Trumpet Call: Bulawayo Business Breakfast

30 business people were invited to the breakfast at Holiday Inn in Bulawayo. The turnout was fantastic.

Pastor Kenneth Chirimuta from Victory Fellowship opened the breakfast in a word of prayer.

Tapiwa Chizana,(Partner in Deloitte and Touché and leader of Thembalezizwe Church), spoke about what Trumpet Call is and basically said it is a Call to love God, love each other and to love the poor. It is also a Call for the Nation to feed itself through Foundations for Farming – farming through Biblical principles. Foundations for Farming is LIFE TRANSFORMING. This transformation of hearts will affect the way we live, work, farm and so on.
The Church and leaders are engaging the business community to be involved with Trumpet Call. God is refining the Church and increasing the unity of leaders. Christians in the Marketplace play a key role in the transformation of the Nation as in the case of Joseph found in Genesis. David was anointed by Samuel but it wasn’t until he had a “Goliath moment” that he was really noticed. We have a “Goliath moment”; to see the Kingdom of God expanded in Zimbabwe.

What are we asking from the businessmen?
1. To use their influence, reputation and resources to mobilize the market place and within their local churches for a transformational work of the spirit amongst all people.
There is a media blitz rallying the Church and Nation for September 26th – For such a time as this.
Economic transformation happens when people of God take their rightful place. It’s a divine moment to see God’s glory shine.

Peter Cunningham (Prominent Businessman in Bulawayo) followed on from Tapiwa Chizana saying that Trumpet Call is from Isaiah 58 – “To loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, to let the oppressed go free, and that you break every yoke?” In essence, Trumpet Call is a Call for the Church to Action. We look at the Great Commission in Matthew 28:18 – 20 and it says make disciples, baptize them and them speak/teach them. Kingdom advance is led by practical action before teaching.

In Zimbabwe right now, we have 16% food security but God has prepared this time for us – a specific moment. This is the time we need to act and demonstrate God’s life, love and power in us. Foundations for Farming is a unifying platform for the Nation to feed itself.

Trumpet Call is a Call to lead the Nation to transformation. If 1 million Christians planted 0.5 hectares before or by November 25th and did everything the same, we’ll have enough to feed ourselves as yields will go up. Jesus is actively on the move in this and it’s our prophetic moment in Zimbabwe.

Peter went on to share how the Catholic Church and 300 Bishops are100% behind Trumpet Call and Foundations for Farming; how the full weight of the government is behind this as well. The exciting part is that the Christians are being asked to teach the Nation how to farm and that God receives ALL the glory. God is moving in Zimbabwe. There is dynamism of Jesus moving miraculously in our Nation and Trumpet Call will change the spiritual climate in Zimbabwe. September 26th is the launch for Calling the Nation to “GO FOR IT!”

Marketing Campaign: We have 56 hours of television time on training and teaching, 200 hours on radio over the next 3 months, 500,000 flyers are going out in Shona, English and Ndebele and we’ll have Operation Trumpet Call sites across Zimbabwe and there is a real sense of movement and the Church in Action!

It is a Heart thing as God wants our hearts. If we embrace Kingdom principles, there will be fruitfulness in our lives.

The businessmen responded positively and are eager to play their part.

Summarized By Molly Manhanga

Trumpet Call update by Scott Marques

‘Trumpet Call! Continues to gather extraordinary momentum as we run into the month of September, with a view to some special times on the 26th of the month. It has been a great joy to see teams visiting key leaders in the church, marketplace and government this week, all receiving such favourable response and encouragement. Progress is being made on securing venues in Harare and ten other cities around the country, as well as sound systems and mobilisation strategy. A small team is with Angus Buchan in South Africa as I write, to connect relationally and prophetically with him for all that God may for us together in Zimbabwe and even further afield through Trumpet Call!. Potential continues to develop for heart-and-soul participation of Christians in the marketplace, as well as many in government and key positions of influence. It is awesome to see how God is working through such diversity of people and diversity of gifting with remarkable unity of purpose.

The Trumpet Call! to the church to turn wholeheartedly to God with renewed passion for Jesus, renewed passion for one another and renewed passion AND ACTION for the nation is ringing out! Faith is rising in the hearts of many for the church to deliver the wisdom of God at the level of the poorest (staple-feeding an entire nation) as a spring-board for further transformational influence into all sectors of society for the rebuilding of the nation and the demonstration of God’s glory far beyond Zimbabwe. I keep praying ‘that they see our good works and praise our Father who is in heaven.’

There is a big day for Trumpet Call! where 56 leaders from across the twenty six denominations under Zimbabwe Council of Churches (ZCC) plus 56 leaders from across every diocese of the Catholic Church are gathering at River of Life Westgate for a day of ‘Vision and Activation for Trumpet Call!’. We hope that this will result in the full buy-in of the denominational churches under Zimbabwe Council of Churches to augment the formal engagement of the Catholic Church (Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops Conference) in Trumpet Call! This would make Trumpet Call! a fully church-wide initiative, owned by the Heads of all Christian Denominations. We hope to interview many of the key leaders at this gathering, as well as some key leaders of the evangelical Heads of Denominations, getting their comments on what God is doing in Zimbabwe. We imagine that these interviews will form part of a television and media campaign to call the churches together on September 26th.

God’s grace is amazing. He did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. (John 3.17)

Thank-you Father for your love and your purpose to bless all the nations of the earth through your Son and through your sons, your people. Lord, have your way in us in this nation so that those who do not know you may be saved and that this nation may shine your glory far beyond our borders.’

By Scott Marques

The Call Is Going Out!

Many of you have heard the story of how the Lord brought Farming God’s Way into being and how, right at the beginning, He gave us Isaiah 58 to guide us along His straight path. Isaiah 58 begins with a very loud Trumpet Call that announces God’s process that results in those, who are obedient to that call, being named as the “Rebuilders of the Ancient Ruins, on the Age-old Foundations, Repairers of Broken Walls, Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.”

A Dramatic Beginning
Well, for us in Africa, that call to the rebuilding process is really beginning to happen in earnest. We believe that the Lord is selecting Zimbabwe as His beginning point because “He chooses what is foolish in the world to confound the wise and what is weak in the world to shame the strong.” The most foolish and weakest nation in the world at the moment seems to be Zimbabwe. When we look at the international news, Zimbabwe is often depicted as the laughing stock of the world. We have recently witnessed the fastest crash in history of any nation’s economy and probably also its agricultural production. In FGW/Foundations for Farming the Lord has given us His foundational platform to address both of these collapses (ruins), because Isaiah 58 shows us that it first requires the right heart and motive of the True Fast, and then that Agriculture is the Entrance Point for the National Rebuild.

A Call Round the World
The Trumpet Call is being blown loudly to the churches in Zimbabwe at the moment and it will reach a crescendo just after this next Champs (7-9 September) on the 26th September, when a Call to Prayer will go round the world to the Zimbabwe Diaspora and all those interested in the Rebuild/Transformation of Zimbabwe and Africa. The Trumpet Call initiative is being co-ordinated through a partnership between the Evangelical Fellowship of Zimbabwe and Foundations for Farming – and includes a team from the United Kingdom that is mobilising international prayer for the 26th September which will give support to the gatherings of hopefully between 300-500 000 in Harare, and large gatherings in the other major cities. Parallel to this there is an inspired initiative to have 55 Foundations for Farming sites prepared and immaculately ready by the 26th as training points strategically placed throughout all the rural areas of the nation. The vision is that the Church will truly be used by God to feed the nation this year!

The appeal is for all the churches in Zimbabwe to forsake their local gatherings and travel on Sunday the 26th to a huge central venue to worship and call out to God for the healing of the nation His Way. Because the rebuild begins with the faithful use of the land, we will be appealing (on TV and every available means) for everybody in the nation to plant at least a symbolic patch of maize On Time, At Standard, Without Wastage and With Joy! This patch can be as little as four plants, preferably in a prominent, easily visible position i.e. in front of each dwelling place, 75cm x 60cm apart, fully mulched, at the Highest Standard possible! We want to honour and lift up Jesus so that He draws a multitude to Himself!

Please Pray for this Momentous and Critical Time
The year 2011 brings the referendum for a new National Constitution followed by the National Parliamentary Elections for Zimbabwe. There has been a strategic lull in the tensions in Zim during the season of the Football World Cup, and we expect the Evil One to have one last diabolical attempt to maintain dominance of the nation. This siege may be the most violent and repressive of all. We pray that this will be a great prompt for the National Church to unite and turn back absolutely wholeheartedly to God and to seek His Face and His Ways. In fact this very turn back to God will be the best way to protect the extremely vulnerable ones from great harm and suffering. Please pray for them and for the clearance of the way for this exceedingly significant gathering to happen. It will need a miracle from the Lord!

This September Champs will Point the Way to the 26th
I appeal to the Champions and Supporters from the other nations not to think that this is just another “Zim thing”. It really is a Continental Quest that is beginning with the ‘Foolishness’ and ‘Weakness’ of the Zimbabwean situation. It is also a Significant Milestone in the Breaking of the Yoke of Poverty, Hunger and Injustice of the Downtrodden in Africa and the Whole World! We believe that the coming incredible contrast seen in the transformation of Zimbabwe from being the laughing stock to being a shining example will so astound the world and especially the nations of Africa, that it will truly be used by the Lord as a discipleship model to many, and perhaps all nations.

Please can we put away any differences and disagreements we may have and come and gather and unite before our Gracious Holy God and seek His face together at this next Champs! There will still be some of our usual teaching and brushing up for the coming season, as well as great fellowship and many brilliant testimonies of the amazing things the Lord is doing through FGW/Foundations for Farming. PLEASE COME and PLEASE PRAY!!!

Longing to see you all again!

Much love
Brian and Cath