The Realm of God Is Established in Mutare Too

In 2018 when Zion was being established all over the world at an unbelievably fast speed, our Zion members in Harare, Zimbabwe, also prepared to plant the gospel in a new region. However, the plan we made ambitiously faced a difficulty from the beginning; it wasn’t easy to find a place to stay during the mission trip in a region called Mutare where we decided to go for the short-term mission. We kept on looking for a proper place while constantly praying to God to help us establish Zion in Mutare.

Then we got hold of a sister who lived in Mutare. The sister received the truth in Durban, Rep of South Africa, and came back to Mutare, her hometown, to work, but we lost touch with her for a year. We tried to contact her a few times, but there was no response from her. However, when we contacted her again after praying to God, we were able to get hold of her.

It reminded us of the time when King David attacked the Philistines. Before going to war, David asked God, “Shall we attack the Philistines?” Then God said to him, “Go, for I will surely hand the Philistines over to you.” Having gained strength from God’s word, David went with confidence that God was with him, and won victory in the battle. Hearing the sister’s voice over the phone, we felt confident that God had handed Mutare over to us for a spiritual victory.

We were sorry to burden the sister, but thankfully she welcomed us and said she was happy to be able to serve us during the short-term mission. We were also happy that a soul was awakened through this short-term mission in Mutare and even helped us as a faithful fellow worker in the gospel.

Finally, we left Harare and arrived in Mutare four hours later. Although we didn’t know much about Mutare except that it was a place where we must preach, it didn’t matter because we knew God had opened all doors.

The seven short-term mission team members stayed in Mutare for six days. Since it was not even a week, we only preached as long as the sun was out. Thinking that we wouldn’t have a chance to come back to Mutare for a while, we preached the good news diligently every minute and every second. As a result, we found eleven heavenly brothers and sisters, and seven of them kept the Sabbath day with us.

There were some special moments during the short-term mission; it was when a brother, who had told us that he wouldn’t be able to come for worship because of work, finally made time and came to Zion. We were waiting for him at the bus stop where we had planned to meet each other, and when he arrived at the bus stop, we hugged each other and shouted for joy. We could feel with every fiber of our beings that we were truly family members; we hoped with one mind that the brother would come home and we welcomed him with all our heart when he came back.

It was even more touching in Zion that day. One brother got baptized. Then another brother, who was blessed with a new life three days before, went to him and gave him a tight hug, saying, “Congratulations on being born again.” We were overwhelmed to see them hugging each other with joy. The two new brothers said, “We’ve finally found Mother.” We were so happy to see them, but at the same time we were sad that we had to leave these souls behind.

Just as Father did, everybody was concerned about our new-born brothers and sisters. So a brother, who recently graduated from a dental school, made a plan to get a job in Mutare and take care of the brothers and sisters there. We were thankful to Heavenly Father and Mother for taking attentive care of Their children and to the brother who plucked up his courage for the gospel.

God opens a way, a wide high way, when we have a will. Since God has given us the whole continent of Africa, we will go forward with confidence. We will run to the regions where the gospel hasn’t been preached yet and add our strength to establishing Zion.