My Hope Zambia-Ministry of Billy Graham

Many people are fearful and some have lost all hope.  The difficult economy, corruption, loss of jobs, violence and natural disasters have broken their spirit.  All of us face death, and many have no hope.  But the Bible says, "No one whose hope is in you(God) will ever be put to shame." (Psalm 25:3)
The vision of My Hope Zambia is to make disciples of Jesus Christ throughout the nation, using TV, radio, and dvd's in 60,000 homes of believers, trained in 6000 churches, using the Matthew and Friends strategy.  This strategy comes from the Bible in Matthew 9:9-13, Mark 2:13-17, and Luke 5:27-32 where Jesus called Matthew to follow Him, and then Matthew invited his friends, family and neighbors to his home for  a meal to meet Jesus.
This Thursday, Friday, and Saturday My Hope Zambia will be broadcasting on TV and radio stations 30 min. programs which will feature African music, testimonies from other Zambians, and a brief message of hope by Billy Graham or Franklin Graham.  Zambian believers all across this country will use these programs to share messages of hope with guests they have invited to their homes or other locations.  I know they will be on two different TV stations these nights(Thurs.-Sat.) at 6:30pm and 7:30pm.  Please pray for this huge event that is taking place in Zambia.  This is such a great opportunity for many to hear the truth of God's Word and have an opportunity to pray to receive Christ.  Those who pray to receive Christ will receive follow up and they will be directed to a nearby church which teaches the Word.  Pray that many will hear these programs, that the Holy Spirit will convict their hearts, and that they will trust in God and decide to follow Him.  
I have been passing out a few brochures to help promote this and I gave one to our night guard.  He came back the next night and said, "I have done what the brochure says to do.  I thought of some people who do not know Jesus, I wrote their names down and I'm praying for them.  I invited them into my home to watch this program."  I am so excited!!  This is going on all over Zambia!  Please pray!

Bauleni Baptist Church

Phil. 3:10 says, "I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This past Sunday Kevin was asked to preach at Bauleni Baptist Church in Bauleni compound.  The pastor and his wife, Mr. and Mrs. Zulu, have been friends of ours since 1997 when they were students of mine at the Baptist Theological Seminary of Lusaka.  I taught Samson English grammar and his wife ESL.  Since graduating from seminary the Zulu's have been serving at Bauleni Baptist Church and doing a great job.  They have planted several churches within Lusaka and in other parts of the country.  He has helped in many of our bible schools in the eastern part of Zambia too.  Now, they are doing a discipleship program  in their church called One on One with God.  He trained some leaders in his church in this program and then they are now each training different groups within the church.  After they finish, those who went through it will teach others.  Sounds like multiplication to me!!  I asked him, "After everyone in your church is trained, what will you do?"  His answer was, "Then we'll start teaching outside of the church."  Sounds like a good plan to me!  

"And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others."  2 Tim. 2:2

We enjoyed a good lunch after the service with the Zulu's and had a good time catching up with them and hearing about all that God is doing in their area.

 

 

This is just part of the Bauleni Baptist church.  You can see they are trying to build and add on to their existing church.  I'm guessing there were around 350-400 there this past Sunday.

It had been raining all morning.  On our way out of the compound we took a few pics. of the flooding.  Many times in most of the compounds there is not good drainage so you'll find lots of flooding during the rainy season.  What is so sad is that many children drown in this flooding because you can not tell where a big ditch is and as they walk through the water they fall into a ditch and can't swim.

Life is difficult in the compounds but this man stopped his work and gave us a big smile and thumbs up as we drove past.

There are many compounds in Lusaka where the living conditions of the people would just stun you.  Please pray for Bauleni Baptist church as they try to reach the lost in their compound that peoples hearts would be receptive to the gospel.  

Justin is Home!

Justin was supposed to fly in around 11:30 pm this past Friday night.  His flight was delayed because some of the crew for the flight was stuck in Nairobi traffic.  Anyone who has ever been to Nairobi can totally see that happening!  Anyway, his flight touched down around 12:05 and we waited for him to come out.  It is much more exciting to go to the airport to pick him up then it is when he has to go back to school as you can imagine.  We reached home around 1am and went to bed.  The next day the kids slept until 12:00!  Meanwhile, I'm up fixing a thanksgiving feast trying to be quiet so they could sleep.  As we were waiting for the food to be finished Justin went out to play with the dogs.  He missed them very much and I think they missed him too!

I love this action shot!

Here we are about to eat our meal.  I made a turkey, gravey, mashed potatoe casserole, veg. casserole,
carrot souffle, and rolls.

Here are a few pics. I took of Hannah.

 

 

Thanksgiving

Rejoice in the Lord always!  I am so thankful that so many of our missionaries in Zambia were able to gather for a Thanksgiving feast on Thursday.  Everyone made such delicious foods!  After we had eaten and all the dishes washed we had a time of prayer for each family who served in Zambia.

Hannah waiting in line to get her food.

Marci and James

Taylor, Zoe, and Hadassah

Lesley holding her daughter Kenley.

The men did even did the dishes!  That is certainly something to rejoice over!  Thanks guys!

Mark holding his son Matthew.

Psalm 100

Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth.  

Worship the Lord with gladness; 

come before him with joyful songs.

Know that the Lord is God.

It is he who made us, and we are his;

we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise;

give thanks to him and praise his name.

For the Lord is good and his love endures forever;

his faithfulness continues through all generations.

The day after thanksgiving our guest house manager, Ellen, planned a fun time for the kids.  She rented a jumping castle which the kids really enjoyed.  Above is Matthew and Zoe.

The little ones especially enjoyed jumping!

Here is a pic. with most of  the kids.

Zoe and Hadassah

Hannah and Matthew

 

 

 

After playing outside we came inside and the kids decorated cupcakes to look like turkeys.  They used candy corn for the feathers and then a pumpkin candy corn for the head.

Hutch enjoying his creation!

Abigail and Emily with their turkey cupcakes.  Aren't they cute?

Happy Birthday Kevin!

 Kevin decided that he would like a steak for his birthday dinner tonight.  So, we decided to go out and get a small grill so we could grill it instead of cooking it in the oven.

 You can't see the dogs in this picture but they were close by trying to figure out what was going on and how they could get some of what they were smelling!

 Everything was delicious!

Kevin isn't big on deserts so I made his favorite cookies-oatmeal!  We are so thankful for Kevin! 

Happy Birthday!

Graduation

Yesterday we had the privilege of going to an afternoon tea to celebrate the 9 students who will be graduating from the Baptist Theological Seminary.  Some of the faculty prepared some different foods for us to enjoy and then we had punch.  Even though it is called a tea it is just a little too hot to drink hot tea this time of year. After our refreshments we sat outside on the porch and each graduate went around and shared their testimony of how they had seen God work in their lives throughout their time at the seminary.  Over and over again most of them talked about God's provision and His faithfulness!  They all were so thankful for the teachers, the other students, and their families for their support and encouragement over the years.  They have learned much and even had opportunities to put into practice all that they have learned.  Now it is time for them to leave the seminary life and head out to where God is leading them.  Two of the couples are going back out to our old area east of Lusaka so we are very excited about that. 
Saturday is the graduation day for the Baptist Theological Seminary of Zambia. Please continue to pray for the families as they leave the Seminary and adjust to new places of service. Also pray for the new students who are preparing to come to the Seminary in December.

Rain drops keep falling on my head.....

 The rainy season in Zambia usually begins in November and ends sometime by the end of March or beginning of April.  The rest of the year it will not rain at all.  Zambians depend on a good rainy season so that their crops will grow well and produce enough food for them for the whole year.  If the rains are not good and their crops fail they experience hunger.  

We have been waiting on the rains to come so it could at least cool things off a bit here.  We were so excited when it rained this past Sunday for about 25 min.  Monday it rained for about 10 min. Then today it rained for only about 5 min.  We are thankful for whatever rain falls because it cools things off quite a bit and gets rid of all the dust(for a while). 

Please pray that this will be a great rainy season and that all over Zambia the people will have successful crops.

 Sometimes when the rain first comes we let the kids play out in it.  Hannah is enjoying jumping on the trampoline in the rain.

Let the rain continue to fall!

You know it is hot when....

Have I mentioned before that it is really hot in Zambia right now.  We are trying to patiently wait on the rains to help cool things off a bit and get rid of some dust but it is difficult at times to be patient.  Please pray for the rains to start soon!
Today after baking in a tin roofed church for two hours we decided that we must be WELL DONE!  Then when we got home we discovered the power was off which meant no fans.  As we were just sitting still in front of some windows which were not producing any breeze  I decided to come up with some ways which you know it is hot when.  So here is my list:

You know it is hot when.....

-ice melts in your drink before you sit down to drink it.

-if you are young you just walk around in your underware.

-if you have to change your clothes at least twice during the day.

-if you have to take a cold shower before bed just to bring your body temp. down so you can sleep.

-if you wear antiperspirant and deoderent but the antiperspirant doesn't work and you wonder what is the point anyway.  

-Baby powder is your friend.

-if you discover it only takes 2 fingers to drive your car.

-you turn on the cold water tap and only hot water comes out.

-you have to stare hard at the fan to confirm that its working, since it does not produce a cool breeze at full speed.

Leadership Training

This is written by Kevin:

One of the apprehensions that I had about moving from our former ministry in Chongwe to our present ministry in Lusaka was finding ways to serve the Lord outside of the office. Before, I was more of a frontline missionary involved in evangelism, discipleship, church planting and leadership training. Now, my role is more administrative, and while I don’t like to call it a desk job, I do more supervision and mentoring of other missionaries than I do directly engaging Zambian nationals. I constantly tell myself that in the big scheme of things I am having a greater impact than ever, but I still sometimes miss the kind of ministry that we used to do. In addition, there aren’t a lot of missionaries who are serving here in Lusaka and it is a city of about 2 million people. This has caused me to seek areas where we can have a regular ministry with Zambian nationals, outside of the work I am doing as the Associate Cluster Strategy Leader for Zambia. Witnessing opportunities are everywhere, but I have been wanting some consistent type of discipleship or training ministry as well. A few months ago I met with the associational leader for Lusaka and asked him to identify some needs that they might have, or some areas where new churches need to be started. He directed me to a group of churches in the Chipata, Kabanana, Chazanga and Independence compounds. We have started visiting these churches on Sundays and have also offered our help in any way that might be needed. This has evolved into several things over the last few months. First, I am getting to preach in different churches every Sunday which keeps me fresh spiritually and also helps me keep up with my language skills. Also, I am meeting people, making friends and developing a vision for other kinds of ministries and new churches in these areas. However, what has really excited me is that I am getting the chance to do leadership training with all of the church leaders in this area. The Lord has worked things out so that on the 1^st Saturday of every month, about 50 of these men and women (Pastors and Deacons as well as secretaries, treasurers, Women’s leaders and Youth Workers) are gathering together and I am leading a series of leadership seminars for them. It has been wonderful to be able to engage in “real” ministry in addition to my leadership role in the mission. My job is important and I like it, but being able to be involved in one on one ministry with Zambians is more like a gift the Lord has given me on top of the other things I do. Yesterday was the first time of the actual training and 33 people were in attendance.  These 33 people represented 9 different churches from these 4 different compounds.   Please pray that this will evolve into further training, more effective churches, more people reached for Christ and more new churches planted in Lusaka.

This is just a very small view of Chipata Compound where Kevin is holding his leadership training.  Just imagine, there are 3 other compounds just like this one(total 4) that are represented during this time.  I would say it is pretty important that these church leaders get some good biblical training.

Sorbet

This past week I made a blueberry, strawberry, and banana sorbet.  I thought I would share this recipe for others to enjoy on a nice hot day.  This is a modified version of the recipe I followed.

Sorbet

1 cup sugar

1 3/4 cup Mazoe-instead of straight mazoe I used 1 cup mazoe and 3/4 cup water

1/2 cup lemon juice

4-6 cups of frozen fruit (any fruit will do)

Heat sugar, mazoe, and lemon juice over med. heat until the sugar is dissolved.  Bring to a boil for one min. stirring constantly.  Let cool a bit.

In a blender add 1/2 of your fruit and 1/2 of the mazoe mixture and blend.  Repeat with other half of fruit and mazoe mixture.

Pour into a glass or metal dish and cover.  Freeze.  Then Enjoy!

My Day

I often times have people who will write and ask what a typical day is like for me as a wife, mother, and missionary.  I guess no two days are alike really so it is sometimes hard to answer that question.  I thought that I would write about what I did today so you could get an idea of what my life is like.
-I woke early to the sound of rain and praised God for it knowing this day would be cooler.
-had a QT.  I studied in Psalms today.
-exercised for an hour 
-showered
-did school with Hannah until 12:30
-did 3 loads of laundry
-talked to two friends on the phone
-made sorbet out of blueberries, strawberries, and a banana- we will enjoy that on the next hot day.
-oversaw some men coming in our yard to remove some branches from a tree that had been cut down.  They were loading all of these branches in a minibus(van)-interesting.
-a young 17 year old boy came by our gate today just to tell me a praise.  We first met Stewart a few weeks ago when he came by our house stranded in Lusaka and needing to get back to Mazabuka which is about 3-4 hours away.  We don't usually give out money but felt impressed to on that day to help him.  We did not have any money at the house at the time so I didn't know what to do.  Hannah heard the story and said she had money and she would give him transport money.  You know I cried and even Stewart had tears in his eyes when I told him the money was from our 10 year old daughter.  I really didn't think we would see him again but today he came by to just tell us how he was doing so well now and he is back in school.  God had answered our prayers and had provided money through the government for him to help with school fees.  You know lots of people come to our gate and ask for something.  This is one of the first times that someone has returned to say thank you and given a praise report about it.  I witnessed to Stewart and although he believes he will one day go to Heaven he has not yet repented of his sins and asked Jesus to come into his heart.  Pray for Stewart to even today get this most important decision finalized.
-I baked banana bread and oatmeal cookies.
-I delivered the cookies to some friends.
-I went to visit with my neighbor and took her the banana bread.  Hannah got to meet her daughter who is 11.  This is a big praise because we have been praying for a friend for Hannah.  We thought most of the houses on our block were businesses and have just recently learned there are some homes along this street also.  Isn't that funny, we have been praying since before we moved here for a friend and she has been here all along right next door! (There are walls around all of our homes so you can't see in) Please pray this will be a good friendship for Hannah.
-I answered email and checked facebook.
-I also fixed breakfast, lunch, and I'm about to cook dinner.
-After dinner I imagine we will watch a dvd and then go to bed.
Tomorrow will be different.  Some things will be similar to today but then it could look totally different.  Here is one of the Psalms I read today.  Hope that it will minister to you as it did me.

Psalm 100

Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth.

Worship the Lord with gladness;

come before him with joyful songs.

Know that the Lord is God

It is he who made us, and we are his;

we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

Enter his gates with thanksgiving

and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name,

For the Lord is good and his love endures

forever;

his faithfulness continues through all generations.

Can't believe it!

Last night Kevin and I went to see a movie.  The theater had about 25 people in it so it was not too crowded.  Right before the movie started a little South African girl came and sat two seats away from me.  After about 30 sec. she moved over right beside me and began talking.  She was a little girl so I thought she must be in the wrong theater because this was not an animated kids movie.  She told me that her mother had just dropped her off to see this movie while she went somewhere else.  So, she was in the right place after all.  She also told me she was 7 years old.  Within the first 5 min. of the movie she kept talking to me asking me questions about the movie or just making comments and she was not whispering.  Finally, I told her she was going to have to be quiet and watch the movie.  The whole time I'm watching the movie I am wondering what kind of mother would just drop her 7 year old daughter off at the theater and leave her unattended.  At the end of the movie she said, "It was so lovely to meet you.  I wish I had a pencil to get your number."  I did not have one.  As we are walking out I noticed she didn't have on any shoes. So thinking she had left them at the seat I asked her about it and she said she had just not worn any.  I asked her if her mother was supposed to meet her outside and she said she had to just wait for her outside.  I leaned over to Kevin and said, "You know I can 't leave this little girl until her mother gets here."  Evidently the woman who takes the tickets knew of the little girl because she told her that her mother was waiting at the restaurant across from the theater.  I asked her if this had ever happened before and she didn't know if it had or not.  I explained to her that this was not right just letting a little girl go by herself to the movies.  Thankfully, I was a nice person but what if she had chosen to sit beside a not so nice person.  I don't even want to think about that!!  The little girl asked the ticket woman for a pencil so I wrote down my number for the girl.  Then the girl went to wait at the restaurant.  After about a min. the mother came out.  She was dressed nicely and was obviously well to do.  The girl ran up to her mother and told her that she had sat beside me in the movies.  The mother thanked me and didn't say anything else.  I turned to walk away.  I was just so upset and angry over this situation.  Why in the world did that mother do that?  Then I was upset that I didn't/couldn't say anything to that mother because I hate confrontation.  I am not very happy with myself!