Almost there! ... and a lesson from my friend Tino you won't want to miss!

Tino and his candy

Someone once shared with me the famous quote attributed to St. Augustine who said, "Pray as though everything depended on God.Work as though everything depended on you."  

While I carry on with my VOHA responsibilities, I've also spent alot of time in the last few months raising support - following Augustine's advice.

In prayer, I've asked God to lead me. He has put names in my heart, many of them yours, to approach about becoming a partner with me in my mission and the good work of Villages of Hope Africa. I've also worked hard, spending many hours preparing and sharing the vision with individuals, businesses and churches.

Augustine was right. The combination works. God is faithful and the work is paying off. I'm excited to report that, as of today, I'm at almost 80% of my goal! Almost there! Yeah!

My goal is to reach 100% of my funding by December so I can spend my time in the new year solely focused on my work with Villages of Hope Africa - whether from here in Canada or by returning to the field. 

A huge thank you for those of you who have continued, or started, to partner with me through monthly support. You are the foundation upon which I can continue each month and are a huge blessing to me. I thank God and pray for you often. Others of you have given support through special gifts - you a blessing too! I hope you all feel the joy of knowing you are part of impacting the lives of children as much as I am, and you truly are making a tangible difference in their lives.

There are others of you who have said you will join, said maybe later or are still considering, but life has just gotten busy and you simply forgot. If this is you, I hope this blog will jog your memory, and you will  go online to sign up today

Thanks for being part of this with me.

Now to the lesson from Tino...

One of my favourite persons, Dave Toycen, former president of World Vision Canada, wrote a book called the  The Power of Generosity. (If you haven't read it, I highly recommend it!) In it, he explains: Generosity is a simple act of caring" (p.8) He continues, "Generosity is for everyone. All it takes is a willing spirit and the courage to be used for something greater than ourselves." (p. 35) That's what this is all about.

I want to share with you a wonderful story that shows this in real life ... it's about my friend, Tino, who I met at Villages of Hope Zimbabwe. Forgive me if I've talked about him or you've heard this story before, but his act of generosity blew my mind. He's just 5 years old. 

We first met when he came to my window one day and introduced himself. After that, he had my heart, and he, his sister and I often spent recess time under a gazebo laughing and playing together.

One Friday, I was driving his mom, sister and him to their home in a village about 30 min away. When we got in the car, his older sister took a hard candy from her mom's purse. Tino wanted one too. But there was only one. So her mom instructed her to suck half the candy, than share the second half with her little brother. She happily sucked the candy for a few minutes, pulled it out of her mouth, and handed the rest over to Tino. He was happy for his share too.

The following Monday is when COVID had been declared a global pandemic and Trudeau got on the air strongly advising "Canadians abroad, come home while you still can." As I was packing to return, I realized I had some hard peppermint candies my aunt had given me to take with me to Africa. So I put them in a ziplock bag and was so happy to share them with Tino and his sister in the gazebo on our last day together. We carefully counted them out - 38 in total - 19 each ... almost one a day for a month! He proudly put them in his backpack, keeping his new treasure safe and sound.

A few minutes later, some of his friends came by to play. I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw what happened next. Here's what I saw....


Not just one, but two candies each. When he was done, I think he had about 4 candies left for himself. But he was happy seeing the joy it brought his friends. That's the power of Generosity.

I encourage you today to have the same generosity of Tino, putting others first and experiencing the joy of giving. Thanks for all of you who have already been so generous in caring for the children of Africa, and for the others of you who will join today. Prov 22:9 promises, "The generous will themselves be blessed, for they share their food with the poor.

May you be richly blessed as you so freely bless others. 

Jeanette

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