From Zimbabwe #3--Sept. 2010

Numbers tell the story in this edition of the Zimbabwe trip notes:

3--Gweru was the third city for conflict transformation training after the training programs in the capital Harare and the second-largest city Bulawayo. Gweru is a much smaller city, but it is in the center of the country close to the center of the national highway running between Harare and Bulawayo. The offices of the Convention of Zimbabwe Baptist Churches are located there, and the Zimbabwe Baptist Theological Seminary is about 24 kilometers outside the city. We were in the heart of Baptist life, which in this case was very problematic. There are major divisions and conflicts within the convention that spilled over into the program in which I was involved, and those problems became evident at the Gweru trainings.

100--We had a long day of intensive training with the 100 or so students of the seminary. Dr. Henry Mugabe, the principal of the seminary, is a visionary educator and dedicated peacemaker. He's built up the seminary over the past 18 years to a large sprawling facility with a significant student body. There are a lot of women students, many who want to become pastors, and there is an ordained Baptist woman teaching theology. The school also has students from other denominations--Anglican, Lutheran, Pentecostal and Zionist (an indigenous African denomination), thanks to the seminary's growing reputation for the quality of their education. But some in the convention don't like the seminary's views on women, ecumenical relationships and African-rooted theology, so there is a major movement against the current seminary leadership and an effort to seize control from the governing board. Conflict in the church? Why am I not surprised? But I was saddened to see some of the power politics and outright threats that were going on. Dr. Mugabe and the seminary need our prayers.

The workshop with the students started slow, as experiential exercises with a large group who aren't used to such learning can demand a lot from the facilitator. But we eventually got them going. By the end as we were working on the Sermon on the Mount and Transforming Initiatives the energy was very high. The response was so positive that they arranged for me to do an unscheduled late afternoon training related to transformative leadership the next day. That time we didn't need to worry about the energy as they were fully into the flow of the participatory style.

6--The main workshop, however, over the next 2 1/2 days only had 6 participants, a shocking decline from the good-sized sessions we'd had everywhere else. We learned that some pastors had received warnings that the police would arrest people who participated. Those warnings didn't come from the police, who actually had representatives at the workshops in Bulawayo and Gweru in a very positive and interactive way. The threats came from Baptist leaders who were not in control of the project! I never got names of those who were causing the problems, but it was clear that the internal conflicts were upsetting the organizers and some of the participants. They were embarrassed that such a good program (that could help those involved in the conflict on all sides!) was being targeted in such a way.

We went ahead anyway with the training with a few others along the way who would come and go. 6 is a number of quantity, but as for quality we had some of the top leaders in the convention's youth department and a wonderful young clergy couple recently graduated from the seminary. Investing oneself in key young leaders is never a waste!

2--The highlight for me wasn't any of the trainings in Zimbabwe, though we had some great times. The highlight was spending 2 weeks with 2 emerging leaders who have a great passion for peace flowing out of their great passion for Christ. Philip Mdzidzi is the Director of the Youth Department for the convention, and his vision about raising up a generation of Baptists committed to Christian peacemaking in their context and with the skills to make an impact has been the driving force in the program. He saw us laying the foundation across the country with this trip and the trainings, but also envisions local networks with an annual gathering to share stories, learn skills and encourage one another. Lancelot Muteyo is in his early 20s and is already a dynamo. He directs the Distance Adoption Program (a form of child sponsorship) between the Zimbawean convention and the Italian Baptist Union. He's also a passionate peace activist who was one of the youth leaders at the Global Baptist Peace Conference in Rome last year.

The three of us--Philip, Lance and I--traveled the length of Zimbabwe in the car (we finally got it fixed in Bulawayo!). During the long drives and around the tables where we ate we had the deepest training and conversations. It was a mobile training of trainers program as we shared stories and experiences. Lance especially went through much of the material 4 times over the course of the trip. He led some of the transition activities and energizer games, but then I began to incorporate him into leading some of the content pieces. He jumped in with flair and skill, playing an announcer for ZBC (Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corp.) interviewing Paul and Barnabas about their conflict over taking John Mark on a missionary trip (see Acts 15.36-41 for the story). When he joined me in the leadership of the Village Game he was delightfully slick and nasty (that's the role). Afterward we discussed the trainings and talked about ways to adapt or meet various challenges that can emerge in different groups.

There was much else to share that I'll gloss over--the involvement of Brickson Sam from Sierra Leone (also a Rome conference participant--had a little reunion with 4 of us including Chiromo) teaching on tribalism and conflict, the mosquito nets distribution that Brickson was doing with the help of the Youth Department through His Nets, cooking breakfast over a fire because of no electricity, singing about sadza and sauce with Philip, giving Lance astronomy lessons under the incredible night sky, hauling a paper mache lion around that was a gift from a craftsman in one church, meeting with the General Secretary of the Zimbabwe Council of Churches to discuss possible ecumenical work in the future, and the great difficulty getting internet access. A full trip to say the least!