Group Projects
Last year when we were visiting your churches, we had some fair-trade items for sale. Some of you asked if we had anything for children or babies and we didn't then... but, now we do! During the last few Tuesday gatherings, the women began a new crochet project. Yolanda had patterns for crocheted safari animals that they could make for children. The women chose a monkey to be their first animal. So Yolanda taught them how to read the pattern and crochet step by step. A new project always takes several weeks to complete and master, but once they complete one full item they are able to reproduce it so quickly and beautifully. We are so excited to share a few pics of our first animal in the Safari line.
When they finished, they came out very well and the ladies were so excited! They decided to name it "Tsoko," which is Shona for monkey. Click through the slides below to see the process. And may we introduce you to Tsoko the Monkey!!!
They also crocheted face scrubbies out of 100% cotton yarn, that is eco-friendly, reusable, and better for your skin. Unfortunately, we forgot to get some photos of those face scrubbies but we will be selling them in sets of 4-6. They will be great for personal use as well as gifts.
When they finished, they came out very well and the ladies were so excited! They decided to name it "Tsoko," which is Shona for monkey. Click through the slides below to see the process. And may we introduce you to Tsoko the Monkey!!!
They also crocheted face scrubbies out of 100% cotton yarn, that is eco-friendly, reusable, and better for your skin. Unfortunately, we forgot to get some photos of those face scrubbies but we will be selling them in sets of 4-6. They will be great for personal use as well as gifts.
The Wednesday group has been working on necklaces, earrings, and bracelets with new designs. They enjoy using their creativity to come up with new looks. They continue to use paper beads with recycled paper and just completed 50 new items. When we return back to Zim, we will be starting leather earrings and tassel earrings, so many fun things that we will have available for sale as fair-trade options.
Food Hampers
We've previously written about how bad things are in the country economically and about the poor living conditions and high prices that these women and their families are dealing with. In August, three generous donors gave special gifts totaling $2,000 specifically to give the women some extra help during these desperate times. It's not an overstatement to say that basic food and water are major problems for them and a majority of Zimbabweans. So we say a huge "thank you" to those who gave!
| We decided to take that money and get food/toiletry supplies for each one (which didn't take the full $2,000). For her family, each woman received:
|  Cornmeal, tea, bath soap, sugar, and rice  25 liter water containers |
We sorted everything into individual boxes for each woman, because we gave some a little more than others based on their needs, which we explained to them during our final gathering when we handed everything out. However, when we were purchasing everything else, we debated on getting diapers for the ones with babies. The only options were disposable ones, but we didn't know sizes and they go through them so quickly. So we decided against disposable diapers, but prayed about it.
The following day, Yolanda was meeting with another missionary, when an American man came in who had just arrived in Zimbabwe to work with this other missionary. We had never met him before or knew anything about him or even knew he was coming. When he met Yolanda and learned that she was a missionary working with women and children, he told her that he brought a bunch of donation items from the US, had them in the car outside, and that she could have some if she wanted. Guess what he had? Cloth diapers! Isn't God's timing perfect? The women were going to be coming over the very next day and a man pops up with cloth diapers in his trunk! There were enough for each woman with a baby to have 7-12 cloth diapers, as well as some for grandchildren and others for friends in need.
The man also had little dresses for girls and gave us enough for girls in our groups, neighbors of the women, and also girls in their churches. We had been praying for clothing items for a couple of the ladies' children who found themselves in difficult conditions. Children's clothes were in dire condition due to lack of being washed (lack of water and lack of soap). God's timing is always so perfect and His generosity always overflows. Wow!
The following day, Yolanda was meeting with another missionary, when an American man came in who had just arrived in Zimbabwe to work with this other missionary. We had never met him before or knew anything about him or even knew he was coming. When he met Yolanda and learned that she was a missionary working with women and children, he told her that he brought a bunch of donation items from the US, had them in the car outside, and that she could have some if she wanted. Guess what he had? Cloth diapers! Isn't God's timing perfect? The women were going to be coming over the very next day and a man pops up with cloth diapers in his trunk! There were enough for each woman with a baby to have 7-12 cloth diapers, as well as some for grandchildren and others for friends in need.
The man also had little dresses for girls and gave us enough for girls in our groups, neighbors of the women, and also girls in their churches. We had been praying for clothing items for a couple of the ladies' children who found themselves in difficult conditions. Children's clothes were in dire condition due to lack of being washed (lack of water and lack of soap). God's timing is always so perfect and His generosity always overflows. Wow!
Final Gatherings
During the final gatherings for each of the groups, we finished the New Testament Bible surveys (except for Revelation, which we didn't want to rush through). After the Bible study, we had a celebration like we would usually have at Christmastime for them. We had a special lunch with good meat and rice. After lunch, we handed out sheets of paper that had written out everything that was in their food/toiletry hampers. The tears rolled down their faces. They were so overcome with emotion. It is really so bad in the country that to get some basic foods and supplies was overwhelming. We handed out the diapers and dresses. They said they had never seen such fancy diapers and they immediately put the diapers on the babies over their clothes to show them off. Tayana, one of the girls, put on her new dress and began to twirl. She kept going up to Yolanda, squishing her smiling face against Yolanda's leg, asking her, "Don't I look pretty?"
 |  You can see in the pictures to the left and right that the women thought the diapers were so fancy that they put them on over the babies' clothes to show them off. |  |
 |  |  |
Mai Maka, who we have mentioned before has struggled especially. As we handed out dresses to the group, each lady took a turn lifting their hand when a dress was shown that was a size for their daughter, granddaughter, niece or neighbor in need. Each lady got a similar number of dresses. Except for Mai Maka, she got several extra dresses for her girls and even some larger sizes for her girls to grow into. She has 2 older daughters plus her twin toddlers. If I showed a dress that would fit Mai Maka's daughters the ladies would all point to Mai Maka. Their willingness to make sure her needs were me rather than feel entitled to receive an "equal" amount of items was humbling to us.
Yolanda had cleaned out our cupboards as she regularly does and she brought the few items in the room for the ladies. She told the ladies they could take items IF they wanted but they shouldn't feel like they must. We never want to women to feel as if they are only receiving our off-cuts or leftovers. And yet they have such little that they were overjoyed to take the items. Yolanda went to our spare room closets to see what other items could find a new home. Again, God's timing is perfect. Somehow she found 2 full vacuum packed bags that we had brought back with us 6 years ago. They must have been misplaced and yet they were right in front in the closet. We can only believe that God opened our eyes when the timing was right and the need was greatest. We brought out the bags and EVERY single lady was able to find 4 items for each of them, to fit each of them perfectly, and for their needs - this is truly a God-thing. They broke out in song and thanksgiving as they always do.
At the end of the day, we gave the Tuesday group yarn and patterns for their projects and paper, glues, and twine to the Wednesday group so they would have plenty to do while we are away. We also gave them food for the days that they get together during their regular meeting days.
Yolanda had cleaned out our cupboards as she regularly does and she brought the few items in the room for the ladies. She told the ladies they could take items IF they wanted but they shouldn't feel like they must. We never want to women to feel as if they are only receiving our off-cuts or leftovers. And yet they have such little that they were overjoyed to take the items. Yolanda went to our spare room closets to see what other items could find a new home. Again, God's timing is perfect. Somehow she found 2 full vacuum packed bags that we had brought back with us 6 years ago. They must have been misplaced and yet they were right in front in the closet. We can only believe that God opened our eyes when the timing was right and the need was greatest. We brought out the bags and EVERY single lady was able to find 4 items for each of them, to fit each of them perfectly, and for their needs - this is truly a God-thing. They broke out in song and thanksgiving as they always do.
At the end of the day, we gave the Tuesday group yarn and patterns for their projects and paper, glues, and twine to the Wednesday group so they would have plenty to do while we are away. We also gave them food for the days that they get together during their regular meeting days.
| Video above, twirling around in her new dress | Video above, playing with her new diaper |
| Video above, singing for joy and thankfulness |  Tayana asking Yolanda if her new dress looks pretty |
The Wednesday group with their new dresses and diapers that were handmade by women in the US
The ministry vehicle continues to be a blessing, even as we still had to make multiple trips with everyone and their food hampers packed in
We drove the ladies home with all their items they were gifted with. When we drove the Tuesday ladies home it was our first time to visit their homes. We had gone to all the Wednesday ladies homes but not the Tuesday ladies homes. We joked with the Tuesday ladies that we didn't know where each of them lived because they never invite us over for tea. We teased them and they laughed. Finally one of them piped up and asked in all seriousness, "If we invited you, would you actually come visit us?" Without hesitation we both said yes. We told the ladies we would love to be invited in their homes just as we invite them in ours. For all these ladies our home is the first home of a white person that they have ever been in. They never imagined a white person would want to be invited into their homes that may be smaller, more humble, more rustic in nature. Of course that doesn't matter to us in the slightest. This reasoning is partially due to white Zimbabweans being 0.05% of the population but in all honesty its also partially due to a hierarchal view of economy as well as blatant racism. We hope our relationships cross those divides with love, compassion and humility.
Needless to say, that very day after dropping the ladies one of the women texted us and asked us to come to their home the next day to pray for them, their home and their family. We would leave in just a couple days and had so much to do but knew that there was no way we could say no. We had to go. We knew it wouldn't just be a 10 minute visit, we may need to stop and have tea too. So we planned to go. The lady also happens to be married to the guy who had done a lot of work on the ministry base and our home. When we showed up at their home we were shocked to find a table spread with food. The typical sadza, deliciously seasoned mix vegetables and fried chicken. There was also bottled water, small bottles of coke and a tall bottle of orange soda. Clearly they had gone all out to serve up their absolute best to us. Bottled drinks to ensure that we drink it and a big bowl of meat which is a total treat. We laid on lots of compliments about the spread and made sure to enjoy a little of everything but not take too much to ensure another meal could be had for them later on. We prayed for them, prayed over their home and family and enjoyed a good laugh as well. They asked to take our picture as we sat in their home and we said so long as we could take theirs, which resulted in lots of laughs all round. They proudly showed off pictures of each of their kids who had university degrees but none could find work in their field but all were blessed to find some form of work which is huge in this economy.
Needless to say, that very day after dropping the ladies one of the women texted us and asked us to come to their home the next day to pray for them, their home and their family. We would leave in just a couple days and had so much to do but knew that there was no way we could say no. We had to go. We knew it wouldn't just be a 10 minute visit, we may need to stop and have tea too. So we planned to go. The lady also happens to be married to the guy who had done a lot of work on the ministry base and our home. When we showed up at their home we were shocked to find a table spread with food. The typical sadza, deliciously seasoned mix vegetables and fried chicken. There was also bottled water, small bottles of coke and a tall bottle of orange soda. Clearly they had gone all out to serve up their absolute best to us. Bottled drinks to ensure that we drink it and a big bowl of meat which is a total treat. We laid on lots of compliments about the spread and made sure to enjoy a little of everything but not take too much to ensure another meal could be had for them later on. We prayed for them, prayed over their home and family and enjoyed a good laugh as well. They asked to take our picture as we sat in their home and we said so long as we could take theirs, which resulted in lots of laughs all round. They proudly showed off pictures of each of their kids who had university degrees but none could find work in their field but all were blessed to find some form of work which is huge in this economy.
Having lunch in Baba and Mai Mukandi's home
Below is a screenshot of a few messages sent by women in our WhatsApp group communications. Mai Mukandi (Tuesday) and Gladys (Wednesday) have taken on leadership roles within their respective groups. You can see their communications to the groups below, reminding them about upcoming gatherings while we weren't there. You can see a mixture of English and Shona.
Since we're into November, a month of thankfulness, we want to take the opportunity to thank each of you for your part in making this final week happen for these ladies and their families. Whether you give financially on a regular basis or occasionally, pray regularly for us/the women, reply to our blogs, or send us notes of encouragement, we are thankful for you! We are thankful for your interest, time, sacrifices, prayers, and encouraging words!
May we be thankful to God for His blessings upon this ministry and the people we work with, for nothing can be accomplished without Him. All that has been done has been done through Him.
May we be thankful to God for His blessings upon this ministry and the people we work with, for nothing can be accomplished without Him. All that has been done has been done through Him.
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