14th August 2025
Derek hardly stirred all night even when I was awake tossing and turning while writing. I managed to fall back asleep for a while and so did Mabasa and Paul in the next room (we could hear them trying to quietly chat early in the morning when they had woken up). We slept without alarms and it was so nice to wake up to quiet and calm outside. The dogs didn’t bark at night, and the neighbors had turned off their music early on. And I didn’t hear a single siren or car horn or neighbors yelling at one another.
After getting mostly ready for the day, Vensen took us all down to see the garden and the borehole well. The Moyo family has a garden with a traditional hand-crank well in it (Matt and I became very familiar with that well – just ask Matt if he has a scar). Just downhill from the family garden is a church garden where Good Works funded a borehole well. The well definitely produces adequate water even in the dry season, but the hose fixture had a leak and so did the valve on the storage tank. Thankfully Paul is a man of many talents and quickly fixed both problems. He then helped teach the young men in the village how best to fill the tank and water the garden without overwhelming or burning out the pump.
Derek and I walked back to the homestead for a cup of coffee while Mabasa stopped off to make some phone calls. His phone wasn’t officially registering any network signal but he was somehow able to call several people very clearly. As we walked away he called Chisomo. I asked that she send a message to Lena letting her know that we were safe but that we couldn’t communicate or send any updates.
As I recall it, I had just finished my first cup of, showing some of the guys that they could also add milk to theirs which they quickly did. Mabasa came walking up and asked me to sit down just as I was about to get up to prepare him a cup. He had received the news that former UCG president Rick Shabi had died. Just yesterday we had received word that his cough had subsided but other complications had prompted him to decide to decline all further medical intervention. He had decided to leave his life in God’s very wise and capable hands.
It was definitely a sad moment among brethren who had been praying for him and his family since we received word that he had suffered a heart attack in mid July on the Sabbath soon after giving a very powerful sermon. His fight is over. He has finished his race. In his next waking moment he will be raised up from his grave and will meet his Savior in the air. I look forward to seeing my spiritual brother Rick on that day when our common hope is finally realized. For now he rest but we still have work to continue.
At a certain point in the morning Derek and I took a walk to the back of Vensen’s plot where he’s moved his cattle pen this year. He rotates the placement to try and nourish the land in different places. Mabasa joined us and we discussed wells being dig in different places. We also discussed the holding of the Feast in Chemba and what that might look like in the future.
We wanted to walk some more since the day before all we did (or all it felt like we had done) was sit and eat and talk and eat and sit and eat some more. Today it seemed sensible to get some exercise before our next meal. We found Derek a walking stick and then the two of us walked down the hill along a fence line and a few paths that lead to a dry riverbed. During the rainy season that river is completely full and moves freely. We stood for a while in the riverbed. Derek told me stories about his friends in Zim who were in the military tasked with protecting villages from terroristic types who would come and steal young men away to train them for war against their own people. Thankfully Derek hadn’t been conscripted for such a task and lived a much different life, being called into God’s Church at a young age here in Zimbabwe (formerly Rhodesia).
There were three of the brethren who attend regularly in Chemba who stopped by in the morning. The two ladies chatted with the other ladies while they prepared lunch. The gentleman arrived a while later. After lunch the deacons and elders gathered to do some group baptism counseling. Our three guests have each been attending the church for several years and have come to the conclusion that they should be baptized. This session was supposed to be a final session to evaluate their readiness. There will be two more individuals stopping by on Friday for the same discussion. By Sabbath morning we should know whether or not and how many baptisms we will have.
After our counseling session Mabasa looked at me and said, “Lewis I’m tired.” I figured he also needed an afternoon cup of coffee. The difficulty is that I’m not sure how much more coffee we’ll need for this trip and my supply is limited because I love to share coffee. But thankfully we had picked up some cocoa, so we shared some hot cocoa in the heat of the afternoon under the shade of the tarpaulin.
When the cocoa crowd subsided Derek and I sat with Vensen as he recounted his life. He was a gunner in the army at a young age, but managed to get out on the year I was born (just to give you an idea of our age differences). He married and had children and worked for many years in a cement factory, having studied welding and all kinds of metal fabrication which he has taught his son Pilani.
We sat a little more and then Vensen called his grandchildren over. Together they sang a song about the giving of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. It was a beautiful rendition. We took a photo of the Moyo’s and their grandchildren. They have 20 in total but only about half were present. Most of them who are in Chemba with them are cared for by their grandparents while their parents are off in different countries tying to make a life for themselves and their children. This is a common story in this part of the world. There aren’t too many jobs around especially in a place like Chemba.
A few hours from sunset I decided to go and write (while napping). I managed to finish what I needed to and catch a quick nap. While I was busy a few of the guys went to fetch some chibuku and snacks. Chibuku is a locally brewed beer made from maize and sorghum. It’s unfiltered so the ground grains are still in the drink. In that way it’s a meal in itself. We had a quiet evening sitting around the fire sipping on chibuku, eating some delicious sadza and chicken, and snacking on some freshly roasted groundnuts.
Mabasa and Derek chatted about the history of the Church of God in Zimbabwe, the various pastors who served in the region, the times when there were only a few scattered people leading the truth in the country. Paul and Vensen sat and chatted about plans for the future. We ended the evening talking about the stars, deception in the world from the devil and from other powers on the earth. I tried one last time to find a network signal in hopes of responding to the brethren (and of course my wife) back home but it isn’t yet to be.
-Lewis VanAusdle
Leave a Reply