Sometimes it's the little things as well as the big things that make such a difference in the field. Not only did Chuck and Ben lay new cement floors and tile counter tops in the kitchen at the camp, but they helped me figure out how to keep the canvas closed on the back of my truck! (The zippers failed long ago).
Amidst all of the building the Lord enabled Chuck to teach in the village as well. We spent time in prayer together at the camp, and had a visit and time of encouragement with our good friends, the Johnson's and at Mutemwa Lodge. Chuck was able to stay in one of the tent sites with Enoch getting to know him. And Ben really enjoyed playing guitar with Enoch. It's hard to explain how much cement floors meant to our wives at the camp. The nuisance of constant dust, dirt, and mud in the kitchen was suddenly gone. Praise the Lord!
Using a grommet kit and new bungee cords for the canvas cover over the bed of Shannon's truck.
The finished product.
Sifting gravel to put in the concrete mix.
The cement floor for our dining room.... one our biggest accomplishments yet!
And more cement for our kitchens!!
A little go-cart type thing that Chuck helped our girls build (Morgan, Emily and the Johnson girls, Shan and Cayla).
In mid-September of this last year, Marc and Matt, our friends / brothers from HeartCry came to visit (Yes, they are twins but I won't tell you who's older). They were able to share in our fun, joys and hardships firsthand. And we were genuinely strengthened in the Lord as a result of their encouragement. Praise the Lord for the gift of family and friends who hold the rope and intercede for us on the other side of the globe.
A broken tie-rod on Shannon's truck. We wired it together til we could get back to Livingstone a few days later.
Last August Bette Jean and Shaye came to work with the children in the surrounding villages and introduced a whole new facet of ministry for us. Praise God for New Covenant Christian Fellowship in Greenville, South Carolina! They took it upon themselves to write and produce, and (with Enoch's help) translate into Lozi, a twenty-nine page soft-cover book for children, complete with beautiful, full-color hand-painted illustrations. The title is, "There is a True and Living God" and it covers twelve foundational questions and answers about the reality of God from scripture. It's really a catechism. Catechism is an old-fashioned word used to refer to a teaching tool (usually a booklet) for children that helps in memorizing biblical truths by putting the information in a Q&A format. Catechisms were widely used in evangelical churches even up until the early 1900s.
Twice a day for a week the girls, Enoch, and alternating members of our families went to the small villages around our camp. Enoch wrote a Lozi song for each of the twelve truths which he introduced each day. Shaye and Bette Jean alternated with teaching the lessons. When each lesson was over we played a game with the kids. At the end of the week each child received a coloring book copy of the catechism and a small pack of crayons and we gave each family an actual book. Mildred, Joseph's wife, commented to me, "Now we have another book to put beside our bible in our home." She was genuinely happy and proud to have it. We are grateful to NCCF and Enoch for their generosity and hard work in producing the book. We are still reaping the benefits of it even six months later. Children are still coming to our camp site to greet us instead of us always going to them and we even hear them occasionally in the distance singing the theme song Enoch taught them. This may be the beginning of a long-lasting relationship. Visit this website to see the catechism! http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/there-is-a-true-and-living-god/11904312?productTrackingContext=search_results/search_shelf/center/1
We're in Livingstone this Christmas and it's a balmy, breezy, sunny, 90 degree F. day outside. Though it was extremely hot yesterday, I still think everyone is enjoying being in the apartments this year as opposed to camping out in the bush.
We still have a lot of news from the past couple of months to deliver to you. In fact, three teams have come and gone since our last update. We will post those pics and tell you about those trips. But for now, it seems right to put all other things aside and just talk about Jesus.
We've been reading some excerpts from "God's Gift of Christmas," a little book written by MacArthur, with the kids over the last few weeks. One of the excerpts was on Luke 2:11 which reads - "For today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord." In the Greek the title Christos means "the anointed one." That title signified that an ultimate authority was anointing someone and placing him in a very high office. In Jesus' case, the ultimate authority who anointed Him was none other than His own Father, the Sovereign of the universe. God Himself declared Jesus to be The King of kings and The Lord of lords.
In light of what is happening in the Western Province these days this truth is very reassuring. The Lozi royal establishment and the senior chief continue to drag their feet. It has been confirmed from a few sources that our speculation appears to be correct - the Kuta is stalling on purpose to see if we will resort to bribery. In their minds we will be willing to pay "under the table" in order to move the process along. So we are still in a bit of a standoff. We also read recently that the president for the Barotse Patriotic Front, Mutangelwa Imasiku, confirmed in an interview that a group of people from Western Province would soon announce the Limulunga Declaration which states that the Lozi people of Western Province want to declare Barotseland its own country and separate from the rest of Zambia. In response the government warned those trying to cause anarchy in the country that they would not be tolerated.
Interesting, isn't it? So as we sit in our home in Livingstone with all of these little "kings" and "lords" shaking their fists, insisting that they be recognized, Jesus Christ the Lord, "the anointed one," sits on his throne in Heaven and laughs (Psalm 1:4).
May Christ be praised and may all of you enjoy a very, merry Christmas in the Annointed One.
In July our good friends Terry and Cindy Hammock, and Sam Bonney came to see us and help us out with lots of odds and ends projects. They were a real blessing from the Lord to us. It was Sam's first trip outside the U.S. and he really enjoyed it (at least that's what he said!). Besides all the work projects, both Terry and Sam shared their testimonies of God's grace in their salvation with our Lozi workers. Terry also taught in one of the nearby villages on the historic Five Solas:
1. Scripture alone 2. (By) Grace alone 3. (Through) Faith alone 4. (In) Christ alone 5. (To) The glory of God alone
Terry used this history lesson to survey and explain these five distinctive, foundational doctrines (or teachings) that have been passed down to us from guys like Martin Luther and others from the Protestant Reformation. These doctrines are not taught in the churches in the area and we felt it was important for the Lozi people to see the difference from Scripture. He reviewed these lessons again with our workers during our noon devotion time.
Here are some pics of what we all worked on:
Packing the trucks and getting ready to go.
Nathan building a bench for the shower. Alicia helping. Finished bench looks great!
Cindy, Steph, and Joyce dug trenches and planted trees between fixing meals.
Sam and the crew building and installing a solar hot water heater. There's roughly 150 meters of black 20mm pipe in a coil. For about four hours a day the water is scalding hot.
Mounting the solar water heater.
Working on a compost bin.
Building an adobe oven.
Preparing square foot garden beds.
Laying in gray water lines that drain from sinks and showers into mulch beds around trees and shrubs.
"If you think you have come to the mission field because you are a little better than others, or as the cream of your church, or because of your medical degree, or for the service you can render the African church, or even for the souls you may see saved, you will fail. Remember, the Lord has only one purpose ultimately for each one of us, to make us more like Jesus. He is interested in your relationship with Himself. Let Him take you and mould you as He will; all the rest will take its rightful place."
--told to Helen Roseveare, at the start of her missionary days in the Congo
God is always busy. Jesus said in John 5:19-20, "For the Father loves the son and shows Him all the things that He Himself is doing..." Even when it appears that nothing is happening among the Lozi, God is busy behind the scenes. His Spirit moves like the wind (John 3:8) and He does all that He pleases (Psalm 135:6); no one can predict from where His Spirit has come or where it is going next. With that in mind, we want to share with you a curious list of things that might be indications of how and where God is moving among the Lozi in Mutemwa Area of Barotseland.
1. We've been working with a dear Lozi brother named Enoch from Trinity Baptist Church here in Livingstone. He and his eight year old boy are both extremely gifted by the Lord to sing and play the guitar. This brother has accompanied us several times to the villages in Mutemwa area. The children in the villages are fascinated and drawn to the two of them. How amazing to watch the Lord draw the children to hear the gospel through a father and his child.
2. Over the last year we've attempted to meet with the people in the villages every Sunday afternoon at 2 pm for Bible study. For many months we taught a Creation to Christ study using a modified Bible Story method. Well, the adults have been dwindling over the past couple of months while children attendance seems to be growing; sometimes as many as thirty at one time. Our foreman, Vincent, did his best to review a previous lesson with these kids while we were away. He did this on his own initiative because he felt it was important to meet with the children.
3. The schoolmaster at Mutemwa School has asked Stephanie to come and teach Bible classes on Friday afternoons to the children.
4. A sister Church in Greenville, SC felt impressed to write a catechism for children called "There is a True and Living God." According to the gang in Greenville, this undertaking has been a matter of obedience to God's clear directive. The artwork matches the theology; exceptional and beautiful. The same Lozi brother, Enoch, has translated the booklet into Lozi. He is also writing a children's song for each Q&A in the booklet. We are very excited about it.
5. Recently, Sean was in Lusaka preaching at a missions conference at Lusaka Baptist Church. One of the fellow church-planting pastors working in Mungu told Sean (out of the blue), "After five years working among the Lozi, I believe children are really important to this work. I realized that the ten to twelve-year-olds that I teach now will be the new leaders of the church ten years down the road."
6. When our friends Wendell, Mark, and David came in May, they had a conversation in the airport with a lady from a sister Church in Tennessee who goes and build playgrounds for children around the world as part of their missions strategy. The men know this meeting was no accident. Wendell is following up with them. It could be a great relational bridge / gift to the Ilwendo community to open an opportunity to preach and teach the true Gospel freely. We'll see what happens.
7. Stephanie has been impressed for some time now in private prayer that the Lord is going to raise up and build His Church from among the Lozi children; that Satan will have no longer be able to keep this new generation of Christ-besought people in bondage to fear and envy; witchcraft and false religion.
8. I was reminded recently in my daily Bible reading of two passages of scripture, Isaiah 49:24-25 and Isaiah 66:7-14.
Please pray over these things with us. It's absolutely critical that we walk in step with the Spirit of God. Sean and I would never have dreamed of this approach. In fact, we feel completely out of our element with this possibility as this does NOT match our training and/or background. But how like the Lord to place us in a situation where we are hopelessly unqualified so that He alone gets the glory for the amazing work that He will do.
