Peckham Park Road Baptist Church
Here to be good friends with God, good friends with one another and good friends with our neighbours.
Mind the Gap
Young Aprentice
Harvest Family Village
The previous owner is struggling to sort her paperwork out to leave the country, hence has not yet left the property. This has been frustrating as we are desperate to get in there and start rearing chickens and growing food, especially as there we have a good water supply, whilst in town we have 5 days of no water due to the drought.
We have been able to begin the process of gaining permission for the children to move in. So far we have got provisional approval which is fantastic, and final city council approval hopefully will be given at their board meeting on 13th Dec – please pray!
Our first House
Here is a picture and the plans for our first house. We are so blessed to have Laurie and Jenny Humphries with us as Laurie can not only produce these pictures, but he can also build the house! Laurie and Jenny are missionaries from Australia, but the challenge is the refusal of their work permit which is still under appeal. Please pray for this work permit to be granted as without him this project will be more challenging and much more expensive.
The house has five rooms, one for the mother and four rooms for 8 children so they can be two in a room and have plenty of space as they grow up into young men and women. Each house will cost £22,000 to build (if we have Laurie!).
What Does 'Mind The Gap Africa' Do In Zimbabwe? »
Our aim is to rescue abandoned children and gives them a ‘forever’ home in a family with a mum. We have opened three such homes so far and seen such a huge difference in the children from being one of many in a large institution, to being one of ten in a family with a mummy. We have been working here since 2006 and in addittion to our childrens homes we also support vulnerable children in the community
This year we have bought a 30 Acre farm where we are going to create a childrens village, 'Harvest Family Village'. The children’s village will have twelve of these homes with eight children in each of them. Once on the farm our aim is to expand our work by providing homes for more children, to run the farm, growing crops and rearing animals so we can be as self sufficient as possible.
Who Is 'Mind The Gap Africa'? »
Mind the Gap- Africa is an organisation that cares for orphaned and abandoned children in Zimbabwe. We are a registered charity No. 1148575, under the umbrella of Peckham Park Road Baptist Church in the UK and Bulawayo Baptist Church in Zimbabwe.
How you can support Mind The Gap »
If you would be interested in sponsoring one of the children please contact the UK office of Mind the Gap- Africa:
Alison West
Mind the Gap - Africa
c/o The Vines Church
The Terrace
Rochester
Kent ME1 1XN
Other ways of donating to Mind The Gap »
www.everyclick.com/africamindthegap/info
www.giveasyoulive.com/join/africamindthegap
Thinking of Christmas?
You might consider our Christmas Challenge project, through which you could buy a unique gift for freinds and family.
The Farm- Tammy and Tapiwa
Tammy is our Pastor’s wife at Bulawayo Baptist Church and Tapiwa is a young man who has recently finished an agricultural degree. Tammy’s vision is to start a business called ‘Fruitful Harvest’.
She hopes to use the produce from the farm not only to feed the children, but also to generate income which will support the ministry and other children’s work under the Baptist Church. Tapiwa will be overseeing the hands on farming and is into integrated farming, one example of which is to feed the chicken poop to the fish and then drain the fish water each month to water the vegetables!
Issues Arising
One of the greatest issues we are wrestling with is whether we should we have single sex homes or mixed? I believe the ideal is mixed, but sadly as the world is not ideal there are concerns about issues of possible abuse. The concern of single sex homes is that we create an institutional style village, something we are desperate to avoid. We need your prayers on this and if you have any thoughts please let me know as we have to hear what the Lord is saying.
If anyone has any ‘carbamazepine’ medication they no longer need please could you send it to me as one of our boys is on a high dose and it costs us £50 a month. Please send to the UK address.
UK charitable status!
At last we have UK charitable status and our charity number is 1148575. This means we can apply for grants. If there is anyone who has a gift in that area and would like to help get in touch. Talking of getting in touch, I have been having a number of difficulties with lost emails so don’t assume I have heard from you. Admin is my challenge due to lack of time, but I will respond if I have heard from you, so if you don’t hear resend.
The Church Roof!
Finally, after several years the church building project is complete. Thank you to everyone who gave in order to make this happen. It is an enormous blessing to the local community, not only for worship services but also to use as for outreach and support projects.
Thank you for all your love and support for me and the children we seek to help.
Wishing you much love Jenny
