Missionary nurse Vicky Graham admits she was willing to go anyplace in the world for God, except back to her own country.

One of five children reared on a Christian farm in northwestern Zimbabwe, Vicky opted to take nurse's training in South Africa. The next ten years—three of them working for an ambulance service—she developed skills that would prove invaluable.

Vicky, who is in her early 40s, joined Operation Mobilization (OM) for mission training in 1994, and one year stretched to four. "At the end of 1999 I wasn't sure what to do next," she recalls. "I was challenged to go back and work in Zimbabwe, but I said no at first. I thought there were enough workers there."

Afghanistan was actually the country on her mind, but she finally consented to go and help for a year in OM-Zimbabwe's Harare office. During that year, field leader Mike van Vuuren shared his conviction that they should reach out to the Tonga people.

Responding to the call
The Tonga live close to the Zambian border in the northeast, a primitive tribe bypassed by the rest of society. Originally they flourished on the fertile flood plains of the Zambezi River. When the Kariba dam was built in 1957, the Tonga were pushed onto harsh, barren terrain with little rainfall. Unable to grow food as before, they suffered severe hardship.

	"It's hard to change the moral values of people if you don't do it early, so I'm praying for someone to work with the children full time." —Vicky Graham

The 150,000 Tonga now occupying a 300-kilometer area of the Zambezi Valley are steeped in ancestor worship and witchcraft. About 145 years ago, the Scottish missionary David Livingstone visited the Tonga and wrote they were "very degraded," apparently because the men went without clothes. Livingstone preached and planted the first seeds of Christianity among the Tonga, but little more was done for the next century. In the 1960s some churches were established; a few missionaries returned briefly in the '90s. But today occultism and immorality are rife, and child sacrifice is still occasionally practiced to appease the spirits. Many pastors have several wives or sleep around. Illiterate and without training, such leaders often end up misleading their people.

Vicky and her OM team took a prayer journey to the Valley in 2000. Knocking on one door, they found an old man who greeted them with excitement and told them he had been praying that God would send help. Three other pastors they met in the area all said the same thing: They needed teachers more than anything else, even money.

"On that trip in 2000 we heard God say, 'These are not my people, but they will become my people,'" says Vicky. "We realized that we could equip Tonga believers to go and reach others."

Vicky's home church, Highland Presbyterian in Harare, had trucked food aid to the Valley during the worst of the drought years. In 1995 they approached Vicky about starting a mobile clinic there. She said she wasn't interested. "But that June," she says, "I went there with a small medical kit and realized that was where I needed to be. So in March 2001 I moved to the Zambezi Valley to start building relationships. Five men from my church came with me to set me up on a church property in Siyabuwa. Then they left."

Vicky Graham

Vicky was alone among 10,000 Tonga families, some of whom had never before seen a white person. She had no electricity and no communication with the outside world, except a high-frequency radio. Harare was an eight-hour drive away in a country torn apart by Zimbabwe president Robert Mugabe's oppressive army.

Witchdoctor's territory
With the nearest government clinic poorly equipped and a three-day walk for many, the Tonga were grateful for Vicky's medical help. She soon discovered, however, that witch craft was a dominating influence. Sick people turned first to the witch doctor. Sometimes they even used dirty razor blades to "let out the pain."

Vicky began driving into various places with her Land Rover and setting up open-air clinics under the trees. Resistance to disease is low because of poor nutrition. She frequently sees cases of malaria and bilharzia, along with diarrhea and chest infections. The average adult woman weighs only 77 to 110 pounds. Most eat once a day, sometimes just surviving on berries. Life expectancy for women and men averages less than 40 years.

Not surprisingly, the aids virus has ravaged the community. For years, many of the Tonga men went to the cities to look for work. There they contracted aids and took it back to their wives. Now, says Vicky, the disease is out of control. She estimates conservatively that 60 percent of the people are hiv positive. "We see men come home just to die, and the extended family can no longer contain all the children whose parents have died."

Slowly but surely, the clinics have given Vicky credibility with the community. "We always teach basic health education to help them understand what makes them sick," she explains. "And before I start every clinic I bring in the gospel. We've seen a slow softening of the community. One of the ladies who had tuberculosis, for instance, spent everything she had on witch doctors. Now she has turned to Jesus, and she is slowly realizing that only He can heal."

Stronger medicine
Vicky says that previous missionaries to the Valley started by giving out clothes and food. When they stopped, the Tonga stopped going to church. "It's taken three years for them to realize I wasn't giving them anything but medical aid!"

As she became more confident with the Tonga language, Vicky started a women's Bible study and outreach to the children. "The schools have invited me to do ministry, and I have access to about 5,000 children. There's such potential. It's hard to change the moral values of people if you don't do it early, so I'm praying for someone to work with the children full time."

In 2004 a building team from the U.S. helped erect an office/storage building and another multi-purpose structure for children's Sunday school and other meetings. But what she most desperately lacks is co-workers, especially medical professionals. Some have volunteered for a few months, but for most people the living conditions are too tough. Added to the isolation, lack of conveniences, and roads that "aren't really roads" is the debilitating heat, often hovering at 104-degrees Fahrenheit. Last year was one of the worst she has seen for malaria. Many died, especially children under 5. Vicky herself contracted the disease for the first time, but has since recovered.

Four Tonga have been trained to assist with the clinics and children's work. Vicky calls one young man her "diamond." "After Wilson came to the Lord, he got very involved in the medical side of things and translated for me. With some training, he has been able to take over most of the dentistry." Vicky's team sees up to 150 patients a day, five days a week, in clinics covering a 40-kilometer radius.

"Everybody says my pills are stronger," Vicky grins. "I tell them it's not pills, but Jesus!" She recalls five emergency cases when she was helpless to do anything—but pray. All five of the patients pulled through.

In Vicky's view, the Tonga are a loving people, and she has never felt threatened. But the rest of Zimbabwe is still in crisis. Her brother and sisters have all left the country, and her parents are among the mere 5 percent of white farmers left clinging to their property.

In spite of everything, this Zimbabwean nurse has no doubt that she is in the right place at the right time. "This is God's time for the Tongas! My dream is to see a church established, to see them set free from ancestral worship and truly worshiping the Lord."

Deborah Meroff is a London-based writer and photojournalist. For more information about Vicky Graham's ministry, visit Operation Mobilization at www.om.org.

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