Makatendeka Jesu!

In one of our favorite worship songs from Zimbabwe, they sing, “Makatendeka Jesu” which means “you are faithful, Jesus.” As we say goodbye to Zimbabwe and begin our journey to other places (Kenya for a week and then Nepal for 10 weeks), we are overwhelmed by how faithful God is. He was so faithful to us throughout our time in Zim. Every time we were told we were going to a new place in the country to minister, we were anxious and at times questioned whether it was God’s plan for us. Yet, every single time, we came back from each place extremely blessed. Blessed by His people that took us in like we were family, blessed by the joy that those who had so little exuded, and blessed by the way in which God used us to encourage and strengthen His church. It was unbelievable! And although, in a couple of the places the hotter than Hades temperatures did not seem like a blessing to my soul, in the end, God was faithful, and even in those places, we were blessed and saw His hand at work.

So, now we’ve been in South Africa for 6 days. It has been a really great time of processing our time in Zim, as well as resting and recuperating. If you consider the last 11 weeks a marathon, then the last week of our time in Zim was the sprint to the finish line, which left us pretty exhausted. The “sprint” at the end was the Eternal Word December Conference (Eternal Word is the group of churches we’ve been helping with). The December Conference is their largest, most important event of the year as it is when people from all of the 295 churches that they have planted all over Zimbabwe come together for a 3 day time of preaching, prayer, and worship. It’s held right over the Christmas holiday so more people can come (Dec 23 to Dec 26,) and they pack it in! The day begins at 4:00am with morning prayers and then preaching starts right after breakfast at 8:00am and goes until 10:00pm with small breaks for lunch and dinner. Pastors from all over Harare, Zimbabwe, South Africa, and the United States J come to preach at this event. This is also the time when Tatenda casts the vision for the next year, deals with any church issues, and ordains elders and pastors. This year 1,000 people made the sometimes difficult journey into Harare from rural areas and villages all over the country to spend Christmas in a much different way than most people around the world.

This year we were much more involved in the conference than we were last year when we came over for one week. We got to see and help with a lot of the behind the scenes work including transporting 45 orphans to the conference from Borrowdale (where we lived). In addition, we also made an intro video that was played on a big screen at the conference for the first time ever. Here, we quickly become experts in filming, editing, and video production. Justin did a ton on this video and that wasn’t even his main role at the conference. He was given three, two hour preaching spots in the program! So, each of the three days, Justin got to bring the word to 1,000 Zimbabweans – both extremely terrifying and extremely rewarding for him at the same time. For the most part I got to sit and enjoy the preaching and the praise and worship, except for a few hours on two of the days when I did a counseling training for some pastors and orphan caregivers from the rural areas whom I hadn’t trained before.

God demonstrated His faithfulness to us in the mere scheduling of our time in Zimbabwe, because although this event is crazy busy and exhausting, it was the perfect way to end our 11 weeks of ministry there. We were able to reconnect with many people whom we had had the opportunity to encourage and teach throughout our time in Zim. The highlight of the conference for us was the last night of the event when Tatenda ordained 25 pastors and over 200 elders. As new churches are being planted and people are rising up to lead them, this is the way in which Tatenda sets up leadership within the churches. Last year we almost fell asleep during this partJ, but this year, we knew many of the ordained elders and pastors, and we were able to share in their excitement. It was awesome and we had to hold back tears for some of our new, dear friends. In addition, with some of our support money, we were able to purchase 85 Bibles in Shona (the native language) that were distributed at the conference. Now 85 rural churches have a Bible in their language that the congregation can share! We also were able to give one Shona Bible to our friend Noel from Mbare, whom I wrote about in another blog (coolest Christmas present we’ve ever given)! This was awesome to be a part of as well.

After the conference we only had one full day to finish packing and say our final goodbyes before flying out early on the 29^th. We spent our last afternoon spending time with Tatenda and Lucia’s family and playing with the Borrowdale orphans that we had gotten to know and love, and now miss terriblyJ.

We have four more days in South Africa before we begin the second phase of our journey – Nepal. Before going to Nepal, however, we are meeting up with a short-term EPI team in Kenya for a week, and although we are nervous and anxious about what these next adventures are going to bring, Zimbabwe has helped to remind us that God is faithful in everything and everywhere!!

Makatendeka Jesu!