Journal 8
Greetings from Zimbabwe,
Today, is a lovely summer day. There is a gentle breeze blowing. Since this is Sunday, I have spent a couple hours reading from Second Kings. I was made aware that we cannot discharge our responsibility to obey God by blaming our leaders. We are responsible to know God’s Word and obey it.
There is no internet today because there is no electricity. The new system here is pay in advance. When paid limit is reached the power is cut off. I am uncertain when we will have power again. At least the refrigerator here at the house where I stay is solar power and we have plenty of sunshine.
The carpenters have completed the closet in one bedroom and are now working on the second bedroom. The doors on the closet have already been hung and all that is left to be done is to have them painted. I am working on a plan for that job. I don’t like the way the local painters, paint and they won’t take instruction. So I have another plan. I would like to bring someone I know from town out to do the painting. He is an excellent painter. If he will agree to come, I want to bring a Secondary boy who is an orphan and who would like to learn how to paint to work with this individual. I will keep you informed as to how that works out.
Most of the kitchen cabinets are installed. At least the sink is connected and is working. I am grateful for that at least. We still don’t have the stove installed but I do have the portable burners that I have used for many years.
The stove has been purchased but not picked up yet. We are also waiting for builders to come and build the structure to house the gas bottles outside. A hole will have to be drilled through the wall to pipe in the bottle gas. Presently the bottle gas is in the kitchen and that isn’t terribly safe.
Hopefully, when I leave here, the house will be ready to have needy children move in.
The bathrooms are another story. The tiling is done, the shower works wonderfully and it also drains well. However, when the water was turned on neither toilet will shut off after flushing. The plumber said the mechanisms are of poor quality which I already knew. Both need to be replaced. This is an unexpected expense. I should know by now that things will pop up. When we are in town Tues, I hope there will be time to purchase what we need.
The Orphan Care Givers came to see me on Friday. I had been told to expect them and had forgotten. The house is such a mess because of all of the work going on inside that I met with the women outside in the shade. About twelve 
to fifteen ladies showed up. They said that they just wanted to see me and to visit. However, they got around to bringing up that they used to be given T-shirts with HCOC logo and name on them. They haven’t been given such in a while. As a thank you, they used to get a packet of food staples each school term but indicated recently that had not been the case. The women were asking that it be reinstated. I promised that I would see what I could do. This is a case that funding justdoesn’t stretch far enough.
Our list of requirements continues to go up but our income is not keeping pace. Many families are struggling just to feed themselves. Many children who have both parents appear to not be well nourished. I wish we could afford to feed all of the children. It just isn’t possible as things stand at the moment. Many of our costs continue to rise but our donations are not keeping pace.
As I close for this week, I have two prayer requests. Pray for the children who have lost one or both parents. In spite of the fact that we are providing physical needs, they have so many emotional needs. Pray that we can find a person, who has the ability to talk with these children and get to know them very well; someone who they can confide in. We are looking for someone who has a religious background, not necessarily a pastor.
Pray for me as well as I struggle with some issues here that must be handled delicately. Pray that God will give me insight and wisdom.
In His Service,
Roberta