News from Geoff and Erica Saunders, Zimbabwe - December 2022

Christmas

Like you we are looking forward to Christmas and we want to wish you all a happy and blessed Christmas time. Here Christmas is a time for families to travel to celebrate Christmas at their rural homes. Many will be boarding buses on Christmas Eve with gifts of new clothes for every member of the family. On their way, if they have not already done, they will buy loaves of bread and bags of potatoes. On Christmas Day clothes will be given out as the family share bread and margarine coated in Sun brand fruit jam accompanied by lots of sweet tea. After church (if they go to church) there will be lunch of chicken and rice and then the youngsters will set off to the store to buy cokes and dance to music blaring from the bottle store.

All this means that our churches in town are largely empty over the Christmas period, even families that are still in town are often very busy entertaining relatives who have come to visit. We shall have a Christmas Day service with probably a dozen or so people.

Prospect Church

The church has since picked itself up since the Pandemic and with the help of Erica doing home visitations, and some exciting functions. The youth group too has steadily grown and we thank God for His grace and mercy. Our Christmas party last week was very good. After Erica’s Teaching on the Meaning of Christmas focusing on colours, the women and children shared presents in the church.

Whatever your Christmas festivities are like we pray God will fill them with joy as you celebrate Emmanuel, the birth of Jesus, God with us.

Holidays

Geoff’s Christmas holiday, from 9 December to 9 January, will be more restful than expected as the ACSI training he was expecting to be involved in this week has been postponed till April. He still has some school work to do, including completing the timetable for new year.

Rains and Electricity

Praise God the early rains have been good and we hope for more to come through this rainy season. We pray too for good rains in Zambia and the DRC as rains there bring inflows to Kariba Dam which is at its lowest level for decades. As a result, the Kariba Dam Power Plant, which produces more than half of Zimbabwe’s electricity is virtually shut down. Currently (!) we are experiencing power cuts of around 18 hours a day five or more days a week. (Erica was busy doing the ironing from midnight to 2am while there was power the other day.) We are very blessed that the generator provided by Elim Missions through Pastor Cotter gives us four hours of power each evening giving us light and keeping the refrigerator going.

Busy Fingers

Encouraging the women to work hard looking after their children, Erica gave about 130 women maize seed both in Harare and rural Nyanga, giving them hope and happiness since maize seed is very expensive. Erica travelled quite a bit recently to funerals and weddings too, and we thank God for safety, since our car’s suspension is giving problems. The next challenge is fertilizer for the widows in the rural areas.

Isa Mufaro (Joy to You) Christmas Party

We had our Busy Fingers Christmas parties in November with the women and girls combined, and gave each one a small gift of hand lotion, shampoo, foam bath or face cream. These simple gifts meant so much to many stressed widows who feel unwanted and unloved.

Girls’ Christmas Party

On Saturday 19 November, forty-two Girls entered the competition to choose Queen Esther hosted in our garden. Pastor Mike Nyambuya’s daughter who is at the University of Zimbabwe got the crown. Erica used the occasion to teach on Modesty and good Christian behaviour.

Future Plans

We are looking forward to a baptismal service in February by which time we hope the pump and necessary fittings to commission the borehole that was drilled in August will have been installed. (Municipal rates, including the charges for water, are astronomically high, so to pump water to fill the baptismal pool will be a great relief).

God willing, we shall be in the UK for the whole of April to attend the Elim Missions Conference and to take the opportunity to visit family friends spread around the UK.

Thanksgiving

• Gradual restoration of life and vigour in the church
• Safe travels for Erica
• A good start to the rainy season.

Prayer

• Rains over the whole country
• The economic situation in Zimbabwe.
• Ministry of God’s word to strengthen His people and bring hope to the hopeless.
• Church Christmas and New Year’s Eve Services

Wishing you all a wonderful Christmas and a blessed New Year

 more about the Saunders