Mama G

 We are not settled in our home away from home, 5 Benator Way, New Alexander park Harare. Here we will be with uncut power and water, they live on the presidents grid so they hardly ever lose either. The couple is David & Adela Garonga, an older couple of about 70 & 60. We affectionally call them, Mama G and David.. Here out of respect in the english congregation if you use someone's first name you put auntie or uncle in front of it.. But she said that's she's our moms while here, she use to be a nanny to a few white Zimbabweans. 

 We started our English field minstry this week with the Avondale congregation. They are quite large, over 120 attend each week so they are not lacking in publishers but in workers in the field. Strangely witnessing back in English is presenting a challenge, they are not as friendly as the Shona but we will find the ones hungry for truth. Chido (Chandi) and I both have a few calls near our place so we can walk after service and get those on our own. 

Every time we say or offer to walk, the locals won't hear of it. We keep telling them with all the food that mama g is feeding us we better be walking real soon or we will be bring more of Africa then we need home with us. Today they did let us walk to the store a few blocks away..of course we ended up walking the wrong way for a few minutes but hey just another adventure. 😛  once I got our maps out we were fine, plus it just gave us more people to talk to so we could keep our time going. The Kingdom Hall is only about 2 or 3 miles away so if we leave by 8 we have time to witness on the way there and back, slowly gaining return visits with the people selling things on the side of the road. The locals are getting use to seeing the two of us everywhere already. 

There is a family in this congregation who's father is a diplomat, and so they move often, in fact this weekend sadly they are moving to Mozambique. I worked with the wife, Leocardia..we call her auntie Eve. They were living in Germany in 1990 and she heard the truth, the idea of living on the earth not going to heaven appealed to her. Her husband and herself asked for a study and from that point on and always had the whole family study with the brothers and sisters there until they were moved back to Zimbabwe. She said she was worried because she didn't think there were any witnesses here, but after two weeks a couple called on them and they resumed them having it two times a week. In 1998 they were relocated to China, just when she was ready to make her dedication they move to a under ground land.. She wasn't sure how she was going to survive but she leaned on Jehovah to care for her. Each week she walked the city of Beijing looking for any signs of witnesses. Oddly her husband started asking the local secretaries in the government offices if they have every heard of any bible teachers in the area. One desk women was a sister! She was nervous that it was a wolf in sheep clothing so the family had to prove that they were true witnesses, once they showed all the literature both studied and preaching ones she welcomed them with open arms the next day the brothers made the official visit to inform them of their book study location. 

Eve told the brothers she would like to make a dedication, so they had a brother from Hong Kong come and he give the talk to just her and her family in her home then they took her to a local hotel pool. They had to use the excuse of her getting swimming lessons so as to not raise suspicions after a few minutes everyone left the area and she was dipped. Two years later her two daughters made the same decision  and the process was repeated. Next they moved to Iran. Another barred area for us. I think Jehovah is single handedly using this lovely sister to preach where we are not openly allowed. She can preach in the open if she wished because she can not be arrested, because of her husbands role she has diplomatic immunity and is untouchable in that instance, she uses her time to witness to all the families in her husbands circle. Jehovah makes sure everyone has the chance to hear his good news. 

She is such a sweet amazing sister, she had so many stories I was glued to her side all morning. 

Our brothers and sisters have so many wonderful stories of survival here, they had a period of time of war back in the 80's called the Bush wars. It was not an easy time to be neutral here, there is one sister who were hogged tied and left in the open field because of association with the white brothers and sisters. She is still a faithful pillar to this day, saying that Jehovah didn't leave her then and he won't pull away from her now if she keeps her stand like she did then. The 1985 year book has more experiences if you would like to read more, I think later we are going to meet a few that gave them at the assembly coming up in a few weeks.  

To-O-nana mangi mangi... See you later here (spelling is not correct but phonetically so you also can learn with us.) 😘