General Election

On the 23rd of August 2023 the Zimbabwean general election was held again. Emmerson Mnangagwa was pronounced the winner with 52% of the vote and Nelson Chamisa declared to have achieved 44% with a handful of other contenders getting the remainder. Whilst many were praying for a miracle, there is probably little surprise at this result. Most of our ministry partners in Zimbabwe are careful to maintain a neutral stance over political matters, especially where they are engaged in relief work, to make it clear that any aid is given completely unconditionally.

Training of trainers – week commencing Monday 20th Nov

We are looking forward to the first T.O.T to be conducted by a team from the UK since May 2019. God willing the program is as follows:-
– Derek French will be doing 7 sessions on the life of Abraham.
– Ollie Land will be doing 5 sessions on the book of Daniel.
– William Danyere will be doing 3 sessions on 1, 2, 3 John (or John’s epistles)
– Mark Drury will be doing 3 sessions on the book of Jude.
In connection with the workshops, the pastors have been given a New Testament text on which to preach an evangelistic message. The plan is to offer constructive feedback.

Please pray that this will be useful in strengthening and equipping the local church.

Killarney

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Tariro Yeupenyu (Hope for Life)

The goats are continuing to multiply and a large distribution of around 50 goats is scheduled for the first quarter of 2024. The distribution to orphans and families in need will be channelled through local churches. Sufficient fertilizer and seed have been purchased to plant 8 hectares of the Community Field this season. This is slightly less than recent years because the long-range forecast is for a difficult growing season. A large amount of maize is in storage from this year’s Community Field harvest and will be allocated to those in greatest need over the coming months. During November James will be training another group of farmers in the sustainable agricultural methods known as Farming God’s Way.

Chris Boyes is hoping to join the team going out this month and plans to spend some time with James Kambudzi for a pastoral visit and to follow up on some aspects of this ministry.

Bibles

An important part of our work is seeking to meet the need for bibles in Zimbabwe. The TBS have been very generous with grants over the years and supplied another 20 Shona bibles this year. Some of these 20 Bibles were transported into Zimbabwe with a group from the UK conducting a mission near Victoria Falls. They came across Chanel Nyathi (21) who had been given the task of looking after the smaller children during meetings. She had enjoyed some success with only a few dog – eared tracts and was therefore overjoyed to be given a real bible. Clearly this will be hugely beneficial for her personally but also transforms her capacity to teach the children under her care.

We have committed to supply 20 more bibles to a new church plant from City Presbyterian, Bulawayo. They have dedicated a team to begin a new work at Worringham, which is about 30km out from Bulawayo. This new work has already attracted a congregation of about 40 people. We now have a reliable source to supply bibles from within Zimbabwe at $15 each should anyone wish to sponsor individual bibles.

Fountain of Hope—Gideon Chishamba – Below is an excerpt from a recent report from Gideon:

Fountain of Hope team is very much grateful to you for all the support that you are rendering to Churches and communities right here in Zimbabwe. We are glad to let you know that your support is undoubtedly going a long way in transforming lives and in improving the quality of life in these rural communities. The people of Makamure community are able to have food throughout the year and are also able to send their children to school through the produce of the garden project. The Support group garden is going a long way in making those who are HIV positive to have nutritional food on daily basis. They do not only have green fresh vegetables for consumption but are able to sell the surplus to get extra money to buy mealie meal and other important items at their homes. Chivi is a dry and poor community and has suffered hunger and starvation for many years, but thank God that the gardens are slowly but surely breaking the cycle of hunger and poverty in the villages. The number of children dropping out of school due to lack of school fees as well as food has gone down because many people are able to pay fees through what they produce from the gardens.

We thank all our supporters for your prayers and generous giving to the work of the Trust.

New Secretary

You will see below that we are welcoming our new secretary, Shaun Hexter, after a period of handover from Roger Prime. Roger and Gill Prime have sacrificially devoted much of their time and expertise since the founding of ZPT in 2011, and we are very grateful for all they have done over the years. We are also pleased to announce that Juliet Lewis will be joining us to help take on the responsibility of caring for the widows that Gill Prime will be laying down, again after a period of handover.

Finances

We give thanks to God for our income for this year which amounted to a total of £79 975 and total expenditure of £110 789, we carry forward a balance of £20 273.

Donations can be made to our Account with CAF Bank