Thursday, July 30, 2009

Mwapona Bienyi from Zimbabwe!

Mwapona Bienyi from Zimbabwe!
I'm sorry it's taken so long for me to post. Communications in and out of Zimbabwe are a little less than reliable ;-) But, I'll give all of y'all a quick update on what I've been up to for the past week and a half.

The flight here was...interesting to say the least. My first flight to D.C. was uneventful. I arrived and got ready for my flight out of the country (but not before taking the wrong shuttle several times and getting myself sufficiently lost only to find, in the end, that my next gate was directly next to the one I had just gotten off from ;-). I waited in line for my boarding pass for at least an hour, it gave me a good chance to get to know some of the people on my flight. I found that I was one of the very few Americans on this flight, and the only female American. I sat next to a seemingly irritated Ethiopian man who said about 7 words to me the entire 14 hour flight. They ran out of baggage space, so I sat with my very large backpack on my feet the entire way. The plane had to stop to re-fuel in Rome. As we were descending the pilot warned us of upcoming turbulence and had everyone buckled in, including the 16, that's right, 16 infants on our flight. No sooner had the flight attendants buckled into their seats did the plane free fall several hundred feet. Though everyone was very vocal about the experience and some bags got thrown around (mine was fine, wedged in so tightly between my legs and seat ;-), amazingly, everyone was strapped in and no one was hurt.

The rest of the flight through Rome and into Ethiopia was uneventful. However, when we finally landed in Ethiopia I was slightly taken aback when, as we touched down, rolled past first, a field of donkeys, then what appeared to be a crashed airplane, then a wrecked bus, and finally settled down next to an outhouse. At this point, we were running about an hour late, putting me very close to my connecting flight. So, after finally communicating my issue to the flight attendant (who's spoke very little English) she said she would arrange for someone to get me off first and to my flight on time. Little did I know that these "arrangements" really meant me and a heavily armed member of the Ethiopian military sprinting down the side of the runway to my plane. But I made it and sat next to two very talkative Zimbabweans for the rest of the flight. We had to refuel, once again, and pick up some passengers in the Congo. It was quite interesting watching the on-coming passengers, and I was quite thankful I was not one of them as their bags were completely emptied on the runway, and then they themselves were patted down and all but strip searched. When we were finally loaded up, we made the final hop over to Zimbabwe. Surprisingly, I had no issues with visas or customs. My bags were not even checked and I just walked right out. (which some of the teams cannot say, they had laptops taken, candy eaten, and slim jims confiscated (my slim jims made it just fine:-))

After being picked up by the Ms and spending the night in Harare, the capital city, we headed to their home town, Bulawayo. We were soon joined by a team from Kentucky and we then headed out to "the bush", which was, in our case, a town called Binga. Binga has been hit hard by the economical downfall and lack of food in the country over the past few years and many people have barely, if enough, to get by. However, HE is at work in Binga. It was really great to meet with the Zimbabweans there who are passionately working to spread the gospel in that area. They are making very good progress on their own and are beginning to build churches. This is always the best way to see churches begun, with local people on the forerun. They are doing great things and really trusting their Father with their work. They, however, are in great need of teaching and leadership instruction and are so eager to learn! We had some opportunities for the guys from the team to do some teaching with them and it was very well received. We got to be a part of the makings of 2 new meetings getting started. They are not there yet, by any means, so please pray for the potential meetings of the Binga area. That they would remain faithful, that they would form a loving community together, and that their leaders would be able to guide the meeting in a wise and fruitful direction.

That's all for now. I hope to be able to update you again soon as I begin to explore possible medical opportunities while I'm here. Thank you everyone for speaking for me and your interest in the people of Zimbabwe.

1 comment:

  1. It is so great to hear from you! Praying for you!! Glad you made it safely and are seeing God's work already! = )
    Miss you lots!
    Much love!

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