Dear Family, Friends and Supporters

I am so happy to report that we have finished another house,‘The Golden Valley House’, and have only one more house to go to complete the vision John Mark had for the Children’s Village 10 years ago.  The last house, ‘The Chapel Hill House’, has the roof completed and we will be starting on the inside electrical work soon.  
 
To see the faces of the children in the Golden Valley House was wonderful.  They were the last 10 children at the Children’s Home about 3 miles from the village. The Home was our first orphanage and opened 12 years ago. It is a dorm setting. The children would often ask when they too would get a house and move to the Village.  Now they are in a brand new house and love being with all the other children.  The 10 children living in the Golden Valley House range in age from preschool to the last year in High School.  

My question was, "What are we going to do with the Home?" The laws are changing in Zimbabwe and dorm rooms are no longer acceptable for housing orphans under the age of 18.  We are required by law to give them houses. The Home in Chiredzi has two large dorm rooms, one for boys and one for girls.  The expense of changing this to houses was more than we can cope with at the moment as we still are completing the Village.  

The leaders in Chiredzi, Zebedee, Alone, and Kufa, came up with a brilliant plan to use the Home. We
are still helping orphans but staying within the laws laid down by the government.  
 
About 5 years ago we opened our Halfway House for our older kids.  We opened with 6 young people 18 years old or older who have completed their High School education but needed a place to stay until their skills training or university education wascomplete.  Since our opening, we have out grown the Halfway House's limited space. After the 10 children moved to "The Golden Valley House", the Home was opened to our Halfway House boys.  They love living there.  They have so much room in the dorms and have a large garden to work in when they are not at school.  They are good young men who want to gain skills so they can make their own living. 

Dear Co-Workers & Friends,

We hope we find all of you well.  We recently celebrated Easter
Holidays and the gathering seems to exceed the former gathering we have had in times past and the preaching was good. 
The speakers were prepared for the occasion.  Food stuffs were adequate to feed the large group of delegates who came.  Our region is composed of more than twenty churches and of those 18 attended the Easter conference.  I am sure we are moving ahead very well. Also most of our preachers attended the conference together with the leadership of their congregations.  One of our new preachers, Stanley Zimuto, stationed at Damarakanaka Clinic and Church fell sick with smallpox.  Alone and I visited him and his wife and found him on the recovery side and we hope this week will bring him full
recovery.

Stanley Zimuto started ministry with us first of January by way of replacing Amos Marimwa, who
transferred to Tokwane Ngundu (Village 8) to replace Alphonse Chinyange who resigned from ministry for the purpose of taking a second wife.  Amos and wife started their ministry on the 10th of March 2013.  It looks like both churches are enjoying good times with their new preachers.

SCHOOLS MINISTRY

The schools’ system presented us with more work during the January to March term because of the
promotions which took place.  Most of our Christian schools both primary and secondary schools received newly promoted substantive deputy head masters.  It is good to have these men and women posted to our schools as we, the church, recommended them for promotions to lead in our schools.  This is the advantage private schools owners have: that of placing heads and deputies in their schools.  This is the way we keep Christian influence in all our schools. It also needs to be said that the provincial office of education is very agreeable to this arrangement. Many Responsible Authorities (R/As) are very appreciative of the good rapport we have with the current Provincial Education Director (P.E.D).  
 
There is a need for hiring an Education Secretary, as I am functioning as an education secretary, the post which requires a lot of movement to the schools and also interacting with all the seven (7) Districts Education Officers which make up Masvingo Provincial Education Directorate.  In order to achieve this, we need an office, salary and allowances, housing and fuel for the secretary to be mobile and visible in the schools. 
Right now I am sure that all of our 27 schools, both primary and secondary, have church activities going on every week let alone the teaching of Bible as a subject recognized by Ministry of Education.