Untukmu Para Pengunjung

Rochelle and I have been in Murehwa this week with the Zimbabwe School for Youth Leadership. This is the second of five gatherings with the young people, and we are really pleased with how the school is developing. Fifteen youth managed to make it to Murehwa, which means that 15 out of 18 regions in Zimbabwe are represented by an emerging young leader. We had a full complement of 18 a couple of weeks ago, but one bailed because the course was too difficult and two couldn't raise enough money to make it Harare to take the bus with us (we found out too late). We're not happy about this, as their regional leaders made the decision not to invest in this programme (or their youth). Two other regions made the same decision, but we were able to find funding for them in time.

In addition to seminars and workshops, the youth will be involved in community home visits and open-air meetings in various community townships. Most of them are doing really well with their course work and assignments. We are very proud of every one of them.

I came back to Harare today, but Rochelle will stay with the group until Saturday. When I arrived in town this afternoon, I was walking to work from the bus terminal and noticed a heavy presence of police armed with AK-47s in the streets. The police had blocked off a major area of the downtown core and people were forced to walk many streets out of their way. When I looked down one of the main streets it looked like a deserted city. It turns out that the police were arresting members of the opposition party (including the opposition leader) and had blocked the major streets near the party headquarters.

Things are getting very tense here these days. The economy is very bad (it's beyond deteriorating) and the political situation is becoming more and more violent. Obviously this puts a lot of stress on our day-to-day life, but more importantly, we are worried about the Zimbabwean people who have to live through this chaos. Things are escalating, so please continue to pray for the people of Zimbabwe. Many of them still remember the horrors of the last war that happened in this country, and no one wants to experience another one.