MissionZimbabwe.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

The Zimbabwe 2008 Mission Trip is sponsored by Hanover Pentecostal Church and is a two week mission trip to Harare, Zimbabwe. The dates for this trip are scheduled for September 12th to September 26th.In June, 2007, a team of eight men traveled from Hanover Pentecostal Church to the Village of Hope in Harare. The benefits of that short term mission trip to the people of Zimbabwe and the resultant impact on the team members was truly incredible. All the team members agreed that this truly was a heart-changing experience. The team members had the opportunity to assist in building an elementary school, to participate in feeding programs, to visit a rural orphanage, to interact with orphans and participate in a church sponsored family day. Through the financial support of the local community, family and friends, the team was able to present the Village of Hope with a cheque for $25,000 to support its work. Since returning, more than thirty children have been given the gift of new hope through being sponsored to go to school at the VOH. These children receive a daily meal, medical care, clothing, and a quality education.

The goal of returning to Zimbabwe in 2008 is to be a further blessing to the suffering people of Zimbabwe and to Gord and Anita Cooledge, the Directors of the Village of Hope. The economic and human crises continue to worsen in Zimbabwe with inflation at over %1,000 per month and I assure you that figure is not a misprint.

Many people in our community have mentioned that they have always wanted to be part of a humanitarian mission to serve the people of Africa. I am inviting anyone who is interested in being part of this HEART CHANGING ADVENTURE to contact me for further information and to receive an application form. Anyone is welcome to apply for this is a community effort to reach out to the people of Zimbabwe.

The total cost is $3,000 per person. Each team member must raise most of this amount through personal support. It is my experience that family and friends want to be part of helping orphans in Africa and will be generous in their support. Applications will be accepted up to the deadline date of March 9th and I hope to have the team in place by the end of March.

Let me share a sample story from our Zimbabwe 2007 experience that illustrates why you should go to serve.

On our last day, the team traveled two hours north of Harare to an orphanage called Vimbainesu Children’s Home. Vimbainesu Children’s Home was begun by two Zimbabwean women who decided they wanted to do something for orphans and these two ladies have worked tirelessly and faithfully with a very minimal amount of resources to care for children orphaned by AIDS.The orphanage houses 31 children who range in age from infants to 16 or 17 years old. All the children attend school and the orphanage itself runs a preschool for the orphans as well as other children in the community (an additional 58 kids that come to the preschool.) These ladies have struggled from month to month to maintain this orphanage for these children. We took two hockey bags full of clothes, hygiene items and toys with us to the orphanage. With some of the money raised in our community that we brought with us, we were able to support the orphanage for a year at $125 USD/month (which now equals roughly ZIM $150,000,000 at current exchange rates). This money from our community is providing food this year for these orphans. It was a blessing for us to be able to go and see this orphanage and the awesome work these ladies are doing with so few resources. It was also an awesome experience to see the children’s faces light up when we presented them with the items that we brought.

We could not help to be deeply affected as we played with the children and saw the incredible commitment of the ladies at this orphanage. As we drove away, the children sang songs of praise that we will never be able to forget.

This is an example of the HEART CHANGING ADVENTURES you can be a part of by committing to the Zimbabwe 2008 project.