we'll have been pretty much all over Zimbabwe, only missing a few kilometers from the eastern border.