Several weeks ago, we told you we were returning to Gutu, Zimbabwe, with much-needed medical care, clean water, and most importantly, the Gospel of Yeshua (Jesus) for the Lemba and their neighbors. The outreach has recently been completed and there is so much to share with you!
As I met up with our team of outreach partners and staff as they changed planes in Ethiopia for Zimbabwe, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. Our Zimbabwe team was heading into an eight-week stint to facilitate two clinics in extremely needy areas of Zimbabwe. As with all our outreaches, there are countless details to tend to. With our teams heading into back-to-back medical clinics in very remote and impoverished areas, it seemed like the potential for problems and stress multiplied. When I saw the astounding ease with which our team of 30+ partners arrived safe and sound in Harare, Zimbabwe and settled into our stopover hotel for the night, I was amazed. We had experienced God’s provision of grace and knew we had “the wind at our back.”
We opened the clinic on Sunday afternoon for a half-day. The wind continued to blow at our backs as our biggest issue was getting enough patients into the systems to keep the doctors going, and they treated 729 patients in just four hours. Twelve of these precious volunteers were given supernatural ability to receive, care for, diagnose, and treat 8,000+ patients by Wednesday evening! A total of 12,026 patients received medical, dental, and eye care in the Gutu clinic!
But patients treated was only the beginning of our work. Exactly 572 precious people confessed Yeshua as the Messiah in our prayer room. Hundreds were healed, delivered, and set free. Many chose to profess their new faith with immersion baptisms that were in tarp-lined, wooden-framed receptacles filled with water. The local Lemba congregational leaders immersed new Believers, and we all witnessed Yeshua’s joy manifest into dancing during these public professions of faith.
Two babies also were born at the Gutu clinic. As word spread of the expecting mothers, the whole camp anticipated these new lives. Anticipating new life is what this is all about – new life in Yeshua. It is the new life He gives that renews broken hearts, changes deep-seated misbeliefs, and restores right relationship with the One who longs for, desires, and anticipates when all will be in perfect communion with Him.
We also distributed 1,283 pairs of eyeglasses, 3,511 individual LifeStraws®, and 158 Family LifeStraw® units.
Thank you so much for your prayers and support. You have been a critical part of making this outreach so effective and successful! Together, we are making the God of all things real and tangible here on Earth with our hands, our feet, and our presence in these areas of such great need. We couldn’t do it without you!
