Zimbabwe
Last month as we visited with Charl van Wyk in the Cape Town area, he took us to visit the Stone Hill squatters camp where Charl and Sonja along with Mark and Cindy Parris and their church have adopted this extremely impoverish community of 50,000 squatters.
Charl introduced us to his on-the-ground-partner, Cozmore, a Zimbabwean national who loves the Lord and has a deep passion to impact the forgotten people of a culture. Cozmore manages and disciples the local young people who have shown interest in getting out of this vicious circle of poverty and oppression.
But Cozmore also has part of his heart back home in Zimbabwe where Christians are sorely treated and many times persecuted. Charl shared with ITMI one particular pastor in Zimbabwe that has 8 churches to oversee and yet he only makes, on a good week, about $5 USD ...total!
Zimbabwe, like many places in Africa, is known for its wild life.
He has had to take his children out of school due to lack of funds, not to mention the challenges he has feeding them.
Cozmore wanted to help this pastor take care of his family by teaching him how to raise rabbits for food and for sale. Cozmore was going to try and “borrow” a couple of rabbits and see if he could get this off the ground by raising the offspring.
ITMI agreed with Charl that we needed to help jump start this important project. Due to your faithfulness and your gifts to our “Where Most Needed” fund, ITMI was able to partner with Charl and provide Cozmore with the capital to buy the necessary rabbits, feed, material for pens and other items to actually start a real business.
Cozmore now shared that his only outstanding concern is that this faithful Zimbabwean pastor might have a heart attack when he hears of God’s provision and your generosity.
We will keep you informed on how this new Christian enterprise is ...reproducing.
Steve Evers has advocated for and served the ITMI partners as ITMI Director since 2001. Approximately once a year, Steve visits with ITMI partners in their countries and brings stories back to encourage supporters. Steve enjoys photography and mechanics, (both hobbies that have greatly benefited ITMI partners!) Prior to becoming ITMI's Director, Steve served on the Board of Directors for 12 years. Steve lives in Arizona with his wife, Darlene.
