TRIPS TO ZIMBABWE BEGAN IN 2010 WITH JIM DEHART GOING ALONE TO BECOME FAMILIAR WITH THE AREA. THE FOLLOWING TRIPS ARE FROM HIS WRITINGS:
AUGUST 2011 – In August of 2011, 4 men and one brave young woman went to Zimbabwe to see what God would have them do. Right from the get-go we were immersed in ministry and eleven days later everyone was exhausted and ready to go home. Here are a few of the things that we did.
Day one we went to a village where the people had heard of the work we were doing and wanted to hear more about the creator God who had written in a book. After singing and dancing, which they love to do, we got down to business and shared the gospel with them. Over 50 responded and asked for more information on how to have a relationship with Jesus. God provided a man there to read the bible and someone else to teach them a few Christian songs in their own language. We are currently disciplining this new believer. We have started 8 churches this way and plan on starting many more as we learn from experience and God directs us.
Day two we went to a village to replace a few badly leaking roofs. These are the huts where folks have taken in orphans and are trying desperately to help the kids in the area. These women are not Christians and usually are not related to the kids; most are in dire straits. This rainy season, which they are in right now, is the first time for many of them to be sleeping under a roof on a dry floor. We also checked them over medically, put new clothes on them, and gave them drinking cups and small blankets. I enjoyed holding and kissing the little dirty faces; some I’m sure have never been showed love like this. Getting back to the roofs, it was an incredibly hard job, very dirty and time consuming to tie down each bundle of grass.
Day three we stayed at the house and prepared for preaching and bible study on the following Sunday. Many people were there and a lot of time was spent talking about the bible.
Day four was Sunday. We went to different preaching points to preach, teach and share Christ with the new believers and visitors.
Day five thru 8 we traded off teaching the discipleship material to making visits to schools and villages. These were long days starting around 7 a.m. and ending around 9 p.m.
Day nine and ten we spent talking to many visitors and individual consoling and giving medical attention. We also prepared for the next Sunday’s service.
Day eleven started before dawn as worshipers from long distances began pouring in. By 9 a.m. they were singing and dancing after six hours of preaching, leading people to Christ, baptizing and the Lord’s supper … we were done and beat.
In 2012, God willing, we will go back.
FEBRUARY 2012 – I will be leaving Denver for Johannesburg. My goal is to round up supplies to put in a toilet and sink in the training facility. We do not have running water but can bucket it in. I have found a man to pick me up and take me around to buy things and drive me to the area. I would like to get a few more mattresses and a cooking stove. Mrs. Hama is a great cook but has to bend over to cook on an open fire in a smoke filled room. I am also bringing more training materials and blankets. I am looking for someone to come with me on this trip but am committed to go alone. As Pastor Hama says, “We are never alone; our God goes with us!” and I believe him.
This summer, which is their winter, we are forming two separate groups to go and focus on discipling, training and taking the gospel to the lost. If you want to help in any of these trips, please contact me at jim@comfortairco.com.
God is calling a citizen army to reach the lost … we can’t do it with just professionals.
THE FOLLOWING TRIP INFORMATION IS FROM LINDA BILYEU IN 2012:
MANICA MISSION TRIP AUGUST 2012
In early August, I was honored to serve God with Jim DeHart in Manicaland, Zimbabwe. As previously stated on this blog, August is winter in Zimbabwe, so the temperatures are near perfect, with 70’s in the daytime and 50’s at night. The drive from Harare (the capital) to Manicaland took over six hours.
ARRIVAL & CHURCH SERVICES
We arrived on Friday night to over 100 Ndou people beating drums, dancing and singing praises to God. A bonfire larger than one could imagine (bigger than the one in the movie “Dances With Wolves”) was blazing in the darkness, with a breeze blowing sparks that lit up the night sky. We joined the people as they sang and danced, praising God in to the night. The next morning (Saturday) we had church and baptized 54 people! It was amazing to see how God has worked among these people. Many (the very old and the young) traveled from long distances on foot to come to church and to be baptized, sleeping out in the cold at night.
The next day (Sunday) we had church again and 6 more were baptized, including a woman who was baptized only after Pastor Hama burnt her “ancestral clothes.” Zimbabweans still worship ancestors and animals. Without proclaiming Jesus as Lord and letting go of the idols of their lives, they are not baptized.
TEACHING THE WOMEN
Being one of the first females to visit Pastor Hama and the people he ministers to, I was asked to train the women. Seventeen committed women, some traveling long distances with much hardships, came to learn about God and how they could teach other women and children how to have eternal life. We spent the week in Genesis, starting “In the beginning.” It was an amazing week filled with joy, tears and much learning for ME. To see the level of commitment of these women was humbling. Jesus said if we wanted to follow Him we had to leave our mothers and father, sisters, brothers (family) and to “hate” them (not in the literal sense, but in the sense that we would not let family stand in the way of our service to God). These women did this, and for some it was not easy. Persecution can come in many forms, and for Rejoice (a young 23 year old mother) it came by her being forced to stop attending class, because her husband forbid her. These women are hungry for God’s word, as are the men and children. The need for teachers is overwhelming. We spent every day from early morning to late afternoon learning about God.
WHY GO TO ZIMBABWE?
So what is really going on in Zimbabwe? You’ll read (if you research it) that this former British colony is a “Christian Nation” … what you won’t read is that their definition of Christianity is different than what you believe as an American. For one thing, we do not have the cultural influences that affect the Zimbabwean. For women, they are “one” of multiple wives. Their husbands can beat them at will, tells them exactly what to do and when to do it. And if they displease him, they are put out (cast out into the city or desert) to fend for themselves, and often their children with them. If they are lucky, this is “BEFORE” the husband has infected them with AIDS. Men can have a “wife for the night” and cast her out tomorrow. Often these prostitutes infect the men with AIDS and they bring it home to their wives – which pass it on to their children. Or when the wife and children are cast out, the only way the woman can feed her children, is to turn to prostitution herself, where she becomes infected with AIDS. It’s a vicious cycle of despair, a life with no hope, a life full of hunger, pain, and ultimately an untimely death. A death that leaves orphan children at the grave side, wondering who they can follow home that might give them a meal – or left to just wander the streets, or in the desert until someone takes them in. The only hope for the women (and men) of Zimbabwe is Jesus. And the only way for them to hear is if someone tells them.
GOD’S WORK IN MANICALAND
The work being done in Zimbabwe happens because of two very important people who God has led to shepherd his people: Pastor Hama and Jim DeHart. By the Grace of God and His provision, Pastor Hama and Jim are spreading the love of Jesus to many Ndou throughout Manicaland. Not only has Pastor and Mrs. Hama adopted five orphans of their own, they also help support over 50 other orphans. This support involves helping to send them to school (which is expensive) and feeding and clothing them. Additionally (with Jim’s help), they support and feed widows in the area. Some of these widows, in turn, take in orphan children. New preaching points in the region are being started. Pastors are being ordained. Many people are coming to know Jesus and being baptized. Revival, like nothing you or I have ever seen, is happening in this region of Zimbabwe. With Jim’s assistance, Manica Baptist Mission has helped Pastor Hama build a house, a storage building, an outdoor kitchen, an outhouse/bathhouse, a well, and a garden. Plans are in the works to build a new training center that will also double as the church. Over 60,000 bricks have been made by hand to use as building material.
HOW CAN YOU HELP?
God commands us to GO. If we can’t GO, then He commands us to GIVE. If we can’t give or go, He commands us to PRAY. Without these three, His great commission cannot be fulfilled. I have no doubt that God led me to Jim DeHart and the Ndou people of Zimbabwe. God does not call the equipped, He equips the called. And for me, God did not have an easy task! But he did equip me to go and gave me the physical and financial ability to do so. So many people I go to church with have the attitude of “Not me.” To GO is a sacrifice… it’s not easy… not easy financially, not easy physically, not easy emotionally (for you or your family you leave behind). If you feel God calling you, test Him. Commit to go, and see what He does to make it happen for you. I can assure you, if you do so, God will make a way. If you can’t go, commit to give, and see if your blessings are not “pressed down and shaken together and running over” (Luke 6:28).
WHY GO?
This was my 4th trip to Africa (my first to Zimbabwe) and I always get the question, “Why are you going, why not just send the money that you’d spend going? Wouldn’t that be better?” And my answer is this, “Why not write a letter to your parents and tell them you love them, and never visit. Just send them money. Isn’t that better than a visit? Or for those who have children, how about if your children just send you money instead of ever visiting you. Isn’t that enough? I mean why visit?” I think most of you will understand what I’m saying. Why did Paul not just send letters of encouragement and skip the visits? In his letters, he talks about how he longs to visit them and encourage them. Our missionaries and Pastors in far away nations need us – physically to help them and encourage them, not to just send letters and/or money. If that’s all you can do, then it is better than nothing at all. But they need someone who will share their burdens, who will help them teach when their minds, bodies and spirits have exhausted themselves. They need someone who will lend a hand when they feel like they cannot go another step. But even that is not the real reason to go. The real reason to go is because Jesus told us to go (Matthew 28:19). Even Jesus knew how important it was to travel and encourage while he taught. Money is not a substitute for love and encouragement. I believe Jesus knew how important it was for us to GO, otherwise he would have found another way for people to be reached.
Pray about what God has planned for you in the future. The fact that you are reading this post tells me that God is speaking to your heart. I too found this post one day while praying for God to use me. It was not by accident that God led me here, and it’s not by accident that he led you. Pray for God to give you courage, wisdom, and direction in how He wants you to serve Him.
One of the first steps in obedience is asking for direction, then once God puts something in your path, (like this web page) or on your heart, then it’s time to get curious and serious. How can you serve? My church is making clothes to send with me when I return to Zimbabwe. It’s not a matter of “if” I return. God has called me. Maybe He’s calling you too. I won’t promise it will be easy (it won’t be – but sometimes loving our children and family is not easy!) but, I will promise that in the end you’ll know that you have been obedient and have indeed served God. Manica Missions needs both men and women to serve. If God is calling you, feel free to contact me or Jim DeHart. Jim plans trips twice a year (appx. Mar & Aug). You can reach me at L2485B@att.Net and Jim at Jim@comfortairco.com. Resist the temptation to say “I can’t.” Instead, say “I will,” and He will help you find a way to do so. May God bless you as you consider if you will GO, GIVE, or PRAY.
We See You Africa 