(The following are excerpts from letters by African Christians in our church in Zimbabwe. Each dated extract is from a different person).
20 Sept 80 (From an old Elder)
I am not quite well, though I am happy the Lord is still giving me strength to move around, on whom I am now waiting as He keeps me alive and He gives me the opportunity to attend to His duties.
30 October 80
It is clear the Bulawayo congregation will soon have to prayerfully decide and make a call, and this is uppermost in my mind. We need the prayers of the Lord’s people that the Lord who knows and searches the hearts of men would guide the congregation in this choice.
The communion at Bulawayo is getting nearer. How time flies swiftly, and with the passage of each day we are nearer eternity . . . the Lord prepare us for eternity, and may we say like Paul, “For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.” II Cor. 5:1.
The Mbuma communion was last week, and to those who were there it was a refreshing season. Cameron Church is going on well and no doubt the Lord will yet bless this place where His word will flourish like Lebanon. We pray to be given grace to wait upon the Lord for an outpouring of His Spirit in this part of the world especially, when Africa will lift up her hands to the Saviour and be taught to trust in Him.
December 1980
Things have settled around Mbuma and other places. The situation has improved quite a lot. I am pleased to have to mention that we were able to hold a communion at Mbuma after three years. It is a communion to be remembered for a long time to come. The communion was a success. The Servants of God preached to us the everlasting Gospel, the Gospel of the Lord Jesus, the head of the church.
29 December 1980 (From a seeking soul)
Thanks for the magazines you sent me. I enjoyed reading the F.P. Magazine August 1980, letter P.240. Especially these words, “I am the resurrection and the Life; he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live” (John 11:25) Christ goes on to ask, “believest thou this?” Oh, this question, this is really where I felt the spiritual death in my own soul. Please pray for me and those who feel the same.
30 December 1980
O how we ought to be much on our knees pleading with the Lord of Heaven and Earth for all our needs. It does appear from scripture that the Lord himself delights to hear the prayers of his people ascending to the throne of grace. At least I do feel ashamed that I am very much lacking in this important duty of a Christian — to pray.
… I was thinking that the Lord will never be without witnesses for his glorious gospel. When one of his messengers . . . is laid aside, He raises up some to take the place of those who are gone. When Elijah ascends to heaven in a chariot of fire, Elisha takes his mantle and that seems to be the pattern of the workings of the God of heaven and earth . . . persecution will never destroy the church but unconverted material in the House of God will wreck the very foundations of the House of God . . . the church packed up with natural and unchanged material is worse than useless for the purposes of true Godliness.
13 December 1980 — 15th January 1981
A lot of souls are going to hell . . . learned and unlearned alike, rich and poor . . . may the Lord give the outpouring of His Holy Spirit from above for re proving the world of sin, of righteousness and of judgment, and converting as many as are ordained to life eternal unto the Saviour our Lord Jesus Christ.
As you know we had out time of refreshment in our spiritual warfare: it was really a time of refreshing during our communion in Bulawayo
D.A.R.