Light and Life: The Sanyati Makeover

John 1:4 says, “In Him was life, and that life was the light of Men.” In early July teams from Heritage Hills Baptist Church (Conyers GA) and Pleasant Heights Baptist Church (Columbia, Tennessee) joined forces with others in Zimbabwe and brought both Light and Life to the folks in the Sanyati area and to the Sanyati Baptist Hospital specifically.

As the Sanyati Makeover progresses, major milestones in the project were reached in June, July, and August of this year. This combined team worked together to see major movement in the replacement of the entire roof on the hospital.

Both teams have visited several times to work with the hospital project and also the sharing of the good news in a more direct manner. Having had repeated experience on the roof, all those involved were qualified for the challenges they would meet and the materials they would use. During this trip the truss structure on one large building was almost completely restored and the complicated hip and valleys of this building fitted into place. The nursing school saw more than two thirds of its roof replaced as well. Accompanying the team were several master electricians who installed the long awaited solar lighting system.

For several years now the electrical supply for the Sanyati Hospital has been erratic due to the deteriorating electrical infrastructure of the country. At times the operating room has had to manage under a headlight powered by a vehicle battery. Now, thanks to the generosity of Samaritans Purse, who supplied the solar equipment, and the electrical installation talent of this volunteer team, there is 24 hour power in the critical portions of the hospital. Yet an even more important “light” was shed at the hospital and surrounding area during this teams visit. On a daily basis the team members shared in the Chapel services and teams trained in the sharing of “Creation to Christ” presented the light of the gospel in the Matumbas. (onsite village where expecting mothers await their delivery.)

The afternoons were spent hosting opportunities for the children to hear the gospel at local schools.

One special day was scheduled for the team members to partner with local pastors and accompany them on door-to-door evangelism visits. By the end of the 10 day visit there were 23 adults and 24 children who made professions of faith. Truly Life and Light was presented as the Heritage Hills/Pleasant Heights Makeover team came to Sanyati. Submitted by Barry Robinson

A Vision for the Ndau - An Unreached People Group

At the Southern Baptist Convention meeting in 2011, Tom Elliff, President of the IMB challenged churches to adopt an unreached people group and seek to reach them. After hearing this challenge, Pastor Tim Hight of Christiansburg, VA shared this challenge with his church to cast the vision to them. One member of the church, Jim Rice, is a retired IMB missionary from Uganda and Kenya, and when he heard about this possibility he got very excited and suggested the possibility of adopting a people group in Africa. They investigated to find what people groups were listed for Africa and began to pray about the various groups. They settled on the Ndau people of Southeastern Zimbabwe. Then they began to work with Tom and Cindy Melvin, the Engagement Personnel for the Kingdom to Kingdom Cluster, (made up of Botswana, Zimbabwe, Western Zambia, and the Limpopo and the Northwest Province of South Africa), to begin making plans for a Visioning trip.

In August, Pastor Tim Hight, Jim Rice, and Chris Webb traveled with the Melvins, Pastor Isaac Mabvumba, the Baptist Convention Evangelist and Pastor James Tembo, Executive Director of the Baptist Convention to the Chipinge Dictrict in Southeastern Zimbabwe to meet with Pastor Karakadzai Munyanga (seen below) of the Chipinge Baptist Church. Pastor Munyanga received them with great joy and gave them a tour of the area around Chipinge.

“This sounds funny”, said Pastor Tim, “But at first I was a bit disappointed to find that there were a few churches in the area already. As I thought about this, though, I realized it could be to our advantage in that part of our ministry could be to disciple the believers in Chipinge and to get them involved in church planting in the unreached areas away from town.”

As they were traveling, they stopped at several places to meet people and get a feel for the area. They discovered that it was a vast remote mountainous area dotted by very small villages that were quite far apart. This has been one of the main barriers to reaching the Ndau people.

Pastor Tim had the opportunity to preach to some of the head men of the area who had gathered for a meeting.

One of the challenges of working in Africa is dealing with the dependency issue. “If Grace Life Baptist Church decides to partner with Pastor Munyanga,” says Pastor Tim, “our goal will be to share the gospel with the lost and disciple the new Christians. We don’t believe that pouring money into buildings and projects will help spread the gospel and it is not reproducible on a local level. We hope to model a ministry that is reproducible by those with whom we work and train.”

World Hope Bible Institute Helps Train Lay Leaders

Training lay leaders to take a leadership role in churches without pastors is a need in many places around the world. Thanks to World Hope Bible Institute, many lay-leaders are being trained around the world. Recently Stuart Sheehan (pictured below) from the Bible Institute in Houston, TX came to Zimbabwe along with Pastor Nick Moore and a trained lay-leader from his church in Kentucky, Mr. Caleb Green.

About seventy participants from three different Baptist Conventions in Zimbabwe came to the Baptist Seminary in Zimbabwe where they participated in 3 intensive courses. Potential trainers are being fast-tracked so they can teach lay-leaders around Zimbabwe. Trainers from World Hope Bible Institute will come from the states twice a year to teach these intensive courses until the program is complete. The courses being taught are basically the same ones a seminary student would take to earn a seminary degree. A few electives will be written by Baptist leaders to meet the practical needs of training lay- leaders to work in Zimbabwe churches.

Pastor Moore shared that he had really enjoyed be able to teach such eager students, who were responsive and excited to have the opportunity to learn more about God’s Word. Pastor Moore is seen below looking through the books in the Baptist Seminary library.

The most challenging aspects of the week, according to Mr. Brown, have been the logistics, communication, “African Time”, and the language barrier. When lay-leader Caleb Green was asked why he would choose to get involved in this programme he responded, “The Lord has blessed me with opportunities for training and a number of men have invested in my life. Now I have the ability and education necessary to share with others. I want to be faithful to God to share with others what I have learned myself.” Pray for all the participants of the World Hope Bible Institute courses that they will also be faithful to share with others what they themselves have learned. “And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others.” (I Timothy 2:2, NIV) If you would like to know more about World Hope Bible Institute check out their website at: www.whmi.org (Not a hot link.)

Chik-fil-A Comes to Zimbabwe

One of the aims of the Chik-fil-A corporation is to invest in the lives of others through leadership development. The ministry branch of Chik-fil-A which makes this possible is called WinShape. What a pleasure it was to have C.T. Taylor (pictured below back left) and Jeff Rouse (back right) return again this year. Joining them for the first time were Kimberley Cox (front left) and Lauren Warner (front right).

In the few days they were here, they managed to do a lot of leadership training! They began with the staff of Lasting Impressions, a Christian camp near Kadoma that teaches leadership training and team building to older elementary school and high school students. Next they made their way to Gweru where their first leadership training was at the Baptist Camp where they met with Baptist pastors and their wives.

Then they had an opportunity to meet with the staff at Antelope Park. The staff there was excited about the training they received, and the first priority item they agreed needed to be accomplished was to establish a set of core values.

Later, they were able to address the participants of the Baptist Convention and teach some basic leadership principles to them. Later, they traveled to Sanyati where they met with the staff of the hospital for leadership training. They were also able to participate in the “makeover” by helping with the construction work there and meeting some of the neighbors around the hospital.

Youth Camp

Ramona Beam had an opportunity to teach at the Youth Camp which was held at Airport Baptist Church in Bulawayo. Here is what happened while she was there: Recently I was invited to speak at a youth camp here in Bulawayo, hosted by Airport Baptist Church and attended by around 80 youth from many Baptist churches in the area. I was the first speaker on the program for this Monday morning. When I arrived at the church, about 10 minutes before I was scheduled to speak, I was greeted by the youth leaders and one of the deacons of the church. I discovered that the ladies who were to cook breakfast for the youth had overslept, and were just starting to prepare the meal. “Africa time” strikes again! But what could have been an inconvenience was turned into a blessing as I was able to sit and visit with some of the youth leaders for the Baptist Convention of Zimbabwe as we waited. That’s what it’s all about here in Zimbabwe. It’s not about time, or schedules, but it’s all about relationships. What a wonderful example of one of the most appealing aspects of the culture here. Sometimes in our fast-paced culture in the US, we forget—or don’t have the time—to stop and just visit and chat with folks. We miss out on so many rich blessings by not taking the time to pour into people’s lives, and allow them to pour into ours. This morning, I was reminded again about how important it is to allow God to speak to others through us, and to allow Him to speak to us through those around us.

After breakfast was over, everyone made their way into the church, and the day started with singing. And dancing. Unlike what we think of dancing in the states, this dance was a dance of worship and praise to God, a praise offering of pure joy. After about 30 or 45 minutes, I was introduced as the guest speaker. Only about an hour and a half after my scheduled time, so it was good. I had been asked to speak on “Relationships”, with a focus on dating relationships for students and young adults. Of course, I took the opportunity to bring some of the concepts and lessons from True Love Waits, a faith-based abstinence program for teens that started in the US in 1993, and in Africa in 1994. True Love Waits teaches sexual purity until marriage, unlike so many other programs that promote “safe sex”. I am so grateful to have been given the opportunity to talk to these youth about how to realize their dreams for the family they will have one day, and to demonstrate to them through Scripture how the choices they make now will affect the rest of their lives.

The lesson drew a comparison between King David, who gave in to the temptation to commit adultery with Bathsheba (2 Samuel 11), and Joseph, who fled temptation when Potiphar’s wife tried to seduce him (Genesis 39). The youth were challenged to make the right choices now, in order to have God’s best for their lives. Then the discussion turned to talking about “how far is too far”, leading them to think about how far it is ok to go before crossing the line from temptation into sin. After that, they were given the opportunity to share skits about what they learned.

Hebrews 4:15 is a helpful verse in this area, so the group was led and encouraged to memorize this verse that tells us that “We do not have a High Priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have One who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet without sin.” Jesus is there to help us through our temptations, and knows exactly what we are going through. Please pray that just knowing this will help these young people through the temptations they face every day. My time with the group ended with a look at another Scripture, this one taken from 1 Thessalonians 4:3-8. This passage tells us how to live a life pleasing to God, a life of holiness and honor. God has not called us to a life if impurity, but a life of holiness. The kids were given an exercise, to paraphrase this passage in their own words, written as if it were a letter to their school friends. This helped them to personalize these verses and know how to apply them to their own lives. Please pray for the youth of Zimbabwe, that they will make the right choices as they grow to adulthood. Pray for those who work with the youth, for wisdom and holy discernment as to how to lead them along the right path, to Jesus Christ.