The Days Slip Away

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.

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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.