Richard & Debbie Lee Newsletter August 2007
Richard & Debbie Lee Newsletter August 2007
We have been smuggling our belongs out of the country in bits and pieces and have gotten most of the smaller things out and in Zambia. But, the motor vehicles are difficult. We know the bank manager of Barclays Bank very well and she is going to assist us with the required paperwork. To get any type of removals is very expensive. When our son, Zane, moved out over three years ago, it cost him over $10,000US!
Nothing is simple or straight forward in this part of the world. If you don't know someone, you have very little chance of accomplishing anything. The entire system is run on patronage and bribing officials for anything and everything.
In Bulawayo, where we are living at the moment, we have cuts of electricity up to eight hours a day; water is switched off for days at a time; and phones seldom work, so everyone has a cell phone, which is very expensive to use. Basic food stuffs are not available, fuel can only be bought on the black market, and queues are a daily part of life. We are so blessed and more fortunate than so many in that we have US$ and can go to South Africa to buy things. Meat and eggs are just not available, as well as many other food stuffs that are a daily requirement! The government is also starting to make it more difficult to bring things back into Zimbabwe through the border crossings.
The population has shrunk from nearly thirteen million to eight million due to AIDS deaths and deaths from famine and lack of medical drugs and facilities. The average longevity in Zimbabwe is now in the region of thirty-two years and there are three million refugees out in the country. One in four children is an orphan -- the highest in the world -- and one in three has HIV/AIDS.
The economy does not exist anymore. Inflation is officially 4,700%; but, in reality, it is about 10,000%. The church is seen as being in opposition to the Government and is, consequently, under threat. The church leadership is vilified in the press, harassed by the CIO, and arrested on a regular basis. Zimbabwe is not a fun place to live in anymore!!
I go up to Zambia for about two weeks in the month, where I live in a grass hut with no roof and cook on an open fire. My toilet is a privet and I bathe from a bucket and sleep on a mattress on the ground. When you are approaching 65, it becomes somewhat hard work. Debbie stays home to take care of things here and our animals. I can't expect her to live in these conditions with me. It is hard for us to be parted like this. But, Lord willing, it won't be for too long now. She also gets to go to South Africa to visit with her sister who is just across the border and also does shopping for things we havee to have. She can't travel by herself on that stretch of road anymore as there have been so many incidents lately. So, she finds someone who is going down and travels in a convoy with them to the border.
The last time we went up to Zambia together, we stopped at a layby to have our coffee and sandwiches (we leave home at 4 a.m.) and we got attacked by four black men. On grabbed Debbie by the arm and threw her to the ground and stole her bag with all our money, drivers' licenses,, bank cards, phone cards, etc. She tried to fight the attacker and scratched his face while trying to put her fingers in his eyes. But he was just too strong for her and her knees were badly hurt as she fell on the gravel. We carry a butcher knife in our vehicle, just for this sort of thing, and I managed to fight two of them off, injuring one quite severely on his hand and back. One came at me with a two-foot iron bar but, as I turned and he saw the knife, he threw the bar and hit my cup of coffee out of my hand and hit me in the chest, which left me badly bruised. The other two then ran off. It was a real nasty experience. Debbie still has nightmares from it and hates to be left on her own. But, we have a full alarm system installed, so she is OK with
that, and it does work!! Because of the electricity going off every day, the batteries don't last long, so we have to have new ones installed every few months, which cost a fortune. But, as I said, the alarm system does work!!
We now have burnt 10,000 bricks, cut 400 bundles of thatch, and cut the timber on our property for the roof. The fence line is all cleared, so we will be putting the fence around the property this next trip and start the foundations for a small cottage to live in while we build the main house, which will also be small with two bedrooms. We have to fence the property because there are people who have goats and cattle and we will have endless problems with them -- especially as we want to grow some maize and a vegetable garden. We hope to move up there by the middle of August or the end of September at the latest.
We have sunk a well so we have good, clean water and we have ordered a transformer and applied for a connection to the electricity mains, which we hope to get by Christmas. We are also inquiring about solar power, which might be a better option, depending on the cost.
When we are here in Zimbabwe we attend a house church and I also get invited to preach at an African church just on the outskirts of Bulawayo. We also attend a weekly Bible study. So, spiritually, we are taken care of.
We are doing our very best to get out of Zimbabwe and settled and serving in Zambia. But it is all so difficult and takes so much time and effort. It is so very stressful! The Lord is strengthening us and keeping us going. But, please, continue to pray for us that it all comes together soon.
We are, once again, a scattered family. Zane and his family are in Zambia; Derek and his family are in Mozambique, where he is opening up an old gold mine that a large mining company from South Africa has bought; and Gayle is still in England. She still plans to go to Australia and New Zealand, but she worked in ICU for three weeks for a Nursing Bank and they phoned her and offered her a permanent job with them. There were 87 applicants for the job. It came down to twelve, and she got the job! We are so proud of her. She makes a very good nurse!! She will be there until February 2008. They even send her on an extra course and pay for her to go. This will all be very good to have on her CV. She also plans to go over to the USA for a year. No chance of grandchildren there for a while. Looks like she wants to travel first!!
We have had a very cold winter and look forward to some warm weather soon.
We now have a new Forwarding Agent and Board inAtlanta, Georgia --Art Hammond, who has been a very special and faithful friend and supporter of BZCM for many years. We look forward to working with them for the Kingdom. We love and thank you all for your love, support and prayers and ask that you continue to pray for us and the work here as well as for the new challenges that we have ahead for us in Zambia. Please email us when you have time. It does encourage us so.
We love you all and appreciate your love, prayers and support and faithfulness.
Without you we cannot continue our work.
We love you all, God bless,
The Lee’s, Richard and Debbie
This was written over two weeks ago but, because our server moved offices and the phone company did not sort their phones out, we were without e-mail services for this period of time. Richard has been up in Zambia for over two weeks now. I am here in Bulawayo. He was at Immigration all morning today and it seems like things might be sorting out there. We cannot communicate at all; the phones in Zimbabwe are not allowing us to dial out any international calls, so we are very frustrated!!
Richard will be back on Friday and hopes to buy the window and door frames, if we can find them here. Otherwise, it's another trip to South Africa to get them!! We really have had enough -- time for us to move now!
Our Board of Directors Botswana Zimbabwe Christian Missions c/o Art Hammond (Chairman) P.O. Box 663 Acworth, GA 30101 Sheryl Massey - (Treasurer) Acworth, GA 30101 Dr. Troy D. Hammon - (Board Member) Pittsburg, PA