Greetings from the Lee family and the beleaguered Christians in Zimbabwe. To try and give you a sense of how things are here in Zimbabwe, I will give you news under a series of headings.
(1) OUR CHURCHES -- Not more than three people are allowed to gather in a group except for sport meetings, social events, or church meetings unless you have a permit issued by the police. Our churches continue to meet on a regular basis, but we are being watched. I only visit churches on week days and only meet with one or two people at a time because I am white and suspect. Our home church meets every week on weekdays for Bible study and worship, but we keep a low key, meet in homes, and don't have too many at any one time.
At Nswazi, forty minutes from out home, we have two strong growing churches with their own church building, Sunday school, and the toilet block. They have their town preacher. (He is the one who was the interpreter for Debbie's sewing and Bible groups.) He is now being paid by a preacher in California. They are doing well spiritually, but have to be careful to avoid being harassed by political thugs.
In Binga, we have up to thirty churches which, being spiritually strong, are being harassed continually by these thugs to the point where lives are in jeopardy.
IDES financed a project where we are trying to build boats for the Christians to fish on Lake Kariba so as to be able to make some money to buy food. This project is in danger as the political thugs demand that the boats be built in their boat building yards at six times the price we negotiated with another boat builder. To argue is to risk a severe beating or even death. The project is on hold after only four boats have been built while we try to sort something out. I dare not get involved too actively because I am white. People in Binga are living on roots, wild fruit, and anything they can get to eat because they are targeted by the ruling party for punishment for voting for the opposition in the General Election. The children don't go to school because they are too weak to walk.
(2) FOOD -- The stable food, cornmeal, is in very short supply and if you do not have a ruling party card you do not get any and starve. Cornmeal donated by aid agencies is taken by the ruling party and is sold to the people and the money goes into party pockets. Commercial farming has been destroyed by the Government of Mugabe, and peasant farmers are incapable of feeding themselves, let along the nation.
This country is poised on the brink of total disaster. There is a shortage of bread, no flour to buy, people line up for hours to buy, people line up for hours to buy one loaf (that's all you are allowed), shortages of sugar, cooking oil, salt, meat, and veggies. Meat went up by 100% last week. The farmers who grew the veggies have all been chased off their farms.
(3) AIDS - People are dying by the hundreds on a daily basis from the disease, but very little is being done by the authorities. Church organizations and N.G.O.'s do the best they can, at great risk to themselves, but the toil keeps rising.
We are trying to support fifty to one hundred AIDS orphans by buying them cornmeal. We have to go to great lengths in complete secrecy to get this food because if we are found out, the food is confiscated and we can be arrested as food hoarders. Last week I paid for a hundred x one hundred pound bags of cornmeal for the orphans; we wait anxiously for this to be delivered.
(4) FUEL -- There is a perpetual shortage of fuel of all types -- diesel, petrol, and paraffin. When a gas station gets a fuel delivery, in no time at all there is a line of vehicles miles long as people desperately line up for fuel. Some vehicles wait up to four hours or more in line. What a way to spend the day!!! Some garages refuse to sell fuel because of the violence that breaks out as people try and push in and get frustrated.
I am very limited in evangelizing. Travel is too difficult, fuel too scarce, and a white face in a black crowd attracts unpleasant attention. All the barbed wire on the sides of the roads have been stolen. Cattle, sheep, goats, and donkeys are a continual hazard to traffic. Police road blocks harass you on every journey. We have as many as three between us and Bulawayo, our nearest city, in 60 miles of travel.
(5) FINANCE -- The Zimbabwe Government has pegged the dollar at 55 to 1 in US dollar. This has been the case for over two years now. On the black market, which is the true reflection of our currency's worth, the US dollar trades up to 1,600 to 1. It is illegal to sell on the black market and there are severe penalties if you do and get caught. We have to see some of our dollars on the black market or we could not live. At 55 to 1, our salary would last barely a week, let along a month! Are we wrote to trade on the black market??
(6) CRIME & PERSONAL SECURITY -- We have been burgled three times to date; the last time was a week ago. We have had clothing stolen (off our line), all my spanner, and all my electrical tools. It is so frustrating as most of these things we have to buy in South Africa as the prices are outrageous here and most things are unobtainable. We feel so threatened. I am busy building burglar bars to weld onto our windows. Our home will look like Fort Knox by the end of the year!! We have a suspicion who it might be breaking in, but he holds a ruling party card, so he won't even be questioned. We get no help from the police. They merely take a statement from em and do nothing. We employ guards and have 5 dogs, but still get robbed. We are also looking into an alarm system so that if anyone comes to the workshop we will know at the house, which is about 80 yds from the house.
My cousin went into town, Bulawayo, and while he was sitting in his car, a fellow came to talk to him, and two others were trying to get in the passenger side. Luckily the doors were locked. A friend went to visit her aunt and when she got out to open the gate, two men grabbed her and pulled her into a bush and stole her vehicle. These people are desperate and especially now before Christmas and also as they are starving and there is no employment.
(7) POLITICS -- If you are not a card-carrying member of the ruling party, you have problems. But Debbie and I refuse to carry or even own such things, so we do have problems. We had local elections last month in Filabusi where we live. The local member of parliament had been murdered because he was in the opposition party and the elections were held to elect a successor. What a farce! Only the ruling party could canvas voters or hold meetings. And, on vote day, there were dozens of road blocks where travellers were hauled out of their cars and checked to see if they had party cards -- this by the police, mind you. No card, no vote; and many get a severe beating as well from the police. The results were a foregone conclusion -- the opposition was defeated by a landslide. Such is life in an African style "Democracy"!!
(8) RACISM -- In Zimbabwe racism is alive and well. If you belong to the wrong tribe you are targeted. We live among the Ndebele people, a minority tribe. They are harassed and threatened daily. Debbie and I belong to the white tribe. We are anathema, hated by the ruling party and the smallest minority in the country. About 300,000 have emigrated to other countries and safety. We remain because we believe we have divine protection, but we ask for your prayers and support as we are getting stressed out by what we see and hear around us.
(9) GAYLE -- Gayle is doing well at university in Brighton in England. She is doing a 4 year degree n nursing and is in her second year. She is so far away from home and we miss her terribly. We call her every week just to hear her voice. She will be home for Christmas . We sure look forward to that !!
(10) CHRISTMAS -- We will celebrate Christmas. Nothing will prevent us from doing this. We plan to take a short break for 4 days to Victoria Falls and Gayle and some friends. We hope and pray that our home will be safe while we are gone. We have a friend who attend our Bible Study who will come and check up on our home for us.
We want to thank you all who sent us boxes of goodies. The boxes got here in good shape and time, PTL. We would ask that you continue to send any old clothes for these desperate people. They are always so grateful.
We thank you for all your love, prayers, and support this past year. We wish you all God's richest blessings during the Christmas season. We love you.
In Christian love
The Lee’s, Richard, Debbie, and Gayle
Our Board of Directors Don Hart (Chairman), San Jose, California Deanna Kietzke, San Jose, California Jeff Bigelow, El Dorado Hills, California Larry Stilgebouer, Rio Rancho, New Mexico Vivian Ottinger, San Jose, California Our Forwarding Agent Vivian M. Ottinger 708 Blossom Hill Road, #231 Los Gatos, CA 95032 Field Address Richard & Debbie Lee Box 144 Filabusi, Zimbabwe, Africa makaphela@gatorzw.com 263-9-251555