Tania Davis' Feedback from Zimbabwe Outreach

  • Tania Davis
  • Oct 20, 2009

God always has His timing right.  The planning for this trip to Zimbabwe only really happened over the two weeks prior to our departure.  Stephan, who had originally planned to go with Alan and his family, could no longer make it, and he asked Anthony to go along.  The Lombards’s were joining us and now three families were planning to do this outreach.  Totally new to this, it seemed overwhelming yet challenging.  I think our biggest fear was having the correct documentation for the border post. The Lombard’s, but particularly Lee-Anne was great at sourcing and organizing things we needed to take along.

On the Friday, we left Middelburg and everything at Urban Life Church went well.  We loaded 100 food parcels into the trailers and our time to the border was looking good.  We were also taking an extra passenger, Nicholas Majaya, the apostolic leader for the Triangle area in Zimbabwe.  When we arrived at the border post it was humid and hot, but we were ready for anything.  It was really not as nerve-wrecking as what I had thought it would be. We decided to use runners (men that go ahead and complete the necessary forms and stand in the queues on your behalf, but not without getting paid).  It only took us about an hour.  It seemed a life time though and I must admit my need to continuously know what is happening was truly challenged, as all I could do was to be patient and pray.  With our nerves in tact and very well behaved children in the back seat we proceeded to the Tree Ways Safari Lodge. We had stayed there before and they were very accommodating.  We arrived there just after seven. Shame, poor Hannah Lombard got bitten by the caretakers wild Jack -Russell. Luckily with a lot of love from all and a bit of dettol and germaline, she survived (I was just so happy to use my first-aid kit).  Our objective on the Saturday morning was to transport 100 food parcels to the church in Triangle.  As Stephan and Allan had previously done, this seemed easy and should be an enjoyable experience for all.  Reflecting on it now, this was truly the time God revealed His special plan for us.   We ended up doing three food drops and drove to a remote rural village on the way to Triangle.  What a truly amazing experience and I think all of us were fairly unprepared for the challenges ahead.

Our challenges were: no clear idea where we were going; Lombard’s car; having to transport Saphisa back to the first village and driving at night.  God took care of everything!  He took us safely to the mountain village and we shared a meal with the people there, Allan with is genus skill knew how to fix Lombard’s car and Saphisa could see us struggling and decided to use a off road short cut to the village.  And needless to say we arrived safely at the lodge at about seven fifteen.  Praise God!

What always stands out for me at the end of such an adventure is how we immerse ourselves in God’s grace and goodness and we rely on Him to bring us through the  challenges, where this is often not the case in our day to day walk with Him.  I give all the glory to God for the success of the rip and will continously seek more of Him and more opportunities to build His Kingdom on earth - and by the way the kids loved it!!!!

Tania Davis.