26 June 2001
Zimbabwe is fast becoming a desperate place to live in. The government is promoting anarchy; lawlessness is so rampant that people fear for their lives; beatings, rape, and murder are now accepted political tools. The radio, TV and government owned newspapers are totally biased and promoting racial hatred. The independent press is attacked and harassed at every turn. The police and army are political and involved in intimidating the people on a daily basis. Christians are not under threat for being Christians. For that we praise the Lord. But, they are still being seriously affected through being part of the populace.
Fuel is still very difficult to get and very expensive when it is available. Long queues of up to three and four city blocks form as soon as fuel becomes available. Motorists have to wait for hours to be served. Our mission depends on fuel as we have to travel many miles to reach our churches and shortages prevent us from traveling. Our property is still under threat, as are all properties owned by whites. Although, as missionaries serving the people, we have been told that we are safe. But who can trust the word of anarchists??
Travel is still unsafe for me in some of the more sensitive tribal areas as I am in danger of being accused of supporting the opposition to the government. We are sending black Christians from other areas into these more sensitive areas as they are not so obvious as a white face. In Godhlwayo district, I keep contact only by phone (when it works!!!) and through a black Christian named Tobias Sibanda. Please pray for him and his safety.
Our plan for feeding orphans in our congregations has met a problem. If we give food only to church members who are caring for orphans, then we are accused of supporting the opposition parties and neglecting the ruling government party. There can be serious repercussions -- like churches being attacked or even ourselves being molested. We have to do this secretly, which makes it all that more difficult. There is nothing sacred in this country anymore.
While I was in the U.S., we had a cyclone dump a huge amount of rain on the Eastern part of the country. The people living there lost their crops to flooding and were in danger of starving. The European Union donated food to feed these people. When the ruling party and so called war veterans heard about this, they attacked the depot where this food was being stored and shared out among the people in need of food and took it all away and gave it to their followers and sold some to the needy. We don't want that to happen to our AIDS orphans food program. Please pray about this for us as well.
We asked for folk to donate second-hand clothing and shoes to the AIDS orphans. This is always so much appreciated. We know that postage can be high, but if sent surface mail, it usually gets here and is a lot cheaper. If anyone would like to send money so that we can buy clothes here, that will also be appreciated. Send it to our forwarding agent, Vivian Ottinger. Please specify that it is for clothing so that she can send it on to us. Clothing is very expensive here, so even with the postage, it would work out cheaper to send boxes with second-hand goods, but we leave the decision up to you. Please remember to address it to Botswana Christian Mission and from a church, then we don't pay any import duties.
Debbie has not been to sewing classes for a longtime. It is too dangerous for her to travel alone into the tribal areas, but the women do contact her and seem to be carrying on and doing really well on their own. We just pray that this madness passes soon and we can carry on as usual, as it is not doing anyone any good.
I am going to Binga to visit the churches. Intimidation has been quite severe there and the people need some encouragement. We have four orphans in Binga that we pay school fees for. When I am up there I will organize a register of orphans that need food and schooling and see what we can do for them. We have heard that there are many more in need of aid.
We have started a local Bible study among people who live near us. So far we have an average of ten people attending, all of whom are either new Christians or nominal Christians. We meet once a week, in the evenings, at different homes, as not to place too onerous a burden on any one family. We also have a fellowship meal together after the study. So far this study is going very well. We have prayed many months for something like this to happen in our small community. God sure does hear and answer our prayers!!! We also give each family a sermon tape that we get from the US to listen to during the week and they seem to be enjoying them. We get these tapes from Central Christian in San Jose, California and Broadway in Mesa, Arizona. Thank you to both these churches.
Our eldest son, Derek, and his family have been seriously threatened by the so called "war vets." He is the underground manager of a gold mine about four hours' drive from us. They left a note on his yard gate saying they wanted him out of his job immediately because he makes them work too hard. He is afraid to go underground in the mine now because of the danger of an "accident" being engineered. His life is at risk. We ask that you pray for him and his family in these trying times. On a happier note, Gayle is doing very well in her studies and her work. She now has sufficient distinctions (A's) to enter University even though her course is not yet complete. There were only two of them who did so well. She also works at a drug rehab centre two days a week. This brings in some much needed money for her. The lady who is in charge of the centre has asked Gayle several times to come and work for them full time once she has finished college, but she told her that she has to go to University and get an education. We are so proud of her!! She will start her University course in September of this year at Brighton University. I had a very good visit to the US this year. I was able to speak in thirteen churches across the U.S. The trip was very exhausting for me. It seems all I did for six weeks was speak, eat and travel!!! And then I still did not get to visit or see everyone we know and who supports us. I received the most amazing hospitality in every city where I stayed for which I was most grateful. I thank you all for your hospitality, prayers and support -- both in my travels and for our work back home here in Zimbabwe. May God bless you all richly as you deserve. That is all we have from here for now. We love and appreciate you all very much.
The Lees: Richard, Debbie, and Gayle
Field Address Forwarding Agent Richard & Debbie Lee Vivian M. Ottinger Box 144 708 Blossom Hill Road, #233 Filabusi, Zimbabwe, Africa Los Gatos, CA 95032