Chapter 18

Miracles in Victoria Falls

   Bro. Shamba took me to the airport and I flew Air Zimbabwe to Victoria Falls. Victoria Falls is one of the seven natural wonders of the world and one of the sights I most wanted to see. I had planned to rent a car in Victoria Falls because I knew that the pastor, Paul Tafirenyika, didn’t have one. Since he had two churches, one in Hwange and one in Victoria Falls,  and I wanted to visit them both,  I decided to take the big step and try driving on the opposite side of the road.

    I had met Bro. Paul my first days in Zimbabwe and I was expecting him to meet me at the airport when I arrived in Victoria Falls. But I had forgotten about Zimbabwe time!  I landed at the Victoria Falls airport, about 20 miles outside of the town and . . . and . . . no one was there to meet me. Boy,  is this familiar. I waited around for about half an hour and had numerous cab drivers ask me if I needed a ride into town. Obviously,  I was very hesitant about leaving because I knew it would be very difficult to make contact if I left, so I declined. After being there for about an hour the airport was becoming deserted. Just about the last cab driver came up to me and asked if I wanted a ride into town.

    I said, "Well,   I was supposed to meet one of our pastors at the airport,  but he hasn’t shown up."
   The cabby responded, "What is the name of your church? (Is this sounding familiar?)"
   Again I had to answer, "I’m not sure but the name of the pastor is Paul Tafirenyika."
    He got this big grin on his face and said, "Praise God, that’s the name of my pastor. Are you Brother John?"

    I said that I was and boy,   did we have a time of rejoicing!  Bro. Paul had told everyone that I was coming in but he didn’t say when and they were all expecting him to pick me up. Brother Michael Hlomuka, the taxi driver, is one of about ten members of our little group in Victoria Falls,  which has a population of about 28,000 people. He usually waits for the airplanes to arrive and we had no doubt that God intervened on my behalf so I wouldn’t be stuck at the airport. And He wasn’t through.

    We drove into town and he took me around to try to get a car and find a hotel to stay at. I stayed at this very nice hotel, although I wasn’t expecting one to cost US$142.00 a night! Bro. Michael had to go back to work,  so he said he would try to let Bro. Paul know where I was. I called and made arrangements for a rental car and shortly thereafter a gentleman came to pick me up with the car. We filled out the papers (I made sure I had all of the insurance I could get) and I had my first, and only, driving lesson on the way back to the agent's office. I was having to learn to drive on the opposite side of the car, on the opposite side of the road. Fortunately the traffic was pretty light because the town is so small.

    As we pulled into the parking place a car pulled in beside us. I glanced over and to my surprise Bro. Paul stepped out of the car. He apparently saw this car driving down the road and the Lord drew his attention to the driver (me) and so he just followed us. It was simply amazing to see how the Lord was working with and for me on this trip!

    Brother Paul introduced me to his son and to one of the members of his church in Hwange who had driven him to Victoria Falls. As I said previously Bro. Paul has churches in both Hwange and Victoria Falls. They usually have a number of services during the week with one in Hwange that day (Tuesday) and one the next day in Victoria Falls. He asked me if I would like to give my testimony at both services and I said sure. We then drove about 2 hours to Hwange and had lunch at this magnificent hotel, The Baobob Hotel.

    One of the trees indigenous to southern Africa is the Baobob tree. Imagine, if you will, a huge tree - up side down, a massive knurled trunk and with all of its’ knurled roots sticking in the air. Around Hwange there were lots of these trees,  although the biggest, and the oldest, is right inside of Victoria Falls. We had a wonderful lunch on the veranda overlooking the town of Hwange which is adjacent to Hwange National Park, a huge wild animal preserve.

    We then left so that I could change my clothes and Bro. Paul could get ready for the evening service. We went to his home (my first experience with the high density housing) where he let me change in his bedroom. The room featured a dirt floor, rough concrete walls, with a roof of galvanized, corrugated roofing material with rags stuffed in the corrugations to keep out the wind. There were familiar pictures of our prophet on the walls -  this was one of the most humbling experiences I had in Africa. Here is a man who has dedicated his life to preaching the gospel and,  as I recollect, he doesn’t even have running water in his home.

    After I finished dressing we drove to the meeting. Bro. Paul held church in a kindergarten room at the local school. This school was located in the center of the high density housing area where many people lived. I became the center of attention almost immediately. I would normally be noticeable just because of my size and because,  I was the only white person in the room. But when we arrived he insisted that I sit in the only adult-sized chair in the room! Everyone else sat in these tiny kindergarten - sized chairs -  you remember, the ones where your knees touch your chins!  That evening I got up and gave my testimony to these wonderful people. There were only about 10 people present but it’s not the numbers that matter. Afterward, we all visited outside and then I left for the 2 hour trip back to Victoria Falls.

    Brother Paul warned me numerous times that if there was a problem with the car, stay inside of the car!   This is Africa and many times people would have car trouble, especially at night, and they would start walking to find help. Too many times they would never be seen again, the victims of wild animals!  Well, I made it back to Vic. Falls and,  true to his word,  Bro. Paul called me just to make sure that I had arrived safely.

    The next morning I got up and had a wonderful breakfast and then drove down to the falls. I was unprepared for the magnificent sight that I beheld. Try to visualize this with me. I walked through this area that had very dense, tropical foliage. When I entered this area I could hear a muted roar. As I continued on the sound increased rapidly and the air grew very misty. I emerged from the trees and beheld an enormous canyon, no more than 100-200 yards across, fully 500-600 feet deep and almost 4 miles long! All along the opposite side of this canyon a river of water plunged down into the canyon. The river flowed over the opposite side all along it’s 4 mile length and the volume of water is incredible. A cloud of spray billowed up all along this four-mile canyon. In many places the spray was so dense that you couldn’t see the bottom of the canyon. As I walked along the canyon I got soaking wet from all of the spray. The Africans aptly named this waterfall on the Zambezi River, The Smoke that Thunders. I spent the day walking along and photographing from every vantage that I could.

Later on in the morning I drove around the falls up river to some boat landings on the upper Zambezi. I had a wonderful cruise along this placid river and saw many hippos, crocodiles, monkeys, baboons and innumerable birds. Afterwards,  I decided to take a short sightseeing trip over the falls and river on an airplane. It was on that trip that I first came close to dying.

    About a mile outside of the town there is a small private airport that houses a couple of sightseeing charter companies. The one I chose flew Piper Aztecs (for you pilots) and the aircraft seemed to be pretty well maintained. I paid my money, along with four others and we boarded the aircraft. Being a pilot I don’t like to be too far away from the controls so I rode in the right front (co-pilots) seat. We took off toward this wall of mist that flows out of the canyon from the falls and quickly climbed until we were about 500 feet above the canyon. The sight was breathtaking as we circled around and around the entire length of canyon banking first to the right and then to the left,  so that each side of the airplane had a good opportunity to photograph the falls from the air.

  While we were banking to the left, away from me,  I caught site of a helicopter off to our right and headed directly for us. Quicker than you can read this, I slapped the pilot on the shoulder, pointed at the helicopter (now very close to us) and prepared to take the controls. His reactions were superb and he immediately dove under the helicopter.  I’m not sure if the other passengers knew what had happened,   but I and the pilot sure did. We exited that area and continued the flight along the Zambezi. After we landed I and the pilot shook hands, both of us realizing just how close we came to a midair collision and death over Victoria Falls. God was watching out for me, but Satan wasn’t through trying to kill me!

    That evening I again gave my testimony in one of the brother's homes in Victoria Falls. This was one of my most precious memories - about 20 people squeezed into two rooms in one of the high-density housing areas with other people standing outside listening. We all had a time of rejoicing when I recounted the incident that afternoon on the flight over the falls. Many people were standing outside,  no doubt wondering why this white man was coming to one of these poor areas. Apparently this was very unusual. Hey, I'm not anyone special, just another brother coming to visit with believers of like precious faith.

    On Thursday morning I got up,   showered and went for breakfast. It’s been amazing thus far how,   when I try to utilize my rudimentary Shona,  it seems to open up an avenue of communication that inevitably leads to the question, why have I come to Zimbabwe? When they find out that I have come on a missionary trip to help a church install a sound system,  they are curious about our church and beliefs. Perhaps some of the people I have spoken to might be curious enough to visit one of the churches and who knows . . ? This morning I visited with my waiter Reuben who was a Seventh Day Adventist. We discussed many things and we both went away happy that we had met.