Zimbabwe

A week before a small team of a few Word of Life staff and young adults left for a missions trip to Zimbabwe, I discovered that I too would be joining the exciting adventure. I left without much knowledge of where I would be going or what I would be doing but looked forward to what the week would hold.  A day and a half after departing, we finally arrived at our destination in the city of Chitungwiza which, despite its small town, rustic appearance, is the third most populated city in Zimbabwe. There we camped out on the property of the church where we would be ministering all week.

Our first two days were spent holding a discipleship training conference at the church. The first day of training was held after church on that Sunday. We discussed basic principles of biblical discipleship and how to practically live it out. To a small, growing church, many of these concepts were completely new to them. Even the idea of daily personal time in God’s Word was foreign to them. Many of them had the preconceived notion that going to church on Sundays was enough; that as long as they heard the Bible preached by the pastor on a Sunday, they were good to go. For most of them, there was no personal investment into their relationships with Christ and definitely not much investment into the spiritual lives of others either. Many of them could be described as having a shallow faith. However, this is not uncommon in today’s culture.

This lack of depth, ironically, created fertile grounds for growth. They consistently approached the material with a teachable spirit, eager to learn. After two days of this training, most walked away with both the knowledge and desire to pursue discipleship both in their own lives and in the lives of others. They caught the vision for what the church could be like if they simply obeyed God’s command to make disciples and put to action the steps necessary to do so. They began to see, many of them for the first time, the true value of personal growth and discipleship.

Over the course of the next few days, we held a youth camp/conference where we welcomed teens from both the church that was facilitating us as well as teens from other churches and surrounding areas. Our main focus centered around evangelism. Our goal was to equip them to share their faith with others. However, as they learned how to share the gospel with others, they also began to understand the gospel in its entirety for themselves. Though most of them were regular church attenders, many of them did not fully comprehend the gospel and its implications. Joy filled my heart as I had the opportunity to share the true meaning of the gospel and watch as the Lord illuminated their hearts and minds to what he had really done for them. It finally clicked.

As they began to fully understand for the first time, they also had opportunities to share it for the first time as we did some open air evangelism. On the second day of open air, we gathered near a market where one of our team members shared the gospel over a loud speaker. Few people gathered to listen; much less than the day before. In fact, there were about four times as many of us as there were people gathered. However, when he was finished presenting the gospel, each of the teens sought out someone to speak with. They didn’t allow the lack of people to deter them from spreading the message. Even the younger ones began talking to people and when they didn’t know what to say, introduced that person to one of the older teens. What a beautiful sight to see. I was so encouraged by the opportunities the Lord gave us in spite of the small crowd. Some had the opportunity to lead people to Christ while others helped people come to an assurance of their salvation.

The Lord did so much over the course of that week. I watched a revolution begin to take place. My prayer is that the Lord continues to work both in that church as well as the youth. I pray that the Lord would continue to grow them and continue to build the youth group from the few that they have into an unstoppable force that will change their generation for Christ. I can’t wait to see the ways the Lord works over the next year to bring the city of Chitungwiza to HIM & so thankful that he has allowed me to be a part of what he is doing there. Those people have left a lasting imprint on my heart & I’m so grateful for the relationships he allowed me to develop in which he gave me the opportunity to push them toward Him!

Greater things are yet to be done in that city.