ALBUQUERQUE, NEW MEXICO (ANS) -- I met Dr. Dale Erickson at the Flying Star Restaurant, a local café located in the midst of large cottonwood trees along the Rio Grande River.

Dr. Erickson and Dr. Rati Nohlovu

We met to discuss Africa—Zimbabwe, to be exact.

For the past 42 years, Dr. Erickson has been involved—in one way or another—with the African people, working side by side with them as a missionary and a medical doctor.

African Village, Chioamay Mission

Dr. Erickson and his wife, Sue Alice Erickson, R.N. began their ministry with the African people in 1968 when they helped open a mission hospital in then Rhodesia, called Chidamoyo or “Desire of the Heart”.

About the time that civil war broke out in 1970, Dr. Erickson and family returned to the United States to finish medical training.

They kept tabs on the hospital through mutual friends serving in Zimbabwe, asking God’s direction as to when they should return.

In the United States, Dr. Erickson works as a nephrologist in Albuquerque and also serves as the Chairman of the Ethics Committee of Presbyterian Hospital.

In 1987, Dale and now Dr.Sue Alice Erickson, R.N., PhD. went to Africa to teach for a month at the University of Zimbabwe School of Medicine as well as reestablishing their relationship with Chidamoyo Christian Hospital. They either taught at the medical school or worked at Chidamoyo for a month most years from 1991 until they accepted positions as faculty members of the medical school from 1997-2000.

Around 1999, Dale met an unique individual. Dr. Andrew Reid, who is an infectious disease specialist and Assistant Professor at the University of Zimbabwe.

According to Dr. Erickson: “Dr. Reid is originally from New Zealand, arriving in Zimbabwe in 1999. We both taught in the Department of Medicine at Parienyetwa Hospital. We saw each other frequently both professionally in the hospital and occasionally at Christian Medical Society meetings.”

Like Dr. Erickson, Dr. Reid came to Africa as a medical doctor but his primary goal was to share the gospel with the African people. Dr. Reid conducts HIV research and is the founder of Champions for Christ, an HIV outreach that assists young people living with HIV/AIDS.

Dr. Reid attends Celebration Church, a 16,000 member church in Harare,

led by an American, Pastor Tom Deuschle.

It was on Dale’s last visit to Zimbabwe that he learned an amazing story regarding Celebration Church and how God has used this fellowship of believers to impact the entire nation.

On May 22, 2010, at 40 Cork Road Restaurant, Dale and Sue Alice met with Dr. Reid at the Internet Café in Harare, Zimbabwe.

It was here that Dr. Reid told the story of how Celebration Church helped change the country.

10,000,000,000,000 Ten Trillion Dollar Reserve

In 2008 Zimbabwe was experiencing the worst cholera outbreak in the country’s history. To make matters worse, Zimbabwe was facing a financial crisis that caused hyperinflation. For example, people were using money with the face value of $10,000,000,000,000 that would only purchase a loaf of bread.

The end result of the medical and financial crises was that the country shut down. Schools were closed. Businesses stopped functioning. Many government hospitals shut their doors, all this happening at the onset of the cholera epidemic.

In 2008 the University of Zimbabwe School of Medicine and Parienyetwa Hospital, the thousand bed teaching hospital, shut down.

The situation in Zimbabwe was at a critical stage. Basic medical needs were not being met. People were dying at a rapid rate. Even basic needs, such as preventative care, were not provided.

Dr. Reid recalls a situation where a lady was bleeding to death due to complications with her pregnancy. She was turned away from the hospital. Dr. Reid intervened, calling an Obstetrician colleague to care for the woman. Thankfully, she lived.

During 2008 there were over 100,000 cases of cholera.

One cause of the cholera outbreak was due to leaking sewer pipes contaminating water lines. Tap water was unsanitary causing the epidemic to spread. It was difficult for some of the people to understand why they had to boil their drinking water because “we never had to do that before.” One family lost five of their seven children to cholera.

In stepped Celebration Church.

Pastor Tom Deuschle, seeing the chaos in the country, sought the Lord and asked, “How can we as a church help?

Deuschle paid a visit to the chief health officer of the capitol city of Harare and asked asked what could be done to get the doctors and nurses back to work. The official responded that he did not have the financial resources. The crisis was out of hand.

Deuschle prayed and committed the catastrophe into the Lord’s hands.

Deuschle also asked his 16,000-member church to begin to pay for health needs of the country, which opened up the hospitals.

Ward 6, Parienyetwa University Hospital

The outcome was amazing. The church raised enough money—through the faith of its people—to pay for the total health care of the city of Harare and the country for three months. The hospitals reopened and care for the poor and sick began again in full force.

The church imported supplies from South Africa, providing care of over 30,000 cases of cholera.

In addition, Dr. Reid began to drive to other cities to care for the sick. He arrived with his medical team about midnight at the city of Kadoma. He recalls that bodies were piled up like cords of wood. Dr. Reid and a few volunteer student doctors and nurses worked all night, infusing 1000 liters of IV fluids. Not a single person died that night.

In other communities, makeshift hospitals were created at the churches and schools to care for the ailing. At Chidamoyo Christian Hospital the chapel was converted into a cholera unit.

Teams of Christian doctors and nurses worked throughout the country. Doctors Without Borders arrived in Zimbabwe to help. Thousands of lives were saved and the epidemic began to subside.

But the church didn’t simply provide medical services. 4500 people received Christ during the epidemic, primarily because of the efforts of Christian Health Educators working in the hardest hit areas.

Dr. Reid recalls that a witch doctor, called a mudzimu, gave his life to the Lord after seeing the love bestowed upon the people in the name of Christ.

Furthermore, Pastor Deuschle suspended preaching on his national TV program for nine consecutive Sundays in order to provide health education for the whole country including three Sundays on cholera and six lessons on HIV/AIDS and other topics.

After the thrilling and beautiful story, I asked Dr. Erickson his thoughts concerning Dr. Reid.

“Interesting question, Brian,” he answered. “I, too, was interested in Dr. Reid’s thoughts concerning the events that transpired in Zimbabwe. I was particularly interested in what he felt was his more important responsibility: His job as Assistant Medical Director of the Clinical Research Center involved in HIV research or his position as Professor of Medicine at the University. He said, ‘neither.’

“He considers his primary mission in life is as the leader of a group of 400 young people at the Celebration Church living with HIV/AIDS called Champions for Christ. They are all receiving anti-retroviral drugs to treat HIV. He told of one 19-year-old young woman who is HIV positive because she was raped. This young woman was the featured person in a documentary about HIV/AIDS in Africa.

“The wonderful aspect of her life,” he continued, “is that she is planning on becoming a doctor to help her people. There is now hope for people facing HIV. There is a future.”

In all, Dale summarized his thought on Dr. Reid: “As a single man, Dr. Reid’s life is totally dedicated to helping the people of Zimbabwe in the name of Christ. He is a humble servant, giving all the praise to God. I am honored to know him.”

I sat mesmerized by the story Dr. Erickson was telling me. I couldn’t help but thank God that he uses men such as Dr. Reid and Pastor Tom Deuschle to mobilize care for the African people in a cholera crisis. Likewise, I was humbled by Celebration Church’s effort in the name of Christian charity, their yearning to bless their community, their city, and their country, believing that their offerings can change a life and history, not only here on earth, but in God’s eternal kingdom.

These are lessons for all of us with faith such as this.

For more information about Celebration Church or the work of Dr. Reid, visit www.celebrate.org. 

Brian Nixon is a writer, musician, minister, and family man. You may contact him at www.briannixon.com