Interview with Zebedee

Show open and guest introduction

• How does the host know Zebedee?

The hosts open from the Pathway Studios in Johnston, riff on the show feeling like a Monday night and recite the 'Honest Faith, Fierce Grace, Donkeys' tagline. They introduce the night's guest, Zebedee, and tee up a host who knows him well to explain the connection.

Zebedee's background and the Hippo Valley mission

A host explains his connection to guest Zebedee, who heads Hippo Valley Christian Mission in Zimbabwe and lives in Sherezi. Zebedee (speaker-1) confirms he is a Kentucky Christian University graduate recently notified of an honorary doctorate for his years of work, and describes the mission's scale: 27 schools, orphanages, three clinics, and 33 congregations.

Drought, failed rains, and their ripple effects

• What consequences does the lack of rain have in Zimbabwe?
• Will the school population drop because people cannot afford school fees?

Zebedee describes a season of failed rains in his part of Zimbabwe: Zimbabweans live directly off the land, so drought hits both food and livestock, and livestock is how rural families pay school fees. A host notes the peripheral effects people might miss, and Zebedee explains how enrollment drops can cause the government to withdraw teachers under the one-teacher-per-35-to-40-students ratio.

Zimbabwe's unstable currency and school fees

• Are annual school fees around twenty American dollars?

Zebedee explains Zimbabwe's unstable economy: the US dollar dictates what schools can charge, the bank exchange rate is bypassed for street rates, and parents earning in Zim bonds cannot afford fees, restricting income to food. A host confirms the drought-to-economy connection with Zebedee.

The Living Proof child sponsorship program

• How does Hippo Valley interact with and help address the drought and economic situation?
• What determines which children the Living Proof program selects?

Asked how Hippo Valley addresses the crisis, Zebedee explains the Living Proof program: sponsors give $20 a month per child; $15 goes to the mission and $5 is banked to cushion the child's later high school years, when fees jump. Children are recruited in grades two through four through headmasters' recommendations favoring well-behaved average students and orphans whose parents are known not to send kids on to high school.

Survival economics and fathers leaving for South Africa

• How do people in Zimbabwean cities survive when there is no work?
• Do men who leave for South Africa send money back to their families?

Zebedee describes how people survive: roadside markets earning tiny profits per item, and fathers leaving for South Africa for work, some dying in old or abandoned mines doing gold panning while families at home assume they simply abandoned them.

Bible as a school subject and the missionary roots of Zimbabwean education

• Do the mission schools teach the Bible as part of the curriculum?
• Has the government always been receptive to the Bible being taught in schools?

A host asks about Bible teaching in the mission schools; Zebedee says the Bible is a government-recognized, government-examined subject and traces the history: colonial governments assigned regions to missionaries expecting them to develop people through schools and clinics, with the Dutch Reformed arriving in the 1800s, then Catholics, Anglicans, and United Methodists, the Church of Christ from New Zealand in the 1930s-40s, and American missionaries the Pembertons and Pruitts in 1956.

Misguided robed religious sects

• Who are the robed groups worshiping in the trees?

Asked about robed groups worshiping in the trees, Zebedee calls them religious sects with no defined doctrine: they insist on open-air services, some will not bring the Bible to church, and they rely on prophets claiming fresh daily messages from the Lord. A host summarizes that they claim the God of the Bible without studying it, since studying would contradict their practices.

Planting a new church in Chichi Chichi

• What excites the guest about planting a church in Chichi Chichi?
• What risks or worries surround planting the church?

A host shares that they will start a church in Chichi Chichi, Zimbabwe, in a few weeks; Zebedee explains it is a rural growth point along the Sub river where the government never built bridges, motivating a church across the river. They discuss crossing old colonial-era denominational territory lines, and Zebedee names his main worry: the safety of the visiting team in an environment where they will not see many white people.

Warning against the prosperity gospel

• What is the prosperity gospel?

Asked what message a new church should bring to struggling people, Zebedee warns against bundling the gospel with worldly gain: prosperity preachers have divided Zimbabwe's churches, with young preachers sucked in while the older generation insists on preaching only 'Christ serves' and 'seek ye the kingdom of God first.' A host defines the prosperity gospel as measuring faith by wealth received and likens it to Job's friends.

The orphanages, children's village, and halfway houses

• What goes on in the mission's orphanages?
• What are the risks for boys aging out of the orphanage without halfway houses?

Zebedee explains the evolution of their orphan care: the old dorm-style children's home became a halfway house for boys over 18 and a township house for girls, while the Tragic Christian children's village houses kids in family setups of ten with house parents. He describes life-skills training (cleaning, cooking, gardening, grinding peanut butter) and admits regret at the gendered division of duties that deprives boys of learning to cook.

Why the missions partnership excites both sides

• What excites a church planter about Hippo Valley's work?

A host asks what excites a church planter about Hippo Valley's work; a host (speaker-0) answers that the mission teaches the Bible and salvation rather than going through the motions, recounts taking teams to Zimbabwe and the annual teachers gathering, and describes the ZIP Project, the Zimbabwe Iowa Project, gathering $5-a-month support from people across the state to fund the new church. Zebedee tells of a sponsored orphan who excelled and is now in his second year of university.

Zebedee's testimony and Living Proof's growth

• What has surprised Zebedee about doing this kind of mission work?

Asked what has surprised him about the work, Zebedee testifies that God has a sense of humor: he is one of 24 children, educated by his father only to about eighth grade, with the rest through Bible college, and now holds an honorary doctorate. He recounts dreaming up Living Proof in Kansas in 2013, and says it now serves nearly 1,500 to 1,800 children, crediting God with doing things beyond imagination.

The medical clinics and the waiting mothers' shelter

• Is the in-progress clinic the mission's third clinic?
• Why is a waiting mothers' shelter necessary at the clinic?

Zebedee describes the mission's clinics: the Dama Clinic about an hour twenty from town, and the Dine Clinic three hours away, whose building was dedicated on March 22. He explains the new third clinic still needs a waiting mothers' shelter, required by the government because villages sit far from clinics and women come to stay before delivery, plus a drilled water well before plumbing can be finished.

How listeners can help, and sign-off

• How can listeners help the mission and the church plant?

Asked how people can help, Zebedee points to hippovalley.org and the Living Proof pamphlets, while a host adds the Zip Project Facebook page and Pathway's online giving at pathonline.org. Zebedee closes by urging people to give for the Lord rather than for Hippo Valley, and the hosts sign off with the show's 'be faithful in the means; God will handle the ends' closing line.