TIA

Do you remember in Blood Diamond when Leonardo DiCaprio keeps saying, "TIA .. This is Africa" whenever something corrupt or dangerous happens? It's sad, but often, that is Africa. There's a lot of beauty there as well, and amazingly good things happening, but it's hard to ignore all the bad.

I haven't posted anything too heavy in a while .. but I'm going to mix something in now. I received a newsletter from a good friend, Helen, in Hong Kong. She's a bit older than me, and a musician. In 1991 she spent a year in Zimbabwe living with a family there and teaching and serving in a clinic. She still talks about Zimbabwe all the time, and keeps a close watch on what's happening there. She never stops praying for the country or trying to find a way she can make a personal impact, even on just one person there. She's an amazing person.

You may remember that several months ago, when I was still in HK, I mentioned Helen and what was happening to her friends, John and Jenny, in Zimbabwe. Basically, John and Jenny are both white (and are from there) and as you may or may not know, that can be a dangerous thing to be in that country. Their neighbors wanted their land, so they accused John and Jenny of training children to overthrow the gorvernment when in fact John and Jenny run Christian camps for children out of their home. John was arrested, and in a place with a very corrupt legal system, he was sure to get the death penalty. Since then a whole series of events came together and Helen ended up going back to Zimbabwe in June to help however she could for a few weeks. I copied and pasted what she wrote below. I just think it’s important to remember that, while we can be so insulated here in the U.S., awful things happen out there that we need to pray for. But I also wanted you to read this because you can see that despite his circumstances, John kept Christ at the center and was able to triumph. I can't even begin to imagine what it must have been like - imprisoned when you're innocent and facing death.

Here's what Helen said (Jim is Helen's husband):

In the two weeks I was there, there were many conversations – about memories and events from seemingly so long ago, and all that had happened, especially this year. Can you imagine being wakened at around 2am, with no warning of what was to happen, for your youngest daughter to answer the door and have an AK47 shoved in her face, and then to have military personnel storm your property – over 400 special forces had cordoned off the area surrounding John’s property – and to see helicopter gunships hovering over your home, as you were thrown into the back of a truck and taken to an unknown destination for questioning?

As John described his weeks in prison, in a cholera, HIV, lice infested cell, he also reflected on a theme that Jim and I have heard – and read – so many times from believers who have suffered imprisonment.

‘I was free in there – more free than most people are on the outside. I was free to pray, to read the Word, to share with my fellow prisoners. Bars and locks and prison guards and HIV could not stop those things.’

Many prisoners were severely beaten, and John told me that he would lie on the cell floor at night waiting for the door to open and for him to be taken out for similar punishment. It didn’t happen. When John became so sick that he was finally allowed to be taken to the hospital, he had five armed guards accompany and guard him in intensive care, and leg irons chained to him.

His case was brought to the Supreme Court in early March– and thrown out by the judge. And it had all started with someone wanting to take over his neighbour’s land! John and Jenny have established and run for some years now Tree of Life adventure camps. It is an incredible enterprise which I was able to witness in action when I was there. The accusations against John and his two neighbours were directly linked with these camps- that instead of adventure, activities of a more subversive kind were taking place.

As John and Jenny reminded me again – ‘This is Africa’.