Church on Sunday

 While the participants of 40/40 went to different churches in the boma of Petauke our family traveled further east about 15 min. to the small town of Sinda.  We have known the pastor there for years and he had invited Kevin to come and preach.  We arrived and went straight to the pastors home just a few feet from the church.  He served us bread and tea as we got caught up on each others families since it had been awhile since we had seen each other.  We then went into the church and immediately were brought right up to the front on the platform .to sit facing the people in the church.  There were several choirs which sang beautifully and it was a great time of worship.  After Kevin preached 17 people came forward to receive Christ.  We thought that was quite a bit even though there were about 225 there that day.  Kevin asked the pastor and he said that no, those were mostly new people that came forward.  The church had just had a special visitation the day before to invite people to church.  These first 3 pictures are of the receiving line as we left the church that day.  It is customary here as you leave the church to shake everyone's hand as you leave the church.  It took me 3 pic. to get everyone in the scene.

You can see they are still coming and forming a line.

 Kevin doing follow up with those who received Christ.

 

This is Sinda Baptist Church and yes they really had 225 people in there!

After the new converts left the pastor asked if we would stay a bit and encourage an older woman who was a widow herself and had just recently had her oldest son die the month before.  She had been going to another denomination but after the death of her son she did not receive any encouragement from her church so she had started coming to this baptist church.  It was such a blessing to be able to encourage her and pray for her family during this difficult time in their lives.

Afterwards we went back to the pastors home to eat nshima and chicken.  We had a good time visiting with this family and this church.  As we were leaving they gave us groundnuts, watermellons, and pumpkin leaves.  No matter how long we are here we still are amazed at how generous and hospitable Zambians are.