Persevering Love - LTLA Update - July 2024

 

Joyful Greetings Friends! My heart is full along with the Life to Life Africa team after the wonderful experience hosting the latest team from Hopevale Church. God richly blessed the time we had serving and learning together. I was greatly encouraged by the spirit of unity, love and perseverance exhibited by the Hopevale team. Thank you for your prayers for us, as much was accomplished for the advance of God's kingdom and for the glory of His Name. There were certainly travel challenges as the team arrived with none of their checked luggage and they were caught in the worldwide technology meltdown on their return home. By God's grace all twenty three bags arrived only two days late to bless the ministry with all the kind donations provided by the Hopevale community. Milwaukee Tool company contributed tools for the construction projects thanks to Roy, Hopevale team member. We thank him for appealing to them for a generous donation of cordless drills and saws. God sustained the team with much needed patience on their return as it took four additional days to get all eleven team members home. The team certainly displayed persevering love throughout the entire trip. As you will see in the photos and videos below there was a lot of activity and much was accomplished. Our prayer and belief is that there will be eternal impact from the interactions that took place. We experienced the blessing of co-laboring in God's kingdom work! Joyfully in Him, Mike Sulc Life to Life Africa

Construction Projects

Clarence (second from right), friend of LTLA in Zimbabwe with drip irrigation experience, oriented and demonstrated how to install the drip irrigation system.

Hopevale team members Kevin, Adeline (first and second from left) and Roy (fourth from left) joined Erasmus and Lunga the first few days digging the trench for the drip irrigation system.

(L to R) Harold, Roy and Kevin found where to connect our new water tank to our well water in order to provide water for the drip irrigation system.

Kevin (right) working with Brian (LTLA team member) to install the drip line connections.

Drip irrigation system in operation. Timely watering will help the vegetable production which will provide income for LTLA. Video: https://youtube.com/shorts/pperJHm4D0c

Zviko (LTLA team member) painting chicken coop metal with Kevin.

Adeline put her welding training to work on the chicken coop.

Team effort on the chicken coop with Zviko and Adeline welding while Kevin, Roy and others painted.

Completed chicken coop that can house 500 broiler chickens which will be an income source for LTLA.

Sewing Training

There were 8 sewing training sessions held by the Hopevale sewing team during the week.

Sewing training in action. Near is Tracy, Hopevale team member, with Letwin while Michelle, another Hopevale team member, encourages Itai and Patricia.

The fashion show at the end of the week with the LTLA ladies wearing the dresses they made. Hopevale sewing team members Michelle & Tracy (left) and Liz & Peggy (right)  joined them

Repairs

Kevin and Roy installed two new doors for the triplex building at the LTLA Community Center.

Harold repaired doors at Gogo Mildred's home. She housed six Hopevale team members in her home.

Shelton and Roy with the donated Milwaukee tools.

Ministry Activities

A morning devotional time for Hopevale & LTLA ladies.

A sharing time of life lessons for the Hopevale & LTLA men.

Adeline (left) teaching a lesson at the LTLA Critical Care Center as Tsungai (center), Critical Care Center director, and Peggy (right) look on.

The LTLA Critical Care Center children enjoyed time with all the "aunties" from Hopevale. Peggy on the left and Ronda on the right.

Jean shared her testimony at the LTLA Women of Hope meeting and at church on Sunday morning.

Roy, Kevin and Harold shared what God has been teaching them with the LTLA Men of Hope.

Ronda and Peggy distributed reading glasses at the LTLA Women of Hope meeting.

Alison (left) and Michelle (right) helped with the LTLA Children of Hope meeting.

Dr. Tafadzwa & the two nurses at the local clinic gratefully received all the medical supplies provided by Hopevale Church.

Ronda, Peggy & Jean (L to R) encouraging Diana, LTLA team member who is recovering from cancer treatments.

The LTLA Chosen Generation group singing praises to the Lord prior to hearing Adeline's testimony.

Final group photo of the Hopevale & LTLA teams.

Arriving in Zimbabwe - LTLA Prayer Bulletin - July 2024

Praying Friends,

I arrive today in Zimbabwe where next week we will welcome a team from Hopevale Church. Your prayers are needed as we prepare to host this team of twelve individuals which is the largest group that has ever come to serve with us. We look forward to what God is going to do!

The next two days will be spent collecting materials for a drip irrigation system and a chicken coop for 500 broilers that four Hopevale team members will help install and construct. The concrete slab and columns for the coop are being poured this week. Sewing machines that were sent in 2013 are being prepared for use and local material is being purchased for the dresses and shirts to be sewn. Four ladies from Hopevale will provide sewing lessons for LTLA ladies with the vision they will become skilled seamstresses who can train ladies in the community. Hopevale team members will also serve with the LTLA team in the various ministry activities that happen each day. They will serve with us July 10-18. Join us in praying for God's blessing on this opportunity to co-labor together. 

Thank you for your prayers for the recent Navigator alumni team that served in Mutare and Chinhoyi. They were able to make close to 20 new student contacts for Simba & Pamela who serve in Mutare with LTLA. Their connections with new students was a big boost to the launching of ministry in Mutare. In Chinhoyi, they had the opportunity to encourage the LTLA team and the young people in the ministry to walk with the Lord. Isaac & Rachel Meyerholz, who led this team, shared that the trip stretched the team members to consider thinking missionally about the opportunities where they live and work.

Diana has completed her cancer treatments, for which she is grateful. Continue to pray with us that God would use the treatments to have eliminated cancer in her body. Thank you for standing with us in praise of what God is doing and in prayer for all that will be happening in the coming days.

Gratefully in Him,

Mike Sulc
Life to Life Africa

Typical Friday - LTLA Update - June 2024

 

Greetings LTLA Friends, On this Friday morning, I wanted to share with you the typical activities that the Life to Life Africa Community Ministry team will engage in today. I thought sharing their activities will help you know how to pray on a Friday for the LTLA Community Ministry team. As you will see they are busy on Fridays. The Critical Care Center team of Tsungai, Brian, & Letwin welcomes the 30 preschool orphans at 8am as they prepare to feed them a breakfast and a lunch before dismissing them at 1pm. They will engage in spiritual and academic development activities with the children before they take a nap and are sent home with their caregivers, which in a lot of cases, is a grandparent. We begin our investment into these children as preschoolers and seek to continue through their high school years and beyond. I remember meeting Victor at the Critical Care Center on my first trip to Chinhoyi in 2010. Now 14 years later, he is part of our young adult group, the Chosen Generation, where he is encouraged to experience Jesus guiding him as he transitions to life as an adult.

Tsungai with the Critical Care Center pre-school orphans.

The remainder of the Community Ministry team meet on Friday mornings and go out "two by two" meeting with people individually or in small groups to share the Gospel or to follow-up in discipleship with believers. These meetings are the foundation of our ministry as the people we serve experience individual intentional attention from LTLA team members where they are encouraged to receive, believe, and walk with Jesus in their lives. Below you will see some photos of these meetings:

Mr Lunga (first on the left taking this selfie) pairs up with Mr Chigwida to meet with men who attend the Men of Hope meetings on Saturdays.

Mr. Chigwida (far right) with the other men that he and Mr. Lunga meet with on Friday mornings.

Itai (left) pairs up with Kate (right) to meet with ladies. Here they are meeting with Elizabeth.

Itai (left) is meeting with Dorothy in this photo.

After spending Friday mornings ministering to young and older people, the LTLA Community Ministry team eats lunch together at Mildred Nhau's restaurant. Mildred's husband, Arthur, directs LTLA in Zimbabwe. After lunch the team engages in a time of prayer and ministry training sessions along with some gardening at the LTLA Community Ministry Center.

LTLA Community team members eating lunch at Ma D's (Mildred Nhau's) restaurant. (This photo is from July 2022 and you will notice that Ronda & Pete, from Hopevale Church, were visiting. Hopevale is returning with a team of 12 on July 8!)

Itai tending to broccoli at the LTLA Community Center.

Thank you for letting me share a typical Friday in Chinhoyi for the LTLA Community Ministry team. It is our prayer that God continues to do extraordinary things in the lives of people, young and old, through the faithful work of the LTLA team members. Ordinary people serving the extraordinary God, Mike Sulc for the Life to Life Africa team

Diana & Visiting Team - LTLA Prayer Bulletin - June 2024

 

Dear Praying Friends, Thank you for your prayers for Diana, LTLA team member, who is battling cancer. She will be done with all her treatments on June 20. She provides the following report on her experience: "I have completed 6 chemotherapy and 25 radiotherapy treatments. Now I am undergoing brachytherapy treatments. I am doing pretty well considering the side effects. It is a great comfort to receive the prayer support and financial help from the LTLA supporters! Pray that my faith would continue growing with hope for good results and no harmful effects from the treatments. Pray I remain strong in the field of the Almighty God so that I will be a testimony to others." Let us join in praying for her full recovery from the treatments and for healing from the effects of the cancer. We are grateful to be able to assist her with the expense of the treatments. Thank you for those who have contributed toward these expenses. To cover all her treatments, we are left with $3000.  This past Monday a team of alumni from The Navigators collegiate ministries in the Midwest traveled to Mutare, Zimbabwe, where they have served with Simba & Pamela along with The Navigators staff couple, Cephas & Noma, who are also ministering to college students in Mutare. The visiting team has helped these two couples meet 15 new students at Manicaland State University, where they met with the Dean of Students who wants students to be influenced toward Christ.  This team's visit will continue to be a great encouragement as they travel today to serve alongside the LTLA team in Chinhoyi for the next week. Pray with us to bless their efforts in Chinhoyi as they minister to college students, young adults, and to the LTLA team. As I am always blessed by time in Zimbabwe, I know this team will be drawn closer to the Lord and to serving him even more.

Alumni team with Cephas (Navigator staff in Mutare) on the left and Simba & Pamela on the right.

Grateful for your prayer support, Mike Sulc  Life to Life Africa

Opportunity - LTLA Update - May 2024

Greeting Friends,   Thomas Gilbert, Life to Life Ministry President, traveled to visit the work of Life to Life Africa in Zimbabwe last month, so I have asked him to share a report from his trip in this update. Here is his report:   The best way I can succinctly describe the trip is “opportunity!” In Colossians 4:2 we read, “Pray that God would open a door for the word…” and Paul in 1 Corinthians 16:9 states, “a wide door for effective service has opened to me, and there are many adversaries." Our ministry perspective is when issues arise, it is an opportunity to minister. Here are three quotes representing opportunities amongst challenges: “We need you here at our university. These students have all this newfound freedom and the decisions they make are pivotal. Pressure to succeed, anxiety, depression, drug abuse, and sexual immorality and religious cults, are forces that are wrecking our young people. They need Christ focused leadership during this pivotal time in their lives from someone they know and trust.”  - Dean of Students for Manicaland State University While visiting Simba and Pamela in Mutare, we went and visited with some University officials. We were blown away by the Dean’s enthusiasm for the student’s need for a real relationship with Christ. Praise God for this support from the Dean and open access to students. Please continue to pray with us for Simba and Pamela as they adjust to a new city. Pray for students interested in growing and a Christ-minded friendship or two to encourage them.

Simba and Pamela. A view along the road to one of the universities in Mutare.

“To be honest, I can’t see myself doing anything other than ministry.” - Arthur, Life To Life Zimbabwe Country Director We have strong leadership! An absolute must for ministry to succeed. I praise God for Arthur, Simba, Zviko, Shelton, and the many team members who have strong walks with God are committed to serving Him. Ministry leaders “have a target on their backs." I’m trying my best to pray daily for Arthur and his family, who are facing spiritual “adversaries." “The drought is bad. Many people will suffer (food will become scarce). It’s possibly even life-threatening.” - Shelton, Life to Life Chinhoyi Community Team Leader Although the hardship is sad, we Christians are always grateful to help meet a real need. This difficult situation can help the community take seriously the sustainable farming training we provide. Help is sometimes in the form of immediate relief. Yet, we want to find ways to help with long-term development in mind so people can provide the basics for their families. Pray for wisdom as we seek to help people develop.

Shelton sharing with the Community Team on stages of help: “relief, rehabilitation, and development”.

Brandon is an orphan who has been around the ministry a long time. His story is typical. Young and energetic, he scraps around for some kind of job here or there from anyone willing to hire him. He told me he once worked on a construction crew for two months and he never got paid. I’ve known Brandon a long time, despite his smile, he’s quite disheartened. I found out his wife is expecting and he faces the challenges of providing. A small blessing was that a neighbor happened to send baby clothes with me, a perfect gift for Brandon.

Thomas with Brandon. (The phone in his hand was also a gift - Thomas' old one, as Brandon didn’t have one.)

There are real needs and opportunities in Zimbabwe, both physical and spiritual. The situation is tough. There’s now a drought on top of an already dead economy. May we all come to depend on God for our “daily bread”. Thank you for helping the people of Zimbabwe. I am grateful to Thomas for his many trips where he enthusiastically shares his love for God and people.   Mike Sulc Life to Life Africa