Communities mourn teacher, writer, missionary; Chidzero modeled faith from Rhodesia to Rhode Island

Alice Chidzero
1963-2026
Tharp Funeral Home

A worship service at Thomas Road Baptist Church in Lynchburg, Va., on Friday memorialized teacher, writer, and missionary Alice Chidzero.

Alice Rumbidzaishe Bwerinofa was born to the Shona people in the village of Gutu, Masvingo, in what is today Zimbabwe, Rhodesia in 1963, about 230 km south of Harare. As her friend Lesley Hamer of the Providence Classical School, Williamsburg, Va., shared at the service, what Alice regarded most important about her identity was that she was a follower of Jesus Christ.

Alice often visited Rhode Island, where she lived with her husband Felix Chidzero for their first years in America. They came as students and earned degrees at Rhode Island Bible College.

For some years in Rhode Island, Alice and family attended Barrington Baptist Church (BBC). She worked early in her teaching career at Barrington Christian Academy. Alice attended BBC before my family joined in 2012, but I came to know her through her return visits and legendary reputation.

Alice told the astounding story of her life in a memoir, When the Brook Runs Dry: My Journey from Africa to America ... And Back a Few Times (N.Y. Free Press 2018) (Amazon). As the narrative traces Alice's journey from Rhodesia to Rhode Island, Sierra Leone, and Virginia, the book demonstrates the beliefs that sustained Alice through life's hills and valleys, both the customary community ethos of hunhu and an abiding, foundational faith in God.

Valleys there were. At the service, Hamer told an anecdote, also recounted in the book, of when Alice was stuck in a catch-22 between an expiring visa and compulsion to leave the United States, on the one hand, and airline refusal to let her fly without a visa for transit, on the other hand. 

"Why is Alice's life so hard?," Hamer asked herself at the time, she said.

That was exactly what I asked myself, repeatedly, reading Alice's memoir. She lost a child, a spouse, and parents in too short order. She finished her higher education despite the strain of single-parenting in a foreign country. She navigated the long road to U.S. citizenship. She battled the lifelong effects of rheumatic fever, and later, cancer. All the while, she ministered tirelessly to others, persons in need physically and spiritually, from the U.S. east to West Africa.

Well deserved self-pity is the opposite of how Alice met every challenge in her life. Eschewing any self-indulgence, she carried on and trusted relentlessly in God (Ps. 91). And the memoir demonstrates time and again the endless expanse of his provision.

Alice left this world on September 7. She is survived by her children, Simbarashe and Shekinah, and her grandchildren, Avianna, Zenai, and Xavier. She was predeceased by her parents, Levi and Catherine, by her husband, Felix, and by her daughter, Vimbainashe.

The family welcomes contributions at GoFundMe to help honor Alice's wish that she be laid to rest in Zimbabwe.

Iglesia celebra ordenación en comunidad quechua

Pastor Cruz a la izquierda, con Pastor Zhulleima y su esposa y hijos.
Capture from video at BBC RI media

En mi iglesia de Rhode Island el domingo, fuimos testigos de la ordenación de Gabriel Zhulleima.

Barrington Baptist Church (BBC) dio la bienvenida a la gente de varias iglesias, de Massachusetts y el estado Nueva York, tan lejos como Albany. Las iglesias que se unieron con nosotros incluyen en particular la gente Quechua que viven en esta región. Un grupo de mujeres quechuas honró el evento con una actuación musical en la tradición indígena.

Nuestro propio pastor y misionero Aurelino Cruz, de origen brasileño, sirvió como maestro de ceremonias y traductor del español al inglés. El pastor y misionero Antonio DeLaZerda dío el mensaje, o sermón, a la iglesia en español. Cruz y DeLaZerda ambos sirven con la organización Missions Door.

En el mensaje, Pastor DeLaZerda dijo que lo que describrió como la forma en que América está "cambiando" el mundo crea un problema para cristianos. No dio más detalles, y no quiero atribuirle mi propia interpretación. Pero yo también he tenido inquietudes sobre la incompatibilidad entre la política exterior estadounidense y las enseñanzas de Jesús.

Esto no significa que la religión deba dictar políticas. Pero la ayuda exterior es el motor del "evangelismo" estadounidense sobre la democracia y el estado de derecho. Terminación arbitraria de la ayuda está diezmando nuestros objetivos políticos, a la vez que cobra un precio horrendo en sufrimiento humano. A veces, lo que enseña la Biblia es simplemente bueno juicio.

Dios bendiga el ministerio de Pastor Zhulleima. Una grabación del servicio y la ordenación en la BBC estará disponible en línea esta semana. (UPDATE, May 20: Video publicado.)

Religious talk touches on Jewish law, legal writing

Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore
RJ Peltz-Steele CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

On Sunday, I had the privilege of delivering the message at my home church, in Barrington, R.I., regarding Psalm 121.

Anyone is welcome to watch the service. (The message starts at about 14:30.) The photo I referenced, from Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, appears here, at left.

There is a bit to do with law. I talked about the Hebrew word shomer, which along with the related verb yishmar is used in some form six times in Psalm 121 to describe God as a watchman or guardian. The term has particular application in Jewish law, referring to the person who watches over the body of the deceased until burial, and to the person who is responsible for ensuring kosher standards in a kitchen.

Pictured Rocks is so named for images perceived
in the minerals and sediment. RJ Peltz-Steele CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

I talked also about the merism, the literary device by which a writer cites two extremes to incorporate everything in between as well, or to two contrasting parts to refer to the whole. The merism is employed repeatedly in Psalm 121, for example in referring to the same "heaven and earth" described in Genesis 1:1.

Legal doublets, usually of historical origin, can be merisms. In the sermon, I used the examples of "cease and desist" and "aiding and abetting." But on further reflection, I don't think they're great examples, because the words are not so clearly contrasting. A better example would be "last will and testament," because the term once referred to two discrete documents, disposing of real and personal property, respectively. The merism thus signals that the instant document represents the whole of the testator's intentions.

Legal writers often are admonished to trim duplicative doublets, especially when the words are mere synonyms, lest they be misconstrued as narrowing specifics. But the imperative of clear and succinct writing sometimes should give way to the value in a term of art, which incorporates an established meaning, and in a true merism, which conveys the meaning of expansive entirety.

UPDATE, Oct. 26, 2024: Message now available on YouTube.

Daggett discovered higher ed, world in senior life

Olive Daggett, 1927-2023
Legacy.com

Olive Daggett died on December 21, 2023, at the age of 96.

Olive was a friend, a leader in my church, and an astounding human being. Her passing was marked at Legacy.com and by The Providence Journal. Her memorial service last weekend at Barrington Baptist Church in Rhode Island is posted at Vimeo.

I memorialize Olive here at The Savory Tort because she was inspiriting in ways especially relevant to my personal and professional interests in education and internationalism.

For 40 years, Olive had a full life and worked a career in accounting for AT&T in New Jersey. Yet she had another life ahead, even before the eternal one. After retiring, she moved to Rhode Island. And then she enrolled at the University of Rhode Island and earned a four-year bachelor's degree.

Moreover, in the course of her university studies, as a senior, Olive studied abroad. She discovered a love for the world, twice studying in England and traveling on the continent. At Barrington Baptist Church, Olive gravitated to foreign missions. She became the church's missions secretary and coordinated missionary efforts globally for decades.

Faintly visible in the ProJo photograph, a pink- or purple-dyed streak ran through Olive's silver hair. Pastor Scotty Neasbitt recounted that Olive adopted the color in part to help her relate to youth in the church. Either it worked or she never needed any help; she was adored by all ages. Something about her genial character and zest for life made her transcendent of generations.

My wife and I were fortunate to have been able to visit with Olive when she was in hospice care in December. She was her usual jovial self. Secure in her faith, she had no fear of her mortal end. In so many ways, she was, and for all who remember her will remain, an inspiration.