Welcome to Zimbabwe

A couple weeks ago I had the privilege to head back to the country north of the Limpopo where I was born and raised up until half way through my teenage years. This was the second time I was going “home” in the last 8 and a half years since the Phillips family traded in the working out of ever increasing prices for ever decreasing amounts of supplies for the more stable South African rand (purely a move made out of fear that our lack of simple mathematic skills would cost us dearly in the everyday routine of adding some more zeroes to the exchange rate).

But almost a decade on, my heart was filled with huge measures of excitement as the plane landed in Harare, with me an older skinnier twenty something year old carrying a new currency and a renewed love for the people and church of Zimbabwe.

The week long visit had two purposes. Number one on the agenda was to speak at a week long A.C.E (Christian education system) convention where hundreds of high school aged students along with their teachers and parents came together from all parts of the country to have their annual week of sporting, musical, dramatic and academic competition. My role was to preach each night at the evening rallies.

The second reason was to continue in building relationships with men like Rob Chifokoyo (pictured here) who runs a non-profit called Dare2Serve which we partnered with to run a conference that ministered to several hundred people in Harare last year and who is presently in the process of implementing our model of Swop Shop which has worked so successfully here.

I also spent some time with various people from an incredible local church there called The Base who we are hoping to be linking and partnering with more and more into the future. The six months in between my first and second visit to this church has seen it move into their new building and almost double in congregation size. This local church is not merely surviving in the testing times they find themselves in, but absolutely thriving! They have decided to believe God and to trust Him for not just a safe, neat congregation and not even just their suburb or city. This is a church whose mission statement and heartbeat is “to be a gateway to the nations!” Any people who have set their hearts on a heavenly kingdom and are pursuing the width and breadth of the Call like they are will always catch my attention...and the favour of the Holy Spirit for that matter!

Check these links out, start praying and saving and join us later this year in Zimbabwe as we too aim to be a people who pursue the nations, the broken and the lost (your and my inheritance) with people of similar hearts! I believe our future lies with people like these...and this is just the beginning!

Dare2Serve: http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Dare2Serve/234595256603066

The Base Church: http://www.facebook.com/#!/TheBaseChurch

Recycle Swop Shop

Below is a guest blog by Ang Benjafield, wife to gavin, mom to Caleb and Judah. Check out all that she is talking about below by checking out the Recycle Swop Shop's facebook page...but only after you've read the blog!

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Recycle-Swop-Shop-Cape-Town/274245865920062

"I went to Recycle Swop Shop this morning to take photos for our social media campaign. I’m not one of the regular volunteers. But standing there, snapping away at faces, seeing the huge need and people living with great lack, it was impossible not to roll up my sleeves and get my hands dirty.

I helped a lady from the community of DuNoon hand out soup to the mothers and kids who were there. Ladies who bring recycling are given tokens after their bags have been weighed, and one of the tokens is a food token. With a food token, they are able to ‘pay for’ a cup of soup and a bread-roll. It’s not an ideal system; where hungry moms and kids queue without being able to eat until their bags are weighed. But it’s a system that works.

While serving soup, my heart broke. I became acutely aware of the overwhelming need in this community. Even with all our efforts and the enormous impact that Swop Shop is making… it’s not enough. Children cry with hunger, and moms share cups of soup and one bread-roll between several little ones. I must admit; I turned a blind eye when the odd bread-roll or cup of soup went, without a food token, to some of the frail-looking, horribly thin moms with babies on their backs.

But what I cannot get my head around, what has stayed with me all morning, is the fact that these people aren’t ‘somewhere in Africa’. They are here, 5km away from leafy suburbia. Is it possible that people living so nearby can be so ignorant of the need that exists just over-the-bridge? I know it is. I am one of them…

We must be able to do more. In our community of Tableview there are businesses; and families who can get involved. There are so many churches in this area, and why does the church exist, if it is not to love? To show compassion, and kindness. Jesus even said that it is true love when we love those who cannot repay us. There is a whole community in need of love, and education and help, and they are right here. Only ten minutes away.

It just takes a little, from many, to cause a lot of change. Many need to get involved. Many need to help, if we are to see the lasting impact of love in this community.
And while we wait for the help of many, still doing all we can: we hope. Hope that our efforts will create awareness. And that awareness will spark compassion. And that compassion will lead to action."
-Ang Benjafield