We've told you about the electricity problems the last several weeks. Since then, it's gotten worse. It has taken a week to get this blog out. Lately either the electricity is out or our WIFI isn't working. Thankfully it's working for the moment and praying I can send this before it goes out again. Instead of electricity only being off Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, Zimbabwe has now entered Phase 2 of electricity cuts. A friend was telling me that Phase 2 means that any and every day, it can be off from 4:30am to 10:30pm. I thought that sounded pretty extreme and so I asked him what Phase 3 would be. He said for Phase 3, they come to your house and turn off your generator and blow out your candles :-) Of course he was joking, but at this point, the only thing we can do is laugh. Thankfully it is wintertime (lows in mid 40's and highs in upper 70's) and we aren't having high heat when we would be wishing to run fans. Today is the first day in 6 days that we've had electricity (although it has been on from 10:30pm-4:30am as we were told), so I am taking advantage by (Lord willing) getting a blog out to you all. We were just about to go to bed when the WIFI and electricity were both working at the same time that I decided I couldn't wait until morning, I had to get it out now. Right now its 1:35am.
In recent weeks with no electricity, our morning routine begins by taking 2 liter bottles of ice out of the freezer and putting some in the refrigerator to keep it cool and putting one in a cooler with a few essentials of milk, ice coffee, yoghurt etc. We won't open the refrigerator or freezer again during the day unless we need something when it's time to make dinner in the evening. Then we boil a pot of water on the little gas cylinder for coffee and put the rest of the hot water in a thermos for later. Usually our first cup of coffee is hot because we are chilly when we get up, but after that, it's warm enough that we have ice coffee the rest of the day.
Tuesdays and Wednesdays can be tricky when making lunches for the groups. Thankfully, most Tuesdays there has been electricity. We usually serve a traditional Zimbabwean meal each week, but now that it's winter, we are making soup instead. They had soup for the first time last year with us and this week is the first time since then. We made chicken noodle soup and made it from scratch. There's no Campbell's soup in Zim :-) With our limited heat source of a small gas cylinder, it took multiple days to make. To cook the chicken, we boiled a whole one (one for each group), prepared the vegetables and spices, and made the broth from the water the chicken was boiled in. Making soup in 3 pots for 25 people is no small feat when all you have is one small gas burner.
Things are very tough for these women economically. When they were sharing praises at prayer time once, one said that she is thankful her family has enough food to have one meal EVERY single day and they don't have to skip days without food. When they are here for lunch, we serve as big portions as they'll take. When they were given their chicken noodle soup and they saw it for the first time, one woman said excitedly in Shona, "Look at how much chicken there is in the bowl! I can't believe so much meat!" We also served hamburger rolls, buttered on both sides. Another woman said, "Look, there's butter (margarine) on both sides! At home, we would only be able to butter one side and only very lightly." Out of all the things that are expensive, butter continues to be one of the most. We (Yolanda and I) never buy butter in Zimbabwe. It's just too expensive. We get it in South Africa. At the end of the meal, they decided that this soup was delicious. They were all excited and had a good laugh about the fact that they just shared in a new cultural experience of having this strange American food called chicken noodle soup!
Tuesdays and Wednesdays can be tricky when making lunches for the groups. Thankfully, most Tuesdays there has been electricity. We usually serve a traditional Zimbabwean meal each week, but now that it's winter, we are making soup instead. They had soup for the first time last year with us and this week is the first time since then. We made chicken noodle soup and made it from scratch. There's no Campbell's soup in Zim :-) With our limited heat source of a small gas cylinder, it took multiple days to make. To cook the chicken, we boiled a whole one (one for each group), prepared the vegetables and spices, and made the broth from the water the chicken was boiled in. Making soup in 3 pots for 25 people is no small feat when all you have is one small gas burner.
Things are very tough for these women economically. When they were sharing praises at prayer time once, one said that she is thankful her family has enough food to have one meal EVERY single day and they don't have to skip days without food. When they are here for lunch, we serve as big portions as they'll take. When they were given their chicken noodle soup and they saw it for the first time, one woman said excitedly in Shona, "Look at how much chicken there is in the bowl! I can't believe so much meat!" We also served hamburger rolls, buttered on both sides. Another woman said, "Look, there's butter (margarine) on both sides! At home, we would only be able to butter one side and only very lightly." Out of all the things that are expensive, butter continues to be one of the most. We (Yolanda and I) never buy butter in Zimbabwe. It's just too expensive. We get it in South Africa. At the end of the meal, they decided that this soup was delicious. They were all excited and had a good laugh about the fact that they just shared in a new cultural experience of having this strange American food called chicken noodle soup!
A couple weeks ago, the groups finished going through several of Paul's letters. So we took a day to watch "Paul, Apostle of Christ," which came out last year. It is a great portrayal showing the environment in Rome including persecution of Christians during Paul's life, Paul's time in prison, his interaction with Luke while Luke was writing Acts, and finally Paul's beheading and entrance into glory. For the women, it really brought Paul (or Pauro, as you would say in Shona) to life, this missionary and author whose letters they have been studying. And while life is really, really hard for these women in Zimbabwe, one huge thing they can be thankful for is the freedom to read their Bibles, pray together, and attend church without the threat of persecution. They do memory verses each week and we shared with them that there are Christians around the world being jailed (like Paul) and martyred (like the apostles) just because they choose to follow Jesus. An example we gave is one we heard from China where Christians memorize as much Scripture as possible in case they get taken to prison, they will have God's Word in their heads. So it's a really good idea for many reasons to memorize passages from the Bible.
We have been using our gas cylinder for cooking quite a bit recently. This is a picture of our supplier filling it up.
Mai Tsitsi (grandmother, left) holding Mai Dean's (new mother for the second time, right) new daughter. Both women are in the Wednesday group.
 Mai Maka |  Moleen |
Mai Choto
Albion Evangelical Free Church
Albion Evangelical Free Church is one of our supporting churches from Minneapolis and just had their Vacation Bible School this week. We were blessed to have them choose us as their missionaries for the week. We sent them videos to show the kids each day that shared about what JM2Z is, where we are, and who we minister to. The church wanted the kids to raise money for a project and we said that our building project would be perfect. We requested that their gifts be specifically for the cement. Cement is not the most exciting thing, but each bag will cost $8 and it's great for the kids to know that every time they bring in $8, that's one more bag of cement that they provided.
The kids' goal was to raise $500 (62 bags) and the church's mission board said they would send a matching gift, up to the $500 goal. As of today (with tomorrow being their final day) the kids raised the entire $500 goal, which meant the mission board matched it, and with a few extra gifts from generous families in the church the total amount the VBS raised was $1,700! This is enough for 212 bags of cement and the total we need for our building is 200 bags! Wow, praise the Lord!! What generosity from these children, mission board, and families! We couldn't be more thankful! Thank you, thank you, thank you to all who participated in giving!
In addition to all this, the children wrote us notes and made videos for us (which we just received via email). We want to say another huge thank you for these. You have no idea how much these things encourage us! To see the excitement in the kids' faces and smiles.
When we are sitting in the dark of the evening with only a few candles for light, and we're on the 18th hour without electricity and it's the 6th day in the row, and we would like to go to sleep, but know that we have to wait for the power to come back on so that we can let the pump fill our tank with water and manually shut it off so it doesn't overflow, and we get discouraged (which definitely happens), we can go to these notes (below) and read the elementary school penmanship of Logan who tells us, "Don't forget that even when your work gets hard don't forget that God loves you and is with you." Then we can read Addison's note where she says that she's praying for us. And many others.
Thank you to everyone at Albion who was a part of this VBS! Thank you for giving generously financially and generously in encouragement!
The kids' goal was to raise $500 (62 bags) and the church's mission board said they would send a matching gift, up to the $500 goal. As of today (with tomorrow being their final day) the kids raised the entire $500 goal, which meant the mission board matched it, and with a few extra gifts from generous families in the church the total amount the VBS raised was $1,700! This is enough for 212 bags of cement and the total we need for our building is 200 bags! Wow, praise the Lord!! What generosity from these children, mission board, and families! We couldn't be more thankful! Thank you, thank you, thank you to all who participated in giving!
In addition to all this, the children wrote us notes and made videos for us (which we just received via email). We want to say another huge thank you for these. You have no idea how much these things encourage us! To see the excitement in the kids' faces and smiles.
When we are sitting in the dark of the evening with only a few candles for light, and we're on the 18th hour without electricity and it's the 6th day in the row, and we would like to go to sleep, but know that we have to wait for the power to come back on so that we can let the pump fill our tank with water and manually shut it off so it doesn't overflow, and we get discouraged (which definitely happens), we can go to these notes (below) and read the elementary school penmanship of Logan who tells us, "Don't forget that even when your work gets hard don't forget that God loves you and is with you." Then we can read Addison's note where she says that she's praying for us. And many others.
Thank you to everyone at Albion who was a part of this VBS! Thank you for giving generously financially and generously in encouragement!
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They are holding "soccer balls" like kids in Zimbabwe make and play with; plastic bags rolled up with tape on the outside.
What precious faces!
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