From Gweru...

Sat: Such a blessing to use the real Internet today! And I was even more blessed by all the encouraging words awaiting me there! It’s not that I’ve really been struggling…I mean everyone is wonderfully accommodating, welcoming, helpful…but they often don’t realize some of my internal struggles. Nothing that I direly need to discuss with anyone…and I don’t know that I could put all of it into words…but those things make me appreciate your words and actions more.

So I was asked to share greetings on behalf of JourneyPartners at the Baptist Congress today. It went something like this: Manheru (Evening…a greeting) Ndinonzi Anna (My name is…) I am Anna Clements from North Carolina in the United States. I came to Zimbabwe through Journey Partners and Bonnie Dixon. She sends greetings. I also give you greetings from Pullen (the church that helped with the water tank) and Ginter Park (the church that helped at Zororo Primary School). I also bring greetings from Carson-Newman College, a Baptist college in Tennesse, in the United States. I graduated from there this past May with a degree in Biology. I am planning to attend medical school and pursue a career in medical missions. Currently I am serving and learning at Sanyati Baptist Hospital in Sanyati. I have been there for nearly a month, and, yes, I am eating lots of sadza with my maokos (literally arms, also hands) and practicing my Shona every day. God is teaching me so much through my work with the patients and staff at the hospital, in addition to what I am learning straight from His word. I plan to return home in December. After that, I plan to continue working with JourneyPartners, especially with establishing a relationship between JourneyPartners and a service learning program (Bonner Scholars) at Carson-Newman. I participated in this program while at Carson-Newman, and God taught me tremendous lessons from my serving people in a suffering world. I hope that I can help further the relationship being built between these two entities that have been so influential in my own life. Thank you for allowing me to be with you this weekend. Ma ita basa (Thank you). And I also want to remind you that there are many JourneyPartners and others praying for you during these difficult days.

During the conference time, I also worked out a devotion to share with the hospital when I return (I couldn’t understand all the Shona, so I decided to use my time wisely :). It will be something like this:
Ndinogaita zose naiye unondipa simba///I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength. (Phil 4:13)
This is one of my favorite verses, in fact, I think it’s a pretty popular favorite verse. I hope that I can use this verse to be an encouragement to you this morning. I realize, although I haven’t lived them quite like you have, the difficulties in your lives these days. I think sometimes, though, we question God. Now, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with questioning God. He invites us to fellowship with Him in fact, and part of having a real, honest fellowship with Him is the freedom to question, but in this questioning, we mustn’t forget that He is the Almighty, the All Powerful, and the Loving God. Remember Abraham questioning God concerning Sodom? Genesis 18:16-33. Let’s re-read 23-26 and 32. Abraham’s questions were quite bold – but he knew that OUR God is a righteous judge and He wouldn’t punish the innocent with the wicked. As I said, questioning in itself isn’t the problem, but when we become obsessed with questioning and demanding answers from God, it is easy to forget to pray for our sustaining strength from our heavenly father and then we don’t receive the blessings of His promises. BUT I want to be clear here, by the blessings of His promises I do not refer to the accumulation of great material things in this life—they should never be our focus. Remember Titus 2:11-14 and especially 1 John 2:15-16. Let’s go back to where we started in Philippians. I’m pretty sure in Philippians 4:13 Paul wasn’t referring to all worldly things, but, instead, those things God calls us to, and thus we are assured He will lead us through. I also want to point out that Paul suffered hunger. Read Philippians 4:11-13. One of the greatest missionaries and men of God ever…yet, God allowed Him to be jailed and hungry. I know everyone here can relate to nzara (hunger), so let’s review again what Paul said in Philippians 4:11-13. I encourage you today to live through His strength and not your own, in this way, for when we are weak, we are strong in His strength, as Paul reminds us in 1 Corinthians 12:9-12. I’ll also remind people of Romans 8:26-27; the gravity of the situation here is so overwhelming, I struggle with how and what to pray…so those verses have been very encouraging to me.

So I’ve been in Gweru a couple days now, basically relaxing and making use of the Internet. I am also learning about the lives of the Mapongas, the family that I am staying with. Their passion for helping the children at the orphanage in Masembura is inspiring and heartbreaking. It’s so hard to do anything for anyone here right now…so there are many frustrations, but their commitment and dedication is the inspiring part. I think I will get to visit Masembura in the upcoming weeks, and I’m very excited about meeting the kids there and being able to minister to them.
When there has been power in Gweru, I have been helping out at the camp with preparations for a big women’s meeting. There are nearly 1000 women coming, and there are not nearly enough beds for that…so they said many of them will be sleeping on the floor, but that’s normal for some of them who still live in the villages.
Yesterday I left the camp area around lunch time to return to the Mapongas home. There was no power when I left the camp, and someone told me it was because a small animal died on the line, so we had to wait for the ZESA folks to fix it. It only took about a day…which was rather surprising to me. I just hope the phone line will be back soon so I can finish my e-mails, etc. before leaving Gweru.

Today I went to Zororo Primary School…I thought I was going to visit and walk around, but boy was I wrong! The headmaster said I could say something to the WHOLE school and then in EACH class!!! Ahhh….I was nervous, but they kept telling me just to be very free and to act as I would at home…I hate talking in front of people and I don’t randomly go to schools at home to talk or share or anything! During the walk to the school this morning, I started to worry that I would be asked to really speak, so I started praying and thinking. Several thoughts collided during the walk: I was trying to think of scriptures to encourage students…the first one that came to me was Proverbs 3:5-6; a few weeks ago during devotions, Dr. Chikonzo focused on God’s call to Abraham to sacrifice Isaac; this week I’ve been talking to the Mapongas about things to do with the kids in Masembura…which had me thinking about the song/dance “Father Abraham”; there were a few other thoughts in there, but that’s the gist of it… So it just made since to use those! God really provided…because I sure wasn’t prepared for any of that, and it all fit together so perfectly! It even fit with me leaving home for Zimbabwe (Abraham leaving his home) and things not making sense in our eyes (Proverbs).

I was truly, truly blessed by some of the students that wanted to share things with me after I was finished. Several groups wanted to sing together and one girl sang a song “Somebody, Somewhere.” I don’t remember hearing that song before, but it was very powerful! It talked about people around the world praying for each other and even when all these terrible things are happening, someone is praying, and God is listening to those prayers. It literally gave me chills in the heat of Zimbabwe! To hear her beautiful voice, singing of the faithfulness of Christians around the world, and the faithfulness of our God, especially with so many problems going on around her...

I was disappointed to discover that the 1st and 2nd grade students left before I got to them! I was having so much fun, and felt like God was really using me to bless these kids! The 1st and 2nd graders leave at 12, while the others are dismissed around 1. It was nearly one when I finally reached the 3rd graders, so I thought that after lunch I could come back to the last two, but they don’t go back after lunch AND they were already gone!

I walked back to the kids dorms with them and then down to the conference center, and finally back to the Maponga’s home. I was so tired after all the singing, dancing, and walking on the rough paths! Now, I’m just relaxing at the Maponga’s home.

Since I’ve been in Gweru, I’ve been reading a book called Your God is Too Safe…it’s been a good read, and challenging to me and my faith. Part of what it talks about is getting out of the borderland, the in-between, no-man’s land…I think going to that school today was part of stepping out of the borderland. It is only after we are vulnerable and open to being stretched, that God is really free to use us for all that He has planned. Even back to Abraham and Isaac’s plot: it’s after we lay our lives down that God can really use them. When I first arrived at the school, I was completely overwhelmed…I mean, I had a few ideas during the walk on the way, but talking to all of 240 kids as a group AND to each class? What in the world can I say or do? We have to lay our lives down…

Even after my brief address to the full crowd, I felt silly and ill-prepared, but after I started with the individual classes it seemed to flow, because I let go. We have to lay our lives down…