Zimbabwe - a caring response

I recently returned from Zimbabwe where the Newfrontiers churches are endeavouring to play their part in helping alleviate the effects of the crisis that has racked that nation over the last decade.

Towards the end of 2008 the population faced particular hardship as a combination of severe food shortage and an outbreak of cholera rendered life almost intolerable, particularly for those caught in severe poverty. The Z$, which at one stage necessitated the printing of 100-trillion dollar notes (and that was after 13 zeros had been removed!) became worthless and a process of ‘dollarization’ took place to adopt the US$ as the workable currency. But that impacted the poor to an even greater extent – at least when the Z$ existed they had pieces of paper to exchange. Now these were totally worthless and insufficient US$ bills were available. So this process drove people into even deeper poverty.

In an attempt to stand with our brothers and sisters in Zimbabwe an appeal was launched at Christmas across the Newfrontiers churches worldwide. We suggested that they might take an offering at a Christmas service. This resulted in amazing generosity from 14 nations!

The appeal had two purposes – to intervene in the immediate crisis and to build a sustainable solution for the long term.

Crisis Intervention
On my visit to monitor progress I had the privilege of visiting some of the farmers in the Doma district who had been given seed to plant while receiving instruction of how to ‘farm God’s way’. This technique, developed by Brian Oldreive, an elder of River of Life Church, Westgate, over the last ¼ century, typically yields a harvest at least 10 times as large as conventional rural farming methods. It was a joy to learn of those who not only had produced enough to feed their families but also had surplus to sell, allowing their children to go to school.

Before the harvest ripened there were about 3 months during which there was no food in many areas. To help alleviate this the Newfrontiers churches distributed 350 tonnes of cereal and highly nutritious food to keep about 14,000 people alive.

Treatment of Cholera was considered to require specialist medical personnel so our contribution to alleviating the potential on-going impact of that disease was to sink a bore hole in one community to produce clean water which is stored in large storage tanks with 25 taps.

Sustainability
What about sustainability? Agriculture is one major area in which God has given our churches great favour. So, building on this valuable blessing to many communities there are plans to develop other programmes based on existing activities. By addressing Education (curriculum development, pre-schools etc), Health (particularly HIV support and herbal treatments) and Family Life, they will be replacing activities which have been severely hit in the crisis. Particularly, many highly qualified people have left the country resulting in schools being closed, health provision being very sparse and family life being shattered.

The compassion and love demonstrated by the gospel are the vehicles through which communities can be reached. Accordingly there is a major initiative to start new churches as the primary vehicle for sustainability. These require leaders and the appointment of elders, and so an enlarged leadership training programme has been launched.

Through these churches the above programmes are being implemented. This often begins with the development of several hectares of land to help people become self sufficient for food.

The Kingdom of God is the only government that can ultimately work effectively - that was His plan! It was a privilege to be involved with the Newfrontiers churches and their leaders who are so buoyant in faith and expectation that they can help create a Godly response to the crisis that has occurred in recent years. May God continue to grant them grace, and favour with the authorities and communities which they are seeking to help.

Tweet This