Partnership in Zimbabwe: A U.S. Perspective | Lausanne World Pulse Archives

Jesus & the Messengers
Jesus declared, “The Kingdom of God has come near!”

That God has rescued humanity in and through his Son, Jesus, is the most extraordinary, life-impacting, life-transforming, life-giving news the world has ever known. Reading from Isaiah, Jesus proclaimed God’s kingdom as “good news to the poor,” “freedom for the prisoners,” “recovery of sight for the blind,” “release for the oppressed,” and the “year of the Lord’s favor.”

And even though Jesus was God on earth, he did not bring this news to the world on his own. He ushered in the Kingdom of God in partnership with others, by calling a band of disciples to accompany him in his ministry of word and deed, and then sending them to share the gospel with the world—two by two, in groups, and as a community.

This power of partnership was never more visible to me and our small team from the U.S. than it was during the Mission Africa outreach to Chitungwiza, Zimbabwe, in September 2010.

In connection and collaboration with Cape Town 2010, Mission Africa asked twenty-one international evangelists to engage in missions in various African countries in partnership with local African evangelists. I was paired with African Enterprise evangelist Orpheus Hove.

Our team of four (including Barclay Nelson, a young Presbyterian businessman from Dallas; Mary Ann Sherman, an Anglican woman in her 60s from Texas; and Jodie Collins, a young, non-denominational evangelist from England) began communicating with Orpheus via email beforehand.

Before we arrived, much groundwork had been laid in terms of organization and prayer. Orpheus and his team gathered forty churches from various denominations for the first ecumenical mission in Chitungwiza. The pastors and lay leaders prayed together and were equipped staff from the Navigators to run introductory Bible studies for those who would be committing their lives to Christ.

Before the mission started, the pastors gave testified to the power of meeting together: gathering Christians from various denominations tills the soil for an incredible harvest to come.

And our team in the U.S. began to meet and pray together as well. We already felt deeply connected to Orpheus and the forty churches of Chitungwiza before we met face to face.

God in Community in Zimbabwe After a two-day journey, our team arrived in Harare, Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe has been through great trials in recent years with the suppressive (and at times brutal) government of President Mugabe. We never stopped at traffic lights due to the risk of being “car jumped.” During a recent food shortage some people were reduced to eating cow dung. In the midst of this environment our team found some of the most joyous, light-bearing Christians we had ever encountered.