Landfill ministry? Yes, Life to Life Africa has initiated a ministry to people living at the Chinhoyi landfill. You may recall me sharing late last year about Mr. Gwara, who lives with his 10 grandchildren at the landfill where he makes a living collecting recyclables. Here is an update from Shelton, LTLA Community Ministry leader, on our efforts to minister to his family as well as others living there.
"After a lot of coordinating work, we have managed to get six children living at the landfill admitted into grade 1 at a nearby primary school. Two are Mr. Gwara's grandchildren and the other four are Mrs. Nyamangara's grandchildren. I wish you could have seen the bright smiles on their faces and the group hug they gave me when I supplied them with their school uniforms.
It is a rich blessing to be part of making this happen for them. The process was complicated by the fact that none of the children had birth certificates. [The LTLA team worked to get birth certificates issued retroactively.] We are grateful for the financial support through LTLA that is allowing us to help these children get caught up with extra lessons after school. They missed the first school term this year as we worked on getting them admitted. All six are in the same class so we are paying their teacher to provide the extra lessons.
We have begun a weekly Bible lesson with these kids and the other kids living at the landfill. We are taking the approach to minister to them on their 'turf' as we conduct the lesson on site at the landfill. Our prayer is that as we minister to these children it will open doors to minister to their caregivers. Pray with us for a harvest to be gathered for the Lord's glory as we do the hard work of cultivating and sowing the seed of the Gospel among those living at the Chinhoyi landfill (Galatians 6:9-10)."
Speaking of harvest, we are grateful for the corn harvest that has been gathered among the families we serve. It was particularly encouraging to see that 13 of the 56 new families we trained did very well with their harvest despite a lack of rainfall at the beginning of the growing season. Members of all these families are receiving spiritual input through the Men & Women of Hope meetings, and the children are participating in our weekly youth Bible lessons. Pray that a spiritual harvest is also gathered among them.
