Exciting, Surprising Joy, Eye Opening, Happiness, Fulfillment are words I would use to describe the emotional journey I have just had the privilege of going on.

Jeremiah 29:11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

I started this Zoe trip in a very emotionally unstable state. I have been dealing with mental health issues with my son and trying to navigate a system that isn’t always the nicest to people of color. I was torn but knew I had to be a part of this journey and trust God to take care of things in my absence. And boy am I thankful I did. Working with Circles West Orange, I wanted to see the parallels and differences between the community we create here and those in Zoe. Visiting Rwanda and the continent of Africa for the first time was nothing short of Amazing!! I have heard of Zoe for years now but to experience it firsthand and see God’s words, his mercy and grace upon these children’s faces and lives, I am forever changed. Zoe Empowers is truly God working on Earth. Taking the most vulnerable, allowing them to see their true potential, giving them tools to succeed all rooted in God’s plan for their lives, this is Zoe. The Community they create is so inspiring. Visiting children from initial acceptance into the program to graduates shows Zoe works!
One moment that stood out to me the most was when the children referred to us as their parents. I asked why they refer to us as parents. It’s because we have chosen to support them, encourage them, provide for them in ways their biological parents aren’t able to. It’s a sign of respect and appreciation.
I come back home as a changed woman. To serve is my God given gift and purpose, now I seek to take that to another level with His grace and wisdom.

Have you ever had an experience that, by encountering people very different from you, helped you better understand yourself and the world?

It’s been a little over a week since I returned from Zimbabwe, along with three other St. Lukers, where we got the privilege to visit and meet many of the children and youth who have been part of the Zoe Empowers program. I’ve known of Zoe for many years, as a part of multiple United Methodist churches and conferences, but this was my first opportunity to see Zoe in action, really and truly. And, it was my first time on the continent of Africa at that!

It’s hard to summarize such a full week – (please check back, link to videos coming soon) 

As I have been reflecting and sharing stories with folks in the last week, I just want to share a few snapshot highlights from the week. If you aren’t familiar with Zoe Empowers, you can go here to learn more about how the three-year program for orphans and vulnerable children works, helping them find empowerment in the midst of challenging life and cultural circumstances.

Because of Covid-19, we were actually the first group to visit Zoe in Zimbabwe since 2019, and we felt that welcome heartily –  both staff and groups alike seemed over the moon to receive a visit from their American “family”!

My first snapshot is from the first group we visited – which is a group we sponsored that actually graduated from the program in March of 2023. The welcome we received with singing and dancing felt overwhelming – but we learned as we visited every other group that this wasn’t unique – this was part of the Zimbabwean culture, to welcome visitors with a song of welcome! Each group we visited sang as we approached, and each time I found myself emotional at the pure joy and celebration that seemed so natural to them.

It was particularly special to meet this group: they are Zoe graduates, so there was no requirement or even expectation that they would still be willing, or even able, to gather. There was nothing they owed us, and nothing that we expected from them. And yet, nearly every member of the group was present. They still identified individuals in their group as officers (chairperson, secretary, treasurer, and “pastor”), and even those Zoe graduates who were unable to be present usually had a sibling there to represent their household.

This was one of the greatest highlights of the week – while we did get to visit two group members” businesses (a shop and a lumber mill), the real highlight was hearing that Zoe for them was not just life-changing individually, but it had given them a group that they would continue to do life with, a year after graduation, and, in their words, “we will be friends forever.” They still also share a couple of businesses as a group, which allows them to also support one another in new business ventures and supporting one another in moments of crisis or challenge.

We visited two other of our groups in their second and first years, with the same warm, musical welcome. We heard more testimony, often with the following themes: “Zoe allowed me to send my siblings to school,” “Zoe means we can afford to eat three meals a day instead of one or fewer,” “Zoe has taught me that I have rights,” “Before Zoe, we weren’t welcome in the community, and now we are,” “Since Zoe came, I now go to church and am even able to tithe.”

I could continue, but those snapshots are all the result of a $150 grant, and empowerment education. These teens are serving as heads of their households, entrepreneurs, business owners, and community members. At our home visits, they were proud to show us the homes, toilets, and kitchens they had built themselves, or been able to hire someone to build.

We then visited one of our  second year groups, where we had the same warm welcome, as we marched with them through potato and tomato fields, to the place they had set up for us to hear their presentation, literally setting a table for us.

Like the other groups, we heard about incredible business success, both individually and collectively (including the fields we had just walked through). We even got to visit one of the kids’ homes where we saw how he uses aluminum scrap to make kitchenware, including making his own molds, which he learned from his father before he passed.

But this group included in their presentation something we hadn’t heard before. They wanted to show us their “cards,” which were posters they had had printed at a local print shop that had slogans on them, some in Shona and some in English. When they go into town as a group to participate in community service together (did I mention they go into town and participate in community service together?), they carry these signs of advocacy with them. Because they learned about their rights as a part of Zoe, they also want to advocate and educate other children and community members about those rights.

The signs included statements about children’s right to a birth certificate, as well as for gender and violence advocacy: “Stop Gender Based Violence,” and the one that really hit us all hard: “It shouldn’t hurt to be a girl.” Whew. Church, if we say we don’t have capacity for advocacy in our lives and all we have going on, these kids took away any excuses I could possibly have for not participating in advocacy work for those who are vulnerable in our communities. Truly an inspiration!

We also got to participate in worship with a local United Methodist Church, where the pastor invited me and the other clergyperson with our group to be part of the processional, and to offer prayers in the service. We got to be led in song by their children, and it was helpful to hear what the concerns of the church and community were at the time: hygiene and a cholera outbreak, help with harvesting one another’s fields, and access to water as the result of a drought. They spoke often of the effects of climate change on their communities and farming capacities.

To know we are a connectional, worldwide church has always even meaningful to me. But getting to actually worship together with other United Methodists from a different continent and culture brought even deeper meaning to our connection. Even though we did not speak the same language, the familiar tune of the Gloria Patri and the rhythm of the Lord’s Prayer was a sign of unity, and the choruses that were so familiar to them that they repeated highlighted the diversity of what the expressions of worship and church can and should be.

Our final day visiting groups, we got a privilege that not many visitors do. We visited a newly-forming group that we will be sponsoring. The day we visited, they were meeting officially as a group for the first time, and their Zoe program facilitator was sharing with them what the Zoe program is and what it will be teaching them. Particularly impactful was the skit that he asked them to prepare showing what their life was like. While they worked on planning it, we heard testimonies from some of the other kids to what they were facing. This was the first time we were hearing testimony of “before” without the presence of “after.” It was helpful that we had seen so many examples of “after” during the rest of our trip.

The drama began with a family of three sisters who were caring for their ailing, elderly grandmother, who could not stand or walk on her own. It was up to the children to feed the family, and to find medicine for their grandmother. We saw a series of scenes that depicted the rejection of neighbors and family because of their poverty, and the difficulty getting work, after which they were exploited by their employers. It was a grim scene to watch, while sitting among children and youth who were currently living these realities.

The program facilitator asked if any of the group members would volunteer to allow us to visit their homes, and one of the girls who had been part of the skit quickly volunteered. After a rocky drive and a long hike, we arrived at her home, where we saw there, two siblings alongside an ailing grandmother who was not able to stand or care for herself. The “stage” was certainly reflecting life.

I was conflicted during this visit: all our other home visits were to “after” stories, and it felt invasive to me to visit this girl’s home at their lowest point. And yet, as she shared more of her story with us, she said “I am so glad you are here. No one ever visits us.”

Which speaks so much to my overall feelings on this trip. While there was no question for me about the efficacy of Zoe’s work, and I was thrilled to have the opportunity to see it firsthand, the justice seeker in me wondered if our visit would be in any way helpful, or even appreciated, by the kids and we have sponsored. So often in the past the Anglo world, particularly white Christians, has imposed itself on African nations and communities, both in systemic oppression like the British colonial rule that was still in effect until 1980 in Zimbabwe, as well as in attempts at “relief work” that can at times create neo-colonial structures and perpetuate the challenges faced.

The welcomes we received, the stories shared so freely, the selfies that the kids wanted to get with this on their phones, and finally this young woman’s statement, with no preparation and no prompting by anyone, let me know that the connection we feel with our groups, wishing big dreams to come true for them, they also want to share life and their dreams with us. We get to be part of something that not only improves the lives of individual children, but also transform entire communities and begins to heal the broken structures that colonial imperialism put in place for decades.

And on a less dramatic note, we got to meet some really cool and inspiring kids. I wanna be like them when I grow up! And I hope you know, St. Luke’s, that each of you is part of something that is life- and culture-transforming in Zimbabwe, and Rwanda, and in so many other places around the world. We have much to learn from them, and I look forward to going back to see those “before” kids and getting to see what God does in their “afters” and beyond!

Blessings,
Pastor Melissa

Skip Slone had the opportunity to travel to Zimbabwe with the St. Luke’s team in April 2024. Below are some of his reflections from the trip.

One particularly poignant moment for me came when one of the Zoe youths was answering a question from a St. Luker about how their lives had changed since they started Zoe. Without hesitation, she said, “before Zoe, we all felt like God didn’t love us, since he took away our parents. But then, God gave us new parents. And now,” gesturing to our group, “our parents have come to visit us!”

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When visiting the various Zoe empowerment groups as we traveled from village to village, we heard story after story of how the children, who were previously shunned by their communities now felt accepted. In hearing these stories over and over, I couldn’t help but reflect on how many stories from the Gospel accounts tell of people who for various reasons were previously shunned by their own communities, but who later found love and acceptance. Just as Jesus offered unconditional love and acceptance, leading to a miraculous transformation in the lives of individuals in those stories, the unconditional love and acceptance that Zoe offers the children leads to a similar (some might say miraculous) transformation in the lives of the children.

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As was the case with my previous Zoe trip when I visited Rwanda in 2018, I was struck by the transformative power of Zoe. The children we met who were at the very beginnings of their journeys were clearly dealing with burdens that most of us would view as more than anyone could bear. Their faces were downcast, and their clothes were dirty and ragged. They could not yet see the hope of things to come.  In contrast, the children and youth we met who had a year or more of the program behind had the kind of joy that is simply infectious and hard to contain. Their faces beamed and their stories talked of hope. Our group felt that joy and joined in with them in their music and dancing, laughing, smiling, and clapping with a joy of our own. It was truly a beautiful thing to experience. I can hardly wait to visit the newest group again in a couple years so that we can celebrate and be joyful with them!

 

The St. Luke’s team that went to Rwanda in June returned transformed, blessed and inspired by the ZOE children and the empowerment model.
Click on the image below to watch this video. We hope you get inspired as well!

 

 

 

 

Click on the images below to watch as the Rwanda Missions Team start their journey!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   

   

    

To see the November 2023 update
for the St. Luke’s UMC groups that are currently being supported in Zimbabwe,
click on the link below:

To see the report the ZOE Empowers Alumni Households in Rwanda

Holistic High Status Rwanda FINAL

Now in their third and final year, the families in your Zoe Empowers Zimbabwe group have made great strides to overcome the suffering and challenges of extreme poverty.  While the second year was a time to put into practice all they had learned during the intense trainings of the first year, this final year will be spent expanding their businesses, building savings, and increasing their standard of living so that they are resilient to challenges in the years to come.

As an example of what all the youth have achieved, we have a video report on a family from your group available through this link:  Precious Mushunje

The Zimbabwe staff also provided this general update about your group:

• Precious Group members received a group grant and started buying and selling dry goods such as cooking oil, recharge cards, cooking oil, and flour. With the profits, they started a broiler chicken project. Profits are also used to boost their table bank.
• The group members continued with table banking in their second year by contributing $10 per month. In June, they shared dividends and members used the funds to construct toilets, buy household items and clothes for their siblings, pay school fees, and pay vocational training fees.
• Heads of household are running more than one business, hiring other orphans to assist them, and starting businesses for their siblings. Some members have formed businesses together.
• They bought agricultural inputs using their resources and are now growing different crops such as groundnuts, cowpeas, maize, groundnuts, beans, and sunflowers. The group member’s maize harvest increased from an average of 10 x 50kg to an average of 14 x 50kg of maize.  They are also purchasing livestock which can improve the nutrition of their meals and also serve as a form of savings.

Lifted Up Manzununu -Zimbabwe, 2021-2024

Peace Group – Zimbabwe, 2022-2025

Rudorwashe “The Love of God” Guta Group – Zimbabwe, 2023-2026

Abunzubumwe Kigembe, Rwanda, 2023-2025, first year report

We also have a family video report to share

Abunzubumwe “Unity” Kigembe

Final Report-Abundance Chidazembe, Zimbabwe, 2020-2023

To learn more about Zoe Empowers, visit the 2023 Annual Review below.

ZoeEmpowers_2023AnnualReview