Steak and eggs for breakfast

We arrived in Zimbabwe yesterday afternoon after a long plane journey, with stops in Addis Abba (Ethiopia) and Ndola (Zambia). I was prepared for the flight with multiple layers of clothes, eye mask, ear phones and Valoid (strong South African travel sickness medication that knocks you out!) so I slept/ dozed for most of the journey. My travelling companions were not so fortunate. We arrived the late afternoon and stepped off the plane in Bulawayo into the warmth of autumnal sunshine. Simply lovely.

We were welcomed by the Bishop Ngulube and his wife Susan into their home and enjoyed good food and conversation. We understood from that conversation how important the MWC gathering in Bulawayo in 2003 had been for the Brethren in Christ in deepening their identity as an Anabaptist community, and how ‘pursuing peace’ is a key value and practice of the church. Bishop Ngulube also noted that it was Bishop Stephen Ndlovu who had been a key peace activist and proponent of this part of BIC identity. Bishop Ndlovu is the late father of our friend and host, Rev Themba Ndlovu, so it was really wonderful to learn more about Themba’s father and the heritage of peacemaking that he is part of.

Today over steak and eggs for breakfast, we tried (and I think succeeded!) to get our heads around Ndebele family structure in our conversation with Themba and then walked over to the offices of the CDS (Compassionate and Development Services). The CDS is “A humanitarian relief, development and community peace programming arm” of the BIC. They are doing a number of projects from environmental and climate change resilience work, to food security and nutrition, educational and medical services, as well as peace-making, training and emergency services. We were hearing about their food security and nutrition programs, which are the key focus at the moment. There is a huge amount going on in the communities they are working with including bee keeping, drilling boreholes and installing renewable energy systems. We were particularly impressed by their commitment to innovative thinking on the environment, and building sustainability and resilience in the work that they do with rural communities. They are embarking on planting 30,000 trees in the coming year! They encourage and supply farmers to grow short grain crops that can cope more easily with dry conditions and little rain (like sorghum and millet) and their chicken project sources ‘indigenous chickens’ which are hardy and do not need much extra food in addition to what they can forage. It was a really rich conversation, and we were encouraged by the voices of the young adult members of the team who articulated really beautifully their love for the people that they served, their hope for the future of Zimbabwe, and their belief in their ability to be change-makers.

We finished the day off with a delicious meal at Banff Lodge, and further stories from Themba about some of the amazing people who have been part of the BIC story in Zimbabwe; their bravery, their commitment to this land and her people, and their courage in the face of opposition.