Andrew Greener 1999

Firstly, being part of the Jim Bailey team in 1999 was an amazing opportunity to have my first experience of Africa and Ameva itself which is a significant mission initiative from the Fellowships. I got to meet lots of other young people from the UK who were similarly curious about Africa and getting to know Jim and his wife was also a treat. We spent a week or two digging a trench from the reservoir to the main Ameva house to replace an underground water pipe, starting at dawn each morning until around lunchtime. We also put fresh whitewash on the walls in the school building and in the afternoons, we ran a kids club for children from the local area. We also built a mound by the entrance to the farm with the name of the farm on it.

Aside from our work, we also had fantastic opportunities to see more of Zimbabwe. The airline had overbooked the flight out so some from the group had stayed in London overnight and flown out the next day receiving a few hundred pounds each in compensation. They generously agreed to put this in a central pot which was used to cover our travel by train to Victoria Falls via Bulawayo. I think I learned as much from the train journey as I did from the falls themselves (which were spectacular), especially the incredible poverty visible along so much of the route. The sense of being overwhelmed by the poverty I saw was very strong and I’m sure left many of us with a profound sense of disquiet. This continues to colour my impression of Africa to this day.

I remember a conversation with the farm’s head of security who had once been a notorious criminal in the local area before giving his life to Christ. I asked him what Zimbabwe needed to turn it around – was it money from the west? His response has stayed with me for twenty years: “Zimbabwe is a rich country. It has minerals, diamonds and fertile land. What Zimbabwe needs is the gospel.”

He meant that so much of Zimbabwe’s prosperity, not to mention international aid, simply disappears because of corruption. Coming from me as a white foreigner this might have come across as patronising and impractical. However, coming from this Zimbabwean former inmate it was, I believe, a powerful insight.

In our short time there we did what we could to help share the gospel with the local people through practical service on the farm, a kids club and through an evangelistic stall at an agricultural fair in nearby Chegutu (I remember playing The Lord’s My Shepherd (And I will Trust) on an old pedal-pump organ we had found in one of the farm rooms!). However, as a sizeable group of white Europeans the racial barriers never seemed to come down and I am unsure of the impact we had.

It was helpful to join in the with Ameva prayer meeting where John and Celia, along with one or two of the students from the Bible school (it was between semesters so not many were around), prayed fervently for the farm, the area and for Zimbabwe as a nation. It was there I learned the song,

If you believe and I believe

And we together pray

The Holy Spirit will down

And Zimbabwe must be saved

So I am grateful for the insight I gained into the situation of Ameva and wider Zimbabwe, an insight that has been formative in my understanding of the world and some of the issues faced by missionaries in Africa.

Shephen Mbewe report of July 2008 from Mozambique

Just before the elections (June 27) my brother Mike who is with YWAM in Bulawayo, visited home, a mission farm 105km out of Harare to attend our niece’s memorial service. All went well but the political situation at that time was getting more volatile. The Zanu PF youth (militia) had set up a torture camp at Ameva farm football ground. They were beating people, those they suspected to be MDC supporters and sympathizers.

Apparently, my family– my mother who is in her 70s, my two sisters and my other brother and his family who live on a farm down the road had been listed for beating because they have family members who are married to white women (me and my nephew who is married to an American) therefore; they must support the opposition.

Mike says he was scared the whole time he was there. Everyone was terrified. The young people including my 14-year-old niece Edith were taken to attend all night re-education camps – educating them on how they should vote next time. Not a pleasant atmosphere. Well the news I get from home now is that things have cooled down a little at the moment. Please pray for protection for the rest of the family. The beatings and killings are still going on in some parts of the country.

Zimbabwe is in a terrible mess. My call to Mike was cut off and Mike suspects the government owned cellular network is being monitored. I was advised not to go to Zimbabwe myself as it would be unsafe for me and also would put the family in danger. This is hard for me as I worry for their safety and also for the fact that they are struggling to get food. I wanted to take them some food.

Via text/sms, another nephew in a township in Harare said he wants to come and visit me here so he can have “rest.” The army had just dismantled their torture camp near his house. He is in shock and wants to get away. He asked me to pray. “Your prayers make a difference,” is how he ended one of his text messages.

Pray that this horror will come to end. Pray for wisdom on what to do and how to do it. I have seriously prayed and thought about moving the whole family here. It is a big family and I do not know how or where to start.

Towns along Mozambique’s borders are crowding with people fleeing the situation in Zimbabwe.

Gemma Wakeford

Gemma Wakeford reflects back on her visit to Ameva in 1990 she writes:

I was 9 years old when my family left England to stay at Ameva for 6 months. When I think back, I have extremely fond memories of the people and my time spent there.

As we settled into our new routine our weekday mornings were spent home-schooling, but the afternoon afforded me and my older sister the opportunity to play with the other children there and freely roam some of the farm.

On one such afternoon I was playing with some of the Valentine’s children near the huge rock in the back garden of the Valentine’s home. We were making a makeshift tent out of Celia’s clothes airer and a bed sheet. At some point one of the boys became angry during our play and went up onto the top of the rock and threw a stone at our tent in frustration. Unfortunately, I was sitting in the tent with only a cotton sheet to protect me. The rock hit me on the head and split my head open making a very bloody mess! Luckily it was just a dramatic bleed and I remember my mum’s relief that we didn’t need to drive to the hospital for stitches.

Another incident involving narrowly missing a trip to the hospital was when we were running late and were all rushing to get into the pickup truck. Me and my sister were told to jump into the open back of the truck. My sister however was having a strop because she didn’t want to go and in throwing herself into the truck caught her leg on something and split it open. She got her wish not to go out!

That huge rock out the back of the Valentine’s home came in handy one day when us children all stood on it to watch a bushfire near the compound. I remember the feelings of awe and fear all mixed together. Sensing the adults' worry we stayed on that rock for a long time. Looking back now at the image in my mind of us children sitting on this rock, what a wonderful illustration of ‘God our rock’, our protector and firm foundation.

The farm was full of the sound of singing. The ladies under the thatched shelter would sing as they sat and crocheted. The sound of the children in the primary school singing would travel up to the farm. The Bible college students would sing, and the Sunday church meetings were full of the wonderful sound of praise and worship. I will always remember John Valentine’s booming singing voice ‘Let God arise and His enemies be scattered’ and the dancing in those meetings was so captivating to a young girl’s eyes!

I have a very vivid memory of sitting with a friend, a young African boy outside my home singing. We sang the same song over and over again, ‘Joy, joy, my heart is full of joy’. I remember it sounding so beautiful and never wanting to stop.

Being on a farm, animals were a huge part of life. Spiders with bodies the size of the palm of my hand were everywhere! There was one in our lounge one day and I remember it going under the sofa. I did not sit on that sofa for about a week! Another time I remember Andrew Watson babysitting for me and my sister whilst my parents went out and there being a spider in our bedroom when it was time to go to bed. Poor Andrew! I think I refused to sleep in the room and eventually ended up in my parent’s bed until they got home. I remember waking up the next morning in MY bed. I don’t think I have ever got out of bed so fast in my life!

On the farm they had a pen full of goats. There was one goat that had been rejected by its mother, so I adopted it and called it Simon. I helped to feed Simon his milk and he thought that I was his mother and proceeded to follow me everywhere, even into my house much to my mum’s delight! I was devastated to be leaving him behind when it was time for us to leave Ameva and my parents wisely kept the fact that the male goats were raised to be sold or eaten from me. I’m so glad they did. It was already heart-breaking to leave Africa without knowing my goat was possibly going to be eaten.

One weekday we were peacefully home-schooling around the kitchen table when my mum, who was at the sink screamed and dropped whatever she had in her hands into the sink. She had seen two little beady eyes staring up at her from the plug hole. Chaos ensued. Thinking it was a snake, people rushed in and began pouring boiling water down the sink and then began pulling the pipes apart only to find it was a harmless, poor, now boiled frog.

Walking around the farm at night we had to have a torch to ward off any snakes or to be able to see them on the path in front of us. Oscar, the Valentine’s dog, was our protector from snakes and I can remember having to de-tick him whenever we found a blood sucker on him.

What an absolute adventure Ameva was for me and how it has shaped some of who I am today - I love singing, I love animals and I hate tents!