Under the Big Top

Now that we were based in Wedza, it was no longer a big deal to get to the rural areas--we lived in the rural areas.  The rural areas held a sort of mystique.  Since the end of the war rural Zimbabweans were free to leave what had been Tribal Trust Lands (TTLs).

Under white minority-rule, blacks were restricted to the TTLs.  Living in the white-ruled urban centers required a job.  Urban residency for blacks was usually in servant's quarters or in townships on the outskirts of town.  A township was a high-density suburb composed of thousands of one-room cement-brick buildings with tin or asbestos roofs.  This housing was no better than servant's quarters.  The only advantage it had was that it also had small shops and beer halls that catered to the African working class.  The townships were and still are not very nice places to live.

With independence, Zimbabweans flocked by the hundreds of thousands to the urban centers with the hope of a better living.  But, nothing really changed in the cities.  Sure, a few black government officials and others who had begun to accumulate wealth were able to purchase some of the formerly white-owned homes in the suburbs.  However, most blacks just ended up in the ever-expanding townships that surrounded cities such as Harare.

Under black majority-rule, the rural areas benefited from government support and a massive infusion of capital and resources.  The TTLs had been the heart of the insurgency and had suffered the most from the fighting.  It was in these lands that insurgents had found succor and from which the insurgency drew its resources, both willing and unwilling.  Rural citizens were in the crossfire.  The ideal of black self-government appealed to many, but the tactics of intimidation and frequent insurgent-led massacres were matched by intimidation and threat of death at the hands of white-ruled government's Security Forces. The sad truth is that this was not simply a matter of white versus black.  For the rural people, it was often black insurgents demanding allegiance at the pain of torture and death versus black and white government forces who also demanded allegiance.

During the war the surrounding white farms were armed camps.  The white farmers walled off their residences with security fences topped with razor-wire.  Every white family was well-armed and had the Security Forces to come to their rescue.

The black farm workers lived outside the fence and found themselves constantly forced to feed and shelter the guerrillas.  During the day, the whites dominated.  At night, no one moved lest they be caught in the crossfire.

For those who lived in the city, violent incidents were rare until the very end of the war.  But for rural areas such as Wedza, violence was their constant companion.  With the ceasefire and subsequent elections, the reputation of rural areas as the sacred center of the liberation struggle had been firmly established in the minds of blacks and whites alike.

Wedza was prototypical.  Old mission stations had been renovated as government-run schools.  Bus stops became centers of commerce.  The Wedza administrative center was the headquarters for the police, the local ZANU-PF Patriotic Front Communist Party and the place where building, business, education and all types of permits were processed.

Rural society was no longer based strictly on a tribal model.  Tribe was still a factor, especially with regard to land ownership and burial rights.  However, the new model was "communal" with the people from different families bonding together to work communal projects such as farms and businesses.  Rural areas that had been restrictive for Africans during Rhodesia were now transformed into a social experiment rooted in African pride united with the socialist ideals of the liberation struggle.

The dirt roads that led from the main highways to the major business centers were now paved.  It was no longer necessary to travel the 90-minute ride to the white-owned businesses in Marondera to get seed, fertilizer or building materials.  These were now available in strategic locations throughout Wedza.

All black Zimbabweans were entitled to ownership of land in the former TTLs.  And, although it was possible for black Zimbabweans to purchase the white-owned farms that surrounded the former TTLs, whites were not allowed to purchase land in Wedza.  In 1984, most of the surrounding farms were still owned by whites such as Dave Hess.  There were just a few farms that had been purchased by blacks.  This status quo would continue until 2000 when the twenty-year Lancaster House Agreement that had led to majority rule elections in 1980 had expired.  At that time, Prime Minister Mugabe encouraged his former comrades-in-arms to dig up their old weapons caches and take many of the white farms by force.  Twenty years later the international community was no longer paying attention.

There were few Christians who cared about the black African workers living in brick, mud and thatch huts on white-owned farms.  We were invited to come minister to the workers by the white farm owners since we lived just down the "Tobacco Road" and word was passed from worker to worker about our meetings, our films and our singing.  We were the only entertainment in the neighborhood!  The African farm workers seemed to like us.  So, as we sought to "plant" church groups on farms, the white owners saw us keeping their labor force happy.  Actually, I don't think most of them cared at all about the spiritual condition of their workers--they just thought that whatever we did would "pacify" them.

Most missionaries and Christian ministries in general focused on the urban centers in Zimbabwe.  The urban centers boasted large population centers.  In addition, working in the urban centers meant that ministries could enjoy the post-colonial way of life that was still thriving.  To venture out onto the farms and the frightening rural areas was rare.  After all, farm workers didn't make much money and didn't represent a financial base for a church.  It was much better to stay in Harare and focus on ministry to whites and up-and-coming blacks.  Ministries run on money and the city was where the money was.

Over the next few months we established a pattern of ministry on farms on weeknights.  Norman would then follow-up with Bible studies on those farms on Sundays.  We quickly had six farm churches "planted" with Norman taking the itinerant teaching role.


On weekdays we would meet with area pastors.  I started holding "Schools of Ministry" several days a week for young men who showed promise as leaders.  Our hope was to base the "graduates" on various farms to serve as pastors for the new congregations.  Norman would lend supervision and guidance to the younger men.


We also held Bible studies and led Sunday services for white farmers and their families.  Most of these were part of a small church that Dave had been helping lead for several years.  Working with the white Zimbabweans allowed me to teach in English for a cultural group to whom I could relate.  At the same time, the evangelistic work among the blacks contributed to my sense of "mission."


On some Sunday evenings we would make the two-hour drive to Harare to attend worship services at Rhema.  Their contemporary style musical worship appealed to Pegi and me and gave us an opportunity to be "off-duty" for a little while.


However, we still had not really penetrated to the center of Wedza.  We had made a few visits with Felix to his childhood home and had met some of the more prominent citizens.  It was time for us stretch out from the Tobacco Road farms to reach the larger populations in Wedza-proper.  We made plans with Felix to travel to the administrative center to get all the necessary permissions to minister in Wedza.  We borrowed Dave's pickup and drove to Police HQ where we were introduced to the Police Commissioner.


The Commissioner had the rank of colonel and invited us in for tea.  We explained to him our desire to proclaim the Christian gospel.  He had that suspicious air of authority which always makes me feel nervous, as if I was some sort of criminal trying to sneak in to Wedza.  However, after a 30-minute conversation in English, he gave us permission to speak in schools, homes and to even hold outdoor meetings.

At the Commissioner's suggestion, our next visit was to the home of the local Communist Party Political Commissar.  He turned out to be a former Methodist pastor.  When invited into his study for tea, he wanted to know specifically what we were going to be teaching.  So, I gave him a simple explanation of how Jesus had died for his sins and that faith in Jesus as his substitute freed him from penalty of sin.  This is pretty straightforward Christian doctrine, so I was surprised when he showed interest as if he had never heard such a thing before!

I was carrying a Bible and started to show him some passages.  When he saw my Bible, he got excited saying, "Oh! I have several Bibles!"  He then reached onto a shelf under his desk and pulled out an old leather Bible from a stack of books and literally blew a thick layer of dust off of it before opening it!  This was really strange to me.  It wasn't that a minister was head of the local communist party.  I could understand that as I had never bought into the idea that being a Christian made you a capitalist.  I simply wondered what he had taught as a Methodist minister all those years if it wasn't from the Bible!

I knew that were many ministers from a variety of Christian denominations who were not Christians the way I understood it.  But to think that he really had not even a rudimentary knowledge of the Gospels in the Bible--that was strange to me at the time.

Since that time, I have learned by experience that being raised in a religious tradition, even being a religious professional, guarantees nothing in the way of common understanding.  We live in a diverse world and people go to different places in their minds based on their life experiences.  I encounter this daily teaching my students of world religions.  I have met Christians who don't understand the importance of the resurrection, Jews who don't ever think about God, (including a Rabbi who is an atheist), Muslims who don't understand the Five Pillars, Hindus and Buddhists who don't believe in karma, etc.)

After praying with the Methodist minister/Political Commissar to accept Jesus as his personal savior, we left his home, not only with the necessary permissions, but with his offer to use the local Youth Brigade of the Communist Party as ushers for an outdoor meeting.  I was hesitant about using the Youth Brigade as ushers as I felt they might intimidate the audience, but thanked him and departed.

We began to plan to return the next week with Norman, Felix and a few other young African ministers to have five days of meetings culminating in a Saturday evening outdoor meeting about a kilometer from the bus stop.  We would need a tent as it was now June and the beginning of winter.  It happened that I had made contact with the leaders of the African Evangelical Fellowship who had a Bible school in the Highfield township of Harare.  They also had a large tent that we could use which could be transported in a pickup truck.  With the flaps of the tent raised, we could squeeze 500-800 people inside.

This was going to be exciting!  It would be our first time to conduct a meeting "under the Big Top."

Next:  But You Were Invited!