Despite the setback of the pneumonia about a week and a half ago, Lisa weighed in at 7 kg this week!  We are thrilled!  From 4.7 kg. when she joined us at the Village of Hope not so long ago, she now has a little more ‘meat’ on her legs and arms, and has started picking up and throwing things, and pushing herself backwards.  She is a symbol of hope to us, a little light in each day!

Today it is a balmy 34 degrees C in Harare, the Jackaranda trees are in brilliant full and purple blooms all over the city creating purple rainbows to drive under, and the sun is shining. We went from almost freezing temperatures to hot so quickly and some tell us that this means the rains will come early this year. We hit as high as 37 degrees C last week! The children at the school have shed their long pants and jerseys in favour of a light summer uniform of dresses and short sleeve shirts…

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Hope Community Church is celebrating 9 years of faithful service to our God, to the community of Good Hope this weekend!  The festivities and special services will happen over 4 days, Thursday-Sunday.  Your prayers for the church and its congregants are always welcome, as it just keeps growing .

Please pray for new and faithful Child Care Plus, child sponsors!  We still have almost 20 children not sponsored and in these economic times, have lost several more as circumstances in peoples lives change.  This greatly affects our ability to keep things running and provide for those we have made a committment to – the children.

We’ve just come through another busy week as a virus took it’s toll on several of our children and a housemom or two.  Worst affected was our little Lisa, who was showing signs of flu last Wednesday morning and by 2 in the afternoon, her breathing was so laboured that we rushed her to clinic.  An xray and an antibiotic injection later, she was then sent to be admitted to Hospital and we had a rough 24 hours as we called on people to pray for her healing.  God be praised, she was never admitted however!  By the time we got her there, the antibiotics had kicked in and she was breathing easier and sent home.

We followed up at clinic for the next several days, where she got a painful injection at each visit.  But today she is doing wonderful!  Lisa is still on oral antibiotics and still healing, but has proved God’s love for her again – he has saved her!  It brings to mind a favourite quote of mine  that says “Each new babe comes with the message that God is not yet discouraged of man”.

Meanwhile we have taken 250+ new pictures of our sponsored children and collected 250+ beautifully written thank you notes to be processed and sent to Canada.  We pray you all enjoy the notes from your children! And conducted new teacher, house mom and house auntie interviews.  Thank you for your prayers as our management, make decisions that we pray will positively influence our children for years to come, for Christ.