Some of you will have been at our recent Zoom prayer meeting where you will have heard some of the updates featured in this newsletter. In spite of the harsh conditions in Zimbabwe, there remains a strong demand for good teaching and copies of God’s word, but we are overwhelmed with the scale of needs across the country just to put food on the table, meet medical needs and get the next generation through education and on to a means of supporting themselves .
Our role is mainly to channel assistance to our brothers and sisters in Zimbabwe in partnership through our very dedicated and hardworking partners on the ground.
May ToT team visit
In May this year, a team from ZPT went to provide ministry training as in previous years. The team was made up of Tom Fenning (Pastor of Beccles Baptist Church), Ollie Land (Pastor of Elmstead Baptist Church) and Mark Drury (Pastor of Crockenhill Baptist Church).
They began with a one day conference in Bulawayo. It was attended by pastors from the Chivi group that Gideon oversees, and the Bulawayo pastors from the rural areas that Robert Chatindo looks after. They had planned for about 150 attendees but in the event it was more like 200.
Mark Drury began with a session on Paul’s charge to Timothy in 2 Timothy Ch.4 v2. The next session was led by Ollie who spoke on Colossians Ch.1 vv15-23. After lunch, Tom led the third session. He spoke on a Psalm of Lament and showed the pastors how to read and make use of such psalms. Each of the three sessions was followed by a time for questions and lots of good questions were asked.
Gideon is keen to run this again next year so plans are being made for a two day event in 2026.
Whilst in Bulawayo the team visited our longstanding friend and Christian brother Ray Motsi at TCZ (Theological College of Zimbabwe). Ray has been the principal there for many years and would value our prayers for a suitable man to succeed him.
Many of the pastors who attended shared that it was the first time in years they had someone pour into their lives. The teachings were timely, the fellowship rich, and the spiritual atmosphere electrified. Tears were shed, strength was renewed, and hearts were set ablaze for the Gospel once again.
Gideon Chishemba – following the one day conference:
The team then travelled on to the Lasting Impressions conference centre near Kadoma for the Training of Trainers (ToT) week. Ollie led five sessions on Colossians and provided some Bible handling skills along the way. Tom led five sessions on the Psalms of Lament. Mark led five sessions on the book of Jonah. Tom and Ollie’s sessions were quite interactive, and the men seemed to appreciate this.
William Danyere, who heads up the indigenous preachers workshops through the year also took part with three sessions on the book of John.
The team took the following to further equip the men as ongoing resources:
- ‘Colossians and Philemon’ by John Woodhouse (Focus)
- ‘Dark Clouds, Deep Mercy: Discovering the Grace of Lament’ by Mark Vroegop (Crossway)
- How to Read the Bible Book by Book’ by Gordon Fee and Douglas Stuart (Zondervan Academic)
- ‘Man Overboard – the Story of Jonah’ by Sinclair Ferguson (Banner of Truth)
- ‘Jonah – Preacher on the Run’ by Gordon Keedie (EP)
- Seven copies of Wayne Grudem’s Systematic Theology to give to the men who had not already received a copy.
- Hard copies of a paper on Jonah written by Derek French.
- 150 SD cards containing lots of Bible ministry (organised by Jon Spalding)
The ToT men are clearly continuing to grow in their understanding of God’s word and in their ability to preach His word. This in turn seems to be having an impact on those to whom they minister.
For your prayers…Pastors Conference on Zoom — Wednesday 1st October 2025
Fountain of Life
Gideon and Jennifer Chishamba and the team cover a big area, working on many different projects connected with a large network of churches. Gideon has just shared a picture of the newly completed Rehoboth orphan house in Chivi. We have helped them fund the building and furnishing, along with providing a solar-powered energy system. They just need a little more funding to purchase the following to make it ready for the children to move in:
- A gas cylinder for cooking
- An upright refrigerator to store the food
- Kitchen utensils
- Sheets and blankets to keep the children warm and comfortable
Water Supplies — New Borehole
In our last newsletter, we shared the goal of drilling for water at Vundembe where the people rely on water from the contaminated Runde River, located downstream from a mining operation. This has exposed the community to continuous outbreaks of waterborne diseases, placing families – especially children – at grave risk. Sadly this village has proved to be so remote from any roads that the drilling companies would not risk attempting to drive over rough bush even to begin surveys. This has led to a change of plan to invest in another needy area in the Chivi district called Sungai. While still remote, Sungai is more accessible, and our prayer is that this borehole will serve as a wellspring of health, growth and revival. The Vundembe villagers plan to clear a new road to give access to enable drilling while focus switches to Sungai, where the survey has been carried out and drilling is expected very soon.
Gideon has made the following prayer requests:
- For drilling at Sungai Village
- For future access to Vundembe through improved infrastructure
- For clean water to flow and nutritious gardens to flourish
- For healing in communities plagued by unsafe water
- For wisdom, favour and protection over the Fountain of Hope team.
Support of Widows
The Trust has supported Chipo, Loveness and Agnes over many years now. They are all finding it increasingly difficult to provide for themselves and their families with even the basics. This includes food and medical needs, which increase as they get older with more health issues. This is mainly due to the deteriorating economic situation in the country. The Trust recently supported Loveness to receive treatment at the Karanda Mission Hospital, covering both her travel and hospital costs. She is doing well and expresses her gratitude for the help she has been given.
We want to share with you one particular additional need for Chipo’s first son, Joseph, who is now 21. He has been awarded a place at the University of Science and Technology in Bulawayo. The Trust is not able to cover university costs for Joseph. Both Chipo and Joseph have been working hard to put money aside to help towards these costs but understandably the funds that the family can raise fall short of what is necessary.
This need is brought to you for your prayers and request that there may be some who would be prepared to designate funding to help cover these university costs for the next four years. The main costs are fees $672 USD twice a year and a monthly cost of $90 USD for accommodation (a shared room at TCZ which is opposite the University).
New Trustee
We are pleased to welcome a new trustee, Mdudzi Mswabuki, thankfully known mostly as the much easier to pronounce ‘Dudes’! Those who were at the recent Zoom prayer meeting will have been introduced when he took part. Dudes is a Zimbabwean with family still in Zimbabwe but has been living in the UK for many years.
He is a fellow elder with Ollie Land at Elmstead Baptist Church and works as an accountant with the firm Ernst & Young. He has already met Robert Chatindo and Gideon on previous trips to Zimbabwe and hopes to do so again when he visits for a family wedding in August.
Bibles
We would value prayer for the Lord to intervene in the situation with a Trinitarian Bible Society shipment of 500 Ndebele bibles that are being held up in Bulawayo by the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (ZIMRA). These bibles are desperately needed by the estimated 2800 members of over 140 churches just in the area overseen by Gideon and Robert. Gideon has been patiently building relationships with ZIMRA to get these cleared through customs, but so far without success. Please pray for a breakthrough in this situation and progress towards importing more bibles to address the dire shortage. Gideon estimates 75% of Christians in rural churches have no bible of their own.
Mount Darwin Community Development Centre – Trymore and Bester
Trymore is continuing with the work at the Community Development Centre. As we are commanded in scripture, they care for widows and around 100 orphans as well as training young men in various livelihood skills — some of the men have never had a formal education.
Trainees prayer requests:
- Unity within their families
- Reconciliation with absent fathers
- Use of life skills to start businesses to support
their mothers, wives and children - Spiritual growth.
Trymore’s prayer requests:
- Give thanks that Bester is keeping much more stable with her diabetes and health issues.
- Pray for provision of materials and equipment for the skills training programmes – shoe making, building, fence making, welding.
- Pray the CDC will be a source of Gospel hope for the community.
- Pray for the nursery school children – their health, education, sufficient nutrition for their daily meals and their spiritual growth.
- Pray for safety and security at the centre and for the staff who teach and care for the children.
James Kambudzi – Tariro Yeupenyu (Hope for Life)
We would value prayer for James Kambudzi as he faces a particularly difficult time. For many years, he has worked for the Karanda hospital as chaplain. Due to the breakdown of his marriage and his ex-wife still working for Karanda, he was asked to resign his employment with them.
He plans to create an income for himself and his children by fattening cattle and butchering them to supply fresh meat. He also would like to encourage the unemployed young people from his area to take up raising pigs in a similar way. He shared with us the growing problem of young people falling into drug addiction, alcohol abuse and prostitution, so there is an urgent need to provide mentoring and guidance to this needy and vulnerable generation.
The other elements of Hope for Life are continuing — goats, fish farming and crops from the communal field.
On behalf of the Trustees, thank you all for your continued support, without which this work could not continue.