LINK  TO  LIFELINE  newsletter  MAY - SEPT 2004

 … encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.  1 Thess 5:11 (NIV)

MINISTRY TRAINING PROGRAM 2004

These pictures were taken during a visit to encourage three of our graduates who lead churches in a remote rural area.  They face many problems in the basic things of life as well as the spiritual problems of the region and the current problems of the nation.  There were good rains during the last planting season and they had a good harvest of both maize for food and cotton as a cash crop.  But one of them faced a further problem – elephants that destroyed most of what they didn’t eat of his crops.  While we were camped there we were visited one night by a herd of buffalo and the next night by baboons.  These animals are an attraction for tourists but they actually threaten the lives and the livelihoods of the people in those areas.

The Scotch cart, pulled by donkeys, is the main means of transport for work around the fields and for domestic needs - for fetching water from the local borehole, and for collecting firewood - for cooking and for keeping warm on winter nights just sitting by the fire and talking. 

In Zimbabwe the Ministry Training program has continued in Bulawayo and Gweru.  In both places we have been able to make improvements in the standard of the facilities we are using for both teaching and accommodation.  We are grateful to God for all those who have helped us to find the new places and to finance these changes. 

  Many of the MTP graduates are now in other countries and we are encouraged by the reports they send us of the ways they are able to use the training in their new places.

This heap of rubble (>>>) used to be the bridge over the river on the road leading to the nearest main town 150kms away.  Yet another problem to be faced by the local people.

As you pray for the Lifeline team please remember these men and their families, and many like them, who are serving God in remote places and difficult circumstances.

Give thanks with us for God’s preserving grace in the midst of so many adverse natural circumstances.  Rejoice that in all of it He is working His purposes out.

Finally, brothers, pray for us that the message of the Lord may spread rapidly and be honoured, just as it was with you.   2 Thess. 3: 1 (NIV)

MINISTRY TRAINING PROGRAM 2005

And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others.  2 Tim 2:2 (NIV)

There is an ongoing need of and demand for teaching and training in the churches in Zimbabwe.  We have far more invitations to provide the Lifeline MTP than we are able to fulfill.  In general teachers are a rare and endangered species in the churches.  Also as the economy has changed over recent years transport and accommodation have become increasingly costly.  Our previous programs of bringing people together in different regions for training is no longer the most effective way of working. 

We see the greatest need is to train teachers in each region to serve in their local churches and districts.  Our 2005 program will do this.  The established training bases in Bulawayo and Gweru will continue to serve the people and churches in those areas under the local Lifeline team leaders.  We will also bring together for further training people who already serve as teachers in their local churches & equip them for a wider ministry.  To do this more for more churches and in more places we will work with those who share our vision and values.

A church meeting in a rural area  – they need teachers too

We already have the courses that will be used for new Christians and for Discipleship programs and have begun to develop the courses that will be used in the Training Bases and for the Teaching the Teachers programs.

All this is against a background of considerable changes in the nation and in the location and lifestyle of many believers.  Church life has been disrupted and some churches have ceased to exist.  New churches are needed so it is a time of great opportunity as well as of many challenges.

Please pray for God’s wisdom for us in the course development, the selection of those to be trained and in the location and organization of the programs.

ON A PERSONAL NOTE:

We were visiting family, friends and churches in the UK in August and in North America in September, returning to Zimbabwe via New Zealand, Australia and South Africa.  We inherited from Ron and Dorothy Davies many precious relationships with people in these countries who share the vision of Lifeline in southern Africa and have prayed for and supported the work for many years.  They have now become our friends and we are grateful to God that we are able to meet with some of them and visit the churches that have given so generously to Lifeline in both people and finances. 

We returned to find that the postal rates which had been increased 5-fold in July had been doubled again in October.  These changes have drastically reduced the number of responses we receive to our paper preachers and are making it almost impossible for most of our correspondence course students to continue their studies.  Pray with us as we seek to increase the non-postal uses of the literature in the prisons, schools and churches, and to develop the discipleship group program in which the courses are used for Bible study.

We value your prayers for all the Lifeline team in Zimbabwe and Zambia as they continue to tell people about Jesus and make disciples for Him.  We send you our love in Jesus, Loxley & Mavis.