Here’s a report from Landmark Church. Major 100X Supporters when it comes to sending workers!!
After many months of training and meeting together, our team of 12 finally made it to Zimbabwe on May 25! What a blessing to have native Zimbabweans at Landmark to to lead this team and host us in their country.
During the first days of our time in Zimbabwe, some things were very clear. The theme that was repeated by all was that times have and are still changing. 
While the economic and political situation is a burden to the people of Zimbabwe (1200% inflation), the other thing that was clear was that God is still at work there and He is still faithful to His promises. As we interacted with young and old alike, it was clear that we come from different worlds and our experiences, in many ways, just don’t relate. However, we were mutually encouraged by one another’s faith and trust in the God that spans oceans, languages, and cultures… the God who seeks to transform all of us wherever we are.
We began our time in Zimbabwe by participating and helping to teach some sessions in a weekend focused on younger Christians. The grouped ranged from those in their early teens to young adults in their late twenties and they came mostly from Harare and the Avondale Church of Christ, but there were also some from other cities who joined us. We talked about what it means to “go into all the world,” dating, a
nd letting our lights shine in whatever circumstance in which we may find ourselves. On Saturday, we enjoyed a few hours of fellowship at Cleveland Dam on the outskirts of Harare where we had a barbecue (they call it a braai… pronounced “brie”) and played volleyball and football (soccer) together in on open field there. On Sunday, everyone was involved in helping teach children’s or youth classes and all the guys took turns preaching over each weekend of the trip with a focus on the promises of God.
On Monday the team headed out to visit the developing Chivero Mission Project, which 100X Missions is also helping by funding some of the construction cost. We visited the Chingwere School where 43 orphans are being helped through 100X Missions. This is largely due to the influence of the wife of the preacher at Chivero Mission who is one of the teache
rs at the school. We delivered some soccer balls, an air pump, and some assorted school supplies (crayons, pencils, etc.) to the teachers at the school. It was heart-warming to hear that they were overjoyed at this simple gesture as they had just taught lessons the day before about air pumps and crayons and yet had none to show the children for the lesson. This was another, more humbling theme of our trip… it was the simple things that we carried over, which seemed pretty insignificant to us, that seemed to make such an impression. We also enjoyed blowing bubbles with the kids before we loaded up to head to the Mission grounds. We spent the afternoon helping with some of the tasks that the workers there were already tackling at the Mission Project. The guys helped with a couple of loads of stones, loading them onto a flatbed semi trailer and then unloading them in low areas of the road into the property. Meanwhile, the ladies helped by shelling dried corn with the other women there and their children. Because there are still not adequate facilities for a group of guests, we headed back to Harare for the night. Our intention was to return early the next morning, but we encountered what became familiar problems as we got underway- flat tires and fuel problems. I think counted a total of 8 flats by the end of our time in Zimbabwe… 3 of those happened on that Tuesday. Simply getting fuel was no easy task… it almost always involved along line and you weren’t guaranteed that th
ere would be fuel when you reached the pump or that the power would be on so that the pumps would work (even if there was fuel). We did finally make it back to Chivero where we left some blankets, balls, and school supplies to be kept and used at the new facilities. We got to visit with Chief Chivero as a team before we headed back to Harare. He is the regional authority and responsible for allotting the land to the Mission Project. Chief Chivero lost his wife only a few weeks ago… she was a strong Christian lady and a driving force in the development taking place with the Mission Project. Being at his home was like visiting with one of our own grandfathers and was a special moment for all of us. We are still hoping Chief Chivero will come to Christ. This is why our visit with him was so important. In 2005 a small church began meeting on the new mission site. Hopefully the orphanage Landmark and 100X Missions are sponsoring will open by the end of the year. The collapsing economy has hindered the construction.
Wednesday morning we headed East to the city of Mutare on the border with Mozambique. Mutare is in the Eastern Highlands, closer to the area where 
Fortune and Florah were raised, and is the home of the Mutare School of Preaching. We were encouraged by visiting the school and meeting the teachers and students there. We arrived later than planned (thanks to a couple of flats in the morning and a delay waiting on one of the tires being repaired), but still enjoyed some fellowship and a meal with them before heading back West a bit to the Nhowe Mission for the night.
Nhowe (pronounced “no-way”) Mission is an established work supported by churches of Christ that includes a hospital, primary and secondary schools, and an orphanage. Fortune Mhlanga and his family are well-known here due to the work of his father in its earlier years. We rose early on Thursday for chapel, where Jerome Dees spoke briefly to the secondary school students. We were treated with a wonderful breakfast with the doctor immediately following. Three of our team members (Jeni Huggins, Laura Leary, and Rivers Smith) spent the day with the nursing staff and doctor at the hospital and even aided in the delivery of a baby! Another group made rounds with the chaplain and prayed with those in the wards. 
Many on the team were invited to visit classrooms at both the primary and secondary schools throughout the rest of the day and a few were invited to give brief lessons to some of the classes. Later in the afternoon, those who weren’t still at the hospital loaded into the back of a truck and carried blankets from the Avondale church to a couple of families who had taken in a number of orphans recently. We were invited to join them in distributing the blankets and got to visit with them briefly in their huts, which was quite a moving experience. They sang and danced with joy for the blankets we brought… the mother of the family explained that just the night before some of the children had said they only wished for a blanket so they wouldn’t be so cold at night. The following morning we attended chapel again where Will Collins addressed the group and then enjoyed another breakfast with the doctor at the hospital before leaving for Harare.
On the way back to Harare on Friday, we stopped by the Lion and Cheetah park (though we found they had recently moved all the Cheeta
hs to another location) and were able to enjoy seeing some of the native wildlife of Zimbabwe for part of the afternoon. On Saturday, most of the team went to see the Great Zimbabwe Ruins, for which the country is named (Zimbabwe means “house of stone”) and enjoyed a day of light hiking and climbing among the stone walls and the hill fortress.
Sunday brought the end of our time in Zimbabwe for all but those five who stayed on to meet up with the Malawi team that is to arrive in late June. Fortune, Florah, and the boys also stayed an extra week to be with their family.
We bought a new computer from a local vendor and began using a software to teach the girls to speak English. It seems to be a great way to do it, and with homework and other things to take care of, it’s clear that we will need to get about 3 more computers. They are a bit expensive in Moldova and not really the latest technology, so it looks like we will have to try to get the computers in the U.S. and bring them next time a team comes over.
