Day 7,8,9 & 10

Esnati and Judy...two strong Godly women who love Mr. Lynn!

Our last night w/Jephat (above), Garikai, Farayi and their loved ones as we gave the 3 of them along with Virginia and Rezina each a bible signed by all 12 of us. They all were a true blessing to each one of us!

One of the classrooms where the children are packed in, but oh so eager to learn!

Playing some volleyball with the girls from Hillside Home. I must say...our Miss Sara is quite the player!!

Wow! It has been quite an adventure the past 1½ weeks. We are nearing our time to depart and we have a bitter sweet feeling. Tonight we are at Doug and Nancy Everswick’s home and we just enjoyed dinner w/them and the Gopperts. Doug, who is Lynn Everswick’s younger brother by 10 years, is talking beside of me and they sound just alike!! We are about to sing the Everswick’s family folk song 'Charlie and the MTA’!

Since the last time we wrote, we visited a school w/1184 students that are packed into 2 small buildings. The conditions are unbelievable, where the children are expected to learn. But, amazingly, it seems they are all anxious to do so and the atmosphere is, unfortunately, what they are used to, it seems. So many children are packed like sardines into rooms w/hardly any light, very few have a desk, and most do not have pencils or paper to use. When they were shown a few schools supplies brought to them (i.e. pencils, crayons and pens) they all cheered as if they were presented w/a truckload of new toys. These children love Jesus and it shows! Afterwards, we went to Shalom; the orphanage jointly supported by Westover and Hands of Hope. This is a lovely place that currently is home to all boys and a new baby girl that was abandoned at the nearby hospital. We then went back to Hillside Home for girls, where Jeff and Cameron had been painting and a few of us joined in a friendly game of volleyball with some of the girls there. We then joined in prayer over a young teenage girl who is HIV positive and had the flu or possibly strep. This young girl was forced into prostitution at age 5…unfathomable!! This girl’s name is Nda Tenda; please pray for this young girl as she has faced so much already.

Friday we re-visited a few of the homes we had previously been to. It was nice to continue to build on the connections we had begun to establish. In the evening, we enjoyed a nice dinner with our wonderful hosts; Jephat and his family, Garikai and his wife Virginia, Farayi and his fiancé Joyce, and sweet Rezina. We were honored w/closing the evening by praying over all of them and washing the feet of Jephat, Garikai & Farayi. This was our last night staying in the Belvedere Home, where we have stayed from the beginning of our time here. We will stay the next night at the TEAM hostile.

Saturday morning we left on a 3+ hour drive out to Karanda Mission Hospital where we met all the wonderful missionaries. We visited the different wards and gave out candy and toys. Dr. Roland Stephens performs about 15 “scheduled” surgeries a day; not including emergency surgeries! We saw the goat project and things are progressing along. This morning, Sunday, we visited again w/the patients and then enjoyed a sweet worship service that Chip had the honor of leading again. We sang songs in English and Shona! For lunch, we walked to a nearby village; hoping to see a cobra on the way J (only Chip wanted to-which reinforces why he was named Penga, meaning “crazy”, last time he was here). We went to Esnati’s homestead and had a very good traditional sadza meal. Esnati used to be Lynn Eversick’s babysitter and carried him on her back. Can’t you just picture how cute that must have been?!

Tomorrow, Monday, we leave for Bally Vaughan to enjoy some African wildlife and have our debriefing time. We will stay there one night, depart on Tuesday to arrive home on Wednesday! Please pray that our time here has been impactful, meaningful and that we have brought glory to our sweet Jesus. Also, we ask that you pray for our safe travel home as we are so anxious to get back and share our stories of some of the most amazing people all of us have been SOOO blessed to have had the pleasure of getting to know! God bless you all and we love you!!!