Today was a very productive day. Alone made arrangements for our assignments and then departed our company and we were on our own, kind of. We started at we do every morning with a team meeting. This week has been my privileges to share a devotion and this morning was no exception. We have had a problem with the freezer in the mission house, it isn’t freezing. or more accurately, it doesn’t keep running. During the meeting, the electrician called and was trying to get into the house to check on it. So after them meeting and before I was to meet the high school chaplain who was taking me to the high school to speak to the students, Sherry and I ran home to play “Meet the Electrician.” He came and took the freezer away. Since I am only a guest resident, others will decided what to do as regards the repair of the unit.
Once that was done I was off to meet the chaplain. Zimbabwe, being a former British colony, has morning tea, at about 10:00. I have usually been on the road to somewhere or at home preparing, so I have missed the event most of the time. As I waited for Benjamin (the chaplain) I got to have my morning tea. Except, I had coffee (which is quite acceptable) and a couple of biscuits (cookies but biscuits sound better). Benjamin arrived as I finished and off to Chiredzi Christian College I headed. (It is a high school but who am I to correct them). I got an excellent tour of the place I had visited last time. I saw much more this time and it was impressive. Covid has been an issue here for the schools as well so only 300 of the 1500 students were actually there. My task was to encourage the students as many have become discouraged. I am not sure how I did on that level but I shared three of the four stories I did at the Village. The students seemed to remain engaged through the whole message. The place of meeting was under a tree and in front of a building providing shade. On the right the farthest students were 10 to 20 yards away, and on the left that far or more. I had to project my voice and was running out of voice when I returned to the office.
After I was done, several students came to talk to me. One was from a different church tradition and said she received two messages from God during my message. The first regarded our flight home. I needed to change it to a day later. She did not explain why, and I’m not. The second was that I was going to impact many people, she being one of them. I encouraged her to keep on studying and headed off by myself (no escort) to buy chicken at Chicken Inn.
After lunch we had a few hours before we were to meet up again with the chaplain and speak at his church in Chishamiso. We followed him from the office with the idea that we would find our way home after the service. And we could have made it but thankfully one of his elders lived in Chiredzi so we lead us back to town. It wasn’t far but it was very dark and streetlights are a rare think here. When we arrived we learned some history of the area, Hippo Valley, the church we were speaking at, and taken on a tour of sugar cane fields and the factory where it is processed. It is a very large operation and I was impressed. We returned to the church and it was time for Wednesday night services. We sang a couple of Shona hymns and I preached. After it was finished, a couple of ladies of the church came to get pictures with us. Then the ‘youth group’ showed up and the selfies started. It was pretty fun with lots of laughter and great kids. The elder and preacher asked us to come back and we will have to see.
When all was said and done we followed the elders back to town, found our house and settled in for a Cup of Noodles. Then catching up on email, messages, Facebook, the news, and a game I am working on. I wrote out my 1 John chapter and wrote this. Now it is time for bed. Tomorrow we have another road trip to a place called Dama (plus some more, the spelling of which I don’t have a clue) Good night and God bless.
