Home Safely

By the grace of God, I have safely returned from my ninth trip to Zimbabwe. I have truly grown to love these brethren over the years and appreciate their steadfast stand for Truth. I’m happy to report that a few things are better than what I found in the country last November, but it still has a long way to go before things are restored to normal.

 

My Travel Companion

I invited Robin Bauer to accompany me on this trip. He is a native of Zimbabwe, but has been living in Cape Town, South Africa, for many years. He had been anxious to return to his homeland and to assist in Bible teaching. I’ve worked with Robin on several occasions in South Africa, so it was a double treat to work with him again and to be with him as he returned “home” for a few days. He drove from Cape Town to Johannesburg, in order to visit with some of the brethren he hadn’t seen there for a while.

 

With the recent merger of Northwest and Delta Airlines, there is now a non-stop flight from Atlanta to Johannesburg. It is a long and tiring 15-hour flight. It was good to finally get off the plane and stretch my legs. My luggage arrived safely and I was met in the airport by Fred Liggin and Robin Bauer. Fred is an American who is married to a South African lady. They live in Johannesburg and work with two churches in the city. I’ve grown to love them and appreciate their labors in the kingdom. We drove to Fred and Pearl’s house, had a wonderful meal, and was able to visit for a while before getting into bed at about midnight.

 

Entering Zimbabwe

On Friday morning, we departed Johannesburg at 6:15. We stopped in the town of Louis Trichardt to fill up the car and all of our gasoline cans, not knowing whether or not gasoline would be available in Zim. We also bought lots of groceries and bottled water. We arrived at Beit Bridge at 2:15. We completed the check points on the South Africa side in thirty minutes. We then entered the Zimbabwe side and things were much slower. I had to buy a visa; Robin gets in free. We then had to pay for the toll across the bridge, something they call a carbon tax, and then to buy third-party insurance. All of this took us about 1½ hours, but we were eventually on our way.

 

Current Conditions in Zim

Shortly after entering Zim, we stopped at a rest area that had a gas station, grocery store, restaurant, and toilets. I immediately noticed so many changes from when I was here last November. The highways are now busy with lots of traffic, something that was missing last year because of no gasoline. The shelves in the grocery store are now full of food.  Last year, these same shelves were empty. The major difference, however, is that there is no longer any Zimbabwe money. The government took their currency out of circulation. Everything must now be purchased with foreign currency, either South Africa rand or the U.S. dollar. Now how is someone in a rural village going to get their hands on foreign currency?  Yes, food is available, but it is usually being purchased by the higher class on the economic scale.

 

Benevolence

When I was here last November, I helped many brethren buy seed corn. Les Maydell, a preacher in South Africa, has been handling some benevolent funds from America and has worked with many churches to help supply their needs. Most regions were blessed with good rains in November and December and the crops have done well. Even before I arrived in Zimbabwe, I had received an e-mail to inform me that 19 churches were stating that they were now sufficiently being taken care and the benevolent help that has been sent to them the past year could stop. Shortly after arriving in Bulawayo, two good sisters came to me and wanted to express their thanks for the food parcels they have received from U.S. brethren this past year. One of the widow ladies said, “Those boxes helped to keep us alive during the days that we had nothing. There was no food on the supermarket shelves and we had nowhere to turn. The parcels we received from our American brothers and sisters helped to feed us during these destitute times. The markets now have food and we can now take care of ourselves. We want you to send our deep, deep THANKS to the brethren who helped us, but ask them to now turn their benevolence to other areas.” I feel safe in now recommending that the aid going to addresses in Binga, Victoria Falls, and/or Bulawayo can either stop or at least slow down. Some may want to continue some of the parcels going to these addresses, but I feel we can now start weaning them from the regular shipments. The only exception to this would be those brethren in south Gwanda. Just as their crops were getting large, a herd of elephants came into their area and destroyed everything they had planted. It will now take several months to replant and get the vegetation up and growing for future harvest. These brethren will still need aid for several more months.

 

Arriving in Bulawayo

We arrived in Bulawayo at about 8:15 in the evening. We stopped at a restaurant to get something to eat and called Bruce Mtigwe. He came to the restaurant to direct us to his house. When we arrived at his house, there was no electricity. We soon learned that this is the norm for Zimbabwe. One never knows when you will have power. One day it may be on for the whole day, the next day it may be for half the day, the next day it may be for two hours, and the next day it may never be turned on. The government is rationing the electricity and the citizens never know when they will have the power. It is sometimes only turned on from 2:00 a.m. to 5:00 a.m.  Many of the ladies told me they go to bed with their bedroom light turn on. If the power comes on during the night, they will get up in order to cook some food, do the laundry, and iron their clothes. It’s a sad way to live, but they are adjusting to it.

 

We spent Saturday with Bruce, Nancy and the children. We had many things to discuss and had a wonderful visit with all of them. That evening, we moved to home of George and Jennie Edy. One could not find a more loving, congenial and hospital couple than this couple. When we arrived, their house was without electricity. We were able to visit by candle light and the power came on after about an hour. We were able to hurriedly work together and prepare our meal before the power went off again.

 

Three Churches on Sunday

We woke up to a very beautiful Lord’s Day morning. We got our showers at about 6:30 and had breakfast at about 7:30. George and Jennie went to their services at Hillside at 9:00, while Robin and I drove to the south end of town to meet Bruce, Nancy and the children at the Queen’s Park Church. Newman Gumpo preaches for these brethren every Sunday morning. He then goes to his “home” congregation at Kensington for afternoon services. The brethren at Queen’s Park had asked Robin to teach the Bible class and for me to deliver the sermon. There were about sixty in attendance. I taught a lesson, asking the question, “What Are You Worth?”  It seems that too many people determine “worth” by your education, your finances, the color of skin, or some other irrelevant issue. I tried to show that we are made in God’s image and when we become Christians that God adopts us into His family. The great Creator of the world is our Father and we should hold our head up high and understand our true worth. I felt the lesson was well received.

 

The building at Queen’s Park is really starting to show its age. The baptistery has several large cracks, so the brethren have had to drain the water. The roof has many leaks and several windows have been broken. On some trip in the future, I’d like to take a few good carpenters, plumbers and electricians with me and turn it into as much of a benevolent trip as an evangelistic trip. I’ve seen many buildings that need lots of repair.

 

After our worship at Queen’s Park, we went back to Bruce and Nancy’s for lunch. We then drove to Kensington for their afternoon services. They have just recently knocked out a wall and extended the size of their auditorium in order to accommodate some extra pews. They now need to patch many holes in the roof and they’ll be in pretty good shape. Attendance was 86. Robin preached a lesson from Romans 12:1-2. Both of these churches have a tradition that I really love. At the end of services, after the final prayer and announcements, one of the men will start leading a song. As everyone joins in the singing, he will then walk down the aisle and exit the building. One by one, the members will exit the building, continuing to sing this song. The song leader stands right next to the door. The first person out the door will shake his hand and then stand beside him. The next person out will shake the hands of both of them and then stand next to the last one in the line. One by one, they continue this until everyone has exited the building and shaken hands with everyone who was at worship. No one will leave the property until they have greeted everyone in attendance. These brethren have come to realize that it is very possible that someone present today may be dead before the assembly next week. They really understand the words, “May God be with you until we meet again.” After services at both place, we visited with the brethren for a few minutes, talked about the food boxes many of them were receiving from American Christians, and made a few photographs.

 

At 5:00 p.m., we attended the evening worship with the Hillside Church. There are two churches that use the same building. For lack of better terms, we simply refer to them as the Hillside Morning Church and the Hillside Afternoon Church. The morning group conducts their services in English. The afternoon church conducts their services in their native tongue. There is seldom electricity, so both groups try to set times to allow them to see their Bibles and songbooks with the sunlight coming through the windows. The morning church then assembles again in the evening. I was asked to preach for them, so I gave a lesson on “Why Do Bad Things Happen To Good People?”  With so many horrible things that have happened in their country in the past year, many of the brethren have been wrestling with this question.  I hope the sermon helped to settle their minds. A bad thing happening to them does not mean that they have done something wrong. After worship, we went back to Bruce and Nancy’s for tea and then made it “home” the Edy’s house for a hot bowl of spinach soup.

 

Preacher-Training Classes

On my previous trips, I did lots of driving in order to visit as many churches as possible. Not knowing for sure whether or not gasoline would be available for us in Zim this year, we planned things completely different this year. Robin and I decided to invite the preachers to come to one central location for extensive classes, rather than us going to all of the various congregations.  We felt that if we could teach special classes for the preachers and give them books and study materials to take home with them, then we could cover more material in a shorter period of time. I was given a few donations from individuals, not churches, to help me with many of the expenses. I sent out many invitations to preachers (young and old) that I’ve worked with in the past. I explained that I was renting a guest house, where we could have a large class room, a dining room, and sleeping quarters. I explained that I would provide their lodging and meals, but they were responsible for their own transportation.  The lack of transportation money prohibited some from being able to attend the classes, but I simply didn’t have enough money to pay for everything. Robin and I stayed at the guest house with the students. Some came only for the classes during the day and then returned to their home for the evening.  Others came from some great distances, so they accepted our invitation to sleep at the guest house. We placed 4-6 students per room for the sleeping arrangements. We all shared a common bathroom down the hall. I also took some of the funds that had been donated and hired a local lady to help with the cooking and cleaning. I would often teach the earlier classes and when I turned it over to Robin, I would then run to the kitchen to help prepare lunch.

 

We provided a bowl of porridge, with bread and tea, for breakfast. For lunch, we provided chicken, cabbage, and mealie meal. For supper, we provided beef stew, bitter greens, and mealie meal. The men expressed their appreciation for the meals on many occasions. We had 35 students in our classes. They came from Harare, Gwanda, Binga, Victoria Falls, plus many churches all around Bulawayo. My invitation had explained that this was going to be conducted like a school. I warned them that they should not attend unless they were prepared to work hard. We had classes from 8:00 a.m. until 6:00 p.m. We would then eat our supper and the students would then do their homework for the night. In five days, we conducted 28 classes. We taught Bible History. Bible Geography, Prison Epistles, 1 Corinthians, Study Methods, Acts of the Apostles, Life of Paul, James, Jude, and several topical studies. In the evenings, they would gather in the large room and work together on various projects. Since there was no heat in the building, many of them would wear their coats, hats and gloves in the evening. Understand that July is there winter month. It is warm during the day, but it gets very cool in the evening. On a couple of the evenings, after all homework was finished, we would have a hymn singing. This had to be done by candlelight.

 

During one of our afternoon breaks, one of the young preachers asked if it would be permissible to ask my age. When I told him that I was 62 years old, he expressed his shock. The average life span for a man in Zimbabwe is between 45-50.

 

Sad News

At the start of classes on Monday morning, Bigboy Dube arrived with several students from Gwanda. He explained that he was going to be unable to stay for the classes. His mother was removing a pot of boiling water from the fire in the yard and the handle broke, spilling all of the boiling water on her leg. Bigboy explained that he needed to return to care for his mother. He didn’t have the money to take her to the doctor or get the ointment needed for severe burns.  I gave him some money from the funds that had been given to me from American brethren, with the instructions that I use this at my own discretion. I was thrilled to be able to help in this emergency.

 

Working in Binga

We ended our classes in Bulawayo at noon on Friday. After eating their lunch, the students took off in their different directions. One of the older preachers said, “I’ve always tried to be a good teacher, but I’ve had few chances where I get to be the student. I have really enjoyed these classes. I’ve learned much. I hope you will do this again for all of us next year.”

 

After the students left, we went with Peter Mudenda to the vegetable market in order to buy supplies for our meetings in Binga, one of the poorer regions of Zimbabwe. We tried to get a discount by buying in bulk. We filled up the trailer with heads of cabbage. We then loaded the back of the van with tomatoes, onions, cooking oil and salt. The drive from Bulawayo to Binga is about 4½ hours. It was dark by the time we got to the lodge where we would sleep. The lodge is next to a large lake and one can hear the grunts of the hippo at night. The registration cottage has a sign that warns: “Beware of Hippos.” The sky above us was lovely and filled with stars, more stars than we normally get to see in the areas where we have several lights around us. It was lovely. All three of us shared one cottage. We were able to get checked in, get a shower, and get a good night’s sleep.

 

On Saturday morning, we got up at 6:30 and had our breakfast at the lodge at 7:00. We then drove to the site where the brethren had planned our classes. Many of them had walked 4-5 hours to get to the site. They all slept on the sand, some with blankets and some just sleeping in their clothes. There was no church building. The brethren were assembling under a large tree. They had cut many branches and made some crude pews for the men. Most of the ladies preferred to sit on mats on the ground. The scrap wood from the pews was used for building cooking fires. Many of them had gathered on Friday night and had their first Bible study and prayer meeting. The attendance for the first session, without any special teachers being present, was 305. Peter worked as translator for Robin and me both. He always does an excellent job. The brethren are there to study, so they don’t limit us on our time. Each class is generally 1½ to 2 hours long. We conducted four classes and then stopped for lunch. I used some of the American funds and bought a cow from one of the neighbors. We slaughtered the cow and cut it into pieces, knowing how much could be used for each meal. Refrigeration was not an option, so the men just hung the slabs of beef in the trees. After a couple of days, it was really starting to get tender from the heat. That’s when I stopped eating beef. We continued classes in the afternoon until just an hour or so before dark. The preachers wanted to eat their supper before it got dark. We learned last year that if we wait until it gets dark to eat that we can’t tell who is getting in line. Last year, many of the neighbors snuck into the lines to eat, although they didn’t attend any of the Bible classes.

 

Our Sunday in Binga was an awesome day. We had been told that we would not have our worship and eat the Lord’s Supper until the afternoon, but we would have many classes during the morning. Robin started the day with a class on “Consider the Ant, Thou Sluggard.” I followed with a lesson on “Open Rebuke is Better Than Secret Love.” Robin taught the next class on “Fruit of the Spirit.” While he was teaching this class, I had to take the corn to the mill to have it ground. I took three men with me to help with the grinding. Things were going great for the first hour and then the machine broke. We had to get a man to make some repairs before we could finish our grinding. By the time we finished and got back to the site, it was time to begin our worship. Robin and I both taught a lesson during our worship period. The good news is that our attendance was 365. The sad news is that we didn’t have enough grape juice for everyone to partake of the Lord’s Supper. Everyone was able to break the break, but Peter gave an apology for running out of juice. Some of the churches are used to this, but I’m not. It absolutely brought me to tears. One man said, “For some of us, it’s been two months since we’ve had the Lord’s Supper. We simply can’t afford to buy grape juice.” Before we left, we worked with Peter on securing more grape juice and having the brethren to divide it amongst the numerous churches. I pray that this never happens again.

 

The temperatures dropped a lot during the night. On Monday morning, it was very windy and much cooler. Several men had built small fires in different locations near the tree. We followed the same routine of having several classes in the morning, breaking for lunch, and then having more classes until dark. At the end of the day, Robin and I were ready to distribute several things for the brethren. I have the habit of wearing my clothing only once and then giving it away. I save one outfit to wear on the plane back home and give away everything else in my suitcase. We distributed the clothing, plus vitamins, toothpaste, soap, shampoo, and school supplies. We gave so many pieces to each preacher. The preachers then had members of their respective congregation to meet at a certain tree and he then divided it among the saints. There were many happy brethren.

 

Back to Bulawayo

On Tuesday morning, we said our good-bye to Peter and were ready for our journey back to Bulawayo. Word had spread fast that we were traveling to Bulawayo. We picked up two ladies at the lodge who needed a ride. One of these ladies was a Christian. We hadn’t traveled very far and then saw two police ladies who were hitchhiking, so we stopped to give them a right, too. The five-hour ride was quite interesting. The ladies were “trapped” in the back seat and couldn’t avoid our Bible discussions. The one rider who was a Christian then suggested that we sing. I wish I had been able to tape the singing. It was beautiful.

 

We deposited the ladies on the street in front of the court house in Bulawayo. They were very appreciative. Robin and I observed that the electricity was working, so we went to the store to buy some groceries. I had volunteered to cook dinner for Robin, George & Jennie, and Bruce, Nancy, and the children. I was really looking forward to fixing them some foods they’ve never tried. I made out my menu for peach mango pork chops, cheesy mashed potatoes, hot pickled beets, pinto beans, pineapple casserole, and a good salad. Just as the potatoes started boiling and the oven was getting hot and ready for the pineapple casserole, the electricity went off. I didn’t know what to do. We finally borrowed two gas grills. Dinner was delayed, but we enjoyed it when we were finally able to eat.

 

Last Day in Zimbabwe

On Wednesday morning, we had breakfast and 6:00 and departed at 6:30. We met Bigboy Dube in Gwanda and then traveled south. We drove about 40 km. south of town and then turned off the highway on a rough, dirt road. The travel was really slow on this road. We drove about another 30 km. to reach the West Saphila Church. I always enjoy meeting with these brethren, because they always have such interest in the Bible lessons and their singing is always so great. Attendance was 125. We had several classes and then shared lunch with them before we had to start our journey back to South Africa. It was very late in the evening before we got back to the home of Fred and Pearl Liggin. I felt embarrassed about arriving at such a late hour, but they had assured us that it would be okay to awaken them.

 

Heading Home

We got a good night’s sleep and prepared ourselves for our journeys home. Robin took off for South Africa. Fred and Pearl took me to the airport for my flight. After getting checked in, there was enough time to enjoy breakfast with Fred and Pearl before I had to board the plane. As I eventually got on the plane and reflected on this trip, I felt that much good was accomplished. I hope the Lord was pleased. It was a joy to travel with Robin and to see many brethren that we’ve grown to love over the years.

 

Other Benevolent Funds

I was happy to play “delivery boy” for some brethren who sent aid to some of our needy brethren. Two new churches were started in recent years among the San people, what we might call cultural minorities. They have not been receiving any benevolent help. Working with Mountbatten Brewer, we distributed sacks of 12.5 kg. each (27.5 pounds) to 67 families, 30 at Mtshina and 37 at Butabubili.  We also helped four churches in the area where the elephants had destroyed the crops. This amounted to 151 sacks at Mlachsa, 58 at Sikhali, 42 at Tshajathole, and 100 at Majabane. The total cost for the corn was $2508 and the cost for gasoline to deliver this to six churches was $300, making a total of $2808. I want to express my deep thanks to those brethren who were involved in this benevolent work.