Zimbabwe: Reflections by Peter

At the MCC Regional Retreat recently, we were privileged to hear from and get to know some people working and living in Zimbabwe. Some of you will know that Zimbabwe continues to be in very difficult straits as a nation. Others of you will be surprised due to lack of news coverage by the Western/Northern media. After all, much of what we in the West/North have learned to call news is essentially the highlighting of crises. And, if Zimbabwe’s economic free fall and dictatorial government cannot be reported in the short and sweet crisis format, then it moves out of the newsworthy category.

Anyway, back to the Retreat. Ray Motsi was our speaker. He is a long-time pastor in Zimbabwe and has significant leadership in a group called ‘Christian Alliance’. This is a coalition of churches in Zimbabwe who are working to speak prophetically to that government to bring about change. They are also working through the internet to provide ‘on-the-ground’ news of what is happening in Zimbabwe since Mugabe’s government has become tyrannical and controlling (e.g. controlling the media, using secret police and surveillance, arresting dissenters, etc). Ray has been arrested multiple times for his outspoken critique of Mugabe. His prophetic work with Zimbabwean churches seeks to awaken them to a role as critics for justice and truth. Churches that support the dominant order have missed the boat. But, likewise, churches that merely side with the opposition are also off course. Churches are at their best when their allegiance is firmly with Jesus and they engage society from the way of the cross.

He was accompanied by his wife, Angela, and the MCC team from Zimbabwe. These hearty souls include Marcellin and Esther (MCC reps for Zim) and MCC project administrator Nomsa and her husband, Godfrey. The Zimbabwe team did a short skit to demonstrate what life in Zimbabwe is like right now. One woman went around begging for some salt and cooking oil. Due to severe shortages and currency devaluation, she ends up buying enough to do a little cooking for that day by spending tens of thousands of Zim dollars. (Not too long ago, the Zim dollar was equivalent to the US dollar. Running a currency converter today indicates that 1 US dollar equals 30,000 Zim dollars. Can you imagine the mental shift necessary to remember paying, let’s say $5 for a bag of rice; now that same bag, if it can be found, costs $150,000?) The problem is not just the cost of things. Availability is also a huge factor. Store shelves are usually empty. Factories, if they are running, have skeleton crews and output is less than 20%. Those with enough means cross over to South Africa, Botswana and Zambia to buy essentials. Those without….

On our final evening, a Christmas program of carol-singing was peppered with testimonies of how God is at work and coming near to us—the ongoing advent, if you will. One of the Zimbabweans shared the kind of heart-wrenching stories that (at least) I can only imagine. She spoke of how people would come to her door begging for cooking oil. She only had a little left and she described the turmoil of weighing a friend/stranger’s need against her own need to provide food for her family. If she gave away what she had on hand, where would that leave her in a day or two? Yet, she testified, in every instance that she gave away what she had, God provided unexpectedly in some other ways. Inspiring and challenging.