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Theological College of Zimbabwe - Summer 2004
Zimbabwe News - 6/8/2004 Things are going well, well at least we are enjoying everything * meeting many people and
building relationships. As for the work, well we are a bit behind schedule, the tower will go
up next week instead of this week, which is fine I suppose. We are learning a lot, Lindsay is
learning to cook haha. We are learning much about TCZ and the importance of the college, and
also about the political and economic strife here. It's all very eye opening, especially
hearing the stories. Lindsay & Brendon Zimbabwe News - 6/9/2004Dear Friends, Family, distant relatives, pets & twice removed sisters, :) Brendon and I have been in Zimbabwe for a full two weeks now & we have already learned many valuable lessons: such as in order to get things down at a moderate to fast speed you must go through at least 5 people! Another lesson is that relationships must come first no matter if you are on a deadline or exhausted. The professors, students and workers at TCZ are some of the friendliest people we have ever met. We feel very lucky to be able to partner with TCZ and get to meet and befriend some of these remarkable people. The other night, Brendon and I had a chance to hear a testimony from a 4th yr. student named Oscar. Oscar shared with us how TCZ has impacted his own life & has prepared him for a life of ministry. Oscar originally wanted to be a teacher then an engineer, but God kept slamming doors. After so many disappointing attempts at a career, Oscar took to heart the passage in proverbs which states: "Many our the plans in a man's heart, but the Lord's purpose shall prevail." God brought Oscar to TCZ, and he has been a light to the community ever since. This past weekend, Brendon and I had a chance to go to a game park with Derek Jones, a church history professor here at TCZ, and the Lockwood family (4 kids and all. While on our great adventure in the African bush, we got very close (20 ft) to elephants, lions, giraffes, and crocodiles. It was amazing to see all the animals in their natural environment. Derek was our unofficial tour guide (since he has been to the park over 30 times), he regaled us with stories about lions coming into the camping ground we were staying at and chewing up sandals and what not. Unfortunately we did not have any lions visit our tent, but we did wake up in the middle of the night to the sound of them. We are still in the mist of putting up our wind tower, and have run into many problems. Just as Brendon and I were getting frustrated, Christ provided for us. Last night we found a company that was able to thread our poles for a very cheap price! Praise God! Ever other place we visited had very expensive prices, and since we have only raised 50 percent of our funds, our budget is very tight. Matt (our advisor for DE) jokingly threatened to sell our plane- tickets home * so that we would have enough funds for the rest of our time here. Please pray that God will provide the rest of the funds we need. Praises: Requests: Love from Zimbabwe! Dear Friends, Brendon and I have experienced quite the week and weekend. Umm where to start. We went into this week hoping to complete our wind tower and had it mounted and ready to go on my birthday (June 17th). So for the beginning of the week, we worked our tushies off trying to do last minute work. By Wednesday we were all set for the mounting of my "birthday monument." After tea-time on Thursday, we gathered about 25 guys from TCZ and set out to lift the 18 meter tower with 3 guy wires, a ladder, and some strong hands. The wind tower was about half way up when all of sudden I saw it start to bend, for a second I didn't know whether I should have run underneath it to save the anemometer and sacrifice my body. Needless to say, I did not sacrifice my body and the anemometer shattered, along with our pole breaking in two key places.For a good ten minutes everyone just looked around in bewilderment, because honestly I thought we were home-free. From the beginning this wind tower has been a struggle for both Brendon and I. Throughout it all God has been teaching us that he is in control. Though the pole buckling was quite the disappointment, Brendon and I were still able to enjoy my birthday. Some of my friends at the college organized a "special" lunch for me. I have wanted to taste Africaan food, and bothering my friend Charmaine to make me some. So for my birthday I was treated to a taste of Africana food. We ate biltong (dried jerky with chili seasoning), cow tongue, and pudding (Zimbabwe word for deserts). That night the Lockwoods threw a birthday dinner for me at their house. We ate a delicious dinner, had birthday cake, and played games. Overall my birthday was wonderful and I felt very lucky to share it with the people I did. On Friday, my friend Charmaine took Brendon and me to Chipangali Wildlife Orphanage. Charmaine has a friend who works at the shelter, and he took us into some of the cages to play with the "big cats". We first went into a cage with a leopard named Razor. She was very friendly and loved to rub herself up against our knees, except when she did it was really hard. While she was rubbing herself against my knees all of sudden I felt a nip. I lifted up my pant leg and I had teeth marks where she nipped me. A leopard took a nip at my leg!! Brendon also received a lovely little nip on his ankle. I still have the mark along with a nice bruise. Next we went into the "baby lions" cage. Let me just tell you, they look nothing like "baby lions". They were about 1 year old, and very very playful. At first the lions were not very friendly; they just rested on the ground, which was fine with me, but then they started to get quite a bit friendly. Charmaine at one point knelt down to take a picture of me with one the lions, and the next thing I know she was attacked. It is natural instinct of a lion to pouch on something smaller then its self. After that point my heart was beating so fast, that I could not stay calm. Lions smell fear, and prey on animals which show fear. So there I am stuck in a lion cage against a fence with two lion cubs at my sides. At one point, both the cubs were staring Brendon down for about 10 minutes, not moving their eyes from him. The next thing I know one of lion cubs came over and bit my hand (in a playful manner) and then started licking my pant leg. The other cub put his entire mouth around Brendon's thigh. Luckily we made it out okay, with just a few bruises. As far as this week, we are busy reconstructing the pole and collecting data for our load analysis, for those who are interested; it's basically forming a list of every electrical load on campus and noting its specifications. Along with forming a list, it requires taking pictures and conducting interviews on usage and so on. Prayer Requests: Brendon & Lindsay Zimbabwe News - 6/29/2004Dear friends, Weeks are flying by, and Brendon and I find ourselves with lots of work to do on the load analysis. In order to assess the energy needs of the college, we have to document and measure each room for electricity uses (such as computers, lights, etc). We are just about done with the main building on campus; we have a couple of interviews left to tackle. As for the rest of the campus we hope to finish everything (including organizing data) by July 10th..give or take.. so please pray that we stay focused and are motivated to finish the load analysis. This past weekend, we experienced a beautiful part of God's creation: Victoria Falls. The Lockwoods took us up for the weekend, and it was brilliant. We hiked around the falls and got soaked. Victoria Falls has its own rainforest because of the mist that shoots up from the pounding water. While hiking around it was wonderful to take time to enjoy God's creation. That night, Michelle Lockwood took us out to The Boma to experience different types of game meat. We ate crocodile tail, kudu stew, impala steak, warthog and mupani worms. Our favorite game meat by far was the warthog .. sooo GOOD!! It was an all night event with singing, dancing, and drums playing. Overall it was a great time. Hope all is well in the States! Sending Love from Zimbabwe, Brendon & Lindsay |
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