Building God's Kingdom

In February, a team of six men from Oklahoma came to minister to folks in and around the Baptist Caring Center in Mberengwa. Paul, pastor of Bartlesville Southern Baptist Church, brought 4 other men with him from his church. Paul is a missionary kid from Zimbabwe. Pastor Jim, also a missionary kid from Zimbabwe, came representing his church, First Baptist Church of Watonga. Bartlesville Southern Baptist Church has been in partnership with the Orphan Caring Center for several years now. (See previous blogs for more information.) On this trip they had several purposes: oversee the construction of a storage building for the caring center, do some leadership training, and spend time fellowshipping and building relationships in the neighborhood around the caring center.

While there were three professional paid builders from Harare who were in charge of the construction, we enjoyed working alongside them to erect the storage building.

The building was about 12 yards X 5 yards and when completed had 4 rooms for different uses. One will be used for storing food, supplies, and cooking pots, etc. which are used by the caring center. The second room will store tools, garden implements, etc. which are used by the caring center. The third room will be used by the new male caretaker who will be overseeing the boys who are staying at the caring center. The final room will be a multi-purpose room (for studying, storing a small resource library, a gathering and eating place), especially when it is raining.

This was Robert’s first trip to Zimbabwe. He said, “I was amazed at the dedication of pastors (unpaid lay-leaders) to God’s Work. Even this week when they were invited to come for leadership training most of them had to walk several hours to get here. Just to hear what their life is like on a daily basis was almost unbelievable. It reminded me of Jesus. They don’t have much of anything but they are faithful to God.”

Matt, who has been to Zimbabwe several times said, “The thing really stood out for me this trip is how much God has blessed the Orphan Caring Center from when I first saw it in November of 2011. How everything has come together is truly God’s Hand at work. It was also exciting to see how much the kids have matured, both physically and spiritually. God has just allowed it all to happen in a way beyond even what we could have imagined when we first began.”

“The thing I enjoyed the most,” said Pastor Jim from Watonga, “was teaching the church leaders. They were like sponges. They asked really good questions and soaked up everything you could teach them. I also got to spend quite a bit of time getting to know the local folks and building relationships with them. Preaching on Sunday to the local church was also a highlight for me.”

Butch, a first time volunteer to Zimbabwe was touched by the orphans themselves. “I particularly enjoyed spending time with one young man who tried very hard to teach me how to speak Shona. There was also a girl that wanted to talk to me a lot and we became good friends. There were also several young Christian men who came to Mberengwa to translate for us while we were here."

This was Mark's second trip to Zimbabwe. He shared, “We and several local church members worked alongside the professional builders. We were mostly gophers just doing whatever needed to be done. It was really amazing how much we enjoyed getting to know the folks here and working with them to complete the building."

"There was also a man who owned the truck that brought the building supplies from Harare. I learned that he doesn’t have a regular job so he hires out his vehicle to transport goods to earn money to support his family. He was an older gentleman, a believer. When I prayed with him about his family and financial situation you could tell he was deeply touched that I cared so much about him." Team leader Paul commented, “I always love to see what God does in and through the team when they come. It’s great to see and hear how God has been at work in their lives while in Zimbabwe. For me, just being with the people is what meant the most to me. I have a great love for kids at caring center. They are like family to me and it is always a pleasure to see how the kids are maturing and growing.

The teaching time we offered to the lay-leaders was well attended, and Sunday for worship time there was probably about 100 people crammed into a classroom. After worship, people walked about 2 miles to a baptismal hole where 38 were baptized. Five of them were orphans from the caring center!”

Matt summed up their trip like this: “Even though our main purpose in coming was to build a building, God used us to build His kingdom.”