MINISTRY
Martin and Ivy Bernard are native missionaries of Harare Zimbabwe Africa. They have been serving the Lord for many years throughout their country. Our initial contact with them has been through the Edwin L. Hodges Ministries, a literature ministry out of Decatur, Alabama who has sent them large quantities of Christian literature for the past several years.
In 1998 an ELHM staff member, Lisa Williams, fell in love with their genuine
sincerity, deep love for our Lord and a great concern for the poor, needy, orphans
and widows in their country. She began to help them and recruited others to join
the effort. A support group of several ladies did what they could to support
the Bernard’s. Brother Hodges was instrumental in getting the Bernard’s
approved by Christian Aid, www.christianaid.org, a wonderful ministry in Virginia.
This ministry supports native missionaries throughout the world by receiving
funds from donors who by choice may earmark their checks for their specific missionaries.
This is how we send funds (see the LTTL) to the Bernard’s. Use
code #594TKCM for their ministry, Thy Kingdom Come Ministries.
The “Zimbabwe
ladies,” as they have become affectionately known,
decided that with the devastating poverty in Zimbabwe, they needed to send more
than just funds. In 2002 they decided to conduct a yard sale to raise funds to
pay for and send some humanitarian basics to the Bernard’s. While this
effort did not result in everything they hoped for, the Lord worked miracles
with what was shipped on those who were ministered to. Our Testimonies page
shows some of the results since that first shipment
in 2003. These testimonies sent back from Zimbabwe fired up the “ladies” to
get additional shipments of basic needs over to the Bernard’s.
While the “ladies” were working on the second shipment in early 2003, Martin Bernard visited ELHM in Decatur. He was there for only half a day but he had a great impact on all who met him. They were impressed and influenced by his humble/servants heart. He worked along side those at the ministry packing and loading literature. Before he left he prayed for God to raise up people who would not only help them with their ministry in Africa, but that someone would come, be a blessing and give hope to the hopeless. That prayer led Rita Clecker, Lisa Williams and Janice Wyatt to go to Zimbabwe in December 2003. The trio spent three weeks ministering and spreading the love of God.
In October 2004 the first of two 40' containers full of clothes and other humanitarian aid was shipped. The second was sent in Jul 2005, both using the ministry of Master Provisions, www.masterprovisions.org. Martin & Ivy Bernard have reported that their ministry has increased multi-fold. They report that many hundreds of souls have come to a saving knowledge and acceptance of Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.
With Martin & Ivy's ministry growing so rapidly we knew we had to send two containers in 2006. The Lord opened doors and hearts of many Huntsville, Alabama area churches. These churches let us have their overflow clothes, shoes and other sorely needed items from their yearly rummage sales. We were also blessed to have two articles in the Huntsville Times during 2006 telling our story and the dates of our March and October container shipments. These events plus the gifts of many individuals allowed us to send the much needed and much appreciated containers.
After a busy but highly rewarding year in 2006 we moved to a more manageable one container a year in 2007 and in 2008. The results are heart warming and many reports can be seen on the News-Blog section of this web site.
We have scheduled our next container out of Huntsville on October 24th, 2009. We would welcome anyone wanting to join this wonderful opportunity to reach thousands of needy Zimbabweans or anyone wanting to donate financially to this cause may go to the LTTL link. You may also contact us at roy@lttl.org.
Reports from Martin & Ivy from Zimbabwe and current news of our activity will be posted on the News-Blog section.