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M2A stands for Mission to Africa. It is the missionary project of the International Life Centre, based in Central Wolverhampton with branches in Liverpool, Leicester and Bournemouth. We are sending teams of professionals to go and serve the needy people of Africa for free on a short term basis. We intend to work with the local professionals and people on projects that meet them at their points of need. .
We plan to visit a different African country each year, leaving a micro-finance activity behind so that the people will thrive, not only spiritually but physically and economically.
The M2A committee is staffed by volunteers from the ILC church. We hope to expand the committee membership and activities to local partner churches and other well meaning charities. In the long term we intend to source funding for project officers and administrators.
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M2A May 2009
The idea to go and help came in late 2008, around August, when reports of deteriorating condition in health care and general well being of the average Zimbabwean was in free fall. After prayer and consultation with a few folks in the church, the interest was there, the need glaring, and we decided to go for it.
We started enlisting the medical members of the congregation who were willing to go, we got 18, and got really excited. While we were putting the mission together for April 2009, every news organisation was beaming a cholera outbreak in Zimbabwe. We were not sure whether to go for that as a target or to keep to our original plan of offering general consultation to any and everyone. The bigger part of us went for the latter. We then started the fundraising, collecting the medicines, collecting clothes to give to the needy, prayer for clarity of vision and strength.
6 churches around Wolverhampton supported us, and Harvest Community Network supported us as well. The congregation from which we come supported us all the way. A local business, The Flame lily Nursing agency donated a ticket worth £700 to one missionary who raised the most awareness of the mission.
Total raised £4326.46
Most of all, prayer support was on going, before we went, during the mission and as we returned, we sensed a real uplifting, an energy and knew that we were carried by the prayers of the saints back home.
1 doctor, 4 nurses, 1 chemist and 5 general hands managed to finally fly to Zimbabwe. Our other intended missionaries suffered different ills, from failed visas to Passports, failed leave of absence at work to ticket costs. However, God provided us with 2 more Doctors, 1 nurse, and a Chemist locals there in Zimbabwe, who all left their private practices (which is their livelihood) to work for free with the missionaries from Wolverhampton. Seeing this kind of gesture humbled us in a big way.
When we got there, the protocols and red tape got a bit in the way and we lost two days of work in the process. Came Wednesday 8th April we were rolling. We worked at two clinics, Amaveni Clinic, and Mbizo11 Clinic. We had a doctor and 2 nurses at each clinic, the rest of us either registered the patients, or kept the queue straight.
In 1 clinic, their average was 15 patients a day before the mission started, but on our arrival they were seeing 150 patients a day. It was overwhelming. The missionaries worked their socks off, registering, consultation and diagnosis, dispensation of medicine was ALL DONE FOR FREE.
The mayor of Kwekwe the town which the mission was based showed up at one of the Clinics, seeking to confirm if the rumour he had picked was true that nurses and doctors from Wolverhampton were treating people for free and dispensing medicine for free. He was pleasantly surprised to find it’s all true; the Hon Mayor’s wife also received treatment for free. In total we looked after 570 patients, glory to the Lord and a big thank you to all the folks who supported us.
In the evenings we used the time to do Christian services, where we encouraged the congregation every night with the message of hope that tomorrow can be a better day than today. We preached, and prayed for the sick and saw fantastic miracles. First night a woman who was blind in one eye got healed instantly, the following day girl who has just finished her A levels and was bleeding for 7 months was healed, a few days later a woman who was crippled and could not get up when she sat down was healed enough to jump, run sit and get up with joy. We were beside our selves with joy.
There is a school that we had abandoned, because of the collapsed economy. We decided to restart it and encouraged the church to get it running again. A head teacher was found, we tasked him to hire teachers and get the school running again. He preferred to enrol from form 1 to form 3 (the first year in High School to the 3rd year in high school, just a year before writing the General Certificate in Secondary Education. It will all be self funding as the fees the children pay will be used to run the school. They asked for computers and we assured them we will ask the Christians for their old computers and ship them there. A catering project, a sawing project were also founded.
We are back in Wolverhampton, where the Wolves are now in the premiership, and rejoice with the rest of the city. All the missionaries are thinking we should do a follow up mission. We are now wiser and have identified areas of need. We want to draw missionaries for the next mission, not just from ILC, but the general church around Wolverhampton. As long as you buy your own ticket, the mission will look after your basic needs in Zimbabwe. You go there to give your time and skill, evidence from our 11 missionaries is you come back with more, ever grateful that you went. With behalf of ILC we are looking forward to hear from you for our 2010 M2A.
The Lord Jesus blesses you.
Emmanuel Kapofu, Senior Pastor