British missionary to Zimbabwe, Mark Nicholson shares how God delivered him from drug addiction and homelessness and sent him to Africa, where he married Dorcas. Together they started Rehoboth Ministry which is a light in the darkness for many people living in dire circumstances, while also providing a home for children they have rescued.
I first came to Zimbabwe in April 2007 with my friend Carole Jones who was the Administrator of the Christian Rehabilitation Center that I was working at. Carole was going to Zimbabwe to bury her husband’s ashes who had unfortunately passed away earlier that year. The intention was for me to meet up and work in various children’s ministries around Zimbabwe, however I settled into working with Family Impact, a wonderful Christian organisation with numerous outreaches in the country.
Then one day when I arrived at the Baptist Church in Bulawayo, I was met by the lady who was leading the ministry for homeless people in and around they city, with a Bible study for the homeless folk. In that second I knew why God had told me to come to Zimbabwe. The lady who lead the ministry was called Dorcas and she started telling me here testimony of how God had brought her to that point in her life. I then told her my testimony of how God brought me from a life of drug addiction and homelessness and totally turned my life around.
She said, “Forget the message you have prepared and tell the people your testimony.” So I did and 27 people gave their lives to the Lord! I knew there and then the calling I was there to fulfill. Also, I felt God say that Dorcas was the one who I would marry.
After the Bible study I was invited to give my testimony at the soup kitchen the following day. I did this and a lot more people gave their lives to the Lord. During the next few weeks while I was in Zimbabwe I mainly worked with Dorcas at the Baptist Church ministering to the people who came there.
Another part of the ministry Dorcas was leading was to visit a local government hospital once a week to go and see the children who were “in care” on a ward for abandoned children, and on the last Friday that I was in Zimbabwe I was invited to go too. There were many children on the ward and I expected to see very unhappy children as the conditions were terrible, but to my surprise the kids were all happy. We spent an hour or so changing nappies and playing games with them, and as I boarded the plane in April 2007 to come back to the UK I knew Zimbabwe was were God wanted me to be.
Meet Mark Nicholson and family at Rehoboth
I had decided to go back to Zimbabwe in December 2007 so spent the time in the UK raising awareness and funds to do so. God confirmed to me many times He wanted me back in Zimbabwe. By 2009 Dorcas and I had married. In the mean time God had laid the kids at the abandoned babies ward on our hearts so we managed to rent a house and called it Rehoboth taken from Genesis 26 v 22 “for now the Lord has made room for us all and we will be fruitful in this land”.
Through a lot of hard work and red tape we managed to bring eight children to a live with us aged from two to eight years.
At this time Dorcas had stepped down as leader of the Social Concern Ministry at our Church and I had now taken over.
With the partnering with Seeway Trust in the UK, 13 years later we now own the house we rented and we have managed to adopt all the children and now we have eleven kids all in full time education apart from two. The children had had no education at all before coming to us so the kids were all many years behind on their development. Precious our only daughter, left us a couple of years ago leaving her son Uriel Maliki our grandson in our care.
Dorcas is also heavily involved with the School that all our children attended. She is the Chairperson of the committee that ensures the welfare of the kids as well as any fund raising projects the school has. I still lead the social concern ministry at a local church helping people both in the church and the community with a wide range of problems they might face.
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