Sunday school starting...

We started a Sunday School time before our regular church service this week. I was not sure how many would remember or even want to come. When we first arrived, there was only 6-7 that came... so, we started with just a handful. But, after another 15-20 minutes, we had a pretty full house and people seemed excited to be learning. I started our Sunday school time with teaching on the basics of "evangelism". We handed out a sheet of verses that can be useful while trying to talk to someone about the gospel. We also covered such things as: Sin, Faith/Repentance, Blood, Sacrifice, Jesus Christ only, Salvation. Think it went well.. we will know as people head out to reach their friends and neighbors! 

I was told we had roughly 80 adults in attendance this last Sunday with 6 visitors. Wow! We may need to think about expanding our church building to better facilitate teaching and preaching. Praising the Lord for our weekly opportunity to teach and preach God's word!

TV Interview

We went for a meeting in the bush to discuss with the community, local politicians, and the area chiefs what the way forward could be to provide a secondary school (grades 10-12) in the area. Currently there is little to no option available for those that want to go on after grade 9. Many just stop altogether or will try to go the 50+ km into Chipata to find a place to live, make a living, and finish schooling. 

During the meeting I was asked to preach - so I preached a short message from the Mark 8 in which I discussed give our soul to Jesus Christ alone. There is so much temptation to give our life for education, wealth, reputation, position, etc. but all these will fail in the end. I talked about how many people had been destroyed because they seek after the wrong things in this life.

After the meeting, I was approached by a local Television station to further elaborate my comments. The interviewer (Sarah) asked if I thought the government was not doing enough to help people overcome certain social issues. So - with the camera rolling I told Sarah that it is not the government that should be helping people face certain social issues but the church.

I went on to speak pointedly to the failures of the pulpit in many churches speaking more toward how God can better our physical life than what it means to follow Jesus, deny ourselves, and pick up our cross daily. Not sure if the interview ever made it on TV and if it does I am sure it will irritate many church leaders... yet, it is so clear that if we want to change a culture and the world for good, we must follow the "good book". Although there are some that try, there are many that speak more of the worldy wisdom than God's wisdom. Imagine a world in which we actually tried to follow God and listened to His instruction. 

Resurrection Conference - choir groups (video)

We recently finished a 3 day resurrection conference hosted by Big Tree Bible Baptist Church. Roughly 200 people attended as we preached messages from the Scripture about the Life of Christ, Death of Christ, Burial of Christ, and of course the Resurrection of Christ. There were many hearts touched by the preaching and I believe the Spirit of God has helped all of us draw nearer to the Son. 

This conference is a true highlight of the year and we hope to use the spiritual excitement from this time to help our people grow and reach out to others with the gospel of Jesus Christ!

We put together a short video (12 mins) of different pics and choir groups singing and dancing during the conference. Although you may not be able to understand all the words... you can still sense the joy of the Lord in all of it!

Big Tree Baptist - April Baptism (video)

This last Sunday was special. Our ministry partner (Dan Jalowiec) preached a great message about King David and the impact of trying to hide our sin. Powerful! There was a great response concerning this message as well as an overall excitement for the things of God. Just "feels" like the Lord is working in and among the people. Praise the LORD!

After the service we prepared ourselves for the announced Baptism. For the last couple weeks we have been talking about church membership and during that talk we discussed Baptism. That led to a discussion about those that had not yet been baptized. I was surprised! After I taught about biblical baptism, I asked for people to tell about their salvation and when they received Christ... out of the 16 that wanted to be baptized, probably 13 of them had been saved in the last few months! Amen! That is exciting news. We are always glad to have mature Christians come from elsewhere to be a part of our church but there is a true excitement when people are being transformed as a part of the work the Lord is doing here!! 

I put together a video of the baptism - it is a bit raw and probably close to 15 minutes (slow internet doesn't allow for large file uploads). I was not able to pan the shore so everyone could be seen but I think you can hear from the singing that a size-able crowd has come to be a part of this celebration and act of faith! 

Time is Now!?

We have been working at a new church plant near the Malongwe Village for roughly 1 1/2 years. Every week we are there teaching on Wednesday and Sunday opening the Scripture and compelling people to a place of repentance and faith in Jesus Christ. We try to teach theologically sound messages that ground the believer and at the same time practical message that encourage a life of faithful action.

For many months we have had people from nearby villages come and ask us to visit their villages with the hopes that we would start a church there. Although we are greatly encouraged by such outreach we have wanted to be careful not to spread ourselves to thin leaving our initial work at Big Tree Baptist immature and unable to move forward Scripturally. 

For the last few weeks people from our church plant have actually been going to other villages to pass out tracts, sing, or do church skits and afterwards someone will preach a short message and invite people to church. We did not push people to do this work of evangelism nor give them different ideas on how to go about it and yet they are moving forward to reach their neighbors with the Gospel. 

There is a part of me that is thrilled and there is a part of me that is nervous! Thrilled that our church people want to GO and Reach people with the Gospel and use their skills and abilities for the sake of Christ. Nervous that their understanding is yet limited and there could be a danger of preaching a false gospel or misleading people down the wrong path. However, the thrilled part of me wants to believe that maybe the Time is NOW and we should step up our individual discipleship and training so these men can adequately preach and declare God's word. Exciting times. Please join us in prayer as we seek to see these villages come to Christ and receive salvation through the blood of Jesus Christ. 

Hidden knowledge

This morning I was continuing my read through the book of Joshua. I must admit, I was not overly focused and felt a bit distracted, but this one verse did stick out in my mind:

Joshua 8:35 There was not a word of all that Moses commanded, which Joshua read not before all the congregation of Israel, with the women, and the little ones, and the strangers that were conversant among them.

It impressed me that Joshua took the time to read "all" the words that Moses had commanded. I cannot imagine this was a simple task or accomplished in a matter of a few minutes... but, nonetheless, Joshua set his mind to do it, and do it he did! It certainly was designed to have an impact on everyone that was listening. This was not an exercise in futility but truly had the expectation of greater understanding and therefore greater purpose and focus. This was not just an exercise for the leaders but for the men, women, children, and even those outside the Jewish realm.

Well, I moved on from there and started my day which included taking care of weekly household issues as well as make a payment on our auto insurance. While at the Insurance office, I met up with a man that I had not known before (Brian). Brian is very intelligent and in fact spent 4 years in South Africa studying theology with the intent of coming back to Zambia and helping his fellow pastors grow in maturity and understanding. 

I began to ask him about theology and doctrines that he may have studied - he confessed that during those 4 years, there was not much study about doctrine but more study on the practical side of Christianity. Oh, ok. I then began to question him about different theological books he may have read while studying... I was quite astonished at his reply. He said, "If you want to hide knowledge from a black man, just write it down". Wow! I dont know that this sentiment is true for only African men but maybe all of us are guilty of this principle. 

If we would just open the Book, I am sure ALL of us would benefit from a vast amount of wisdom. Truth is... the Truth is sitting right before us, we just dont take the time to read/search it out. Certainly made me want to spend some more time reading today. 

Road less traveled

While visiting a new church plant area with Todd Beaman, he showed me the local river amd informed me how many trucks will eventually come through the area. I was a bit shocked since the water level was still a bit high and the gradient on the banks was a bit steep. On top of that the "roads" were pretty well eroded but in zambia bad roads never seem to deter people.