Zimbabwe summit reflects on plans for future

Shortly after Bishop John Schol recounted some of the conference’s success stories in
Zimbabwe to about 50 people gathered in the Conference Center for the Zimbabwe Summit Feb. 27, the telephone rang. It was a call from Zimbabwe.

The Rev. Philip Mashorew, assistant to Bishop Eben Nhiwatiwa, was calling from an Internet Café in Mutare.

He assured listeners that the political and economic situation "is relatively stable, the church is doing relatively well."

Sometimes it was difficult to hear the words through the crackles and static in the call, but the message was clear – the Zimbabwe annual conferences were grateful for the help the Baltimore-Washington Conference has extended since the Zimbabwe Partnership began in 1996.

Bishop Schol highlighted some of the successes:

• Instituting pastors’ training schools for clergy, most of whom are local pastors without seminary training; next on the agenda is laity training;
• Building churches, schools, clinics;
• Providing pesticide nets to families to prevent malaria – the only conference distributing them; along with the nets goes training on how to use them.

Participants at the summit included members from 20 churches. The packed agenda reviewed various ministries in Zimbabwe, both active and upcoming.

The Rev. Terri Rae Chattin illustrated the success of the pastors schools, the first in 1999 when 30 from the conference "did all the teaching," to last year’s school with a small group and "we did only about 25 percent of the teaching."

There were about 360 local pastors and Elders who jammed the chapel on Africa University’s campus. Many were women, a huge change from 10 years ago, Chattin said.

Charlie Moore from Community UMC in Crofton and Jim Gourley from Nichols-Bethel UMC, have both made many trips to Zimbabwe. Gourley recently returned from five months as a volunteer. They discussed infrastructure problems and the immense need for broadband communications infrastructure, not only to connect the 12 UM conferences and the Zimbabwe Episcopal Area, but for communications with the rest of the world.

With help from Bel Air UMC, "we were able to buy our first satellite. It’s reliable but slow by our standards," Gourley said. Western Pennsylvania Conference provided another satellite and the partnership is expanding.

Participants repeatedly brought up education concerns, an item that was not on the agenda. "Make education a priority," urged the Rev. Gladman Kapfunvuti. Several commented that without education, there is a bleak future for moving ahead in the country.

Especially passionate about schooling was Lynn Norman from Oak Chapel who has gone 12 times to Zimbabwe.

During the time when schools were closed, "Zimbabwe lost many teachers to other countries. … It’s very expensive to send kids to school," said Zimbabwean Roger Gurira, who with his wife was visiting grown children in the area.

"It will probably take a generation," Moore said, before schools will be fully operational again. The education system was, he emphasized, "a jewel in the crown, but it has suffered in the last 10 years."

Also presented during the summit were other areas of involvement and concern:

• Agriculture: From 1980-1990, "Zimbabwe was the bread basket of Africa," said the Rev. Byron Brought. "But because of land reallocation and drought, agriculture has fallen, … field after field lie empty."
• Shipping containers: The Rev. Robert Slade outlined plans for shipping containers to be made available in order to collect and ship needed resources, enabling the conference to send much needed medical equipment. Many volunteers will be needed to work at the container sites.
• Construction: UMVIM teams can help with construction of schools, churches, clinics, hospitals and parsonages, but "there is always room for more," Gourley said.
• Zimbabwean pastors’ support: Moore presented a plan initiated by the Rev. Steve Rettenmayer to provide supplemental salary support for 30 Zimbabwean pastors and their families.

Funding for many of the initiatives and projects came from the Hope Fund, which raised $600,000 specifically for the partnership.

According to Jo Chesson, project manager, Hope Fund money was used for the pastors’ schools, the building of churches, clinics and parsonages, the purchase of a vehicle, emergency relief for food during the famine, nets to prevent malaria and the international Zimbabwe Summit held last year.

The Zimbabwe Partnership is the largest program of the Grow Mission team, said Chattin, co-leader of Grow Mission. "This summit has helped us look at where we’ve been, how to work together, and where to go in the future," she said. "It’s not to duplicate but to multiply. The next steps will be exciting."