Hello from Bulawayo, Zimbabwe! What a crazy past 10 days; Month 8 Debrief in Sofia, a new team, a 50-hour travel day with a stop-over in Qatar, a 14-hour bus ride through 3 African countries, and a weekend trip to Victoria Falls are only a few of the major events that have taken place in the last week and a half. It seems like just yesterday that S Squad was waiting in the Atlanta airport, getting ready to board our first flight out of the country. So much has happened since then; so much growth, so much laughter, so many hard days, and so many wonderful days. The farther I get into this Race, and the more I experience the inconsistency of living a life that is always moving and changing, the more I thank God for His consistency and that He is a never-failing, never-changing God.
This next season of the Race is going to go by in a flash (there are only about 85 DAYS LEFT, after all), and we are excited to spend those 85 days in AFRICA!
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Throughout Month 9 of our Race, we will be working with the Sandra Jones Center in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. The Sandra Jones Center is a safe home for children and young girls who have been abused, both physically and sexually, aimed at helping to restore them to a place of psychological, emotional, and spiritual wellbeing. The Center does this predominately though counselling, life coaching, mentoring, and teaching life skills, business, agricultural, math, English, and Bible classes. The Sandra Jones Center has been operating for over 10 years, and over 900 children have passed through their care. They currently have over 70 children in their care.
Some of the things we will have the may be doing month include:
-Teaching English and math classes at the school run through the Center
-Leading and participating in Bible studies
-Painting a mural on the playground and doing other manual labor throughout the Center
-Loving on babies in the nursery
-Organizing events such as a prom and a movie night for the girls and mothers
-Hosting “Beauty for Ashes” events (Adventure’s in Missions ministry that facilitates inner healing in women’s lives by encouraging women to share their testimonies and invite the Holy Spirit into their stories)
Zimbabwe has long been a country plagued by violence against women and children. A UNFPA study reported that “about 1 in 3 [Zimbabwean] women aged 15-49 has experienced physical violence and about 1 in 4 [Zimbabwean] women have experienced sexual violence since the age of 15” (1). Within the country of Zimbabwe, thousands of children often spend the night in fear of abuse, sexual molestation by family members or relatives (often uncles and/or cousins), and of being sold into prostitution by a family member or relative (2).
Please pray for us as we spend time loving on these women, girls, and children. Pray that the freedom that Christ offers those who love Him would be portrayed fully and without hindrance. Pray that the Father’s love for His daughters would saturate the Center, and that everyone there would experience God’s supernatural Love deeper than ever before. Pray that, in everything we do, we would work for the glory of the Father and not for the glory of men, and that we would give our all to each and every opportunity presented to us this month.
For more information about the treatment of women and girls in Zimbabwe, please see the articles I quoted from below:
(1) http://zimbabwe.unfpa.org/topics/gender-based-violence-0
(2) http://www.sandrajonescentre.org/about-us/
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As we prepare to travel to begin serving in Zimbabwe, there are a few final things I would like to share with you:
-We recently had TEAM CHANGES! I am excited to introduce my new team to you: Please meet Team Zeal! For the remainder of the Race, I will be serving alongside Anna Grace, Danielle, Abby, Caitlin, Mikayla, and Hillary. I’m excited to introduce them to you in upcoming blog posts!
-If you haven’t already, consider subscribing to my blog! It’s easy; all you have to do is click on the orange “Subscribe for Updates” button directly under my picture and enter your e-mail! This will ensure that you get updates sent directly to your e-mail. You don’t want to miss all that is going to take place throughout these last 85 days on the Race!
