Taking Our Show On the Road

Our outdoor meeting was a small success compared to the claims of major ministries. But, it was a start, and not bad for a couple of independent operators who had very little support from the USA. That’s right--very little support! The promises from our Christian “supporters” at home remained unfulfilled. Yes, we had managed to raise the $2400 to pay for airline tickets, but that had been the end of it. If it hadn’t been for the hospitality of our Zimbabwean hosts, we would have nowhere to stay and nothing to eat.

How could we hope to compete for the attention and support of American Christians, especially when those who had promised to assist us refused to communicate with us. We wrote letters every day to our “friends” at home to no avail. We heard nothing. The week following the outdoor meeting at Chisipite, we finally received a package of mail from Arnold and Mary, the couple who had volunteered to run our American ministry affairs.

With great anticipation we opened the package to find several enclosed letters. None of it was good news. There was no news of additional support from our home church, nor from the 150 people on our mailing list to whom we had been sending monthly newsletters with personal notes to each. Instead, there was a note from our “pastor” saying that they would “consider supporting us in the future if there was good fruit from our ministry.”

Pegi and I realized that there was just no way to compete with the American television evangelists. How did our news of 27 converts stack up against the sensationalist claims of of tens of thousands “saved” in sports stadium venues. Nope, we would let the international ministries compete for American support. We only needed food, transport and a roof over our heads. Zimbabweans were more than happy to provide that kind of support as we ministered together with them to promote the kingdom of God.

Every day was a new opportunity for us to be co-workers with Zimbabweans to advance the kingdom of God. Each week we visited St Mary’s township where I led a bible study for about 30 women. Felix had personally introduced us to many of the local African ministries. We had invitations to speak in Harare churches every weekend and most Wednesday evenings. Although Chisipite was still making up their minds about a permanent pastor, they kept us busy in ministry to both the European and African congregations.

On Thursday mornings, I led a “school of ministry” for a half-dozen young men associated with the Chisipite African congregation. I believed working with small groups of motivated believers was the most effective way to not only spread the gospel message, but also to teach those who could in turn “disciple others also” (2 Tim 2:2). After all, Jesus had turned away from the multitudes to work with 12 men who in turn would change the course of religious history.

But, it was time for us to get out of Harare to the rural areas with their large “unreached and unchurched” African populations. Dave Hess had invited us to minister on his farm in Wedza. Felix had grown up in Wedza, so we decided that we should take our “show” on the road to Wedza first.

Two weeks after the Chisipite meeting, Felix, Pegi and I piled into the Alfa-Romeo that had been loaned to us and headed for Wedza. Our actual destination was the Hess farm, but Felix wanted us to see his childhood home first. As his father had passed away, Felix was the owner of a small group of brick and thatch rondavels. The property was outside of the Wedza business district on a hill top.

With Felix on the road to Wedza.

We left Harare about 8:00 am, arriving in Wedza about 9:30. The tarmac ended just past the Wedza bus stop, about 5 miles from Felix’s place. No sooner than we had turned off onto a dirt road that Felix saw a lone woman sitting in front of a large boulder. He had me stop the car. We got out and approached the woman who looked to be in her early sixties. As Felix spoke to her in Shona, he told us she was deaf.

Making signs to her, he asked her if we could pray for her healing. She seemed to understand, bowing her head and closing her eyes. Then he turned to Pegi and me and instructed us to lay our hands on her and pray for her to be healed. Now, we had never done anything like that before! We were open to the possibility of the miraculous, but were personally skeptical. We had been to countless “healing” services, never seeing a verifiable miracle.

Felix insisted that God would heal her, so we placed our hands on her head and meekly asked God to give her back her hearing. After a couple of minutes, when it was evident that nothing had happened, we backed away. Felix approached the woman and spoke to her softly in Shona. She turned and replied to him in Shona, attesting that she could hear again for the first time in years.

Well, we were surprised--we never expected anything like this! So, was she really healed or not? There is no way to know for sure, but she sure seemed happy about the turn of events. Felix sat down with her and shared the story of Jesus with her. A few minutes later, she was praying herself inviting Jesus to be her savior. So, maybe she had only been partially deaf, or not deaf at all. Who knows? But, did it really matter? What seemed to matter was that she was pleased and now claimed to be a member of God’s kingdom. To me, that is all that really counted.  


This was the first of several instances in which people claimed to be healed either as a directly or indirectly associated with our ministry. At the time, we remained skeptical, but began to report these "miracles" in our newsletters as this seemed to be what many of our "supporters" expected in the way of "good fruit," especially our American charismatic friends.  We will discuss this as we begin to travel "The Tobacco Road."

About another half mile and the road became impassable. We got out of the car and walked for about 15 minutes to Felix’s homestead. Taking in the beautiful scenery for a few minutes, we headed back to the car and arrived at the Hess farm just before noon.

Hiking the trail to Felix’s home in Wedza.

The view from Felix’s place in Wedza.

Pegi teaching at Hess Farm with Norman interpreting.

Pegi with Norman and the kids at the Hess Farm.

After lunch Dave took us down to the worker’s compound where his 30 farm workers and their families lived. Once there, we met Norman Kaliombe. Norman was Malawian-born and his father had been a Baptist pastor. For the last few years, Norman had been working on Dave’s dairy farm. But, when Dave discovered that Norman had graduated from a bible school, he took him off dairy duties and paid him as a full-time minister to the other workers. For the last few months, Norman had been leading bible studies on surrounding farms.

He, Felix and I became instant friends and began discussing how we could begin evangelism and planting churches on each of the farms bordering Wedza. Norman was a quiet man and proficient in leading studies. He welcomed Felix’s evangelism skills and my ministry instruction. Before the afternoon was over, we had plans in place to reach a large portion of Wedza with evangelism, church "plants" and ministry training.

As a beginning, Norman gathered all the women and children for a spontaneous bible lesson from Pegi. She quickly put together some visual aids. After she, Felix and I led off with some Shona choruses, she taught her first class in Africa.

This show was on the road!

Next: A Tale of Two Phone Calls