Following a Dream

October 9, 2024

An Interview with Simbarashe Ndowa, MAPM ‘26

Simbarashe (Simba) Ndowa’s childhood village on the border of Zimbabwe and Mozambique didn’t have a church. His mother was a certified traditional healer, a profession into which Simba might well have followed. When Simba was only four or five years old, however, he began to experience vivid dreams. “In one particular dream, a large book would open, and I would receive some instructions,” he recalls. Animated in his speech, Simba’s conviction is so contagious that regardless of your feelings about prophetic dreams, you find yourself believing. Leaning forward in his chair, he exclaims, “I remember, when I was six or seven and able to read, I came across those same instructions in biblical verses and thought, ‘This is what I dream about!’” From those early moments, Simba and his family discerned that his calling would lead him to serve God beyond his home, but it was not an easy path between those youthful visions and admission into Garrett’s Masters of Arts in Public Ministry program.

Even pursuing the higher education that could lead to graduate study was far from guaranteed. “I would pray, ‘God, if it is you who I see in my dreams, I want to go to school,’” he remembers. “I would plead, ‘I don’t want to follow the rituals to become a traditional leader. I have heard you and read my Bible, I know you are there. Help me serve you.” These pleas did not go unanswered—he was able to attend school locally, where he began participating in a student Bible study and officially became a Christian. After graduation, Simba moved with his brother to Harare—Zimbabwe’s capital city—where he worked as a bus conductor and a gardener as he applied to universities.

The journey to his undergraduate degree from Africa University was likewise filled with moments of divine assistance. From a pastor who took him in after he lost his housing to the minister who encountered Simba on the road and offered to pay his AU application fees when he could not afford them, prayer always seemed to be one step ahead. So he began coursework in Environmental Studies, without enough money to pay the next semester’s tuition. By chance or providence, however, an international student from the United States took a personal interest in his story and connected Simba with his father—a Methodist pastor in Chico, California. The pastor’s family and congregation in Chico was so moved, they helped Simba finish his degree. “One exceptional lady whose son had died in a car accident sold everything that belonged to him and put that money toward my scholarship,” he says with gratitude. That connection with the United Methodist Church endured, and when Simba finally decided to pursue his theological training, a colleague from the Democratic Republic of Congo recommended Garrett. “I saw the Masters of Arts in Public Ministry program and knew I had to apply,” he says. “It’s so unique in the way it’s structured because it integrates a person into community and emphasizes the ways you can influence that community’s life.”

Now, Simba is studying to pursue his call as a youth minister. “In my home community and all over the world, children are vulnerable. I know God is calling me to help,” he says. “When I was a youth, I saw potential dying in my colleagues. Talent is being destroyed because they have no exposure to a better kind of life.” While the particularities of Zimbabwe are central to his call, he finds Garrett’s diversity essential in helping him follow it. “It is critical to meet different people and understand, ‘Who is God to that culture, to that person?’” he says with potent fervor. “All of us are coming from different perspectives, different life experiences. But we believe in one God, and that God wants us to save one another.”