Zimbabwe Running Out of Wheat

Let us please remember these folks in prayer.This reminded me of that verse in Revelation- "a measure of wheat for a penny(days wage)"Zimbabwe has only two weeks of wheat supply left,, while citizens are faced with soaring bread prices, Zimbabwe's main milling organisation has said. The cost of bread has risen by 30%, pushing Zimbabwe's inflation rate to more than 600%. Zimbabwe has been in economic decline since President Robert Mugabe began seizing white-owned farms in 2000. The government is reported to have put its security forces on alert in case the discontent leads to protests. David Govere, deputy chairman of the Millers Association, told AFP news agency the scarcity of wheat has meant a reduction in supplies to bakeries. It's a travesty of justice that the country has been so run down by Robert Mugabe's regime Arthur MutambaraMovement for Democratic Change "Due to depleted stocks, GMB [state-run food distributor Grain Marketing Board] is now giving us 400 tons of wheat a week, down from 600 tons," he is quoted as saying. Shortages of wheat could force bakers to import flour from South Africa, which could lead to more price rises. A loaf of bread in Zimbabwe currently costs $66,000 Zimbabwean (66 US cents), having risen 30% in just one week. President Mugabe denies that his land reform programme has contributed to the crisis, blaming the effects of drought instead. Zimbabwe's opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) says the situation is becoming unbearable. "It's terrible right now because of shortages," Arthur Mutambara, leader of one of two factions of the MDC. "Fuel is not available, commodities are unaffordable, unemployment 80%, inflation above 600%. "It's a travesty of justice that the country has been so run down by Robert Mugabe's regime." Food aid Zimbabwe's leading millers - National Foods, Blue Ribbon and Victoria Foods - have shut production at most of their mills because of the wheat shortage, according to AFP. International aid agencies say about 4.3m out of Zimbabwe's 13m people will require food aid until the next harvest in May. The country has suffered increasing food shortages, rising unemployment and runaway inflation since the government began redistributing seized white-owned farms six years ago. Economists say the rate of inflation could reach 1,000% by April.

Mat 24:8 All these are the beginning of sorrows Currently Eastern Africa is having one of its worst droughts in its history, and then we see that Zimbabwe is having famine. It is amazing, and awe striking to think that these are only the beginning of sorrows. Yet I wonder what of the West? To whom much is given, much is required. Yet it seems as though nothing even shocks "the Church" inot action, so is it really a surprise that when Bono, and Brad Pitt do what the church should be doing that the multitudes rejoice? I am not trying to get humanistic or anything like that, but come on how many more people have to starve to death while there are more and more multi-million dollar steeple-houses(as George Fox called them) going up? I am deeply convicted by this quote from Gandhi, yes Gandhi "if Christians would live the New Testament, they would revolutionize the world" I suppose I will step down from this cyber soapbox, and see what is said. :-)

Thought I might copy this over to here. Time short in Kenya food 'crisis' Please take the time to read this, and remember that we have dear Brothers, and Sisters there, some who have left homes, families etc. to minister there, and others who are native to this area. Maybe even skip a meal today to get an idea(small I know) of what it might be like.May HE fill you with HIS love, and holiness.Your Brother Patrick Time short in Kenya food 'crisis' A UN visit to El Wak highlighted Kenya's crisis The UN has warned there will be many deaths in Kenya if immediate food aid is not delivered to 3.5 million people facing the threat of starvation. Head of the UN World Food Programme, James Morris, said 11 million were at risk across the Horn of Africa. At least 40 people have died in northern Kenya with cattle, camels and donkeys also dying at a worrying rate. Five years of drought have created the worst situation in the region for four decades, the United Nations says. Mr Morris said after visiting El Wak on the Kenya-Somalia border that the world needed to wake up to the problem. "The world has not appreciated in the last 60 days how serious this situation is... we are now in a crisis. We are in a life-saving mode," he said. These are the last few weeks that many people are going to be able to survive without help Dominic Nutt,Christian Aid He said unless a donation shortfall of $189m (£107m) was met soon, many deaths from malnutrition would inevitably follow. UN stocks of maize and rice would only last to the end of next month and the stocks of beans and vegetable oil were far worse, Mr Morris said. "These people now have nothing. They will have to be provided with food," he said. The situation in Somalia was equally alarming, the WFP head said. He urged rival militias in the country "to set aside their differences and guarantee safe passage [of food aid] to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe". British charity Christian Aid has echoed the starvation threat, saying the risk was spread across much of the Horn of Africa. Dominic Nutt, the charity's emergencies specialist, said: "This is a crisis on the verge of becoming a catastrophe. "There are dead cattle everywhere and people have sold everything they have to buy food. "These are the last few weeks that many people are going to be able to survive without help." The charity said that although drought was the cause of the immediate crisis, reducing poverty in the region was the underlying concern. The drought affecting Kenya has been declared a "national disaster" by President Mwai Kibaki.

Perhaps a better way to look at this would be this- How will we react when this happens here? I mean are we to believe that it won't? So many are quick to say that Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed because of homosexuality, but Ezekiel gives us the reason-Ezekiel 16 "v49Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. v50And they were haughty, and committed abomination before me: therefore I took them away as I saw good." Interesting that homosexuality was not mentioned. Yes that was a fruit of the lawlesness of that day, but look at the things that superceded that. America is not far off from this. We have forgotten the 9/11 tragedy, and Katrina served no warning whatsoever, as they cried out "we will rebuild it better, and we will have better Mardi Gras" Oh may God bend us to His heart! That He may live through us!

you know, the economic situation in Zimbabwe has long been on the decline. i remember when i was in grade 7 back home (grew up there)my teacher would come in saying "this country is going to the dogs" we passed it off as the rantings of a madman. when i cam here in 1997, my parents could afford to pay my fees and send me money, so i was at a very expensve boarding school you could say. however a couple of years later, that all changed and i had to find work coz my parents couldn't afford it any more. now my parents ran their own businesses successfully back home for many years. my dad is a civil engineer and my mom had a printing business, but both of them moved back here (we used to live here long ago)in 2001 because things were bad, it was good that they did because things declined quickly after that. my in-laws did the same thing an moved to england. James (jimm) my brother-in-law was here but was called to go back to Zimbabwe by the Lord to prepare the saints there for what is coming. i don't keep up too much with what goes on there any more but when i talk to james we find ourselves talking more about what the Lord is doing to revamp the Spiritual state of Zimbabwe coz at the end of the day that's all that matters. The gospel is spreading faster there and people are being saved more and being filled with the Spirit because ALL ELSE has failed, when one has no money, no food, no job, what is left save for God? we who live here have it all hence the lack of reverence for God and no revival. Revival can only come out of desparation when there is nothing else to fall back on. the Lord has been dealing with me and showing me more of what is to come for the Church in America and it's not good and it is good at the same time. When the economy collapses next year some time, there will be a lot of sore "Christians" ( using loosly because few who claim this really are) who forsake God at the first sign of disomfort. to them i say "good riddance to bad rubbish coz y'all have made it hard for the true saints of God" to those that hold on i say "now let's REALLY get this thing going, get God's work done and go home as God calls us"God is about to inflict that which our brethren in Africa are suffering on us. this fire will expose the true saints and the false and separate them that God's glory may shine forth from them that are purified by the fire.AMEN.

Thank you for sharing that brother.I would have to agree with you about the things to come in America. What astounds me is that there are many wihtin "the church" who do not beleive that God metes out judgement any longer as they say that we are in the New Covenant which is grace. Imagine their shock when these things begin to happen! Sadly I believe that the coming collapse of things here will be what it takes to finally wake us up. My brother has been to Sudan three times in the last year and a half, and he goes into villages in the upper Nile region where they have little or no water, or food. Some know the Lord , others do not. Yet in the midst of all this God is working. Not with established church buildings, and that sort of thing, but by people getting hold of the Bible, and reading it. They will get one and go sit under a tree and read for hours, and then come ask questions about it (even the Muslims). Unforutnately though they do not have solid Biblical instruction which leaves them open to wolves that they may hear saying that they are poor because they don't give to God etc.... It absolutely breaks my heart that in the middle of all this, instead of helping, some are basically condemning these precious souls.

bro RoaringlambI would have to agree with you about the things to come in America. What astounds me is that there are many wihtin "the church" who do not beleive that God metes out judgement any longer as they say that we are in the New Covenant which is grace. Imagine their shock when these things begin to happen! you know bro, i don't understand why members of the church think God doesn't judge any more. when i read the revelation, that is the worst of all the judgements that the Lord pours out, dare i say worse than even every judgment thus far put together!the dispensation of grace will end and the Lord (when He is fed up of people goofing off) will pour out His wrath on the earth. The judgements which are coming will indeed catch people off guard and like i said in the last post, there will be some who jump ship coz they can't hack it and people will fall away. i also think that the present prevailing notion that the church will be raptured is also false and when we have to suffer people will also jump ship (fall away)Christ is coming for a bride which is without spot or wrinkle which says to me that we must be purified by fire so we will have to endure some kinda suffering before the rapture. Then i also believe that some mature saints will have to stay behind and tend to those saints who will only come to Christ AFTER the rapture.Sadly I believe that the coming collapse of things here will be what it takes to finally wake us up.My brother has been to Sudan three times in the last year and a half, and he goes into villages in the upper Nile region where they have little or no water, or food. Some know the Lord , others do not. Yet in the midst of all this God is working. Not with established church buildings, and that sort of thing, but by people getting hold of the Bible, and reading it. They will get one and go sit under a tree and read for hours, and then come ask questions about it (even the Muslims). Unforutnately though they do not have solid Biblical instruction which leaves them open to wolves that they may hear saying that they are poor because they don't give to God etc.... It absolutely breaks my heart that in the middle of all this, instead of helping, some are basically condemning these precious souls.bro indeed this is what it will take because right now we have a lot of other stuff going on so we can't focus on God as we should. we are comfortable so what is there to fear? desparation is what is required for revival and when we too are scrounging for food as our brethren in many other places are doing now, then we will RUN to God. i saw this quote by Stephen Olford (look to the top of the page) "it is my conviction that we are never going to have revival until God has brought the church of Jesus Christ to a point of desparation." i fully concur and as i have been seeking the Lord on this in His grace He has shown me this to be so. if the Lord leads check out Art Katz sermon on the 9-11 tragedy.for those of us who have been scourned and ridiculed for speaking what the Lord has told us to speak concerning the coming hardships, the Lord shall prove His word spoken through us is true. but more importantly those that are really sold out to Him will come out of the shadows and cause His glory to shine throughout the earth.AMEN.

I used to be of the pre-trib persuasion, but then as I looked at scripture, and put away what man had taught me, I have now come to believe more of a post-trib view.Sadly, i think that most people who believe that they will be raptured away will fall away when they see the antichrist who thay were told they would not see. I think that this is a wonderful strategy of satan to get people to question the Bible when they would need it the most!With that being said, I do not think that we should bicker and divide over it, just simply be sure we are rooted and grounded upon Christ Himself, and then we shall make it through any storm that comes our way. Like Noah in the ark, he wasn't delivered from the judgement, rather he was delivered through the judgement.for those of us who have been scourned and ridiculed for speaking what the Lord has told us to speak concerning the coming hardships, the Lord shall prove His word spoken through us is true. but more importantly those that are really sold out to Him will come out of the shadows and cause His glory to shine throughout the earth.AMEN.I say AMEN as well, and ask have you listened to Wilkerson's message "the Vision". It is very much in line with these things about to come.Be blessed, and shine forth!!!

I love Africa and Zimbabwe is a beautiful country that I have visited; it has been ruined by the rule of the megalomaniac, Robert Mugabe, who has ruled for the last 26 years (something like that). He is blaming the current shortage of food for his country, as well as other things on the British and the Americans!! I heard him on the radio! I have prayed and I will continue to do so for the removal of this dreadful man who hates his fellow countrymen if they don’t vote for him or they are not his tribe. He got rid of most of the white farmers, handed the land over to his thugs who had no idea what to do, so nothing has been planted for several years. Many innocent people have been brutalised and imprisoned, as well as starved, especially if they did not belong to his political party. A few months ago he was removing people from their homes under false pretences, saying they were ‘squatters’ or some such nonsense, and bulldozing their homes and belongings … and if they became homeless, foodless or got killed … well, tough! It’s not his problem! In fact, these people were living in accommodation provided by Mugabe's people having been removed from somewhere else.I have several friends who live there; I used to get weekly emails from them. That’s stopped – no electricity probably, so no internet access. I don’t think anything can be much worse than Mugabe for the dear people of Zimbabwe.Zimbabwe is not the only country in East Africa to be foodless. I am quoting now from an email to us from missionary friends who work in a remote area of Mozambique who sent a rare appeal for money for starving people.“The issues are an appeal for funds to help feed a starving community across the river and also …... Let me start with the food relief fund:Last week I went to visit Manuel who lives in a village across the river Zambezi. Manuel was one of our students in last year's Discipleship Training School. He is a pastor of a small congregation there. As always, when we got there, we were well received. They fed us rice and chicken - the standard Mozambican welcome. After exchanging all the pleasantries, Manuel told me that the people in his community were starving and surviving on grass seed. He showed me the grass that the people were harvesting for food. He also explained that the reason for this was that last year was a very bad year and many people did not harvest anything. As a result, World Food Program were helping feeding people but unfortunately for Manuel's community, they live right on the of the border of two provinces so they are in no-man's land - the food aid has passed them by. It would be a big battle to convince the officials of either province that they are eligible for food aid.The grass they are eating is called kunde in the local language. They eat the grain which vaguely looks like rice but very small which means that it takes forever to collect enough to feed a family - and usually there just isn't enough. I asked if it was good to eat and the answer was that eating it was not a problem as they were starving, but the challenge was to pass it out. For some reason, once the flour made out of this grass grain is eaten, it hardens and becomes very hard to pass out.”If this is happening in one small ‘insignificant’ village, how many more times is this multiplied?These huge topics leave me speechless really. We need to pray for God to have mercy on the people of this wonderful continent, to be rid of dreadful rulers, and to give them rain and enough food and harvest - the basic necessities of life. May we always be grateful for our food and water.Sue

bro roaringlambi agree, yea and AMEN. we should indeed be sure we are rooted in Christ so that when those who fall away do so, we won't lose heart but strive on for God's glory till the work is done and we really do get to go home. i've not yet listened to the message but i was going through his sermons looking for it...i'll get a hold of it. i'd never thought of noah being saved through the judgement, it was always "from it" something to chew on.God bless bro

Trully when the rest is gone we run to God. He is a solid refuge for all who are in pain and are bereft of what else to do. Greetings in the name of the Lord Jesus.I am resident in Zimbabwe and I feel that the Lord's mercy is a sufficient thing. It is one thing to hear of a bad thing and still it is another to leave through it. I love Zimbabwe. I love this country to bits and on this day I can't stop to thank the Lord for all that we in Zimbabwe are still able to enjoy. It is a beutiful country, in more ways than one. I have yet to go elsewhere in Africa and the world but I am convinced that if ever there was a land with potential Zimbabwe is it. Yet I concur to the previous post that prays for Africa to be rid of all bad leadership and other man made sufferings. For trully without these scourges, the world would be knowing this country more for its educated population, more for its chioce beef, more for its sculpture and other works of art than tyranny and manslaughter.God have mercy on Zimbabwe. I would want to pray more not for those who fled the country, (it's sad) but for the young children of this land who will never know what sanity means. Our children will never know what it means to have enough to eat in the home, to have a decent home to go to after school. And they will never know the feel of decent schools. They will never know what a wrong is...because of the tyranny currently in Zimbabwe. May God have mercy on us. There is a queer way by which the Human body learns to accept, accept the wrongs, turn the logic around and just pass anything off for what it is when faced with no opton. We have become used in this land to prices that change at check-out. We have passed it off as normal that we have no gas to run our cars, our economy. We have passed it off as normal to have no cash in the banks, normal to have no power no water in the taps and no drugs in the hospitals. We have passed it off as normal because we are not allowed to say these things. Stories abound of people who have been taken off buses by the secret police, killed by known thugs, purged out of communities by known 'activists' because they dare say that this country is run down. so we have passed it off as normal, we are better of like that than in warzones. We are better off like that than being insane. We have passed it off as normal because we have known God and feared Him better than Mugabe. WE are doing what God wants us to in these situations and He is sustaining us.

Hello allThis article may be a shock for many, but if you live in Zimbabwe you read this kind of thing in the papers everyday. It is so easy to get swept up into a complaining and critical spirit and this is exactly what the enemies plan is for the nation of Zimbabwe. The more we murmur the more we move away from God’s blessing. For me, I try not to read the papers anymore because the papers here for the most part are written and motivated by fear and rebellion. May the prayers for Zimbabwe be first aimed at the saints that they do not grow weary in well doing. The atmosphere is so negative and heavy, you have to pray that much harder jus to stay afloat as fruit-bearing Christian. Now for us (and I am convinced for the rest of the world in short while) the following scriptures need to be more than a cliché:Who can separate us from the love of Christ? Can affliction or anguish or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: Because of You we are being put to death all day long; we are counted as sheep to be slaughtered. No, in all these things we are more than victorious through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing will have the power to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord! (Romans 8:36-39)And this is the wisdom of God, even of our Lord Jesus Christ, it is the yoke which is light for those who are yielded to Him, and this is what He says to us:“Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;” (Mathew 5:43-44)I am convinced that there is no power except that which is from above, and our leaders could have no power over us except it had been given to them from on high. If we murmur against and criticize those in power, we also murmur against God. And though it may seem to the natural eye that we are being crucified for nothing, there is a higher wisdom for the suffering of the saints, “Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain. Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh. Grudge not one against another, brethren, lest ye be condemned: behold, the judge standeth before the door. Take, my brethren, the prophets, who have spoken in the name of the Lord, for an example of suffering affliction, and of patience. Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy.” (James 5:7-11)Gabriel