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.

Veterinary Team from Lake Charles, LA

The veterinary team from Trinity Baptist Church in Lake Charles, LA consisted of three people: Dr. Kyle Hebert, Mr. Rusty Sittig, and myself (Katherine Bonvillain). Dr. Kyle went ahead of our group a few days to buy cold vaccines for Lumpy Skin Disease, which we had been informed in advance was a big issue with herds in the community where we were working.

Treating animals in wooden shoots made of tree branches is hard. We all got banged up a little from the cattle and being pushed up against the wood.

There were days when the cows were pushing us around and dragging our mood down, but the people were a joy to see. They came and drove the cattle in and worked along side us. They came with hands ready to work and hearts ready to listen. Their respect for Dr. Kyle's position and help led to an eagerness and willingness to listen to the Gospel he shared. Over and over again we were astonished as they asked for us to talk to them, and then after we had, they would almost all raise their hands and ask to pray to receive Christ. Also, those that were already Christians would ask to pray with us in unison or for us, and watching those men get down on their knees and bow to pray was more beautiful than any view of Victoria Falls. During our 6 days of work we saw over 3,200 animals, predominately cattle, also sheep, goats, dogs, and donkeys. We spoke with hundreds of people, and around 300 prayed to recieve Christ. Serving in Zimbabwe has been an honor, a privilege, and a blessing.

One day Dr. Herbert heard about a man who had a sick cow who was about to slaughter it so he went to check on it. He was able to treat and save the cow. Then Dr. Herbert told the man, the reason I am here treating cows is so I can have a chance to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with the owners of the cows. The man listened to Dr. Herbert’s testimony and prayed to receive Christ. The man was later chosen as the lay-leader for the new church formed in his area.

Katherine Bonvillain shown above with her father Robert Bonvillain who worked on the construction team in Zimbabwe.

U.S. Construction team helps at Baptist Seminary

A construction team from Trinity Baptist Church of Lake Charles, LA recently came to Zimbabwe to help with some repairs on the Baptist Seminary property.

After unloading their tools they did an assessment of the work needing to be done and compared that with the building supplies with which they had to work. This turned out to be a real challenge for the team. Almost daily they made trips into town (the seminary is about 15 miles outside of Gweru) to try to source basic building supplies. Often they could not find exactly what they were looking for, but they always managed to come up with a plan to accomplish their task!

Connor Fry is a university student and the newest member to join this volunteer construction team. The others have been on previous volunteer trips.

The team found working out of a trunk instead of a toolbox a bit interesting. It seemed easier to just dump it all out and dig through to find what one needed.

Earlier this year a storm took the roof off of one of the student housing duplexes and did damage to another seminary house roof. The first project was replacing and repairing these roofs. (Robert Bonvillian is seen here on the roof.)

Connor Fry and John Davis found that one of the houses required brick work before the roof could be completed.

Dr. Dick Landry (a doctor on the Trinity Team) and Gregg Fort went out to the seminary one day to check on the work. After the roofs were completed, the team moved over to spend their remaining time beginning on the needed repairs on the seminary chapel.

While Robert and Todd painted the chapel roof with vinyl paint to extend its life. Ron Ritter, John Davis, and Connor Fry stripped off the rotten underneath ceiling board on the front porch. Then they put on new ceiling boards.

And painted them.

All in all a job well done.

CELEBRATE!

Gregg and Donna Fort have been celebrating for many different reasons!

They are celebrating their 26th year as missionaries in Zimbabwe working in partnership with the Baptist Convention of Zimbabwe. Recently they shared in a very special day of celebration as friends were united in marriage.

Another celebration, which has been long in coming, is the celebration of the Open House of the new house for the pastor of Mkoba Baptist Church. Ever since the church building was completed, it was the desire of the church to build a home for their pastor. However, due to economic hardships it has taken the church awhile to have the money to build the house. With great joy a large crowd of well wishers from the church gathered for the ribbon cutting ceremony.

As the speeches were given, umbrellas came out everywhere to shield people from the hot noonday sun.

Pastor James Tembo, the Executive Director of the Baptist Convention of Zimbabwe (in the middle reading his Bible) was there to stand with the deacons and Pastor Jeffrey Ncube (to the right of Pastor Tembo.) Pastor Tembo also prayed for the Ncubes, the church, and gave a prayer of Thsnksgiving for God's help in making this possible.

After a brief tour of the house, many of the church members gathered around Mrs. V. Ncube (pastor's wife in brown suit) and danced and sang with her in celebration.

In Africa, there always seems to be something to celebrate about!

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.