Musicians Bless Bulawayo Youth

In early December, the John Ivins Band from Powhatan, VA came to Bulawayo for 10 days to minister to the youth of Bulawayo Baptist Church, by leading their annual youth camp, plus a number of other ministries. After flight delays, the team arrived in Bulawayo on a Sunday afternoon, and immediately dove into ministry, leading the Sunday night youth service at the church. Even though the team was tired, it was an awesome experience for everyone.

Early the next morning, we left for a whirlwind visit to Victoria Falls and Hwange National Park. During two short days, we were able to visit the Falls, one of the seven natural wonders of the world, and a World Heritage Site, spend a night at a lodge by a watering hole in the game park, game drive (where we saw lions!), and still be back in Bulawayo in time for the group to participate in The Crave, which is weekly service held on Wednesday nights at Bulawayo Baptist for the young adult group (ages 19-30).

On this week, the band members led out in a panel discussion, answering questions relevant to these young adults. The topics covered centered around healthy relationships and marriage, and included what do families look like in the states, how did you choose music for your ministry, how does your ministry impact your family, and for Billy and Amy (the one married couple in the band), how did you meet and fall in love, plus lots more.

On Thursday morning, the band had the opportunity to visit Mazwi, a relocation area for people who had formerly lived in a squatter camp. They were able to lead a short worship service for members of Mazwi Baptist Church and others in the community. It was certainly a lively time, with lots of singing, dancing, and celebration. And all with a couple of acoustic guitars and a djembe! That was quite a different experience for the band, who are used to playing with electric guitars, a full drum set, and all the electronics! But God was glorified in all they did.


 Friday was the first day of the youth camp. After spending the morning setting up, sound checks, etc., the opening service was held on Friday evening. What an awesome time! There was great music, and the youth really did worship the Father during the evening.

Since the band's bass player could not make the trip, Mthabisi, one of the young men in the church joined the band for the weekend.  A gifted musician, he really did an awesome job. 
                                     

 John (Ivins) was also the keynote speaker for the camp, and all during the weekend he brought powerful messages based around the theme for this year’s camp, Making a Difference.”

 John led them first through understanding that if they want to make a difference in the world around them, they must first determine what they believe. From there they can impact those around them. He showed them how their choices affect those they come into contact with. And he helped them to understand some of the ways God speaks to us to guide us in our lives to make a difference. During the final service, each of the small groups shared the Lord's Supper.  What a meaningful way to close out our camp weekend. 

This was a very special time for me (Ramona Beam), since these are old and dear friends, who came to ministry alongside me here in Bulawayo. I often had opportunities to play with them before coming to the field, and it was a very special blessing for me to have the chance to sit in with the band once again on keyboard.
                                    


Thanks, guys, for this very wonderful time. I’m hoping this will be the first of many visits to Bulawayo for the band. Of this trip, John said, “We have visited in many different countries doing this type of ministry, but it was mostly just a one-time thing, and we were content to leave it at that. Never before have we all felt that we really need to come back and continue to develop the relationships we have started to form here.”

Submitted by Ramona Beam, Member of Zimbabwe Evangelism Team

Student Retreats January 2016

This year we did not have one student retreat, but three. One of the major reasons we did this was to try to include more young people and give them the opportunity to experience a discipleship retreat. We had retreats in Gokwe, Gweru and Sanyati. Our longtime partnering and supporting church, friends, brethren, family from First Baptist Murray State KN were three this time, Sanyati boy Warren Edminster, his daughter Lauren and a young man named Joel. I am so grateful for their support and their efforts to come here. I am amazed how they go out of their way to remember Zimbabwe and have a burden to see Zimbabwe’s young people grow in their faith and transform generations. The Theme for the three retreats was from 1 Peter 2:9-10: "But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his glorious light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy." Our lessons were based on this scripture and we also used discipleship material from a book by Watchman Nee: The Normal Christian Life.

The Gokwe retreat was held in Gokwe Central Baptist Church at the Gokwe Center. We had young people from most of the different areas of the Gokwe association. Some also came from Kwekwe, Gweru, Bulawayo as well as Tongaland. We had over 50 young people and a few even joined us from the nearby Methodist Church.

Pictured here are Warren and some of the young people from Gokwe and Kwekwe, also with him are Pastor Bongola from Tongaland (standing 2nd from right) and student Pastors at the Baptist Theological Serminary Shakie Chekai (standing 1st right) Norman Ncube (seated). P

Rev Lackson Chiombera is seen here relaxing with some of the advisors. I (Willie Green) am wearing a hat. Also pictured is the new Gokwe Association youth chairman.

The second retreat was in Gweru at the Baptist Conference Centre. Even though there was a much smaller group of young people at this retreat, we had young people from Chinhoyi, Kwekwe, Bulawayo, Harare and some student pastors from the Baptist Seminary.

We had great sessions on the theme just as in Gokwe, but also because of our numbers we had a different touch to the retreat, we had opportunities to go into discussion groups with different questions based on the discipleship materials.

For some this was a time of renewing acquaintances with young people from different parts of Zimbabwe. For others it was a time of making new friendships.

Some of the young men in this picture met together on the last night of the retreat and had a very special and deeply spiritual time of sharing and discussion. They testified to other young people how these retreats had shaped their walk with the Lord and how much they had benefitted from this. The final retreat was at Sanyati at the mission station where we had youth from all the surrounding churches in that association.

We had more than 50 young people join us for the evening services.

One of the sweetest moments at Sanyati was working with the children at the Vacation Bible School. The students who had come for the retreat went out and invited children to come and participate. They hoped about 30 children would be able to come, but over 140 children participated! It was great to see the young people learning how they themselves can minister to others and teach them what they have learned.

We hope and pray to be able to do more retreats in future years and we see ourselves having these in different areas but more particularly in the remote areas so more young people will be able to participate in these discipleship opportunities. God bless our friends from First Baptist Church of Murray, Kentucky, Warren Edminster, the Baptist Convention of Zimbabwe, our Youth Director Rev. Lackson Chiombera and all the young people who benefitted from these retreats. Submitted by Willie Green, President of the Baptist Youth of the Baptist Covention of Zimbabwe.