Zimbabwe

In June this year we went on a one-week mission to Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe and the rural village of Mshumbi which is a three hours’ drive from Harare. We were hosted by Lameck Musandu and his family who is the Pastor of our sister church in Zimbabwe. We soon realized that the power of the Gospel of Christ is never to be underestimated as we started to minister to people. We were usually thrown in the deep end when we came into contact with people since we normally did not know what the need was. One verse that really stuck well with us was 2 Corinthians 3:5-6 which says:

“Not that we are sufficient of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God; Who also have made us able ministers of the New testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.”

Due to this verse we were encouraged to step out in faith knowing that it would not be us doing the ministering but God in us. A testimony that comes to mind is a family that we ministered to for four days. Their marriage was suffering, with the youngest son (4) having been diagnosed with autism, never spoke nor slept, with the oldest son (13) having the same diagnosis. On our first visit, we prayed for both of the sons to experience healing and ministered to their mother (the wife), with the sons showing no response at first. The second day we were blown away when we heard that the youngest son for the first time had slept through the night and was starting to speak. We spent most of our time discipling the family, with the oldest son and their caretaker receiving Jesus and the baptism of the Holy Ghost. On the third day the oldest son was able to respond immediately to our questions and ask questions which showed his improvement. On the fourth day we were told that the marriage was recovering tremendously and that the oldest son was now looking after himself, cleaning his room and playing with other kids. We followed up with the family a month later to find out that the oldest son had been the main character in a play and was able to speak fluently. What we witnessed was truly miraculous and all we did was to share with them the gift that God gave us, the inheritance that we have in Christ, who God is and who they are in His Word.

The mission trip to Zimbabwe really showed us God’s heart that He has for each person, whom He intimately knows and that He wants to have a relationship with. He wants you to have an abundant life that overflows with peace and joy which is only found in Christ.

Written by

Coenraad Swanepoel