Bethany Ministries meets medical needs in Zimbabwe

KOUNTZE—Zimbabwe is in turmoil, and the people who live there face daily uncertainty. Sherrie Bumstead feels called to minister there, and Texans are hearing God’s call to help her answer the cries of Zimbabwe.

Bumstead initially traveled to Africa in 2003 as an International Service Corps medical missionary with the Southern Baptist International Mission Board. She spent a year in Botswana, helping educate people about HIV.

In 2004, when she moved to Zimbabwe to work in home-based care, she fell in love with the people. At the end of 2006, the mission board stopped renewing contracts for missionaries to Zimbabwe. But Bumstead knew her work wasn’t done.

After returning to the United States, Bumstead was asked to return to Botswana to lead a Bible conference last year. When the worship team cancelled at the last minute, she contacted Ricky Davis, a music evangelist from Nogalus Prairie, near Lufkin.

“I called him out of the blue and pretty much said, ‘How would you like to go to Africa in two weeks?’”

Davis felt God confirmed he was to make the trip when his expired passport was renewed in one day. “That just doesn’t happen,” he said.

Once in Botswana, part of the team traveled across the border to tour Harare Central Hospital in Zimbabwe and witnessed many needs. “Not having a medical background, I didn’t know what I could do,” Davis said.

People from more than 30 churches and three Southeast Texas Baptist associations have helped pack medical supplies destined for Zimbabwe. Pictured from left are David Miller, associate director of missions of Sabine Neches area; Butch O'Dell; Buffie Hughes, Daniel Crain; Sherrie Bumstead; and Ricky Davis.

But God made him a catalyst for meeting Zimbabwe’s needs when he returned to Texas. He told the Redeemed Riders, a Christian motorcycle club in Crockett, about his trip. Later, one of the members gave Davis a phone number and said: “You need to call this guy. I think he can help you.”

Davis made the call and learned someone had given the man a fully equipped hospital. He had given away some of the equipment, but he promised Davis everything that was left.

Soon, Davis heard about another missionary team that collected medical supplies but disbanded before the supplies were shipped. All they had to do was load them up and take them. However, there were so many supplies, it would take more than a couple of semi-trucks to transport them all.

Desperate, Davis walked into a truck-driving academy and described the situation. The owners agreed to transport the equipment from Quinlan to Kountze for free.

In Quinlan, Davis learned about World in Need, a nonprofit agency that collects medical supplies and donates them to humanitarian organizations.
World in Need became the principal source for Bethany Ministries, which Bumstead and Davis founded to send medical supplies to Zimbabwe.

Meanwhile, Bumstead traveled throughout Southeast Texas speaking to churches about Africa. Her first presentation was at a church in Vidor, and from there, her pace quickened.

A wide variety of equipment awaits the funds to ship it to Zimbabwe where hospitals are in dire need.

“Pastors started calling me, and I would even meet people in the grocery stores, and they would invite me to speak at their church. So, I started to speak wherever God allowed me, and people started giving me love offerings,” she said. “I live on 10 percent, I give God 10 percent, and 80 percent goes to the ministry fund.”

When time came to send supplies, Bumstead had accumulated $12,000 for shipping. A church that merged donated another $12,000 from the sale of its facilities. A Woman’s Missionary Union group gave another $1,500.

After delays in Israel, South Africa and on the Zimbabwean border, the supplies finally arrived in January at the 1,070-bed Harare Central Hospital, the main hospital in the capital.

“They have no money,” Bumstead explained. “They struggle to feed their patients. They run out of anesthesia, so they can’t do surgeries. Often, they don’t even have gauze to pack wounds.”

Bethany Ministries also helped equip another hospital in Kwe Kwe—a more rural facility with 300 beds.

“They only had one blood-pressure cup … in 2007. The hospital often has no electricity and is completely without water,” she lamented.

A donor supplied money for a water well, but violence in the country has made it impossible to find anyone who will drill it, she said.

On a trip last year, Bumstead found the hospital in Kwe Kwe completely out of IV fluid, and patients were dying of dehydration. She and Tembi Matambo, who serves as Bethany’s representative in the country, bought and shipped IV fluid to Kwe Kwe.

“Two weeks after the fluids arrived, two buses hit head on. There were many casualties, but many who would have died otherwise were saved by those IV fluids,” Bumstead recalled.

Volunteers from more than 30 churches in three Southeast Texas Baptist associations have packed and loaded supplies. This doesn’t surprise David Miller, associate director of missions for Sabine Neches Baptist Area.

“That’s what we’re about—doing missions. … When you capture the hearts and minds of Baptists, they find a way to get it done,” he said.
Bethany Ministries also plans to send supplies to a rural hospital in Gweru, where conditions are worse.

Pastor Clark Mahoney at Hillister Baptist Church is helping the ministry secure funds through WorldconneX, the Baptist General Convention of Texas missions network.  Contributions to the ministry also can be sent to Fairdale Baptist Church, 4820 Fairdale Road, Hemphill 75948.

If sufficient funds are raised, Bethany Ministries will set up a clinic in Botswana to meet the needs of the many Zimbabwean refugees fleeing violence in their home country, as well as serving the people of Botswana.

Bumstead has applied for a work permit to serve in Botswana. “I’d love some prayer coverage on that,” said the woman the Zimbabweans call “Ma Moyo,” their word for “heart” or “spirit.”

“The beauty of living in Zimbabwe is you get to see God work every day. When you see bread on your table, you know God put it there. When you have water, you know God provided it. You get to know him in a way that it would be hard to do here,” she said.