Updates From Don and Kaluba
Here is our October Newsletter with our Ministry Updates.
Greetings!
Greetings from Don and Kaluba and the rest of the team at Family Hub.
We are so excited to bring you updates on what God has been doing in and through us in our little corner of the world, right here in Bulawayo, The City of Kings. Bulawayo is Zimbabwe’s second capital after Harare. We are so grateful to God that he has kept all of us and preserved us through the pandemic and, today, we are all alive and can testify of His goodness!
So What have we been up to?
Kids Bible Clubs
In May, we started a Kids Bible Club for children in Emganwini, Bulawayo. This comes as an extension of the Discovery Bible Study that we have been doing with some families in the community. We started off with about 30 kids most of them children of the families in the DBS group. The kids meet on a Saturday afternoon for a couple of hours on a fortnightly basis. Kaluba and a team of volunteers take the kids through some games and fun activities before finishing off with a Bible story. The Kids love the games and the singing. They are beginning to learn some Bible verses and committing them to memory.
In December we will be having a special Christmas program for them where we will be celebrating the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We will be sharing with them the Christmas story and helping them understand the reason for the season. We also want them to have an unforgettable peak experience.
So looking forward to that!
Supporting Livelihoods
We have been helping a group of five families to start or grow their small home based business by supporting them with a very small revolving fund which they borrow from. One of them, Zachariah, who happens to be the youngest in the group has really grown his business to a whole new level. You can read about his story below.
As a group they have since grown their fund to be able to seed $100 towards another group due to start in the community soon.
Here is Zachariah's story
My name is Zachariah Donerere. I am 25 years old. I am the third born in a family of four. I have an older brother and sister who are way older than me. My sister is married and my brother does not live with us. I am the one looking after my little brother. Growing up I never knew my Dad. I grew up with my mother here in Bulawayo. Going to school was a big challenge because my mother was not working. She used to go to Botswana and do piece jobs there. That meant long periods away from home. The responsibility of looking after my little brother thus fell on me.
Paying school fees was always a challenge I got help through the government sponsored BEAM (Basic Education Assistance Module) scheme. I also got help from some teachers that took an interest in my education but it was always a struggle. I managed to pass my Advanced level public exams. For a season I managed to get several low paying jobs. These helped me to put food on the table and help my little brother with his school fees.
With time however I lost my job and started a small home based business of buying and selling. I realized that with the current economic decline it would be long or near impossible to get a real job. I therefore concentrated on building my small business. I was very happy when our church connected with Family Hub. I was one of the people that was selected to represent my household in the Discovery Bible Study. We were encouraged to form a group of families that would meet every week to do a Bible Study using the discovery method. I am the youngest in that group. The rest are single moms or elderly grandmothers. I was particularly happy when we were given a small fund to start or boost our small home businesses. At that time, I was selling recharge air time cards for mobile phones. I used the money to expand and include chocolates and sweets. My business has continued to grow from that time. Since then started buying and selling phone accessories. The profit margins are much better. I have always dreamt of having my own shop. I am well on my way to realizing my dream. Early this year I managed to go into a partnership with a friend of mine and now we have opened a small shop together. I have also appreciated the Bible Study that we do. It has helped me to stay grounded in the word of God and to stay focused and hopeful. Thank you to Family Hub.
Strengthening Marriages
This is the heartbeat of our ministry. Since the beginning of the year God has allowed us to minister to well over 60 couples through our Marriage Seminars. We have been invited by several churches including our own, Beyond All Limits Church to address married couples on a variety of topics on marriage.
We have also walked with a few couples that have been experiencing challenges in their marriages. It’s been amazing to see again and again the power of God coming through to restore broken relationships and bring healing and restoration through the power of forgiveness.
Go ye Therefore
We are happy to announce that in August, Don and Kaluba were accepted as local missionaries with Christ for The City International a Christian missions organisations with headquarters in the United States. Most of its work though is in Latin America.
This is an exciting development that will strengthen the ministry of Family Hub in many ways. You can visit the CFCI website here www.cfci.org and maybe consider being a part of what God is doing through Don and Kaluba by giving towards their support. You can view Don and Kaluba’s profile there by clicking the Get Involved tab and Support a Missionary. Look for Don and Kaluba. You can give on line and your giving will help Don and Kaluba to Go!
Before you say 'I Do"
Meet Ndaba and Langa
This lovely couple are recent graduates from our Marriage Preparation Program. They got married at the end of July this year. More and more courting couples are reaching out to us for our Marriage Preparation program. We have a 15-week program where we meet pre engaged couples on a weekly basis. The program is designed to help courting couples answer some important questions before they say ‘I do"
This is what Ndaba had to say after the program
'The sessions challenged us to look very carefully at what Marriage is according to the Bible. We also interrogated our motives for wanting to get married and our decision to start a life together. The experience has been eye opening and very helpful. Whatever preparations we would have done on our own would probably have only scratched the surface. We are now in a better position to tackle any challenges we may face in Marriage’
How you can get involved
1. You can commit to pray for us on a regular basis. Please do let us know so that we can regularly update you on our prayer needs.
2. You can commit to support Don and Kaluba by giving once off or on a regular basis
3. You can give towards our Kids Bible Club Fund
4. You can give towards our Education Support Fund where we support kids with school fees and school supplies.