Friday - Last Day at Hope Fountain

What a powerful day.  God proved his character as Jehovah Jireh!  From providing the extra toothbrushes needed to complete the filling of the ladies bags to His Spirit leading Lucy to already have gathered and brought to teach just what the children were learning, our God provides, in His time, in His ways, and by faith.

Highlights from today were having Jason and Kay join the team at Hope Fountain to experience their worship and meet more of our brothers and sisters in Christ here in Africa.  It was an amazing time and singing and dancing before the Lord!  You’ll see later on video that there were high-kicks involved...but you can guess they weren’t by any of us!

The men continued their teaching, taking the afternoon session to a homestead of a church member.  Greg and Steve experienced God’s mighty power describing how all 30 of them filled an empty 12X12 room singing “How Great is Our God” together.  They said it was truly an experience that cannot be expressed by words.

Robin had a powerful experience with her last day with her teachers at the homestead of another church member...overlooking the hills and her maize garden.  The hunger for the word to teach their children in their churches is still indescribable. The first day she had 9 and by the last day she had 14!  At Bible club in the afternoon the number of children grew from 76 to 103...all in a school classroom!  She has an amazing story of confirmation in coming to Zimbabwe to share when we return...

Kathy too had another fabulous day of teaching and sharing who our God is with the women.  They are amazed at her openness and they all fell in love with one another this week.  

  Kathy giving out the ladies' bags...

It was such a blessing to give all the participants their certificates of completion and all the ladies their gift sacks!  They were so excited to receive them and it was an honor to see how our church women back home was blessing the women here in Zimbabwe without even having been here! Pictures to come....(hopefully!).  The children’s materials were also divided up among the churches to their leaders and were they ready to receive those!  Robin heard stories throughout the days of how they had used up every bit of the resources we provided last year....just waiting to be replenished.  Thank you church!!

Traci had a successful and Spirit-filled day at Windles as she shared the Gospel and planted the seed of trusting in Jesus as their Savior when they feel led by Him.  She will continue to water those seeds in prayer and one more time with them on Monday.

And to add to yesterday...Pastor Steve gave the men the bag of ties and it was an awesome thing to watch them pull them out with grins from ear to ear, look them over and try and choose the best that went with their coat that day (possibly the only coat they own).  Many were proudly wearing them today.... blessed.  Again, hopefully pictures to come....

Ministry Day 2

What a wonderful 2nd day of ministry!

Group 1 of Steve, Kathy, Greg, Robin, Ricky and Lucy headed back for their 2nd of 3 days in Hope Fountain ministering to the pastors, ladies, church childrenʼs teachers, and school teachers. There are many villages represented including a group around 200 miles away and one from the border of Mozambique! The ties we collected were shared and what a site that was...they were so exctied, like kids in a candy store picking out their favorites! The women will get their gift bags tomorrow, our last day.

We are amazed at their worship and at their hunger for the Word. We hear high reviews for the teachings of Greg, Steve and Kathy with the ladies. She told us they had an amazing time of worship on their own after the men left...as Kathy said, “As the men ʻgot downʼ this morning in worship, the women ʻgot downʼ after they left! There is an amazing bonding going on...todayʼs womenʼs seminar ended with prayer first for the widows followed by prayer for the mothers of young children.

Robinʼs childrenʼs teachers really opened up about questions they had in organizing and training their children...her day seemed much more productive and relaxed as they all got to know one another. The teachers and her join together and do Bible club to the children, many who are orphans. Itʼs neat to watch the teachers teach the curriculum she planned. They have had about 80! Lucy spent her day in grade 0, which is our kindergarten, helping the teacher who had 44 children on her own that day!

Jason spent the day essentially with another mission team here from Australia and England doing construction on one of the orphan homes we visited on Tuesday. Kay continued to spend time with Tinashe and his caregivers. Pray as she feels they still are having difficulty understanding how much he really can accomplish and if they will continue the work with him after she leaves. Traci did her second day of Bible club at the orphan home which Kay said was “fabulous!”

Thank you for your continued prayers. Traci will continue her ministering and Bible clubs at the orphan homes while the rest will be at Hope Fountain so Jason and Kay can experience the worship and ministry going on out there. Pray for rest, perseverance and continued cohesiveness that the Lord is building amongst our group...we both laugh and cry a lot together!

Schools, Sandra Jones, Orphan Homes

Traci at Ebenezer with Maureen and Awakiwe

Lucy gave donated toothbrushes and toothpaste.

Jason and Traci also spent time at Sandra Jones listening to Tammy share the Bible story and hearing them sing...video to come upon return!

Ministry Day 1

Today was Day 1 of ministry.

Pastor Steve and Greg ministered to the pastors and Ricky led worship with about 30 men pastors and about 40 women.  Robin ministered to the church children’s teachers, 9 of them - 3 the same from last year, at the orphanage the church runs down the road.  Lucy was just a little bit away at the village school and had a wonderful time with the head mistress (principal) explaining how she was wanting to minister with the teachers and children the next 2 days.  She said it was very successful.

Kathy then took just the women in the afternoon after lunch.  There was not enough food because more came than planned so thanks to Angie we ate on our variety of snacks!!  We were told by Sheila tonight that the reaction Kathy received to her ministering which at first was a bit of shock turning to weeping and hugging is because women pastors here do not open up because of their high place of status and respect among the church people.  Sheila said they were probably in awe of the openness of her and that it will really produce much fruit with them.  God is so good.

The pastors and the children’s teachers ended up at the school in the afternoon since the ladies were using the church.  Robin had about 80 children (with more watching on who do not normally attend the church for their daily feeding of the children) for the Bible club.  Her 10 teachers took what she had planned and it was fun to watch them in their own unique environment!

Kay had a successful day at both Mind the Gap orphanages and says despite what Tinashe’s caregivers have said, he CAN learn and they will focus on potty training...which is the beginning of a possible several year process.  But we have a miracle-working GOD so PRAY for sooner!  She also enjoyed getting to know all the children and visiting with the caregivers.

Traci and Jason spent their morning at the Sandra Jones Centre.  They participated in Tammy’s (Pastor Jeff’s wife) Bible story time with about 60 girls and boys...they are working their way through the story of Joseph.  They also experienced a wonderful and awesome time of worship listening to them sing to their Lord.  Jason said it was amazing and videoed every minute!

(Hope to have pics of these too when I get their camera cards!);)

We are thankful for what God is doing and please keep praying.  Traci was out in her back tonight and struggling with it daily.  A few are still a bit jet lagged and the feeling of being overwhelmed by the need to depend on the Lord is great. And that is a good thing.  You will be glad to know prayers for Kay have been answered...there were no and still are no fears or anxieties about ANYthing!!  Also Greg’s bag came in yesterday (Tuesday).  We are learning to depend on Him more and more... He is our Jehovah-Jireh, our Provider.  It is about HIM and we ARE seeing HIM WORK!  

Tour Day

Today was tour day...

We started at Ebenezer Orphan Home...saw the children, played, witnessed their learning of scripture and wonderful songs they sing.  

We then headed to Bulawayo Baptist Church where Pastor Jeff showed us all the various ministries of the church including a soup kitchen, youth, aid, etc...and many many more shared by their Missions Pastor Chris...most of which are in the bush - over a dozen churches they planted and support...

We then moved on to Hope Fountain and Pastor Gideon and Jennifer at Praise and Worship Church.  So great to see them again and introduce our new team members to them!  

It was a fabulous day that we have recorded video reflections that we will hope to post soon!

VIDEO REFLECTIONS OF THE DAY:

Made it to Zimbabwe!

We made it to Zimbabwe!!  Customs went pretty well although we did pay duty on all the tubs...about 25% and they didn't bother going through most of it since we had the itemized pricing lists...so that was good!  Pray that Greg's lost large duffel bag gets found and here asap...got lost somewhere along the way....hopefully it's on it's way and will be here tomorrow!  

We will tour our ministry areas tomorrow and have a little more down time for our busy rest of the week.  We had a great time of fellowship with our host families; dinner together and then worship with Ricky and TK (worship leaders, for those who don't know them) on the porch under the star-lit sky watching shooting stars as we praised our Maker!  Excited to see what the Lord has in store...

At the Bulawayo airport after customs...

Tammy & Jeff Scorzeill, pastor of Bulawayo Baptist...

Lucy with Sheila Derks, with whom some of us are staying and is cooking all our meals!

Made it to London!

We were overwhelmed by our send-off!  Thank you, thank you for your visible support in showing up, praying together, our prayer cards, our caravan to the airport, our snacks, etc, etc.  We cannot tell you how much of a blessing that was.  And the many of you remembering us and praying today for our departure.  You all are with us on this journey for sure!

 Traci, Kay, Jason, Kathy, Greg, Lucy, Steve, Robin

Nothing too exciting to write about except that we did make it to London Heathrow and we leave again at 5:50 p.m. our time (about 1:00 p.m. TX).  Some of us slept, some of us did not much, but I would imagine this next flight we will all get some sleep.  Continue praying for our luggage and supply tubs and for favor in the eyes of the customs' officials in Bulawayo on Monday.  Pray also for Stephane, a man one of us spoke with on the flight about the Lord.  Pray he will come to Jesus as Savior.  He was raised in a Christian home but does not follow the Lord.