An Introduction to ZPT

The Zimbabwe Partnership Trust exists to support Zimbabwean churches in their ministry and mission, and to relieve poverty among churches and their communities.

In the last decade the people of Zimbabwe have been staggering beneath a yoke of despair. Unemployment statistics are now at close to 90%. The population has faced poverty, successive droughts, and economic disaster. In July 2008 hyperinflation resulted in the total collapse of the Zimbabwean currency. These conditions have been aggravated by a largely out of control AIDS pandemic which has left an estimated one in four children without their parents. A chaotic and violent land reform programme has left the once thriving agricultural sector bankrupt, and demoralised. Sadly food now has to be imported into the country. Yet despite all these setbacks the Zimbabwean people demonstrate a resilience and openness to those who would come alongside them in partnership and encourage them in rebuilding and sharing the gospel.

The Zimbabwe Partnership Trust has been set up to send assistance to our brothers and sisters in Zimbabwe in response to this crisis, and is now encouraging the churches in the UK to support us in achieving the following objectives:

To support churches in their ministry and mission

• By providing preachers workshops, theological teaching and training.
• By providing bibles and study books.
• By supporting the Theological College of Zimbabwe.

To relieve poverty among churches and their communities

• In the short term by supporting feeding programmes.
• In the longer term by assisting with livelihood projects and sustainable agriculture schemes.
• Funding the rescue and care of orphans.

The Trust has adopted the 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith, but is willing to work with all Bible-believing churches in Zimbabwe. The Trust carries out its work in partnership with Christian groups and agencies in Zimbabwe, the UK and other countries. Most of the trust members have visited Zimbabwe and seen first hand the wonderful way in which the Zimbabwean Christians have worked together in meeting the desperate needs of their communities.

For more information click an item on the side to read about it.

To hear more about the work being undertaken in Zimbabwe come to the recognition service on 21st April 2012 in London. For further information read here.

Tariro Yeupenyu (Hope for Life)
Project Outline

• A community-based project to provide goats’ milk for orphan babies and young children in the poor rural Karanda area of north-east Zimbabwe
• There are at least 430 orphans living in 49 villages in the district.
• Typically, the families are headed by an older relative or sometimes by an older child.

Practicalities

Project is run by a committee of local people. Co-ordinator is James Kambudzi – a local pastor and a chaplain at Karanda Mission Hospital. Goats are either purchased or bred from a small herd and distributed to families Training and support is provided for each family The project relies solely upon the support of Christians and churches in the UK

Progress so far

24 goats have been distributed since April 2011, all through funds from UK churches and individuals.. All families that benefit from the gift of a goat are very poor – often with no regular income. The offspring of these goats will be given to needy families and this will make the project more sustainable. The children from families that were given a goat in April are much more healthy than a few months ago. James uses each visit to the families as an opportunity for prayer and / or the study of the Bible. Chris Boyes visited Karanda in July, 2011, and saw both the great needs of the orphans and their families and the difference that the goats are making already.

Next Steps
There are many more families in real need that would benefit greatly from the gift of a goat for the young orphans in their care. Over the next 2 years it is hoped to provide more goats together with improved goat husbandry techniques and vets care. In addition, it is planned to start providing maize seed for impoverished families and training in sustainable agricultural methods, (Farming God’s Way). In the longer term we would love to support children to go to school through paying school fees and providing school clothes and to develop local agricultural schemes that will be self-sustaining.

Contacts
Chris Boyes and Roger Prime

Wiltshire School
Immediate goals
The vision for the school is to be a lighthouse in the field of education, with high achieving individuals, who value education and want to become positive and responsible members of the community.
The school has a philosophy of education that has two main objectives:

• The school provides an education that is based on Christian principles, on which all subjects are taught from a Christian perspective within the National Curriculum. All staff (including grounds and domestic) have a living Christian faith, but the school welcomes children irrespective of their family's beliefs
• The school offers a service to the community by providing an education that is of as high a quality and as low a cost as possible

Head Teacher Torevei Reports: We have covered a lot of the work on the main classrooms. We have still to put in the floors, renovate the farmhouse to house the teachers and buy desks and text books. Our funds are very limited. I have two teachers whom I have to pay monthly. Our enrolment is very low (50 pupils) and less than 20 have paid their fees. We hope the situation will improve next term if we get more teachers from the Ministry of Education who would be working alongside us.
Future goals

Funds permitting, they would like to build hostels this year so that they can house children coming from farms far from us. The vision is to offer both boarding and day school facilities so that all children from the farming communities can benefit. They have had to turn away a lot of children because they don't have boarding facilities yet.

Founder

The School has been founded by Torevei Munhangu, and his wife Elizabeth, They are joined in this venture by Mr Clever Beseni (Board secretary) and his wife Barbara. Torevei made a lot of friends in the UK after his sudden arrival here in the UK in 2004. Those familiar with the recent past in Zimbabwe can probably imagine what led up to this. This was a very trying time for Torevei having to leave his wife, young child, and his farm, but in God's sovereign overruling, he was able to return home after 5 years with an engineering degree specialising in developing fuel from local Zimbabwean plants. Friends at West Hill Baptist, and at Dorking have continued to follow his progress with great interest and have sought to help him in practical ways.

The school is situated in Chivhu, a rural area near the capital Harare, and has been built on a part of Torevei’s farm.

Contacts
Roger Prime and Stuart Moffatt

Preachers' workshops

	Preachers Workshops were held for the first time in Zimbabwe in 2008 and have been held each year since then. For the first two years they were held in Harare then in 2010 Hwange was included as a second venue and the workshops have continued to be held there since that date. The workshops are held over a period of 2 – 4 days when groups of men who are either Pastors or younger men training to be pastors are gathered together to be given help in understanding the principles of Biblical interpretation and exposition. In addition to the more formal teaching sessions the men are given opportunity to work in small groups preparing sermon outlines on a set passage – this has proved very encouraging to see them interacting with one another and helping each other get to grips with the Word of God. Between 60 – 70 men regularly attend the workshops and while they come from a variety of church backgrounds they appreciate the teaching being given by the teachers who all come from a Reformed position. We are encouraged by reports that the ministry of the Pastors has benefited from the teaching and training they have received at the workshops.
	A major concern has been to see some of the Zimbabwean Pastors trained up in their understanding of the Scriptures so that they are then able to lead Preachers Workshops themselves. To this end we added a Training of Trainers course into the programme in 2011 when six men were gathered together to receive more in depth training which would equip them to be involved in training other pastors. As a result there are now monthly Preachers Workshops being led by some of these men in three different centres on a rota basis.
This training continues with teams visiting Zimbabwe each year to run Training of Trainers sessions with a slightly larger group of men as well as Preachers Workshops in Hwange and Harare.

Contact
Roger Prime

Orphan Work

	It is estimated that an incredible 8% of the population of Zimbabwe are orphaned or abandoned children. Throughout the Bible we are told to care for the fatherless, so this is an important area of ministry for ZPT. This year we have been able to offer some financial help to two of the leading Orphan charities in Bulawayo, The Sandra Jones Centre, and Mind the Gap. These charities are both at an exciting new phase of their development and are both moving to new premises this year.
	Mind the Gap was formed in 2007 and developed the idea of providing `family forever homes ‘ with about 8-10 children in each, looked after by a house mother ( and sometimes father) plus several `Aunts’. This idea has proved very successful and has given a secure and loving home to many young children including several with special needs. In August 2010, Jenny Hensman, the director of MTG, became convinced that the way forward for Mind The Gap would be the acquisition of a new property, large enough to accommodate 12 such homes and surrounded by land to grow crops and raise livestock and poultry. In Gods goodness, Jenny has been able to purchase such a property and has called it the Harvest Family Village – The plan is to move two of the existing family forever homes to the Harvest family village by the end of the year.
	The Sandra Jones Centre care for about 70 orphans and abandoned babies, specialising in making provision for young girls who have suffered sexual abuse, particularly cases where this has led to a pregnancy and the birth of a child. This very specialised centre has provided a safe refuge where the girls and their babies can be cared for lovingly and safely. This year they too have grasped an opportunity to obtain their own property which is much more suitable for their needs. They were using a rural camp retreat centre owned by Youth For Christ, but Youth For Christ do need this back for their own use now. Sandra Jones Centre has been able to purchase a Hotel in Bulawayo that was on the point of closing and is completely furnished and all ready to move into. This is a remarkable provision, and as Trustees we felt it was important to send a contribution at this time of major extra expenditure for them. For further information on the Sandra Jones Centre visit the website

Contact
Roger Prime