Articles
News From Zimbabwe And Tanzania
As we enjoy peaceful days, plenty of food, warm fellowship of family and friends, it would be good to pause and think of others not as fortunate. From a faithful preaching brother in Zimbabwe:
Martha was married to Richard Chidhakwa and was baptized last year and became a very active member of the Mkosa congregation. She died Oct. 17 in neighboring Mozambique, where the couple had gone, about 85 kilometers, in search of food. They failed to get any and ended up gold-panning. Both contracted illness, possibly from drinking contaminated water, and in no time Martha died. The husband had to ferry her at the back of the bicycle; 85 kilometers back into Zimbabwe by night.
This exacerbated the already ill condition of Richard. We buried Martha in the absence of Richard, who was hospitalized. She is survived by Richard and two sons; Fidelity and Sam, all members of the church. The family had virtually no food for the funeral occasion, and I personally provided most provisions to portray a semblance of dignity to the church of Christ. Richard is still very ill and the family sometimes goes for days without any food. The situation is frightening. Lives must be preserved and saved.
Then on Nov. 14, we lost Tafirenyika Mugabe who died of renal failure. He was the husband of Thokozan, the lady who heads Chapinduka Secondary School, where I teach, who lived in the same campus house with me. Tafirenyika was not a member of the church, but members of his whole family are. I lost a personal friend. Here was a man who on most occasions provided the good food items for all my U.S. visitors at his own expense. I was devastated when he suddenly died. I felt a moral and spiritual obligation to financially assist the family meeting funeral expenses.
Brethren, our cupboards are full; many of us have two refrigerators and perhaps a freezer; and if that doesn’t satisfy us, we can run to our favorite restaurant for a meal. It is hard to imagine riding a bicycle, with your wife aboard for 50 miles to search for food ... and find none ... and she dies in the process ... and you have to transport her body back home on the bicycle. Now what was it that you were complaining about?!
And concerning Tanzania, this from Allan McNabb:
You may remember my posts about the church in Tanzania. To my knowledge, the only congregation of the Lord's church in Tanzania is in Dar es Salaam. This congregation began when Justice Acco learned the truth by studying God's word. Because there are no Christians in the area, he showed a friend what the Bible says about salvation and then asked the friend to baptize him.
Since becoming a Christian about a year-and-a-half ago, Justice has taught several people who have been converted to Christ. As a matter of fact, a man was baptized into Christ yesterday. And just as a side note, I've been very impressed with Justice's commitment to the truth, and knowledge of the Scriptures, even with issues that plague the church today that escape many gospel preachers in Africa and other places.
At present, Justice and the brethren are working to register the congregation with the government, so faithful preachers can enter the country to preach. The price of submitting the application is $1,480.00, which is about a year’s wages. ... Justice and the brethren have not asked for help with this expense. But, because there are brethren in Zimbabwe who planned a preaching trip to help the church there, which had to be canceled because the church is not registered, I told Justice I would let brethren know about this opportunity in case any would like to help expedite the preaching in Tanzania. If you are interested in helping the church in Tanzania, I encourage you to write Justice at [email omitted] and learn more about him and the church.
If you are not able to financially help the church, I'm sure Justice would enjoy hearing from you and being encouraged by brethren in different parts of the world. You can imagine what it is like to possibly be the only Christians in a country, never having met other Christians face to face, other than those whom you taught, and then to get email from Christians all over the world. Indeed, you'll be encouraged by Justice and the brethren in Tanzania as much as they'll be encouraged by you.
Brethren, count your many blessings, name them one by one.
