Wildfire churches in Mberengwa

We have just recently returned from a trip to the Mberengwa resettlement area where the gospel is spreading like wildfire!

The first church, you may recall was planted in March when a group of volunteers came from Bryan, TX. to work with us and Pastor I. Shortly after that 97 were baptized in a Shona speaking village area. Among those baptized that day was Mr. M who had heard the gospel was being preached and walked many miles from his Ndebele speaking village area to hear the gospel.

He then returned to his own village and began preaching the gospel! A few weeks later he phoned our convention evangelist (Pastor I. ) to say, “When can you come to my village to preach and baptize. We have more new believers here than the other group does!” So Pastor I. took some Ndebele speaking lay-leaders with him and they preached and baptized about 100 new believers.



Since then, both the Shona speaking church and Ndebele speaking church have begun new churches! There were 6 groups that we knew of, but when we traveled to Mberengwa recently discovered there are now 7!

Pastor I. realized the need for on the ground lay-leaders so he is training two men – Mr. M. who will continue to work with his Ndebele people and Mr. R. who is the man behind so many of the church starts among the Shona people. (Mr. R. is the man in the khaki colored clothes holding the list of people being baptized. You may not be able to tell from the picture, but he was dancing with joy as a friend was being baptized.)



Before the baptism, Pastor I. called the baptismal candidates together to speak to them about what baptism means and that in order to follow Christ, they would be required to leave their old traditional practices behind.



Pastor I. then sent any men who had been directly involved with the ancestor spirits to Gregg for counseling and prayer to break their ties with the spirits. The women were sent to his wife E. and Donna.

On this day, there were 34 new members from several of the congregations who had previously not been baptized. Pastor I. asked Mr. M. (in tie/dye shirt) to assist in the baptism that day so he could learn how to do it properly.



It was a joyful time of celebration as God’s children boldly proclaimed they no longer belonged to the prince of darkness, but the God of Light.