18 June 2001
Manjolo Springs Church of Christ is one of 50 Churches in Zimbabwe which Richard Lee supports in one way or another.
The first person contacted was the chief, "Chief Binga", who is now deceased.
The strongest rock is "Andrew Binga", the son of the chief.
The church was able to raise up a local man to be their minister who has NO college education.
The church has roughly 50 members in a village of some 250 adults. If one was to speak in terms of families, there are only 100 families in the village, of which 20 of the families have accepted Christ.
Their service lasts for 3 hours and some people walk as far as 2 miles on foot to attend.
The only facility they have for the church is a "school classroom".
The church has 4 elders, with the longest standing Christian having been so for 5 years.
The village of Manjolo Springs Church of Christ has not been immune to problems with the government and political intimidation.
The biggest problems facing the Church are the same as those facing their non-Christian comrades in the village. "Political intimidation" and "drought".
The village is very poor as they have no electricity at all and their economy is 100% subsistence farming and fishing.
They don't really have any buildings in the village to speak of. There are a few mud huts, of which some are on stilts.
Those who are not Christian follow an Animism religion, as the Christians HAD before they saw the light. The unconverted village members are anit-Christian, but not antagonistic. Richard Lee said "anti-Christian, but not seriously". I might interpret this as "skeptics".
Even though the village has its own witch doctor, many use a clinic some 20 miles away which uses traditional medicine. (I am not sure how Richard Lee interprets "traditional" in this sense.) None the less, if there were anyone in the village who might be more anti-Christian than most, it would be the witch doctor.