This Canada Day we had the priviledge of having our good friend Danisa Ndlovu in our home. Danisa also happens to be the Bishop of the BIC church in Zimbabwe. We spent many evenings at his home in Bulawayo with his family when we lived there and even got to spend Christmas in the rural village where he grew up. But I didn't imagine that he'd be in our home, at least not this soon. Danisa was in town speaking at the BIC conference in Toronto so we invited him to spend the night with us.
He was also here for the June 29 elections in Zimbabwe in which Robert Mugabe was the only candidate, and was sworn in for another five-year term as president. When asked about the situation in Zimbabwe, Danisa's answer was simple... "We continue to have faith that things will get better. They can't stay like this forever." He talked of how hard it was watching his country deteriorate over the years...once the bread-basket of Africa and now an economy that is beyond comprehension, one in five is infected with HIV/AIDS and a life expectancy that has dropped to 37 years. Yet Danisa is one example of so many Zimbabweans we met who press on during hard times and don't allow their challenges to define them. They are gracious in the the midst of suffering and have incredible faith that things will eventually change. They've been waiting for a long time!
It was wonderful to spend time with Danisa and look forward to hopefully hosting more of our Zimbabwean friends in the future.
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