We returned from our Wedza trip relieved that things seemed to finally working out for us. It all began to make sense. I would go to work at NCR solving our financial and immigration problems. The Hess farm would be our base of operations in the rural areas.
A couple days before our Wedza trip, I was asked by one of the leaders of Chisipite Baptist Church to speak at one of their Sunday services. Chisipite, a white suburb of Harare was in the process of searching for a new pastor to replace the American missionary who had started the work a decade earlier. This would be my first speaking engagement since our arrival. I would speak at the “European” service in the morning as well as at the African service that afternoon. The pastor of their African church, Morgan, would interpret for me. There was a possibility that they might ask me to be pastor.
At the time, I was leaning more strongly toward the NCR job. After all, that job would leave the weekends free to get to the rural areas. And, I really didn’t come to Africa to be pastor of any congregation, especially not a white one! However, we did need a church home in Harare, and we were feeling uncomfortable with Rhema’s emphasis its own worship services and lack of interest in the local African population. On the other hand, Chisipite at least had an African outreach ministry on its premises and had a sincere interest in bible study.
Since the Silks would be returning from their holiday in South Africa, our most urgent task had become finding a new place to live. We couldn’t rent an apartment until I had an offer of employment to satisfy Immigration. I was confident that the NCR job would come through, but we were waiting on final approval from the chief personnel officer who was still out of the country. Rhema had another place for us to housesit and were anxious to get us out of the Silk house guest room before they returned from vacation. All of this house hopping would stop with the NCR job offer and the subsequent residence permit.
We hitched a ride into town to check on that house sitting opportunity, stopping first at the offices of Africa Enterprises. Africa Enterprises was a mission organization specializing in evangelistic efforts to the African population. Chris Sewell, the local director, invited us to participate in outreach efforts in Chinoi and Karoi. He also suggested that there might be a full-time staff position with them for me in the next few months. That was encouraging, but I really was leaning more and more away from “full-time” paid ministry. It would be so much better for me to have a secular job and devote my free time to ministry. A full-time ministry position always seemed to monopolize the time and energy in the constant effort of raising funds.
Encouraged that we now had several opportunities for ministry after only two weeks in the country, we dropped by the Rhema office to get directions to our new “home.” We were shuttled off to a side office as Tom was “too busy” to see us. One of his many ministry assistants advised us that the couple from Rhema who had made this offer had “a change of plans” and Rhema didn’t have anything else for us. It was almost as if Rhema was losing its patience with us and our unsettled immigration status. Could it be that they sensed our discomfort with their monochrome vision of ministry and didn’t want us around? Had our vision for African ministry implied some sort of criticism to which they weren’t open? Well, I wasn’t sure what was going on--it just meant that we had no where to go! A quick phone call to Colin Taylor, our contact at Chisipite Baptist, resulted in an immediate offer for us to stay in his home “anytime.”
Relieved that we would not have to spend our dwindling cash reserves on another hotel stay, we decided to spend the rest of the day looking around Harare for apartments. This thing with Immigration was plaguing us. We couldn’t make any firm plans until we had our residency status sorted out. We would have to keep bouncing from home to home until we got permission to stay in the country longer than 30-60 days. We couldn’t rent yet, but we could at least look and begin to get a feel for our future housing options!
The classified ads in the Herald showed several apartments within walking distance of downtown. We made an appointment to meet the rental agent at one of the apartments in 30 minutes’ time.
It was a beautiful day as we walked the seven blocks to view the apartment. The Jacaranda trees were in their full purple bloom. A gentle morning breeze accompanied us down the sidewalk. It just felt be good to be taking a positive step!
Since our first trip to Immigration, when we had been abruptly “denied” in our residency request, everything was tentative. Our unsettled residency status kept us off-balance. We just couldn’t allow the constantly changing requirements from Immigration to torture us. It seemed that the best way to dispel the clouds of uncertainty was to assume success and continue taking positive actions. We had trusted the Lord enough to get us this far--certainly, the Lord could handle the small detail of residency!
Right: Charles Wekwete from F.O.G. - Family of God
About a block from the apartment we passed a young African man wearing a Christian t-shirt that said, “Worship Jesus with FOG.” We stopped to speak with him for a second. It turned out that “Charles” was a member of a local church, “Family of God” known by the abbreviation, “FOG.” He knew the apartment that we were going to see and escorted us to its door. We toured the apartment. It had two bedrooms, two baths, a nice kitchen area with appliances and a large lounge (living room). It looked out on a small garden. It would be an ideal location for us, but the agent wanted an immediate commitment. Without a final resolution on our residency status, there was no way we could make such a promise. So, rather than encouraging us, the whole episode made us greater urgency to finalize our status with Immigration. We were more frustrated than before!
Leaving the apartment, we walked back the same way we had come. Charles was waiting for us. He invited us to come with him to meet his pastor whose apartment was just two blocks away.
Next: Darkness and FOG
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