TANZANIA Update: Matt Storer, Jim Ross and Stacey Davis

Matt, Jim and Stacey completed 3 days of work in Morogoro, Tanzania. This new program is the result of a partnership with Pastor Alex of Morogoro Baptist Church. Because this project is new, we spent most of the time working on fundamentals and ministry foundational principles to ensure that will have a soid partnership in the future. In response, the team signed a Partnership Agreement that outlines 4 pledges: Ministry, Management, Finance and Beliefs.

The programs in Tanzania serve nearly 400 children in two projects. Both project sites are beginning with children from pre-school age and are in their early stage of development. We have a long way to go to bring a high quality of health, education and discipleship - but we have a great team on the ground!

Thank you for praying.

Matt Storer & Jim Ross in Zimbabwe and Tanzania

QUICK UPDATE: Jim and Matt just finished 4 very hot and long days in Zimbabwe. They have established a new partnership in a village called Zunga that is about 1 hour south of Masvingo. It is 1 of 17 villages in the area served by our new project. Currently, the project has 240 double orphans (that means the child has lost both parents). Approximately 400 additional single orphans need assistance in this area as well. It is hard to comprehend the mass volume of orphaned children. AIDS and malaria are the primary cause of death among adults and children.

They leave for Tanzania Wednesday, Jan 27th. VisionTrust began a new partnership there last August so they will be doing training, establishing structure and communications.

Please pray for safety, health, wisdom, God’s leading in all things, patience and clear communication.

NEWS: VisionTrust's Response to the Earthquake in Haiti

While VisionTrust does not work directly in Haiti, we do have programs in the neighboring country called the Dominican Republic. Nelson Paulino, the VisionTrust Dominicana Executive Director, reported that, “The DR side of the island is pretty much ok, almost everywhere we felt the earthquake and it was scary, today [Jan 13] in fact many schools are not open in case there is a second one today that may affect us harder, but so far we are ok. After the movement is was difficult to make a phone call, so it was not until later last night when I was able to confirm that everybody was ok on our programs.” Our ministry in the Dominican Republic includes many Haitian immigrants. One program in particular serves primarily Haitian refugees in the Haiti border town of Comendador.

VisionTrust is not providing direct relief support in Haiti at this time because we do not have a ministry presence there. However, we do anticipate that the Haitians participating in our Dominican programs will soon be asking VisionTrust to help them help their family members that live in Haiti. Please remember to pray for the Haitian leadership, the international relief agencies and the people of Haiti.

If people would like to help these families, they can go to https://portal.visiontrust.org/donate/default.aspx and then select General Donation and write “Haitian Family Support” in the comment field. VisionTrust will make sure that these families will receive your gifts.