Musha Wevana

I finally have enough time and great internet connection to post lost of photos!

But before I get to those, I wanted to thank everyone once again for giving towards our $1500 goal for the Musha Wevana children’s home in Zimbabwe.  Before making the long drive to Marondera, Zimbabwe, Liz and I went with Steven to a wholesale supermarket in Joburg to buy food and other items to take to the children.  We packed the truck full, and still had lots of money left over!

Little did we know that a week prior to our visit, committee members from the children’s home met to discuss some of their needs.  With school starting at the end of January and their growing number of children, they realized that there was a great need for uniforms and money for school fees, but they knew they couldn’t afford them.   And a week later, we come in with food, medicine, soap, etc…and over $1000 of left over money!  So they are going to use that money to pay for some much needed uniforms and school fees!  They were more than thrilled, and thanked the Lord for answering prayers and providing for them yet again.

Steven shared with us later that if we hadn’t come with the food and money, they would just be without it.  There was no way they could afford all that we brought.  So THANKS THANKS THANKS to all of you for your generosity!  We made sure to tell everyone that is was from all of our friends and family back home, not just Liz and me.  And of course, thanks to Steven we were able to bring all of the food/goods to them!  Praise God for using us as a means to provide for these precious children…  It was so awesome to see the smiles on their faces as we unloaded the truck, and all the kids lined up with hands raised to help take the bags of food inside…and to think of all of you who helped make this happen…   SO AWESOME!!

Before I go on to the photos, here’s a “quick” story about our adventure driving the goods into Zim…

We couldn’t make the trip from Joburg all the way to Marondera in one day, so we planned to stop at a B&B about an hour away from the Zim border.  It grew dark as we kept an eye out for an open supermarket to buy a few more things we couldn’t get at the wholesale market.  We finally spotted one, and make it out just before they closed!  Our next task was to find some place that was open to grab a bite to eat…  We ended up stopping at a gas station that had a Steers (think McDonald’s…) attached to it.  Steven told us this was probably going to be our only option, but he also promised us that it was going to be disgusting…  Great.   We ordered our Steer Burgers, and took them to go.  They actually weren’t TOO bad…    But I can see why you’d want to avoid it…

Anyway…  we finally neared the B&B, and drove the truck Steven calls “the Beast” up the steep road to get to the entrance.  The owner was there waiting to welcome us before going to bed (we were running a little late…).  As I gathered my things to hop out of the car, I heard what sounded like, “Noooo!” coming from Steven…followed by other words I couldn’t quite make out…  I got out and walked to the back of the truck to find that the door was open and some of our boxes looked like they were missing…  Apparently, somewhere along the way, the hatch must have come open, allowing the boxes to fall out.

Steven told Liz and I to go ahead and go to bed and get some rest, and he and one of the B&B workers would go back to try and find the boxes along the road.  Oh, and I forgot to mention that it had rained… so yeah…  that made it even more “exciting”…

Liz and I woke up the next morning to learn that they HAD found the boxes (praise God!!!), and although they were a little wet and muddy, everything seemed to be accounted for. YAY!!!  And thankfully, they didn’t have to travel too far before spotting the missing boxes…

So although our travel was delayed a bit since we had to spend some time re-packing the truck that morning, we eventually hit the road and made the 8-9 hour drive to Marondera.

We had no problems getting through the border, despite my fears that I would get caught with my camera and get sent to jail.     By the way, Steven (and everyone else in Zim for that matter..) had a good laugh when I told them I was nervous about coming to Zimbabwe with my camera and laptop.  Apparently I had nothing to worry about, and they were right.  As long as no one caught me taking pictures of government buildings or the soldiers guarded the street corners in town, I was fine.    We had a good time joking about the possibility of getting caught though…  good times…

Anyway… on to the photos!

The Beast after we re-packed it:

The kids helping unload:

And here are some of the photos I took of the beautiful kids at Musha Wevana…

There was LOTS of singing and dancing going on during our short visits to the children’s home.  I loved seeing them dance!  They looked so happy and so cute!

Steven took this picture of the kids teaching Liz and I one of the songs…We couldn’t help but laugh and smile at the fact that these little ones have MUCH better dance moves than we do…

Here’s precious Nomatter that Liz blogged about:

And here’s little Gugu, whose adorable smile just melted my heart…he is just too cute!

More from Musha Wevana…

As we said our goodbyes, Grace (pictured above) squeezed my hand and said, “Please don’t forget me…”   I told her I wouldn’t, and as we drove off, I knew that even though we had only spent a handful of hours with these children, they had definitely left a mark on my heart.

I most certainly won’t forget Grace, who gave me a little Shona language lesson…    I will continue praying for her and the other children and workers at Musha Wevana…for God to continue to provide their daily bread…and for their country to come out of this horrible economic disaster…

As Liz mentioned, if you’d like to sponsor a child from Musha Wevana, you can go to the ServLife website for more details.