Jeanette's Mission

  Happy New Year! A few weeks ago, I was reflecting on what 2025 will hold, and was thinking about what should be my focus in the months ahead. I found myself talking to God, telling Him I don't want this to "business as usual". I thought about Christmas and the anticipation we often have about a family member or friend opening that special gift you bought with just them in mind, or the wonder in a child's eyes on Christmas Eve, and it dawned on me ....   I want this to be a year of excitement and anticipation. I've been working alongside VOH Africa now for almost 6 years and lived in Tanzania long enough now that I'm familiar with the mission and know my way around. So, it's possible things could become routine, or worse, boring. For those of you who know me well, you know I don't want that! I want the excitement of a child on Christmas Eve and the anticipation of what is about to happen. As I prayed about this, suddenly I fell upon Roman 12:11, in a ...

 I can’t tell you every activity or program we did at VOH in the last 12 months in this update – it needs a whole book for that! But, I can give you a few examples that helped so many children in real and life changing ways. Following is one picture from each of our 10 centers with a brief description for each. As you scan through them - note the wide variety of ways we pour into children's lives and be blessed knowing  your support, prayers and encouragement helped made it possible! Let's countdown from 10 to 1. Here we go ... ready? 10. VOH BWIZA (Burundi)  Several children did a traditional dance at our school year-end ceremony. In addition to academics in school, exploring their talent, like dancing, help the children to build their confidence and grow socially together. 9. VOH MARAMVYA (Burundi) In an effort to promote sports and physical activity for the VOH children and community, we started to build a football field on our premises this year. It's fun for the chil...

  As you enter into Thanksgiving weekend (wish I was there!), I wanted to take a moment to let you know how much of a blessing you are to me and how grateful I am to have you in my life. Your thoughts, prayers, encouragement and support mean so much as I continue on this mission with VOH Africa to impact the lives of children here in Tanzania and in the other African countries in which we serve. You're a blessing not just to the children but to me personally as well. It really makes a difference knowing you care and lift me up in prayer. As you enjoy some turkey and pumpkin pie this weekend, please know someone on the other side of the world is thankful for you today!   Jeanette

I can't believe it's 3 years ago this month that I moved to Tanzania! What an incredible journey. I'm so humbled that I found VOH Africa, and they found me.   The "honeymoon period" is long over, but I continue to be amazed by the work God is doing in the lives of thousands of children in need, through the work of VOHA. I trust my contribution is part of that.  I can't put into words all we are doing, so I thought, on this 3 year anniversary, I would do a video recap of the main ways we minister to the children and give a brief update of the past year. It's a little bit longer of a video, but I hope you will take the 4-5 minutes to watch it, pray for the children as you do. Thanks so much for you ongoing support, thoughts & prayers! Through them, you are part of it too! Enjoy!

  Last week, we had something exciting to celebrate – the VOH Bulale Primary School Grand Opening! Over 200 children now attend the school, from Preschool to Grade 7. It was such a special occasion! Of course there was the official ribbon cutting and lots of speeches, All were all inspiring and reminded us of the importance of having a school like the one in VOH Bulale: The Deputy Secretary of the Ministry of Community Development talked about how the children were roaming the streets of Bulale and had no way to go to school, and thanked VOH Bulale for coming to their community. A contributing Donor shared how, as a child, he made a promise to himself and to God that if he could ever help the kids of Africa he would and how supporting the construction of the VOH Bulale Primary school was his opportunity to fulfill that promise. The  VOHA Executive Director, Sergio , spoke directly to the children. He asked, “Why are we doing this?” and reminded them we are doing this “b...

  What do chickens and classrooms have in common?  Both are special initiatives, that go beyond the day-to-day programs of VOH Africa, to benefit the children. Every day the children go to school, get a nutritious meal, learn about God and more, but there are often many projects and local initiatives happening as well. All of these contribute to the lives of the children and centres.  Thought I'd share a bit about these with you this month. Local Initiatives Local initiatives are special programs to help raise local income which help supplement funds from child sponsorships, grants or other international support.  Most of the centers have a few ongoing local initiatives. I don't have time to talk about them all, so here's just one example: VOH Mongu, Zambia, with 3 booming initiatives, that are typical in many of of VOH Centres: 1. Growing Vegetables Most of the centres grow vegetables. It's great for teaching the children, gives some healthy vegetables for the mamas...