The First Christian Church in Brook is raising money to build an orphanage in Zimbabwe.
Dr. Chauncey A. Lattimer Jr., the First Christian Church’s minister, recently spoke with the Newton County Enterprise about the project and how it grew from a recent mission trip he and several others took to Zimbabwe to help with a medical mission operated by a friend of his.
Lattimer said he met Sadock Mashindi around 2005-06.
Mashindi is a native of Zimbabwe who had come to the U.S. to study ministry. Mashindi’s wife, Rudo, who he knew from Zimbabwe but they were married while in the US, went to medical school is now a practicing physician in the Indianapolis area.
Sadock and Rudo Mashindi, who serve on the board of Mashindi Medical Missions, decided to build a hospital in their home area of Zimbabwe.
Lattimer said part of the motivation for this was because Sadock’s father, brother and sister had all died from things that could have been easily treated if there had been a clinic anywhere near the Zaka region of Zimbabwe.
He said the Zaka region is the mountainous region of Zimbabwe and is a rather remote location.
Lattimer and his wife, Jessica, along with Steve and Annette Donaldson, of Beecher City, and Diane Szczepanski, of Morocco, made the trip to visit the Zaka region in September, leaving Sept. 13 and returning Sept. 28.
Lattimer said that the trip from the capital, Harare, was a seven or eight hour drive, split over two days, over horrible roads out into the middle of nowhere to reach the Zaka region.
About a year ago, Mashindi reached out to Lattimer via text asking him about helping two infants, who were about four days old at the time, whose mother had just passed away in the Zaka region.
Lattimer asked if there was anyone at the medical mission that would be able to care for and raise the babies.
Mashindi said there was but they didn’t have the financial ability to do that.
“My wife and I thought about it and prayed about it and I sent him back a message and I said, ‘If they’ll let you keep the babies, take them back to the medical mission and my wife and I will adopt them financially. So we have been supporting them for a whole year.”
Lattimer said they planned the mission trip to coincide closely with the twins’ birthday, Sept. 11.
He said they were able to spend some time with the twins, Patience and Prosper, and their caregiver, who is also named Jessica.
The goal of the trip, he said, was mostly to help Sadock and Rudo complete their work on the medical clinic. The clinic is scheduled to be totally completed by June 2024.
Lattimer said Jessica, Annette and Diane ministered to and worked with the women and children during the trip while he presented a leadership seminar for area ministers that had been brought in during that time period. He said he has his doctorate in church and para-church leadership and also spiritual formation.
Beyond this, Lattimer said they did what they could to help with tasks around the medical mission.
Lattimer said the original plans for the clinic have been expanded to make it actual hospital after Heart of Africa, a mission group that supports projects in Africa, threw their support behind the project. Heart of Africa’s involvement has spurred Samaritan’s Purse, a humanitarian aid organization, to become involved with the efforts as well.
“It’s really progressing quickly,” he said.
Lattimer said the plans for the project beyond the clinic call for the construction of three additional buildings in the full-fledged hospital. While the buildings wouldn’t be large buildings, he said they will be set-up to be able to handle any medical issues that might be brought in.
Lattimer said it was a very fulfilling trip, but living conditions for the twins and their caretaker prompted a further discussion regarding the construction of an orphanage in the region.
He said the twins and their caretaker live in one bedroom of a thatch-covered house with dirt floors.
Initially, Lattimer said he started talking with Sadock about building a house for caregiver Jessica and the children, but the discussion kept expanding until Heart of Africa heard about it and said they should move forward with building an orphanage that would meet all the standards of the government in the area.
Lattimer said he supported the idea and he was told initially that it would be about $15,000 US dollars to build the orphanage but that amount was revised to $20,000 or maybe even closer to $25,000.
He said they had an area men’s meeting at the First Christian Church on Oct. 16 and that’s when he announced the plans to raise funds for the orphanage.
“A very gracious family came alongside and said ‘No, you don’t have to raise the $20,000, you raise $10,000 and we’ll match it dollar-for-dollar everything you raise,’” Lattimer said. “So the good news, extremely good news, that I shared at church Sunday morning is that I already have in hand $7,880 and doubling that means I’ve already got $15,760 towards this venture so that we can get this orphanage built.”
Lattimer feels that things have gone well in the month since he announced the project and raised awareness of it through social media and put it out to the Prairie States Christian Service Camp sponsor supporters, he serves as manager of the camp and Sadock served as the camp’s summer missionary.
He said he hasn’t thought of any outside events to help raise money for the cause other than the gifts of God’s people.
Anyone who wants to donate can send check or cash to First Christian Church, 105 W. Broadway Street, P.O. Box 446, Brook, IN 47922 with a note and/or “Orphanage” on the memo line.
Asked about a timeline for the construction of the orphanage, Lattimer said they hope to return to the Zaka region the first two weeks of next September when they hope to be able to help put the finishing touches on the orphanage.
“Hopefully, everything will be finished other than painting and curtains and things like that that we can do in that two weeks while we’re there,” he said. “We’re hoping to have it all completed and built this year.”
Asked if there was anything else that he wanted to say about his trip to Zimbabwe, Lattimer commented on how eager the people there were for religion.
“Just how hungry the people are for hearing the word of God,” he said. “We were supposed to go to a church one day, we were told the wrong church and the church we were supposed to go to was actually another 30 kilometers beyond. When everything was said and done, we were actually a little over two hours later than what we told them we would be and the church was still packed waiting for us. And they were so proud of their church, which they were building, which was a concrete block wall structure, no roof or anything yet, but they wanted us to see that and wanted their picture taken in front of it. And they were just so appreciative.”
Lattimer also recalled how his wife, Jessica, Diane and Annette would go out to the end of the compound’s driveway each day as the kids were walking back and forth to school.
“Those kids were so appreciative just to get a single piece of candy,” he said. “One little boy would come back every day asking for the soccer ball. Because when we got there, this little boy was carrying a soccer ball made out of plastic that he had wrapped tightly with twine and everything and that’s what they were using. He would bring it back every day and we could watch as they were playing in the field across the way after school until it would start getting dark and then here he would come with the ball to make sure he could use it again. Just little things that we take for granted.”
To learn more about the Mashindi Medical Mission visit http://mashindimedicalmissions.org and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mashindimedical.
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