Families are hiding their children and making plans to smuggle food across the border just so they can keep eating as the chaos leading up to the runoff election between Zimbabwean dictator Robert Mugabe and challenger Morgan Tsvangirai escalates quickly, according to a U.S.-based Christian organization that is working there.

Mugabe has exercised near-absolute authority in the southern African nation since its independence in 1980, but earlier this year, Tsvangirai collected a reported 47 percent of the vote to Mugabe's 43 percent in an election, sparking widespread violence attributed to those who soon may be forced from power. Since no one, however, got 50 percent or more, a runoff is being set up in June.

As WND reported earlier, In Touch Mission International already has appealed to the free world for prayers for the violence expected for the faithful in Zimbabwe caught in the crossfire as strongman Mugabe struggles to retain power.

Now the coordinator for South Africa for Christ the King Community Church of Mt. Vernon, Wash., is telling first-hand of the struggles.

CTK is a small group-based Christian movement that was launched in the Pacific Northwest about 10 years ago and has expanded its ministry rapidly across the U.S. and around the world. A coordinator for its African ministries, whose name is being withheld because of his activities, told WND this week that the approaching runoff election has people terrified.

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