Mahvusa/Zimbabwe

New update for you, and it’s packed full of good stuff! Our outreach started with a two day drive all the way up the beautiful country of South Africa to the Limpopo province and a little village called Mahvusa. Jabulani African Ministries partnered with the people to build a church there a few years back. The village chief was impressed and offered us some land to build a youth camp and mission station. So that’s what we have been working on! Our dream is to have a place where youth come and learn about God’s love through camping ministry and are discipled and trained to be spiritual leaders in their communities. Our days were filled with construction and hanging out with the village kids. Our nights were spent discipling the young adults in Mahvusa and Dzingidzingi, a neighboring village. We are excited to see these young adults take part in this project and take the reigns of ministry, the way true missions should play itself out.

My heart has broken into a million pieces for the beautiful and broken people of this Province. One area has especially taken a hold of my heart and rendered it forever changed. Zone 2 is the name of a squatters’ settlement for refugees who have fled war in Mozambique. It is difficult for these people to return home, and the South African government pretends they don’t exist out of their lack of solutions for this people group. There is no running water, electricity or schools within walking distance for their children. Out of all the places I’ve been, I have never seen more poverty than I do in this place. This week, JAM began a Preschool and soup kitchen for the young children of Zone 2. It will be run by Pastor Life and his wife, Josephine, who are full-time missionaries of JAM and locals. Please pray for this young couple as they serve in Zone 2. There are many challenges and many stories that daily break their hearts.

The stories of suffering and images of poverty here are overshadowed by the hope I see God has for this place. One of my highlights was watching Lifter, a member of our team and resident of Mahvusa, minister in his home town. Lifter has a past of gang involvement, robbery and drugs, but his life has been forever changed by the love of Christ. Lifter shared his testimony this week to his peers who have never seen this new God-changed servant. Next January he will be back in Mahvusa doing soccer ministry and being a spiritual leader in his community. I am so proud of my friend and excited for the potential of having this humble leader serve his village.

After a week in Mahvusa, we took another day long drive up to Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe is currently one of the most politically corrupt countries in the world. The inflation rate is so outrageous, the country began using US dollars as a way to cope. All along the road, street vendors sell fruit or whatever product they might have had in order to survive. Unemployment is high as these people look for a way to support themselves and their families. Yet another broken place filled with beautiful, determined people.

We went to Zimbabwe to lead a conference for youth leaders of churches all across the country. There were about 50 youth leaders, counselors and reverends who attended. These people were so passionate about their leadership in the discipling of young people, but lacked training, theory, and resources to lead well. We came in to encourage and fill in that gap. We taught a lot about Christ-like character in ministry as well as a ton of practical application on being a Christian youth leader and pastor. The Zimbabweans have very limited access to crayons and paper for their Sunday School classes, yet alone resources and teaching curriculum and they soaked the information up like a sponge. At the end of the conference, we sat before an overjoyed and exuberant class of Christ-followers with a re-charged passion to take what they have learned to their youth groups back home. I was so humbled to take part in this process and encouraged to see the heart of these beautiful people. After the conference, we took a tour of the mission station where we were staying and checked out a nearby youth camp which was in ruins because of vandalism that happened during a war.

During these trips, we were able to look back to see how God’s work began and look forward to imagine new and beautiful things for the Kingdom. In Mahvusa, a young American woman named Laura came to serve the people in 1933 after a short term missions trip there won her heart. Single all her life, she poured thirty years into these people, building a Preschool and church and ministering to medical needs. It was this woman who led the village chief to Christ when he was a boy and this chief would later welcome us into his land to begin a camping ministry for God. Now I look forward to a future of many young Africans embracing Christ and glorifying Him through the beginnings of this young woman. In 1891, a young South African man felt called to take Christ to Zimbabwe. He was not a preacher or a missionary, just a simple Sunday School teacher, and he was ill so much his parents thought he would die in a few years. But this man spent his life in Zimbabwe, beginning a mission station, translating the Bible into Shona and opening a school for the deaf and blind. Because of this man’s willingness to sacrifice for the gospel, many schools, ministries and churches are in operation. His work helped create the churches that sent the youth leaders to our conference who will now go out and spread Christ’s truth to all the young people they represent. In both places we got to visit the graves of the brave missionaries who went before us. My heart is both terrified and excited about my future. Will I stay here and follow in their footsteps? Will following after God’s heart mean my life will only get crazier? Please pray for me as I seek God’s direction.

And so were my last few weeks: crazy, significant, and full in many ways. I spent my 25th birthday living in a hut and chasing after and loving on snotty faced kids. I celebrated holy week and a Christ who came down to live in the dirt of our lives and sacrifice for the salvation of the world very dirty myself (I showered twice) and contemplating my own sacrifice. Following Jesus is crazy! God is huge. My heart is full.

I would like to begin supporting the work in Zone 2 by raising funds for the ministry and soup kitchen. If you are interested to see how you can get involved, please send me your email address or click to follow my blog. I will be sending out a newsletter shortly that gives more information on this area and steps to get involved. Thank you so much for your prayers and support! I am very blessed to have a wonderful family of people who love to see God move as much as I do. May God give you grace and peace as you live out resurrection!