Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. A land of contrasts. Beautiful, purple jacaranda trees lining the streets. Intense economic turmoil. Open, friendly, and beautiful people. Desperate cries for help and change. Colorful, bustling vegetable markets. Rampant protein malnutrition. Smart, educated, brilliant minds. A city with an 85-90% unemployment rate.
Serving here in Zimbabwe has been beautiful. We have been involved in a variety of ministries so far and we’ve been loving it. We are working alongside Bulawayo Baptist Church/Fruitful Harvest Ministries here in Bulawayo, Zim. The pastor, Jeff, and his wife, Tammy, are long-term missionaries and are changing lives here every day.
We happened to begin our time here during what is called The Bulawayo for Jesus Mission week, which was awesome. During this week, churches from around the area came together for a large evangelistic movement. We played part in children’s programs, outreach to elderly, youth, university students, as well as street evangelism in the markets around Bulawayo. We had the opportunity to pray with people, share testimonies, and saw the salvation of many kids and youth.
On a more routine basis, Tammy is in charge of a large ministry with her 3,000 chickens. Yes. 3,000 chickens. She has a farm outside of the town and every week sells eggs for the profit of the Harvest Orphanage, as well as for other forms of community outreach within the church. But, that is only one small piece. Protein malnutrition is a huge issue here in children. Especially now with the intense economic issues they are having as a country. Everyone is struggling here. Life is hard. Food is so expensive. As a means to help, Tammy hard boils 9,000 eggs a week and has partnerships with local orphanages and impoverished schools here that are struggling and she donates an “egg a day” for each child. So neat. An egg may seem small, but in a 5 day school week that is approximately 30+ grams of protein they wouldn’t of consumed otherwise. Our team has taken over the intense boiling process two days a week to give Tammy some much needed time off. The care of long-term missionaries on the field is so important. We are so glad to give her and Jeff some time off together.
In addition, every Friday we go out to a squatter village outside of town for the afternoon and put on a program for the approximately 100 kids that live out there. If everyone wasn’t already struggling here in Zim, these families have it far more difficult. There are a few kids that come each week that have obvious signs of malnutrition. We play games, sing kids worship with dances and hand movements, have a Bible story time, and at the end each kid gets a hardboiled egg. It’d be easy to give out sweets, but what they need is the protein and fats in the eggs and most kids are devouring them before we leave. This past week was extra sweet because we were also able to give out maize meal to each kid as well and extras to all the mama’s who stand around and watch the program as well. I visited with them for a while this past week and one mama was just a month postpartum and another was 9 months pregnant, due any day, so I was really thankful we were able to give them extra food as well. I also prayed over *Grace* for her delivery in the coming weeks. If you can, pray for safety and health for her and her baby.
We have had many other ministry opportunities as well this month and have so enjoyed soaking up the people, culture, and sweetness of Jesus here. We spent a few days at Isaiah’s Baby home, The Sandra Jones Center (an orphanage of abused girls), and serving at the soup kitchen at the church. Many have their only meal of the day there 2x a week, as well as the boys on the team have been playing soccer with a sweet group of boys that live on the streets here on Tuesdays and Fridays.
We wrap up our time here this week and head to Zambia on Saturday. Wow. Austin and I were super thankful to take a “married day” this past Saturday and spent the day hiking in Matopos National Park and stayed overnight in and AirBnB here in town. Matopos is a world heritage site as it land and rugged rocky terrain is full of caves decorated with elaborate painting 4-6,000 years old. They were amazing to see! We will be apart this next month for what they call “Manistry”. All the guys on our squad will be together in the “bush”. A month apart is a long time, but we are so excited to see the fruit that comes from intentional time building deeper relationships with the other guys and girls on the squad. Be praying for us as we navigate this month apart and for Zimbabwe as the country is in desperate need of reform and positive economic change.
Next blog will come to you from somewhere in Zambia!
Love,
Austin and Ally
