This week on Different Points of View, Duane Udd interviews Aaron, one of the organizers of IDOPZ.

Listen HERE

Join a Brazilian photojournalist in his journey through the trials of the AIDS epidemic in Zimbabwe.

Online HERE

Collen Makumbirofa
The Zimbabwean

The Foundation of Reason and Justice has joined Zimbabwean Christians to declare April 18 an international Day of Prayer for Zimbabwe.

“The Zimbabwean government is in a vicious war with its law-abiding citizens. All opposition gatherings including prayer meetings have been banned. Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai has survived so many attempts to end his life; the latest one was on 11 March 2007,” says the organisation in a recent statement.

In addition to being Zimbabwe’s Independence Day, April 18 is the day on which, way back in 1521, the Christian reformer Martin Luther stood firm before Emperor Charles V saying, “My conscience is captive to the word of God. I cannot and I will not recant anything, for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. Here I stand, I cannot do otherwise. God help me. Amen!” This speech shook the world.

Historically Christian reformers have always been at the forefront of the struggle against corruption, tyranny of unbelievers and moral decadence. In the book of Isaiah the prophet started his ministry by denouncing social evils and corruption on the market place. Biblical tyrants were removed by God’s people and punished for their crimes in accordance with the Word of God.

“We call upon people all over the world to pray fervently for Zimbabwe on this historic day. Pray for repentance of many Zimbabweans and the urgent removal of Mugabe’s government and all wicked rulers, who are murdering and starving innocent citizens, and for regional leaders, especially South Africa’s Thabo Mbeki, who are supporting him. Zimbabweans do not ask for pity from South Africa’s political leaders. We will lead our own transformation under our God. Simply, we condemn those who lend support to Mugabe,” says the statement.

In the face of entrenched evil
Man’s resources often fail
Be it Antichrist or Devil
God’s own Kingdom will prevail

Yet He calls on us to seek Him
Praying that His will be done
Not on thoughtless off the cuff whim
But ongoing petition

Christ’s Kingdom suffers violence
In the end we win the war
But battles call for vigilance
As we plan and then implore

For only by prayer and fasting
Do some strongholds quake and fall
Bringing freedom that is lasting
When we rally to the call

Nations now are at the crossroads
Swiftly running out of time
As corruption crassly corrodes
And inflation fosters crime

In Zimbabwe folks are dying
From starvation and neglect
Though the world grows deaf to crying
God has power to resurrect

There’s a day of prayer and fasting
On Zim’s Independence Day
Needing more than news broadcasting
As we ask the world to pray

For a worthy Constitution
With new leaders at the helm
When freedom finds full fruition
Evil will not overwhelm

© duaneudd.com
28th Feb 2007

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — In an Easter message pinned to church bulletin boards around the country, Zimbabwe’s Roman Catholic bishops called on President Robert Mugabe to leave office or face “open revolt” from those suffering under his government.

The letter, titled “God Hears the Cries of the Oppressed,” was the most critical pastoral message since Zimbabwe won independence from Britain in 1980 and Mugabe assumed leadership of the country for the first time.

Once prosperous, the country is reeling under hyperinflation of more than 1,700 percent, 80 percent unemployment, shortages of food and other basic goods and one of the world’s lowest life expectancies.

“As the suffering population becomes more insistent, generating more and more pressure through boycotts, strikes, demonstrations and uprisings, the state responds with ever harsher oppression through arrests, detentions, banning orders, beatings and torture,” the Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops Conference said in a pastoral message pinned up at churches throughout the country.

The majority of Zimbabwe’s Christians — including Mugabe — are Roman Catholics. Several thousand worshippers who packed the cathedral in Harare clustered around the bulletin boards to read the message after morning Mass on Sunday.

“Many people in Zimbabwe are angry, and their anger is now erupting into open revolt in one township after another,” the nine bishops wrote.

“In order to avoid further bloodshed and avert a mass uprising, the nation needs a new people-driven constitution that will guide a democratic leadership chosen in free and fair elections,” it said.

A similar letter in the nearby nation of Malawi pressured longtime dictator Hastings Kamuzu Banda into holding a referendum on reform in 1992 and calling democratic elections, which he lost, ending 30 years of brutal rule.

“We cannot yet say what the response of our congregations will be, but basic biblical teachings apply. Oppression is not negotiable. It must stop before there can be any dialogue,” said the Rev. Oskar Wermter of the Catholic communications secretariat in Harare.

Wermter said the bishops wanted the contents of the letter to receive the widest possible distribution. The letter was delivered in the traditional rural strongholds of Mugabe’s ruling ZANU-PF party across the country, where priests showed what he called a very strong interest in it.

In his traditional “Urbi et Orbi” Easter address from the central balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica, Pope Benedict XVI singled out Zimbabwe among other troubled countries.

“Zimbabwe is in the grip of a grievous crisis and for this reason the bishops of that country in a recent document indicated prayer and a shared commitment for the common good as the only way forward,” the pope said in his Easter message which he read to tens of thousands of faithful in St. Peter’s Square.

The bishops called for a day of prayer and fasting April 14 and said there would be a prayer service for Zimbabwe every week after that.

The Anglican church has been more muted, with its leaders generally toeing the ruling party line.

Police in Zimbabwe violently broke up a multi-denominational prayer meeting March 11, describing it as a banned demonstration. Two pro-democracy activists died and Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change, and a dozen senior colleagues were hospitalized after beatings.

Mugabe subsequently headed off a challenge to his leadership to win party support to stand for another presidential term in national elections in 2008. There was no response from the government Sunday to the pastoral letter and Mugabe was out of the country.

Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania USA — We had our first “Pray Zimbabwe” table on campus yesterday, and it went pretty well. Of course, we gave away free food, so that might have had something to do with it.

We also handed out flyers, and had a sign-up sheet for the prayer room. We are going to have people commit to individual time slots that day, and try to have people praying continuously throughout the day. Then our rally will be at 8:30 that night. We have also partnered with three organizations who we’ll be raising money for (Elias Fund, Nyadire Orphanage, and World Vision). We raised a little bit at the table yesterday.

Dispatch also sent us some autographed posters, and two copies of each cd to auction off. So momentum is building at CMU!!!!

I am a freshman at Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama. My parents were missionaries for twenty-one years in association with the International Mission Board, centered in Richmond, Virginia, and consequently I was born and raised in Southern Africa. My parents started in Botswana, and I was nine when we moved to Zimbabwe. God has called me to missions, and although I do not know where He will ultimately lead me, my heart for Zimbabwe has grown in passion and burden. God is doing great things, and I am honored to be a part of them!