Popolo Bible Baptist Church

On Sunday, Savannah and I went to Popolo Bible Baptist Church. Popolo is one of our oldest GCMS churches. The Pastor has been around for a long time and remembers dates like a walking calendar! Amazing!! Normally the church is within walking distance but because of the heavy rains we had to drive the long way around... took us about 2 hours driving to get there. My wife was able to minister to the children prior to the service and taught them a lesson on the Good Samaritan.
During the service, I was preaching partly from Acts 26 - "to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins..." The message was well received - ony lady came forward and was counseled realizing she was not walking in light at all. One of the specific struggles this culture has is the use of "charms". Charms look like a necklace and are usually placed around infants and young children to keep away the spirits or provide some sort of healing. Even during the service - there was a young woman with child that after I preached against this - covered her child's "charm" instead of getting rid of it. Please PRAY for the bondage of witchcraft, sorcery, and spiritism many rural people in Zambia experience.

Kapandwa Sunday School Conference

On Saturday I was asked to preach at a Sunday School conference for kids aging between 5 and 15. Certainly a diverse age group! Preached from Daniel three - as always with kids, it was a lot of fun. There were 185 kids in attendance and only a handful of adults - but it seemed to go very well. I am sure the Lord planted some seeds that will eventually develop and bear much fruit!

Encounter Revival Ministries

Over the last couple weeks a singing and preaching group from the States was visiting Zambia. This group has often visited my church in Rochester and been a real blessing. It was a real treat to have the team now visit here in Zambia - to see Ardy Parlin and the rest of the team of 31 including my own church members Valerie Boudrias and Liz Laparra!
This last Sunday - I took part of the team to a "bush" church... many of the members later admitted they didnt think there would actually be people or even a church as far into the bush as we had gone. The church was small but the Lord did big things. The American Encounter Team partnered with the African Encounter Team to worship our Lord in both English and Lamba. Bro. Ardy did the preaching from Hebrews 12:1-2 exhorting the believer to search their lives for sin and repent - enabling us to run the race set before us! We are thankful Encounter Revival Ministries could visit with us while in Zambia and encourage our church members through God's word!

Resurrection Conference 2009

As we do every year, we celebrate the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus by gathering our churches into district conferences. It has expanded over the years to really be one of our most anticipated conferences. Each day - a message from God's word is preached and many lost our brought into the sheepfold while at the same time many current Christians are strengthened and challenged in their walk with Christ.
Each of our districts reported that at least 5-10 were saved with many coming for repentance. However, our Lusaka district reported this year that over 150+ were saved at one meeting! When discussing this on the phone we were told it was like the Spirit of God was directing in everything. Buses full of people were coming in, people were sitting in the hot sun without complaining, and Christ was being preached! We even had some baptized during the conference in obedience to our Lord's command. Praise the LORD!! Please pray for all of these people - whether 5 or 150, it is my prayer they now all become fully devoted followers of Christ!

you need all four!!

On our way back from the National Park we experienced some "obstacles". There are times when 75% is really good... when 3 out of 4 is wonderful. However, when it comes to tires - you NEED all four! We left our lodge at 8:30 am and made it about 38 kilometers before one of our tires decided to fall completely off - all 6 lug nuts came off at the same exact time. As you can imagine - this was not in our game plan. We had no cellular coverage and right in the middle of tsetse fly central and wild animals around the corner... the flies chewed us up pretty good. We made some good efforts at getting the tire back on but didn't have the right tools. After about 5 hours, another vehicle came by and was able to offer some help. Unfortunately it was not enough. After some thinking, we came up with a possible solution. The next day we started off early to get the truck fixed - it took until about 5:30 pm! We drove back to the mission with 4 lug nuts welded on... of course, we had to go a bit slower and didn't get back to the mission until 3:30 am!!

We praise the Lord no one was hurt and how He provided the right people at the right time. Things could have been much worse - many people were praying for us and through it we learned the practical side of Romans 5 - tribulation worketh patience, patience experience, and experience HOPE!! Never lose sight of hope! I remember Pastor Grace once preaching and saying you can live without food for many days, without water for a couple days - but if you don't have hope --- you can't survive at all. Although not what we had planned our God was in control and allowed us to grow in grace, knowledge, and hope!

Kafue National Park

After the marriage seminar, we took our guests out to see some of God's fabulous creation. It was a real treat to be inside the wild kingdom. Our first night we were wakened by a large elephant eating fruits and leaves from the tree next to our hut. The next night lions were calling to each other from across the way. Our last night we hiked on top of a massive rock formation and saw a bird's eye view of the puku pan - it was marvelous... on the way back, we came across a 12-14 ft python slithering across our path. This was an amazing trip and what a privilege to see kudu, impala, puku, hippo, croc, lion, elephant, leopard, python... and even a small mouse where we stayed! To God be the glory!!

Marriage Seminar

This last week we had a visitor from the States come to teach and preach our marriage seminar here at Kafulafuta. It was a GREAT time - the Lord really used this last week to encourage and challenge many families to move forward in their relationships. The conference was created on the premise that churches are only as strong as the families within the church... no one really knew what to expect - but by the end of the week it seemed like renewal was taking place in many hearts. Normally in Zambian churches - men sit on one side of the church and women sit on the other. Rarely are the lines crossed and rarely are there public demonstrations of affection. However, after just one day of teaching - husbands were sitting with their wives and some even had their arms around them!! Praise the LORD! Please continue praying for families to increase in spiritual strength while increasing in God's grace! We had almost 100 in attendance as churches from all around sent "couples" to receive God's instruction.

Fibungu East

This last Sunday we visited a church in the middle of a building project. The old church is quite small but the new church has a vision for growth. We actually passed by the church twice attempting to find it - not use to having a church easily accessible on the side of the road! The message was from John 6 - "the bread of life". The people seemed to grasp God's word and accept the challenges brought forth.

Please pray for Pastor Justin as he leads this little church and seeks to complete their church. Once complete, the new building will give him a more reliable place to hold church services, discipleship, and many other church activities.