God Hears - LTLA Update - February 2025

 

Greetings from rainy Zimbabwe, When arriving here last week, Shelton, LTLA Community Ministry team leader, informed me that the crops needed rain. Well, the Lord heard the prayers and has answered bountifully. We have had a lot of rain and we were blessed the other day with the reminder of God's faithfulness as a brilliant rainbow graced the sky over the Life to Life Africa Community Center as seen in the photo below.

Rainbow over the LTLA Community Center.

There was concern in Chinhoyi that the rains would miss this area as it seemed like the southern part of the country was getting all the rain. But God heard their cry and has provided timely rain. When it rains, there are even more power cuts which affects pumping water in the city. That is affecting our operations for the Critical Care Center ministry to preschool orphans.  Twice per week, we are transporting water in containers from our Community Center where we use a generator to pump water from our well when there is no electricity. These challenges are leading us to consider drilling a well at our Critical Care Center as well as installing solar power at our Community Center and our third ministry location where we serve the other side of town. With support from Hopevale Church, that location has a well and we have solar power at our Critical Care Center.

(L to R) Arthur, LTLA Director in Zimbabwe, with Tatenda & Letwin, transferring water from containers on our truck to containers at our Critical Care Center.

The challenges are ever present in Zimbabwe, even in the midst of the blessings.. It causes the LTLA team to be dependent upon the Lord on a daily basis. The LTLA Community Ministry team begins and ends the week in prayer as seen in the photo below. There were two team members absent, Itai due to the death of her daughter-in-law from complications in delivering her first child and the other due to a bad bacterial infection on a finger. Unfortunately, these situations are common in Zimbabwe where medical care is poor. Thankfully the LTLA Clinic doctor caught the bad infection on Otillia's finger.

LTLA Community Ministry team praying yesterday.

You can join us in prayer during the month of March for two items. First is the Love Zimbabwe Festival that will be held in Chinhoyi April 3-6. Many churches in Chinhoyi are collaborating with this evangelistic event. LTLA will provide some discipleship training as churches prepare to follow-up those who respond to the Gospel. Would you pray for lasting fruit from this festival?

Marvelous (left), LTLA Training Ministry team member, helped with translation and participated in this evangelism demonstration at the Love Zimbabwe Festival evangelism & discipleship training.

Secondly, we have learned of an opportunity to share the Gospel with a Mapostori group from Mutare, where LTLA team members Simba & Pamela are ministering. Mapostori is the largest religious group in Zimbabwe. They mix traditional African religion with some Christian teaching, but they typically do not allow their members to read the Bible. It sounds like God's Spirit is moving in this group as an influential member has been impacted by the truth of Christ. Would you pray that the door for sharing the Gospel with this Mapostori group remains open and that the leaders would turn to Christ? If the leaders receive Christ, they will have a big influence upon the members. Thank you for praying with us to our God who hears, Mike Sulc Life to Life Africa

Here are some additional photos:

Mr. Chigwida holding the first eggs from his hens with his wife and Shelton, LTLA Community Ministry team leader, along with him. He is retiring from serving with LTLA, so we have helped him establish an egg business to provide him retirement income.

The LTLA ladies continue with their sewing projects on Mondays. Shelton & Tinotenda's young daughter, Kunashe, in the foreground keeps everyone entertained with her jabering.

A full room of kids at the LTLA Critical Care Center.

Patricia busy cooking for the Critical Care children.

I was really encouraged by the interaction among the LTLA Chosen Generation group. These young people have good insights from God's Word.

There is a new batch of broiler chickens. The heat light was off due to a power outage, which is common when it rains. The frequent power outages have caused us to lose some of the chicks. We will try starting them inside a room in our triplex and put buckets with hot coals near their enclosure to keep them warm.

Mr. Lunga washing the feeders and waterers for the broiler chickens in preparation of new batches of chickens. We are planning to do batches of 50 every 2-3 weeks.

Unloading corn meal and cabbages for the LTLA food distribution.

The packed church for the Love Zimbabwe Festival evangelism and discipleship training.