This summer 14-year-old Jorja and seven-year-old Bethany will be spending part of their holidays in Zimbabwe, helping some of the world’s poorest children.
Their dad, the Revd Ben Bradshaw, is rector of the benefice of St Benedict, in the Broads, and the family plan to travel to Zimbabwe to work with the charity Tariro (meaning hope in a local language.)
Bethany said: “I am really excited to see what a school in Zimbabwe is like. I hope to make some new friends and I am excited because my school are going to donate books and pens and I will give them out to the children in Zimbabwe.” Jorja said: “I am really looking forward to experiencing a different culture and helping people to learn English. I am also hoping to learn some Shona (the language they speak in Zimbabwe).”
Education is not free in Zimbabwe and Revd Ben said: “We will seek to raise funds to pay school fees for poverty stricken but incredibly deserving children who really do need someone to simply give them a chance in life.”
His wife, Danni, is an optician and will be offering free eye care.
In March Revd Ben will undertake a 24-hour prayer vigil. He hopes to inspire people to support the family’s work in Zimbabwe and has set up a JustGiving page.
“At 6pm on Wednesday 12th March at St Swithin’s in Ashmanhaugh I will walk into church, sit down, and simply start to pray,” he said.
“I will then continue to pray for the next 24 hours. No breaks or sleep (well hopefully I will stay awake!) However, I will not be going anywhere until I finish my 24 hours of prayer.”
He will pray for local churches and communities, the people of Norfolk and Zimbabwe, and for God’s blessing on the family’s plans.
“Please do come along and join me for a few minutes!” he said.
The Bishop of Thetford, the Rt Revd Ian Bishop, will join him at the start of the vigil and the Bishop of Norwich, the Rt Revd Graham Usher, will pray with him towards the end.
Ben said prayer really does work and shared some of the ways he will be praying, including silent prayer, intercessory prayer, prayer whilst reading the bible, and formal services of morning, evening and night prayer.
“The most crucial part is that we simply offer some exclusive time to God,” he said. “We find the time to reflect and to think; we hold others up to the Lord and we ask him to bless them.
“During my 24 hours I will be praying for our parishes, for our schools, for our communities.
“I will also be praying for the people of Zimbabwe.
“One of my many prayers when I sit down for 24 hours at Ashmanhaugh will be that I can raise enough funds to ensure that when a desperate parent approaches me and pleads for help to pay for their child to go to primary school, I can thankfully say, ‘yes’!
“I will joyfully say that we are able to help your child, and the reason we can help your child is thanks to the generosity of our wonderful local Norfolk community.”
Ben will also help fellow church ministers in Zimbabwe. “As a priest in the Church of England serving in the diocese of Norwich, I have been blessed to have received formal training and theological education,” he said. “Therefore, as well as supporting the young people in Zimbabwe, I will also spend time working with and training the faithful ministers who are currently serving the Church in Zimbabwe, where theological education and ministerial development is expensive and limited,” he said.
And the family will visit the leper settlement where John Bradburne, who grew up in Norfolk, worked before he was kidnapped and killed in 1979.
“Lepers continue to be some of the most neglected people in the world and therefore we are keen to support the current residents living at Mutemwa in any way that we can,” said Ben. “We are inspired by the amazing work of the saintly, John Bradburne, and all that he did to support lepers.
John is on a pathway towards being declared a saint by the Roman Catholic church – and is also the most prolific poet in the English language.
His father was Vicar of Cawston and John attended Gresham’s school in Holt. He served with Gurkhas in India, Malaya, Singapore and Burma during the Second World War. He became renowned for tending the wounded and after the war helped homeless and sick people around the world, often living as a hermit.
In the 1960s he became warden of a leper colony in Zimbabwe. After disagreements with the people in charge he continued his ministry from a hut outside the perimeter fence until he was seized and murdered during the independence war. Reports of miracles began almost immediately and in 2019 the Vatican approved the next stage of a path towards sainthood.
Revd Ben first visited Zimbabwe as a placement while he was training to be a priest and heard the story of John Bradburne’s life. He has returned to work with the charity Tariro several times and said:
“I am really hoping we can raise some funds in advance of this trip so that when we go out there I can directly help get some really deserving children into school. The long-term plan is that my congregations will hopefully be keen to sponsor some young people so that we can get them all the way through school. The wonderful thing about a small charity like Tariro and with me going out there is that we actually get to know the children that we are supporting. We get to meet them, we get updates from them, it just makes it all much more personal.”
To support Revd Ben’s mission to Zimbabwe visit www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/revd-ben