Updates from Africa

First of all, congratulations to Ronie who won a copy of DiAnn Mills' latest release, Awaken My Heart! (You can check out DiAnn's really cool contest at this link)

While we continue to pour ourselves into language learning, our hearts are still back in Africa. I thought you might enjoy a brief update of some of the things that are happening both in our ministry and in South Africa.

MOZAMBIQUE:

Bia and Gustava have a fantastic video of the work they've been doing in Mozambique the past few months. We are getting excited as we will be joining them soon. Please check out their video here.

SOUTH AFRICA:

Where were you when the lights went out?

My friend, Shirl Corder has an interesting blog post on the current dark days of South Africa. Serious power shortages have led to rolling blackouts across the country, making for a national crisis. Check out her informative post from February 2, 2008

ZIMBABWE: SCHOOLS OPEN UNDER DIFFICULT CIRCUMSTANCES

An update from Janelle.

The Zimbabwe school year normally begins in the middle of January of each year. But in this distressful year, with Zimbabwe in complete economic collapse and teachers fleeing the country, many of the schools did not open until the beginning of February. Now all our children are back attending school and we are very thankful for this. But the schools are seriously understaffed, with one high school only having 6 teachers and another 4. Of course the children’s education is suffering.

The staff in Bulawayo continues to work with the children, ensuring they stay healthy both physically and spiritually. Cornelious, our director, is totally dedicated to each of our children, and to their families and caregivers, even to the point that he sometimes takes the children into his own home when the situation demands it.

The regular, day to day expenses of the ministry is being covered by sponsorships. This includes
the uniforms, school fees, medications provided for the sick, staff salaries, vehicle and office
expenses, etc. As the sponsorships increase, we will be able to take more children into the program. We now have 165 children, but there remain thousands that are in the same situation as our children.

Normally, the day to day running of the ministry does not include the distribution
of food, but because of the desperate food crisis in the country, late last year we began giving
each of the families food packets of basic foods stuffs, i.e. corn meal, cooking oil and soya
protein mixes. Because of this extra expense, we made an appeal and God blessed us with sufficient funds to cover the food for the next several months. As the food crisis continues, we will probably be making another appeal when these funds are used. We praise God for every person who gave to assist these helpless children.

Please continue praying for the many needs in this part of Africa. For more specific requests, you can visit the website for African Outreach Ministries

Blessings,

Lisa