Zimbabwe – A Land of Lions

Greetings High Pointe family!  I am Jenny Atkins, a speech-language pathologist.  God opened the door for me to go on a mission trip in August to serve at Chidamoyo Christian Hospital in rural Zimbabwe.  Two physical therapists and one psychologist comprised the small team I was privileged to travel with. We brought supplies, saw patients in the hospital and surrounding townships, and trained community health workers.  I praise the Lord for HIS provision and the many ways HE worked through our team!  

When walking around the U.S. whether in a city or on a hike, we don’t typically expect to run into any lions. Any contact we have with a “roaring lion” is at a zoo with the animal behind bars and us safely on the other side. That is not the case in Zimbabwe. Lions are in their natural habitat running wild. We saw lions hanging out under a tree while on a short safari during our mission trip. Out of all the animals we saw, lions caused the most fear in my heart. We had roaring lions in our camp both nights on safari. Two of them got in a fight outside the chalet of two of my teammates next to the one I was sleeping in. I praise the Lord that I slept through their roars! I don’t think I would have slept the rest of the trip if I had heard them! Reflecting on this experience brings 1 Peter 5:8 to life in a whole new way: “Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.”

I certainly saw our enemy the devil prowling around Zimbabwe -- through significant challenges to their economy, fractured infrastructure, weak and corrupt government, insufficient health care, and the Christian religion blended with traditional African beliefs. Zimbabwe became an independent republic in 1980, and since that time their currency has dropped to a value of $0 overnight at least twice. Imagine waking up and all the money in your bank account and all the cash you have has instantly become worthless!

Roads are predominantly dirt paths with lots of rocks and divots okay for walking as most people do, but horribly uncomfortable for cars, motorcycles and ox carts.  When a resource is discovered on someone’s land, the owner must sell their property for a low price to a foreign company so the resource can be mined.  These mines create pollution and the large trucks wreak havoc on the already struggling dirt roads.  

Gaining an understanding of the challenges facing Zimbabweans, it was a grand privilege to see God at work spreading HIS light in the darkness at Chidamoyo Christian Hospital. The staff work diligently to provide the best care they can with the limited supplies. The hospital provides a variety of services including inpatient and outpatient visits, emergency care, mobile immunization clinics to surrounding townships, housing, prenatal, delivery, and pastoral care/church services for expecting mothers, rehab services, pharmacy, and chaplain services. Zimbabwe grapples with a plethora of challenges, but God has provided for and sustained the hospital using it to cultivate faith and spread HIS love and hope among the Zimbabwe people.

One aspect of God that stood out to me during the trip is His ability to restore honor in spaces where the enemy has brought shame.  In traditional Zimbabwean Shona culture, mothers are blamed and shamed for a child who has any developmental delay or disorder.  It is particularly shameful to have multiple children with developmental or physical issues.  We worked with one family who has four children, three of which are boys who have motor speech delays.  We had some great conversations with Webster, one of the community health workers, about genetic disorders and physical challenges that can run in families.  I’m hopeful that God will use our conversations about the origins of delays and disorders to help bring honor to mothers instead of shame for having children with disabilities.

A challenge we saw repeatedly during township visits was people who are deaf. There is no access to hearing aids or cochlear implants. There is a Zimbabwean sign language that I read about online, but the people in this area don’t have access to it. Some families have access to paper to write notes on, but many do not. There are no books in the local schools. In the township of Feluche, we came across five people who were deaf. There was an elementary aged boy, Neymar, who was soaking in ASL signs left and right as we sat with him at a table and worked with him. His mom was learning as well. I was able to leave ASL signing and picture resources with the community health workers in Feluche to aid in communication. I’m praying God will open the door for the whole township to become more sign proficient and embrace the multiple individuals in that township who are deaf.

I came home from the trip reading through the gospels and being amazed anew how Jesus repeatedly healed people who were deaf. There weren’t hearing aids or large supplies of paper in Jesus’ earthly days either. What a blessing the ability to hear must have been to those Jesus touched! I’m so grateful to see God’s heart for those who can’t hear. The deaf communities around the world are significantly underreached with the gospel. It inspires me to pray more fervently for deaf populations to know the saving gospel truth and to one day hear the voice of their Savior welcoming them home in eternity.

While the enemy is at work in this world like a roaring lion looking for ways to devour us, we are also told of the Lion of Judah who has conquered our adversary. That conquering Lion is Jesus Christ the Messiah, our Savior. In Revelation 5:5, 9 we are told,

“Weep no more; behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals...”

“Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation”

Jesus is the one who is worthy. May we live each day following the Great Commission call God has placed on our lives “and walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God” (Ephesians 5:2).

For HIS Glory,

~Jenny