"Call to Africa" is a group from the US - led by Ken Gaylean- who will hold a football(soccer) clinic and tournament representing 8 schools in the area. Each night while they are there they will hold 4 crusades in different villages throughout the area. Sounds like a lot of work, it is. Very limited housing available and no restaurants make it difficult to have a large group in the village. There will be 16 people required to do this work. We were concerned how this was going to happen in 5 weeks. We prayed for God to provide discernment and guidance as we met with people to find the location and housing. God provided in a mighty way - He always does!
We met a lady who pastors a church and owns a shopping plaza. She will offer her church and building next door at no cost. Her sons owns a catering business and will handle feeding 86 people each day. She will handle chairs and tables. She is friends with people who own a lodge and are working a good rate for us. Go God! The only other issue we had was someone to lead praise and worship for the week. This same pastor told us she had a woman who just spoke to her the day before telling her God wanted her to be in Masunga for a revival and teaching and she would be ready when the time came. Once again God provided. We spoke with her and everything is all set. The greatest challenges were getting taken care of and we now have to wait on the results. Amazing.
All of the schools were excited and felt they were able to participate in the football clinic and tournament. Because of the strike, the students have not played organized football in many months. From our visits we were able to find the 4 locations for the crusade and are waiting for confirmation on the approval. It was like God had been at work before we arrived. Once the faithful arrived to do the work, everything started falling in place.
I had the opportunity to travel to Zimbabwe and visit some pastors and one particular who attended the children's conference early last month. The Zimbabwe pastors were saying they felt God was getting ready heal Zimbabwe. I was blessed to see a young man take everything we taught and put it to work. He made sure his volunteers were born again (not asked here for children workers), trained his leaders and conducted a VBS using a curriculum we provided. He normally has 10 kids. There were 76 jumping, shouting, singing, bible verse memorizing children his first day. The senior pastor said when Bryan returned, "That boy was on fire. I could not hold him back." The pastor is going to use the children's VBS to teach the adults on Sunday morning. Unheard of in Zimbabwe, children's teaching in a church service. He thanked us for the work we did in Gaborone. He said it was going to change his village. Just so happens a new housing development is just about to be completed and bring a large number of families to the area. His church is 3 km away. This is a village in the middle of farm land. Go God! Call to Africa will be holding a crusade for the church at the new housing development. The pastor was so excited. Here is a photo:
At the end of the trip, I was able to meet with more people who attended the conference. Again, life changing and well equipped were words we heard over and over again. They are using the material we provided and were amazed at how well the children responded to scripture memorization and story time. One teacher was a graduate in child development who expressed she never was taught to teach with such passion and excitement as we had shared with her in training. She is now teaching at day care center because of the training she received. We also were able to provide some children at the school with food from OBC and clothes. Here is a photo of some of the children:
I am awe struck and blessed to serve such an amazing God. Please pray for the children's leadership conference in Masunga - 4 Oct to 9 Oct. Pray that lives will be changed and leaders will be transformed. We only have capacity for 20 children's leaders and 50 pastors. I have 2 already signed up from Zimbabwe who will travel there to attend. Pray for the energy needed to make this happen. Pray for our children as we leave them with someone in Gaborone so we can lead the conference. Pray for a land that needs healing and the people who need to be transformed. I heard this testimony from many-"The only thing that kept the country together was the church and God growing the church spiritually".
Finally, the boys start school on Monday. Pray for their getting back in the swing of things after being out for 4 weeks. Thank you for reading our blog and supporting us with your love, prayers and financial support.
Scott Shipes
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