November 2010 will go down in our personal history as a bit of a blur. That includes three trips to Mater Dei Hospital in Bulawayo when son-in-law Bowen pressed hard on the petrol pedal and we arrived in record-breaking time. Jim’s cellulitis on his right leg was making a big time comeback. He spent ten days in the hospital while we begged lodging from an American missionary couple. We returned to Gweru a few days in the middle to take care of some business.
But that isn’t really the beginning. Jim had marked November as a red-letter month because Dennis Evans, his good friend of more than forty years, was coming to Zimbabwe. They had last been together in 2003. Since then Dennis and his family had migrated to the U.K, finding a home right on the border to Scotland. Dennis arrived on Friday afternoon but during the Sunday worship, Jim made the announcements and then disappeared. He was going back to the keyboard when a violent wave of sickness came over him. He found one of the men to take him home, and he was miserably sick through Wednesday. The flu left but the cellulitis kicked in.
It did give Dennis and me a good opportunity to become acquainted. Dennis was brimming over with enthusiasm for Team Impact University. He had come to South Africa to attend a conference and graduation, celebrating nine years of TIU in South Africa. Dennis had run an in-church school himself before he left for the U.K. Now he had been selected to introduce TIU to the U.K. Well, he ended up introducing it to Zimbabwe, too. The concept of training your own people in Christian ministry caught fire in my heart, and I was able to introduce Dennis to some local pastors who also embraced the idea.
Team Impact University provides the manuals and sometime along the way a representative will come to preside over a graduation. Because of the hard years Zimbabwe has been experiencing TIU agreed to substantially lower the fees for the programs which include a Certificate in Ministry, Diploma in Ministry, Bachelor’s Degree, Master’s Degree and Doctorate—all accredited by a worldwide Christian accrediting body. A person can progress from Certificate to Doctorate in a six-year period with high motivation and self-discipline.
We’ve named our venture Riverside Bible College, which reflects the name of the suburb where our church is located. We hope to begin classes in late January, meeting one night a week and covering three courses concurrently. There are ten courses each in the first two programs. The church will provide a facilitator for each class to go over the material, answer questions and encourage discussion.
And, guess what I get to do? Dennis has asked me to be the Coordinator for Zimbabwe. He is the Overseer. TIU is operating in all the countries bordering Zim, but this is the first open door into our country. As Coordinator I am basically an office through which we handle publicity, recruitment, registration of students, etc. The potential is high because the pastors, just to name one group, hungry for more Christian education, and TIU also is on a practical , doable level for lay people in the church. So I am excited and highly motivated! Start small. Think big.
That’s the first assignment.
Hint of another big one came about a week ago when Gert Olivier at Emmanuel Mission in Lalapanzi (about 30K East of Gweru) called. He, too, was bursting with his own project. He’s been writing down his thoughts and memories regarding the Mission since its beginning, and he’s asking me to edit the information into a small booklet, or possibly something bigger. It’s a story of adversity over many years but also accounts of miracles. To tell the truth, it’s a story I’ve wanted to write since my first visit out to the Mission in 2003 as I listened to Gert’s passionate telling of Mission “doings” over the dinner table.
That’s the second assignment.
Looks like I’m following in the footsteps of granddaughter Megan who says she’s “very busy” as she scrubs the front stoop with a small rag, irons clothes with an unplugged iron or loads a plastic bag with all the items on our buffet cabinet. Some of us have to keep this world going around!
