Catching Up with the Frys

Greetings All!
It has been entirely too long since we posted on this blog! Please do forgive us for failing to communicate through this outlet for over a year. We consider that terrible and do apologize for the failure to complete our embarked upon goal of blogging regularly.

Since we last wrote, we returned to the United States for a ten month furlough. We traveled many thousands of miles and had fantastic visits with many friends, family, supporters and new acquaintances all over the Eastern United States. We are so blessed to get good quality time with family, which is one of our highest costs of being missionaries, the loss of time with that family, as we shared Sunday lunches, vacation to the beach, special events like hiking and going to many special events, and playing disc golf. It was a rejuvenating and encouraging time in America. God blessed us with a safe, healthy delivery of Gabriel Asher, and expanded our family to 5. We are so grateful for little Gabe, who's already 9 months old! We were also blessed to raise additional support, build stronger relationships with all of our supporting churches and to get to serve at Ridgeview Baptist Church in the fall while were were "stationary" for Gabriel being born. We were in America through January 24th, when we departed Washington, DC to begin our second term in Zimbabwe. We plan to be here through sometime in March 2017, as Zimbabwean immigration dictates and allows.

Since we arrived back in Zimbabwe, we've re-transitioned to our home, killed LOTS of spiders and gotten reacquainted and connected to our dear friends and colleagues here. We've also begun some exciting new facets our the ministry here. Ian continues to meet with the three teenage boys regularly, though we've had some health challenges so far this year that have hindered the desired regularity. Victor, Tinashe and Tinotenda are the three young men Ian is mentoring now and they are all doing great! We've started having a Bible study in our home every Wednesday and Friday at 10am for between 5-7 Shona people who work for Eden in our segment of the ministry. This study is an overview of God's history and plan, as recorded in the Bible and gives us time to read, slowly, through the Bible and ask and answer questions according to the revealed truth of the Word! We are absolutely loving this study. We see the impact it is having in the lives of several of the people who attend and we are delighted to see hunger and thirsting for righteousness in these precious souls who were created to glorify God! What we are finding is that the platform of an open discussion, allowing for questions, taking time to answer thoroughly and biblically, is highly effective in relationship building and in assisting in worldview formation. As we've shared before, there's an entirely different worldview inherited in the rural culture here, than that depicted in Scripture. So, it is very exciting to see the Spirit of God working in the hearts and minds of everyone at this study, committing their time to studying the Bible. We trust faith will come from hear and hearing from the Word of Christ! Already we've seen two huge decisions made by two of these brothers that are extremely counter cultural.

The first decision came when one man's father died. Traditionally, he would have done a great number of rituals and then planned on "welcoming his father's spirit back into the family" after a year, but after discussion and prayers and reading on his own, Robson decided he was going to celebrate his father's life and faith, believing that his father's eternity was settled in Jesus and further offerings and rituals were unnecessary to procure a solid salvation for him. This was a bold and "dangerous" decision for him, as the family don't share his perspective on the world now and consider his decision one that welcomes the "wrath of the spirits" upon the family. Robson has chosen to stand in Christ by faith and rely on the perfect work of Jesus to protect him from any spirit that would try to harm him. I do believe Robson will be just fine and the family will have a powerful testimony of Jesus' power and authority through this entire situation.

The second reality came after the harvest this year. We had poor rain and subsequent poor crops this year. The local witch doctors have begun traveling around the area informing everyone that the rains were not good because they, the witch doctors, were not paid enough to appease the spirits who control the rain. So, everyone is being "taxed" for next season's rain to come. When they came to Joshua's house, he told them to "get away," and that he no longer followed these practices and didn't believe they had power over him. Joshua's crops were quite good this year, even though the farmers around him suffered quite a bit. Using conservation farming or Farming God's Way, he has grown to believe that God is in control of his crops and the rain and that he need not fear these other spirits. Joshua's faith is still very young, but we are seeing it blossom and grow in a way that makes the last three and a half years of pray and relationship feel so entirely fruitful and worthwhile! Never give up, friends, God may take His time in using you in another's life...persevere and see!

Now, as we reach and pass the halfway mark for 2015, we are encouraged that so much time and energy is being poured into growth and maturity in Jesus through our lives. Ian is leading 4 intentional studies of God's Word each week, including the Boy's Bible Study which is inspiring and overwhelmingly encouraging in its own right too. We are overjoyed at all God is doing here in Doma and are so delighted to see what He has in store for the rest of 2015.

As for the blog, we long to renew our commitment to writing you quality, worthwhile posts about life, ministry and faith as we live and serve in rural Zimbabwe much more frequently. I, Ian, feel led to commit to a bi-monthly post, at a minimum and will strive to accomplish this in a timely fashion. If you thought we disappeared, thank you for finding us again, sticking with us, praying for God's work in and through us here. We are honored to serve here and to be a part of what God is doing to reveal Himself to men, women and children in rural Zimbabwe. Thank you for your prayers! We appreciate them so much!

Until next time,
The Frys

"Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths." Proverbs 3:5-6

Spiritual Realities

Last night we had a wonderful time of study and fellowship with fellow missionaries and coworkers for Christ in our area. During our study of Jude, we happened to get into a deep conversation about Shona culture and spiritual beliefs. The revelation and impactful conversation were so encouraging and uplifting. Our dear, Shona friends, Patterson and Mercy,  revealed so much of the deep Shona cultural beliefs. This time, we feel God has opened to door to help unravel the mystery of "false conversion" or "falling away" which is so prevalent of those who claim to follow Jesus here in Doma.

Many believe the following:
Ancestors live on around us forever and they either protect  us or, if we don't appease them, they negatively effect our lives by causing sickness, loss (such as crops, animals etc.) and we appease them by keeping the rituals handed down by the ancestors since forgotten times.

When a Shona person dies, there is a funeral after 10 days (when it is believed the body has "burst open") to try and cleanse the soul, giving the soul what it needs for its sojourn around the earth for the next year. Then, at 1 month, there is another service to "fully" cleanse the soul, meaning giving offerings to the ancestors to appease for any wrongs or remaining guilt that were on the deceased persons account. Then, after 1 year, there is a big ceremony to recall the spirit to find out whether it has found peace or torment. Then, the spirit is invited to come "back into the family" to protect and bless the family and to be appeased, should the spirit have any ill-will toward the surviving relatives. (This revealed to us which kind of funeral we were asked to speak at last year-the one year funeral). We also learned that some of the "christian" churches who are still syncretistic in their practices ask the soul if it got to go to heaven or hell, then ask the spirit back into the family.

The deepest revelation about the depths of Shona hearts, though, comes in their view of "the creator" and how we get to him. The Shona believe that we can get to god, but that we have to communicate to him through our ancestors... ALL of them! So, you have your life, tied to your father, grandfather,  great grandfather, great great grandfather, etc. all the way back to the creator and you CANNOT communicate to god without being at peace and in good will with all ancestors. Many live in complete fear of the ancestors, as there is belief that they determine all things good and bad in the living relatives lives. With this in mind, most people live in perpetual fear of failing to keep ALL their ancestors unhappy. Furthermore, these ancestors are believed to be "buy-able." In essence, the family members use the fears of the ancestors to keep others in line, or to force them to do what others want done, threatening to anger the spirits (translate as put a curse) against those who disobey or fail to comply with family mandates.

We were also instructed that the Shona people believe that they have the blood of their father in their veins. For most, this means all the sins of the father, grandfather, great grandfather, etc. are in their bodies and that they are tied to the ancestors through this blood, thus they must keep the ancestors happy to get to the creator. They also believe that they are protected from the sins of their fathers and any ill in life by their mothers ancestors. So, they are bound, by mother and fathers former relatives. They are warned, if you fail to appease ALL the spirits, bad things will happen: sickness, demonic oppression, loss of crops, poverty, any bad thing is believed to be the displeasure of the ancestors! Basically, they believe, "evil spirits" are ancestors spirits who are upset with them, not a different piece of creation. These ancestors "require" an annual gift/sacrifice to remain appeased. This can only be given through a nanga-witchdoctor and must be done in the families "traditional home" no matter how far away the family members have gone. Members who are too far away to come back must send money or goods to contribute to the family appeasing process.

So, this is all extremely valuable revelation for those of us laboring to see Jesus lifted high in saving the lost souls of Shona people in Zimbabwe! We now have a little bit better picture of where our people are starting from! We now have a little better idea of the deep difficulties that our people face if they truly convert. Patterson and Mercy shared last night that, as they have completely come out of the ancient ways and given their lives completely into Yahweh's hands in Jesus, that their families have told them, "You are on your own." In essence, when the ancestors get angry with you for failing to pay them, annually to bless you, then don't come to us, we want nothing to do with your insolent arrogance in refusing to "submit" to the ancestors and show them honor. Patterson and Mercy shared that they were instructed in their home church,  while growing up, that when you give you life to Jesus, you no longer have the blood of your physical father running through your body, but you have the blood of Jesus in you! You are LITERALLY a NEW CREATURE in Jesus and you are set free from all the sins, covenants, weaknesses and practices of the ancestors. They were taught that you no longer have to come to God through your ancestors but must come through Jesus Christ, the One true mediator between God and man!

We are overjoyed and humbled and encouraged today by this revelation! Brothers and Sisters, this is the cultural key which Yahweh God has hidden to communicate the back to Him through Jesus in this culture! Praise Him with us that He raised up Patterson and Mercy to be incredibly bold and brave to counter everything their parents and grandparents had accepted as true and binding and throw all their trust and faith in God through His promise to all who will believe in Jesus! Today, we realize that we must be the "family of God" to any and all who truly come out of the ancient religion because they will be severely persecuted by family, immediate and extended, for angering the spirits and bringing trouble on the family. Pray for the Stephanos as these incredible people are culture changers, world shakers, truly born again and empowered believers in Jesus Christ!

I pray as you read these words you are drawn closer to Jesus and that your hearts are encouraged by God's incredible power and might, greatness, grace and mercy in Jesus. I hope this blog inspires you to examine your own heart and find if you are following unBiblical practices and beliefs passed down from your ancestors that bear no life and only fear that you will cut those things out of your life. Jesus preached that we should "Repent, for kingdom of heaven is at hand." Let's strive to throw off everything that hinders and run with perseverance the race marked out for us by Jesus!

 Hallelujah, we have received the Spirit of adoption by which we cry Abba Father and not a spirit of fear! Please pray God will show us how to boldly and powerfully preach the Word of God with this new understanding! As I write these words, Heidi and I have 41 days before we return to America. Pray we will make the most of every opportunity to share Jesus in these culturally appropriate ways! We are so excited about this revelation. Ian's family has been praying for this for 15 years, as have all the members of our ministry team! Please praise God with us for revealing and pray that God will powerfully use us as His tools to bring lost souls back to their Wonderful Creator and Loving God!

Blessings,
Ian Fry

Cactus Prayer

  A few weeks ago, I, Ian, went to visit our friend, Joshua Mudiwa at his farm. As you may recall, we have been working with Joshua for nearly two years to grow in his knowledge and faithfulness as a farmer, as well as, to share Jesus with Joshua and his family. We've been greatly encouraged by Joshua's progress trying to follow Jesus as the Bible instructs us to. Well, on this particular visit, I saw an area of Joshua's property that had previously been covered in "bush." In that area was a cactus, all alone with three small clay bowls laying around it. I asked Joshua, "What is this and what does it mean?" He proceeded to explain that the cactus is a part of the Johane Masowe sect that he came from. The cactus, he said, is used to heal people. I asked how, expecting that they used the juices or flesh for a medicinal purpose, his response surprised me. "We put these bowls here and place three very small smooth stones in them, then we pray, and ask the cactus to give us the strength to heal. The power comes from the spirit of John the Baptist." I asked more questions, trying to ascertain what he really believed was transpiring when they prayed like this. He revealed that they actually believe some of the life of John the Baptist went into the water so that sick people could be healed. Incredibly, to our western minds, people really are "healed" by drinking the water from these bowls after the prayers! He told me that the founder of the sect had taught them to do this ritual and that it was his spirit that gave the healing. We conversed at length about the Scriptures clear teachings on healing, God's power and how God shows us that he healed and will heal through the church. Joshua was encouraged that the Bible does talk about healing. Then we talked about false worship, signs and healing. Joshua was very excited to hear stories like Elisha and the Prophets of Baal, where God showed up to prove His power over a false god. He was even more excited to recount that Jesus healed many and promised that healing would continue through his church. But, then the rubber met the road, I asked Joshua if he was ready to cut down the cactus? His answer was really revealing. He said, "Ah, I have been told that this cactus will protect my family from lightning. You know, many huts get hit with lightning and the people died. So, I am afraid to cut this down since the rains are coming." We had a another lengthy conversation about God's power and how, often, God responds to His children's faith in Him as evidenced in their actions. I encouraged Joshua that God will protect his family if he will walk by faith and stand in the face of the demon worship that is going on around him. He was still afraid but agreed to talk to his wife about Biblical healing. Please pray for Joshua and his entire family as they seek to walk in the truth and obey God! Please pray that as they begin to step out of the syncretism that they are accustomed to that God will "prove" himself to them in their personal lives and in the community around them. We are still pursuing a church plant on the farm where Joshua lives and have recently learned that there are no churches there, only witches and syncretistic cults teaching ways to heaven other than Jesus. The battle for lost souls rages on, brothers and sisters. I can't help but ask, are you involved in the battle, rescuing those in darkness over to the light, saving those on their way to death for eternal life? It was Jesus' mission, to save the lost, it was the focus of the early church...is it our focus today? I hope so! If not, today is as good of day as any to reorient, realign, and reprioritize our lives to join in God's objectives in this world!

"It really works! The Bibles really works!"

About a week ago one of the teenage boys at Eden came to me visibly upset and perturbed by something. Through the course of a 15 minute conversation he revealed he was having a very disturbing conflict with one of his housemates, a fellow teen at Eden and didn't feel he could resolve the issue himself. He asked if I, Ian, would intervene and speak to the boy for him. I conveyed my concern about the situation and agreed that action must be taken, but I was also concerned that this young man find a Biblical solution for himself. So, I encouraged him to go to Matthew 18, to read it several times that evening, and then to come and see me and tell me what God had told him should be done and what he should do in that situation.
  Early on the next morning the young man arrived with a very serious face. He wasn't very excited about what he had found, but he did clearly and accurately articulate what Matthew18 says to do in a conflict situation among believers. So, he asked me if I would come with him to "confront" his brother. I asked if he had already done "step 1" in talking to his brother alone (I knew he hadn't because it is a very difficult action, in Shona culture, to directly deal with an issue between two people) and he responded with a "no." I encouraged him to try what the Bible says first and if it didn't go well, I would be more than willing to help with "step 2." That was enough encouragement to push the young man to try! 

 The next day he arrived with a happy look on his face and a spring in his step. He had gone to his brother and spoken about his frustration and concern. Much to his surprise, his brother had responded with equal concern and urgency at resolving their personal issues. He was amazed that the conversation had gone so well and had been so "easy" once he had faced his fear. Though I assured him that it won't always be easy and your brother might not respond the way you would like every time, a huge victory had been won, by the Lord, in a young man's heart. This young man expressed his amazement and joy at "seeing" God's Word work in a real-life problem in HIS life! I cannot express adequately how exciting it was a watch as God solidified his faith through this experience! We are constantly praying, teaching, encouraging and striving to see the REALITY of God and His Word in these young peoples' lives, so to see God actively reach out to these kids is wonderful! Thank you for your prayers! God is doing His mighty work here and we are overjoyed to be a part of it!

 This story also inspires a question within my heart... how convicted, convinced and confident am I that God's Word is real? That God's Word is powerful, active and true? How about you? How convinced are you? Actions speak louder than words in this answer and I, for one, am reminded to fully rely on God's wisdom and ways more and more completely at all times! I hope you are encouraged and pulled toward God through this story as well!

A nice "short" trip to get some goats!

For the last several months, I, Ian, have been working on getting the details ironed out for a Rotary International grant to bring dairy goats to Eden Children's Village to help supplement our milk needs, especially for the children in our care who cannot digest cows milk.
So, after months of preparation, the time finally arrived to go and retrieve the goats. Ian and our neighbor, Dave, climbed in Eden's truck, a Foton 2 1/2 toner, at 2am on Wednesday, May 8th, and began the 900 kilometer (565 mile) trip to  Louis Trichardt, South Africa to retrieve the animals. The first four hours were great as we bombed along at the Foton's governed, maximum speed of 85 kilometers per hour. We stopped for a potty break at 6 am and hopped back in the truck to continue to journey, but the truck wouldn't got into gear. After a few minutes, we realized a cable had sheered off and we were going to have to be towed. Fortunately, Dave knows someone in nearly every knook and cranny of Zimbabwe and in a few hours we a truck arrived to tow us to the closest town of Kwekwe. We began getting towed and about 3 miles down the road the clutch on the truck burnt out because of a compression build up in the clutch line. So, our single, and pretty simple problem was made significantly more troublesome! Eventually we arrived in Kwekwe and the mechanics began working on the truck. We knew we were going to be there for the night, so we hoped on a local bus to get to the next town, Gweru, where Dave's friends live. The bus ride took 3 hours to travel 36 miles as we would drive a little, stop and pick up more passengers in the already full bus, or get stopped by the police for several minutes at a time. The most difficult part of this segment of the journey was the temperature. It was already quite hot in the bus, but when we were moving, many of the fellow passengers wanted the windows closed too! So, by the time we arrived in Gweru, I was more than ready to exit the public transport and walk as far as necessary to our next destination. After a short while, we were retrieved by one of Dave's friends and escorted to a beautiful home where we were treated to some lunch and very fine hospitality. The genuine fellowship between genuine followers of Jesus Christ cannot be overstated in sharing about this journey! It truly was incredible to be blessed by brothers and sisters in Jesus in a time of need. Immediately following after lunch coffee, we were kindly escorted to the residence of another of Dave's friends who had kindly offered to keep us for the night. Again, we were treated to incredible hospitality and kindness. We enjoyed good food, fellowship and sleep and woke ready to go the next day.
As often happens in Africa, it took much longer to fix the truck than anticipated, but by noon, we were ready to get on our way. So, we saddled up and began our journey again, still 8 hours to go to the goat farm. Exactly 6 kilometers out of the town where we broke down, I started having trouble with the truck, it was a fuel issue this time and, since we had to starter, this was a huge issue! We were also in the midst of lots of road construction, so we were having to stop and start constantly. By His grace, we only had to stop once for the construction and happened to roll right through 5 construction areas unimpeded and made it with very little extra fanfare to the city where Dave's friends lived. Unfortunately, I had dropped Dave's Bible, which had his passport in it, at the former town. So, while I fueled up and prepared to return the the kind friend's house to finalize plans to leave, Dave went back to Kwekwe to get the passport. As soon as he left, the truck died for real and I knew we were not going anywhere that day. So, in 30 hours, we had gone a grand total of 45 miles! Not the progress we were hoping for. Fortunately, Dave's friend knew a good mechanic in Gweru who could work on the truck. I had broken down for real, so he had to come get me, but a few minutes after I was informed that he was coming, a man pulled out of his driveway right in front of me and asked if I was Ian, I answered, "Yes, I am." and we briskly pushed the truck right into his drive! I'd broken down right where I needed to be...how curious! So the good mechanic man took us in and began looking at the truck, quickly finding some major issues. So, we left him to do his work and returned to the wonderfully kind friend's house to spend yet another night. This took the time of our trip from the expected 30 hours to approximately 48 already, and we weren't any closer to the destination!
Fortunately, my mid afternoon the next day, the truck was fixed and running better than ever before. We packed up and headed off at our fantastic 85km (51 miles) per hour! We got through the border with little effort and arrived at the goat farm at 1:45am on Saturday morning, nearly 72 hours after our departure! We were just thrilled to be there though! We enjoyed a brief conversation and headed off to bed for a good sleep! The sleep was a bit short, but we woke early and got to take a tour of a fine dairy farm. We inspected the animals and finalized our plan for the trip back. At 4pm we loaded up and began the return leg. Things went very smoothly and we arrived at the boarder in good time and successfully navigated the South Africa side easily. Little did we know, we had a long night ahead of us!
On the Zimbabwean side, we quickly went through all the procedures that we knew had to be completed to import that animals. We ran through the many lines and different fees to make it happen and were at the very last step, a stamp from an official giving us clearance to leave the boarder post. That agent lifted the stamp and nearly pressed it to our paperwork before halting and retracting her hand. She returned to the head office to verify we could go, but returned claiming we needed further paperwork. We were really upset by this, because we were fearful for the animals well being in the back of the cramped truck. Without giving too many boring details, we spent the next 4 hours trying to get the right paperwork approved. Eventually, we succeeded at 1:45 am and left the boarder to continue our journey on home. We traveled straight through with as few stops as possible and arrived at Eden at 12:45pm. We unloaded the animals, fed and watered and milked the does, sharing the spoils with the curious children who had come to see the new sideshow attractions at Eden!
The next day, a small child arrived at the clinic critically malnourished and dying! We were completely out of formula, and the cows milk doesn't often sit well with these extremely malnourished kids, so our RN decided to give the fresh goats milk. The child didn't like the taste at first, but quickly began guzzling the milk down! In little over a day, our goats had saved their first child! This is why we got goats, to add the the effectiveness of the ministry of Eden Children's Village! So, no matter what it took to get them here, we see it as COMPLETELY worth it to have prolonged this one child's life long enough to hear about Jesus!
We hope this post encourages you in the daily troubles and challenges you face. Just remember, you never know what God is going to do with the fruit of your hands...you just might save a life after being really really frustrated. So, we hope you are able to enjoy life, even in the difficulties, a little bit more today!

An Unexpected Encounter

This past Sunday, March 31st, was a nice, typical Sunday in Doma. We enjoyed celebrating the resurrection of Jesus and our subsequent hope and redemption! However, the day ended in a rather unusual fashion. At 6pm, one of the young men saw Heidi and I leaving our home and informed us that one of the girls from Eden had been "attacked by spirits." This isn't necessarily an uncommon thing in our part of Zimbabwe, but the alarm on the young man's face was enough to inform us that this was a pretty bad attack. So, I, Ian, took Heidi home and proceeded to go and find the group of people who were praying over the girl who was being attacked. I arrived just after dark and found about 15 people in a circle praying over this girl. The girl, who is tall, but slender and typically very quiet and docile, was writhing on around on the ground hissing, trilling and pulling four people too and fro with ease. Others who had been there longer said that the girl's mother, who has been deceased for about 10 years, was speaking through her, telling secrets about the girls life and family. So, a Shona pastor and I, as well as several other believers from Eden, prayed for deliverance and laid hands on the girl. We prayed for about thirty minutes and then the demon left her. The Shona pastor explained in Shona that he felt the girl needed to repent and forsake any sin she knew of that might have opened a door for this demonic activity. She did repent, loudly and openly, which is very uncharacteristic in our area. She prayed for probably ten minutes while everyone around her sang Shona praise songs. After the attack had ceased, I was thanked for coming and told it meant a great deal to the community that I would come to pray for someone who is being attacked by spirits.
Curious, I asked what was meant by the phrase, "attacked by spirits." The local pastor informed me that the ancient religion included a ritual or rite of summoning "ancestors" to strike fear into living relatives. Apparently, this is one of the ways the culture remains involved and syncretistic in its relationships to demon worship. I am told if most are honest, they are very fearful that they will be harmed or even killed by demons, even though they are Christians. Though some have Bibles and many of the preachers/pastors are fully convinced of the power of Christ over demonic forces, many of the people are still entirely in bondage to the fear of what the evil one can do. As a result, we see people constantly turning back from Christ to go to the witch doctor for healing from disease or for a "counter" spell to protect them from the demon attacks. This is so burdening to our hearts! To think that many who have been professing Christians for most of their lives are still terrified, constantly, that they will be harmed by evil spirits is astonishing! We cannot fathom living with that kind of fear for a little while, much less for a lifetime. Truth be told, people actually do die from these attacks and quite frequently at that. There is a genuine reason to be afraid, if you are not fully given to Christ and, therefore, sealed with the Holy Spirit.

To many of you, reading about an attack of this nature may seem strange, perplexing or even fake. However, one thing I can assure you is that this was no acting session and no matter how confusing or how much it challenges our preconceived notions or theological assertions about demonology, possession or oppression, it was real. For us, this is a really tangible example of  the "roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour." We see the need for discipleship and deeper "understanding" of Scriptural truth. Correspondingly, though, there is always going to be the additional reality here in Africa, that these people need to see God counteract Satan's power over them as tangibly as they experience the effects of demonic attacks. Regardless of where you stand theologically on demonology, I encourage you to reread what the Scriptures have to say about the evil one and consider, if you had grown up here, in these circumstances and if you had these same fears ingrained deep inside your heart. How much would you need to see power to drive out the fear of the other power you've known? What would it take to really convert you? The answer, I believe, will be incredibly close to the answer for most Shona people too. So, please join us in praying that God will open doors for discipleship opportunities with local believers and that He will meet the secondary need for the demonstration of His power in their lives. We are excited to see how God is going to confirm His power and the accuracy of His Word in the lives of believers here in Zimbabwe. We will be sure to pass on the stories as they happen! As always, thank you for your prayers and support! We are honored to serve here!

Blessings,
The Frys

Lions and Prayer

    Last night I, Heidi, had a dream. I was walking on a path in the bush by myself when I got the feeling that I was going to see a lion. I felt God impress upon me not to fear and to pray for protection. So I did. And sure enough, I saw a female lion maybe 5 feet away from me prowling around. I was a little surprised and alert, but not fearful, and I prayed. Then a few seconds later, I saw the male lion. The lions didn’t even act like they knew I was there. And then they disappeared into the bush. As I continued to walk down the path, I looked into the bush and in a cleared-away spot, Ian was standing up talking to the rest of the leadership here at Eden. I knew the lions were going to attack them. I instantly started praying, “God, give Ian the strength of David. Help him to not fear.” Then the lions came out of the tall grass and lunged at Ian. And God gave him the supernatural strength to push the lions away back into the bush. They didn’t die, but they ran away and no one was hurt. We all gave God glory for what He had done!

      Now, you may be thinking that this would’ve been a much cooler blog post if that had really happened, right? Well, maybe, but maybe not...There are lions that live several miles away from us in Doma, so we do ask for your continued prayers for protection. But there’s another lion right here at Eden, “a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.” We need much more protection from him. Satan desperately wants to destroy the work here at Eden. He has tried to attack many times, but God remains stronger! Please don’t underestimate your prayers! You may never be able to come and visit Eden, but you do have power to impact lives here through your prayers. God hears you and will answer you! 

      In 2 Chronicles 7, after Solomon ended praying for the dedication of the temple, “fire came down from the heavens and consumed the ascending offering and the slaughterings. And the glory of the Lord filled the temple.” This happened because Solomon prayed. And God’s glory will invade Eden, my life, and your life, if we pray! 

Dinner With Friends

   Recently, Heidi and I had the great privilege to host one of the Shona couples in our community who have become good friends. We had a really good time enjoying pizza together and chatting about life and culture. After the meal, we retired to the living room and had a really enlightening conversation about Shona marriages and that conversation inspired this post!
  This dear family is a very strong family. They are fully Shona while also fully Christian and are much more open about realities in the culture that many will not speak about. We were astonished to find out that Shona women and girls are trained, from a very young age, that they should expect to be beaten by their husbands. The assumption, and the preparation for marriage, is that the husband will cheat on his wife with whomever he pleases, but she must stay faithful to him and whenever he doesn't like something that she's done, he will beat her to get her "back in line." The Shona women, according to our Shona friends, are trained to expect this kind of treatment and see it as "normal" and good. If a man does not cheat on his wife and beat her, he is assumed to be cursed, "bewitched" by our friends comments, by his wife and under her sway spiritually. So, if a man is truly trying to "love his wife as Christ loves the church," his wife will face intense social pressure, in the rural areas, because she is seen as practicing witchcraft to control her husband. There are tasks which are expected to be the woman's duty and should the husband perform any of those tasks, it will also be assumed he is under spiritual control of some kind. For instance, our friends had several months that they were apart while the wife finished a diploma in education and her husband performed all the menial tasks of running a home. These include washing cloths, cooking, doing dishes, etc. Since our friend performed all of these duties, and remained faithful to his wife in spite of the months of separation, he is now assumed, by some in the community, to be controlled by his wife through witchraft.
  Incase you are thinking, "Well, those people just need Jesus!" it is vital that you understand many, if not most of the people, making these assertions are in fact confessing "believers" in Jesus Christ! The discipleship element of ministry here in the rural areas is absolutely vital and sorely lacking! There is little, if any, difference between confessing Christian homes and pagan homes in terms of fidelity and spousal abuse. In our community, our friends were telling us, they know of two couples who have really begun to put aside the old ways and seek to follow Christ's instructions through the Biblical writers about marriage. In both cases, our friends have begun to meet with these couples in one on one settings to encourage spiritual growth in their personal lives and marriages!
  We were so encouraged to hear the "truth" about what is going on in the marriages around us! As the "missionaries" we are often kept at arms length for whatever reason (I think most people insulate in similar ways, even across cultures) and don't learn the reality of the situations we are trying to minister to until years into the ministry. The ministry of Eden Children's Village has been in Doma for 14 years now, and NO ONE has ever told us about these facts. We knew about the sleeping around being permissible for husbands, but we never knew that young women are TRAINED to accept beating and that young men are TRAINED that it's okay, or even necessary, to beat a wife. This invigorates my heart! A fire burns to see healthy, Biblical marriages in the Shona cultural context! I am sure there a great many around and about, but here, in our context and location, there are very few! God help us to make a difference in these young people's lives so that they can expect and hope for a better marriage than the one traditionally afforded. Please pray for Heidi and I as we begin to look for opportunity to disciple an even younger (we are 25 and have only been married 4 1/2 years) couple to mentor as they walk with God together! Lord willing, we'll be sharing about that new opportunity soon!

Thank you for your prayers and support! We are glad to be here and glad to have the privilege to try and walk together with some young believers as they get learn to follow Jesus as his disciples! That wouldn't be possible without all of you and we don't take that for granted!

Blessings,

Ian Fry

Unwanted Preacher + Unwanted Gospel = Terrific Opportunity for Jesus!

This past Saturday, Sept. 29th, I had the opportunity to preach the Gospel at a memorial service, called "nyaradzo" in Rugare, Harare, Zimbabwe. So, three of us set off to preach, Ian Fry, Jamison Deacons, and our brother and good friend, Simon Mupesewa who is kind enough to translate for us on these odd opportunities that arise. We arrived at the location at about 9am and fellowshipped with the family and found that the proceedings had been scheduled to begin at 9pm, instead of am and would proceed until 6am. We were not really expecting this, but agreed because we had come 3 hours to preach the Good News, day or night, rain or shine. So, we found accommodation for our wives and children and prayerfully prepared and rested, getting ready to head back to the memorial service in the evening. At 7:30pm we arrived back at the site and were instructed to remain in our car. For the next 2 and a half hours there were arguments and discussion about whether we would be allowed to be present at this memorial service and whether we would be allowed to preach. Little did we know, we had been invited to speak at this service because of or friendship with a local farmer whose mother-in-law had died. This mother-in-law was a member at a apostolic sect called Johan Masowe. This group was founded in 1931 after Johan died and reportedly "came back" with a "new" revelation from God. This sect does not use the Bible (in fact they are forbidden from reading the Bible) and have incorporated much of the ancient Shona religion into their "worship." They practice some really strange syncretism. They supposedly still trust Jesus for salvation, but they require one to wear white garments and no shoes, or you will be unholy and unable to "hear" from the spirit. They mainly rely on prophecy for their instruction from God, but use veiled references to Scripture without context or the entirety of the witness of God's Word! So, they were deliberating about whether we would be allowed to preach because they believe white people crucified Jesus and that our presence would hinder the prophet (bishop/leader) from being able to call the dead woman's spirit back to ask her if she went to heaven or hell. (They also said that speaking English would hinder the spirit as well, as it is the language of those who killed Jesus.) So, we were excited that they recognized that they would not be able to call up her spirit if we were present, because we were praying against every spiritual power and principality in the name and authority of Jesus! So, they decided we could not speak and should leave. However, we waited and the head father "baba" of the family came to us (he is not part of the cult, he is a drunk) and said, "You must not leave! I am the baba, this is my home, my mother and I invited you. You MUST speak!" So, we were delighted and excited to get the chance to speak! Eventually, at 10:30pm, the service began. We sat for the next 2 1/2 hours as one after another, men and women would get up and say what "word" or "vision" they had received, then another would stand and interpret what the former had said and what it meant. This was pretty challenging as we sat on the ground (which we are not accustomed, physically, to doing) but we endured with joy, waiting patiently for the chance to lift Jesus high! Finally at 1am we got the word, it is time for you to preach! So, Jamison went first, he rose and courteously thanked everyone for the opportunity to speak the Gospel. After about 50 seconds, one of the woman from the sect interrupted and began singing a song (we didn't know there was a  "rule"that if someone sings 3 songs during your time speaking that you have to stop talking, because they are done listening to you.) So, someone warned Jamison about the rule and when the song finished, he began to hit really hard on some of their core fallacies including: praying to the dead, discerning whether someone is a false prophet or not, the need for the Word of God and many other "touchy" subjects. At mentioning that a prophet can be tested to see if he is from God by the simple reality that everything he says comes from God must happen, if he is a true prophet, most of the men from this sect stood up and left the meeting to discuss how to keep us from preaching. So, after the 3rd song, Jamison came to me and told me about the rule and I, Ian, walked forward and began to wait for my turn to speak. However, they never stopped singing! After 3 songs, we went to find our friend Joshua and discern what was happening. As it turns out, the "elders" of the cult decided that there wasn't enough time for us to speak before they needed to call up the woman's spirit. For obvious reasons, we could not and would not remain as they did this practice of witchcraft. So, we spoke to our friend and the men who were still out of the meeting and explained that we could not stay for this unholy practice and we left.
So, we spent three days, several hundred dollars and lots of energy for 8 minutes of preaching! Now, to the flesh and natural eyes, that seems like a waste! However, there were many there who were not Christians, besides everyone in that cult and we were able to speak with many of them about Jesus, the need for Scripture, and begin truly born again! We are especially happy to see what takes place in the life of the baba! Those who were not from the cult were definitely asking themselves, "If these Masowe (the name of the cult group) are from God, why are they so afraid of these two tiny white men! Maybe there is something more to what these guys have to say." For both Jamison and myself, this is a first experience of being completely rejected and disrespected in this culture! We were all joyful in the Lord though, because we were able to shine His light in a completely dark situation! One of the greatest benefits to the weekend, we believe, will prove to be our relationship with Joshua! He wants to come and learn from God's Word with us! He saw the way the Masowe treated us and wanted to know how we could take their disrespect (because that is very huge in Shona culture) and still be joyful and take the small opportunity to preach!

Thank you for your prayers! We believe God has fulfilled his purpose of our presence last weekend! We may only know in eternity what the fruit truly was from this weekend! So, I want to encourage all of you to be using every single opportunity to lift Jesus high! You have no idea why God has things go wrong sometimes and you can choose to lose that opportunity to frustration and anger or to use it to lift Jesus high and possible introduce a lost soul to its loving Creator! I hope you take the chance in your next difficult or unexpected circumstance!

Until next time,
The Frys

The "Joy" is in the Journey!

This past Wednesday, September 5th, we headed off to Harare to buy building supplies for our new home and bring them back to Doma! So, our journey began at 4:30am. We passed through Doma and on to Mhangura where we picked up flower seeds for a friend. So, we got to ride on a very fragrant pillow for the subsequent 4 hours to Harare. This was all good and the trip was uneventful until we arrived just outside of Harare. At this time, we began experiencing problems with the fuel injection to our truck's engine. So, we stopped at a shop and got the fuel filters cleaned out and put back on, and the truck ran great for the rest of the day in Harare! So, we had a long day of shopping, going all over the city, picking up the needed supplies to begin constructing a home. This took us from 9am to 5pm rushing around almost every moment, squeezed into the back of this little truck! We got supper at 5:30 and set off on our "4" hour journey back to Doma. Little did we know, as the sun was setting, so the consistent progress of our journey would cease! Making a long story short, we spent the next 6 and 1/2 hours going at a max speed of 24 miles per hour with the truck stalling out with no fuel about every 3 minutes! This would have been quite disconcerting under normal circumstances, but to add to matters, Jamison Deacons and Ian Fry were sitting in the back of the truck inside a house worth of door frames, surrounded by wire, doors, shingles and a wheelbarrow. Needless to say, we were a little uncomfortable. However, God is good and we were reminded that we are so joyful to be here in Zimbabwe, so grateful to be serving and laboring to share Christ in this place. So, we made a pillow out of shingles and prayed and praised for about 3 hours before we both fell asleep! At about 11pm, Rory Ervine, our fellow worker at Eden arrived in another truck with the correct tools to adjust fuel intake and we made it most of the way home before the truck died again! Finally at 12am we arrived back in Doma. Exhausted and sore we hobbled into bed and collapsed for what remained of the night. The next day, I found myself reflecting on the situation and rejoicing at the opportunity that God had given to us to witness about His life, grace, hope and truth in our lives! The men we were with (3 Shona men) got to see a few things that they hadn't experienced before. We chose to ride in the back of the truck to affirm to our Shona brothers that we don't think we are better than them! They were surprised that we spent nearly 20 hours cramped back there by choice to give them the opportunity to ride in better conditions in the front of the truck. They were surprised that we bought them food and ate together sharing the exact same food and drink, side by side! All in all, the trip had nothing to do with building materials, breakdowns or discomfort, but had everything to do with sharing Jesus in every way possible in life!
This leads me to a  few realizations and encouragements for you, our brothers and sisters abroad who will read this! 1) How are you doing at utilizing the mundane activities of your live, and even the catastrophes to witness for and be encouraged by Jesus Christ? How was your latest trip to Walmart or Target? Did you share Jesus in some way? Did you utilize that opportunity?
2) Do we have eyes to see that every moment of every day and every breath that we take is a gift from God and an opportunity to either pass by His majesty, grace and love or to rejoice in it and share it with others? Even in that cramped truck, going very slow, getting bruised by door frames, I could see the beautiful African night sky through a small window and it brought joy to my heart and praise to my lips because truly, my God is SO GOOD!

I pray this little post encourages your heart toward more focus on and thankfulness toward God in Jesus! Also, I pray you witness more in the mundane this day and week thinking about God's grace in seemingly unpleasant situations! Rom. 8:28-29, "And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers."  May you be shaped, no matter how inconvenient, unpleasant or difficult, through the mundane tasks of your life this week!