Tuesday, April 01, 2008

Hope for Zimbabwe

Last Fall our parish nurse told the congregation she was going to spend time with a group of other nurses in the African nation of Zimbabwe. It was an exciting prospect and I wrote a letter of recommendation that was full of praise for this lovely person of faith. Congregation members began knitting specific items of clothing for the babies they would work with there. The nurses obtained visas and innoculations and were poised to go. Then the trip was postponed. While the hospital they were to work in is still going strong, the women were advised that the conditions were simply too unstable for them to come.

Zimbabwe has just completed an election and the citizens of that nation and the international community are waiting for the results. There is concern over electoral fraud and the tyrannical ruler, Robert Mugabe, may not go willingly if he is defeated. During his long tenure the country has fallen into economic ruin with inflation running at over a thousand percent. Opposition leaders fear for their lives.

This election may mark the end of Mugabe's iron grip and the return of hope for the nation. Please pray for their future.

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