Dear Prayer Partners and Supporters,

Grateful and with joy we share with you our blessings from the last two months. At the same time we would also appreciate your prayers for the challenges we are facing. Below we give you the highlights:

College

We had quite a busy time before the graduation. The Principal had to teach weeks on end because two lecturers who should have come had cancelled their appointments. The students too, had to make sure all assignments and tests were done. And in the background, the Admin and the Financial Officer had their hands full on their side. The library, where the wife of the Principal volunteers, was busy too as students needed the resources for them to do their assignments

What a relief when all reached the climax of 10th of October in good health and expectations! The day of our 16th graduation had arrived. Early in the morning you could already hear choirs rehearsing in the background with beautiful melodies! The program itself was a success; 18 students received their diplomas and 1 student a certificate. In all, 19 students graduated. Because pictures say more than words, we will just invite you in the ceremony:

We said goodbye to all our students! Please pray for a good number of new students for 2020 Lord willing. The students also received a variety of resources into their hands as can be seen on the photo. They received books donated by different people, who have been a great blessing to us, and each student received a neck tie too!

Farm

The farming season is around the corner. Soon the fields will be prepared, waiting for the rains to come. We pray for sufficient rains this season. The amount of rain will also have an effect on our power supply. Since June we are facing a shortage of power in the country, because the water level in our main dam, Lake Kariba, is too low to generate enough power for the country. As a result, we are facing the challenges of load shedding almost every day. A minimum of 8-12 hours without power is affecting all of us in the different tasks that we have to do especially at the farm side where the impact is fully felt. For instance, the usage of the hammer mill and our water pump for the irrigation of the vegetable gardens and the water supply to all households on campus has been adversely hampered. Nevertheless, with the onset of the good rains, this situation can be reversed or remediated. Therefore, we will appeal accordingly for your earnest prayers.

On the farm side, we can also still count our blessings. As an example: last week 3 kids (baby goats) and 20 piglets were born. Always nice to see the blessing of new life. Our stocks for pigs is slowly and steadily increasing to above sixty (60) at the moment. In the pictures below you see some of the new born piglets, part of the vegetable garden and our farm ministry leader, pastor Mwanza.

CEM

CEM has undergone some restructuring process in the past two months. This includes implementing a new approach of sharing the education concepts through conferences (especially Bible lessons, literacy and pre-school education) and leave the responsibility for putting it into practice with the corresponding schools and churches. We hope to see thereby the ownership concept increase on the part of the corresponding partners. It also includes the phasing out of the five trainers on the ground a responsibility that will now be done centrally by the college.

In the wider area, Marjanne has been actively teaching different conferences. She has a new role of taking CEM to other provinces which entails travelling miles and miles away! Where ever she is invited, she goes. Every door that the Lord opens for this ministry is a chance to reach out to our little ones with the gospel. Our children need salvation as well! They need Christ! Behind every teacher that starts teaching Bible stories, you can see a whole group of children receiving the gospel at their level of understanding! Behind every teacher that starts teaching proper literacy lessons, you can see a whole group of children that will be able to read the Bible in future for themselves! Pray for much fruit!

And what do you do when during the training, children are peeping inside the building? You invite them in and this is killing two birds with one stone! The teachers get their practical straight away and the children hear the Bible stories!

We hope you have enjoyed reading what is going on in our ministries. We thank you for your prayers and support. It encourages us time after time. By joining hands with all of us you can be part of the expansion of God’s Kingdom for His glory!

Receive our warm regards!

Pastor Emmanuel Sakala
Principal