Story number 3 for 26 Jun 2000

Twenty years after a promising start, corruption and mismanagement have brought Zimbabwe to her knees. The weekend’s parliamentary elections were surrounded by angry residents venting their frustration over the broken promises by the government. Grace Ministries International’s Sam Vinton says the unrest stems from a firmly entrenched President and a farmland issue. “It has caused so many problems that, for example, our missionaries who visit that area to visit the national churches that we have there, cannot really go in there-they’re sort of afraid to go in there…for fear of travelling.” Vinton adds that their outreach has not really felt the trouble. “I have not heard of it effecting churches, per se. But, it could have a dampening effect-probably, the elections take a number of days to really get any kind of results. I’m not expecting that this is going to really have a negative influence on the preaching of the Gospel.”