Seminary Renovations

Nick Moore, Tyler Moore, and George Fabish of Kentucky recently came to Zimbabwe. Nick is a Ph.D. student at Southern Seminary and a pastor. Representing World Hope Bible Institute, he taught intensive seminary courses to about 18 church leaders and pastors. They studied Missiology and Evangelism, Systematic Theology, and the Basics of Christian Discipleship. According to Nick, the participants had lively discussions and good fellowship during their time together. God is at work "renovating" the hearts and lives of the leaders in Zimbabwe.

While Nick was used by God to Renovate the hearts of the pastors and church leaders, Tyler and George did physical renovations in the Seminary Chapel. Tyler is a robotic and mechanical engineer and George is a contractor for Lowe’s.

They hung up new light fixtures and replaced broken glass.

They also wired a new electric panel, replaced some termite damaged beams and did some roof repair on the library. While at the Seminary, they enjoyed meeting new friends and hanging out with them. Their new friends helped out in various ways as well.

Tyler said, “Sometimes they had a hard time understanding our English accents. We also learned some new vocabulary. We learned that now means relatively soon, but now-now means right now.” Overall they felt it was a very successful week.

Sanyati Baptist Hosptial Makeover Update

The Sanyati Hospital Makeover continues to progress. We have been blessed by so many different groups that have come our way since the beginning of the year (2014) Many of the teams which have come to work on the hospital have also done other types of ministry as well. This group taught Bible Stories and did crafts with children.

The emphasis in the past few months has been to get the Maternity and OB Ward of the hospital up to a usable standard. This has been a major project that has included a number of aspects. The Maternity Ward was built by local builders about 16 years ago (according to a plaque on the wall). In its beginning it was a very up to date unit to bring a much needed service to the “Waiting Ladies” of the Sanyati area. Unfortunately, during the intervening years, time, a collapsing economy, and marauding termites have not been kind to the facility. The teams coming this year have been helping to completely refurbish the Pregnant ladies ward rooms, the OB area and the delivery area. This includes working on the plumbing, repairing and replacing ceilings that were devastated by termites, reworking lighting, replacing wooden partitions between stalls in the delivery area with Stainless Steel, and painting the entire wing. All of this work should be finished before the end of August. Two teams of note were at the hospital during June and July. The first team with a difference came from Baptist Bible Church. This is a completely local team from Harare. Their main movement on the Makeover was in the painting of the Delivery Area and in doing some ceiling repair. Along with their work on the Maternity area there was preaching at Sanyati Baptist Church and the University students taught Sunday School for the Secondary School Students. A second team that motivated a great movement forward was the team from Heritage Hills and Zion Baptist Churches in Conyers GA.

During their time, major work was carried out on the infrastructure of the ceilings, lighting rewiring, and then painting of the repaired ceilings.

Ministry was also done daily with chapel services, visiting of new mothers and babies, Bible Studies for women waiting to deliver, Sunday School teaching and preaching at a local church. In addition In Service Training to help the hospital nurses keep their continuing education up to date was provided, and instruction in the use of the Fetal Sonogram were given. All of this was done with noticeable quality and workmanship. When these two teams left, a great leap forward could be seen in the progress for this year.

Volunteers from Oklahoma help start new church.

In late June, a team from Bartlesville Southern Baptist Church came to Zimbabwe, led by Pastor Paul Rummage,

with the aim of planting a new church at Cheshumba, an area at the base of Mount Mberengwa, which is considered by the local people to be a sacred mountain. The team set up camp on the school grounds of Cheshumba Primary School.

A small team of local pastors had arrived the day before to prepare the way for us, so the first night there was a good turnout for a showing of a portion of the Jesus Film, along with a short evangelistic service.

The next morning, after braving a very cold night in their tents, the team divided into several groups and set out, along with local translators, to visit in homes in the area. The groups were able to share the Good News with many people, and took the opportunity to invite everyone they met to come to the school that night for services, and more of the Jesus Film. In the afternoon the team had the opportunity to visit at the school. They shared songs, a Bible story, and games with the children.

After sharing the story of the “Feeding of the Five Thousand”, one of the team members used balloon art to demonstrate the loaves and fishes. Each child received his or her own “fish” balloon. As the children left school that day, they made quite a colorful sight of hundreds of children heading for home, each wearing their “fish” balloon on their heads!

That evening an even bigger crowd came for the service and there were many who responded to the gospel message. On the second morning at Cheshumba, Carole, who is a kindergarten teacher in the states, was invited to share a special time with the Grade Zero students at the school (the Zimbabwe equivalent of kindergarten). More Bible stories and games, and more balloon art rounded out her visit. Meanwhile, the evangelistic teams went out again, to visit in more homes.

Pastor Paul relates this story about one of his team’s visits in the community: “We came upon a small beer and snacks store, where we found three men. We visited and shared with them. One man, whose name was Honest, seemed very interested. We asked him if he would want to trust Jesus for salvation at that moment. He said no, and mentioned he was trying very hard to improve his life. Concerned that he was thinking about a "works salvation", we explained the grace gift of God. He interrupted to explain that he could not trust Jesus today because he had done so the previous night at the Jesus film showing. However he admitted his struggle in ‘leaving the beer drinking behind’. We prayed with him for deliverance from the alcohol, and encouraged him in his new life in Christ. He was thrilled to know that a new church could help him grow in following Christ. Please pray for Honest.” The team continued all that week visiting in homes each day, and holding services at night. At the end of the week when the Bartlesville team left, the local pastors stayed behind and organized a discipleship class for everyone who had made commitments to follow Christ during the week. It was reported that a large number of people came. Then on Sunday morning, the first service of Cheshumba Baptist Church was held, and twenty-four people attended and signed the membership register! Praise God for this new church!

God is at work in this area of Southern Zimbabwe. Please continue to pray for these new churches, especially for Cheshumba Baptist Church, that God will raise up a lay leader for the church, and that they will continue to grow in their faith and walk with Christ.