Zimbabwe and Mozambique Report Part I 

Mozambique. How can I put into words what I experienced in Mozambique. I guess the best way is to tell you a story. But before I do that, please let me briefly share my heart joy. My relationship with Shara Lea Pradhan has become one of my great treasures. She looks like Jesus to me. The way she honored me, believed in me and connected me to so many. Thank you, Jesus, for beautiful Shara.

So one morning at 5 am I want out onto the sugary shores of the Indian Ocean that are just a few steps from the Arco Iris Center. God had invited me to drink in deeply the presence of His love as we walked together on the sand. The sun, even in winter, is full and bright at 5 in the morning. The azure sky and aquamarine waters washed over me, as I could feel God so near. As we communed in depths as deep as the sea, I noticed ten strong men pulling in a net. God told me to watch them. So I stopped and became engrossed in everything the fishermen were doing. Each one had their place and position. They worked together as one man. For over an hour the pulled yard after yard of rope onto the shore line. As the nets grew closer to shore and began to tighten up leaving about a 200 foot circle of net to be enclosed, two met put on snorkels and went out in the midst of net, slapping the water to push the fish forward. At one point the men actually invited me to take part. I pulled on the ropes for about 5 minutes before I decided just to watch. So I asked the men in my broken Portuguese if it would be a good catch. They assured me that it would. My anticipation grew as the net began to close and was just a few yards of the shoreline at this point. Part of what I saw did not make sense to me. The space in the net became smaller and smaller. All the efforts of these men looked as if they would result in an empty catch. Then one of the men brought a box the size of a milk crate. Before I knew it the net was emptied and the box was full just to the top, no more, no less.

Then God spoke to me and said, "They got what they expected. The level of their expectation was met in the level of their catch." And there was this clear impression upon me that my faith was similar to the box in front of me. I asked God to give me a hammer that I might smash my box.

Later that morning I read Luke 5 where the disciples were fishing all night without a catch before Jesus told them to go to the deep and cast their nets out. It was against the grain of fishing in the Sea of Galilee where you fish at night and in the shallows.

I shared what I had seen that morning with the students at Iris later that day. For them, God was calling them to soar and fly beyond what they knew. The night before, I had preached on coming to the table of God and feasting upon all that He daily lays out for us. There was brokenness and strongholds in the students that God wanted to release so they could receive all He had for them. What an honor to invite them to deeper things in God. And how exciting it was to be with God's choice servants Shara, Rebecca and Matteus Van der Steen.

So to bring home the little lesson God taught me…the day before I flew out to head over to Zimbabwe, I went into the bush with Heidi and a team. On the way, I rode with Heidi, her sister in law and another pastor. Every five or ten miles we would pass a village, and Heidi would point out and say "there is one of our churches". So it went for FOUR hours. It a matter of 6 years, Iris has planted 700 churches in each and every village in the province of Pemba. God spoke to me and said, "this is what My expectation looks like!" My heart did, and does, want to respond with that kind of faith in all God has called me to.

I could continue and tell all about my trip there, of intimate time I was privileged to spend with Heidi, of people I met with concerning our growing work in Zimbabwe, of the pleasure and joy of speaking to the school students and praying for them, of new friendships and covenant relationships, of the refreshing and healing God brought to my soul. For hours I could go on, but I must still tell you about Zimbabwe.

Zimbabwe. Meaning: house of stones. My heart is broken and elated even in the writing of the name of Zimbabwe. As I landed in Zimbabwe, I had two angels with me named Justice and Mercy. I could sense the hopelessness from the moment I set down. The airport barely had electricity. The very first thing I did was go with the gentleman who picked me up from the airport and buy several 10 kg bags of mealy meal (ground corn), and then I dropped some of it with Vimbai, our leader, in Harare (the capital). Then I headed on a 3-hour drive to Mutare with new dear friends Benford and Abigail. We went through several checkpoints, and not once did we get stopped. The back of the little truck I was in was full of mealy meal that I had bought earlier that was headed for the 300 orphans and widows that we are helping care for in Rusape and Mutare. I had read of and heard of soldiers and police taking food or charging massive "taxes" on food stuff being taken from one place to another. White people are suspicion to anyone in authority, especially in the rural areas (of which we were heading). We made it through 5 roadblocks without being stopped once.

As we were driving that night, Benford told me of how his church, who is a partnering church in our ministry, had been trying to raise money to buy a piece of land. The church had been around for 28 years and was never able to win a bid to purchase land through a lottery system there. But now they had the opportunity, but did not have the means. He sheepishly asked me (remember that before 2000 Zimbabwe was among the wealthiest of African nations) if we could help. Immediately God spoke to me and told me to give half of the need. I was confused a little by this, but I obeyed, not knowing what God would do to make up the difference.

We arrived at about 9:30 pm to a house full of people who had been waiting for several hours to see me. One of them runs one of our partnership orphanages, and recently he had gained 175 more orphans and widows from the troubles occurring the countryside. He was the one I bought mealy meal for. He began to weep as we told him that we had mealy meal. He said, "where did you find mealy meal?" and said that the widows and orphans had had no food for three days. He was at the end of himself and did not know what he was going to do. I am so glad that I heard God and bought food where I could, not even knowing that this was not available anywhere.

The next day was the Lord's day. I preached that morning with Psalm 65 and Psalm 42 as my texts. How I struggled at first to bring some kind of salve to the wounded hearts. But God was faithful and met us there. His power was strong among us as we all were on our knees in response to the message He gave to us. As the service continued, there was an announcement made about the money given the day before. I was really embarrassed, but then Benford called everyone to give. There was a hesitancy and I was moved to give a little more. After that, heaven opened up over us and almost every member of the church gave all they had toward the purchase the land. By the end of this time, there was more that enough to buy the land. On Tuesday, Benford went and purchased the land and had the title deed

This land will now be used to plant food for orphans and widows, start job training for youths and a new church building will soon be erected (they have since raised another $1500 US, which is quite a miracle). We are partnering with this church to reach the least, the last and the lost.

Throughout my week in Mutare, I met with the women of the community, several of the area church leaders, with the pastors and leading congregants. I preached everyday wherever they wanted me. We prayed together, wept together and hoped together. God is surely in their midst and they are trusting in him in such a dear way. The only thing very challenging is outreaching and evangelizing. There is a real fear about going to new places and sharing the gospel. Even though Zimbabwe is known as Christian nation, there is much present and growing that is not so Christian. My heart was broken for the need of the people to know Jesus and I was broken in prayer asking Jesus to send out labourers into His harvest.

Two things that stand out from that week are these:

Going up into the mountains where my favorite African trees overlook the valley that is Mutare with it's 800,000 residence. Manuel, the Pastor son, and I rose before dawn and we went up into the mountains to pray. He knows the word of God better than any 21 year old I have ever known. It was a very cold cloudy morning, and the cloud cover was very thick. As the sun rose behind the clouds, we proclaimed Psalm 65 over the city. I saw the scared valley before me. It used to be lush with many trees. Now dead corn from falls failed crop covered ever acre, and nearly all the trees had been hacked to the ground. God gave me eyes to see what could be again! How beautiful Mutare will become as God moves throughout her people.

The second event involves my friends Abigail and Benford. They are very dear to my heart. They have a sixteen year old son, Walter, who has hydrocephalus. He has had trouble with his mind for a few years now, and even worse, he has had trouble with demons in his house. It was so bad that he could not live at home during the week, and had to live with the pastor's family. We went to their house, blessed their home pleading the blood of Jesus and anointing the four walls with oil. We prayed for their son and asked God to deliver him and protect him. Last I heard, he was able to stay at home without fear.

The living love these people demonstrated was truly like the book of Acts. They had nothing, but they gave even that away. The orphans and widows were looked after even when there was no food in the house of the people trying to look after them. So far, we counted over three hundred widows and orphans that we need to make sure eat, are clothed and taught the ways of God. Beyond this, we must see to it that people have access to job training, informal education, and Bible school (there are many young people who are called to full time ministry but there is no training available at the moment).

More to come in part two...my almost meeting with the President...

March 10, 2008