Give thanks to the Lord for he is good; his love endures forever. Psalm 106:1

We are thankful to the Lord that despite all the difficulties caused by the Covid global pandemic during the past year, we have been able to maintain the work of the Trust and seen new projects launched as well as maintaining our support for existing projects. The Lord is good and our prayer is that the hearts of many in Zimbabwe will experience
his love that endures forever.
The accounts of the Trust for the year to 5th April 2021 show an income of £75,753 and that we distributed £67,496 to support various projects and respond to the needs among the Lord’s people and their communities. In our current financial year, we have received £47,595 and distributed £46,593 in the six months from April to October and in our trustees meeting on 16th October a further £32,580 was allocated to be distributed. We are thankful to the Lord for His faithfulness in providing for the ongoing needs and to the Lord’s people here in the UK for their generous support.

Pastor Albert Chatindo
It was with deep sadness we heard of the home call of Pastor Albert Chatindo on 30th September 2021. Pastor Albert had a heart filled with Christ’s love and compassion for the poor, needy and marginalised in Zimbabwe and as a Trust we have been privileged to support him in a number of projects as he demonstrated this love and compassion in practical ways. We thank the Lord for his life and ministry and pray the legacy of Albert will live on through those who now ‘take up the baton’. Give thanks for the life and ministry of Pastor Albert and pray for those who continue the work.

Supporters Prayer Meeting

We have been encouraged by those who have joined us for our
Trustees and Supporters Prayer Meetings in the past year and plan
a further such event at the end of this month. As trustees we will be meeting for prayer on Zoom on Monday 29th November from 7.30 – 9.00pm and invite any supporters who would like to join us for this to contact our chairman – Chris Boyes at chris at zpt.org.uk to arrange for a link to the meeting to be sent to you. This will be an opportunity to share more news of the work and pray together for the needs of the Lord’s people in Zimbabwe.

Boreholes
In the previous news update in May we highlighted the need for two new boreholes to be drilled – one at Mt Darwin to provide for the Community Development Centre project supported by the Trust, as well as the local community. The second need mentioned was to provide a borehole for Mandiva Primary School, in Chivi district, with around 700 pupils but no supply of safe clean water. We have been overwhelmed by the response to these two needs and, as a result of the very generous support given, both projects have been completed. Funds have also been allocated to provide a solar powered pump and solar panels for a borehole funded by a local community. Thank you so much for your prayers and support to see these needs met.
At Mandiva we were able to drill two boreholes to meet the needs at the school, one of which has an abundant supply which it is planned to use to develop gardens for growing crops. Our partner Gideon Chishamba explains: One of the boreholes which is 1.7km away from the school has got
plenty of water such that the school wants to use the surplus water to run a nutrition garden by the school. The garden is going to go a long way in providing fresh food for the school’s feeding program, increasing the school’s income as they would be able to sell the surplus, improving school attendance especially amongst orphans and vulnerable children and reduce number of children who drop out of school. Please pray for the provision of fencing for this garden project and also a security fence for the site of the borehole and solar panels.

Health Clinic at Makamure
Work on building the health clinic in Chivi District is almost complete now, after a series of unavoidable delays, and we trust it will soon be possible to purchase the furnishings and equipment needed for the premises to become operational. Funds are in hand to provide for the equipping of the clinic. Please pray for the completion of this project and qualified staff for the clinic to provide the much-needed medical services for this very rural community.

Skills Training Schemes
We are pleased to report that the tools and equipment donated by Tools With A Mission have arrived and are being put to good use in the training schemes at Mt Darwin and Bulawayo. Gideon Chishamba reports: The project picks up young people from the streets and trains them to have skills that will help them to earn a living. We thank you so much for the tools and your assistance in paying the trainer. We would like to help them to start up a carpentry business venture upon completion of their training; they will still continue to work as a team and we will be following them up to monitor the progress of their business. Please pray this training will equip young people with the skills they need to develop ways of supporting themselves and find meaning and purpose in life, as the Gospel is shared with them.

Books for Training Pastors
We received the donation of 1600 books in the Pray, Prepare, Preach series for sending to Zimbabwe and these are currently being shipped from the UK and are due to arrive in Bulawayo later this month. We have books on six different titles in the series and they are designed to help pastors understand the message of a Biblical book and provide an outline to help them preach from the book. These are written for pastors who have English as their second language and, we believe, will be a great help to the pastors we have contact with who will receive these books.

Once the books have arrived

and been distributed to the pastors in various areas the plan is to arrange Zoom teaching conferences in which the books can be introduced and the pastors helped to understand how they can get the most out of using the books. We are still not able to have trustees travel to Zimbabwe but believe this will be a valuable way to support and encourage the pastors in being faithful in preaching the Word. We are thankful that the Indigenous Preachers Workshops led by the pastors who have been trained through the Training of Trainers have been able to recommence following the lockdowns experienced in the country. Please pray for the safe arrival of the books, transit through customs and distribution to pastors and that the Zoom teaching conferences can be set up and be a blessing to the pastors who will participate. Pray also for the ongoing IPW’s.

Educational needs
As a Trust we support widows with children in education and also orphans by helping towards the cost of school fees – there is no free education in Zimbabwe. We believe there is a clear Biblical precedent to give such care to widows and orphans. However, from time to time we are approached with requests to assist with support for young people in vocational training, college and university. We are not in a position to do this from our current income but would be prepared to set up a designated Educational Fund if there are those supporters who would like to donate to meet this need. If you would like to know more, please contact the secretary or one of the other trustees. Donations can be made in the usual way but should be marked as designated for the Educational Fund.

Donations can be made to our Account with CAF Bank – Sort code: 40-52-40
Account name: Zimbabwe Partnership Trust Account number: 00100168
Online donations can also be made at give.net/20174075

Thank you for your ongoing prayers and support of the work.
Roger Prime