Being a Servant

It was a nice way to finish out 2011 by teaching a small group of Christians. We spent about 3 hours this morning discussing being "a servant of the Lord". Of course Moses is the key figure in this study and presents so many examples of how to live our life as a true servant!

The heavy rains kept more from coming but it looks like we will make this a weekly teaching with the hopes of really deepening the spiritual roots of these leaders/Christians. Hopefully more will be able to attend in the future but for now we are content with those God is allowing us to minister too.

Christmas lunch

Savannah's mother came to Zambia to be with us for Christmas. On Sunday we were invited to a small church meeting in a school room. The service went very well and afterward the church provided us a wonderful Christmas meal including Nsima, rape, and bush chicken!
Although not what most of us expect for a Christmas meal, we had a great day celebrating the true purpose of the day!

Youth Meeting

I was asked to preach to a youth group on the subject of purity/temptation. We had a wonderful time as we opened God's word and learned from some failures made by others. We spoke on the decision to keep ourselves undefiled from the world and its expectations. I really believe the Lord spoke to some hearts with these teens! It is my prayer this group of young people would refuse the offer of the world and truly present their bodies a living sacrifice, Holy unto God!

Chanjala Baptist

We wanted to visit a "bush" church while my mother-in-law was in Zambia. It worked out great that bro Morgan invited me to his church just at the right time!

It took us around 45 minutes to arrive at the small church but most of the time was spent slowly navigating a muddy road.

Because of the rains, church was delayed by about an hour. Once it started we had roughly 30 in attendance. The pastor did a teaching from Deuteronomy concerning the 'fear of God'. Just so happened that I had prepared a message from 2 Timothy 1:7, "God has not given is the spirit of fear". Worked out wonderful. We had a handful respond to God's leading and even my wife was able to counsel a woman to be saved!! Praise the Lord. We left the church moments before the rains came and thankfully we missed out on a church wide bath ;-)

Missions Teaching

This last week I spent 4 days teaching a group of 15 pastors on the subject of "Missions". Many pastors in Zambia see Americans as missionaries but they dont see their churches as needing to or able to be a part of the Great Commission. We walked through many Scripture discussing the relevance for today and how God expects the church to truly function... every member a minister!

We had some great discussions concerning the point, the people, the purpose, and the plan of God's Mission. As always, it is hard to know if these men will own this teaching for themselves and really seek to move forward in this area. We continue to pray and equip as the Lord leads through all of this! 

One interesting discussion through all of this was on the subject of deliverance. Many churches in Zambia, whether Baptist or Pentecostal have "deliverance" services. The perception is that people hear the message and then come for counseling - once they come, the pastor "delivers" them from some demon or overbearing sin. Along with that discussion comes the talk about "Christians" being possessed and controlled by demons. Quite a passionate discussion by those involved. 

Nazareth Baptist

We visited a small church on the way out of town this last Sunday... Not really a town church and not really a bush church but somewhere in between.

We showed up "on time" which of course means no one else was there except the Pastor. It didn't take long for people to start trickling in but again re-emphasized how "starting time" really is more of a flexible value rather than a specific moment!

Eventually the church house was full. I taught the Sunday school as well as preached the main service. The Lord seemed to communicate His message to the people. The pastor felt the messages were right what the people needed! Praise the Lord.