Zim Happenings

Women's Groups

In our most recent meeting with the ladies' groups, we discussed the passage in 1 Timothy where it outlines explanations and qualifications of elders and deacons. It was very interesting to hear from each of the ladies how their churches choose elders and deacons. Each one was slightly different and we had quite a good discussion about it. There were lots of questions and lots of going back to see what the Bible says about it.

In the couple weeks that we've been away, we've received messages about the meetings they have continued to have each week. They have enjoyed good fellowship, discussions, prayer times, and delving into the Word. They are meeting in a different woman's home each week.

One of the women in the Wednesday group just had a baby girl last week, which is her second child. Everyone was excited for her and she and her husband will certainly have their hands full for the near future!

Western, Jr. has enjoyed having other children to play with on Tuesdays and Wednesdays!

Western, Jr. and his new friend are doing a fist bump or what the women call a "big 5"

This time, they're doing a high five

Not long ago, the director of development from Boise Bible College and his wife visited us for two days. They also visited other BBC alumni who are missionaries in Zimbabwe and toured the country with a group, doing both ministry and tourist activities. It was a pleasure to share with them about so many areas in which JM2Z is making a difference in people's hearts and lives.

We regularly see people on the back of these 15 passenger vans that are taxis. The guy on the left is calling out for more passengers and has a wad of cash in his hand from collecting fares.

Micro-enterprises

Since the end of last year, each of the 13 women in the Wednesday group who began their businesses experienced some degree of difficulty, resulting in major setbacks. The difficulties came not from them doing anything wrong. Some had major expenses of a funeral for a family member, some experienced thefts of money or their product, and others couldn't keep up with the drastic price increases.

The encouraging thing for us is that they have been trying to help each other. One example is that they share customers with each other when needed. Instead of being greedy, they send their customers to the other women if they know one has some extra product that needs selling.

We spent several weeks discussing individually with each one to more clearly understand what they experienced, their situations, and decisions they made and actions they took, and where they are now.

It was clear that each had taken a few steps backward after getting off to great starts and that they weren't going to get back to where they need to be on their own. We chose to help them financially in order to get them running at full capacity once again. We also made sure that they had a solid plan going forward. Now they should be good to go.

Fundraising Letters

Sometimes, unexpected things happen and we just need to laugh. We sent out fundraising letters to many of you last year from Zimbabwe. At that time, it was taking about 3 weeks to send mail between Zim and the US. We sent them in May 2018 and we were due to arrive in the US in August, so we figured the letters would arrive sometime in those 3 months before us. We were wrong! We have received messages from some of you saying that your letters arrived anytime between November and last week! We aren't sure why they've taken so long or why there is such a range of arrival dates. In whatever case, the May 2018 date on the letter was not a typo. That's when they were sent :-) Even though they didn't arrive when we had hoped, the need is still there. So maybe they're arriving at just the right time, almost a year later.