March 2005 - general news update

Excerpt from general update from Loxley Ford

Hi Everyone, We now have one of our phone lines back and so are able to send and receive e-mail much more easily then of late.  The service is still very slow and congested.  We are both well and preparing for the 2005 Lifeline Training program in the midst of many challenges for us and all those involved. 

The official inflation rate has risen again for the first time for a year which only confirms our observation of the prices in the shops.  Fuel is now generally available and the price has actually fallen since the end of 2004.

and news from Mavis Ford

Hi everyone, This is amazing!  I find myself with a few hours to spare, while my new maid does the housework - what luxury!  She’s a very sweet Christian woman highly recommended by a friend, and is just doing 1 day a week at present.  In under two hours she has done most of the routine cleaning, and several other things as well, and will get all the kitchen spring-cleaned and the ironing done before she goes home.  She is presently having her mid-morning tea-break sitting in the middle of the kitchen floor, as the custom is in this country (I have no experience of maids, as we have always had a man-servant who lived on the premises).

It is also a bit of a luxury to have the telephone back and the computers working.  Long may it last!  We have both been busier than ever since Christmas, and wonder what it is like to be retired?  I reach my 65th in a couple of weeks, and Loxley is creeping up towards 70.  Loxley is attempting to get his LifeLine teaching program planned and underway.  He cannot start to do anything until after the elections, as so many places are no-go areas, and it seems that the enormously increased costs of running the sessions will further inhibit things.  We are hoping that the Bulawayo and Gweru programs will go ahead, but it doesn't seem likely that any new venues will be launched this year.  Our literature ministry is more-or less in limbo apart from in the prisons because of postal charges.  Joshua comes into the office for the occasional day, and Loxley and he are going through the tracts and other literature to rationalize some more.

We have had the painter here in fits and starts since before Christmas.  He is a nice guy, one of Loxley's ex-students, doing an excellent job and working very hard - when he is here.  He is staying on the premises and sometimes starts at 6am (Kogen is from Gweru and was baptised in the Holy Spirit when we were there in 2003).  We didn't intend to have so much work done, but once some of it is clean it really shows up the rest!  We had a bit of a shock this week when our gardener, also an ex-student, left us a note saying he had left - without any notice and the reason given that "he couldn't live on nothing" - despite the fact we are paying him 3 times the official rate.  Then yesterday he phoned to give us the real reason - there is a casual worker coming in to help the painter with some of the preparation work, and Good says that the boy's father is a witch-doctor!!  He says he will come back if we get rid of the lad.  But we feel that Good needs to be delivered from his fears, so we will urge him to attend the "Walking Free" course that is run at the church.

I have had a few medical problems recently, but nothing very serious.  I started attending "Body and Soul", which is an aerobic dance class done to Christian music, plus a few strengthening exercises.  Because of my advanced years, and because it is an American organization, I had to be assessed by a doctor, lest I should drop dead of a heart attack while exercising!  He was unhappy about the irregular heartbeat I have had for years, so now I'm supposed to see a cardiologist for an ECG, and am not allowed to continue with the classes meanwhile.  I also had a routine mammogram and a scan, which showed no evidence of malignancy, but an inflammation which is also supposed to be followed up.  Now we no longer have routine medical insurance, only emergency cover, all these consultations and investigations are terribly expensive, so we are taking the other route (prayer) for the time being.  We both had our blood sugar and cholesterol checked which are very normal.

I am teaching 14 piano students this term and am now a multi-millionaire - not a difficult thing in this environment of hyperinflation (presently the official rate is 143%).  So, as you see, there is not a lot of time for housework!  We send our love to you all, Mavis Ford

APRIL 2005  -  LINK TO LIFELINE

he who has My word, let him speak My word faithfully. Jer 23:28 

We have had a challenging five months since we last sent you our prayer news. During that time there have been a number of changes for Lifeline. Postal charges increased yet again in December last year.  It now costs the equivalent of US$8.22 to send a letter to the USA, £3.50 to the UK and 30 rand to South Africa, and the local rate for a 20gm letter is now equivalent to US$1.14 or £0.60 or 7 Rand.

GLL Literature and Correspondence courses - Zimbabwe

As a result of the rate increases the post from our correspondence course students is now only 2 or 3 letters a week and not 2 or 3 hundred as it was in January 2004. So we agreed with Joshua and James to retrench them with packages that gave them an alternative income.  Joshua continues to work part time at the office processing the courses from the prisons and some churches and sorting and repairing our printing masters for the time when we will be able to resume the literature program in Zimbabwe.  James had served for 15 years with Lifeline and Joshua for almost 20 years.  Please pray for them as they adjust to all the changes in their lives.

GLL Literature and Correspondence courses - Mozambique

Loxley recently visited Beira and discussed with Pastor Anacleto the staffing and re-opening of the Lifeline literature office at the house. The new literature office and bookstore, outside the house, is now completed and some adjacent rooms are to be renovated as a reading and study area. >>>

The “Building your Life” course is at present being distributed by a former Lifeline employee working from another office in the city.

The move back to the house will enable us once again to offer both the tracts and courses and also to sell Bibles and other Christian books, and to re-open the pastor’s library.

Please pray for Pastor Anacleto as he looks for the right person to run the office. Someone with a vision for the use of literature for the gospel, discipleship and for building the church.

GLL Literature and Correspondence courses - Zambia

Nixon Nguni still oversees the literature work in the Lusaka office.  In 2004 he received an average of 600 responses a month to the tracts. Each person was sent the first lesson of the “Building your Life” course.  Some do not complete the six lessons of that course but others go on to also do the other three Bible study courses and almost 1200 students completed one of courses in 2004.

Nixon continues to receive testimonies of lives being changed as the students respond to the word of God and become “doers of the word” and not just students.

Please pray for the Lifeline team as they publish, distribute, preach and teach God’s word.

…  so also is my Word. I send it out, and it always produces fruit.
It shall accomplish all I want it to and prosper everywhere I send it.  Isa 55:11

2005 MINISTRY TRAINING PROGRAM

And every day, in the temple and from house to house,

they kept right on teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ. Acts 5:42

We have the teachers, we have prepared the courses, arranged the programs, obtained the venues and now all that we need is the students in both Zimbabwe and Mozambique.  Most of the potential students have problems to overcome due to the prevailing circumstances here.  Accommodation and travel are among the many ordinary things that have become expensive for most people. So we need your prayers for them and us as we prepare to start soon after the election which is on March 31.

HELPING PEOPLE IN NEED

if … you give even a cup of cold water to a little child, you will surely be rewarded.  Matt 10:42

Although we are not able to bring into Zimbabwe the clothing donated to Lifeline in the UK, as we did before, we have now been given clothing here. The picture  >>>  shows one of the many people who are referred to us and come to the Lifeline house in Harare for help. 

While he was in Mozambique Loxley visited Pastor Domingos Caetano and his wife in Nhamatanda to see the changes made since last year at the Sparrow’s Nest orphanage. The photo below shows them with some of the 36 children from 6 to 16 years old that they now care for.

<<<  With the help of the Holroyd New Life Church in Australia the land behind the Sparrow’s Nest has been bought and is already being put to use.  A garden area has been fenced off to grow seedlings which will be planted out in their vegetable garden just down the road, and a new Blair toilet and shower block is being built. The whole site has now been fenced and new gates erected.

Pastor Caetano was given three turkeys by the local mayor after he preached at a civic event. One was eaten and the other two have now multiplied and become 14. The children also keep chickens and ducks. It was good to see them all looking so healthy and happy.

Other projects include a grinding mill which will soon be earning money and the upgrading of the girls accommodation.

ON A PERSONAL NOTE

We are happy to welcome again Claire Boothby from the Acorn church in Chesterfield UK who is on her fifth visit to Zimbabwe to work with Lifeline and in our local church. We love to have visitors.

We send you our love in Jesus, Loxley & Mavis.