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The Zimbabwe partnership reaches out in mission to hundreds of children living in poverty with educational and religious programs.

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Zimbabwe partnership resurrects hope and life

By Melissa Lauber
UMConnection staff

In Sekubva, Zimbabwe Tim Warner saw a child resurrected.

Last year, Warner visited Leon, a ninth-grader, who was ill. Open sores made it impossible for Leon to raise his head. Death hovered nearby. Warner and others from the Baltimore-Washington Conference prayed over the boy. The Ishe Anesu school, which the conference helps support, helped Leon get medical attention.

In November, Warner, associate council director for community and economic development who was on another visit to Africa, looked out over the crowd where he was preaching. He saw Leon alive, thriving and ready to continue his education. Were it not for the partnership between the Baltimore-Washington and Zimbabwe conferences, the program and the prayers of Gods people, Leon would be dead, Warner said. That was a resurrection. Thats why I see hope.

However, finding hope in Zimbabwe is not always easy. The Rev. Joseph Daniels of Emory UMC in Washington, D.C., who accompanied Warner to Africa, reels off figures. 

In Zimbabwe today the average life expectancy is 35. The country is reeling with 96 percent inflation, a 60 percent poverty rate and 60 percent unemployment rate. There are more than 2 million orphans in Zimbabwe. Two in five people have AIDS, 1 million people in rural areas are starving to death, Daniels said.

The scale of the poverty is hard for people in the United States to even grasp. But in the midst of it all, there is hope and a belief that God will deliver Gods people, said Daniels who is praying that area United Methodists can maintain and increase the energy being given to Zimbabwe.

At Ishe Anesu, there are four students who will soon graduate who have expressed interest in getting more education. If it hadnt been for the partnership, they wouldnt have had an education at all, Daniels said. But who in our conference might provide their educational expenses? What church or district might set up an educational fund? The impact could be tremendous.

Daniels and Warner are eager to see the Zimbabwe partnership, which began as a covenant relationship in 1997, grow and prosper. In addition to each of the nine districts supporting projects in Zimbabwe, congregations, individuals and youth groups are being called upon to provide resources and establish relationships.

So much can be done with so little, Daniels said. Youd be amazed at what they can accomplish. The churches in Zimbabwe know how to get things done simply. Its phenomenal.

The pair is also anticipating that churches in Zimbabwe, many of which are exploding with growth, will be able to assist the conference in exploring new congregational development strategies.

St. Johns UMC, which is sponsored by the Washington West District, for example, spawned five congregations, Warner said. Churches in Zimbabwe are growing like wildfire.

Building personal relationships, while providing resources each other needs, will be an essential key to the success of the relationship between the two conferences, separated by 8,000 miles.

Sharing with and for each other will shrink that distance, Warner said. Were partners in ministry. Well go down the road of ministry together.