Thank You!
Thank you to all who supported me whether through prayers or finances for my trip to Zimbabwe. The experience was awesome and I had such great time..
My favorite part was interacting with the students. They were so full of joy and were so eager to learn.
Below you will see some of the projects we completed while in Zimbabwe.
Objective 1 - Build sewing desks, chairs and fabric cutting tables for the Training Center.
The sewing initiative is training community ladies to sew so they can earn an income. So far, 30+ ladies have been trained, but they do not have a place to sew nor a sewing machine. Twenty more ladies are signed up for trainings over the next few months.
The desks, chairs and fabric cutting tables provide a place for the ladies to rent a sewing machine to make their projects. The rent will eventually provide a source of income for Home of Hope which helps the children.
We started designing and making the parts to the furniture on Saturday. By the end of the day on Tuesday, the furniture was all built except for the painting.
Finished sewing desks, chairs and cutting tables.
A local lady using a hand-crank sewing machine in a thatched gazebo.
Objective 2 - Expose the children to carpentry skills and training some community men to build furniture.
The hope is that some of the equipment purchased for building the desks, chairs and tables will eventually be a source of income for Home of Hope.
Objective 3 - The southern countries of Africa are experiencing a major drought. Raising corn is a major source of food, livestock feed and income. The crops were planted but there was very little rain during the growing season.
The leaders of Home of Hope are also involved in church planting and pastor leadership growth. The reached out to our team to help purchase a product called mealie meal (a staple ingredient to make sadsa) and “chunks” (a soybean by-product after the oil is extracted from the soybean that is very high in protein)
Both team 1 and our team helped purchase and distribute the mealie meal and chunks to people of the community.
Objective 4 - Part of our trip was to visit some of the surrounding areas to better understand the culture. We visited a generational refuge camp that has been occupied for over four generations. We also visited a hut near Home of Hope.
Objective 5 - We had many opportunities to interact with the children of Home of Hope. Each day there was tutoring, activities and evening devotions/worship.
Several children used the scrap wood to build projects of their own. One of our team would cut the boards/plywood for them and the would assemble their pieces. The children were the most amazing part of the trip.
All of the children are in a safe place being at Home of Hope. They have a home to live in, food to eat, opportunities for education and a loving Christian family unit.
Objective 6 - Since we were able to build the sewing furniture faster than expected, we looked for other projects to do.
We built some furniture for the kitchen in one of the homes, a desk and wardrobe for a bedroom and shelves for others. We also put up a basketball hoop and made corn hole boards. Finally, we purchased a cow’s head. The older boys prepared the head, cooked it and made one of their favorite meals. It was rewarding to provide a special treat for them.
