Thank you for your prayers for my safe arrival to Zimbabwe. Your continued prayers are certainly welcomed for my time with the LTLA team, and as the Life to Life Zimbabwe Trust board meets tomorrow to evaluate the ministry progress this year and consider plans for next year. Despite the challenges and the discouragements among the team and ministry this past year, it is very evident that God is at work, as you will see in the report below from this past month.
The Community Ministry team was busy this month assessing the needs of the families we serve. The outcome of the assessment was as follows: 12 families did well with their corn plots and will not need food assistance, while 8 families were not faithful in their efforts with growing corn so have been removed from food assistance. We have learned not to prolong support for those who do not participate in what we have asked them to do to grow food for their families.
Going forward, 124 families have asked for assistance, as they face dire situations, and we plan to help all of them. We will increase our food allotment for each family, and provide 28 families a monthly allotment while 96 families receive a twice-monthly allotment. As an end result we are now serving 44 new families. LTLA recently conducted training for these new families in planting corn sustainably. We are also encouraged to report that the numbers of people attending the Men & Women of Hope discipleship meetings has grown, with members of the new families joining. (See photos below.)
The Training Ministry team has been busy sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ with students at Chinhoyi University of Technology. Nine young ladies and one young man have responded to the Holy Spirit's work in their lives and have made decisions to receive Christ. The young man is named Innocent and the young ladies are: Mercy, Kelly, Leen, Zvikomborero, Xixi, Tino, Ropafadzo and Judith. All but one of them are first year students at CUT, which gives the team a lot of opportunity to disciple them over the next few years. Ropafadzo is a 4th year student who responded when Theodora, a recent graduate, shared the Bridge Illustration with her at the LTLA Student Conference on Oct 14-16. Training Ministry team members, Marvelous & Prestege, taught how to share the Bridge Illustration at the conference and then paired up older students to share the illustration with younger students. Theodora was paired with Ropafadzo who responded that she needed to receive Christ! (See photos below.)
Men and women gathering for a combined meeting of the Men of Hope and Women of Hope, a first but certainly not a last time, as it proved very encouraging for everyone. The men were challenged by hearing the old ladies memorizing scripture. We pray it will motivate them to follow their example and experience the blessing of having God's Word in their hearts.
