Divine Appointments

This is a story that my husband, Kevin, wrote last week. I don't always include these stories or our prayer requests for our team on this blog. If you are not on our email list and would like to be, just send us your email address to rodgers@bmoz.org and we will start sending you those things.
For those waiting to hear more about the vol. team I have no way of communicating with them while they are out. They will be back to our house Tues. around lunch. I'll update as soon as possible.

We all know that God is sovereign and that He controls our lives and the circumstances of life. However, we often go through our day to day lives as if we are making it up as we go along. Sometimes, more than anything, we need a reminder that God is in control and that His kingdom is bigger (and more real) than what we can see, touch, taste, and feel with our limited senses. This is exactly what the Lord did for me a few days ago. I was up a bit early on this particular day and already dressed and moving around the house, when I heard a knock at our gate. It is odd that I even heard anything, because the dogs weren't barking too much, and most folks who know us now come to our back gate and not the front driveway gate. When I got out to the gate (the time was about 7:00 or 7:30 AM) I saw a man that I had never met. He was dressed nicely and spoke good English and I did not recognize him. This usually adds up to someone trying to work a scam. I remember a check in my heart as the Lord reminded me to not be so critical and jump to conclusions. You know when you have lived here as long as we have, and when everyone is looking to you as the answer to their emotional, spiritual (and most often) financial problems you begin to get quite skeptical. However, after that gentle admonition from the Lord I just listened to the man's story. His name was Paul Mukabe Mashala and he was traveling from Mozambique to Solwezi in Northwestern province. Apparently he had grown up as an orphan in Mozambique but was from Solwezi originally. He had been back to Mozambique to visit and was on his way home when he fell ill on the bus in the Chongwe area. He suffers from TB and from HIV/AIDS and when he collapsed on the bus they took him to the clinic here in Chongwe. As people were helping him, they were also rifling through his possessions (this is not uncommon) and took his cell phone and money. He spent a few days recovering in the clinic and then was released, but had no way to get home. He went to the police and tried to find out if there were any Baptists around, because apparently he is a Baptist "church member" in Solwezi. They know me and sent him to my house and that is how he found me. As I listened to his story, I became convinced that this was probably a true story and decided to help him out. As I came out of the house with the money back to the gate (he wouldn't come in for fear of our dogs) I felt the Lord gently nudging me to witness to him. "What a shame," the Holy Spirit seemed to say, "if he was brought here and you helped him financially but he went away lost." As I talked with him, I asked him what made him to leave the Catholic church in 2006 and become a Baptist. He shared that he had realized that he was just a Sunday Christian and felt like he needed to really serve God. He met a Canadian missionary once on a bus who talked with him about his faith and encouraged him to find a good Baptist church. He had taken the man's advice and was now worshipping in this Baptist church in Solwezi. Yet, I asked him if he had ever repented of his sins and been born again. He said that he knew he should do that and he wanted to do that, but he never had. When I asked him why, he answered "we don't have a pastor at our church and the people said I should wait to receive Christ and be baptized when we have a pastor who can help me." To be honest, this is one of the most tragic things I have ever heard, and it lets you know just how much work and training we have to do here in Zambia, even among our own churches. I explained to him what salvation really was and told him if he wanted to he could pray and receive Jesus right there on that spot in front of my gate. I asked him if he would like to do that, and his answer really touched my heart. He began telling me the story of the Ethiopian Eunuch (I guess he had heard it in church) and how the Eunuch had said "here is water what would keep me from being baptized?" He said, that guy recognized his chance when it came and he was not willing to pass it up... "this is my chance," he said, "I would not want to pass it up, yes I would be grateful to receive Christ right now." And that is what he did... I shared the gospel with him in detail, made sure he understood, and then he prayed a prayer of repentance and faith right there in front of my gate with people walking by and staring. After he prayed, I prayed for him and went on his way. After reaching Solwezi, he borrowed a neighbor's phone and let me know when he had reached home safely, and has since called again to thank me for helping him and showing him how to know Jesus. What was so amazing to me is how he recognized the "divine appointment" in that Ethiopian Eunuch story all on his own, and was not willing to pass up his own "divine appointment." Maybe there are more of these divine appointments out there passing us by every day and we are just too busy or too blind to see it, and realize that God is really in control.

Blessings,
Kevin

Volunteer Team

Today, Kevin left Chongwe with 4 volunteers from the state of Arkansas. They will be traveling by car for about 2 1/2 hours and then by boat for about 20-30 min. They are going to try to start two churches along the Lunsemfwa River where we did the feeding project a few months ago. After they arrive they will put the boat together. Then Kevin will have to make several trips by boat to get these four guys, two translators, their back packs, and a little bit of food to the first location that they will be staying at for 4 days. This will probably be the toughest trip that Kevin has ever taken any of our volunteers on. "Why is that?" you may ask. Remember, we went there and gave out 2 bags of mealie meal to 100 families a few months ago because of flooding that had ruined their crops. These bags are all finished now. The people replanted along the river but the crops will not be in until July so they are in hunger once again. The team has brought MRE's to eat for lunch while they are out doing hut to hut evangelism but at night they will be eating whatever these people can provide, which may not be much of anything. Kevin did take a few things but because of space could not take that much. They are also going to be sleeping on the ground. Some of them brought those one man mosquito netting tents that they will set up under an open air rondoval. They will be drinking water taken directly from the river and then filtered through this little hand held filtering system that someone gave us. On Sunday afternoon they will pack up and get back on the boat and go back to where the truck is parked and have a crusade at that location for two nights. They will be doing hut to hut evangelism during the day and showing the Jesus film at night in both locations.
Prayer Requests:
1-Each of these men left their families in the states. Please pray for their families back in the states to not worry and to trust that God is going to take care of their husband/father.
2-Pray for physical strength and endurance for this team. They will be walking a lot, eating little, and probably will not be sleeping comfortably.
3-Pray for good health for the team as they eat little and drink from the river.
4-Pray that the team will clearly communicate the gospel to many people and that they will hear it with open ears and hearts for the first time. Pray many will come to see the Jesus Film and that many will receive Christ.
5-Pray that two churches will be started as a result of these men taking time out of their lives to come and volunteer in Zambia.
6-Pray for their safety. There are crocodiles and hippos in this water. They are also a long way from any medical care. Pray for God's protection among all these on this team.

These are the 4 men that came all the way from the States to Zambia to tell people about Jesus. Their names from left to right are: David, Daniel, Terry, and Jimmy.

End of day update

Thank you for praying for our power situation today. It ended up being off for almost 6 hours but came on in time for me to do the preparation for dinner and get about half way finished with cooking dinner before it went off again. I just trusted and prayed that since we had been off for so long today that it wouldn't be off for too long tonight. So we just waited 1 1/2 hours until it came back on and then finished cooking dinner. Well, we had to eat at 7:30pm but that was ok, the vol. teams body clocks are all off anyway. Thanks again.

Don't stop praying

A couple of blogs back I wrote about how God had been answering our prayers concerning our power and water situation. That doesn't mean you can stop praying about those things though. Monday our power was off for 13 1/2 hours, boy that sure was a long day. Today, we have a volunteer team coming and the power went off about one hour ago. Please pray that it will not be an all day outage like the other day. I have called our power company and they said that they were doing maintenance work which usually means all day, but hey, prayer can make them move faster, right?

"My testimony is...."

For three hours yesterday I had the privilege of listening to 7 women share their testimonies. We began our meeting with singing and prayer. Then they said their memory verse that they learned for that week. We reviewed last weeks lesson about Paul and talked about testimonies. Then I had them break up into twos and practice telling their testimony with one another. After about 20 min. we came back together as a group and each one proceeded to tell me her testimony. Each time the women started by saying, "my testimony is....." It was very interesting to me that all the women had been in at least 2 other denominations before becoming baptist and one woman had been in 4 different ones. She had gone from Jehovah Witness, New Apostolic, African(in Malawi), Pentecostal, and then Baptist. I was also amazed that several of them told about how before they became Christians that they made beer and sold it. As one woman, Amai Chanda, shared her testimony she began sharing that she was not walking with God, basically she was saying she was back sliding. After the meeting Amai Betty and myself began talking with her. She said she was a lazy woman and that her husband always brought home beer and she drank it. She said that on Sundays she will sometimes plait hair instead of going to church. We didn't believe that she was truely born again so we began to share the gospel with her. She said she felt sure she was a Christian but was just back sliding. So, we switched gears and talked about that for a while. We committed to pray for her and then did so right then. Please pray for Amai Chanda to get her life right with God, whatever that means, either being saved or either letting God be in control of her life.
I was very encouraged after leaving the meeting. There is just something about hearing how God has worked in so many lives to draw them to Himself. Even though it was after 6:00pm when I got home it was a wonderful way to spend my afternoon.
We have a volunteer team coming next week so I will not be able to go to these two churches for the next couple of weeks. Oh, I didn't go to Silver Rest yesterday because they had a women's meeting in Lusaka that they were going to. So, pray for the women of Chainda II Baptist church these next two weeks as they do their home work assignment of going out and sharing their testimonies with at least 5 other people. Pray that as they share, it will lead them into being able to share the gospel.

Answered Prayer

Last week, I wrote about some of the struggles that I have living overseas. Two of which were our power and water situation. Well, I guess some of you reading those must have prayed about those situations because both have improved, even if it is for a short time, I am thankful. Our power has only gone off a few times and then just for a couple of hours. Then the water people went and looked at one of the pipes leading to our house. They noticed that when people had burned the grass that it had burned that area and our pipe had some small holes in it so they repaired it Zambian style. They just wrapped some grocery bags around the pipe with some rubber strips. Now, our water sprinkler can swirl around about 3 feet. We are so excited because we can now water our grass even if it takes a few days to do the back yard. I don't know how long their repair job will last but for now we are happy. Thank you to all who prayed!

Father's Day Tribute

"Honor your father and mother.” This is the first of the Ten Commandments that ends with a promise. And this is the promise: If you honor your father and mother, "you will live a long life, full of blessing.” And now a word to you fathers. Don't make your children angry by the way you treat them. Rather, bring them up with the discipline and instruction approved by the Lord. Ephesians Chapter 6 verses 2 - 4

Fathers are the biggest source of strength for a child. The innocent eyes of a child perceive father as the all-powerful, most knowledge, truly affectionate and the most important person in the family. For daughters, fathers are the first men they adore and fall in love with. While for sons their fathers are the strongest person they know and someone they aspire to emulate. Even for the grownups fathers are someone whom they look up to for the most experienced and honest advice that is always in the best of our interest. For this great figure in our life that we know as father - it becomes our utmost duty to pay our humblest tribute on the occasion of Father's Day.

Happy Father's Day!

Kevin, thanks for being the great father that you are to our children. We all love you very much!

This is my Dad, Bill Mann. Daddy, thanks for being a great dad to me growing up and even now. I love and miss you a bunch!

This is Kevin's Dad, Roy Rodgers. Roy, thanks for being such a good father to Kevin and building into him qualities that have made him into a good father.



Here are some famous quotes about Fathers. Enjoy!

Any fool can be a Father, but it takes a real man to be a Daddy!! Fathers Day Quote by: Philip Whitmore Snr "The most important thing a father can do for his children is to love their mother." Fathers Day Quote by: Unknown Fathers are angels sent from heaven. Fathers Day Quote by: Unknown Fathers, be good to your daughters. You are the god and the weight of her world. Fathers Day Quote by: John Mayor "Father I will always be that same boy who stood by the sea and watched you tower over me now I'm older I wanna be the same as you" Fathers Day Quote by: Yellowcard A father is someone that holds your hand at the fair makes sure you do what your mother says holds back your hair when you are sick brushes that hair when it is tangled because mother is too busy lets you eat ice cream for breakfast but only when mother is away he walks you down the aisle and tells you everythings gonna be ok Fathers Day Quote by: Unknown My father gave me the greatest gift anyone could give another person, he believed in me. Fathers Day Quote by: Jim Valvano I've had a hard life, but my hardships are nothing against the hardships that my father went through in order to get me to where I started. Fathers Day Quote by: Bartrand Hubbard Fatherhood is pretending the present you love most is soap-on-a-rope. Fathers Day Quote by: Bill Cosby A father carries pictures where his money used to be. Fathers Day Quote by: Unknown It kills you to see them grow up. But I guess it would kill you quicker if they didn't. Fathers Day Quote by: Barbara Kingsolver, Animal Dreams He didn't tell me how to live; he lived, and let me watch him do it. Fathers Day Quote by: Clarence Budington Kelland A man knows when he is growing old because he begins to look like his father. Fathers Day Quote by: Gabriel Garcia Marquez The worst misfortune that can happen to an ordinary man is to have an extraordinary father. Fathers Day Quote by: Austin O'Malley He who is taught to live upon little owes more to his father's wisdom than he who has a great deal left him does to his father's care. Fathers Day Quote by: William Penn By the time a man realizes that maybe his father was right, he usually has a son who thinks he's wrong. Fathers Day Quote by: Charles Wadworth Small boys become big men through the influence of big men who care about small boys. Fathers Day Quote by: Unknown The father who does not teach his son his duties is equally guilty with the son who neglects them. Fathers Day Quote by: Confucius I cannot think of any need in childhood as strong as the need for a father's protection. Fathers Day Quote by: Sigmund Freud When a father gives to his son, both laugh; when a son gives to his father, both cry. Fathers Day Quote by: Jewish Proverb You fathers will understand. You have a little girl. She looks up to you. You're her oracle. You're her hero. And then the day comes when she gets her first permanent wave and goes to her first real party, and from that day on, you're in a constant state of panic. Fathers Day Quote by: Stanley T. Banks in the movie 'Father of the Bride' 4 years: My Daddy can do anything! 7 years: My Dad knows a lot…a whole lot. 8 years: My father does not know quite everything. 12 years: Oh well, naturally Father does not know that either. 14 years: Oh, Father? He is hopelessly old-fashioned. 21 years: Oh, that man-he is out of date! 25 years: He knows a little bit about it, but not much. 30 years: I must find out what Dad thinks about it. 35 years: Before we decide, we will get Dad's idea first. 50 years: What would Dad have thought about that? 60 years: My Dad knew literally everything! 65 years: I wish I could talk it over with Dad once more. Fathers Day Quote by: Unknown One night a father overheard his son pray: Dear God, Make me the kind of man my Daddy is. Later that night, the Father prayed, Dear God, Make me the kind of man my son wants me to be. Fathers Day Quote by: Unknown

My Chains are Gone!

On my weekly visit with Silver Rest Baptist Church I taught on Baptism by telling the story of the Ethiopian Eunuch and Phillip. There was one woman there who had been saved but had not been baptized. Catherine is supposed to be in Baptismal classes at church but she has to work on Sat. and Sundays so she misses out on them. Please pray for Catherine to be able to somehow go through these classes and be able to go to church on Sundays even if that means a new and better job.
After finishing at Silver Rest I continued on to Chainda II Baptist Church. I taught the story from Acts 26 about Paul. We talked about what Paul's life was like before he met Jesus, when and how he met Jesus, and finally, what his life was like after he met Jesus. We used these 3 steps to learn how to share our testimony. I shared my testimony with the ladies and really focused on how we are to repent of our sins and not just say we are sorry. Repentance involves turning away from our sins, not trying to continue on in life dragging our sins along with us. They kind of thought it was funny as I was demonstrating carrying a lot of sin around with me but a lot of times that is what Christians do including many Zambians. These women struggle with their traditional beliefs and trying to mix it with Christianity. It just can't be done. These women like a lot of us have to break those chains that bind us. I got a little into sharing my testimony with these women and took a little too long so next week we will continue by allowing them to practice sharing their testimonies in small groups and then in front of everyone. Then we will go out and practice in their community.
As I thought about Paul's testimony, it is amazing to me to see the lengths that God took to draw Paul to Himself. Paul was a pretty wicked man but God changed all of that. He repented and he was then a changed man. He even became one of the greatest missionaries of all times.
I wasn't too great either before I decided to walk with Jesus and I am so thankful that God sought me out too. If you think about it, it is only by God's Amazing Grace that any of us can have a relationship with Him.
Here are some words to another Chris Tomlin song that I listened to on the way home. Hope they touch your life like they have mine.

First they sing the first two verses of Amazing Grace then the chorus which goes like:
My chains are gone
I've been set free
My God, my Savior has ransomed me
And like a flood His mercy reigns
Unending love, amazing grace

3rd verse: The Lord has promised good to me
His word my hope secures
He will my shield and portion be
As long as life endures

last verse: The earth shall soon dissolve like snow
The sun forbear to shine
But God, who called me here below
Will be forever mine
Will be forever mine
You are forever mine

Please pray that the women, men, youth, and children of Zambia would allow their chains of sin to be broken in their lives and that they would trust in Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior. Pray that these women I'm teaching would catch a vision of how God wants to use them in their villages by sharing their testimonies and the gospel.