Visit Every City

11th July 2024

The morning was nice and easy. There was time to read and think and pray and enjoy some quiet. There is “a time for every purpose under heaven” (Ecclesiastes 3:1). While there are certain things that come around that we always hope to avoid, difficult days do come. This was not one of those days for us staying here in Kadoma. I’ve continued to enjoy the Ethiopian coffee. This time I had a second cup and went out to check on the fish and the garden. Since it was still cold out I only saw one small fish come up to the surface. The others were probably afraid of me since I caught some of them last year.

Nick would be jealous of the breakfast we had. I’ll have to find somewhere in South Dakota that imports the beans that are part of a full English breakfast. I’m sure it’s possible to find them. As well as that coffee, the elephant brand coffee that is so tasty.

Last year I had the chance to meet the Chichaya family dogs. They have three adult dogs. I helped feed them one evening and it was quite an experience because there was one that was afraid to eat and one (Bruno if I remember correctly) who wanted to eat all of the food. There were a few puppies but they didn’t survive unfortunately. This year there were more puppies and two of them survived! The girls named them Spike and Rex. It turns out Rex is a girl but I think the name still fits her. She comes when you call her anyway.

After finishing some work Mabasa, Chisomo, Lena, and I climbed into one of the vehicles and headed to town to pick the girls up from school. I grabbed my hat, some snacks and water, and we headed on down the road. I don’t usually wear a hat unless it’s cold. It’s still technically winter here but to me it feels more like a warm spring in Brooklyn. But I haven’t seen this particular hat for almost a year because when I got out of Mabasa’s pickup at the airport I forgot my hat. Everything else was packed.

Once we picked up Christal and Layla we headed out of town toward UCG Zimbabwe’s property. Mabasa has been having to work with new builders since the previous contractor wasn’t actually getting the work done. Besides that, several of the semi-completed structures were sub-quality. Thankfully we’re still on budget including bathrooms, a meeting hall, kitchen, storehouse, solar lamps, tent slabs, and the fence. Thanks to some generous donations from some brethren we have funds to add extra water storage for the bathhouses which will be essential at the Feast of Tabernacles.

After touring the property and discussing decor (including paint colors for the meeting hall) we piled back inside the vehicle and headed back to town. We were on the hunt for ingredients. Lena can’t help but feed people everywhere she goes if she is able to. No one in Zimbabwe has ever experienced any of her baking (which is a delight) so she decided to bake a chocolate cake complete with homemade buttercream frosting. Thankfully between the small baking supply shop and a grocery store we found all of the ingredients. It just so happened that the grocery store was in the vicinity of our favorite African pizza shop, Pizza Inn. We ordered a couple of pizzas for dinner.

We made it home and Lena set to work demonstrating how she bakes a cake. Thankfully before the power went out the cake was finished baking and just needed to cool. And thankfully just as I was coming in to mix the frosting by hand the power came back on and I was able to use the hand mixer. My job as a husband is typically to taste and occasionally also to mix and chop and flip and put things in the oven. Unfortunately even though the frosting was finished and the cake came out of the pan, the cake still needed to cool for a while.

We had a very pleasant evening. There was plenty of pizza for dinner, plenty of good conversation, Lena was feeling well, and then of course there was cake! If you’d like to see pictures of the cake make sure to check out Lena’s blog here.

The pizza came and went. The cake came and went (although there are leftovers for the Sabbath). I decided it was wise not to have another cup of coffee so close to bed, although the night before and the one before that we had coffee and slept anyway. The next day would again be calm as we all will be preparing for the upcoming Sabbath. Some of the brethren from Bomba, Kwekwe, Zveshavane, Harare, and maybe a few other places will come to Kadoma to be together with us on the Sabbath. I always have hopes of traveling to visit all the faraway places in this country to see the brethren I haven’t seen for a while and also to see where they live and how they are doing.

– Lewis VanAusdle