Hi!  So glad you’re taking the time to read and catch up on week to week stuff around the VOH!  You’re probably better at reading than I am at blogging.  Case in point – it’s taken me 3 days of trying for the internet to be stable enough and fast enough to do this.  Sometimes keeping in touch is frustrating, but not for lack of trying .

We are excited to announce that we’ve got a container on its way from Edmonton, AB, Canada that should arrive here within the next week or so.  Our children and the school will be blessed!

Yesterday was our annual Village of Hope Sunday at Hope Community Church and our resident children lead praise and worship, moms in bright pink t-shirts backed them up (check out the video as soon as I can upload it ); our school presented a play on the life of Esther; we ran a Powerpoint on the last 6 years in pictures; and our eldest 2 residents – Pam and Jeff shared God’s word on ‘sacrifice in worship’ with the congregation.  We all popped a few shirt buttons – what an amazing job they did!

Please join us in prayer as we organize for a few more second house mom interviews.  There are a few promising candidates and we need God’s guidance in making a final decision.  We have the occupancy permit for our 8th house, so as soon as we get the go-ahead from Social Welfare to take in a few more children – we’ll need her fully trained and ready to go.  Praise God for the opportunity to provide even more children a nurturing and loving environment to grow up in!

Today is a national holiday – Africa Day!

AND a national day of prayer for Zimbabwe.  Join us ….

As I drive my children to school, peeking at the headlines on all the local government and independent newspapers has become a regular part of the day. “Time for Zim’s Egypt moment?” , “Khadafi in Zim”, “Mass government rally planned”, tell stories in themselves. I don’t need to buy it and dig deeper, the tension around us is rising again as the country gears up for another national election and constitutional reforms…. (read more in the below newlsetter – also find out about the new directors!)

Have our third team of the year on the ground.  Great and hard working bunch – doing After Schools Discipleship with our kids, treating our resident kids to a Fun Day and a day out doing some local sightseeing, teaching English as a Second Language to local moms, and finishing off the last touches to our new Medical Clinic.

Second Term of the 2011 school year started up last week and the Village of Hope is busy and noisy once again.  LOVE all the noise from playing and happy kids!  This week we’re updating thank you notes to our sponsors and children’s pictures – watch for them in the mail!  God is great!