Merry Christmas!

Dear Friends,

The last few months have been full of ups and downs.  On the positive side, Grace and Abby can now do somersaults, sing whole songs in English and Shona, and will be starting preschool in January!  It is hard to believe how fast they have grown.  They look so cute in their new uniforms.  The uniforms were even made by one of our Fairfield children, Lizzie, who is now studying Fashion and Fabrics in college!  The HOPE children finished their exams and are now on Christmas break for the month of December.  They were all given food for a special Christmas dinner with their families thanks to generous donors. There were also donations of clothes and even 9 refurbished laptops for our oldest children!

 

On a sad note, when I went to immigration to apply for a renewal of my visa, I was told that my file was marked “non-renewable”.  This means that I am not even allowed to apply for another visa.  I will have to leave the country on the 18^th of January.  At this time, there are no other visas I qualify for to stay in Zimbabwe.  I will therefore be looking for a full time ministry to work with in South Africa.  This will enable me to continue raising funds and monitoring the HOPE program by returning to Zimbabwe several times a year.  I will also be able to maintain contact with Abigail and Grace since the adoption process from the Zimbabwean side is not able to move forward at this time.

The HOPE program will continue running as normal under the supervision of the Fairfield Children’s Home administrators, Luke and Cecillia.  All ministries on the mission have a strong set of checks and balances and these two who will be in charge of the HOPE program when I am away are extremely trustworthy and reliable with the HOPE funds.  Please consider donating through CornerStone whenever you are able so that we will be able to keep all the children in school and continue giving those who are sick and malnourished vital, nutritious food each week. 

I will keep everyone informed as my plans unfold.  A friend told me recently that faith is a balance between believing God can and will perform miracles and knowing that even if He doesn’t, we will choose to praise Him anyway. God has good plans for all of us.  Sometimes we can’t see the bigger picture right away, but I have no doubt that something good will happen from this situation for me, Abby and Grace.  I would appreciate your prayers for guidance during this transition time.

Merry Christmas to you all!

Janine

“The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him; it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.  It is good for a man to bear the yoke while he is young.  Let him sit alone in silence, for the Lord has laid it on him.  Let him bury his face in the dust-there may yet be hope…” Lamentations 3:25-29