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Wondering Pilgrim

~ the ramblings of a perambulent and often distracted sojourner

Wondering Pilgrim

Tag Archives: Zimbabwe

On the fourth day of Christmas… an orientation to praise and thanksgiving.

28 Sunday Dec 2014

Posted by wonderingpilgrim in Africa, Spirituality

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aid, Christmas, gogo, praise, Zimbabwe

WP_001721When visiting one of the rural districts surrounding Zvishavane in the south of Zimbabwe 3 months ago, we were struck by the resilience of those who lived on the parched plots with little easy access to water, healthcare and education for their children. We were exploring a program run by the Zimbabwe churches with whom we partner that assists grandparents caring for grandchildren orphaned mostly by AIDS. Material help with seeds, chickens, goats, consumables and education fees are provided, along with pastoral support.

When one gogo (grandmother) was asked what else she needed, she replied, “The ability to keep praising God!” Her family had been particularly harshly ravaged by illness, failed crops and sheer misfortune. In her wisdom, she perceived a capacity to be positively oriented to the world through her faith to be a true gift.

On the fourth day of Christmas may our gift be that given by this woman – the understanding of a need for a  capacity to praise God for his persistent involvement in our lives, not in ways that are always discernable to us, but emphatically underlined by God’s “riding with us” in Jesus of Nazareth and all who follow his path. Use Psalm 148 for practice!

Melons, chickens & goats

20 Monday Oct 2014

Posted by wonderingpilgrim in Africa

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Zimbabwe

WP_001849Thinking today of a young lady I met in the back blocks of Zimbabwe. She’s 17 years old, orphaned and living with her grandmother. Her industry is inspiring – she grows melons and tends her flock of six goats (started with one). The two chickens given her two years ago have grown to a flock of many. Attending to all this takes place in her leisure hours after a school week of walking 20 kilometers twice a day over rough bush tracks. A church backed sponsorship helps ease the strain on this small farming family, but the spirited determination of this young lady spells hope and possibility for the rural communities of this area.

Wilderness Community Garden

17 Friday Oct 2014

Posted by wonderingpilgrim in Africa

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Zimbabwe

WP_001799

Whilst bashing about the parched back-blocks of rural Zimbabwe, we came across a large fenced off area above a slow flowing river – the district community garden supplementing hamlets and farmsteads for many kilometers around. Known locally as a “garden of Eden,” the plots of a variety of vegetables, including spinach and kale, were surprisingly healthy and robust. Water is carted by bucket from the river to irrigate and water each plot. Our guides tended their plots while we were there, gathering what was needed for their next few day’s meals.

Out of Zimbabwe

12 Sunday Oct 2014

Posted by wonderingpilgrim in Africa, Ministry, Personal, travel

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aid, mission, Zimbabwe

It’s now a few days since completing a three week stint working with Churches of Christ in Zimbabwe as part of a volunteer team from Australia and New Zealand. The dust has started to settle, the Africa in our veins is distilling to something quieter and more reflective. The next few posts will describe some experiences and tell some stories from the perspective of one who has only roamed from these safe Australian shores once or twice before. I’m not a born traveller and tend to be somewhat cautious and overly vigilant. The up-side is that I then observe and catch nuances, sounds and sights that a more casual sojourner might miss.

The team with host B J Mpofu

The team with host B J Mpofu


There were nine of us altogether, including a family of four. We were to be split into two groups, one team to be based at Khayelihle Children’s Village, a facility for some 120 children orphaned by the severe AIDS epidemic that has swept much of Africa. The second team (mine) would work out of the rural farming and mining centre of Zvishavane – ministering with a selection of 130 churches in the district, visiting extended families that are assisted by the churches in caring for AIDS orphans, and inspecting some of the 120 bores already sunk to ease access to water.

Apart from these broad objectives, agendas were necessarily open. We were there not to impose our will or advice but to respond to what our hosting church communities required of us. Flexibility and the capacity to adjust to the demands of the occasion quickly became hallmarks of our time together. At the same time, hospitality was open and generous. After eight days of solid work by both teams, we came together for some welcome R & R. The combined team visited three wildlife reserves and the famous Victoria Falls before returning to Bulawayo. Some final mopping up at the children’s village completed our work.

With that broad introduction, we have a base for the stories that follow, mostly from the rural ministries perspective because that’s where yours truly was involved.

For a day by day “flow of consciousness” description of team life at Khayelihle Children’s Village, see the Williams family blog.

 

Facing the Future in Zimbabwe

18 Sunday Apr 2010

Posted by wonderingpilgrim in Personal

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Zimbabwe

Antony Dandato with Denis Ladbrook & Ken Patterson

The hope for Zimbabwe lies in its future leadership, well-educated and founded on the trust that is realised in the gift of the gospel of Christ. So claims Antony Dandato, representing the  Fellowship of Christian Unions in Zimbabwe (FOCUS) speaking at the Church of Christ Wembley Downs during an extended visit to Perth. The goal of FOCUS is to unite and equip tertiary students from a variety of campuses and Christian traditions for leadership in their various fields  in the hope that Zimbabwe social and economic life has seen its worst days and is ready for fresh beginnings. From the sound basis of values and consideration for others based on the good news of Christ, Antony believes that Zimbabwe and many other African nations can build a solid future.

Antony fielded a Q & A session with the congregation, highlighting the value of longterm leadership preparation as the most effective strategy for rebuilding his country.  The congregation would also know through previous visitors from Zimbabwe and the church’s support of the Khayelihle Children’s Village that this view is widely shared amongst Zimbabwe Christian leaders.

Antony is keen to share news of  how Christian students on university campuses in his country can combine their efforts in contributing to Zimbabwe’s future.

-31.911079 115.772731

Breakfast with BJ

15 Sunday Mar 2009

Posted by wonderingpilgrim in churches of christ, Stone-Campbell

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Africa, Christian Church, churches of christ, Disciples of Christ, Great Communion. Restoration Movement, mission, Stone-Campbell, Zimbabwe

gmp-breakfast

Part of the Saturday morning crowd with BJ and Chipo Mpofu (right)

 

Folk from over half a dozen Perth western suburbs churches gathered for an early Saturday morning breakfast with BJ & Chipo Mpofu.

Under his role as President of World Convention of Churches of Christ, BJ opened the proceedings with a celebration of the Lord’s Supper, a reflection of the anticipated Great Communion event on 4th October commemorating 200 years of the Stone Campbell movement around the world.

Later, BJ addressed the gathering, thanking them for their support of aid projects in Zimbabwe, where he and Chipo play an important role in leading and encouraging churches through ministry training and community development, including the negotiation and distribution of emergency aid.great-communion3

Access to clean water has played a crucial role in protection from cholera, particularly in rural communities, BJ said. One had the impression that, while media reports from Zimbabwe highlight real and desperate problems, there is a positive will and strength within the churches to improve living standards and rebuild sound community structures.

BJ and Chipo, under the sponsorship of Global Mission Partners, continue their busy itinerary in Australia and then in the USA over the next two months.

 

200 years

09 Monday Mar 2009

Posted by wonderingpilgrim in Africa, churches of christ, restoration movement, Stone-Campbell, Wembley Downs

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B J Mpofu, Christian Church, churches of christ, Disciples of Christ, Great Communion, restoration movement, Zimbabwe

Things are beginning to happen amongst the individual and diverse communities of what began to emerge 200 years ago as the Restoration Movement and ended up under a plethora of monikas covering most of the countries of the world – variously Churches of Christ, Disciples of Christ, the Christian Church, churches (small c) of Christ. This movement for Christian unity and church restoration has a chequered history, sometimes punching above its weight in its impact on the wider church scene, but often falling into the bitter divisiveness its origins abhorred. This is us warts and all!

This year sees calls from all streams of the movement to a rediscovery of our common roots and the passion evoked in the hope of a transformation of current vision. Study groups, web-sites and publications are beginning to appear – all with good stuff. It remains to be seen whether this anniversary will have any effect on our self-understanding as a whole. Will it pass like a summer storm with a bit of dampness but little lasting effect? Or will we see some drenching, saturating rains that will bring fresh, verdant growth and a fecundity of wisdom and understanding to contribute to the wider church and the world at large?

What might be possible in this year of  The Great Communion?

Looks like the South Australians are kicking things off with a series of provocative essays.

On Saturday, we host a breakfast attended by B J Mpofu, Zimbabwe Churches of Christ leader and President of World Convention of Churches of Christ. Responses from a few churches are starting to come in.   Maybe a cloud, the size of a man’s hand, is beginning to form on the horizon.

Bonhoeffer, Zimbabwe and the Prodigal Son

19 Monday Mar 2007

Posted by wonderingpilgrim in mission, Spirituality, theology

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Bonhoeffer, Prodiogal Son, Spirituality, theology, Wembley Downs, Zimbabwe

In recent times I have often used the illustration of a rope with its many strands to urge the contemplation of how the seemingly unrelated issues with which we wrestle can provide a unifying strength. This last week has seen me attempting to come to grips with Bonhoeffer’s approach to ethics, a challenge to participate in a meaningful way to the crisis in Zimbabwe, and the Parable of the Lost Son (Luke 15). I also attended a Dayspring workshop with Steve Wirth on Contemplative Dialogue, possibly a promising tool in the context of the three seemingly disparate strands of the rope I was attempting to plait! Why these particular strands?

  • Dietrich Bonhoeffer – I am conducting a study series for two congregations based on his life and thought in relation to Hitler and the Third Reich. A grassroots approach to discipleship and ethics saw him involved in a failed plot to overthrow the regime. He was arrested, imprisoned and finally executed. During this time he continued to write. His thought and commitment is relevant to issues before us as church and nation today.
  • Zimbabwe – we have affective bonds within my congregation with the people of this nation – we are involved with the housing and education of AIDS orphans, a farming project and water bores. In the light of the escalation of officially sanctioned violence over the last week, people are asking what more they can do. The Bonhoeffer studies are heightening such questions,
  • The Parable of the Lost Son was in yesterday’s lectionary. The sermon had to somehow address the unusual “ethics” within this story. The fresh discovery that the story makes no sense at all from an ethical point of view was somewhat liberating for those of us caught on the barbed wire fence of the ethical system suggested by Bonhoeffer. We came to an understanding of another awareness central to Bonhoeffer’s thinking – that of grace. Grace that is costly to both the giver and the receiver. The critical elder brother, self-expelled into the outer darkness because he couldn’t bare the celebrations, also experienced the offer of grace. The father came out from the party to be with him in his self imposed misery, not to commiserate, but to gently entice him to the place where there was light, joy and the possibility of reconciliation with his brother. Whether the elder brother received grace is unknown. Did he eventually go into the celebrations?

What does all this look like when twined together? Not much that will give answers to the dilemmas of justice that confront contemporary living. We have to work things out the best way we can (that’s basically what Bonhoeffer was saying, pointing to love for neighbour and the modelling of Jesus as his guiding principles). What we are offered is a stance – the stance of grace.

The overwhelming message from church leaders in Zimbabwe with whom we have had contact is that of courageous grace. This is shown through forthrightness in their will to care compassionately for and encourage their people, often against breathtaking odds. They are working out of an ethic that is saturated with grace.

Maybe our most important task is to learn from them.

Well, well, well!

02 Sunday Jul 2006

Posted by wonderingpilgrim in churches of christ, mission

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churches of christ, mission, Wembley Downs, Zimbabwe

The challenge to the church was to raise $4000 to sink a well in the remote drought stricken hinterlands of Zimbabwe. Individuals and groups set about to devise their fund-raising schemes. Our resident artist devised a working model that would show week by week how far the bore had sunk towards the water table far beneath the surface. A week or two into the project, our treasurer phoned me,
“We have a problem – $4,200 has come in already.”
“Well, let’s go for a second well!”
“Agreed!”
So now we are going full bore to reach the target a second time.
Who knows? We may even end up saying,
“Well, well, well! Wot ‘ave we ‘ere? Three of ‘em!” Posted by Picasa

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