Orphaned children are like wildflowers.  Instead of pulling them from the only soil they’ve ever known, God’s Garden seeks to cultivate and nourish the existing soil of their communities. 

 Our Core Values

• God’s Heart: A compassionate heart for orphaned children, and an understanding of their pain and need in every area.
• God’s Eyes: Respect, dignity and love for the whole community within which orphaned children live.
• God’s Hands: A desire to touch and be touched: to bring a generous joy and warmth in each interaction.
• God’s Feet: A willingness to go anywhere and do anything God is asking us with humility and dependence on Him.

Our First Garden: Ngundu, Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe, an independent nation since 1980, is in the midst of the worst crisis in its history. Inflation is at 516,000,000,000,000,000,000% (that's 516 quintillion!) 80% of people are out of work and a fifth of the population has HIV/AIDS, resulting in the lowest life expectancy in the world and an excess of 1.3 million orphaned children.  Recent elections and the inability to form a true power-sharing government have left the country reeling.  There is little food, fuel or seed and fertilizer in the country.       

The rural village of Ngundu is five hours from Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe.  With some of the least fertile soil in the nation, Ngundu has no electricity or running water.  Here, there are over 500 children who have lost both parents to AIDS.

Our Directors

Zimbabweans, Davison and Yana Mzezewa-Zhou and their daughter, Esther, returned to Zimbabwe in January 2008 to be the Directors of God’s Garden after eight years in the US.  In May 2007, Davison received a Master’s Degree in Leadership from Denver Seminary.

Our Plan

The work of God’s Garden occurs in three stages.  In each stage, as caregivers and members of the community volunteer to help the children, they will have access to the resources of God’s Garden.

In the first stage we emphasize meeting immediate needs by helping the village farm their land and providing a feeding program, school fees, clothes, medicines and other resources, as well as HIV/AIDS education and testing. 

The second stage is a building and growing stage, as God’s Garden seeks to build a community center that will house a medical clinic, kitchen and storage facilities, and classrooms for skills training and other educational and spiritual growth opportunities. 

In the third stage, the goal is self-sustainable entrepreneurial and leadership skills, to help layer into the lives of orphaned children and their community the opportunity to grow and be educated, to be healthy physically, emotionally and spiritually, and to create income and be generous.  We seek to do this through proactive discipleship, leadership training and key business development.

US Leadership

God's Garden is run entirely by volunteers in the US.  As founder of God's Garden, Lisa Foster traveled to Zimbabwe in 2006, where she and her husband met the children of Ngundu, who captured her heart.  After six months of praying regarding how to help the children, she met Davison and Yana Mzezewa-Zhou, who shared a similar vision and longed to return to Zimbabwe.  They joined her in God's Garden in June 2007, and left for Zimbabwe in January 2008.  Since then, a team of generous volunteers has gathered around Lisa to help build the ministry.