God has been blessing the church plant of Mountain View Baptist Church in Cape Town, South Africa, in some remarkable ways—one of which has been totally unexpected. God is bringing many new visitors to Mountain View, and they are people coming from Zimbabwe!

The country of Zimbabwe is currently experiencing a hard currency shortage, which has led to hyperinflation and chronic shortages of fuel and food. Farm land and homes, under a government land redistribution policy, are being reallocated and the country is in a crisis. The common laborer (making minimum wage) earns twenty million Zimbabwean dollars a month. That may sound like a lot of money, until you realize that one loaf of bread costs 1 million, petrol is 6 million a liter, eggs cost 1.5 million a dozen—if you can find them in the stores. The rate of inflation for Zimbabwe is the highest of any place in the entire world. These conditions make the people desperate for Truth.

While we can not promise to meet all of their physical needs, we can promise them the milk and meat of the Word of God. God began working in Mercy’s life shortly after she started attending Mountain View Baptist Church and was born again. After an initial church-wide day of prayer for the country and the Zimbabweans attending our church, we held a luncheon for about fifty people. As a result of that, thirty people signed up for a Sunday afternoon Bible study. Using a three-week version of The Story of Hope, I took the group through a brief, chronological walk through the Scriptures. On week three, ten people were saved. It was so clear and obvious to them that Jesus is the Lamb of God.

We have started phase two of our discipleship, teaching the fundamentals of the faith, to prepare new believers for baptism and membership. Another wonderful tool we use for this discipleship is The Way to Joy booklet, also available from ABWE and being used worldwide. It has been phenomenal for us to see God working in an area that we never planned or anticipated. It’s been a great reminder to us of the sovereignty of God as He brings about His will. In church planting, we work really hard to reach out to new people in our community, but sometimes God simply brings the people to us. The new Zimbabweans have not only added to the already diverse blend of people at Mountain View, but they have reminded us to stay faithful and to keep our eyes open for what God wants to do next. The harvest is plentiful!