Be Careful What You Pray For





Terrence


The Tonha Family



Greg Jenks, the founder of ZOE Ministry, has told us that we should pray that our hearts be broken.  The young man in the photo is named Terrence.   He and 5 orther siblings live with their granmother in Zimbabwe.  The children are from 2 families.  All four of their parents have died.   The grandmother is now charged with caring for the 6 children but because of her age that burden rests mainly on 14 year old Terrence.   The 3 boys all sleep in one small room together but their are so many holes in the roof that when it rains, they must stand all night long. 

Sleeping Room for the 3 Boys

 Terrence has dropped out of school but does work there such as picking up bricks and working in the school garden.  He doesn't get paid but the school allows the 5 other children to go to school in exchange for his work.  When we visited them, they had enough food to last the family 1 1/2 days. 

Terrence's Grandmother

The grandmother said that she has to feed the children some porridge in the morning so they don't faint from hunger while they are at school. Yet when she heard we were coming to visit, she had prepared some sudzah, a local porridge, to share with us.  She has so little but was willing to share what little she did have.  What a humbling moment.  Now that Terrence is in the ZOE Empowerment program he will have the support of his group to help him repair his roof and good seed and fertilizer in order to grow a garden to help feed the family. Someday soon he may even be able to return to school himself!  From despair can come hope!  Asking God to break your heart seems like a strange request but a broken heart is a heart that should be called to action.  I know that Terrence's story and many others that we saw in Zimbabwe has and will break many hearts.  The only question for us now is what we will do about it.  "There are risks and costs to a program of action. But they are far less than the long-range risks and costs of comfortable inaction."  John F. Kennedy