Richard & Debbie Lee Newsletter November 2007
Richard & Debbie Lee Newsletter November 2007
We are both well and very busy on two fronts at the same time. In Zimbabwe we are involved with a local church in Bulawayo, the city we are living in at the moment. I preach on a supply basis for this church and we are also involved in a weekly home to home Bible study.
There is also a rural church, some 15 miles out of Bulawayo, that has contacted us and asked if we would be willing to preach and teach for them as well. This is a non-denominational group of farmers and their employees who have a building but no preacher. We will look into it and see if we can be of any help to them, even on a part-time basis. Wherever God can use us we are willing servants.
Debbie and I supply some finance to an AIDS orphanage just outside Bulawayo. We contribute through the church we attend here. Our mission supports an old age home in the city. Without the support of Christians and some of the public, these old people would starve. We have been smuggling food stuffs from South Africa every time we go down. Brother Andrew smuggled Bibles into the Soviet Union, so we feel we can smuggle food into Zimbabwe for old people who would starve if they got no support. We usually manage to bring in about $200 at a time. It might not sound like much, but here in Zimbabwe it is enough to feed them for a week. We ask for prayers in this regard because, if we are caught, it would be taken away. I speak the local language and am on friendly terms with the border guards and have managed to distract them enough to be able to get a lot of goods through. We are not doing anything criminal, but stretching the law to its very limit!!
The black market rate for the US$ is 1 million -- yes, 1 million ZW$ to one US$. The store shelves are empty. We cannot buy meat, bread, milk, or most any daily commodities one needs and uses. Unless you know someone who sells fuel, you cannot get any and that goes for double to what you pay a litre. People are willing to work for food and not money because can't buy anything as there is nothing to buy and at least if you get paid in food you get to eat.
I travel up to Zambia every two weeks of the month. I am still building our cottage. The actual building is done and this coming two weeks I will put the roof on and lay the floors. All that will remain will be the electric, plumbing and some finishing touches. It all takes forever.
Thee people who help will come to work one day and then be off for two; so it just takes forever to get things done. And, now it is the rainy season, so not much gets done when it's raining. Building is slow in this part of the world. (If you will remember, our house at Filabusi took 3 years to complete??) We have to make and burn all our own bricks, building sand we dig out of the river bed and transport by ox wagon. There is no road -- just a track through the bush. Water I transport in 44 gallon drums on the back of my truck. We pump water by hand out of a well we had dug by a machine.
We have bought an eclectic transformer so that we can plug into a local power line and get electricity, but we have to supply everything -- poles, wire, insulators, and labor -- ourselves. It just seems that most of the African countries operate the same way!!
We have a lot of problems with immigration in Zambia. Every time we go there, they have a different story or rules. When we applied to enter the country, we met all the requirements to enter as investors. Every month we would check with them to see if our application had come through. After about three months of this, they told us our papers were lost and we had to start again. In the meantime, the criteria to enter had changed and they turned our application down.
I went and saw an immigration officer and she told me to get our son, Zane, to apply to have us enter the country as dependents of his. This we did and waited about three months for them to make a decision. Eventually I went again to see them (a real mission as you can wait for up to 4 hours to see anyone). But, this time I barged into the chief immigration officer's office. He was a bit surprised, but friendly. He told me I did not look like a dependent, was still fit and young looking!! Usually this would be a compliment, but not what I wanted to hear this time!! But anyway, he said I could not get into Zambia on that basis. He then told me to apply to get in as a permanent visitor, which would allow us to enter and leave Zambia at will. He said he was the person who would sign to authorize this permit and he promised me that he would sign when the papers arrived in his office. That was two months ago and we still wait!!
We have a temporary visitor's permit which allows us in and out 'til the end of this year. Please, we ask you to pray that the permanent visitor's permit comes through soon. It is so stressful and unsettling going on as we are. Also, it is very expensive doing all this traveling. I can't leave Debbie alone for long as she stays here in Bulawayo taking care of our home and the animals.
We met a guy who comes from Holland. He lives not far from our place in Zambia, who has been waiting six years for his papers!! We hope and pray that we don't have to wait that long!! Anyway, we know the Lord is in control and knows what is going on, and especially the timing of everything. We wait on Him.
We have received some boxes and parcels from the US and they have been sent to Debbie's sister in South Africa. We have received everything with no problems. So, if anyone wants to send anything to us, we will give you the address:
BZCM
c1o Mrs. L. Lay/and
PO. Box 11
Musina, 0900, South Africa, RSA
Please put from a church. Then there is no duty to pay.
Christmas is coming soon. We are not sure where we will be or what we will be doing over the Christmas season. Debbie and I have always been in a position of being able to make decisions regarding our lives, but of late we seem to have become like debris at the mercy of the tide or flood. We have lost control over our lives and just seem to be at the whim of forces beyond us. Perhaps the Lord is teaching us a lesson in trust and dependence on Him.
We need your prayers and support more than ever right now. We thank you so much for all your love, prayers and support in the past. We love to hear from you. It is very encouraging to us, so please, email us when you get a moment.
God bless you all at this Christmas season and may the Lord be with you all in the New Year.
We love you all, God bless,
The Lee’s, Richard and Debbie
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