We have fled Zimbabwe!

So after being robbed on Monday, during which our car keys were stolen and I was stabbed at while trying to get them back, we were forced to leave the country due to police pressure. The police began accusing us of 'working with the opposition' and since the elections are in January, political opposition in Zimbabwe has been beaten up, imprisoned or simply 'disappeared'. Tehy were also taking in people for interrogation. So it was time for us to leave.
Still God protected us during this time, and gave us an incredibly smooth flight as we ran for it, leaving quite a bit of our stuff behind. I just pray he protects the people we left behind. But we are safe in Johannesburg, South Africa, oxymoron though that sounds.

In Botswana

It's red dust and random animals everywhere. We've just run an exhausting conference, and had our day of rest yesterday round a campfire with smores.
People here are lovely, although I'm still undure how much some of them understand, but I think a lot of the time it's more than less.

Khutala's lunch and pics from the roof

this is the township from our roof at night.


The girls on the roof from left to right - Jenny, Kate, Sara & Lindsey. All but Lindsey are my roommates and all but Kate are American. I'll miss my room, we have great talks at night and none of them are on my outreach team.


This is Ren playing worship mustic on the roof. Jenny likes to pretend she's a Tsotsi (gangster) in the background. Actually I found a good word for her- Scoli (baby gangster).

So today we went to Khutala's house to have lunch with her family. Khutala is one of the Beautiful Gate staff and also my leader in the youth group. We had chicken, beef, potato salad, tuna pasta and bean salad. I was ridiculously full then we ate jelly and watched a Jet Li film that was incredibly gory. Then we chatted some more while watching the cricket and eating ice-cream...what hospitality!!! We stayed till 6 when then her Dad and another guy who was semi-drunk drove us home. This is Africa.

In two weeks we leave for our outreaches. For security's sake I can't write plainly and have removed all mention of where we are going from this site. We are learning to sing in the local language, do dramas, we preach on roles in the family, reconciliation and will teach on abuse, HIV/AIDS and suffering.

Last night we had a stations of the cross chalk chase which was actually quite moving for me. You started having your feet washed, then eating communion together then we went out one by one in silence. First you went into the field to listen to some music (Gethsemane). Then in through a obstacle course of accusations, then to a crown of thorns, whip and red cloth. Then they had to carry a cross from one point to another, which was actually really heavy and awkward. Then into the chapel where Lindsey had painted a picture and there was also a set-up of a cross, dice, cloth e.t.c Finally into a dark tent we made with curtains and mattresses (tomb). Finally we drew pictures. After all this we stayed up late eating peanut choc fudge and watching Hitch.

Clowning around

So today we had a giant kids party for the children of the clinic in the township as well as Beautiful Gate, and surprise, surprise, I was a clown. Well, a pirate clown.

There was a jumping castle which I did get to go on, a waterslide, which sadly I didn't make it on, face-painting, beading e.t.c Although my juggling and magic tricks didn't last for long (because I don't know that many), between Jenny and I we did end up making about 200 balloon animals, mostly dogs or hats and swords. I ended up holding Concilea, who is about 1.5 years old and she would cry if I put her down, so Jenny, my entertainment assistant, ended up doing a crash course in dogs, birds, hats and monkeys. Most interesting balloon request - a ninja!

Peter Hammond + Frontline Missions

Today we had Peter Hammond from 'Frontline Missions' come to speak to us. This is a mission agency he began that goes into warzones to evangelise to the soldiers and brings relief aid in. He was there in Monzabique during the communist reign, in Rwanda during the genocide, Angola during the war and now has been working among the persecuted Christians of Sudan for the last 15 years. There are a Christian tribe, the Nubians, who have been living in the mountains and holding out against the Arabs and Muslims for 14 centuries. Sudanese Christians are quite regularly bombed, landmined (most churchgoers on crutches) and killed by the majority muslims as well as starved of medicine, food and the bible by the UN occasionally.
Interestingly, because of the war on Iraq, Sudan has declared peace because it's afraid that it will be next targets by the US.
Anyway, a great answer to prayer is that his agency also happens to have a lot of resources in the native languages of Botswana and Zimbabwe like the Jesus film and discipleship books e.t.c so we go on Monday to pick them up and have lunch with his organisation.
While listening to him speak, I realised that I will probably work with unreached people groups and the persecuted church. There's so many people wanting to hear the gospel, they just need Christians willing to risk themselves to take it to them.

Evangelism through the arts

Oh this week looks like physical torture. Today Matt opened his big mouth and somehow volunteered me to be a solo dancer in one of the dances we are learning this week. I have to 'do my thing' for a 2 counts of 8, which doesn't sound like much but is torture by humiliation basically. Then we went ice-skating as part of our Zimbabwe team bonding and I pulled a muscle while trying to rescue everyone else in 'freeze-tag'.
Last week a group of us wrote a song because our study was 'Worship'.

Building Completed!

So on Saturday we rocked up bright and early to rebuild Mama Zola's roof. Soon neighbours of hers arrived and we pulled off the plastic sheet that had been waterproofing her roof and started ripping up the current rusted corrugated iron. There were about 10 people on the roof, which I would have said couldn't support even a child on it!

Then we sat around in true African style and discussed for over an hour about where the new timber should go! We had only collected enough money to buy timber to replace one half of the building so we had to make do with re-inforcing the other side with scraps.

That's Lindsey playing with the kids. the neighbourhood turned out to watch.

Amazingly the roof was nearly done by midday, so we had lunch all together in one of her neighbours house.

This is Kari on the roof siliconing it. She cut her thumb and bled all over it soon later.

This is everyone who worked on it, except for Andrea and Chiye who went home early. Mama Zola is in the middle and she is ecstatic.