We have just a few days left before we leave Zimbabwe and head to England for the ‘Together On a Mission’ conference in Brighton, then back home to our family and friends in the USA.
Every day now we are working on a final editing of the first track of stories for our Chronological Bible Storying strategy. This track of stories goes from Genesis through to Acts 2. We refer to it as the ‘Redemptive Track’. We have chosen 33 stories for telling here in Zimbabwe. These stories follow ‘redemptive threads’ through Scripture, unfolding God’s Big Salvation Story, which culminates in the life of Jesus and his great salvation work.
Marlene and I are so grateful for the amazing team we are working with on this initiative. Right now we are especially grateful for the wonderful help of Kayle Pelletier. Kayle and her husband Mat are both teachers at the Theological College of Zimbabwe in Bulawayo. Kayle has taken a break from her teaching responsibilities this term. Though she is a busy mother of two small children, she has given a large part of her time to work with us on finishing this much needed edition of the first track of stories. There is much more work to do in completing all the story tracks for this project and actually working them out on the ground…but more on that later.
Last Sunday I had the joy of telling a story in two services at New Creation Church in Bulawayo. After each meeting members of the church gathered around Marlene and me to pray for us and send us off. What a remarkable time that was! Then there were lots of ‘good byes’ to many of our wonderful friends there.
This coming Sunday we will join our dear friends at Crossroads Church in Kezi. I will have the privilege of telling them a story from God’s word as well, and Marlene will tell a story to all the children. After that we will have to say our ‘good byes’ to each of them for now and make final preparations for our departing flight on Monday.
As we think of our many friends we have had the joy of working with here in Zimbabwe over these last months we feel a bit emotional as we think of leaving them for a season. However, we are also very much looking forward to being joined once again to our family and many friends back home.
