Dear LTLA Friends,
On March 7, the Life to Life Africa (LTLA) team hosted the first wedding at the LTLA Community Center under the roof of the Life Discipleship Center. Over 300 people witnessed and celebrated the union in marriage of Norman and Ottilia, a LTLA team member. There were a lot of children and young people in attendance that Ottilia ministered to since joining the team in 2014. Several pleaded to attend when Arthur, LTLA Director in Zimbabwe, was picking up the wedding party. He could not turn them away even though it would exceed the number planned for food. Ngoni, a young man in our ministry, shared with me at the wedding, "Seeing this wedding gives me hope of some day getting married."
It was a joyful celebration, as you can see in the photos and videos below. We are excited that Ottilia will be able to continue ministering with the team since Norman has moved to Chinhoyi to work for his uncle. Would you pray for Norman & Ottilia as they establish a Christian marriage to model family life to the next generation?
Since this joyful day, a quiet fear has overcome Zimbabweans as they begin social distancing after the first covid-19 death in the country this past Monday. On Saturday, the government had ordered all schools and universities to close on Tuesday this week. Last week, in consultation with the doctor who serves the LTLA Clinic, we discussed how to respond to this looming health crises and decided to begin suspending our larger ministry gatherings. On Monday, we decided to suspend all of our ministry activities indefinitely after distributing food this week. Yesterday, we distributed a 6 week food allotment to members of the 100 families we serve. (See photos below.)
If the US is struggling to handle this pandemic, you can imagine what it will be for Zimbabwe, where the health system struggles to care for the basic medical needs of people. (See this news article for more.) The nurses and doctors went on strike yesterday because they don't have sufficient personal protective equipment to safeguard them from the virus. Our doctor informed me that there are only 3 working ventilators in the ICU units at the main hospital in the capitol and very few ventilators in the country as a whole to care for acute cases. The number of immune compromised people is very high due to the prevalence of HIV and other diseases like tuberculosis. The fear is real as the prospects look grim. Please join us in prayer for God's mercy in protecting the many vulnerable to this virus in Zimbabwe and around the world. Thank you for your steadfast support over all these years!
Beseeching our Sovereign Merciful Father,
Mike Sulc
Life to Life Africa
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| Distributing 6-week food allotments to members of the 100 families. |
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| Mr. Chigwida & Patricia using homemade sanitizer during food distribution. The face masks came from the last container shipment. |
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| LTLA team cleaning the Life Discipleship Center in preparation for the wedding. |
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| Life Discipleship Center ready for the wedding. |
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| Mildred Nhau, wife of Arthur (LTL Director), preparing the wedding cakes. |
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| Mildred & Tsungai with the wedding cakes. Tsungai, a fellow LTLA team member, helped prepare the cakes. |
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| Ottilia walking down the aisle (notice the children in the foreground). |
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| Norman and Ottilia cutting the wedding cakes. |
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| Mike Sulc with Norman and Ottilia at the end of the wedding ceremony. |
Ottilia making her entrance at the wedding. (In Zimbabwe a bride is
welcomed upon her arrival with cloths laid down for her to walk on along
with singing and dancing.):
The wedding party dancing as they exit the ceremony. (Marvelous, a young
lady on the LTLA team, is part of the first couple in the video with
Tatenda, a young man on the LTLA team, part of the second couple.