Friday, April 29th, 2022
Today was a day between travel days, a day to decompress a little, a day to reflect and to collect our thoughts. As always I took time in the morning to write and sip on a cup of coffee. As I sat in the living room I watched as each member of the family walked by and said good morning. Once the girls were up there were plenty of cartoons to watch. At some point Matt and I ate breakfast with Mabasa. Chisomo and the girls ate in the kitchen as they always do. I spent some time checking and sending emails before the start of the day in NYC. I wanted to make sure that was done before they would start the Sabbath there.
Partway through the morning, Mabasa sat down in the chair adjacent to mine and said, “You know, I think we should ordain Paul today.” This wasn’t just a spontaneous thought out of nowhere. This was something that he and I had discussed even before I had left for Africa. Perhaps we should have done the ordination while we were still in the village in Chemba. After all, it is the kind of thing that is worth sharing with the brethren. But with so much going on Mabasa and I hadn’t had a moment to confer with one another on the matter until we were nearly back in Kadoma. This would be the last opportunity for us to lay hands on this man together, so Mabasa made arrangements with Paul.
While we waited for Paul to arrive in Kadoma, Mabasa needed to run a few errands. Matt, the girls, and I accompanied him to town. I finally had a chance to sit in the backseat to view things from the perspective Matt had over the past week. While I appreciated the opportunity to sit a mile in his seat, I appreciated having slightly more room in the front seat. We made it back home from town, climbed out of the truck, and went back to work. What seemed like moments later, Paul called. He’d arrived in town so we all piled in the pickup and headed back into town to find him. Unfortunately transportation had been an issue since the day before. The police were cracking down on unofficial transport vehicles. We were told they were even arresting some drivers. We were also told that this happens periodically and the unofficial/unregistered transport vehicle drivers usually just end up paying bribes and are again let loose to provide transportation to the masses in Zimbabwe. If it weren’t for that issue Paul would have arrived sooner.
Before lunch, which was actually nearly ready, Mabasa and I donned our suits. Matt and Chisomo followed suit and joined us for the small, intimate ordination ceremony. This man has been serving God’s people in so many ways already. It was time to make things official. We prayed that God would give Paul Pombi, the newest deacon in Zimbabwe, the strength, direction, wisdoms, and endurance he would need to continue forward in service. After some brief discussions we sat and ate lunch together. Paul had to head out pretty quickly. With all the disruptions in transportation he could easily get stuck somewhere. So we all piled in the truck again and took Paul back into town where he could catch a minibus or car headed back to Kwekwe.
The afternoon was wide open and the weather was beautiful so Mabasa took Matt, Christal, Layla, and I on a walk to see the fish ponds. He brought along a small canister of fish food which would almost guarantee we would see some fish. On the way Christal and Layla took turns having Matt and I skip down the dusty paths. I don’t remember skipping being so exhausting! We picked a few mulberries before heading through the gate to the ponds. Mabasa opened his canister of feed, let his daughters grab a few handfuls, and they all fed the fish together. At first nothing happened. Then all at once we saw hundreds of little fish swimming up to the surface of the water to eat. Matt showed the girls how skittish fish can be when they all swam away from his shadows.
When the fish food was gone, and we’d looked at enough fruit trees, we headed back to the house to begin settling in before dark. On the walk back Christal and Layla again took turns having Matt and I skip, hop, run, dance, and even walk back to the house. When we got through the gate the girls reminded us that we had promised to play hopscotch. Christal wrote some numbers in the sand and we took turns hopping down the row. We definitely got our exercise that afternoon.
In the morning I had helped Mabasa download the version of the UCG hymnal that has guitar chords on it. At one point in the afternoon he pulled out his guitar and practiced a few of the hymns. Definitely a relaxing afternoon for all of us.
As evening approached, Mabasa received a message from Paul. Somewhere between Kadoma and Kwekwe, before he had reached home, he had lost $20. That’s a big loss especially since that was his transportation money and there were already issues with transportation. By sunset we still hadn’t heard from him. The power went out as we sat down for dinner. It seems whenever the power is out the cellphone and internet networks slow down. By bedtime we still hadn’t heard from Paul. Thankfully Mabasa was able to get a hold of him. He had made it safely home before too late. It seems the testing of the patience and faith of a new deacon begins almost immediately upon ordination.
The power was back on before we all headed to bed. For some reason everyone seemed tired by 8pm. That seemed too early for bedtime but that didn’t stop us. We had a big day ahead of us which was going to start very early. It was the Sabbath which usually means a day of work for a pastor.
– Lewis VanAusdle
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