VIM to ZIM

Many of you have received some news reports that I have forwarded some time back. Some have not. Keep ALL of Zimbabwe in your prayers! Murder, beatings, burning, starving are common words in the news.
Conditions are terrible and getting worse–the food distributing NGOs have been told to stop–but appear to be going ahead […]

According to an article in the June 4, 2008 issue of the New York Times, while Mugabe is in Rome at a United Nations conference on food, his henchmen at home are apparently telling international aid groups — CARE, Save the Children, and World Vision are mentioned in the article — to close up shop […]

An article in today’s New York Times about how teachers and relief workers are apparently being targeted for questioning by police and in some cases are being charged with election fraud or even assaulted by thugs.
Violence in Zimbabwe Disrupts Schools and Aid - New York Times
…Teachers, who served as nonpartisan supervisors at polling stations, […]

Rev. DeWolf spoke to our VIM team one evening at La Rochelle.
Please pray that the elections March 29 will reflect the wishes and best interests of the people of Zimbabwe and that violence will not be the result.
CHURCHES IN MANICALAND
PASTORAL STATEMENT ON HARMONIZED ELECTIONS MARCH 2008
We call upon all people to:
• Exercise your right to vote […]

Dear Ann…please let the people know in the VIMTOZIM.ORG that I will be coming to Michigan during the second week of June with a lady from AU…Mrs. Pat Ruwo who is the Agriculture sect. and will be staying a week. We will be going to Kalamazoo College first to visit a student from AU […]

The Zimbabwean

Loaded down with so much money he can barely carry it all, but this young Zimbabwean isn’t on his way to buy a bike or a computer. All that cash might just buy him a loaf of bread.
=

In Crisis Zimbabwe Asks: Could Mugabe Lose?
“…A presidential election is scheduled here for March 29, and [mother of three] Gladys Sithole said she hoped this time Mr. Mugabe would finally lose. Now 84, he is a former guerrilla fighter who has led the nation since independence in 1980. ‘Mugabe was a hero of the liberation […]

Click here to see pictures.

For more pictures of the reunion and photos of Marsha’s trip back to Zim in September see “Recent Photos” on the right.

VIM to Zim Team ‘06 Reunion Updates
December 9, 2007
Devotions were Matthew 25: 34-40 as paraphrased by Eugene Peterson in The Message. And then we sang, “Bind Us Together”.
Present:
1. Shirley Andrews—had Morris and Ann […]

Having just returned from our annual volunteer trip to Zimbabwe and Old Mutare, it is time to share what was and what wasn’t accomplished. As always, we rejoiced in getting back to this beautiful country and wonderful people. As always, we were warmly welcomed and repeatedly thanked for the ongoing projects and new help that […]

Michigan Team friends and others,
I am writing this note to ask humbly for your monetary assistance in helping me to get a truck container to Zimbabwe. Its destination is Hartzell High School, a very worthy and wonderful Methodist school there. On board will be 5 new sewing machines, a 30 CPU computer lab ready to […]

My conference newsletter had more articles on Zimbabwe in the 4 Jul 2007 issue. Do check them out and get inspired all over again!

“Delegation delivers life-saving nets”
“Local church leaders inspired by ‘Nets’ campaign”
“Pastors’ school builds on Zimbabwe partnership”
“Gospel brings hope to AIDS-ravished community”
“Faith builds new church in Zimbabwe”

Norma

Sunset at La Rochelle
Sent by Simon Herring, June, 2007

My conference has been helping distribute mosquito netting in Zimbabwe. For more details, see: “UMs pioneer net distribution in Zimbabwe”. The pictures are priceless.
According to my church’s conference member, reporting back from Annual Conference, the Zim women are already figuring out that the more kids they can squeeze under each net, the more impact each […]

From: misheckmucherera@afritechno.com
Subject: Receipt of Uniforms and shoes
Date: May 15, 2007 10:45:37 AM EDT
Dear Morris
It was a delight to see our pupils dressed in new uniforms.
Parents were very excited and they ululated thanking for
what you have done.The shoes have been delayed because we
didn’t get the right sizes.
The borehole is now functioning properly and we […]

A VIM team from the Baltimore-Washington Conference recently went to Zimbabwe. I believe the area they work with is in the northeast section of the country. A story about the trip is on-line:
“Hope at work in Zimbabwe”

Drew Harvey from Pittsburgh recently returned from a trip to Zimbabwe, where he attended the retirement ceremony for the headmaster at Clare School and took a couple photos of the library there.
The books came from our VIM team visit in November and from the container. Funds from the VIM team are also furnishing school uniforms […]

My conference’s bishop, Bishop John R. Schol, is calling for a day of prayer on April 18 to lift up to God the nation of Zimbabwe and the ministry of the church in that troubled country.
More details are available in the call to action:
http://www.bwcumc.org/news_detail.asp?PKValue=2497
Please join your hearts with mine in praying for Zimbabwe.
Peace,
Norma

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To see pictures of Clare School students and Headmaster Norman Murahwa displaying their new textbooks purchased with contributions from the VIMtoZIM 2006 Team, click on “Photos” at the top of this page. A reproduction of a January 2007 “Michigan Christian Advocate” article about our team written by Gordon has also been posted there.

The Hartzell High connection has continued. 17 faculty and staff members are taking an instructional technology course now at AU, using the donated money left at AU. Also Wisdom Muchacha and several other AU computer professors gave 30 Hartzell High teacher a free course in December in the the advantages of computers in education. […]

Lynn Norman, who was working at Fairfield Children’s Home while we were at Old Mutare and got a ride with us to the airport, is from my conference, Baltimore-Washington. Our conference paper recently had an article on that work as part of our on-going partnership with the Zimbabwe conference: “Zimbabwe partnership trains pastors, helps children”. […]

Dear Ann…the latest news is that our annual conference(Memphis) is going to give 1/2 of the offering to the “Dream Farm” project…that should be 10,000-15,000.00 to go toward the new farm…what a difference that will make. The total cost will be 30-50 thousand depending on how much I can send over with the container […]

Click below to read a recent “New York Times” article describing the terrible and rapidly worsening conditions in Zimbabwe. Our love and prayers go out to these people and their stuggles for basic needs.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/07/world/africa/07zimbabwe.html?th&emc=th

According to Rev. Lloyd Nyarota, Zimbabwe Conference Projects Coordinator, 377 textbooks will be delivered to Clare Primary School, north of Mutare, the week of January 29. These 5 to 10 copies each of virtually every subject taught in each of the school’s seven grades, will make a major difference in the lives of the […]

Click on “VIM to Zim Team Journals” to read the journals written by members of the team while we were in Zimbabwe last November.

2006 began with family time with both sons’ families in rainy Irvine, California—Steve and Julie’s home. From that point on, the year was largely filled with two major Zimbabwe projects. Having decided to help lead a Volunteer Team to Old Mutare and to send another container of donated goods, 2006 was busy [eg. between […]

…is available on the UMNS site, Dec 2006 issue: ‘Dream Dairy’ provides hope to Africa University community
Great publicity for the project, Marsha!

All you have to do is click on “Videos” up above and you can see both of my videos as well as two that Mark has posted. Click on the “play” button on one of Mark’s videos and you will get to relive all the bumps and jolts on the back road to AU […]

Click on the link shown below under “VIM to ZIM Video”. Click on “Bind Us Together” at the top of the site and you will see a video that includes pictures of all members of our team with our “theme song”, “Bind Us Together” in the background.
Ann

I have published a short video called “You Touched Our Lives”. It shows some members of our VIM team in action. You can see it at:
http://web.mac.com/annmorristaber/iWeb/
Site%208/You%20Touched%20Our%20Lives.html
The question is, whose lives were touched more profoundly - theirs or ours?

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Dear VIM Team Members,
Calvary and Advent greetings from Mutasa Nyanga district of the United Methodist Church in Zimbabwe. On behalf of the district, I would like to express our delight for sharing your valuable time with us during your visits in Zimbabwe and particulary to my district and school(Hartzell) Indeed your presence lifted our spirits […]

Until Morris receives final information from AU about their expenses on our behalf and the credit card charges for team expenses in London we will not know exactly how much funds we will have left for disbursement to chosen projects at Hartzell.  Will post that information on the blog as soon as […]

The VIM to ZIM team arrived in Detroit yesterday about 1 PM, exhausted, but with joy, unity, and a feeling of satisfaction in our accomplishments, new friends that we had made, and all that we had learned in Zimbabwe. Morris and I (and probably a lot of others members of the team) fell into […]

Just checking in to make sure you all arrived at your destinations safely after our arrival in Detroit.
It is my hope and prayer that our VIM to Zim was a spiritually nourishing experience for all of you. In addition to the sharing with the beautiful Zimbabwean people and the blessing of yourself shared […]

Morris and Ann
Good to know that you had a safe journey back home. The team visit was such a blessing to all here. You gave us more zeal to forge ahead especially with the gifts the team gave us but most of all it was the interaction that blessed us most.
More time
Shadreck

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Just a quick post to let everyone know the whole team is now in London at Heathrow Airport waiting for our flight to Detroit — BA 203 arriving at 12:50 pm (as a reminder: if you’re picking someone up, meet us at the airport, not at the Romulus church).Yesterday we had a good (long) flight from Harare to London. For the most part the weather was clear all the way, giving us spectacular views of the Congo rainforest, the endless sands of the Sahara, clusters of villages and cities along the southern Mediterranean in Tunisia, the French Alps, sunset over Paris, and then the bright lights of London as we circled Heathrow waiting to land.

I’ve started to upload a few photos of the team members in action.

A few days ago last week I updated the team events calendar/schedule using a simple text file. The original format wasn’t very effective in a low-bandwidth environment. I just thought I’d let everyone know in case you’re interested in finding out what we’re up to each day.
One unexpected change in the schedule […]

Today was a full, but more restful day. A leisurely breakfast, then a short bus ride to a church in Chikanga, a section of Mutare, started the day. St John’s United Methodist Church was already hopping when we arrived at 8:45 a.m., with a lay man leading a Bible discussion from passages in Genesis […]

Just another really quick message to let everyone know that we’re all still here and doing well. Really well.
This past weekend was so packed with activities that I didn’t have time to come into AU to connect to the Internet and upload and download messages. But I’ve downloaded all the comments and will […]

Yesterday evening at the hotel we again shared the events of the day for each of us at our various assignments.
-Marsha Dorgan is having great — and surprisingly speedy — success in her efforts to plan for expanding AU’s “Dream Dairy” into a full working farm, and to begin to build a piggery at […]

Yesterday afternoon and evening the team gathered at the hotel and shared our various experiences at our assignments for the day. The stories were so wonderful I’m sure we’ll find a way to share at least some of them here in this forum. Even something as simple as installing pencil sharpeners […]

In my message on Sunday I should have said that others *may* be able to write something soon. As it turns out, although Africa University does have wireless connections throughout the campus, and although the library does have several up-to-date computers, Internet bandwidth is extremely slow, making it very difficult to […]

Everyone arrived safe and sound in Zimbabwe earlier today (though a couple suitcases are coming later).
Right now we’re at the hotel in Mutare, where we just finished a very nice dinner. The hotel has only one dial-up connection, so I’m writing for everyone.
Tomorrow we’ll tour Africa University, so I expect others will be able […]

Just a quick post to let everyone know we all arrived safely at Heathrow in London. And now we’re just waiting until our flight to Harare leaves later on. Everyone seems to be getting really excited about soon actually being in Zimbabwe.

Special Report: United Methodist Council of Bishops
Maputo, Mozambique November 1-6, 2006
United Methodist Bishops Gather in Mozambique for First Meeting Outside U.S.
Individually and in groups, United Methodist bishops from around the world arrived over the past few days for the first full Council of Bishops’ meeting to be held outside United States’ territory. The meeting begins […]

E-mail from Ken and Nancy Ham who had planned on going with us and then couldn’t because of medical problems:
Hi all,
The time is almost here! We will be praying for all of you and your work in Old Mutare. Have a safe, inspiring, life changing, grace filled trip. May you be able […]

Margery and Gordon have asked us to tell you to please make sure all your suitcases have name and address labels on the outside and also put a label INSIDE with your home address, and the address and phone# of La Rochelle in case the suitcase gets lost: La Rochelle Hotel, Mutare, Zimbabwe, Phone # […]

Monday, October 30, 2006
CHECKED LUGGAGE: You may check TWO 62 inch (H+W+L) suitcases weighing no more than 70 pounds each.
CARRY-ON LUGGAGE:
PLEASE NOTE THAT THE FOLLOWING RESTRICTIONS APPLY TO ALL CUSTOMERS TRANSFERRING THROUGH A UK AIRPORT, WHICH IS WHAT WE WILL BE DOING.
The measures allow all air travellers departing from a UK airport to carry onboard […]

Packing: essentials
If you are bringing in any items to donate, it’s best to divide the items up and mix them into your personal luggage so that they aren’t all together and attract less attention if your bag is opened and searched by customs. Generally speaking, the very best idea is that everything you are bringing […]

Sunday, Oct. 29, 2006 Five days to go. I’ve finished packing my two huge pullman sized cases full of sewing items for my assigned classroom. There is one sewing machine, yards and yards of cloth, lining, interfacing, five pairs of scizzors, assorted thread, lace, seams tapes, patterns, snaps, ribbons, trim, pins, needles, buttons, snaps, 120 zippers, […]

On a medical note, I went to the Travel Clinic this week, and, as you and Ann told me already, 50 percent of us will get traveller’s diarrhea. Research shows that we can dramatically reduce our chances - down to 14 % I think - of getting it if we all take 2 […]

This will allow anyone who will have access to their home email account while they are in Zimbabwe (or now, too, for that matter) to easily post a message to the blog on the main page of this site just by sending an email message. You will just need to send the email (I’ll let everyone know the address for it) from the email address you entered in when you registered for the site (see http://vimtozim.org/wp-admin/profile.php if you’re not sure what it was).

Flight Schedule
Leave Detroit Metro: 22:35 3 Nov BA0202British Airways
Arrive Heathrow: 11:00 4 Nov
Leave Heathrow: 18:50 [or 6:50 PM London time] 4 Nov BA0153 British Airways
Arrive Harare: 06:55 AM 5 Nov
1 flight connection, total journey time: 25 hours 20 minutes.
Leave Harare: 09:10 19 Nov BA0152British Airways
Arrive Heathrow: 17:35 19 Nov
(Warning […]

Hello,
Gordon asked me to take responsibility for handling some financial matters and communicating data with the group. Therefore–
I sent this message to each of you individually because there are a number of different matters to share. In 1 and 2 I am looking for answers and help. The remainder [3 to 6 ] […]

For weather in Mutare, go to:
accuweather.com
Click on “world weather” and search for “Mutare, Zimbabwe”.

We are all fine and how happy we are to know that your team is ready to come
and be with us for sometime. My wife has accepted invitations. I suggest the
8th of November as the most suitable date I have a lot to share with your
team.
Jennifer and Isabel were so happy to hear that […]

Please send me a list of all Travellers, and I will allocate Rooms and
return to you. Kindly :-
1) Put names in pairs
2) Indicate Married Couples/Family Pairs/Requested Pairs if applicable
3) Indicate Sex of each pair if not included above
4) Any other pertinent info, such as “walks with cane”
The rains have sort of started, so a reminder […]

The manager at La Rochelle would like a list of our team members and if there are any preferences for roommates. I will be sending this to him this week, so if you have a preference, please let me know. Barb and Francie have already said they want to room together. Any others?

Hi Folks -
Baggage: Good news - British Air has told us that we can take 2 suitcases at 70 pounds each! The change to the 50 pound limit which was supposed to go into effect on October 11 was put on indefinite hold due to the severe new restrictions on the carry ons […]