Highways to Zion: An Uncertain Future

An Uncertain Future

Posted on 06/12/2008 ::: No Comments Yet, Leave One.

As I read the news of Zimbabwe today - political leaders' wives and children being burned alive - there is a growing fear that June 27 will be very bloody. I can't help but feel a sense of guilt and sorrow for my new friends that we left behind in the midst of all that violence. In my posts about Zimbabwe I will refrain from using any names and the photos will not contain any adults due to the possibility that Mugabe's people might be scanning the web for targets of the tyrannical rule.

Chris Kirby and I stayed with a great family. We received the most precious hospitality from people who literally have nothing. Nothing but hope. in conversations with the youngest son he kept on saying that his people have hope. I can testify to the truth of that statement for wherever we went we saw people who were trusting that God would deliver their nation from the rule of Mugabe. People would show up early to church services and just begin singing, sometimes in the dark. It is very humbling to think that your presence is the answer to someone's prayer. But that is exactly what our ministry in Zimbabwe had been for two weeks. More than us praying that God would shape us there was an elderly woman praying that God would send her some relief from the pain caused by years of hard labor and hard living, there were children praying for their stomachs to feel better, there were children crying out for someone to love them. It is very humbling knowing that God uses us to answer other peoples' prayers even when we are not a very good answer to the prayer. For me this has made me want to ready myself to be a better answer next time.

Once you meet the people of another country and experience their generosity and kindness it is almost impossible to imagine the evil and violence that their neighbors are bringing to them. My prayer is not so much that one party would win over the other, though that is definitely a concern, but it is rather that the church would stand as a light in the darkness and be a refuge for the bleeding, a beacon screaming out into the abyss that their is another way. It breaks my heart to think of any of my brothers or sisters in Christ having to wrestle with the decision to kill or be killed, to take up arms in a civil war. It has made me wrestle with my own pacifism. Will I be one who will stand with them? How?

"Unless we are prepared to risk injury and death in nonviolent opposition to the injustice oursocieties foster, we don't dare even whisper another word about pacifism to our sisters and brothers in those desperate lands. Unless we are ready to die developing new nonviolent attempts to reduce international conflict, we should confess that we never really meant the cross was an alternative to the sword. Unless the majority of our people in nuclear nations are ready as congregations to risk social disapproval and government harassment in a clear call to live without nuclear weapons, we should sadly acknowledge that we have betrayed our peacemaking heritage. Making peace is as costly as waging war. Unless we are prepared to pay the cost of peacemaking, we have no right to claim the label or preach the message." (Ron Sider, speaking at the Mennonite World Conference of 1984)

Lord let us not stand by while your children suffer.

Posted In: missions zimbabwe

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