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By God’s grace, our mission team to Zimbabwe has succeeded in delivering the Boxes With Love, food, Gospel booklets, Bible commentaries, evangelistic and discipleship materials and medical supplies to key contacts in Zimbabwe.
As we were packing and preparing for this mission trip, news came through that the borders to Zimbabwe were closed, amidst massive congestion and chaos at the borders. Numerous contacts informed us that we had to postpone the trip as the doors to Zimbabwe were firmly closed.
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Although Zimbabwe previously exported food, now approximately 7 million Zimbabweans are dependent on external food aid. 75% of Zimbabwe's population are now living below the poverty line. Out of originally 5 500 productive commercial farms, today less than 500 farms are in any way operational. So far the Zimbabwean government has targeted 6 897 farms, with a total area of almost 12 million hectares for what they term "resettlement".
The economy in Zimbabwe is one of the fastest shrinking in the world. Unemployment is officially over 70%. Inflation is running at 440%. Although on the official exchange 1 British Pound is equal to 814 Zimbabwean Dollars, on the Black-market it takes 14 000 Zimbabwe Dollars to buy 1 British Pound and approximately 20 000 Zimbabwe Dollars for 1 US Dollar. For decades the majority of church leaders have been preaching pacifism. Self – defense is regarded as vengeance. Every war is condemned. Peace is idolized – ‘peace, peace at any price.’ Christian crusades who resisted Islamic invasions have been also condemned. Wars that led us to the freedoms we have are treated lightly. Reformers who led us to obtain liberty and the Bible in our languages are disregarded.
Our Lord Jesus Christ is said to have nothing to do with politics. This is heresy. During His time on earth Christ took an extreme political position. Jesus challenged the existing political and social order when He announced a new government, the Kingdom of God and declaring himself as the Head. Refusing to worship Caesar was high treason punishable by death. When the Laws of God conflicted with those of Caesar, Christ required His disciples to obey God. The Minister of Labour in Zimbabwe, Mr Paurina Mupariwa, has announced that his department is investigating persistent reports of rampant abuse of Zimbabwe workers by Chinese employers. Teams of investigators are visiting Chinese Mining and Construction companies to investigate the alleged abuses.
Exploitation and Abuse Labour officials report that workers have complained of physical abuse by Chinese managers, salaries far below the legal minimum, extended working hours far beyond the legal limits, and serious negligence over safety in the workplace and health issues. Chinese Colonialism
The Minister of Labour in Zimbabwe, Mr Paurina Mupariwa, has announced that his department is investigating persistent reports of rampant abuse of Zimbabwe workers by Chinese employers. Teams of investigators are visiting Chinese Mining and Construction companies to investigate the alleged abuses. Exploitation and Abuse Labour officials report that workers have complained of physical abuse by Chinese managers, salaries far below the legal minimum, extended working hours far beyond the legal limits, and serious negligence over safety in the workplace and health issues. Zimbabwe suddenly looks like it has been in a war. The shops are empty, there is little traffic and everyone is walking around in a daze. People stop me and ask what is going on? Well just remember Pol Pot. He came to power in Cambodia in the mid seventies, launched what they called the Khmer revolution and in a matter of months they reduced the capital city to a shell occupied by 25 000 people – down from two million.
In the process they had killed hundreds of thousands of skilled and experienced Cambodians, forced millions into the rural areas where they were required to undergo re-education and make a living from subsistence agriculture. It will take Cambodia millennia to recover after this rapacious and ideologically driven regime was removed from power by military intervention. The ZANU-PF government of Zimbabwe has turned on churches and pastors in a campaign to clamp down on prayers for justice.
Over the last months, various church prayer meetings have been dispersed by police. Government officials claimed that these prayer meetings had been “convened without (their) permission” and “in violation of the security laws.” Rev. Sony Chimbuya, of the Church of Christ in Masivingo, and a former senior official of the Zimbabwe Council of Churches, was summonsed by plain clothes police and interrogated as to why he was praying “anti-government prayers.” Mugabe’s murderous ZANU (PF) regime in Zimbabwe is being enriched by blood diamonds even as the longsuffering Zimbabwe people are suffering one of the worst economic melt downs in history.
National Suicide More than half of the total population of Zimbabwe have fled the country, which is inflicted with the highest unemployment and worst inflation world wide. Now, numerous credible reports have revealed how Mugabe has continued to stay in power despite the economic suicide of having destroyed the over 5,000 white commercial farms, which were once the major employer, main source of foreign exchange earnings and which had effectively fed the 10million population. The Marxist president of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe came to power over 21 years ago through a vicious terrorism campaign. Ever since then he has ensured that he stays in power through terrorism.
In the last few weeks the country’s only independent daily newspaper, The Daily News, has been firebombed; as has the printing company which prints the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) election campaign leaflets. Since the new security laws came into effect in mid January, 67 MDC political rallies have been cancelled by the police or broken up by ZANU-PF mobs. Three MDC Members of Parliament were shot at and beaten by soldiers. One is in a critical condition. The MDC reports that more than 90 of their supporters have been murdered. By God’s grace we have just received this report from a pastor in Zimbabwe:
"What a privilege it was for me to share today with the brave Christians arrested in Bulawayo over the weekend! There is no doubt in my mind: this is now a dreadful form of religious persecution. I travelled through to Bulawayo from our town of Gweru to visit the 11 Christians in jail. I asked the Lord to perform a miracle of His grace so that I would be given permission to speak with each one. As I sat in the fifth office I had been sent to, suddenly 10 of the believers were ushered into the same room! We hugged and laughed together. Some are personal friends, others were complete strangers to me, yet we were bound together in a sacred moment of shared joy. |
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"And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.
Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.” Matthew 28: 18-20
Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.” Matthew 28: 18-20
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Cape Town, South Africa |
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