June 2001

Dear Friends,

We just got our e-mail connected and wanted to begin correspondence with you about our work.

There is so much to learn that it can be overwhelming, so we are grateful that God is patient with us, as are the African people.

We want to tell you a story that is a representative picture of our first month in Zimbabwe. The Outreach Foundation of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) raises a significant portion of the funds our church invests in Southern Africa, and each year they bring a group here to visit some of our ministry sites. We traveled with the group, seeing everything for the first time ourselves. After
visiting some wonderful churches and project sites here in Harare, we left early one morning for a five-day trip into Mozambique and Malawi—definitely a few steps down in terms of amenities. After traveling all day, we arrived at our destination after dark. Zobue is a small, unattractive town next to the Mozambique/Malawi border. Turning off the tarmac onto a rough dirt path, we began to hear singing. As our headlights illuminated the path, we saw them—a hundred people or so. They were clapping and dancing and singing Christian songs of welcome for us. It was emotionally overwhelming as it gradually dawned on us what was happening. They were escorting us, preparing the way, so we could drive the half mile to the church. They gathered outside the church, singing and dancing. As we disembarked, they parted like the Red Sea so we could enter the church. Inside, the singing and dancing issued into prayers of thanksgiving for our safe arrival and for what God was doing in their midst. One of our group, a pastor's wife from Alabama said, "It was like being welcomed into heaven. I felt like the most special person in the whole world." And she was right. We all felt it.

The next day we split up into four vehicles and together with the pastors, elders, and evangelists headed out in different directions to worship with churches the Zobue church had helped to establish. Most of us had to travel over roads no vehicle should ever have to travel to get to churches where we experienced the same kind of enthusiastic overflowing worship as the night before. Many of the churches were establishing schools and agricultural development projects and boring holes for clean water. All together we visited and worshipped with twelve congregations. It was compelling to see the Body of Christ in action, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) through the work of mission co-workers and the local people, working together to build the Kingdom. Zobue is the most amazing work of God we have seen in Africa. A Vanderbilt student who was with us said it best, "It was like the Book of Acts all over again. Elders were leaving home, going out, sharing the gospel, and churches were popping up everywhere."

Our hope in sharing this encounter is that you might grasp with us the grace of God as it is being shown so graphically and that, included in your prayers, will be prayers of thanksgiving and praise for what God is accomplishing through the Church in Africa.

Factoid: "One out of every four Christians in the world lives in Africa."

Your friends in Christ,

Bob and Bobbi Snyder

E-mail: rpsnyder@mweb.co.zw