Sunday in Zimbabwe

Steve preached at Bulawayo Baptist.  His message was "To live is Christ?" And challenged us in asking how we would fill in "To me to live is_______."  Very powerful and gospel-driven.  Then he, Greg and Ricky left with Pastor Cosmos for Plumtree's pastor's conference.  The rest of the team went to a "brie" lunch with many church members and another mission team.  It was an sweet time of fellowship and laughter...and of course, tea.  Then Traci and Jason gave their testimonies at the youth service back at the church in the evening.  (Pics to come ...)

Saturday - 2nd Chance Rehabilitation Centre

While the rest of the team were in groups in town and in Kwe Kwe, Pastor Steve had the privilege to take a tour of our host John Derks' ministry called Second Chance Rehabilitaion Centre.  This is a Christian halfway home for the after-care of ex-prisoners which provides Christ-centered rehabilitation and life skills training to help empower and integrate them back into society.  This is made possible by donors from the community in order for participants to be self-supportive.  As of March 2012 they have about 50 participants.

As of now they have a tailor shop and are making 

uniforms for a company.  The next project in the works is to build a construction warehouse to build coffins.  And eventually they would like to add a poultry area for raising chickens for eggs and meat selling.  Amazingly enough God has ALREADY provided the buyers of all these entities, they just need the funds to get going on each project! 

Saturday - KweKwe Hospital & Bulawayo Baptist Women's Conference

Will write more later...but here's some of the day in pictures!

Saturday Bulawayo Baptist Women's Conference:

Ties! Recognize any?

The pastors at Hope Fountain were so excited when they saw the ties and it was like watching kids in a candy store as they choose their favorite!

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!