In 1990 our family went to Zimbabwe for the first time. When we told people about our vacation they were usually shocked. It was in the days when people feared going to Zimbabwe; before it was featured in travel magazines. Those were wonderful days. I fell in love with the country!

The Zim dollar was still relatively strong in those days. You could get 2 Zim$ for one South African Rand. Things were looking good for the country. We returned many times and Zimbabwe became an almost yearly destination for our family.

Then the crap hit the fan. The farm redistribution has been well documented so I’m not going to repeat it here. Let’s just say that things went south for the lovely neighbours of South Africa. When we drove through Zimbabwe on our way to Mozambique and slept in the mountains on our way back it was obvious how things changed. Since the days when the exchange rate were 1/2 things have now crashed to an all-time low of 1/31 000; for every Rand you can now get 31 000 Zimbabwean Dollars!

Today I found an old 1995 100Z$ note. In the days that it was printed this particular note was worth R45. Today it’s worth less than one cent (0.003 cents to be precise). As I looked at the note I was reminded of Jesus’ words in Matthew 6 and so I wrote it on the note:

“Don’t store up treasures here on earth, where they can be eaten by moths and get rusty, and where thieves break in and steal. Store your treasures in heaven, where they will never become moth-eaten or rusty and where they will be safe from thieves. Wherever your treasure is, there your heart and thoughts will also be.” (Matthew 6:19-21, NLT)

This is an excellent reminder that money is not the be-all and end-all; that my (our) security cannot be in money. A lot of pensioners in Zimbabwe lost everything with the currency crash in the late nineties. Just imagine if your pension (or 401K) is reduced to nothing. That’s why Jesus’ advice is so practical! He is an imperishable security.