Visit Every City

Saturday, April 30th, 2022

Early to bed, early to rise. Neither Matt nor I slept well the night before. I think the anticipation of all of the plans for the next day got to me. As I laid in bed the night before, I was trying to go over notes for the sermon I would be giving. Periodically I would wake up to messages on my phone from Lena and from order members of the family. On Friday evenings we all send messages back and forth wishing each other a happy Sabbath and seeing what everyone has been up to.

I got out of bed early and boiled my own bath water (I think I’m getting the hang of this). Chisomo was up and about just after me. I got ready while she boiled water for Matt, Mabasa, and herself. I went over my notes one last time and tried unsuccessfully to upload some photos while we had access to wifi. After breakfast and coffee we got ready to head to Harare. The girls stayed home with the nanny since today was most likely going to be a very long day for the Chichayas.

We met our goal of leaving Eiffel Flats at around 8am. The drive to Harare should have taken us somewhere between 1.5 to 2 hours. We hit that goal. There wasn’t much traffic once we left Kadoma except here and there in some smaller towns. And of course if we got behind a slow vehicle while driving along a smaller two lane highway we had to wait to pass them. Between Kadoma and Harare there are a few four lane highways (two lanes in each direction) and even some six lane highways. I kept imagining what a trip to the village of Chemba might be like with proper roads. Imagine how accessible people in remote places would be to the pastor and the deacons. Imagine being able to send the Beyond Today magazine through the post and having it actually arrive! Some of the hindrances to spreading the gospel in places like Malawi and Zimbabwe are the same hindrances that make everyday tasks arduous and unpredictable. Unkept roads, inconsistent electricity, inconsistent internet and phone networks. These are things that I take for granted every single day back in NYC (except for maybe some of the roads).

There always traffic building up even in the outskirts of Harare. Police were cracking down on unregistered drivers trying to carry people where they needed to go. On the highway we had passed a Honda Fit crammed full of passengers and their luggage. As we passed by on their right, I saw a pair of bare feet sticking out from behind the hatch door, hanging just far enough above the surface of the road to not touch.

There are so many different denominations of Christianity in this country including some who keep the Sabbath. In a certain field we saw a group of zionists dressed in white robes gathering to keep the Sabbath. There were a group of them who had contacted Mabasa once upon a time. They seemed interested in gathering with UCG, but their doctrines differed too much to be compatible. There are some pastors who contact me on a regular basis, wanting to “join” UCG. They claim to have studied our doctrines and that they will begin teaching their congregations to keep the Sabbath and whatever else I would tell them to teach. The majority of the time I find they are looking for financial support for their own ministry. I try to explain to them that we recruit pastors from within our own membership, from among those who already know and are practicing the truth.

We arrived into Harare with plenty of time to go and get one final test so we might be able to enter our own country. We used the same testing center we had used before. They were friendly and the results were back within an hour and a half. There was no reason to expect anything less from them the second time around. Testing took about five minutes and then we drove a few blocks away to The Russell Hotel. We were the first to arrive. We dragged our bags inside and set up the room for services. Since there were still countrywide issues with transportation it took a while for everyone else to show up. A few people who live outside of the city weren’t even able to find transport so they had to stay home from services. The first to arrive after us was Elizabeth. Then Munashe and Tatenda. Shortly after Mavis and Victor arrived. Lastly was the song leader and deacon, Mike Nyamasoka. Mike caught his breath and prepared himself to choose some hymns. I let him know I had wanted to change the format of services slightly. Matt gave his seventh ever sermonette. This was his fourth sermonette in Africa. After I gave the closing prayer, Mabasa gave a few announcements, took a few moments to talk about our trip to visit the brethren from Gokwe, and then shared his appreciation for having Matt and I in the country, visiting with him. Instead of a sermon during the service, we had an interactive Bible study afterwards. I ran out of time, but was able to pass my notes on later.

Thankfully we didn’t have to rush off anywhere right away. Everyone sat in the garden downstairs and fellowshipped for a while. When the time came to leave you could tell that no one wanted to go. This was our last Sabbath on this particular trip and our last bit of fellowship with our brethren here. We loaded up the pickup and drove away down the street towards the familiar neighborhood of Mabelreign. We pulled up in front of the green gate. Tapiwe was kind enough to open it for us. Mabasa pulled inside. We unloaded our bags, said goodbye to Mabasa and Chisomo, and then settled in for the evening at the Manshu Guest House where the sign on the door reads: WELCOME TO THE HOME OF COMFORT. Tapiwe has made a few more upgrades since our last visit.

As it has been at every exit point along this trip, it was difficult to say goodbye. Mabasa and Chisomo always made us feel at home no matter where we were or what we were doing. I know I’ll be talking to Mabasa almost constantly after returning to the US, but there’s nothing like face-to-face conversation and side-by-side adventures. The Chichayas left us behind in Mabelreign and headed home to their children. The girls were not too happy that we didn’t come back home even though we had told them multiple times that we were staying in Harare and then heading back to America.

The power was already out when we arrived at the Manshu. They have a bit of solar power which runs a few things such as the gate buzzer and the wifi. After changing out of our suits Matt and I headed back down to the shopping center to see if we could find something to eat. Actually before we got there we knew we wanted to try some more of the dishes offered by Chicken Village. We both had our eye on the cheeseburger, but the fried chicken looked so good. We decided on a combo that had a chicken burger and hot wings. I gave the cashier a $20. She didn’t have enough cash in the till to give me change so we ordered two more items to bring up the total. We saved the coke for later and enjoyed trying their chicken shawarma. To be honest everything was disappointing except for the hot wings. They were amazing! After dinner we headed back to the house where Maude (a new employee) made sure we had everything we might need. As long as the wifi worked and we had bottled water to drink we were content.

Eventually the generator started up. There were some issues with keeping it going here and there, and sometimes the staff checked to see if the electricity was back on. Matt and I would just sit in the dark for a few minutes and wait. We found out that there was something that happened to cause the power in the whole neighborhood to go off. Before bed Tapiwa told us the generator would last another few hours. After that we’d have to wait until there was enough sunlight for the solar to start powering the wifi. We headed to bed to rest up for our long journey which would start the following afternoon.

– Lewis VanAusdle