Mixed Feelings

It is ten days until Christmas and I am starting to get into these southern hemisphere summer Christmases which are decidedly warmer than the winter Christmases I grew up with.

What is on my mind more than anything else this Christmas season, however, is not the weather but the number of friends I have who are are traveling home for the summer holidays... to Zimbabwe.

So many Zimbabweans live in South Africa. Statistics indicate that there are more Zimbabweans living outside of Zimbabwe than inside due to politics, food shortages, and now the cholera outbreak, which has claimed over 900 lives and infected 18,000.

I am concerned for my friends' safety and for their families. One friend summed it up best when she said, "Cholera? That's the least of my family's worries. What they need more than anything is food."

Empty store shelves. An inflation rate of 11 million percent. Food shortages. Cholera. A president who won't relinquish power. A collapsed health care system. No schools. And this in the country that used to be called The Bread Basket of Africa.

I don't want to dampen your Christmas joy, but these are the realities in parts of the world. Remember Zimbabwe in your prayers. It was for Zimbabweans, too, that Jesus was born into the world, died on the cross, and came to redeem. Pray for them to be strengthened in the face of such challenges. Just... pray.