Last week Marlene and I returned home from Zimbabwe. It was by our estimation a full and fruitful month. During our last week there we had opportunity to participate in the annual Mega Vision Conference in Harare.
It was great to join with Dave and Liz Holden from the UK along with the Apostolic Leadership Team for Newfrontiers Churches in Zim led by Scott Marques.
I felt it was a VERY significant time in the life of our family of churches particularly in Southern Africa. There was a strong sense of God leading us on in faith to a new stage of involvement as a family of churches. A theme that seemed to be on our lips throughout the conference was that our Great Commander, Jesus, is calling for ‘all hands on deck’. We were all very conscience of God’s plan to use us as a family of churches to play a significant part in seeing the Good News about Jesus’ great salvation made known in cities and nations everywhere!
I really enjoyed doing a seminar on church planting along with Mbonisi, 'Bones'. I felt we made a great team. Bones shared a Biblical vision for church planting and a vision for doing business and farming God’s way as a front arm for church planting in Africa. I shared about planting churches cross-culturally and the great value of Chronological Bible Storying in this process. The seminar was very well attended.
Sadly, one of the teenage girls that came to Mega Vision died of injuries when someone in the neighborhood where she was staying flung a rock, hitting her in the head. We do not understand why this happened or who it was who did it. This was her very first time in the city. She came with a group from a church in a rural area. They were all very excited to be there for the conference. They were singing songs of praise when the incident occurred. This news came to us just as we were starting the first session of the conference. Certainly a wave of sorrow flooded over us all. The Holy Spirit prompted us to move forward in faith even in the face of this tragedy. We were given a picture at different points during the conference of this dear young girl very much alive and rejoicing in the presence of a loving Father! Because of what Jesus has accomplished for us, whether in our living or in our dying, God will be glorified.
