Newsletter July 2025

There’s lots of encouraging news to tell you in this newsletter, but I wanted to begin with a short description of our family holiday this year in May.

Yosemite National Park & Lake Tahoe (May 2025)

Our family holiday this year was a bit special and took around 18 months to plan. The basic idea was to make use of the two week summer half term holiday to take everyone to Yosemite, hoping to enjoy the sights at a time when the park is less crowded than high summer, and the weather warm and dry rather than baking hot. What an amazing time we had! We boarded the flight to Phoenix and on to Fresno, where we hired a 7 seater minivan and drove to our airbnb cabin in Wawona, at the southern end of the Park.

We had allowed 10 days to see all the sights and fit in some hiking, swimming, hiring bicycles, and generally taking photos of everything; the magnificent huge sequoia trees, the breathtaking falls and the huge granite rocks like the famous ‘El Capitan’ which has featured in several famous Hollywood climbing films. Both Faith and Tess kept ‘holiday’ books where they recorded what we did each day (sweet!) and did their fair share of walking, cycling and paddling in the streams, etc. We finished by driving through the park, up over the Tioga pass and north to Lake Tahoe where we stayed for 4 nights before flying home. Too many photos to show you all really, but do go if you get the chance; it is truly spectacular.

SASOR, Bulawayo; July 14th – 23rd 2025

After such a positive prayer breakfast last January, many of the pastors in the Bulawayo area began meeting regularly for prayer and discussion. They became convinced that HHTN can really help them find healing from the historic trauma that so many in Matabeleland have suffered. They subsequently decided to ask us to help them organize a School of Reconciliation this July. For the past two months we’ve been having regular zoom meetings with them to plan every detail. Above is a flier we produced that gives details. So far we have 27 people registered and several coming from SA and Zambia as well as Zimbabwe. I’ll be leading some worship and also doing some teaching of a couple of the Bible modules – my first time doing this actually. Please pray for me and the whole School. I’m heading back out to Harare on July 9th and will be travelling across to Bulawayo on Sunday 13th with some of the team members taking part. At the School, I’ll be joined by our pastor friends Itai and Masimba and their wives, plus Joseph and Kelly (an american missionary) from Rwanda. Among our hosts will be Pastor Masuku and Anna, who have been strong supporters of this and put in a great deal of legwork to get the practical details organised. We hope that many will stay on and be coached to become facilitators themselves, so that HHTN can continue to be used in the area long after we’ve left.

2025 launch of the Zimbabwe government ‘Truth and Reconciliation’ process

There are many families in Matabeleland that still don’t know what happened to their loved ones after the hostilities of the early 1980’s between ZANU and ZIPRA. History records that the notorious 5th army brigade brutalized the whole region in the cruellest way possible. The Zimbabwe government have been under pressure for some time to begin a process of justice so that proper death certificates can be issued and families can find closure. They announced at the beginning of July this year that they were ready to begin. But our fear has been that, without the gospel at the centre, and the intervention of churches and pastors, the whole process could simply generate more anger and distrust, and risk re-traumatizing many.

Pastor Sibanda, a local minister, was appointed by the government to oversee the process which began only this year. Evidently he also had some misgivings, because he invited Joseph to come for an emergency meeting with local pastors last week. By all accounts the time was spent well, and they sought the Lord together for wisdom. Pastor Sibanda is himself enthusiastic about SASOR, and has recommended that many of his church attend. Here is the group that met; Pastor Masuku is second from the left.

‘Arise, Shine Zimbabwe!’ – let’s do it again next year!

At our trustees meeting earlier in the year we discussed ASZ, and we all felt that, despite the fact that the last time we did it was before the pandemic in 2019, we should definitely go for it next year. A stand-out experience for me last January was the number of young people who came up to me and told me how much they had enjoyed and benefitted from being a part of ASZ all those years. So I’ve been thinking; how do we promote and train young Zimbabweans to take this forwards themselves?

So, on Saturday July 12th, we’re holding a training day for all who attended ASZ, and who wish to contribute towards future childrens ministry in the nation. It will be from 10am – 4pm at Aviv Shalom Church, in Harare; there will be worship, an inspirational talk plus videos and we’ll try out some games and other stuff in the afternoon. Should be loads of fun! Tawana has agreed to help spread the word among her friends and contacts and also she and her mum Ruth will bring snacks and drinks for everyone. Do pray for us, and the next generation of childrens ministry workers!

Finally, late last year I was approached by Ruth, one of the worship leaders at ‘VineLife’, which is the church that Joel & Emily go to in Manchester. She was keen for us to connect, so since January there have been regular zoom calls between us. What began as a conversation about worship quickly became a deep discussion about the need for healing within the church, which has been through some painful experiences over several years. We met with Neil, one of the church leaders, some weeks ago. And now, this Sunday we are going to spend the evening with all the church leadership team, and Joseph will join us via zoom. Please pray that God will guide us as we talk about the positive impact of HHTN, and seek a practical way forwards so the whole church can experience God’s healing grace and power.

Love from Dave & Jean

Diary Dates – Summer 2025

• May 24th – June 7th: Yosemite family holiday
• July 6th: Meeting with VineLife Church leadership (HHTN)
• July 9th – 23rd: Trip to Zimbabwe (SASOR)
• July 26th/27th: Family get together in Malmesbury