Judith Pickett

Secretary to Central Africa MissionP.O. Box 392 Chinhoyi, Zimbabwe, Afnca

ZIMBABWE

FORWARDINGAGENTS:

Mrs. Evelyn HillMr. &Mrs. Sam Mitchell

P.O. Box 2746

Napa, Ca. 94558

The

Pickett

Line

" Therefore go and make disciples of all nations.."

Dear Christian Friends:APRIL/MAY NEWSLETTER

It has been some time since I have written to you. Somehow, time seems to get away from me.One minute it is Sunday and before long a whole week has passed. Since December when my headassistant passed away, I can't seem to keep up with things. She was my right hand person andrelieved me of some of responsibility of the work that has to get done. She also did a lotof my driving, and now I am doing all of the driving. Therefore when I return home at night,I am exhausted. Some of you have written asking if I am going to replace her. How do youreplace someone who has been your friend and helper for over 27 years? After she died, Iconsulted with my other two assistants and they said "Ambuya, we can handle the workourselves, we will just work harder." They are doing a good job, although their interpretingis not as accurate as was Mai Custudio's. But they take turns interpreting for me and areboth trying very hard. They do not have the spiritual maturity that she had, but they aregrowing daily. They also do not have the deep rapport with the older woman that Mai had.I was concerned that I would be unable to do all the driving, but God has given me the addeddetermination and strength to do it. Occasionally, Martin Lawrence, a young, colored malefriend of my daughters and like a son to me, goes with me on my long trips to drive for me.

This year (1997) started out to be a busy schedule for me, and it has increased as the monthsmoved along. I now have 20 groups that I work with, some of which are over 200 kilometersaway and take 2-3 hours to drive to. We go out three days a week, Tuesday through Thursday,and an occasional Saturday meeting with a group of women who work weekdays. Besides ourBible study groups, I am often asked to speak at area women's meetings and revival meetingsheld by the seven evangelists under Mr. Marshall's guidance. These meetings are usually heldthrough March and April and then start again in September and October. In March I wasspeaker for two women's meetings and a revival meeting, all of which started on Thursday orFriday and lasted through church services on Sunday. When I am invited to speak, it meansthat I camp out in my truck for the entire time of the meeting. Then this past weekend, Ispoke again at a revival meeting giving two lessons and conducting a Bible quiz.Mr. Marshall usually is the speaker at these meetings as well, and he shows Bioscopes(movies) of the life of Christ in the Shona language called "The Oesus Story."

I have been doing Bible quizzes with my women's groups for some time, but have nowincorporated it into our area meetings. Many of our people do not read their Bibles and somecannot read. I give prizes for answered questions which range from $50 Bibles, $15 NewTestament Bibles, $6 Nziyos (song books), down to ball point pens and pencils. For incorrectanswers, they get a sweet (hard candy). This has proven to be a great incentive for them toread and study their Bibles. I usually hold these quizzes with the women only, but now themen asked to be included, and we have had a lot of fun with them. I feel that it is verybeneficial to use my missionary money to encourage the people to become knowledgeable aboutthe Bible.

Several of our missionary families have been denied renewal of their work permits. This hascaused a hardship on those of us who are left. We are the fortunate ones that have permanentresident permits. Kathy McCarty has been the only permanent missionary at Chidamoyo for someyears. When Kathy is able to get good help, it seems their permits are up for renewal andimmigration denies them. It has been very frustrating. Miss Jill Shaw worked in this

First Christian Church

ofNapaValley2659 First Street

Napa, Ca. 94558-5599

Non-Profit Organiz:U.S. Postage Paid :

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Napa, Ca. 94558:

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BOX 2427KNOXVILLE TN 37901

country for several years, then went home for further schooling. Her permit for re-entry wasdenied and appealed several times last year. She is now looking for mission work in othercountries in case her permit is denied again. Another older couple, graduates of Boise BibleCollege, have applied for permits to work as the maintenance personal at Chidamoyo, which isdesperately needed. They went to South Africa and stayed there helping missionaries untilZimbabwe approved them. Praise the Lord after several denials and appeals, they have finallybeen approved, Dave and Becky Altman, who have served as principal of our Bible College,have lost their permit and had to leave the country. Fortunately, they were able to trainan African man who has been a co-worker with the Mission for many years, and he has now takenover the position of principal of the college. My daughter, Kina, has served as secretarythere for five years and is continuing to do so. When I was introducing Mr, Makusha asKina's boss, he said "no, she's my boss," as she knows more about the college than 1 do. Ofcourse, that made my mother's heart jump with joy. My daughter Irene is still very confusedand lacks initative to sort her life out and get on with it. Please continue to pray forIrene, Kina, and myself.

Now to discuss some of my needs. My truck is now in the garage for this week and perhapsnext week. The truck has over 210,000 kilometers (100,000 miles) on it and is beginning todeteriorate. It is in the garage now for a new clutch and a complete brake job. This repairjob will cost in excess of $5,000 Zimbabwe dollars because of high prices of spare parts andlabor costs. I will also lose two weeks of work. When on furlough, I raised some money forthe truck fund, and there is about $5,000 U.S. dollars in the truck fund, which at thepresent exchange rate of 11,5+ would be around $58,000 Zimbabwe dollars. Fortunately newvehicles can now be purchased in Zimbabwe, but the cost is terrible in Zimbabwe dollars. Iwould need in excess of $200,000 to $300,000 Zimbabwe dollars for a new vehicle withassessories. So I would need $20,000 to $30,000 U.S. dollars. I would like to encourage mysupporters or interested parties to help me raise these funds over the next year. Withouta dependable vehicle, my work would be very difficult.

My women's clubs have learned to do plastic canvas cross stitch. They use what they make asa money-making project. My supply of plastic canvas is depleted as well as my supply ofcanvas yarn. If a small group in the church or an individual would like a project they couldadopt this project.

Each year I hold a retreat for our minister's wives, and I try to give them one new craft towork on, I would like to purchase stamped embroidery pieces like pillow cases or tablecloths, etc., and embroidery floss for them. Our retreat will be the last weekend ofNovember 1997. I thought that perhaps some groups would like to help with this projct. Thiscan be mailed directly to me or given to my publicity forwarding agents, Sam and HelenMitchell, P. 0. Box 2746, Napa, CA 94558. I would need at least 15 pieces. Even transferswould be good, as I could purchse the material here and iron on the transfers. Surface mailpackages take 2-3 months to come from the United States,

Yours in Christ,

Judy Pickett

Judith Pickett

Secretary to Central AfricaMissionP.O. Box 392 Chinhoyi, Zimbabwe, Africa

ZIMBABWE

FORWARDING AGENTS:

Mrs. Evelyn HillMr. & Mrs. Sam Mitchell

P.O. Box 2746

Napa, Ca. 94558

The

Pickett

Line

" Therefore go and make disciples of all nations.."

AUGUST NEWSLETTER

Dear Christian Friends:

Hello once again! News is building up, so I want to get another newsletter off to you. Itis a Saturday night and a cold one. My daughter, Irene, is watching Wimbleton Tennis on TV.Since I do not really understand the game of tennis, I am busy on my computer. July isliving up to its reputation of being the coldest month. We have a nice fire in thefireplace, and it feels good. It is still strange to me even after 28 years on the field tosee all the poinsettias, Christmas Cati, and other flowers blooming ln July, which are U.S.December flowers.

1 have been kept so very busy over the past two months teaching the women in my regular weekday meetings and weekend-revival meetings. Sleeping -in the ba©k-o#-my--tPuck--in-th4s-col-d-weather is a real challenge to keep warm. But I cuddle up in my nice warm sleeping bag andkeep nice and cozy all night. I usually park my truck close to the meeting place, and it isa bit challenging to get to sleep when the women usually stay up all night or most of thenight singing. But I manage to block it out and sleep quite comfortable.

In my last newsletter, I spoke about needing a new truck. This has proven even morenecessary, as recently I have had some breakdowns on isolated roads. Most of the time we areamazed how the Lord seems to provide necessary help almost immediately in the form of peoplepassing by or our breakdown being close to a place where we can get help. Unfortunately, oneday last month immediate help was not available. One of my assistants was unable to go withus, as she had the flu. My other assistant and I made the trip alone to the Makombo Churchat Sinyati, which is a three-hour drive from my home. About three-fourths of the way therewhile driving on a strip road (gravel road with one strip of tar right down the middle), wecame upon the scene of an accident. It had happened around 5:00 a.m. and the injured anddead had already been removed, but the police were still there. Broken glass was all overthe tar and out into the gravel. I drove way off the road to avoid the glass. But none-the-less about 10 kilometers down the road, we discovered we had a punctured tire. We got outand bravely started to try and change the tire, but my jack refused to raise the truck highenough. We were on a very isolated stretch of the road as well. Eventually a very old mancame along on a bicycle and tried his best to get the jack to work, but without success.Fortunately a Lorry (semi-truck) arrived on the scene, and they used their jack to raise thetruck and change the tire. I usually drive through the bush to get to the church, which isabout 25 K's. Since I had no spare, I decided to go the long way to the small town and getthe spare repaired. We eventually arrived at the church two and a half hours late to findthe ladies still waiting. We rushed through the lesson time, so we could be back on the roadbefore I would be forced to drive in the dark.

However, God had other plans. On our way home and still about 30 K's from home, I stoppedto exercise my leg, which was hurting very badly. Getting back in the truck, it refused tostart. Immediately a car stopped to help us, and the driver managed to push us until the carstarted again. Since darkness had caught up with us, I had to put on the lights. Still25 K's from home and in a very isolated section of the road, the engine died completely. Wehad no power and no lights, and this part of the road has a bad reputation. At least threepeople have been murdered in that general vicinity. Mrs. Machaya and I were a bit nervous,but we managed to stop a car with two African men in it. I asked if they were going to

First Qiristian Church

ofNapa Valley2659 First Street

Napa, Ca. 94558-5599

Non-profit OrganizU.S. Postage Paid

Permit No 28

Napa, Ca. 94558

HORIZONS

BOX 2427

KNOXVILLE TN 37901

Chinhoyi and when they said yes, I gave them Mr. Marshall's phone number and asked them tocall him. After they left, I realized they had been drinking. I began to doubt they wouldmake the call, and I remembered that Mr. Marshall was probably not at home. We again decidedto flag someone else down; but had to wait quite a while, as the road is very sparselytraveled at night. Finally a young colored man stopped and seemed quite nice. I asked himif he knew Mr. Simon Smith, who has a 24-hour breakdown service in Chinhoyi. He said yes andsaid he would call him when he got to Chinhoyi. Mrs. Machaya told me later that he had a gunin his belt, which I did not see. He warned us to get in the truck, lock the doors, and getout for no one until the break-down truck arrived. Perhaps you are asking why didn't youride into town with someone and send the breakdown truck back? You don't dare leave avehicle loaded as we were on the road or you will find it stripped when you return. We beganto pray that the truck would come soon; and after two hours of waiting, we began to losehope. Suddenly we saw lights approaching, which turned out to be the tow truck. We arrivedin Chinhoyi safely, but completely exhausted. I was suffering with arthritic pain in my hipfrom all the sitting and driving in the 14-hour day, since we left home that morning. Thealternator on the truck had gone out, and the truck spent three days in the garage. It hadjust been two weeks since it had spent two weeks in the garage getting a complete brake jobdone and major service. Now two weeks later the security alarm has died as well, so the needfor a new truck is getting urgent.

I have already raised about one third of the funds needed for the truck, but I am asking youto join me in praying that the rest of the money will come in before the truck gives up theghost completely. With all the time spent in the garage, my work suffers, as I cannot travelto my groups. If you would like to make a special project in a Sunday School class or VBSor a project for your missions committee, please contract my forwarding agents for furtherinformation: Mrs. Evelyn Hill or Mr. & Mrs. Sam Mitchell at P. 0. Box 2746, Napa, CA 94558.

PRAYER NEEDS: A new truck, Judy's health, safe travel, and Zimbabwe aids victims.

Yours in Christ,

Judy Pickett