So Many Villages

Recently we had a group of volunteers from Virginia in our home.  Their excitement to share all that God had done during their time in southeastern Zimbabwe in a rural area near Birchenough Bridge was contagious!  

Team members Chris Webb (front right) and Chris Hale (center) are from Gracelife Baptist Church in Christiansburg Virginia.   This church partnered with Zimbabwe several years ago to help us reach the Ndau.  Jonathan White, (front left) is the pastor of New Testament Baptist Church and Curtis Bryant represents Woodland Heights Free Will Baptist Church.   Also pictured is Tino, their driver and guide.  

The team shared how they did village to village evangelism.  The villages here are not large.  Each village contains a family unit often including grandparents, parents and children.  In the evenings services were held and the people they visited were invited to come.  The first night about 50 people came, but by the last night over 250 were in attendance.  During the week 46 people prayed to receive Christ.

They also enjoyed spending time with local school children and were invited back by the headmaster (principal) to come and teach the children again next time they come!

Curtis, at age 83, was remarkable.  Three months ago he met Chris Hale at a spiritual retreat.  Curtis had been sensing that God had something for him to do, but until this point had no idea what it was.  Chris felt led by God to invite Curtis on this mission trip.  Curtis said, “I didn’t even hesitate!  I just said YES!” 

Curtis was able to keep up with the group and was very sensitive to the needs and pain of those he encountered.  One lady in particular he remembered that he prays for everyday was an older woman who was no longer able to walk and who is in a great deal of pain.  He asks that you join him in praying for this woman – for her physical as well as spiritual healing.

Jonathan recalled that on the first day of visits they met a woman and her husband.   The woman was a believer but being submissive to her unbelieving husband had stopped going to church.   Jonathan witnessed to the man and he was convicted and prayed to receive Christ.   He came to the services each night with his wife.  His wife was beaming.   He had stopped drinking and other bad habits.   It was a powerful testimony to the community.   Please pray that he continues to keep off the old sinful nature and allow his new spiritual self to live in obedience to God and mature spiritually.

 “We had an interesting encounter in one village,”  said Chris Hale.   There was a man in the village whose father had been won to the Lord by earlier missionaries.  But none of his children had ever become believers.   We witnessed to the son who was now the head of this village and he prayed to receive Christ.   He immediately began to share the gospel with knowledge and authority to others.  He obviously had been taught the Bible by his father and knew it even if he was not a believer.   It is possible that this man could potentially become the leader of this new church. 

“What I saw that blessed me the most was our team unity,”  shared Chris Webb.  “Before this trip we did not all know one another, but God united our hearts and minds.”  

 

Another highlight for Chris, who is here for the third time, was getting to spend time with a young man he met on a previous trip who is a new believer.  This young man is hungry for God’s Word, for fellowship with believers and for doing God’s will.   He is another potential church leader.  

 

Jonathan remembered walking up to the top of a small mountain in the area where they were camped.  “Looking out over the valley filled with so many small villages we never got to was something I’ll never forget.”  

Pray that God would raise up laborers for the harvest among the believers in Zimbabwe who are obedient to Christ’s command to GO and MAKE DISCIPLES. . .