Zimbabwe was our 5th country on the race and while my team was there, the rest of the squad was in Mozambique. We worked with a branch of the Heidi Baker Ministries with a family in the capitol city of Harare.
When we were in Zim, we had the opportunity to stay for one night at the 2nd largest private game park in all of Africa. I’d never been on any type of safari or to any game park and so I was pretty excited about it.
One of the first things that happened when we arrived was I stampeded a herd of wildebeest and to be truthful, I was slightly freaked out by it. It was dark and I heard them running, but for some reason, the running sounded like it was getting closer and so I thought they were running at me instead of away from me. I’m here today, so they didn’t get me 🙂
The place we were staying at for the night was called the Serenity lodge and it had 2 massive suites, 2 bedrooms, a full-sized kitchen, and a living room with a stone fireplace and reclining chairs. After 4 months on the race, this was luxury beyond luxury and I enjoyed it very much!
The next day, I woke up to see the sunrise, and have some quiet time. It was taking me awhile to realize that this was my life; that I was really there and that God had truly blessed me. I couldn’t believe that I was actually in a game park in the middle of Africa. I still have to tell myself that over and over to believe it. And that summarizes the best part of Zimbabwe.
The worst part of Zimbabwe came when our contact told us that the government was working its way through a village right outside of Harare, taking people’s land if it looked unused and either selling it for very cheap or giving it to others to ensure they would receive their vote when election time came.
Team Monarch’s role was to clear the field of the pastor and wife in this village. We had worked with the pastor and his wife for several days already in Zimbabwe and we knew them to be good people. So we were happy to spend the day cutting down bushes, clearing dead corn stalks, and putting it all in piles.
Unfortunately, when we showed up the next day, we found out that the government had taken the land anyway. All that work for nothing and now the pastor and his wife had less to feed their family with. I watched as the pastor’s wife told us she was not alright and went and cried.
This infuriated me more than anything-That the government can just do that. This is an honest and hard-working family and they deserved so much more and now it was going to be more of a struggle to provide. It wasn’t just a hard day for that woman and her family-it was a hard day for me as well.
