Job 6:14
Good News Translation
(GNT)
14 In trouble like this I need loyal friends—whether I've
forsaken God or not.
In 1954 Dad was sent to Solusi, a ten-grade school in
Zimbabwe, to make it into a four-year college. Naturally the Trans African
Division of Seventh-day Adventists didn’t have all the money it was going to
require. Raising funds was part of his assignment. Besides, Solusi had only a
minimal amount of water available in its dams on seasonal streams. It was
certainly not enough to support a college with many more students. Consequently,
Dad built a new dam and enlarged an already existing one. He brought the
government geologists on campus to search for good spots to drill for water.
They marked out three sites, and he drilled at all of them. He even got a local
water diviner to explore for water. This man pointed out another spot, and Dad
drilled a well there, paying for it out of his own pocket. Interestingly, he
got more water from that well than from all three geologist-located wells
combined—but it still was not enough for a burgeoning college. Finally, the
government built a very large dam on a larger, near-by river, and they brought
water from there.
Many other major problems, such as housing and collapsing
latrines, took much of his time to overcome. In 1956 Dad returned to the U.S.
on a working furlough. He visited several retired church leaders and persuaded
them to donate their libraries to Solusi. He visited John Fetzer, a radio-TV
mogul, whom most people know as the owner of the Detroit Tigers from 1961-1983.
He and John had been good friends and business partners before Dad went to
Africa in the mid-1930s. When they parted, Dad became a devoted missionary, and
John spent his skill and time becoming financially successful. John became very
interested in Dad’s project to lift the educational level of Africans to that
of world leaders. He and his wife, Ria, visited Solusi to see what Dad was
doing and thereafter contributed toward the efforts to make it a working
college.
Solusi University has grown and prospered over the years.
During the terrible financial crisis Zimbabwe went through, it was the only
university to remain open in the country. The number of students at that time
was over 5,000. Currently 2,892 are enrolled there.[ii]
We are grateful, Lord,
that You provide us with friends who can help us in times of need.
