Why do we work so hard for something that does not bring satisfaction, something that does not last?

What will a man give in exchange for his soul?

When one is making “good” money it must mean he is making more money, not that others are being paid counterfeit money.  The value of money is difficult to define, even though the currency note says it is legal tender for all debts, public and private.  Doesn’t it depend on the country where the money can be used, who printed the money, and what you can do with it?

You used to know you had money when you check the piggy bank or the coffee can on the top shelf and found coins or bills wadded up inside.  What if you don’t see in “God We Trust” on any coin or bill?  Do you really have money?

More likely you log in to your bank through the internet, type in your bank account number, your 8-digit password, then the answer to your security question.  Your bank then opens your account.

You won’t find “In God We Trust” on the screen, but the number at the bottom of the available balance column convinces you that you can buy what you found on line.  So you decide to do it.

The numbers in your computer will change and the numbers in another computer somewhere will change when you enter the numbers on your card, the expiry date and the security code.  Maybe you have bought something that will actually be delivered to your door.

Probably you do all that on your I-phone if you are half my age or less.  Maybe you use your fingerprint to unlock your phone.

Piggy Banks and coffee cans and that stuff with “In God We Trust” on each piece, are all becoming obsolete.  Money is strange stuff.  Fifty years ago there was no internet and no computers.  In some parts of Africa, the money introduced by the colonial powers became worthless when the new rulers began making decisions.

Back in 1960 when the people in the Congo received their independence from Belgium there was a currency in circulation called the Franc.  The new independent country under Mobutu’s rule became the Republique Democratic du Zaire.  The Congo River became the Fleuve Zaire, city names were changed, and the people were called Zairois rather than Congolese.  The currency was changed to the Zaire.

Mobutu renamed himself Mobutu Sese Seko Kuku Ngbendu Wa Za Banga and established a new holiday, Trois Zed, to commemorate the changes he had initiated.  That was relatively easy, but changing the money was much more involved.

The Zaires were printed in Germany and imported to Kinshasa.  The distribution presented a number of challenges.  Zaire is a vast country, about one third the size of the United States, but with almost no infrastructure.  Banks only existed in the larger cities.  Remote areas had no government presence at all.  There was no mail system.  The majority of the people in Zandeland would probably be unable to exchange any money they might have in Francs.  It would take several days to walk to the nearest Zone administrative Office, but there were no bank services offered there.

Bank accounts were to be used to convert Francs to Zaires and Francs cash was to be exchanged for Zaires cash at the banks.  That is if those who had cash could get to the banks, and the banks had Zaires, and the clerks felt like it, then they could get some, maybe.

The money would also be put into circulation when government employees or soldiers in remote areas were paid with Zaires cash.  Merchants who went out by truck to buy cotton, palm nuts, peanuts and rice from the growers would pay in Zaires.  Traders using the new currency to buy ivory, rawoulfia, or gold would put more money into the economy.  The new money would eventually get to the Zandes through the local market place.  It would take months to accomplish this. 

Bob Zimmerman lived at Bafuka, in Zandeland, and had no way to purchase any new money with the Francs he had on hand.  Paulis, now called Isiro, was over a day’s drive away and it was reported that the bank had no more cash so none could be withdrawn from his Isiro account to make purchases or pay any wages.

The Zandes relied on the local market place to sell their goods for Francs which they immediately used to purchase other local goods.  Francs, when available, were used to purchase essential items like matches, salt, soap, cloth, and garden tools.  These items were to be found in the Zimmerman’s Station Store or in the small shops in Doruma, 80 kilometers from Bafuka.

The time scheduled to exchange Franks for Zaires at the banks would expire at the end of the month.  The Francs anyone had remaining would then become worthless.

Something needed to be done in order to help the local community make the transition.  Some kind of legal tender was needed.  Many of the Zandes had no money at all, so they would go back to the barter system, exchanging goods at the market place and hardly noticing the lack of money.  The people who worked for wages probably had no savings, but rather debts to be settled at the end of the month.  They depended on using their wages to make purchases of food at the marketplace.  What would they do if they didn’t get paid?  How would the missionaries, who used money for all their needs, get along with no money and no gardens?

Bob Zimmerman developed a plan.  He used the Rex Rotary spirit duplicator owned by the Bible School to print paper money from the master copy of the Zimmerman notes he created.  I don’t know what they looked like except that the imprint from spirit duplicators was usually purple.  He established the value of his purple paper money using the previous value of the Franc to Dollar exchange rate and the radio announcement of the value of the newly introduced Zaire.  He converted his payroll obligations and the prices of all the goods in his store to Zimmerman value.  The dollar value of his store inventory exceeded sum of the Bafuka Station payroll, the Bible School teacher payroll, and the immediate needs of the Zimmermans and the other missionaries at Bafuka.  He printed sufficient Z-bills, backed by his store inventory, to pay all these obligations plus some for missionaries to have to purchase goods from the Zandes and to pay to their workers.

Of course he needed to keep records to account for all the Z-bills that he paid out, what he loaned to his fellow missionaries, and the balance remaining.  He signed and numbered each bill.  He recorded each bill in a ledger.  The bills could be used to buy any of the inventory he had on hand in the small station store he had set up to help the local people.  The missionaries could pay him back using their dollar accounts.

His employees trusted him and payroll was met with purple paper money, not Zaires.  The workers accepted the Zimmerman money as their wages.  The Z-bills went into circulation among the Zandes in that remote area.

Several of the employees went to the store to convert the Z-bills to salt, soap or cloth.  The Z-bills worked!  They settled debts among themselves with Z-bills.  They explained to those in the market place the value of the Z-bills compared to the old Franc they knew.  The bills were used.  The villagers brought them to the store and bought what they needed.  The Z-bills were working fine.  Bob Zimmerman treated the bills like real money, so did the Zandes.

Eventually some of the beautifully colored Zaire notes, showing Mobutu wearing his leopard skin hat, were brought in to Dourma by some merchants.  The Zandes in the Bafuka area now had three currencies, the old worthless Francs, the purple Z-bills that had recently been printed by their Bible School teacher, and a very few of the newly issued official Zaire notes.

They weren’t in any hurry to turn in the Z-bills because their Bible School teacher was still there and he had recently added new merchandise to his store inventory.  He said the money was still good and he would even exchange crisp new Zaire notes for any Z-bills that were brought to his store.

Weeks and possibly months later Zandes from remote villages brought in Francs to try to buy something and found out that their government had replaced Francs with Zaires and that their money was worthless.  No one wanted their Francs.  They saw the new Zaires for the first time.  The Z-bills kept circulating.  The Zandes knew they were good at Bwana Zimmerman’s store and they bought small items as they needed them, but got their change back in Zaires.

Bob kept a record and checked off the Z-Bills as they came back to his store.  He burned the used Z-Bills.  Some were still easily legible, having only a single fold, probably saved in a student’s Bible.  Some were limp and filthy, with palm oil stains and engrained dirt from repeated use at the market place.  Folding a bill into a small square to hide in a woman’s wrap around cloth made it almost impossible to read the serial number on it.  The number of bills returned decreased as time passed and the Zaire bills became readily available.

Some bills were never returned to the Zimmerman Station Store, possibly worn out in circulation.  The bills may have gotten wet in the rain, the purple markings blurred, the limp Z-bill just dissolving into a wad of paper pulp.

Bob Zimmerman had provided a solution in a remote area of a country where the money in existence was declared worthless by the central government.  The authorities in distant Kinshasa had been unable to make the new currency available to their people living in the sparsely populated area over a thousand miles from the capital.  I doubt that there are any Zandes still living who can recall the rather ingenious provision of Z-bills to make the economy work at Bafuka.

We are accustomed to converting the value of every imaginable item, into how much it would cost in the kind of money we know.  When things become more expensive we usually complain that the prices are going up, not that the value of the money is going down.  When a single item has several prices depending on the kind of money used, it is obvious that there is some sort of relationship between the currencies.  Of course that is the exchange rate. 

The Z-bill introduced by Bob Zimmerman must have had an exchange rate of one to one with the Zaire when introduced by Mobutu.  One Zaire was replacing one thousand Francs.  The Zaire was equal to one half a US Dollar.

Thirty years later the nouveau Zaire (each of which had earlier replaced three million of the first Zaires) was eliminated at a rate of 100,000 of the nouveau Zaires for one Franc.  By then no one wanted the nouveau Zaires, because not even 110,000,000 of the nouveau Zaires was able to buy one US Dollar.  Exchange rates were outdated before they were published.  The money was worthless.

So what is money?  Where does it get value?  Did not the Z-bills have value because they were printed by a man the Zandes knew and trusted, one who had a store offering items in exchange for the Z-bills?  The value was not lost because the value of the items in the store exceeded the amount of money printed.  The store prices did not change because the store was not established to gain money but to serve God’s people.

The love of money is the motivation of all that is evil.  It is impossible to serve God and money.  The young ruler was unwilling to give to the poor all he had in order to follow Jesus because he was very rich.  The prosperous farmer was called a fool by God, because he had plans only for this life and could take nothing with him when he died that night.

For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?

Lay-up treasure in Heaven.