It truly is all about the children. This is the mantra used at Childrens Cup, I believe that was coined by founders Dave and Jean Ohlerking and 2 of my all time personal heros by the way. God continually illuminates this truth to me here in Africa in so many different ways. We have had some meetings with one of our partner organizations that supplies a great deal of the food we are distributing here. There were a number of other partners in the roundtable and it was great to hear the stories of all the many thousands of hungry children being fed all across Africa. One survey that was done just this week really hit home. Out of 58 children surveyed at one of the feeding points, 9 reported that they would have anything else to eat that day other than the food being provided. That means that 84% of these kids are getting their only meal provided through the efforts of our volunteers and partners. Seems a bit hard to believe in America I know but that is the unfortunate reality that is Zimbabwe right now. I am so grateful to be a part of simply feeding the next generation here but the best part is we are also pouring the love and light of Jesus into all of them. These kids are the future leaders of Zimbabwe and what better way to a brighter future can there be other than by raising up Godly leaders?

Prov 22:6

6 Train a child in the way he should go,

and when he is old he will not turn from it.

NIV

Heaven gained another beautiful flower while Celebration Zimbabwe lost a staff family member this week. Siphiso Mhlanga was our receptionist and dedicated servant with our Sauerstown campus. At 25 years old our time with her was way too short and we will surely miss her smiling face from the front desk at our offices. She was always the first face I would see coming into the office and always looked forward to hearing her sing “Paaaasssstor Miiike” upon my arrival.

We experience a lot of death here in Africa, so much more than in the U.S. Funerals are a very big part of ministry here but this one hit closer to home. It’s really been a blessing to be a part of the response which we have poured out on the family. Most of our staff was able to go to the house to pray with the family first thing the following morning. We then were able to actually shift our Wednesday mid week service and held it at the family home as a memorial service. There were a good number of visitors there that were able to see first hand the love of Jesus in action. Tonight we will do another service in Sauerstown and expect a large crowd. Celebration Zimbabwe has been able to help the family with the funeral and burial expenses which will be tomorrow. We are looking for God to bring great things out of a sad situation. Please pray for our staff and Siphiso’s family this week.    

Yes that’s right. Its time for part 2 of “Meet The Pastors” series. This is a way of introducing the men and women of God who make up our Pastoral staff at Celebration Church Zimbabwe. Lets get right to introducing these important people.

At the top of the page are Pastor and Mrs. Godfrey Mifukidze, pastoring our 2 locations in Chiredzi, namely Chambuta and Chibweziwe campuses. (yes I still struggle with the names too!!). Chiredzi is a dry, hot, seemingly God forsaken place in the south east portion of Zimbabwe. Chiredzi has the distinction of being our location furthest from Bulawayo and only accessible during the dry season by way of crossing a crocodile infested river. Its always a pleasure to reconnect with Pastor Godfrey as we don’t get to see him as often as we would like.

   Next in line is Pastor Edson Dube and wife. (Sorry I’m not sure of all the wives names just yet) They are pastoring in an area called Tsholotsho. (show-loat-show) This is an area which sits on the edge of the Kalahari Desert and is the area in which we are most heavily concentrated in feeding children, some 12,000 kids in 18 primary schools. This has led to 8 Celebration Church locations as we continue to see the love of Jesus spread throughout this area. For those who would like to challenge your pronunciation skills here are the names of our locations. Central, Ngena, Nembe, Lubizi, Bulle, Matsbizia, Butabubilli and Sandawana.  

   Number 3 in line are Pastors Petros and Blessing Matutu, pastoring our 2 locations in Hwange. This is conveniently located near Hwange National Park as well as right on the way to Victoria Falls. Always a great excuse to go for a visit. We look forward to continued growth in this coal mining area of the country.

   Rounding out todays installment are Pastors Albert and Joyce Ngalu along with their new addition to the family. Pastors Albert and Joyce are the campus Pastors for our Bulawayo central campus as well as heading up our Pastoral care department.  

Please continue to lift up in prayer these awesome men and women of God as they stand on the front lines in a nation which is on the comeback trail.

So here is installment number one of “Meet The Pastors” series. Just wanted to introduce you to the incredible men and women of God that make up our pastoral staff here at Celebration Zimbabwe. Seems like God just continues to bring in just the right people at just the right time (imagine that!!) as we continue to expand. 18 locations and counting. Here are the first 3 for your viewing pleasure.

At the top is Pastor Albert Ncube and his wife. These 2 are pastoring our Mawebeni location, located about an hours drive from downtown Bulawayo. Pastor Albert is also a chaplain in the Zimbabwe military. He is always ready to take on the world!!  

Next in line is Pastor Andrew Sibabanda and his wife, who is wearing an awesome hat, don’t you think? I see some of the coolest headwear on some of the ladies here in Africa. Pastor Andrew and his wife are pastoring Gods people at our Esibomvu location. (That’s my all time favorite name of all our locations.) Esibomvu is located approximately another 10 km beyond our Mawebeni location. He and Pastor Albert work closely together to help empower people to put God first in this growth area of Zimbabwe.

Next in line is Pastor Felix Pahla and his wife Deborah. This couple pastors our How Mine location. Yes, it is a mining community. All the residents of this area work in a gold mine (how cool is that!!) that has just recently reopened with the economy and banking system beginning to stabilize here. The mine has been closed for many months, children were actually starving to death in this area. This is what prompted Celebration Zim to begin feeding here and it was a very short time indeed before a new church began. I love watching God take what the devil intends for evil and turns it into something awesome. This is also a Muslim stronghold. Many of the workers here are followers of Islam from Malawi. We are beginning to see a lot of breakthrough and in Jesus name How Mine is going to be over run for Jesus!!!

 I am blessed to “do life” with these servants of God. Stay tuned for more installments of “Meet The Pastors”    

Here’s some of our kids in Zimbabwe. This past weekend  lots of them heard the Resurrection story for perhaps the first time. I have to believe so many of them are going to connect with it, embrace it and most importantly to share it with others. These kids are the future of this country so what better use of our time here than to share the “Good News” of Jesus with the next generation.

We are privileged to be able to touch well over 18,000 young lives of Zimbabwe each and every day through our feeding programs and Celebration Church locations spread across the southern portion of the country. This is practical “love in action”.  Just the simple act of providing a meal for them each day lets them know that they are important and they are loved. If we let them know that it’s JESUS who loves them, young lives, families, communities, cities, countries, continents and the world are going to be transformed by the incredible love of the One who first loved us. How incredibly simple is the Great Commission??    Thank you Jesus for always keeping it simple.

A busy week it has been for our Celebration team in Zimbabwe. 6 days of outreach followed up with water baptisms this past weekend.  Monday through Wed was spent at Sauerstown (a high density, low income suburb of Bulawayo), then Thursday through Saturday outreaches were at How Mine. This is actually the site of a gold mining operation which has not been in operation for nearly a year, although with the introduction of foreign currency  should be back in operation soon.How Mine is a high density community made up of the mine workers and their families who of course have not been paid since the shutdown of operations. Most are surviving by subsistence farming where they are able. We began feeding children in this area late last year when we discovered there were children starving to death in the community and Celebration How Mine campus quickly sprung up from our feeding effort.

Here are some quick statistics from the week.

-Sauerstown saw over 3000 in attendance at the outreach meetings. 98 new believers were added to the Kingdom!!

-How Mine reported over 2000 in attendance, with 69 giving their life to Jesus for the first time. How Mine also has a heavy populated of Muslims, of which we had one give his life to Jesus!!!

Many hundreds more made a decision to rededicate their lives to Christ as hearts and lives were changed in response to the Word. We have begun using our 20 ton truck (with sides opened up) as a mobile stage from which to conduct our worship and services. It’s a bit like a mobile evangelism unit which will serve us well by allowing us to travel to an ever widening group of locations scattered across the southern half of Zimbabwe.

We finished up the week with water baptism services in Bulawayo and How Mine where we were privileged to baptize many of the new believers. Here are some pictures of some of the baptisms as well as a shot of our “mobile evangelism stage”. (sorry, lighting was not good enough to get any decent pics of the outreaches as we held them in the evening)  Please continue to pray for our staff and pastors as God continues to stretch and mold an ever growing work for His kingdom in Zimbabwe. 

We can make a difference. We are all called to make a difference. No matter where we are in life, if we are doing what God has called us to do we simply cannot help but make a difference in the lives of others. We may not see it today, but rest assured you have planted a seed of change. I was honored to be able to share a message with some of our Zimbabwe campuses this past weekend on serving and fruitfulness. Here are a few of the thoughts I shared as well as some pictures of a few people that we have been able to serve.   

God wants us to be fruitful.  Jesus is our best example….He says it best in Mark 10….

Mark 10:43-46

Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, 44 and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. 45 For even the Son of Man did not come to be served , but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” 

NIV

Serving is sacrifice…Jesus was the greatest servant of all time…He gave up his life that we would be saved.  I’m SOOO thankful that Jesus was a servant.

Remember – Jesus said that He is the vine and we are the branches. As long as we cling to Jesus, we will bear fruit. Jesus will change our hearts. He will give us a new attitude. He will fill our lives with His love, joy, and peace. And love cannot sit still. Love must express itself in action. Love is an action word. Joy is an action word. Peace is an action word. Love in action is called ministry. God has given us tools for this ministry called Gifts of the Spirit.

It’s a NATURAL outflow, it just can’t be helped if we stay connected to Jesus….

Love others=serving others=fruit

What’s inside of real fruit??    Seeds

Those seeds get scattered and planted as we love and serve others….causing more fruit to spring up!!!

Think about this….The seeds of Christianity are hidden in the fruit that is evident in your life.

It really is a natural overflow….you just can’t help it!!! 

As people are attracted to the fruits of your relationship with Christ – as they see your joy and peace in Him – as they are nourished by His love through you – a miracle will happen. The seed of Christianity will be planted in the fertile ground of another human heart, and a new life in Christ can begin to grow.  .

Thank you Jesus for allowing me to be your hands and feet in Zimbabwe. 

Take a look at the pictures above.  Webster is a fine young man who lives in Sauerstown, a very poor suburb of Bulawayo in which we began a feeding program that quickly blossomed into a local Celebration Church. Webster lives with his extended family that you see in the picture. The lady in the center is a saintly woman named Eunice. Some of these children belong to her sisters but most of them are simply children who’s parents have died or just abandoned them. All of them live in a small home with 2 bedrooms for the entire family. Here are a few facts about Websters life:

-Websters mother is a prostitute who left him when he was about a year old. Her whereabouts or whether she is even alive are unknown.

-Webster is a very bright boy who loves to hang out with his friends.

-Webster told me he loves Jesus with all his heart.

-Webster has had some real health challenges for most of his life. He has been in and out of the hospital quite frequently. One of his lungs is collapsed at this time.

-Webster is HIV positive.

-Webster is 14 years old. I had a hard time believing this one!!

Webster is just one of the scores of children in Africa with a similiar story, some are much worse. He is one of the lucky ones who is able to stay alive and live a somewhat normal life with the help of daily ARV treatments for HIV/AIDS. Webster lives and loves Jesus because Eunice cares enough to take him into her home, because Celebration Church and our partners care enough to provide food and ARV treatments. Thank you Jesus for using all of us in some small way to make a difference in Websters life along with countless others here in Zimbabwe.

Posting Thursday 5 March.  Sorry no pictures yet. Still navigating the internet here….Its even slower than Swaziland!!! 

So here I am in Zimbabwe, the country I will call home for the foreseeable future. I have been here since Wed the 25^th of Feb, its now Tues the 3^rd of March, I have been able to access the internet just once since arriving. I suppose Swaziland was preparation for the real “black hole of communications” that is Zimbabwe. If the power is on, the internet is down or so it seems. Lately the power has just been out so of course there is no network. So I decided to write an entry and lets see when I will be able to post it.

Crossing the border into Zimbabwe was quite an interesting experience although not as eventful as I had feared it may be.  Gods favor was surely evident as we passed thru all the lines that needed to be navigated to finally emerge on the “other side”. Every line, or queue as they are called here, involved some kind of form that had to be filled out and of corse a fee to be paid. One to pass immigration, one to temporarily import my vehicle into the country, one to get a visa, one for customs declarations and on and on.

Bulawayo is a 3.5-4 hr drive from the border crossing. The first thing one notices is the potholes in the road. Unbelievable, they are everywhere. Really keeps you on your toes when driving although I did manage to find a few of them. Pastor Dixon had arranged for all of the pastors from Celebration Zimbabwe to be in town that evening for some food and hang out time at his home.  What an incredible blessing to be able to connect with these awesome men of God. 14 campus pastors in all, a few I had met already but most of these guys have joined the team since I was last in Zimbabwe. Our locations are scattered all over the lower half of the country and most of these men do not own their own transportation and it can take quite a long time just to get to Bulawayo.  Heres a great example from Pastor Godfrey, who pastors our campus in Chiredzi (sometimes called Chambuta). This is one of the most desolate, seemingly forgotten regions in the country. Hot, dry and very much uncivilized would probably be what most Westerners would think if they were to see this place. It is probably around 650 km (403 miles)  from Bulawayo but it is a 2 day journey for Godfrey. The area is largely unaccessible during the rainy season just ending as there is a river that needs to be crossed which vehicles cannot get thru until the water is at a low level. Heres how he explained his journey when I asked how he had gotten there for the pastors meeting. First a cart drawn by mules to get to the “hard road” Public transport (always way overpacked and slow) from there to the river.  The river is crossed by a small boat, the likes of which you cannot even imagine.  Oh and by the way did I mention there are also crocodiles  in the river?  Once you survive that then its more public transportation to arrive in Bulawayo. All I can say is Pastor Godfrey is a true servant of Jesus to answer the call of God to preach in such an uncomfortable place.

Please continue to pray for the nation of Zimbabwe and all of the brave men and women of God who continue to persevere through a very difficult social and economic season in their world. Thank you Jesus that you are so much bigger than any of the problems we face each and every day.