Zimbabwe is a beautiful country!
It can be found in Southern Africa with attractions such as the Victoria Falls, the Great Zimbabwe Ruins and the Kariba Dam, to name a few. It is a place that in more recent years has been plagued by hardships and injustices. Once called the bread basket of Africa, the strength of Zimbabwe was found in the agriculture industry and in it’s people, but the economic collapse in 2008 brought on by mismanagement of country funds and resources by the ruling authority has seen a vibrant and thriving nation brought to its knees.
Physical currency is hard to come by, since the collapse of the economy because the Zimbabwe dollar became worthless and was replaced as the main currency of trade by the US Dollar which worked for a number of years until the physical currency became scarce, after which they introduced the bond note which has since begun to decline in value as hyper inflation sets in which causes prices in the stores to fluctuate daily. In addition to that, gas supply has become unpredictable in availability and cost. Running water and electricity are also commodities that have become unpredictable in supply and availability. These are just some of the hardships the average Zimbabwean faces on a daily basis.
Within the last couple of weeks though things have unraveled at a rapid pace, with an announcement by the president that the national gas price would increase to around $12 / gallon, which is another heavy blow to people that are already suffering, this led to a call for a countrywide shutdown where people were urged to stay home from work in protest of the steep increase in the gas price. The Government then initiated a blackout of the internet nationwide, so no messages were able to come in or go out of the country for a few days while the protest was happening. This was a scary time for friends and relatives in other countries who have family in Zimbabwe, not knowing what was going on or if people were safe. After the internet was restored news could be heard of clashes between protesters and military in the city center where there were violent altercations which resulted in a few people losing their lives and a lot of people injured.
It is a very dire situation in Zimbabwe and has been for quite a long time, and though the odds are stacked heavily against the people one thing that has been a light in the darkness is the unbroken spirit of the Zimbabwean people, we have spoken to many friends and family that live in Zimbabwe and while they agree that things are bad in Zimbabwe they have not given up hope and allowed circumstance to break their spirit, instead they adapt to the circumstance and leave no stone unturned in order to make a living and provide for their families.
Resilience and Perseverance are characteristics that best describe the people of Zimbabwe, please join us in continual prayer for the people of Zimbabwe and for Gods hand of restoration on the land of Zimbabwe and for His justice to prevail in a place that has not seen justice in many years.
Kuda and Diana Alufayi
They recently moved to Tulsa from Port Elizabeth, South Africa where they lived for 4 years after getting married in 2015. Kuda is a native of Zimbabwe and moved to South Africa in 1996. Diana grew up in Colby, Kansas and served in South Africa as a missionary apprentice, in 2008.
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