Cultivating Integrity in Zimbabwe

The main reason I am in Africa is at the invitation from co-directors Don Mann and Bill Pipke to accompany and observe two summits for their initiative called Cultivating a Lifestyle of Integrity (CLI).   Bill and Don were pastors for many years in Canada and are now full time global workers doing work in Africa and China. They have developed a discipleship manual that is delivered via a cohort of ten over a period of weeks.  This initiative is intended to shift the paradigm in society away from corruption and toward a life that is built on six pillars of trust, authenticity, honour, influence, truth, and dignity.  Using a discipleship model the cohorts are on a journey together to solidify these values in themselves, hold each other accountable and then go forward and gather a new cohort to repeat the process.  this type of movement grows organically as one group of ten can become 100 and 100 can become 1000 and thus a movement in a city and eventually a nation can occur.
Once the national team of 8 is in place and they are trained in the cohort model a summit is held to introduce CLI to a larger group of people.  as we were planning to go to Zimbabwe it was thought there would be 200 or so participants at the summit.  It was scheduled to start on the Thursday but on Wednesday the Army took over administration of the country.  People were unsure what would happen so many stayed away.  The numbers were lower but those who were there were committed.  for two hours on the Thursday and Friday the team took them through the pillars.  On Saturday the team continued to describe the initiative and how the cohort discipleship model can be applied  and at the end of the day there was a call for a commitment from the participants to decide if they would be interested in participating in a cohort or even leading one.  of the 35 in attendance all but two wanted to continue on this journey to cultivate a lifestyle of integrity and join a cohort.  Eight committed to leading a cohort.

The Africans remarked that someone needed to take a picture of  all of them wearing jeans! it is more usual to wear suits or dressed pants.

Pastor Gary Fess, Co Directors Don Mann and Bill Pipke.

From a group of 35 most will go forward and become the start of a movement in Zimbabwe.  The next step will be for the national leadership to take these 8 through a cohort and prepare them to start 8 cohorts of their own.  In six months time there should be around 80 men and women from all walks of life who will have been through the cohort experience and  many of those will start cohorts of their own.  My role here is to be able to advise the team on the structure and process they could put in place to maintain the consistency of the model and ensure that the National strategy is well defined and there are appropriate accountability structures to support it.

 Amina and Munetsi Zowa

The National Director for CLI in Zimbabwe is Munetsi Zowa.  He is a force for God in Harare.  He is Pastor of a large church and overseer for the Village of Hope located in Harare.  He also is a member of the international board for the 8 Villages of Hope (VOH) in Africa.  The Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada operate 8  VOHs in Africa that use a model where orphans are brought in to homes on the campus with mothers and they attend school and learn life skills and become part of a family and community where they are supported through university and into adult life.  These schools arose out of the devastation of the AIDS epidemic and has become a very successful model.  Munetsi has caught the vision for CLI and is an amazing champion for cultivating a lifestyle of integrity in Zimbabwe.  Amina and Munetsi  are amazing role models for the entire community  and clearly exhibit the six pillars of integrity.  Amina works at the village and in a country with 90% unemployment she gave up her job as a customs officer to be the first volunteer at the village of hope in the early 2000's. The Zowas live a lifestyle of faith in God's provision and they continue to trust that as they are obedient to what they see as their call to serve, they shared several stories of  how their personal needs were met in amazing ways.


We have now moved on to Zambia and are having fruitful discussions about CLI in both countries.  I will do one more post in the next few days to  talk about the work in Zambia.  A golf game is organized for tomorrow so that should be a treat.

Rick