New Year, New Goals, and New Visits

First Church Visit

We received a warm reception, as always, at Barrington Community Church in New York when we visited the first weekend in January. It was such a blessing to reconnect with them in person and share exciting updates from the past couple years. Yolanda spoke in the two Sunday morning services and also the Sunday school hour. So she was able to share many stories of God’s work through JM2Z.

Yolanda, speaking in the Sunday school hour

Illness

The week after that, our plans got derailed when we both came down with the norovirus. The vomiting and diarrhea lasted multiple days and then the aches and exhaustion came, so we couldn’t get out of bed for the next few days, but thankfully a prescription helped us get going again.

Andrew, feeling like it was a lot of effort just to sit up while waiting at the airport

Next Church Visit

This week, we are preparing to visit Westview Christian Church in southern Indiana this coming weekend. We are looking forward to once again be able to visit with everyone there!

Back in Zimbabwe

Our missionary relief worker, Janeece, just arrived in Zimbabwe at our home last week. Ideally, she would take several days to get adjusted to the time (7 time zones away) and get readjusted to “life in Zimbabwe.” However, she hit the ground running, already getting lots of things done in several different areas, bills, house fixes, car issues, our workers, and even helping Little Western and Angel with second grade and preschool homework, etc., etc. She is a lifesaver for us and we’re very thankful she is there to serve in this way. She gives us great peace of mind.

Angel, already has homework her first week in preschool, learning numbers

Most of the month has been spent communicating with supporting churches and individual partners as we plan out our schedule and speaking engagements and the many gatherings to meet with each of YOU! 

We’ve also been communicating with folks back in Zimbabwe. We had electrical issues at the ministry base that needed fixing, which entails communicating with multiple individuals on the ground to make it happen. We also had a few folks requiring medical assistance. As a new school year just started last week, some kids had their first day of school, several of these kids just joined our Education Sponsorship Program.

An underground electrical wire that needed repairing

Angel (preschool) and Little Western (2nd grade) setting off on their first day of school for the year

Fundraising Campaign

We have started a Fundraising Campaign called 100 to 100. This is because over 100 days, we want to gain 100 new MONTHLY ministry partners. The 100 days will be counting Monday to Friday of each week. We started the Campaign the first full week of January and it will run until May 23rd - which will be the full 100 days, and after we have visited all our supporting churches. We have a banner (see below picture) with 100 squares, each with a number. Each row of 10 squares is the same numerical value - starting with $10, each row thereafter increases by a $10 increment, $20, $30 all the way to the last row where each square is $100. Our hope is that there is an amount for every budget, but most importantly, we pray that each person who hears about this campaign will be open to the Lord’s leading in if they should partner with JM2Z monthly.

Once we have filled all 100 squares, we will be bringing in $5,500 additional monthly support. This is essential for us to continue doing what we are doing as a ministry. Over the past few years, we have implemented multiple new programs - Education Sponsorship Program, Food Hampers, Medical Assistance Program, etc. All of these programs along with increased monthly expenses and the increase of our regular programs, we need more financial support to continue the work we are doing. Every program plays an integral role in the ministry of JM2Z and helps fulfill our mission as a ministry. 

We introduced the Campaign on the JM2Z Facebook page last week (https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100064368412095). We will continue to do weekly Facebook live video updates (may be watched live or after the fact on our Facebook page). We will also be bringing the banner with us to every one of our supporting churches. We are so excited to see what God will do and we fully believe that all 100 squares will be filled and taken by the end of May. 

After our first church visit this month, our goal was to get 1 square filled. Our first church is a small church of 25 people and we wanted to set a realistic goal. But we should know better by now to get out of God’s way, because 7 squares were filled after Yolanda’s 3 speaking engagements that first Sunday. A present partner wanted to increase his support and 6 new individuals wanted to partner with JM2Z - wow! All honor and praise to God for His generosity through His people and His provision through the Church!

If we can gain just 9 new individual partners from EACH of our supporting churches that we are still going to visit, and 12 individual partners from those who follow the JM2Z Facebook page and receive our blogs via email, then we will have all 100 squares filled. We know this is completely doable. So if YOU already know after reading this post that YOU would like to pick a square, please reach out to us at [email protected] or click on the button below that will allow you to state in the comments what square you’d like to pick and sign up for monthly online donations or get information about where to send a monthly check.

Donate

As a square is taken/filled we will cover it with the JM2Z logo, so you can know which squares and amounts are still available (as shown below).

To those of you who already partner with us and with the ministry of JM2Z - thank you! You help us be the hands and feet of Jesus on the ground in Zimbabwe, Africa. Thank you for grabbing a hold of this vision and finding partnership alongside us in fulfilling our mission!