Zimbabwe Trip

This will be a long entry. I hope you will read through.

Peter Shin and I embarked on a scouting trip to Zimbabwe on Jan 9. Our goal was to investigate the possibility of developing a long-term (10-20 years) partnership with a local pastor, Tatenda Gonguow, in holistic mission, that is, a community development via education, job-creation as well as preaching the gospel and care of orphans. Feeding the poor and care of orphans do not provide long-term sustainability. Only holistic mission can. Peter and I went to see if such relationship would be possible.

Zimbabwe is currently one of the poorest nations in the world. What once was the bread basket of the southern Africa has disintegrated to quadrallion percentage (that is three zeros to billion) inflation in one year. People travel to neighboring countries to buy the basic necessities of life. Intellectuals and skilled people, whether doctors or engineers, have fled the country, and the naiton has been in a free fall, especially in the past decade. Interestingly, I found out during this trip the president Mugabe had his officers trained by North Korea! Being a Korean-American, I somehow feel I share in the responsibility even more.

Our trip met an immediate road block. When Peter and I arrived at the Newark Int'l airport, we discovered that our reservation had been cancelled. My agent had booked our flight the day before he left for vacation before Christmas and handed the case to another agent, and he had neglected to notify us that the airline had cancelled our flight. So, Peter and I stood at the airport with large bags--those large vinyl bags Koreans used when they immigrated to the US--filled with underwear for the orphans and medicine with no flight. I called the agent. He told us to go back home. No seat available on the flight! We could not do that we said; all schedules were booked. We were to meet different groups of people in Zimbabwe, some from the US, etc. The only flight that he could find was a different airline at a different airport, JFK, in three hours. But, we had only a confirmed flight from JFK to Nairobi. No tickets were confirmed from Nairobi to Harare, Zimbabwe, or the return ticket back home. We asked the agent to book our flight to Zimbabwe and back to JFK by the time we arrive in Kenya, and took a cab from Newark to JFK. Thus, our adventure began.

The trip brought several unexpected fruits. First was the taxi ride from Newark to JFK. The driver, a Haitian, picked up on our conversation. When he found out that we were Christians, he told us to pray for his family and friend. We were able to encourage him and his family to find a church and commit themselves to it instead of getting anxious about finance. Right there in the car, he called his wife to tell her the same. Secondly, in the flight from JFK to Zurich, Peter sat next to a radiologist from Monclair, NJ, a non-practicing Catholic. They talked the whole time for nearly 7 hours, and Peter led him in prayer right in the plane. The man was moved by our mission, he gave $100 for Zimbabwe, which we later passed to Pastor Tatenda. Finally, when we got to Nairobi, we were picked up by Dr. and Mrs. James Jongdo Lee, 13-year-missionaried who run a Bible college in Kenya. This contact was made at the last minute also the night before we left. We had to stay overnight to catch the connecting flight, and did not want to risk getting a cab and being driven to some scary place, and had been searching for a contact in Nairobi. What was supposed to an overnight stay turned out a two-day stay. Had it not been Dr. Lee, our time would have been wasted. But because of Dr. Lee, who also is involved in holistic missions, we learned what to avoid in missions. Further, through him we met with a key person in World Vision, whose headquarters for the entire Africa operation is in Nairobi, only about 30 min. away from Dr. Lee's home. Dr. Lee knew some key people in World Vision, and Peter and I were able to set up an appointment and ask the World Vision director important questions about community development, in which World Vision is one of the leaders. When we finally arrived in Zimbabwe, we were able to do all that we planned to do within the shortened stay. Had we arrived earlier, in fact, Peter and I agreed, we would have had complications. Thus, the nervous detour, I am convinced was planned by God. It was not our plan, but it seems clear that it was His.

Throughout the trip, Peter and I experienced closed doors every step of the way, which opened up at the last minute. First was the ticket from JFK to Nairobi. When we arrived in Nairobi, we discovered the agent had not found us flight from Nairobi to Harare. He left for the weekend in utter irresponsibility and made himself unavailable through cell phone either. We waited for two days, and when we could not reach him, we bought round trip tickets to Harare--we had no choice. We found late night flight--departing a few hours after the time we bought the tickets. Had we not found the late night flight, we would have never met the group that we were supposed to in Harare, so another door opening. After spending time in Harare, we boarded the flight back to Nairobi, without the assurance of flight from Nairobi to JFK. The agent had booked us for Jan 20 tickets. Even in doubt, Peter and I proclaimed that God would open doors. When we got to Nairobi, we found out that our desired flight was completely booked, and we would be wait-listed at numbers 19 and 20! Not a good sign. We might have to purchase expensive one-way tickets back, which we did not want to. The agent at the airport turned out to be God-sent, an angel. She nogotiated with the airline and moved us within 45 min. from numbers 19 and 20 to 3 and 4. Still not good enough. We waited longer. Within next 30 min. we had boarding passes. We were on our way home!

The experience taught me a few lessons:
1. The mission to Zimbabwe would not be so easy. It will have many obstacles. We will see closed doors. We will have to pray much.
2. But God will come through. If we believe, and keep on believing, the door will be open, often at the last minute.
3. The unplanned detours are planned by God. In those detours we encounter people and experiences that God had planned for us, that we need. The detours are a part of God's divine plan.

Presently we are planning a return trip with a larger group in July/Aug. We want to bring a team of medical personnel, computer trainers and teachers. So many are sick, and when they hear about a doctor coming, people gather in masses. Seeing a doctor is like seeing Jesus for them. Computer personnel will help the local church train trainers. Finally, we want to bring teachers who will teach the orphans a week-long intensive English and/or Math. Hospitals, and schools have mostly shut down. Even a week of training will do so much for them.

If interested, please contact Melanie Kim @ hmelaniekim@gmail.com.

I am also looking for people who will go long-term. They are so desperately needed.

Thanks for reading.