Love in Action | Ps. Keith Pittman

Welcome to the Celebration Church Orlando podcast.

Thank you so much for listening today.

We hope it encourages you and inspires you.

Here's today's message.

All right.

So, as as has been mentioned already, today is a very special um Sunday, and I'm gonna invite um Pastors Dixon and Chippo to come up in just a moment.

But before I do that, I do want to frame up today and read a passage of scripture to us.

So if you have your Bibles, I would love for you to join me in the Gospel of Mark chapter number six.

The Gospel of Mark chapter number six.

Um if you're new to Celebration Church, welcome.

We're so, so um glad that you are here.

We we really believe that our ultimate calling, our assignment that God has given us, our mission is the Great Commission.

And we basically express that in our vision, which is to reach the loss, equip the foul, and help the hurting.

That's ultimately what we believe that God has given us an assignment to do.

And so we have varying things that we do that all fits into those buckets of reaching people, equipping people, and helping people.

That's ultimately what we are ultimately called to do.

But there we do have a we do have a cultural value that's near and dear to our hearts, and that is we demonstrate the love of God.

It's important for us to understand that as we receive the love of God, we demonstrate that love.

And so this is something that I want to kind of frame up of what does it look like at a very practical level.

Starting here at verse number 34, the the Bible says this when he, this is Jesus, went ashore, he saw a large crowd and had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd.

Then he began to teach them many things.

When it grew late, his disciples approached him and said, The place is deserted and it's already late.

Send them away so that they can go into the surrounding countryside and villages to buy themselves something to eat.

But Jesus says to them, You give them something to eat.

You do it.

I like, I I don't know, I'm I like I like sassy Jesus.

He said, You do it.

Then he said, You should go out and buy, should we go out and buy them two denier worth of bread and give them something to eat?

And he asked them, How many loaves do you have?

Go and see.

What do you have?

When they found out, they said, We have two, we have five and two fish.

And then he instructed them to have seats in groups of fifty and sometimes hundreds.

And he took the five loaves into two fish, and looking up to heaven, he blessed and broke the loaves.

He kept giving them to his disciples to set before the people.

He also divided the two fish among them all, and everyone ate and was satisfied.

Somebody say, everyone.

I want to talk to us for a couple of moments just about this idea that was introduced in the very beginning where it says that Jesus had compassion on them, that he was moved with compassion and what he did as a result of that compassion.

And so I just want to talk to us for a few moments around a topic that I've entitled Love in Action.

Let's pray and let's get into it.

Lord, I thank you so much for your word.

I thank you for the opportunity that you've given us to be the recipients of your loves and then how we can also reciprocate it.

God, I just pray over the next few moments that you give us open eyes to see you, open ears to hear you, and open hearts to receive everything that you have for us.

It's in Jesus' name that we pray.

Amen and amen.

I want us to picture this for a moment that Jesus is growing in incredible popularity in ministry.

At this point, people know who Jesus is.

They know that wherever he goes, people get healed.

Wherever he goes, people feel included, they feel valued.

So at this point, wherever Jesus goes, a large group of people tend to follow him and find him, no matter where he's at.

He's in one of these particular moments, and as he's there, there's literally thousands of people that are there, and Jesus kind of starts into his teachings.

And what the scripture tells us is that it gets a little bit late until the evening as Jesus is preaching, which makes me feel amazing because Jesus was a long-winded preacher, just like me.

Come on, help me somebody.

Y'all don't even see it, but there's this clock ticking down telling me I gotta wrap it up.

I'm like, no, Jesus went long, I'm gonna go long.

I'm speaking on in his name.

But what I love is that Jesus is speaking, and so the disciples recognize, like, hey, it's getting late.

Like, we we gotta wrap this up, Jesus.

It's getting late.

These people are hungry.

Won't you send them away so they can figure out something that they need to go and get themselves something to eat?

And then Jesus turns to them and he says, You you feed them, you you do something about it.

I want you to notice here that the disciples, these men who had been walking in fellowship with Jesus, who seen him do these incredible miracles, yet when they identified the problem, they felt the solution was to release the people to go and figure it out for themselves.

I know that this is a problem, but but let them go figure it out for themselves, because after all, Jesus, didn't they put themselves in this situation?

They they left and they chose not to bring food.

It's it sounds like it's kind of like their fault, right?

It seems like they should have made better decisions, and if they made better decisions, they would be in a better position.

So why is their problem our problem when it looks like just poor planning on their part?

Does that sound a little bit familiar for some of us?

They're speaking to Jesus and they're saying these things to him.

Send them away and let them figure it out.

But Jesus says, You do something about it.

I I love how Jesus is talking with his disciples, and whenever they bring a stipulation on why he should perform a miracle and why he shouldn't, the part that the person played in it never is a criteria on why he should respond to it.

In other words, he doesn't say, hey, if they would have made different decisions, then I would have blessed them because that would have meant that they would have had to work for the miracle that they're about to receive.

But but Jesus says, I'm going to meet them exactly where they are.

Now I can't speak to how they got there, but I'm going to meet them where they are and I'm going to help them to move forward.

I believe it's an opportunity for us to take a little bit of wisdom from what we see in this moment as Jesus is saying, Hey, you give them something to eat.

But naturally, the disciples are then saying to themselves, hey, there's too many people, we don't have enough resources.

And I can honestly say that I've lived in that space before where I look at the enormity of the need and I look at the small amount of the part that I play, and immediately I can begin to justify why I can't make a difference in this area.

It's it's too big, it's beyond me.

So so what part am I supposed to play in it?

So so Lord, I only have I only have two fish.

We we only have five loaves of bread.

Like, Lord, what can we do amongst so many?

But Jesus says, Hey, when I put something on your heart, present to me what's in your hand and let me do the miracle on your behalf.

Trust me to do the work with the little that you have in your hand.

We see this incredible moment where Jesus begins to help us to understand that love must be demonstrated.

He's moved with compassion.

He recognizes the needs of the people and he invites his disciples to play a part in helping to meet that need.

When Jesus was talking with his disciples and the question was posed to him on what does it look like to be a true follower of him, he ultimately brings it down to one word with two expressions love.

Love God, love others.

That's what it means to be in fellowship with me.

Now you have to love God and love others.

If you can do that well, it will change the world.

And I know it seems so simple, but Jesus is saying, hey, love me and love others, and people will know that you're in fellowship with me.

I firmly believe this: that when we are rooted in God's love, we rise in generosity and loving others.

But we got to first be rooted in it.

That means we have to receive God's love, receive forgiveness, receive what God has for us, and then from that place we're able to extend the love and generosity that God would have for us to extend to other people.

So here's three quick things I want to share with us, just really quick, that you can meditate on possibly this week.

Here's the first thing: love is a reflection of God's character.

That whenever we're able to demonstrate the love of God, that we're actually reflecting the character of God.

When Jesus is feeding the multitude of people, it says that he was moved with compassion.

That means that love began to make movement in the lives of people.

I believe that that's an invitation for us to recognize that there are moments where we may see some things, and when we begin to step into those spaces motivated by love, that we're actually reflecting the very character of God.

That love is absolutely reflecting the character of God.

Here's the other thing I want us to write down that love is a response to human needs.

At its most simple level, that it's a response to the human needs.

You'd be amazed at how the suffering of people that becomes the on-ramp to present them with the gospel.

That when we see people that are that are without, when we see people that are struggling, that when we respond to that, that it's an opportunity for us to present the gospel to Jesus.

We know that there were thousands of people that were there, but when Jesus responded and provided for themselves, that what it did is it opened their eyes up to a benevolent God who didn't have to help them to continue to live in a state of scarcity, but allow them to know that their God is a God of abundance, that we know that we can respond to human needs.

It introduces people to a God who will meet them exactly where they are.

Here's the third and final point that I want to share: love is a catalyst for a miracle.

That love is a catalyst for a miracle.

What this teaching shows us is that when we take what we have and put it into the hands of God, how it can absolutely create a miracle beyond anything we can ask or think.

What scripture tells us about this narrative is that even though it says it's about 5,000 people there, when you dig into it, you understand it's 5,000 men, that women and children weren't even included in the numerics back in that time.

So what many scholars have guesstimated that it could be between 15 to even maybe 25,000 people could have been there.

So think about that for a moment.

Two fish, five loaves, 15,000 people.

And yet the Bible says everyone was satisfied.

Everyone got exactly what they needed because they took what they had and they put it into the hands of Jesus.

It was motivated by love.

Love is a catalyst for miracles.

I believe you'd be surprised that when you take the little that you have and put it into the hands of God, how that could be a catalyst that could change an entire group of people.

My prayer is that we can be people that are inspired by looking at this narrative, knowing that whatever God puts into your hands, when you put it into his hands, it has the ability to radically change people's lives.

Can I get a good amen to that?

Amen, amen, and amen.

I'm gonna invite Pastors Chippo and Dixon to come up, but before they come up, I want us to turn our attentions to the screen for a quick video.

Would you guys do me the privilege of standing on our feet and showing some honor and love to Pastors Dixon and Chippo as they come and bless us with their wisdom?

Look at that nation.

You guys go ahead and take your seats.

Pastors Dixon and Chippo, thank you so much for being with us today.

I've been looking forward to today for quite some time.

Once I learned that you guys were gonna be in the States, I was trying to get you to preach for the next, I don't know, two, three, four weeks.

Um, but but they said that you already are doing your preaching tour and you already had a lot of things going on.

But but how's it been?

How long have you guys been here?

How have your travels been so far?

It's been great and it's wonderful to be here.

This this is home.

Yes, yeah, yes, beautiful.

I mean, if you didn't have incredible work to do in Zimbabwe, I'll tell you to stay.

Um but I feel like the Lord may have some little preview.

Your kids would love that.

Yeah, so the kids would absolutely love that y'all are here.

Um, I want to ask you because you guys have when I when I look at you, Megan and I had an opportunity to go to um celebration Zimbabwe.

Um, it seemed it's it's been 2019 when we went, the summer of 2019.

So it seems like it's been forever.

So I think we're due to go back.

I mean, I'm not sure if y'all will welcome us back.

Um but but I think we're due to go back.

But since 2019, when we finally had an opportunity to get over there and see um the incredible work that God is doing through you guys, I was I was moved, I was inspired, and just seeing um and hearing the story of Celebration Zimbabwe and the impact of Celebration Zimbabwe and the partnership with one child.

So can you guys give us a little insight into the the story of your own faith journey?

Where did Celebration Zimbabwe come into the mix?

When did the partnership with one child begin?

Okay.

Um we we started um we started ministry almost 31 years ago.

But we didn't start at Celebration Church, we were at another church, but we always felt that uh love is action, just like what Pastor Keith was saying.

So we needed something that we can be able to show the love that we had for the people.

So we started Celebration Church in Zimbabwe and partnered with Celebration Church here in Jacksonville, Orlando, and everyone else here.

So we started by feeding children.

We we were feeding children because the time that we started the church, there was so much hunger in the country.

There was no food on the shelves, it was just the drought was just too much.

So we decided to feed kids because children were fainting at school with no food to eat.

So we decided to import food from the neighboring South Africa and feeding the children.

Um that's how we ended up now.

That's how we found out that there was an organization called One Child, which can do more than just feeding, which can be able to feed the children, but also educate the children, also give health to the children, also provide uniforms to the children, also provide psychosocial support, also provide spiritual support.

So we thought we needed more like a holistic approach to the children, because even if they all eat and they don't they don't have fees, they might not even get to the school to do to feed because they want to have paid their school fees.

But if they are sick also, they might not even go to eat because they will be sick in their beds.

So we try to do something which will uh eventually get these children to improve their lives from the poor that they are, to someone who to who look forward to a bright future with a good education, good health, good spiritual standing with the Lord.

So that's why we ended up partnering with uh one children.

Yeah, I love that it's a holistic approach.

It's not just about feeding their soul, whether or feeding their bodies, but it's feeding their soul, it's feeding their education, it's feeding their health, and uh it will allow them to move forward and either make a difference in their community or break the generational curse that they've entered under being out of poverty.

So I love that it's more holistic and it's not just about feeding about I noticed that there's a there's a language that's called a hope center.

Would you mind unpacking what a hope center is?

So um just kind of falling back on a lot of energy we just mentioned.

Um Zimbabwe uh has about 15 million people, 16 now, they tell us.

And about 3 million of those people have moved out of Zimbabwe to look for work because we have 95% unemployment.

So when you look in our churches, we have a lot of women and children, and sometimes you can have 150 adults and maybe 450 to 500 children.

So maybe it almost feels like hey, take all the adults under the tree and bring all the children in and have church.

You know what I mean?

Like I saw so many children there, and and the reason is when these men go out to look for work in the neighboring countries, they don't want to come back.

They start new families there, and so they just abandoned their wives and their children, and so a lot of them they they really just uh are needing encouragement, and so when they come to church and we know Jesus' name is hope, or hope's name is Jesus, you know, and so we we we felt that there's kids that are coming that are trying to just understand what's going on in their lives, and when they come, and through the different you know partners that we have, we are bringing them hope in that you know space, and we are showing them that you know things may not be going well for you.

But we have Jesus who loves and cares for you, he knows what you're going through, and He will He will help you when I come from we grew up in the village and we all come from broken families out.

You know, my father left when we were very little, and it's the same thing.

You know, their father was polygamist, they just abandoned them, and and so we understand, and if it was not Jesus, we would not be where we are.

You know, Jesus helped us to understand that even if you don't have what you need to have, he can take care.

That's why I was so excited when I heard you talking about what you're doing in the city here, man.

When you do that and you bring hope to people in the city here, that changes everything.

If Jesus was physically walking here, that's what he would do.

But he doesn't have to because he has he has each one of you.

So thank you.

Yeah, amen.

Come on.

So you're a hope center right here in Orlando.

Yeah, we're a hope center, guys.

Let's go.

I didn't know, but I like that title.

We're a hope center.

That's the church.

That's the church.

I love I love that that that hope has a name and his name is Jesus.

I I love that.

Um, how many locations would you say are in celebration um Zimbabwe?

Now I realize that that's a a loaded question because you were talking about the villages, and maybe people don't understand the the context of villages.

Meg and I had a chance to see them, but would you mind unpacking what a village is and how many celebration locations there are in Zimbabwe?

So we we have four expressions of celebration church.

So we have the church in the village, where you have those mud huts that are you know attached with the grass.

Uh you know, you you you you you see just you know the donkeys and the donkey cats.

So that's the village, and then you have what we call the the the growth point.

The growth point is like your western town.

You've got a one street with a few stores or shops or you know, where people buy, you know, food, and then you know, a few cars maybe, and then you have a lot of cattle and goats and sheep all around as the growth point, and then you have the the township.

This is like the the crowded place where you know we call them the high density zebabs.

Um you have lots of kids running in the streets, and and then you have the city.

So those are the four four four expressions.

So the villages, um a lot of people Zimbabweans have two places, so they will have a home in the town, in the city, or in the town, and then they will have another home in the village.

So the idea is when you retire, you always go back to the village.

But what happens is that with the village with such high unemployment, a lot of people move to the village because when there's a good rainy season, the food is there, you are able to eat what you have grown.

When there's a drought, everybody comes back to the city.

And so you can be in a home that is like a three-roomed uh home.

You can have about 16 people living in there because there's nothing to eat, you know, you know, in the village.

I don't know whether that answers.

So also so he had asked how many locations do we have?

I left that part for you, babe.

So in the first service, I was saying we have got many of them because we have got some that we call preaching centers, but the locations that we have now they are 26.

And then if we include the location centers, they are almost getting to 30 now.

So we try to get people, especially in the villages, we are we have got more locations in the villages than we have in town.

Because sometimes it's hard to walk long distances because they know they don't have vehicles.

So we try to put churches where they are so that it's not they don't walk too far.

We're actually building some things that we call um there's sandbag buildings that we use the the bags that contain the porridge that we feed the kids with.

We put sand inside of them and build classrooms, so they're called classrooms of hope.

Everything is something about hope.

So we have classrooms of hope that uh one of the partners is helping us to build, but already we have 13 of them and we are marking toward toward having about 400 of those because we already have centers where the children just meet under the trees.

So those classrooms of hope, we are also changing them into church.

So during the week we feed kids in them, but during the weekend they become church.

So soon when I we come back, we'll be saying we've got 400 of them, but for now we have between 26 and 30.

That's where we are at the moment.

Don't you love their faith?

We I need some more faith.

I need that faith.

Um, I will say uh I loved it when we visited the um villages because you did have a representative who was a part of that community who was able to tell you about the needs of that community.

And so you were meeting needs as far as like medical uh things, food, uh, whatever they needed, that representative was able to communicate to that to you guys, and you actually personally spoke with those families and were able to meet those needs.

And so I love that that it's not just your watch.

From the outside, you're in a community, getting firsthand uh the experiences of the person that's living in the villages and what they're experiencing, and you're meeting the needs.

That's the hands and feet of Jesus.

Amen to that.

Amen.

Amen.

So, how many um how many children are are you feeding a day?

I I know when we had an opportunity to witness it and just seeing those those precious smiling faces at the feeding centers, it was it was probably the highlight of the trip.

That and then also going out and watching the lions hunt.

That was pretty cool too.

Um but but but feeding the feeding center was absolutely amazing.

How many children are are being fed?

And can you talk a little bit about some of the the health benefits and some of the things that's provided through celebration in Zimbabwe as well as our partnership with with One Child and how that works?

Um we have plus or minus 80,000.

You might think it's a very big figure.

You said 80, 80,000.

80 and 30s.

Yes.

80, 30s, 80,000 children are being fed a day.

That's amazing.

Yes, but those are in 145 schools.

So they all don't come at once because sometimes we would think, how do we even do it?

They're not in one school, they are in different schools, they're in about 145 schools.

But we also bring down now to about 4,000 children who are registered with one child program.

Those ones we do more.

So the rest of the kids, the 70 plus, we only feed them.

So we give them a hot meal, which is a corn soya blend, which is blended with vitamins.

It makes them full the whole day.

So those other ones we just do that.

But the one which we partner with one child, we do more because it's not enough to just feed a child because then they still need tomorrow to live.

But if we give them hope in the hope centers that we have, so we bring them to the hope centers and we teach them about Jesus, we give them Jesus, and we also do what we call psychosocial um uh studies with them.

We make them play, we make them feel important, then we also feed them as part of the things that we do at the hope center.

But we also pay their school fees so their fees is paid, so it will get them entry into the school.

Because if your fees is not paid, you cannot even access the food because you'll be at home.

But when your fees is paid, you come to the school, you you get to to learn with others, but also we give them dignity because sometimes they won't even afford to pay to buy their own uniforms.

So we also had a program that we have with women that make uniform with a factory that we have made.

Actually, Pastor Tim and Pastor Jane came to do the official opening last year of the factory, but we were using one classroom for many years, but now we have a a whole factory that we do manufacture the uniforms.

So we give the kids the uniforms as well, then we also give them health.

Um, we when they get sick, we send them to the hospital and we give them medication.

We thank God that they don't all get sick at the same time because it's very expensive to medical care is very expensive in Zimbabwe.

So we pull the money together so that if any one child, that's why we call one child, one child is important, though we have 80,000, but one child is still very important to us.

So that one child who gets sick, they get to be sent to the hospital, they get to be sent to see specialists.

We have in particular one child who got very sick.

They started with meningitis, but afterwards they they were like almost paralyzed.

So he leave he stays in a wheelchair, and the wheelchair was bought through one child or through those ones who are registered or giving.

And then he actually can't even go to the bathroom, so he's on adult diapers, so we provide the diapers for the child, and we also provide food so that at least he can have something to eat every day.

He lives with his grandmom.

The grandmom cannot go to work because he's a full-time job, but that's what happens because he is registered with the program.

We can be able to chip in and help them.

So that's what we do.

We feed all those many children, but we still concentrate on that one child and give them a holistic life.

That was amazing.

That's amazing.

I know the last service we did not talk about.

Y'all have had some wells dug up, right?

Some water wells.

Can you tell us a little bit about that?

So um water is very precious because we we are living in region five.

Region five has very little rainfall, and um the Kalahari Desert actually begins from Boloya where we live.

Um and so um it's very, very dry.

Um and and and so what happens like this year is a drought year uh because of that El Nino effect that we have filling in there.

And so when when that happens, they lose all their uh cattle, like the the maize, which is the staple food, is all wilted at this height because there's no rain.

And so but water will allow and help people to grow vegetables so that they can actually be able to eat.

Um, and so yeah, we we have been in those schools where we we we we are feeding, uh, we we drill wells, and these are solar-powered wells.

Um, and so we will put uh faucets at each of the bathrooms for the girls and the boys and then the teacher's quarters.

And then we have another one that actually goes into the village.

So we put a very, very large tank.

Um, and and so they bring all their cattle and their goats and their sheep and their donkeys to water them, and that is helped to the kids, you know, the the African men, uh their wealth is in their livestock.

If the livestock dies, they they they feel they have nothing.

So that has been a huge blessing, but it also helps us to feed the kids, so that's where we we use that water for cooking the porridge as well.

That's incredible.

You you were speaking um in the previous service, and I think it's important about the importance of education and and how that can transform someone's mindset, which can literally transform their lives.

So, can you speak a little bit about just why the educational component is so important for the individual and what that can do for their lives?

Because you guys are both the product of being able to go to school and and how that's transformed your life.

So, can you unpack that a little bit?

Education makes a hot difference.

We always say Jesus and education makes a difference.

In Zimbabwe, we've got 95% unemployment, so that doesn't mean that the other only the 5% eat, the 95% eat as well, but they have to find what to do, they have to use their hands, they have to use their minds.

So the advantage of now sending a child to school, they are not just looking for employment, they are looking on ways how they can also employ others and feed others and do things for others.

In particular, we have got this one child, um, Pastor John Scott, who is like our representative here at Celebration at Jacksonville, his sponsored child is doing agriculture in his school.

So just before I came here, he sent me a message and he says, Pastor, you have sent me to school.

I've learned all these things.

I now want to apply those.

We can't be having our women and children hungry and not knowing what to do with their hands when I've learned all this much, all this knowledge that I've gathered to myself, I now want to apply it, especially to the church.

So the good thing now is they would be able to manufacture things if they've gone to school.

They'll be able to, if they've got land and water, they can even provide food for many children who can also be fed.

So the advantage of going to school is it opens your mind because when you haven't gone to school, you just be thinking, where else can I go and clean?

Where else can I go and do just those money or jobs?

But when you have gone to school, because your mind is opened, you think better, you think different.

And I think our future with Leonard, with Leonard kids is going to be different from the old ones where people just lived and just waited for fate to take its course.

But when they go to school, they are able to think outside of the box.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, it helps them as well, you know, to understand scripture and they can be able to defend the faith against all these ancestral worships that really are in the country and all these different types of religions.

So, you know, we you know, we have people that can actually understand, look, you know, I can come out of this poverty.

They can understand I can work, now I've got some education, I can be able to creatively think of what I need to be able to do.

To not only take myself out of where I am, but as well be able to help.

So they become teachers to their siblings and other children in the community, because you know, without school for an African, you you just stay in the village, you get old in the village, and you know, that's that's all, you know.

But when you get education, you can go to the city and you can start working.

And and and if you have a believer, which we believe that each one of them will be really strong believers, they can be people that can be sent into the mission field as well.

So we are excited about that.

That's amazing.

Um we we only have a couple of minutes left, and and I do want to talk a little bit about um the faith dynamic, specifically as as we've talked a lot about the meeting the practical needs of of the children that are that are in the program.

So they're they're being fed, and we've talked around that we're providing them with school fees and we're making sure these things come together.

But the faith component is such a big deal because, as you mentioned, um ancestral worship and just people who don't have the knowledge of who Jesus is, um, is just very prevalent in the land.

So, so would you mind talking to us a little bit about just the practicality of a child that's being sponsored, of how all of these things come together?

They're they're learning about Jesus, they're getting their food, all the things.

If you can just unpack what it means for one child to be sponsored.

So, so Zimbabweans um in as many countries in Africa, they they believe in ancestral worship.

Ancestral worship is basically worshiping the people that have died.

They believe those people will come back and they will guide their lives.

And so they tell them to do through demonic forces, that is, to do a lot of sacrifices.

You know, they will kill their livestock like their cattle or their goats to make sacrifices, appease those spirits.

Um, and and there's a the the controlling power is fear.

We know the devil, that's what he does.

He brings fear, so you see he makes people serve him through fear.

But when they come to Jesus, that releases them and brings them to have this incredible hope where they realize that is empty, there is nothing there.

You know, you know, the devil is not your friend, you know.

He comes to steal, to kill, and to destroy.

John chapter 10, verse 10.

John 10:10

But Jesus has come to give life and to the fullest.

And so when they understand that, they begin to actually, you know, through the program with all the other activities Chippo has mentioned, they become a great witness in the family.

And we've seen instances where you know the the the adults, the grandparents are asking, something, there's something you're doing to this child.

They are so different.

They listen now, they start doing things.

We say, Well, we're not doing anything to them.

Jesus is, and so they end up actually coming as well to church.

That's why we are starting a lot of churches in places where people can actually walk and go and worship, you know.

I've also seen with that you guys have also sent out um buses and stuff like that to bring them into the community.

So now seeing it evolve into being in the community is such a testament to uh God's you know faithfulness and what he's instilled in you guys um and expanding the kingdom.

So here's here's the the last question.

How how can we be um praying for you?

In other words, what do you believe in God for is is next for one child for celebration Zimbabwe?

I want to take a moment to pray for you.

I want to pray for you, Pastor Dixon, with your with your voice.

Um, but what what's the thing?

What's the vision?

What do you believe in God for next?

Um our vision or our prayer is to have as many people know the Lord.

The Great Commission is the vision of our church, and we want to go out there and make disciples, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

So as we reach out to these kids, our prayer is we the especially the other ones who are not in the the 4,000 are easier because we have more staff which work with them, but the the other 70 plus, they should that we don't have many people in the schools working, but our prayer is if they can also see the love, not just know the love, but see the love, feel the love, and want to know more so that they can be able one day we will be able to be with them in heaven and they would remember that you fed me and I was able to see God's love and I was able to come to heaven.

So that's our prayer mostly for all of the people that we have touched to feel and see and know the love of God.

Amen.

Can we put our hands together for Pastor Dixon and take them?

I know there is there is so much more we we can talk about, but I do want to give people an opportunity to go out into the to the lobby and ask you guys questions and connect with you as much as possible.

But I would love to pray for you um as you are here, but as you prepare to go back to Zimbabwe.

So, so church, can we extend a hand um to our pastors up here as we pray for them?

Lord, I thank you so much for your faithfulness.

I thank you, God, for your grace um and how you've brought them here safely, um how you allowed them to be such ambassadors of the incredible work that you're doing beyond even what our eyes can see.

Lord, we touch and agree with them right now that at the end of all of this, Lord, their desire is for people to find hope in the precious name of Jesus.

That God, all these things that we're doing are meant to draw them closer to you.

That this is what love and action looks like.

So, Father, I pray that as you've given them this vision and while they're surrounded by such a great team of people, that you continue to give them capacity.

I pray that you continue to increase their borders and give them influence in everything that they touch.

I pray, Father, that that whatever is in their minds and in their hearts, God, that you do exceedingly abundantly above that, God.

I pray for continued miracles.

I pray for land to continue to be given to them, for facilities to be continued to give to them because they have stewarded everything that you've given them with such grace and excellence.

Father, I pray a blessing over their family and over their children.

And God, I pray for Pastor Dixon that we believe that he is being attacked by the enemy with his throat.

But Father, I believe the devil is a liar.

The enemy wants to silence the message of what he has been speaking, but the devil is a liar and we plead healing over his body in the name of Jesus.

I command, Father, for his voice box to open up and that his vocal cords are healed so that he can declare and speak even more boldly and more loudly the things of God, where he can actually change the entire nation as a result of their faithfulness, Father.

I pray that the name of Jesus goes further because of this than the enemy trying to stop it.

So, Father, I pray increase, I pay impact in the name of Jesus.

The devil is a liar, he is defeated, and we are victorious in Christ Jesus.

So heal him and declare blessings over them in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen and amen.

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