Hi from Bulawayo, Zimbabwe!!!!
We finally arrived Wednesday evening after a very bumpy 6 hour bus ride. This month, we’re living in the guest house of the pastor of a local church. He and his wife moved here – from California – 8 years ago to begin serving the people of Bulawayo, permanently. We had absolutely no idea what to expect for our living situation this month and WOW WERE WE BLOWN AWAY!!! First off, Bulawayo is a million ways different than Namatama. Coming into this trip the only thing I knew/had heard about Zimbabwe was how corrupt their government currently is. With that, I did not expect to be living any sort of good condition. This month we were blessed with a whole house. Complete with couches, rugs… COUNTERTOPS!!!, and mattresses for each of us. It definitely feels a lot more like home here.
Even with the comforts of all of these things, we all immediately noticed the quietness of our neighborhood. Due to the crime in Zimbabwe, walls with glass or electric wires surrounding them separate everyone’s yards/houses. Coming from Namatama, where there’s constant noise and people surrounding our house, we are all struggling with adapting to this new silence with only our team as community.
Last month, we were constantly building relationships with others; playing with the neighbor kids, or walking around our neighborhood. This month, there’s barely anything within walking distance; we only have one mode of transportation, and most of our time is spent hanging out with our teammates playing cards or just talking. Even though I’m still struggling adapting to this new environment, I’ve been able to notice that God probably did this for a reason. Last month I was constantly busy and surrounded by so much noise and commotion that I forgot to just sit quietly and spend time with The Lord. I also focused a lot of my energy and time into building relationships with people in our community that I wasn’t as intentional in building strong relationships with my teammates. This month, I think God is calling me to be more intentional in my time with Him and in my time with my teammates.
While our neighborhood is quiet, our ministries this month are the exact opposite of that! We’re volunteering through Bulawayo Baptist Church this month and wow has it already been so good! This month we will be doing youth ministry, high school ministry, young adult ministry, soup kitchen ministry, bible studies at the vegetable and curio markets, and ministry at a squatter camp.
The only ministry we’ve done so far is Kalarni, the squatter camp, and I LOVED IT. The second we pulled up, kids surrounded the pick up truck and it reminded me of the day we arrived in Namatama. Then we proceeded to play sports with the kids, dance and sing worship songs, read a bible story and then hand each kid an egg. Side note: Tammy, one of our ministry hosts, has a ministry called An Egg a Day where she gives out hard boiled eggs in schools, squatter camps and pretty much any other place she visits. She owns thousands of chickens to keep this ministry going and we will eventually start sorting eggs to help out….. but anyways Kalarni was so so so fun. Soon after we left Kalarni we got the news that the government ordered them all off of that land, and that they had to pack up all their things and be gone by that Monday (3 days from when we were there.)
It hurts my heart to think that their make-shift homes have all be torn down and that they have to rebuild and start over again. We learned that they had to move .5 miles (maybe kilometers idk I get very confused) down the road and begin to rebuild their lives there. We’ve also been given the opportunity to distribute towels, sheets and wash clothes to each family. I’m so excited we’re still able to continue our ministry with these families.
Prayer Requests:
For the Kalarni families as they begin to rebuild
For me and my teammates as we adjust to this quietness
and for me to see a black mamba or cobra (they apparently live in our yard, but we have yet to see one):(
