Reaching the Unreached Ndau of Zimbabwe

One of the “unreached” people groups in Zimbabwe is the Ndau who live in the mountainous area of Zimbabwe’s eastern border with Mozambique. Three years ago Gracelife Baptist Church from Christiansburg, Virginia decided to adopt these people. During their previous trip to Zimbabwe, a church was planted at Zamuchiya. There are about 20 people who attend regularly, and 14 of them were baptized recently by Pastor Manyanga from Chipinge Baptist Church. Though quite a distance from Chipinge, the new church members and leadership from Gracelife were invited to attend the Easter meeting recently held by the Chimanimani Baptist Association in Chipinge.

“It was a great time of teaching, encouragement, and fellowship,” said Pastor Tim Hight. “It was amazing to see how God orchestrated it all through the inspiration of His Holy Spirit so that the separate preparations done by various people who taught at the meeting (from both Zimbabwe and the U.S.) all dovetailed together.”

Associate Pastor Gary Long came with Pastor Tim and also participated in the programme.

A vibrant youth group came to the Easter celebration and sang for the group.

Families participated in the meeting, and even the children sat and listened for hours on end!

One of the biggest challenges church planters in Zimbabwe face today is that the old mindset and methodology are not reproducible and the growth of our churches has stagnated as a result. The idea that a church must meet in a “church building” and be led by a “seminary trained pastor” greatly reduces the number of churches one can expect to plant. Now that a church has been planted at Zamuchiya, the church planters from Gracelife’s next goal is to model for them how to evangelize the lost in their area to grow their own church and to reach out to the neighboring villages to plant churches there that will do the same. In this way many people will be evangelized and churches may be reproduced more quickly. This means churches may need to meet in school buildings or even under a tree. It also means that church members must all be active participants in church life using their spiritual gifts for the encouragement of the brothers, teaching of the brothers, and reaching out to the lost. Three more teams are coming from Gracelife this year to help facilitate this learning process.

When Pastor Tim Hight was asked what he perceived to be the greatest challenges he gave quite a long list! The top four were: • Learning to navigate the church planting process in Zimbabwe. • Finding what limited resources are available for the churches to use. • Learning where to plug in and when to pull away. • Trying to keep the excitement in his church going for 5-10 years to ensure they are able to complete what they started. When asked what he would like people to pray for concerning the Ndau, he said, “Pray for a spiritual awakening among the Ndau and the birth of a true church planting movement.”

Teacher's Testimony Amazes Students in Lesotho

Lesotho (a tiny country within South Africa) is currently rated second in the world for new infections of HIV virus. Even though our journeygirl Jennilee Phillips has completed her time in Zimbabwe, when she left us she went to spend a week in Lesotho and she has written the blog below for us about her time there: While in transition back to the states, I was given the opportunity to go visit my friends in the country of Lesotho. While there I was given the opportunity to continue my ministry of teaching True Love Waits. I had no idea what was in store for me there! Because HIV/AIDS is epidemic there, this teaching is extremely important, but also, the gospel is desperately needed. The school heads wanted the teachers to hear the presentation before it was presented to the students. I believe the teacher’s eyes were opened and they knew this material 'must' be taught to the students. Since I was leaving on Wednesday, and I taught the teachers on Friday, it only gave me 2 days to teach all the students. I showed up on Monday ready to teach! They basically told me they wanted me teaching the entire school and that there would be 6 classes with about 40 students in each class. Since I had 2 days left in the country, I split it up and taught 3 classes each day. After teaching only 1 class I was ready to hand the teaching over to someone else because I was losing my voice. I was worn out from talking for an hour and knew I had 2 more hours left! I knew everything I was presenting was so important for these kids to hear and all the examples I was giving and how the gospel was intertwined was so so important that I didn't want to sacrifice the Gospel and truth for my comfort.

The next day I went prepared with plenty of water and snacks. This was the day the Lord really showed me the reason I came and it blew me away. The day before, I met a teacher who said he was trained in teaching True Love Waits and I was not able to talk to him much at all the day before so he said he would go in with me the next day and help in teaching and giving testimony. He was a young married guy and was very excited to show me the True Love Waits cards he and his wife signed a few years prior. I asked him to please share his testimony with the students.

The kids were blown away with this teacher and the commitment he made and I could really see in their eyes they now looked at him in a different light! I was so very thankful because even though I was leaving, I knew he was staying and these kids could ask him any further questions they had. He was also very bold with the gospel and the kids asked some tough questions that he and I answered from the Truth of the Gospel. I left spiritually full that day, knowing the students heard truth and very encouraged when many of the kids asked for purity commitment cards to sign. I was also extremely thankful for national partners who love the Lord and are committed to sharing His truth. Praise God that though my time is short, God had a plan to continue this ministry after I am gone.