The Story of Letmore
Our team has returned from Zimbabwe!
When we arrived in Zimbabwe, we were faced with a surprise. We had only 11 people signed up for the training, and only 4 of those people even spoke Shangaan! There was nothing we could do except pray that the Lord would bring in the 18 trainees we needed to complete the 41 Bible stories. And by a true miracle, they came! By the end of the second week, we had 22 trainees—double our original number—most of whom spoke excellent Shangaan.
God really spoke to me about expectations and trying to do things in our own power. If we had had all the trainees we needed, we might have taken credit for a successful workshop. The glory would have gone to us, and that is not something that God takes lightly! So He stripped away the things we thought we needed so that we would rely fully on Him.
Let me share with you the story of a man named Letmore. Letmore is a non-Christian who attended our training. A very outgoing, mid-thirties guy who loves to dance, he speaks excellent Shangaan. As he learned Bible stories, he would go home each evening and tell them to his grandmother. Towards the end of the training, he reported this to us: “Yesterday I told my grandmother the story of Paul on the road to Damascus. He was killing people because they were believers, but then he met God on the road and became a believer himself. My grandmother said, ‘You are not a Christian and yet you are learning stories from the Bible. I think you are like Paul and will become a believer.’ I didn’t correct her because I didn’t know why she would say that. I have been thinking a lot about what she said.” Praise the Lord for speaking to Letmore’s heart, and to the hearts of the 5 other non-believer trainees we had! We pray that they will soon come to know Christ!
Praise the Lord that our team worked very well together, and that our relationships with the nationals were positive.
Praise the Lord that we completed 40 stories and 15 songs in the Shangaan language.
Praise the Lord that our trainees have specific plans and goals to use the stories throughout all of southern Africa!