Bayside pastors visit Zimbabwe

EAST COUNTY — It has been more than a month since Bayside Community Church Senior Pastor Randy Bezet and his wife, Amy, went to Africa, and he still can’t shake the realities of life there.

“I think about it every day,” Bezet said. “That kind of stuff changes your life forever. You don’t think of things the same.

“When I think of this place now, I think of the people there,” he said, citing high unemployment, poverty and an AIDS epidemic. “I see their faces. I want to help more.”

The Bezets, along with fellow Bayside Executive Pastor Gregg Ellery, and his wife, Valerie, traveled April 16 to April 26 to Zimbabwe to learn more about Children’s Cup, an organization that helps orphans in Africa through CarePoint locations that provide them with food, clothing, education, medical care and spiritual nurturing.

“They take care of (more than) 15,000 kids every day,” Randy Bezet said. “In Zimbabwe, alone, it’s 6,000 kids every day. One in four children in Zimbabwe is orphaned because of AIDS. The life expectancy there is only 34 years.”

While in Zimbabwe, the Bezets and Ellerys spent several days visiting CarePoint locations, where they helped care for the children.

“We’d play games with them,” Randy Bezet said. “Some of them would walk two to three miles to get a meal. It would be the only meal they would get that day.”

Bayside has been a financial partner of Children’s Cup for the last five years and plans to expand its partnership with the organization over the next year by working with them to launch a new CarePoint in Cowrie, Zimbabwe. The church then would help sponsor orphaned children through the Mission of Mercy Child Sponsorship Program, Bezet said.

“As a church, we’re going to be involved in every little bit of that — help find a location (and everything),” Randy Bezet said. “We will provide support. Leadership and oversight will be provided by Bayside.”

Randy Bezet said last year Bayside contributed 14% of its total income to local and foreign missions.

“We do a lot of things in our community — take care of the homeless and the hurting here, so that’s not neglected,” he said. “But, we’re addressing world issues, as well.”

Children’s Cup is the primary organization with which Bayside partners in Africa, Randy Bezet said.

“When we get out of ourselves and see how (most people) live, it makes you realize how blessed you really are,” Randy Bezet said. “I think there are things like this that everybody can get involved in.”

Contact Pam Eubanks at [email protected].