Pastors Detained in Zimbabwe

Here's the story coming out of www.Zimbabwejournalists.com.

HARARE - Eight Zimbabwean church leaders have been released on bail after being detained for allegedly holding an illegal political meeting in a church on the evening of 26 January 2007, said officials siad today.

The church leaders were charged with breaching a section of the criminal law codification act outlawing political gatherings without police permission, for the meeting held in the town of Kadoma, southwest of the capital, Harare - as previously reported on Ekklesia.

Pastor Lucky Moyo, a spokesperson for the Christian Alliance, a coalition of mainly Pentecostal churches campaigning for good governance, said: "The pastors have been finally released today on 100,000 dollars bail each."

Magistrate Remigius Jemwa remanded the case to 5 March 2007. Pastor Moyo said: "The Christian Alliance had organised the meeting ... to launch a chapter in Kadoma. It was attended by scores of Christians from across denominations. The meeting was for Christians who felt they cannot remain silent while the country burns with companies closing, inflation hitting everyone hard and the majority of the people are suffering."

The cleric added: "We are not aligned to any political party and we don't mind who rules this country as long as they are accountable and respect the rights of all citizens. We are just against the prevailing situation characterised by looting and misgovernance."

Meanwhile, leading civil rights activist Lovemore Madhuku, chair of the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA), was arrested in Harare over a brief protest last week against plans by the ruling party to extend President Robert Mugabe’s term by another two years in 2008.

The NCA said: "Madhuku is currently detained at Harare central police station, where he is being interrogated by police assistant commissioner Bothwell Mugariri."

Zimbabwe is in the throes of chronic economic crises with four-digit inflation, massive joblessness and at least 80 per cent of the population living below the poverty threshold.

Please pray for these pastors and their families. Not only is the cost of bail a hardship, but the authorities can be ruthless to anyone who is labeled as oppositional.

International Day of Prayer and Fasting for Zimbabwe

This excerpt is from an article by Zimbabwean journalist RW Johnson, published on January 7th, 2007.

SUFFER the little children is a phrase never far from your mind in today's Zimbabwe. The horde of painfully thin street kids milling around you at traffic lights is almost the least of it: in a population now down to 11million or less, there are an estimated 1.3 million orphans.

Go to one of the overflowing cemeteries in Bulawayo or Beit Bridge, and you are struck by the long lines of tiny graves for babies and toddlers.
Hyena attacks on humans, previously unheard of, are increasingly common.

"So many babies, not all of them dead, are being dumped in the bush that hyenas have developed a taste for human flesh," a game ranger said.

A staggering 42,000 women died in childbirth last year, compared with fewer than 1000 a decade ago.

A vast human cull is under way in Zimbabwe, and the majority of deaths are a direct result of government policies.

Ignored by the UN, it is a genocide perhaps 10 times greater than Darfur's and more than twice as large as Rwanda's.

(You can read the remainder of the article here.)

The crisis in Zimbabwe has escalated to an unimaginable point. We MUST do something to help the victims of this humanitarian travesty.

• UNICEF is reporting that almost 1 in 4 children are now AIDS orphans.
• The inflation rate is estimated at around 1200 percent.
• Unemployment is over 80 percent, forcing citizens to desperate measures such as illegal mining.
• Controversial land reform and forced eviction programs have left thousands of people homeless, displaced, or dead.
• Food shortages are a growing problem.
• Medicine is in short supply, hospitals are in crisis, and now doctors have been on strike for the past two months. Average life expectancy has dropped to a meager 36 years.
• Laws restricting humanitarian organizations are keeping much-needed assistance from the people.
• Prime Minister Robert Mugabe was named the world's 4th worst dictator by Parade magazine. Political corruption and governmental abuses are rampant.
• Economist ranked Zimbabwe as dead last internationally in quality of life.

Please consider joining us for an

International Day of Prayer and Fasting for Zimbabwe
Wednesday, April 18th, 2007
We need to get the word out to as many people as possible!!! Prayer can change the course of a nation. Prayer can heal a broken people.

If you are interested in being part of this event, please let me know as soon as possible. We need people to help with publicity and mobilization. For more information, contact jkikicherry@hotmail.com.

A new year, a new generation

Just this week I heard of a young lady who is planning to convert from Christianity to Islam. She is actually the third student I know who has done so, and all three grew up in church.

Sometimes I wonder what the future holds for our kids. My concern is compounded when I read articles like this one from PBS and this one from the Guttmacher Institute.

But in the midst of it all, there is a generation of students who are standing strong. In the past three weeks, over 50,000 college students have assembled to worship and glorify God. Here are videos from Urbana (Dec. 27-31, 2006, St. Louis), Passion (Jan. 1-4, Atlanta) and West Coast Prayer Rumble (Jan. 4-6, San Diego). (Okay, those videos are not showing up for some reason. But you can find them all on You Tube. I'll keep trying, but am challenged in this area.)

Oh Lord, I pray that you will raise up from this generation a people set apart for you. I ask that they will die to self-idolatry, to prosperity and the distractions of the world. May they be pure and holy and zealous for your name. May they take the message of your glorious grace, no matter what the cost, to every nation, tribe and tongue. For Your Name, and Your Renown, are the desire of our souls.