Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Merry Christmas!

Dear friends, Merry Christmas!

I hope you are all enjoying the holidays and will have time to spend with family and friends over the next few weeks.

I will be leaving for Zimbabwe in less than three weeks and am very excited to see the children. Many of you have expressed concerns about the current cholera epidemic in Zimbabwe. Although cholera is a very serious threat, the Children’s Homes where I will be staying have a safe water supply and we will be taking extra precautions to ensure a low risk of infection.

Below are a few words I received from the administrator of the HOPE programs. As you will see, even in the middle of the chaos in Zimbabwe, God is still very present. May these words remind you during this Christmas season that no matter what your situation, God is very present with you as well. Have a wonderful Christmas and New Year!

Wenyu Munahse,
Janine

From the administrator of HOPE:

Thank you for your support that has so far enabled 80 vulnerable children and 280 HOPE Outreach program children as well. We only wish if you were around to see for yourself how happy and well fed and kept the children are. There only way to say thank you are the smiles on their faces, but behind those smiling little faces there are sad stories to tell of the pain they passed through before coming to Fairfield Children’s Home.

Only this morning two HOPE Outreach boys who had just finished sitting for their “O” and “A” levels exams, Shepherd and Samuel respectively, came to our offices to say thank you for the great assistance they received from our HOPE outreach program to enable them to go this far with their education. I only wished if sister Janine was around with us to see the happiness written all over the two boys’ faces. After Samuel had left my office I said to myself truly God is merciful. Why I said those words to myself I don’t know, but I shed some tears of gratitude to you people at both FOSA and GBGM. I was emotionally affected by Samuel’s gratitude.