October 2018 Zimpeto Bible School Update

In this update, we want to say thank you!

First of all we want to thank God for all the supporters who help us continue believing in the vision of God for a transformed nation through the Iris Zimpeto Bible School. Your prayers and support are highly appreciated. Thank you very much.

[Teachers at the Zimpeto Bible School.]

Many are the good things the Lord is doing in our mist, and some of them are already becoming a pattern here at our bible school. We will be sharing some of them.

The first one is that the school is growing. Many are the students who come to our school from all over Mozambique. And we can see now that this growth is not only in terms of quantity but also in quality. A proof of that is the way the students organize themselves with their own efforts, to humbly but also beautifully present themselves in uniforms, with costumes made of capulanas, bringing a wonderful combination of colors and designs at every graduation! This is hard not to notice, and is now becoming a pattern. For us this is a clear sign of growth in comparison with a few years back. It makes a huge difference and it presents the school with a challenge to offer more quality and excellence in everything we do.

[Bible School students in capulana's - getting ready for their graduation.]

[Third level graduates in their capulana outfits.]

Secondly, we would like to thank God for the great impact the teachers are having on the students as they encourage and show (by their own lives) the good example of marriage as the acceptable standard of God for every beginning of relationship. We receive testimonies of this almost every other week.

[Pastor Jaime and his wife, he is the teacher of Christian Marriage and family life.]

Many of the graduates and former students are adopting the value of marriage in their lifestyle more and more. When they leave the school, many of them are getting married before God in church, and before the man in the government. Some of them do this after having lived together for many years prior to coming to the school. This is happening in communities where some fathers even encourage their own male children to simply live together with a woman. This is only because they have grown up and a house was already built for them. And there are parents who make excessive demands on prospective in-laws and hinder marriages by giving a very big list of demands with a big bride price of 'lobola' and an expensive wedding party.

Our teachers strongly advise the students to live their lives according to the word of God, and to get married before God, and before there is any sexual contact. That is why a great number of students are getting married and this has become a pattern in the bible school.

We see couples leaving everything behind to come together and sit in the classroom for three months and study the word of God together, to be able to live their lives as Christian believers, and be an example of a Godly couple and an influence in their community.

[Herminio and Maria, a couple who came together to study the word.]

[Julio and Isabel, another couple from Xai-Xai province.]

Thirdly, we thank God for every student that comes to our school. Each life that God brings to us is a miracle and a testimony. The impact the school is having in the lives of the students is great, not only socially, but also spiritually. Many people (when they hear of the great and marvelous things that God is doing) also gain trust and believe that it is possible to see change and transformation, so they bring their kids and/or their relatives to the bible school.

Some students come with serious social or spiritual problems of addictions or demonic attacks.  Most of the time these issues are dealt with through Godly counselling, prayer and fasting, by applying the blood of Jesus. and by living always in His presence.

One story is that of a talented well-trained young man from Cabo Delgado Province in Pemba, with a degree in computer programming that was completed in one of the main universities in Mozambique. He arrived to our school while he was coming from a recovery center in Maputo. He had been seriously deep into drugs and addicted to alcohol to such an extent that he lost many personal and family belongings and had abandoned his wife and daughter to live a lonely life away from society.

His family was desperate because they had invested a lot of money in his education and training. They had tried everything to have him back. They eventually sent him to this recovery center. That is where he heard about our school.

He was already on his way back to Pemba when he decided to visit our school. He felt from God that he had to come and study more of the word of God. He only had ever read a New Testament bible, and he needed more.

On arrival he was interviewed and was not accepted because it was clear to the school people that he had no church, no Pastor to support him and/or to give him a letter of reference. He was not a Christian and that was against the school regulations.

By request of family, the Headmaster adopted him as his spiritual son. He accepted Jesus as his Lord and savior and was admitted to attend the school as a trial.

Little by little he gained confidence and grew in grace. After he had completed six months of study he traveled back to his hometown (passing through many of the places he had been as a patient) to share his testimony of how it is possible to see change and transformation in Jesus. It is possible to overcome addictions by the power of God.

Today, as he waits to study in the third level of his bible training, he confidently states that although many don't understand why a trained person with a degree in their hands, with a job opening awaiting at home, and an economically stable family, leaves all that and rather ‘wastes time’ learning the Bible. He says that he knows that money and all the rest will come at the right time but it is important to seek God first and be well prepared so that when money comes it may not destroy us and take us away from God and from the people we love.

Today he is back to his home life, creating his computer programs and planning to start a humanitarian agency. He plans to use his computer knowledge to open a company that recovers damaged computers donated by bigger companies and other people. He plans to recover them and create free computer schools in underprivileged communities.

It is possible to do today for the glory of God what we used to do for our own selfish desires. It is possible in God!