There is much that needs doing over the next 8 days, and the days become more hectic with each passing day. It seems as though the days slip away before we even know it. Much has happened since our last blog post, some require prayer and other require praise.

First, we wanted to bring to light the amazing work of a serving teenager. Her name is Kassidy and she is a senior in high school. She chose to make JM2Z the limelight of her senior project. Every senior has to give their time working with a mentor, write a paper and accomplish several goals such as assembling a tractor engine or learning about some farming equipment or building a guitar or some major project that requires tangible goals. Of course there are many other requirements such as job shadowing, doing lots of research and giving several hours of service. Ultimately, Kassidy made a goal to gather all the materials to assemble 200 Back-to-School Packs. She shared her vision and goal with a couple churches, friends, and family and together with donations she was able to get all the supplies for well over 200 packs. Then she encouraged her local youth group to help her assemble them and even covered shipping to get the big boxes to us before we flew. For her, this has been an ongoing project for several months, and although this might merely be a project for a grade for some, for Kassidy this is truly about serving women and children in Zimbabwe, Africa. We are so very thankful for her hard work and her generous heart. We are excited to hand the packets out to help parents who are unable to supply their children with these basic school supplies, as well as encourage the children as they start a new school year.

In reference to our last blog post, we would like to give an update on the nurse we mentioned that I (Yolanda) met with in CA. Unfortunately, after much prayer and counsel it has become apparent that we would not pursue a working relationship together, merely because the nurse in question feels called to a different region within in Zimbabwe. Although, I am sure that a new relationship has been built and we will continue to cultivate it and use each other as resources in the future. We are grateful, however, that this was made clear rather soon, and that it allows us to focus on the next step (i.e. searching for the nurse and teacher that God has in mind for JM2Z - after all, His timing is perfect).

On a personal note, Andrew and I celebrated our first wedding anniversary on Sunday. We are so blessed by the Lord for a great first year together. We have done quite a bit in the last 12 months, and have been a lot of places, and feel extremely blessed to have done it with each other. We are excited for the next 50 years together, which may sound cheesy to some, but remember, we are still newlyweds and plan to keep it that way :-)

In closing, we ask for your diligent prayers. We are both frantically packing up boxes, vacuum packing clothes and donations, padding and taping the few valuables we have, and organizing all that we plan to ship out on a pallet via air freight next week. Unfortunately, we still need to purchase a crate to place our goods in and are researching the best options in that area. Please pray that all will work out and in a timely fashion. Also, if you would like to make a special donation toward shipping this pallet to Africa please check our donate link on how to do so. Unfortunately, no money has been raised for a container (which is why we have not gone that route) and the necessity to get these few items to Africa means we are needing to dip into the start-up fund in order to accomplish this. We don't have a total amount at this point, but we are estimating around $3,500.

I returned from the conferences in San Diego on Monday evening feeling blessed and thankful. So many various aspects of my time there were blatantly of the Lord. Both of my workshops at each conference were well attended. For my very first one, they had 30 chairs set up. Enough ladies showed up that they needed to bring in 20 extra chairs, for a total of 47 for that session.

The responses I was given from these women were tremendous. They indicated that the Lord worked in them to grow emotionally and spiritually. Between all the words of affirmation, cash donations, prayers, several commitments to give monthly, and fair trade items bought, I felt like this was definitely time well spent.

Throughout the weekends, the main speaker (Robin Jones Gunn, pictured left) was selling many books that she has written. She said that she always prays beforehand about a ministry that she can donate a portion of her sales to. This time, she was thinking about giving them to a ministry in Africa. When she arrived at the conference, and heard about JM2Z, she decided this would be the one. This was exciting and unexpected news! At the end of the second weekend, she announced that she had decided to donate 100% of her sales to JM2Z. What a blessing! We don't know how much exactly this is yet, but are very thankful for her. Feel free to take a look at her website at www.robingunn.com.  

Another exciting thing that happened, which some would say is coincidence, but we would say is obviously from God, is that a woman who I met the second weekend, said that she had a friend in San Diego who is a woman from Zimbabwe, and was planning to come to the conference, but couldn't. She said that we should call her because she is a nurse who will be returning to Zimbabwe next year, and JM2Z is looking for a nurse. I called and was invited to her house the next day. As it turns out, this woman has felt called to go back to Zimbabwe to work in rural areas with women and children. She is not only a nurse, but also a mid-wife. Before she came to the U.S., she had experience setting up several pregnancy care centers in Zimbabwe. She is very knowledgeable in many areas we are looking for a potential nurse to know about, as well as has a heart for the people there. We will need to have much more contact with her and take many more steps before we would decide to bring her on board. However, my first meeting with her went extremely well. Please be praying for this possibility as we seek to find the best fit for this position.