My Mother's Newsletters: Two Responses

Since posting the first four groups of newsletters, I have had some encouraging comments from friends who have read them. I did not anticipate that my mother's words would have such impact over half a century later. But in particular, I would like to highlight the comments received from two Zimbabwean women academics who work in a British university, who I know personally. I have their permission to publish their comments but for the moment they remain anonymous.

The first one is here:

Your mother’s letters are powerful and offer an amazing and refreshing window into the missionary world of that time in ways that I’ve not seen in the literature about missionaries that I’ve read. As such the suggestion for you to turn the blog into a book is an excellent one. I can also imagine a movie/documentary type!!!

Additionally, ‘seeing’ the environment you grew up in and the kinds of people your parents and grandparents were and the kind of person you became is also testimony to the many positives about the missionaries in bringing some sanity and hope to the lives of locals at that horrible moment in history. Your reflections of your family are very touching.

All this, including the gender dynamics that emerge and the various relationships reflected make very interesting reading!

And here is the second:

I have had the opportunity to read through your blogs which I think carry a powerful message about what it means to be a ‘true servant’ of God - this was clearly a life of self-denial (Mathew 16:24-26). 

Reading through this, I could ‘picture’ your mum exercising her acts of (unconditional) love, including caring for the sick and the old, as well as bridging the racial gap (this aspect comes through so strongly in her letters).   She was a blessed woman and servant of the Most High God, who was not scared to venture into unchartered territories, spreading the gospel!

Your dad especially has left a great inheritance on this planet earth, and although he has gone to be with the Lord, I believe his works of faith and love are still speaking. Together, your parents left an amazing example for their children and future generations; to love God (with all their hearts and strength) and love people unconditionally, regardless of race or colour.

 

Academically, there’s a lot that can be unpacked here including issues of gender and gender dynamics, especially in relation to the African communities, as it feels to me that your mum played a major role here in terms of reaching out to communities, and it seems to me she had a particular skill/anointing (especially for someone who was born and raised in Britain) as evidenced in the way she connected with women, and children (as shown in the examples cited in the letters). I think this resonates well with the concept of Musha mukadzi, translated ‘a home is a home because of a woman’, or ‘a family cannot thrive without a mother’. It is evident in the letters that people used to refer to her as their ‘mother’.

My view is that this stuff can be turned into several books and this would give the space for you to bring in your own personal experience and reflections as you were a part of this amazing journey.