Zimbabwe

The Children Are All Ours

“The children are always ours, every single one of them, all over the globe” (James Baldwin)

A Child Headed Household in Zimbabwe

Photo by Deanna Heyn Let’s say you travel from one of the richest countries in the world. You take 3 flights and land more than thirty hours later at Harare International Airport. Then you head out on an increasingly pockmarked tarmac for two hours, turn on a washboard dirt road, and drive another hour. Next…Read more A Child Headed Household in Zimbabwe

Seeing God in Zimbabwe

So privileged to break through the "Covid barrier" again and witness God at work in Zimbabwe.... Imagine for just a moment: you are a newly widowed mother with nowhere to go. No income, no family support, no government social services. You re-locate to uninhabited land, build a mut hut, and eke out subsistence. Amidst the…Read more Seeing God in Zimbabwe

Be Bold

Even before 2020, the poorest of the poor in Zimbabwe faced seemingly insurmountable odds. Some of those people, like Linda*, lacking even a home after her husband died, fled to unoccupied stretches of land and constructed mud huts by hand. Even as Linda lost so much, though, she accumulated grandchildren as their parents died or…Read more Be Bold

An Open Letter to the Government of Zimbabwe

Dear Government of Zimbabwe, I want you to see the faces of children whose lives you’ve destroyed. Through mismanagement and corruption, you’ve deprived them of basic human needs. I met them not so long ago - shook their hands, laughed with them. I looked into Sylvia's eyes... When Sylvia’s (named changed) parents, aunts, and uncles…Read more An Open Letter to the Government of Zimbabwe

When Tracking Rhino, Don’t Wear Red…

By the time the park ranger warns against wearing red, it's too late. He tucks my friend in line right after him, hiding her bright shirt behind his camouflaged green. And his big gun. We hope it will be enough. We wind down a rutted dirt road, then veer off into the bush. Grass swishes…Read more When Tracking Rhino, Don’t Wear Red…

Orphans in Zimbabwe

Photo: kids in Zimbabwe along for the ride to fill water containers I'm currently en route from Bulawayo, Zimbabwe to Colorado, wrestling with the joys and tragedies I witnessed of a courageous people under the siege of a bankrupt economy. Why are kids orphaned in Zimbabwe? What are their lives like? Travel along vicariously with…Read more Orphans in Zimbabwe

Orphans Around the World

Orphans Around the World My heart breaks for the orphans of the world. Two former orphans live and love in my own home, and gazing into their eyes, I will never forget the children still out there, struggling and hoping for love. I also fall ever deeper in love with a God who could not…Read more Orphans Around the World