Pasadena Salvation Army Choir brings hope to Zimbabwe and Botswana – Local News Pasadena

When Leonard Flores climbed aboard the charter bus winding through the streets of Harare, Zimbabwe and Botswana Territory, he was not carrying a shovel or a supply crate. He was carrying sheet music. But the impact of what he and 43 musicians and choir members accomplished during their weeks-long mission with The Salvation Army proved that a well-placed song can move as much as any tool.

“At the end of the day, we were there to spread the word of God,” says Flores, a Salvation Army soldier from Pasadena, Southern California. “But spreading the word means doing the work, too.”

The Salvation Army is an international movement, operating in 134 countries,  meeting human needs through social services, recovery programs and services to the disadvantaged, all centered on its Christian mission.  In each country, the basic needs might be different, but the mission to show the love of God and treat everyone with dignity remains the same. The Salvation Army in Pasadena assists those facing food insecurity, homelessness, and addiction, and over the past 18 months has been helping those affected by the Eaton fire, including Flores and his family.

The music ministry tour is the 10^th overseas trip for this all-volunteer choir, which can be heard weekly at The Salvation Army Pasadena Tabernacle. The group is led by Martin Hunt, who, as a lay leader of the church, has led this ministry for 23 years. The songsters under his leadership have accomplished five recordings and overseas tours to New Zealand, England, Australia, and Zimbabwe and Botswana Territory.

Martin is a third-generation Salvationist. Born and raised in England, he is the son of Salvation Army Officers and took his first lay leadership role in music at age 14 with The Salvation Army in London and is currently employed as the Assistant Territorial Secretary for Program, assisting with the direction and planning of major Salvation Army events. He gives management support to the Corps Ministries, Youth, Social Services, Multicultural, Multimedia and Music Departments of The Salvation Army.

Each member of the group was responsible for their own fundraising for this trip, and Hunt coordinated travel for all 43 musicians and singers, arranged a full recording session at The Salvation Army’s Southern California studio, and produced an album of sixteen gospel songs that would serve as the group’s repertoire throughout the trip.

“The theme for the tour and recording is ‘Voice of Praise,’ a reminder that God calls us to give praise and glory to Him regardless of the circumstances we face. The people we met in Zimbabwe and Botswana Territory certainly reminded us of what it means to live joyfully,” says Hunt.

Singing Across Borders

The choir launched from Southern California and touched down first in South Africa before flying north into Zimbabwe and Botswana Territory. Their route took them through Harare, the nation’s capital; Bulawayo, Zimbabwe’s second-largest city; and ultimately to Victoria Falls, the thundering natural wonder on the country’s western border. Along the way, they performed at eight concerts in eight different churches across the territory — sometimes twice in a single day.

“Every night we basically had a concert going on,” Flores recalls. “Some days we did more than one.”

The Salvation Army in Zimbabwe and Botswana Territory serves people in need with the same passion it does in the USA. There, it operates numerous health clinics and hospitals and runs over 60 schools. Without these services, thousands would go without health care and education.

The fundraising goal for this trip was concrete: $25,000 for solar panels to provide year-round electricity to a clinic in a rural area, and school books and uniforms for over 900 children at one of the Primary Schools in Harare.

The choir also visited a home for older people. “The oldest resident there was 108,” said Flores, the memory still fresh. “Beautiful people.”

It was during their visit to that home that the choir discovered another urgent need. The property had no well, leaving residents without reliable year-round access to water. So the group did what they do: they passed a hat on the bus.

“We raised roughly $4,000 for the well right there on the bus,” Flores says. “It’s going to be built very soon.”

The choir also donated instruments — a euphonium valued at around $4,000 and a trombone worth roughly $5,000 — as well as books for the schools the organization operates in the territory and matching hats they’d purchased to donate to a local congregation in Bulawayo.

Flores is careful to note that the total impact exceeded the official numbers.

“We raised the bare minimum of our goal, but I also know that we definitely went over that goal when private donations and in-kind gifts are included.”

The concerts were not the only public witnesses. All eight Salvation Army churches in the Zimbabwe and Botswana Territory came together at the Enterprise Hotel — another Salvation Army-owned property — for a march through the city, joining their voices with local congregations to raise awareness about human trafficking and child safety.

Children held hand-lettered signs: “Protecting me, protecting you — supporting and protecting children.” And: “Stop human trafficking.”

“They’ve got all these beautiful kids,” Flores says quietly, “but there are definitely issues in the area — trafficking, poverty-stricken areas. We were there to raise awareness, and at the end of the day, to bring people to Christ. That is the mission of the gospel.”

Beyond the Stereotype

Ask Flores what surprised him most about Zimbabwe and Botswana Territory, and he doesn’t hesitate.

“I learned that we definitely underestimate the kindness of people in Africa,” he says. “I think it’s overgeneralized that the nation is just poor — that’s not the case. It was beautiful. They have wonderful grocery stores. They have skyscrapers. They have hotels. And in the areas where people live closer to their cultural roots, with farms and huts, it is still vibrant. Still full of life.”

He estimates that 58 percent of the country is self-employed — farmers, entrepreneurs, street vendors, builders. The currency exchange (approximately 25 Zimbabwe and Botswana Territory dollars to one U.S. dollar) makes daily life a careful calculation, and the average monthly wage hovers around $253, with minimum wage at $150/month.  But the country’s educational system, Flores discovered, punches above its weight.

“College out there — for any trade, engineering, cooking, anything — is $1,500 total from start to finish,” he says. “High school is around $200 to $300 for the whole thing. That’s remarkable.”

The Salvation Army, he explains, supplements those already-low costs by raising funds for uniforms, school supplies, and other resources so that no child who wants to attend is turned away for lack of money.

The choir’s reception from local communities was warm from first contact to last. Flores met a tour guide near Victoria Falls who greeted him in Ndebele, one of Zimbabwe and Botswana’s primary indigenous languages, and spent a few lively moments teaching the visiting choir members how to pronounce it — with limited success and considerable laughter.

“Everybody’s kind. Everybody’s sweet. Everybody’s saying hello, they want to know who you are, where you’re from,” he says. “They’re genuine people.”

The Mission Is Already There

One of the most significant figures on the trip was Terry Masango, a Salvation Army Officer who grew up in Harare with his wife. He currently serves as the principal of The Salvation Army Training College near Palos Verdes. He is transitioning into the role of Territorial Program Secretary, with a rank of Lt. Col. — but in Zimbabwe and Botswana Territory, he was home. Masango shared that, as a young boy, he often went to bed hungry and attended The Salvation Army school in Harare. From those humble beginnings, he says God transformed his life.

It is a distinction Flores takes seriously.

“The local officers are from the communities. They speak the language. They know what’s going on, and we were just blessed to be able to be in their presence.”

The Salvation Army’s development work in the region extends beyond music and medicine. Flores describes a livestock program in which the organization purchases a cow for a farmer; when that cow calves, the calf is gifted to a neighboring farmer, who continues the chain.

“There are different ways of utilizing the territory to help itself,” he says. “It’s a different mission out there than it is in London or in America.”

And when the choir packed up and flew home, the mission did not end with them.

“Just because we left doesn’t mean the mission is over,” Flores says. “The resources, the churches, the hotels, the elderly homes, the schools — they’re not going to be forgotten. The Salvation Army is already there, and we’re already at work there.”

A Calling Confirmed

For Flores personally, Zimbabwe and Botswana Territory deepened a calling that has been taking shape for years. He spent two years in a discipleship internship at the Santa Monica Salvation Army on 4th Street — a corps that serves some 200 people every Sunday through a meal program — and completed his associate’s degree with coursework in psychology and social behavioral science. His long-term goal: to become a Salvation Army officer and eventually a pastor.

“I want to spread the word of God and be part of the work,” he says. “Faith without works is dead — and works without faith are dead. You go to an area, and you help build the structural foundation so that they can thrive. You’re giving them the Word, but you’re also helping them. If you give a man a fish but don’t teach him how to fish, when you leave, he’s still going to starve.”

He is now looking into assistant program director roles with a local Salvation Army corps to gain more experience on the path to officership. Zimbabwe and Botswana Territory, he says, gave him more than he brought.

“Would you go back?” he was asked as the interview wound down.

He smiled without a pause.

“Easily. Yeah. Easily.”