Introduction:
The third quarter of 2026 was another season of God’s faithfulness at Mashoko Christian Hospital. From June through September, we continued to see the hospital serve not only as a place of physical healing, but also as a place where people encounter hope, compassion, prayer and the love of Christ. Through healthcare, community outreach, counselling, maternity ministry, discipleship and evangelism, our teams continued seeking opportunities to minister to the whole person (body, mind, and spirit).
The quarter was particularly blessed by the visit of a team of four ladies from the United States, whose willingness to serve alongside our staff brought encouragement and renewed energy to the ministry. We are grateful to God for every patient reached, every family encouraged, every village visited, every prayer offered, and every person who responded to the Gospel.
1. Partnership visits and short-term missions:
On 11 June 2026, Mashoko Christian Hospital welcomed a team of four ladies from the USA:
• Kathy Vanstory, RN – Team Leader
• Kim Powers, RN – Co-Leader
• Eva Santos, PA
• Lindsey Glasscock – Graphic Designer
From the moment they arrived, the team chose not simply to visit Mashoko, but to become part of the ministry. They participated in many aspects of hospital life, including devotions, patient care, baptisms, maternity ministry, and community outreach. Their presence was felt throughout the hospital and in the surrounding communities.
One of the most meaningful aspects of their visit was their participation in community outreach. The team travelled considerable distances into surrounding villages, often along difficult, weathered roads and rough pathways, to reach patients who would otherwise struggle to access care.
During these visits, they helped deliver medications, checked on patients’ progress, provided counselling and social support, and shared the love of God with patients and their families. Their ministry demonstrated beautifully that Christian healthcare is not only about treating disease, but also about meeting people where they are and showing them the compassion of Christ. The team also spent time with pregnant mothers at our waiting shelters and maternity wards, offering encouragement, prayer, and reassurance to women preparing to give birth. We are deeply grateful for their sacrifice, encouragement, and servant hearts.
2. Evangelism and Discipleship:
Evangelism continued to be the central part of Mashoko Christian Hospital’s ministry throughout the quarter. Every interaction with a patient, family member, student, staff member, or community resident provides an opportunity to communicate God’s love. Through hospital ministry, community outreach, counselling, prayer, and personal conversations, the Gospel continued to be shared intentionally.
Month | Repentances | Baptisms | Restorations |
June | 11 | 9 | 1 |
July | 5 | 5 | 0 |
August | 9 | 0 | 2 |
September | 0 | 9 | 5 |
Quarter Total | 25 | 23 | 8 |
During the four-month period, we recorded 25 people who repented and committed themselves to Christ, 23 baptisms, and 8 restorations. These numbers represent more than statistics. Behind every number is a person, a family, a story, and an eternal decision.
Some encounters began beside a hospital bed. Others took place during community visits, maternity ministry, counselling sessions, or ordinary conversations. In each situation, our desire has been to create opportunities for people to hear, understand, and respond to the Gospel. We give thanks to God for every person who took a step toward Him during this quarter.
3. Community Outreach: Taking Healthcare and the Gospel to the People:
One of the continuing strengths of Mashoko Christian Hospital is our commitment to reaching people beyond the hospital walls. Many of the communities we serve are rural and geographically dispersed. For some patients, simply reaching the hospital can be a major challenge. Community outreach therefore allows us to take aspects of the hospital’s ministry directly to people’s homes and communities. We thank all of you who donated towards the Toyota Land Cruiser 4 x 4 we use for Outreach. We: –
• Visit patients in their homes
• Deliver medications
• Check on patients’ progress
• Provide counselling and social support
• Identify patients requiring further medical attention
• Encourage families facing difficult circumstances
• Pray with patients and families
• Share the love and message of Christ
These journeys are not always easy. Roads and pathways can be difficult, particularly after weather conditions have affected them. Yet the commitment to reach vulnerable patients remains central to our mission. For us, outreach is an important reminder that the ministry of Mashoko does not end at the hospital gate.
4. Ministry to Pregnant Mothers:
Pregnancy and childbirth can be both a joyful and anxious experience, particularly for women coming from remote communities. During the quarter, ministry continued to pregnant mothers staying at the shelters and those in the wards. The USA team participated in encouraging these mothers, offering conversation, prayer, reassurance, and spiritual encouragement.
This ministry provides an important opportunity to remind mothers that they are not alone. Beyond medical attention, they can experience compassion, dignity, friendship, and hope. We continue to see maternity care as an important doorway for demonstrating the holistic mission of Mashoko Christian Hospital.
Some women get their bladders and rectum injured during delivery of babies. This is common in those women who delay coming to Hospitals and are delivered by untrained midwives. Urine and at times stool come out uncontrollably. This is very debilitating. The Lord had Mashoko Christian Hospital as the center where such women come for help. We work with the Fistula Foundation. So, everything needed in helping these women is free. Kindly pray for these women to see the necessity of coming out to be healed. We hold quarterly surgical camps and attend to 40 to 50 women per camp.
5. Counselling and Pastoral Care:
The Chaplaincy and Counselling ministry continued to support patients, families, staff, students, and community members throughout the quarter. Pastoral care remains an important part of the hospital’s identity. People often come to hospital carrying burdens that cannot be diagnosed through a medical examination. Fear, grief, family problems, uncertainty, financial difficulties, bereavement, and spiritual questions are realities that accompany many of the people we serve.
Through prayer, counselling, spiritual conversations, encouragement, and Scripture, the ministry seeks to create a safe place where people can bring these burdens. Staff and students also continue to receive pastoral support as they navigate the pressures of healthcare work, studies, family responsibilities, and personal challenges.
6. Hospital Ministry: Healing Hands and Caring Hearts:
The third quarter continued to demonstrate the importance of bringing together professional healthcare and Christian compassion.
Our teams continued caring for patients through the various departments of the hospital. surgery.
Their presence also provided encouragement to our healthcare workers, reminding us that although Mashoko operates in a challenging rural environment, we are part of a much larger Christian family.
Every consultation, procedure, medication, conversation, and act of kindness can become an expression of Christ’s love.
This is the distinctive calling of Mashoko Christian Hospital: to care for the body while never forgetting the soul.
Mashoko Christian Hospital recently took over Rushangarumwe Mission Clinic from the Hippo Valley Christian Mission. We dedicated the Clinic on April 24, 2026. It was a day of great joy that made us forget about the slippery roads with pools of water. Unfortunately, a powerful hailstorm with strong winds came through the area in the first week of September and took off roofs and solar panels and destroyed nurses’ food stuff. We are very thankful to our partners AS WE GO Missions who very quickly came up with the money to make the repairs. The clinic has gone back to preaching the Gospel and saving people Physically and Spiritually.
7. Nursing School Ministry:
The Nursing School remains an important part of Mashoko’s long-term ministry.
By training nurses in a Christian environment, the hospital is not only preparing healthcare professionals but also investing in future servants who can carry compassionate and ethical healthcare into communities across Zimbabwe and beyond.
During the quarter, the Nursing School continued with its academic and clinical programs. We have had 9 successive graduating groups without formal graduation ceremonies.
While the absence of graduation ceremonies has been a financial reality, it does not diminish the achievement of the students, the dedication of the teaching staff, or the importance of the training ministry. We remain grateful for every student who has completed the program and for the opportunity to prepare nurses who can serve with both professional competence and Christian compassion.
We hope, as resources permit, to create opportunities to appropriately recognize and celebrate these graduates and the important milestone they have achieved.
8. Strengthening the Hospital’s Christian Witness
An important part of our ministry is ensuring that the Christian identity of Mashoko remains visible in both the way we work and the way we treat people. Devotions, prayer, pastoral care, evangelism, baptisms, community outreach, and compassionate patient care all contribute to this witness. The third quarter reminded us that sometimes the most powerful sermon is not preached from a pulpit.
It may be a healthcare worker travelling a difficult road to visit a patient. It may be a nurse encouraging a frightened mother. It may be someone praying beside a hospital bed. It may be a team member delivering medicine to a remote household. Or it may simply be taking time to tell someone, “God has not forgotten you.” These seemingly small acts can become powerful expressions of the Gospel.
9. EXPANSION OF THE MASHOKO CHRISTIAN HOSPITAL MINISTRY
Mashoko Mission was started by two families which were friends. These were John and Majory Pemberton and Denis and Lucile Pruett. They were students together at Kentucky Christian College in the 50s. The Pembertons came to preach the Gospel through Schools while the Pruetts came to preach the Gospel through Hospitals and Clinics. Along the way, the Pembertons crossed over to build Clinics. Recently, though, HIPPO VALLEY CHRISTIAN MISSION which was started by the Pembertons decided to go back to the original mission of preaching through Schools. Mashoko Christian Hospital saw this as an opportunity to expand their ministry. So, HVCM officially handed over Maranda Mission Clinic in Mwenezi District, Damarakanaka Mission Clinic in Chiredzi District and most recently, Rushangarumwe Mission Clinic in Chivi District to Mashoko. We ask you for your prayers so that the Lord may give us as much success in winning souls as he has at Mashoko. Each Clinic is going to have a Chaplain. Suspicion will oversee these Chaplains. KINDLY PRAY TO SEE HOW THE LORD MAY LEAD YOU TO PARTNER WITH US IN THESE NEW CENTERS OF EVANGELISM, not only through prayers, but financially and through sending Short-term missions. We are very happy that God has given us very loving and caring partners at Maranda and Rushangarumwe. This is a Ministry called AS WE GO which is based in Washington State.
The first week of September 2026, a very strong hailstorm passed through the Rushangarumwe area and destroyed many of the Clinic buildings and assets. AS WE GO and other friends prayed for there to be funds to repair the damage. Within 2 weeks the funds were there and the repairs were completed. PRAISE THE LORD!
The following are the statistics already prevailing at Rushangarume:
Month | New Patients | Repeat Visits | Total Attendances |
May | 219 | 0 | 219 |
June | 121 | 18 | 139 |
July | 263 | 13 | 276 |
August | 144 | 57 | 201 |
Sept | 129 | 6 | 135 |
Total | 876 | 94 | 970 |
Condition | May | June | July | August | September |
Acute Respiratory Infections (ARIs) | 55 | 48 | 33 | 36 | 30 |
Diarrhoea | 7 | 7 | 2 | 4 | 3 |
Skin Conditions | 19 | 4 | 3 | 0 | 2 |
Injuries | 4 | 6 | 6 | 0 | 3 |
Eye Conditions | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
IF YOU FEEL CALLED TO PARTNER WITH US IN THESE NEW ARES OF MINISTRY, kindly send you donations to Mashoko Christian Hospital Inc, P. O. Box 19022, Indianapolis, Indiana 46219 or you may give through our website on Mashoko.org. Kindly specify which Clinic you want to donate to: Damarakanaka Mission Clinic, Maranda Mission Clinic or Rushangarumwe Mission Clinic.
10. Challenges and Opportunities
As with every season of ministry, the quarter also presented challenges.
Operating a mission hospital in a rural and remote setting requires perseverance. Transportation, infrastructure, staffing, resources, patient needs, and the increasing demands placed upon healthcare workers remain ongoing realities.
Yet these challenges also remind us of the importance of partnership. The ministry at Mashoko depends not only upon what happens within the hospital but upon a network of people who pray, give, visit, encourage, serve, and believe in the mission. Every contribution, whether financial, practical, professional, or spiritual helps us continue serving our community.
11. Looking Ahead
As we look toward the final quarter of 2026, our desire is to build upon the work already accomplished.
• Evangelism and discipleship
• Community outreach
• Pastoral and counselling services
• Maternity Ministry
• Patient care
• Nursing education
• Staff and student spiritual support
• Relationships with our Christian partners
• Opportunities for visiting mission teams
Our prayer is that Mashoko Christian Hospital will continue to be known not simply for the medical services it provides, but for the hope it brings.
12. Appreciation to Our USA Christian Partners:
We extend our sincere gratitude to our USA Christian partners for continuing to stand with Mashoko Christian Hospital. Your partnership makes it possible for us to continue serving people in communities where resources are often limited and needs are great.
We are particularly thankful for the four ladies who visited Mashoko during this quarter—Kathy Vanstory, Kim Powers, Eva Santos, and Lindsey Glasscock. They came as visitors but quickly became fellow workers in the ministry. They walked our hospital corridors, joined us in prayer and devotions, witnessed baptisms, encouraged pregnant mothers, and travelled into rural communities to meet patients where they live.
Their willingness to experience both the joys and challenges of rural healthcare ministry was deeply encouraging.
We also appreciate every person in the USA who prays for Mashoko, gives toward the ministry, encourages our staff, and helps make these partnerships possible.
Across the four months, we witnessed people responding to the Gospel, believers being baptized, others being restored, patients being cared for, mothers being encouraged, families being visited, medicines being delivered, and communities being reached.
The 25 recorded repentances, 30 baptisms, and 8 restorations are especially meaningful to us not merely as numbers, but as evidence of lives being touched by the Gospel. We are also thankful for the opportunity to serve alongside our USA partners, whose presence reminds us that although Mashoko is in rural Zimbabwe, the mission belongs to a much larger Christian family.
As we continue the work, we remain committed to the calling that has defined Mashoko Christian Hospital:
Healing bodies. Caring for people. Sharing Christ. Transforming lives.
We thank God for His faithfulness, our staff for their dedication, our community for its trust, and our Christian partners for standing with us.
To God be the glory.
PRAYER NEEDS:
1. Prayers.
2. Great need for gloves: Zimbabwe has run short of Surgical and Examination Gloves. The ones which are there at some suppliers are very costly. A pack of 100 examination gloves costs $6. 12 pairs of sterile gloves cost $12. Kindly pray for this need. If you can assist, kindly send your donation to Tower accounting specifying that the donation is for gloves. The name on the check should be Mashoko Christian Hospital Inc, P. O. Box 19022, Indianapolis, Indiana 46219. Thank you in advance.
3. Pray for Dinah’s mother. She had a fractured pelvis on August 1 this year. She was then admitted for skin traction at Mashoko Christian Hospital. The fracture healed very well. Now she has pressure sores.
4. Pray for our granddaughter Nesta. She developed seizures at the end of July. She had MRI which was normal. She is doing better on treatment.