Zimbabwe Travel Diary 2026

Jack Skett reflects on his recent visit to Zimbabwe to gather material to remember the events in the Vumba in preparation for Missions Sunday

Wednesday 18th - Thursday 19th March

I’m the kind of traveller who likes to get all the stress done first. I spent Wednesday morning frantically chasing around the supermarket, and double or even triple-checking my packing to make sure I hadn’t forgotten anything. I checked my train times from Dewsbury to Heathrow more times than I can remember. I even allowed myself some time to just sit down and obsess over everything that could go wrong with the journey. What a treat!

Once I got going, the stress was gone. It was just as well, too, because what followed was more than 24 hours of travel. Four trains, two aeroplanes, and approximately two hours of sleep! I was at least able to get a very flattering photo of Marty asleep on our second flight. When we landed in Harare - after we’d navigated the most chaotic baggage reclaim I’ve ever seen - we were met by Pastor Andrew Mautsa and his wife.

Pastor Andrew is the national leader of Elim Zimbabwe. He took us to Prospect Assembly, one of the Elim churches in Harare. There, we met a small group of Elim Zimbabwe leaders. Marty shared with them about the necessity of being full of the Holy Spirit’s power, which turned out to exactly match Elim Zimbabwe’s them for this year. Isn’t it great when God is saying the same thing to people who live the other side of the world from each other? We had the opportunity to lay hands on these leaders and pray for them to receive a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Our travel wasn’t quite done for the day.

We set off from Prospect to Mutare, where we’ll be staying for the next few days. It’s a four-hour drive, and I’m really feeling that two hours of sleep, especially as darkness falls. When we arrive, dinner will be waiting for us. I plan to hoover that down as quickly as possible and then fall into bed. For now, I’ll settle for sticking my head out of the window like a dog to try and stay awake.

Friday 20th March

Today was a day of mixed emotions. It began with the deep joy of a nice hot shower, washing away the weariness of yesterday’s travels. After a solid breakfast of sausages, bacon, eggs and beans (with surprise little bits of carrot in the sauce), we headed into Mutare to the Elim church there. We were joined by a group of pastors and members of the church, and together we travelled to the cemetery where our martyrs are buried.

Our main purpose for coming here was to make a video retelling the story of the Vumba Massacre. We laid flowers at the graves, and everyone stood and watched as Marty attempted to record his piece to camera in the fewest takes possible. It’s never easy to do with an audience, but Marty’s habit of praying in tongues whenever he makes a mistake came in handy.

My Bible reading this morning was John 19, when Jesus was condemned to death by Pontius Pilate. As I stood by the graves of our martyrs, knowing all the details that have been published about their suffering (there is more which has quite rightly been left out of any retelling of the story), my mind was drawn back to Jesus’ suffering at the hands of the Romans. It was Wendy White who called out to the other missionaries as they were being killed, “Don’t be afraid! They can kill our bodies but they cannot kill our souls.”

After lunch we travelled to Penhalonga, where a mission station was established in 1949. There has been a primary school there since 1952, and we were able to tour round it and see the facilities. They have over 200 pupils there, ranging from early years all the way through to what we would call Year 6. One of the buildings had some serious structural damage to it, and Marty demonstrated his expertise from building schools in the Amazon to advise on how it can be fixed. Maybe there’s scope for a team to come and do some maintenance on the school someday.

Today sums up the story of Elim Zimbabwe for me. The deep pain and trauma of June 1978 is still remembered here, but it has also served to galvanise the church for mission. Pastor Andrew told us today that there are now only two cities in the whole country with no Elim presence. They are reaching out into Mozambique, and establishing church communities in townships and villages across the country. Mission is in their heart, and they get on and do it.

Saturday 21st March

It was an early start today. We were travelling to Katerere, which we were told was around a three hour drive. Before leaving Mutare, we stopped at a workshop operated by Pastor Rose, one of the regional leaders for Elim Zimbabwe. The workshop does embroidery on clothing, and is recently branching out to manufacturing backpacks. All of this is to try and bring more money into the church and serve Elim Zimbabwe’s vision of being self-sustaining.

The drive to Katerere did not take three hours. We’ve learnt already in our short time here that journeys usually take longer than the estimate! Katerere is the site of the Elim missions station established in the 1950s by Dr. Cecil & Mary Brien. Both medics, they built a hospital to serve the community, which to this day is the only hospital for 80km. They treat a variety of illnesses, as well as performing surgeries such as caesarean sections.

As the missions station continued to impact the community, they also established a primary school in the early 1960s, and in 1965 they founded Emmanuel High School. This is the school which our martyrs taught at and helped to run. Despite the move to the Vumba in 1977 and the tragedy of 1978, the school is still running. They have over 600 children in Manjanja Primary School, and Emmanuel High School teaches 735 pupils all the way to A-Level. We shared a meal with the executive team at what used to be Bobbie Tinion’s house, and Marty & I had our first experience of Zimbabwe’s staple food: sadza (made from maize, with a consistency similar to mashed potato, which Pastor Andrew calls “Irish Sadza”)

I’m once again struck by the determination of Elim Zimbabwe to keep growing and serving beyond what they currently do. There are a number of challenges at Katerere, including an autoclave that’s too small, a lack of ICT equipment to match the modern high school syllabus, and overcrowded classrooms, but the most serious problem is the lack of running water. The only place on site with a supply of running water is the surgical suite. Everywhere else is served by a couple of boreholes, which don’t yield anywhere near enough. This is a problem that desperately needs a solution. One of the tensions for us is that we want to help, but we’re also wary of making promises we can’t keep. Much prayer and wisdom is needed.

Sunday 22nd March

Zimbabwean church is quite something! I knew there would be dancing. I knew there would be joy. I knew there would be an openness to the Spirit of God. All of those things were there, but more than I had imagined. We danced, we sang (in English and Shona), I had the privilege of joining with Pastor Andrew to sing the Ron Kenoly classic Ancient of Days. We’d been singing it in the car yesterday, so he called on me to lead the church in singing it today.

Marty preached about being filled with the power of the Holy Spirit, and we laid hands on people and prayed for them. After the service, we had lunch together with the pastors who had travelled to join in with the service. Some we had met before, and some we met for the first time today. One of the pastors there was a former student of Emmanuel High School who was there on the night of the Vumba Massacre. Another, Pastor Shalom, is serving as a missionary to Mozambique. It’s inspiring to see Elim Zimbabwe sending missionaries.

In the afternoon, we all piled into Pastor Andrew’s car and drove up into the Vumba Mountains. The Eagle School is now a government facility used for youth development, so we knew we weren’t going to be allowed in to see the site of the attack. We wanted to get as close as we could anyway. The scenery is truly beautiful. From the viewpoints, we could see into Mozambique. It’s really not that far, so we could see how easily the guerrilla fighters made their way across from Mozambique to attack our missionaries. We were also struck, having visited Katerere yesterday, by just how far the Missionaries and students had to travel to relocate the school to the Vumba.

Tomorrow we head home. Our final evening was spent at Pastor Andrew’s home, with several of the leaders of Elim Zimbabwe. We shared a meal, and then Pastor Andrew handed me a guitar. He said, “You can follow, can’t you?” and then began to sing a Shona chorus. It was wonderful to worship together, and then Marty & I laid hands on Pastor Andrew and his wife Siope and prayed for them.

Zimbabwe is a beautiful country, with beautiful people. I’m inspired by their diligence in serving the Lord, bringing everything they have to spread the gospel. It’s only been a short visit, but we’ve filled it with as much as possible, and both Marty & I are coming home with Zimbabwe in our hearts.