Returning to Zimbabwe

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Hills of eastern Zimbabwe! Old Mutare! Children at Fairfield Children’s Home! All will become much more familiar when we return there in early May. We fly from At­lanta to Harare May 1-2 and will soon be on our way 250 km east and south to Old Mutare, in a rural area near Mutare, Zimbabwe’s third largest city. We will serve as representatives of The Big Ministry, the organization, founded by Abiot and Tsitsi Moyo, that sponsored our 2005 trip.

Old Mutare is a historic United Methodist mis­sion station, founded in the 1890’s when the country was Rhodesia, a British colony. Today at Old Mutare, there is a model children’s home, a hospital, a dental clinic, and large primary and secon­dary schools. Annette will organize quilting classes for local women, intending that a new skill will give them one means to provide family support. I will teach English and math to high school students in Form 4 (11^th grade) who long to pass national O-level examinations. Within sight of Old Mutare is Africa University, the goal of many students. To be eligible to attend the University, they must pass O-level, go on to A-level (two more high school years) and pass A-level exams. It is a challenging course to pursue, but many students keep that elusive goal before them as they work hard to learn amid the deprivation of their daily lives. It will be an enormous privilege and honor to work with them.

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Our plan is that I will stay at Old Mutare until August 5, near the end of the winter school term. Annette will return June 13 to attend the 50^th anniversary reunion of her nursing school class in Chicago. Bizet, our daughter, will arrive May 31 and will return to the U. S. with Annette. We are eagerly hoping that our granddaughter, Abby Anderson, will be with Bizet.

We will be glad for your prayerful interest in our new Africa adventure. Also, I will be glad for financial support to help purchase quilting materials for the women Annette will teach and school supplies for students with whom I will be working. We have contacts in Mutare that will make possible purchases of supplies there. Costs are prohibitively high for Zimbabweans, and students work with bare minimums of the supplies American students take for granted. $U.S. will be a great help to them. Please contribute to The BIG Ministry and designate your gift for quilting and/or school supplies. You will find pertinent information at www.thebigm.org. Thank you!