Visit Every City

Day 8 – 21st January 2023

Zimbabwe is organized into 10 provinces. These provinces are further organized into 59 districts with 1,200 wards. Within these wards are cities, towns, villages, and unincorporated settlements. Kadoma City is in the Kadoma district of the Mashonaland West province. Harare, the capital city, has its own small province as does the city of Bulawayo. Bomba is an area near the town of Gokwe Centre (or Gokwe Town) which is in the Gokwe South district in the Midlands province. Bomba is a very rural area which has been called the “Green Belt” of Gokwe since there is an abundance of water there which makes irrigation of gardens possible.

The Chichaya family and I climbed into the pickup and headed South along the highway towards the city of Kwekwe to pick up some of the members of the Pombi family. On the way we also picked up Douglas from the Battlefields area and a few other brethren when we got nearer Bomba. Since his ordination as a deacon last April, Paul has continued to serve the brethren in Zimbabwe, particularly in the Gokwe South district. We have brethren who live and meet together on the Sabbath in several areas of this particular district including Bomba, Chemba, Gawa, and Tshebetchebe. Although these places are all in the same district, and some of them look close together on a map, these are rural areas with difficult terrain. Thankfully the brethren are able to gather in either Chemba or Kadoma for Feast of Tabernacles and sometimes for other Holy Days as well.

The number of congregants in the district has been growing. Some families are growing the old fashioned way which means there are many children and teenagers in these congregations. There are also people who are hearing about the truth from their neighbors or from reading the Beyond Today magazine. In recent years there have also been a number of brethren who have come from different Church of God organizations for various reasons and have become very active full time members of the United Church of God. One of the members, Mohammad Magova, is a deacon and faithfully serves the brethren in Bomba. The congregation typically meets at the home of one of the long time members (Joseph? I can’t recall his name today) or at Mr. Magova’s home for Sabbath services and Bible studies.

The brethren in Bomba mentioned that they have been having heavy rainfall nearly every day recently. We took the chance (and prayed a lot) that there wouldn’t be rain on our trip, especially since some of the roads would be very difficult to drive on in such weather, and we would have people riding in the back of the pickup. Everything was nice and dry for our entire drive to Bomba and the rain held off until we were back in Kwekwe to drop the Pombi family off.

Before services we fellowshipped a little. Paul Pombi led hymns for the service. Mohammad Magova gave the sermonette in Shona and I gave the sermon in English. Many of the brethren speak English but there are a few who struggle in conversation. As the service went on a few more Brethren showed up. We’ll forgive their lateness, especially the pregnant mother. In total there were somewhere around 35 of us gathered on the Sabbath.

After services we shared a meal of rice and chicken. When the food was gone we had a group photo followed by about 20 different individual photo sessions. We had decided to go and see Mr. Magova’s home after fellowship. What we didn’t know was that most of the brethren would accompany us there. Mabasa said he counted 28 of us in or on the truck. Thankfully we weren’t going very far.

Mr. Magova and his family have a nice garden filled with all sorts of seedlings, vegetables, hedges, maize, and various flowers. He also has several hectares maize fields not far away. He’s done a lot with the land he has.

After a bit more fellowshipit was time for us to head out so we could hopefully get ahead of the rain. As I mentioned, the heavy rain held out until we were past Kwekwe where we dropped off the Pombi family. Thankfully Douglas was riding inside the cab when the rains really started. He had to walk back to his home from the main road in the rain, but at least he didn’t have to sit in the back of a truck completely soaked.

We made it back to Kadoma and ended the evening with a lovely meal at the Rainbow Hotel nearby. We were all tired except for Layla who seems to have an almost abundant supply of energy any time her eyes are open. Late into the night I packed my bags and got some sleep in preparation for my long journey home. It was a wonderful and uplifting Sabbath day in nearly every way (the rough roads are the exception).