Public Project
Kadoma, Zimbabwe - The Answer is Within
Summary
Thoughts & photos from a trip to Kadoma, Zimbabwe.
Going to Zimbabwe for 10 days validated a truth for me: Africa doesn’t need America (or any foreign source of saviors for that matter). Read more here: http://www.jalynnbaker.com/blog/2019/6/29/zimbabwe-the-answer-is-within-travel
Going to Zimbabwe for 10 days validated a truth for me: Africa doesn’t need America (or any foreign source of saviors for that matter). Read more here: http://www.jalynnbaker.com/blog/2019/6/29/zimbabwe-the-answer-is-within-travel
After returning home, I was equally aware that the long term impact of trips like mine often rests not in the painted walls or loved-on babies that teams leave behind, but instead in the hearts and lives of the team-members going forward. And while I still believe God uses the prayers and time spent to uplift and benefit the people encountered as well; I just don’t flatter myself that it’s essential for me to go. It is a privilege to travel into a person’s life for one day or week, share and learn about them, and then fly back to a comfy home.
Learning and connecting through travel is something I love, and I believe being engaged in missional work is important because Jesus commanded it before he left the earth. Still, it leaves me with so many questions as to how to go about it.
The cities that we visited in Zimbabwe (Harare, Kadoma, and Chegutu) showed me a world of beauty unlike anything I have ever seen. Just like any culture, they have been enriched by the sharing of ideas between other cultures; but what I saw so vividly in the eyes of these children is that the answer is within.
While my team was there, we didn’t necessarily “do” a list of good, but we surely saw it. I got to see the most beautiful examples of leadership being cultivated within the community. We as Americans may think of missions and foreign teams as doing the good, but that is not the case. The real work is done by the people every day.
Zimbabwean men and women, white and black, are raising up the next generation to problem solve in resourceful and effective ways, engaging their collective minds in teamwork and racial reconciliation, and boldly facing challenges head on.
In thinking about the impact of this trip in particular, a few questions lingered in my head. I still don’t have the answers, and I don’t know that there are hard fast answers for any situation. One question I have been asking is this: How can outsiders partner with local organizations in "third world" countries through relationships that build them up from within (supporting existing teachers and leaders) rather than building up ourselves?
In the Bible, Jesus commanded his followers to “go and make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:19). Christians are all called in that sense to be engaged in missions. But what does it look like? Sitting and sharing a meal with your next door neighbor from Saudi Arabia? Traveling and forming friendships with people from around the globe? Adopting an orphaned child in your own city? All of these could be valid options, but the answer will be different for everyone. It’s really not about us. It’s all about what he is doing. We humans just get to be a part of the story.
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