Well these last few weeks have been fuller than we could imagine for the Cooledge family.  Beginning and ending our goodbyes with lunches, hugs & tears, and more ‘last suppers’ than we could count.  Yes, we’ve made our family’s transition from life in Zimbabwe, back to life in Canada, but have left half our heart with the children, mom and staff that have impacted our lives for eternity.

We will continue to watch over and administer the Village of Hope from afar through July and August,  as God puts the final plans in place for Rev. Gaye & Elizabeth Norrie.  They will be on the ground in Zimbabwe and taking over as Directors in September.  Until then, Rev. Zowa is Acting Director and will do an outstanding job.

Continue to pray and support our children, our staff as they keep loving on the children and teaching them in word and deed, about Jesus!  God is not yet done with the Village of Hope Zimbabwe! The toilet block for the Secondary School is being dug and constructed as we speak.  And we ALMOST have all funds in place for the next Secondary School – 3 classroom block.  We also hope to open Hope Community Medical Clinic in the next few months.  God be praised!  We are still growing and believing for great things for our children because of it all!

Keep watching this space as we keep you up to date….

Praise God that the clinic building is now complete! Curtains are going up and the City has granted us an Occupancy Permit after their inspections!

Please pray for Rev. Gaye & Elizabeth Norrie as they go through the work permit process to be able to move to and work in Zimbabwe in just a few short months.

Having received the occupancy permit, we now need to furnish the clinic and hire a nurse, to have it properly registered and open.

Please pray for our many children sick with mumps!

With the start of the Zimbabwe winter and cold nights, we have a host of our resident and community children that are struggling with flu, rashes and not mumps! Today alone, we’ve got about 5 residents under 5 yrs. sick at home with swollen glands and chipmunk cheeks.

God praise the day that our medical clinic opens! We are so close! We now have an occupancy permit, but need now to furnish the rooms to be approved to hire a nurse and open the clinic. Please pray with us for the resources to do just that!

This week we were blessed to have representatives from 4 other Villages of Hope in Zambia and Malawi, join us for KIDPOWER training. This is a Child Protection Training for our youngest pupils and residents – a ‘train the trainer’. What a blessing and our thanks to KIDPOWER who provided this training for our benefit and without cost.

This video was shot on the grounds of the Village of Hope, 2011. God sees each child, God knows each child! This is just a few of almost 600 stories here.