House of Loveness, Zimbabwe

"Giving opens the way for receiving."  -Florence Scovel Shinn Last November, we launched a campaign on IndieGoGo to buy a car to use for safe transport of the children supported through House of Loveness in Zimbabwe.  Over a forty day period, we raised enough money from many small donations to buy a car (just over $6,000) that would be used to help transport the children to and from school and appointments.  We looked at cars for several months, but the conditions of the used cars were less than ideal and there were concerns about the costs for ongoing maintenance. We have decided to turn the car money into a large donation to buy bikes ($80 per bike) in a rural area for children to ride to school. It is a much better use of the funds and the bikes don't require expensive upkeep like the car (yes, we still need a car!). The children receive the bikes on Monday and return the bikes on Friday. They are responsible for keeping the bikes in good condition to maint

Qoya class during the 2013 Service & Safari Retreat Earlier this year, I was invited to give a speech during Catalyst Week in Downtown Las Vegas . The speech was about a catalyst moment in my life . I chose to speak about going to Zimbabwe to adopt a baby in 2008, only to discover she died just before I arrived. Betsy in Zimbabwe, 2008 Losing the baby was a catalyst moment because I had the choice to leave immediately and never return to Zimbabwe (which was my first instinct) or to stay in Zimbabwe and spend eight days grieving a baby in a country I'd never been to, among people I didn't know. I stayed. I spent most of the next eight days taking care of a crew of abandoned children that lived at a local hospital. They reminded me to go beyond the wounds and sadness and Choose Love. December 2013 Some of the children supported by House of Loveness since 2009 By the end of the following year, I had returned to Zimbabwe seven times, and founded Hous