Pray with Zimbabwe, August 13, 2023
Lectionary Selection: Genesis 37:1-4, 12-28
Prayers for Zimbabwe
Heavenly Father, we thank you for the nation and people of Zimbabwe. We thank you for blessing us with a country endowed with natural resources, and we pray that you bless our leaders to use these natural resources responsibly and for the benefit of your people, particularly the poor and the marginalized. Lord, we pray for peace and unity before, during, and after the National Harmonized Elections on 23 August 2023. We pray for a spirit of love and harmony to prevail during this time of elections.
Lord, we pray for the Zimbabwe Council of Zimbabwe (ZCC), its leadership, staff, and all other organizations that promote peace and justice. We pray for all programs it is undertaking around the country, and we ask that you continue to bless all the partners around the world that are supporting the Zimbabwe Council of Churches and its programs.
We pray for the farmers who work tirelessly to produce food for their families. We also pray for the women, children, and those living in poverty due to the socio-economic and political challenges the country is facing. We pray for the lives of young people who are indulging in drug and substance abuse. We offer prayers for individuals motivated by hatred and violence so that they open their hearts to the compassion and love that comes from you.
Amen
Mission Moment from Zimbabwe
Improving livelihoods and enhancing life with dignity for families affected by the Tropical Cyclone Ana disaster
In January 2022, Tropical Storm Ana hit Zimbabwe. The cyclone affected 12 districts, including parts of the Mutasa and the Bikita districts, resulting in severe damage and destruction of homes and loss of property and livelihoods. The ZCC, with support from Global Ministries, implemented a Disaster Recovery Program in the Mutasa district, which supported 120 households. Of those beneficiaries, forty families received small livestock, chickens, building materials, fencing, and garden seeds for setting up a community garden. The program was successful and provided the community with resources to improve the livelihoods and resilience of families to adapt and mitigate future disasters.
In the Bikita district, the ZCC, with support from Global Ministries, supported six affected households with shelter reconstruction materials consisting of cement, roofing poles, sheets, and labor for renovating and constructing a two-room house to ensure life with dignity in the aftermath of a cyclone disaster in Bikita ward 31.
Sam Mamutse, a father of 13 children, married to two wives, is one of the affected families supported. His family survived more than five months without a proper house after the cyclone, and it was the most troublesome time they faced in their lives. With limited resources, they built a small hut that was inadequate to accommodate the whole family. Other family members, including children, were sleeping at neighbors’ homes, which burdened the community.
Sam was grateful for the support and alluded, “I was facing a very big challenge in my life, but now not anymore. I am a father of 13 children. The cyclone destroyed our two-roomed house. My family had no resources to reconstruct the house. We just managed to construct a small hut. I was happy when we saw building materials offloaded at our place to build a house. A local builder who ZCC paid came to build the house. The ZCC and Global Ministries interventions directly changed my life because we slept in one room with 13 children. Today, when I see my children living well under this roof, the feeling I get cannot be explained.”
Besides the shelter support, the ZCC, with support from Global Ministries, also capacitated 87 community leaders in Community-Based Disaster Risk Reduction (CBDRR) in the same area.
The training identified disaster risks, vulnerabilities, and community capacities. The training covered topics that included hazard mapping, climate change-induced displacements, vulnerability and capacity assessment, and the development of community adaption action plans. The project also created early warning systems for the community using social media platforms such as WhatsApp groups and text messages that would be used for information dissemination to the rest of the community. The ZCC and Global Ministries disaster recovery support in Bikita restored life with dignity for cyclone-affected households. It also equipped the community to prevent future disasters.
Mission Partners in Zimbabwe
- United Theological College – Harare
- Zimbabwe Synod-UCCSA
- Zimbabwe Council of Churches
- United Church of Christ in Zimbabwe (UCCZ)
- Christian Care
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