They're building a preschool & helping blossom hope

SUMMARY: Over the past 8 years, a church in Zimbabwe has wanted to build a preschool to provide care for young children so family members could go off to work AND to come up with a way to provide revenue toward the church's orphan care ministry. By faith, the church leaders raised money to draft plans for a preschool. Then, over the past 5 years, they've worked hard to set aside funds where they can, despite the worst financial crises in southern African history. Today, digging and building a slab foundation for the school is underway and hope is blossoming in a hopeless situation.

Once built, the funds raised from the preschool will help the church begin to care for over 100 orphans (school fees, food, counseling) without the continued assistance of Forgotten Voices. While the road to construction will be staggered, as the church raises funds to builds some and Forgotten Voices helps provide more material for them to build on top of their efforts, the preschool will get built, by God's grace!

To give to this Local Orphan Care Plan and others like it, visit us online and make a donation today. At Forgotten Voices, our mission is to demonstrate the love of Jesus Christ by equipping local churches in southern Africa to meet the physical & spiritual needs of AIDS orphans in their communities.

We are investing in the hopes & dreams these churches have for the kids in their communities...and we are investing in those that are willing to do the hard part. It is our joy to partner with these folks as they live out God's commands to love orphans, widows, and people in distress. Thanks for investing in these hopes with us.

All the best,
Ryan

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LONGER VERSION
Over the past 5 years, you've heard us talk about many people, but few more than Fibion. He pastors a church in Zimbabwe that is now helping minister to over 100 orphans because of AIDS. When Forgotten Voices first started working with the church, they were effectively ministering to about a dozen, but had the hope & desire to help more.

During those initial meetings, Forgotten Voices began listening to their dreams about how they were going to help pay for the orphan care ministry Forgotten Voices was willing to support initially, with the plan for the church would be able to absorb the costs within the body of the church. The idea was to build a pre-school.

About 3 years prior to us meeting Fibion, the church had already come up with a "dream" scenario. There were lots of young vulnerable kids in the area that needed a place to learn and receive care, so their caretakers could go off to work, while feeling confident of their children's safety. Identifying 40-50 kids whose parents or caretakers would need the service and would be able to pay a small fee each month for it, they raised money to have plans drawn up. By faith, they prayed over those plans for years and years -- all before they had met Forgotten Voices. A preschool building to meet Ministry of Education building codes was way beyond what their church could afford, but they saw it as a way to raise money for their growing orphan care support, while also helping their community with a preschool.

The fees raised from the people that would send their kids to school would pay for the on-going orphan care project, currently funded Forgotten Voices, with your help.

From the beginning of their partnership with us, the church and our team wanted this income generating idea to be part of our relationship. But, facing severe economic challenges over the past 5 years has hurt the preschool plan's progress. However, all hope had continued, despite the uncertainty in Zimbabwe. Just over a year ago, with the economic situation still in ruin, we began taking action with the church to build a fence around the property. The government was threatening to take the land away, believing the church was not going to do anything with it (despite the SEVERE economic challenges that were hurting all people). The fence helped the government see that action was taking place.

Less than a month later, a large chunk of the metal fence was stolen, causing grief for many in the church and a setback to a people that were just trying to help their community. Forgotten Voices and the church leadership were inspired by the challenge, not deterred.

Over the past 6 months, a cement block fence was constructed to replace the metal one. And digging for the preschool began in June. While all understood we would have to go step by step, with slow downs in the process because money to Forgotten Voices has slowed with the downturn in the US economy, we all took steps of faith each day.

Building of the slab, or foundation in our US world, is now well underway. By far, this is the most expensive part, despite it being hidden. But, like the faith of the church leaders to the community, the foundation will provide a solid base for hope to bloom in a seemingly hopeless situation in Zimbabwe.

To give to Forgotten Voices and help this church build a preschool or to make a general gift, visit us online at http://www.ForgottenVoices.org.

Many thanks, on behalf of Fibion's church and all that will benefit from this preschool construction -- the kiddos at the school and the orphans that will be able to continue to receive care by the funds raised.

All the best,
Ryan Keith
Chief Kid Advocate at Forgotten Voices