Founder's Journals

Bihinaayili, Ghana

Feb. 13th – 15th

 

The past three days were filled with God’s provision.  We had church, taught Bible stories, took photo’s, and provisioned oranges and candy.  We visited Pastor Adams and Pastor John’s site with the president of the Bible Church of Africa Pastor Stephen Apature. We toured the Christian School, church, markets, and met with the village chief to exchange gifts.  He gave us to guinea fowl and a chicken (did I mention they were live).  We accepted their gift with a story of me growing up with raising chickens and farm animals.  We also gave them sunglasses, a flashlight, and watches.

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We then had a tour of the 30 acres he is willing to donate to us for the next Operation Orphan Rescue site in the Mirigu village.  We then distributed Bibles to Pastor John for his members which are few this Sahara region of Ghana.  Most are Muslims in this region.  We also prayed with the group that the Lord would spread His Spirit throughout their land and that many Muslims would come to know the truth about Him.

As we depart Africa for the states I am filled with Joy and Excitement for the children to know one day soon they will be living in a new Operation Orphan Rescue site in Mirigu and will be taught the truth about Christ.

 

Yahweh is Great and worthy to be praised!

 

Tanyarwadzwa, Zimbabwe

Feb. 8th – 9th

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I awoke at 3:00 a.m. to the same rooster of times past!  Blake and I had a good laugh about this and other things.  The house staff had some very good meals before heading out to Tanyarwadzwa.  The Zimbabweans are very pure and gentle and they have true joy in their hearts.  We always enjoy visiting Zimbabwe for this reason.

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We head for Tanyarwadzwa in the Eastern parts and get their around 10:30 a.m. at this time most of the children are in school.  We great all the people and sit to discuss all of what the Lord has done.  Priscilla and Brian (The Executive Directors) are excited to share what they have seen and envision for the new Operation Orphan Rescue site so we listen intently as they tell us.

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We travel over to the Operation Orphan Rescue site and wow!  Look what the Lord has done!  Their are now 10 homes built, a bore hole, gardens, and 80 children already living on the site.

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We did all the same things we did with the children at Katawa but their were several more children on the site! What a joy it is to teach the little ones about Jesus!  To care for these little lambs, keep them from harms way, and let them grow to become mighty men and women for the God by impacting the entire nation of Zimbabwe is such a joy for me. The excitement was building as the day turned to night as the people started arriving for the showing of the Jesus film!  The Lord brought out over 500 people to view the Jesus film in their native language of in Shona.  All the time I was praying the Lord would bring just one person to know Christ that night.

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It was a moving night as the young evangelist was on fire preaching about the love of Jesus and the peoples hearts at the end of the movie. I wept as I saw the first person going forward to accept Christ as his Lord and Savior.  Altogether that night we saw over 150 people come to the screen asking for Christ to come into their lives. I asked for only one but the Lord brought over 150 into His kingdom that one night in a little village far away from Middleburg, VA.  Isn’t our God such an awesome God!

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The next day we filmed a documentary on the Operation Orphan Rescue site at Tanyarwadzwa, we gave out Bibles to the foster parents, older children and the ladies who are volunteers for them.  The Bibles were in English by request of the Directors of this site.  We prayed with them that day the word of the living God would be imparted unto the children as we departed that day for Harare.

 

Katawa, Zimbabwe

Feb. 7th

 

We woke to a beautiful African sunrise.  I had a wonderful breakfast overlooking Lake Kariba.  Lake Kariba is made up of a very large water mass that is fed by the Zambiki River which is very long and much water.

Blake has not been on a safari so we went for three hours with a guide.  We saw baboons, Zebra, Elephants, crocodiles, and hippos but no Giraffe or Lions.

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We purchased the Kapenta fish after negotiating the price for $4 a kg so we bought 75 kg for two locations.  We then headed out to Katawa which I have been to several times before but never have I seen it so run down and sad.  The lady that looks after the children say’s that her and her staff have not been paid for seven months and she was the only one who remained with the 25 children.

 

We played games and told Bible stories to the children as well as about six months worth of maize and fish.  My girl Sharon was missing and the house mother told me at 15 she left to get married and had a baby already and was working in the fields to make ends meet.

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How I wonder if things would have been different if we could have brought her over to the states!  A sad day for me as I was looking forward to seeing her, hugging her and listening to her.

May the Lord take care of her and the new family and I am still in hopes to see them some day when I return.

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After spending the day with the children, giving them photographs of themselves, playing games, and sharing a Bible story with them we said our good byes and left to travel to Harare for the night.  We arrived at the Green House (The Bed and Breakfast) late and went to bed for the night.