Deacon Caravan 2009

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  • Eleven deacons traveled to Zimbabwe to see for themselves the work being carried out with those who have tested positive for HIV/AIDS. 
  • The group began by visiting Africa University. AU is in partnership with the Department of Health and Sciences of the University and the Zimbabwe annual conference to develop Project Tariro, a program helping people who are living with AIDS.  
  • The deacons were taken on tour by Violet Chickanya, head of the nursing school at Africa University (pictured here in orange) and the nurse working with the orphans and vulnerable children?s program. 
  • Pictured here at the secondary school are high school children who have lost one or both of their parents to AIDS 
  • The children told the deacons their stories. Some of them - although only teenagers - are raising their younger brother and sisters on their own because both of their parents have died. Some are being raised by grandmothers or aunts or uncles. 
  • Deacons Gregory Gross from Illinois (on the left) and Alicia Cargill from Alabama (on the right) got to know the teenagers a little better as they sat and talked with them.  
  • We then went to the primary school to meet the younger children. 
  • These younger children told us the same story, they had lost one or both parents to AIDS. Here they sang for us. 
  • We presented the children with a soccer ball. Soccer is very popular in Zimbabwe and the children have very few toys to play with. Do you see the plastic bags that are their book bags? Many of them do not have bags for their supplies and some of them do not have shoes. 
  • After that we went to a vocational tech school where older students were taking classes that would give them skills to earn a living. 
  • This is where they learn how to farm. The men in the picture are their teachers. 
  • This is the shop where they have been learning car mechanics. 
  • We then went out into the bush to some very small villages. 
  • This is the site of a United Methodist Church where they also have a health clinic. 
  • The nurse showed us around the health clinic. It was three rooms where people are brought in by their families when they are sick. 
  • The room is furnished very sparsely. This is a room where patients are treated. 
  • In this room many babies are born. 
  • A short distance down the road there is a home for old people, run by the church. 
  • These old people had very little - their clothes were tattered and torn and many of them did not have shoes. 
  • They came out to meet us and tell us why they are in the home. 
Leading & Equipping the Church in Servant Ministry - Order of Deacon

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