Lily's Conversation with Jesus

On Thursday, Joy and Lily were in Bible class and Lily told Joy, "I want to pray and ask Jesus to come into my heart."

Joy asked her, "Why do you want to do that?"

Lily said," Because I want to live in heaven with Jesus when I die."

Then she said," I want Him to forgive me of my sins because he died on the cross for my sins and He loves me."

So Joy told Lily, “Let’s wait until Daddy gets home from teaching and then we can talk.”

Well, I came home and of course we were skeptical about what Lily said because she is still young. However, Joy and I decided that I should talk to her. I have talked to many people about salvation, but this was different I almost didn't know where to start. So we went over the Roman road with Lily and made sure she understood what it meant. We also interrogated her for a little while to see how much she really understood. We know the Holy Spirit convicts us of sin, righteousness and judgment and we could see Him working in her life from the answers she was giving. I finished questioning her and going over scripture with her and then decided that if she wanted to pray who was I to stop her? Joy and I decided to let her pray without leading her so that it would truly be her prayer. Lily’s conversation with God went like this, “God, I am a sinner please forgive me of my sins. I want you to come live in my heart because I know you are the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. In Jesus name Amen.” Needless to say we were very thankful that night and truly rejoicing with the angels that Lily now trusts in Jesus as her Savior.

A Day in His Shoes...

For the past two years, Kendall has been traveling to Mozambique to evangelize, plant churches, and encourage existing churches. Yesterday, we all traveled with Kendall to visit Khompo Village and to teach. Honestly, my expectations were that we were going to go, sing, teach, and love some people then go home. About halfway into our day, I realized that this trip was not for me to minister, but to sit back and simply observe what Kendall does when he travels to Mozambique. I was humbled and I learned so much after our day. I was able to understand his feelings of excitement, frustration, anticipation, and simply following the leading of the Holy Spirit. Kendall kept saying, "this is what church planting is all about! Now, you see what I do and why I get so tired sometimes." He was right, it was so good for me to "walk in his shoes" for a day. I am so blessed to be his wife and his prayer warrior every Friday. Now, I have seen a few places that he goes and now my prayers can be more specific. Many times in ministry or in any job in life, we do not appreciate each other's jobs because many times we have never taken the time to just walk alongside another person to see what they do day in and day out. My appreciation and love for Kendall and his calling has grown immensely! Our children loved going to Mozambique and they were excited to see what Daddy does too! Our day was interesting and I took the camera along so that you could see for yourself what church planting involves!

We approached Nachimbwe Village, the first village across the Mozambique border. The men to the left of the picture are cooking and drinking beer.

   The men in Nachimbwe stopped us to talk with Kendall. These men had already started drinking and it was only 9:30 a.m. The man closest to Kendall is supposedly a Nyao dancer. 

This is the next village that we came to. The headman of this village is a witchdoctor. Everytime that Kendall has driven by this village in the past two years he has never seen anyone outside. Yesterday, we saw one woman carrying water. Pray for this village, it is very dark and they are without Christ. No denomination has attempted to plant a church here because the headman is a devout witchdoctor.

We arrived at the third village, Khompo, which is the village where Leonard Banda lives. Leonard was the first man to receive Christ in Mozambique during Kendall's time of ministry there. Khompo is a big village with 210 plots. 

Khompo Basic School is the location that we had planned to have a meeting. We waited for about 45 minutes and no one came. Kendall taught in Khompo two years ago and there were about 25 people coming to the teachings. After he began focusing on other villages, the people stopped coming. Leonard and his family met together at their home. The problem is that there are 7 other churches within this village. Leonard then told us about another village that is 3 miles from Khompo, so we began our travels there to meet with the headman.

Some of the children of Khompo Village. Pray for their salvation and that they may know the Lord through Leonard's witness there.

The journey began to Kasenje Village. The drive was beautiful and pictures do not do it justice!

Obstacle number one. No one travels this road so every tree that has fallen, we had to go around. Leonard and Kendall looked around the tree to find a path for us to travel.

The two trees on the left side of this picture is the path we traveled. It was quite a tight squeeze!

Oh goodie! Another tree in the road. We just kept saying, the Lord never said it would be easy and He hasn't closed the door yet, so we pressed on.

Then Kendall and Leonard had to remove this huge branch because we couldn't pass with it hanging down.

Right past the limb, there was a huge fire to the left of this picture and as you can see the small fire on the right of the picture. The wind was blowing quite hard and the fire was growing. Kendall and Leonard both felt that it would be safer for us to turn around and go back to Nachimbwe because we were unsure of what would happen with the fire in the time we were at Kasenje. Kendall will attempt to go back to Kasenje this next Friday. Pray that the Lord will open the door for Kendall to share the Gospel in this village, there is only one church there.

This was the road we traveled. As Kendall would say, "this is a boy's adventure road". We had a great time!

Kendall looks at the fire and ponders his decision to turn around again. He knew it was the right thing to do since the entire family was with him today.

This is Kendall's "weighing my options" face.

As we walked back to the truck, he saw that the fire had already grown and was moving.

It was such a beautiful area. No one is around! It is mainly all fields that people use to plant. We saw pumpkins, maize, and okra in some of the fields.

The outskirts of Khompo near Kasenje.

It was laundry day for many of the women of Khompo. You can't see but the children are waving as we drove by! All of the people that we met on the road, our kids smiled and waved at them! On the left, you can see the clothes lying on the grass to dry.

The road back to Nachimbwe and the border from Khompo.

We reached Nachimbwe again. After much discussion and prayer, Kendall felt like the Lord wants him to teach in Nachimbwe this year because the men there want him to come preach again. He tried to teach there two years ago, but they did not receive him well and they were not ready for the Gospel.

Nachimbwe has no church. It is a village that is known throughout Zambia and Mozambique because of the witchcraft and traditions that they uphold. Alcoholism is rampant and there are many people who are Nyao dancers. Nyao dancers are the African dancers you see on National Geographic, but they are people who have become possessed with demons and are very violent people. Please pray for Nachimbwe, Kendall will be the second missionary to try to plant a church here. This past year, many people died in Nachimbwe from malaria. Leonard informed Kendall that "the people are crying out because of their losses this year". 

Kendall talked with the men at Nachimbwe. They were incredibly drunk at this point and Kendall told them that he is coming to teach them next Friday. They were excited that he was coming. Please pray that the men choose not to be completely intoxicated when Kendall arrives. God can work above alcohol because we have seen a man in Khompo that came to Christ when he was drunk and he is a solid, sober believer now! Pray that God will transform these men!

Pray for these precious children of Nachimbwe that they may be able to hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ and come to know Him. Pray that they may be saved from the trap of alcoholism and the cultural traditions that are displeasing to the Lord.

Kendall leaving the border post in Mozambique. Our day was finished and we were heading home!

This is the border crossing into Northern Mozambique from Nyimba.

An Astonishing Surprise...

For most people that live in America, having rain anytime of the year is normal. But for those of us who live in Africa, there are rainy and dry seasons. The rainy season ranges from late November until possibly early May. The dry season is from May until November! Well, today is July 25th and believe it or not, it rained at our house for an hour! It was not just a little sprinkle, rain was running off the ledge of our roof! It was the most astounding and awesome surprise that we could have asked for today! It just reminded us and the Zambians that God is truly ALWAYS in control of the weather! The sunset was amazing and the rain was still falling as the sunset and there was an awesome rainbow! I had to take some pictures of this beautiful day!

Can you see the drops of rain that were on the lens of the camera??

Y

You can barely see the rainbow, but this picture captured the true color of the sky! It was beautiful!

A Happy Reunion...

In April 2009, I was attending a weekend meeting in Petauke. Each afternoon around 3p.m. the mamas take their babies out to bathe them and wash their clothes. During that time in the meeting, I was finished with what I had been asked to teach and I wanted time to just fellowship with the young moms outside. When I went outside there were about five babies getting baths. There was one mother who seemed to be struggling because her baby was quite fussy and she couldn't get him calmed down enough to prepare his bath. I approached her and asked her if I could help her. A big smile came over her face and she said yes! I held the little boy in a blanket, she then bathed him and passed him back to me as she washed his clothes. I fell in love with this little boy. He did not cry when I held him (most Zambian babies do cry at the sight of a westerner). We got him dressed and fed him a snack and then we sat and talked. I found out that his name was Kondwera which means Happy! He was beautiful and had the biggest smile on his face!
July 9, 2010 we arrived in Sinda for the youth meeting and the first woman to come up to me was Kondwera's mama! I hugged her so tight and I then asked, "Kondwera ali kuti?" (Where is Kondwera?) She went and found him and brought him to me! I was so happy to see that he was healthy and happy!

As we were looking through pictures from the youth meeting, Julia had captured the moment when I first saw Kondwera again!

Zeria and I talking with Kondwera's mom. It was an awesome time with friends!

 Kondwera was everywhere all weekend. It was so sweet for my babies to get to play with him! His mother and father are both believers and he now has a baby sister, Patience. Pray that the Lord would keep them under the shelter of His wing and that they would grow healthy and strong and would come to know the Lord and follow Him all the days of their lives!

The Pieces Are Fitting Together...

Harrison, Kendall, and Jere

One afternoon, there was a knock at the gate. I went to the gate to find two men with huge smiles on their faces; it was Jere and Harrison from Mozambique. They had come to visit with Kendall, to buy Bibles, and to invite him to a meeting in Zambue. I left them to discuss the matters of ministry. 

 Time had passed and I peered out the window to see how they were doing. I looked and they were pouring over a map of Mozambique discussing possible border crossings; the geographic locations of those Mozambicans who spoke Chinyanja; and pinpointing all of the places that they were sure that there were Baptist churches and pockets of believers. 

 In the middle of their discussion, one of our youngest and newest leaders, Jumbe came to the house and he was able to sit and listen to the three men discuss the ministry in Mozambique and he was able to see two devoted and godly leaders strive to reach the people of their area for Jesus Christ! It was amazing! 

During the course of their conversation Kendall was very encouraged as they shared with him two AMAZING prayer praises!!!

The first prayer praise was that Derek Daka who used to travel with Kendall from Mwengelele Baptist Church into Mozambique has married a woman in the village of Meze and has begun to assist in leading Meze Baptist. (Meze was one of the churches that was planted in Mozambique last year!)

The second prayer praise was that Harrison’s brother has committed to lead and pastor the church at Chimbowe. Chimbowe was another church that was planted last year! Over the past 6 months we have been asking that you would pray for leaders to rise up in Mozambique and God has ANSWERED! He has called men that have walked with Kendall and they truly know and love the Lord! Praise the Lord for His perfect timing in answering our earnest prayers for godly leaders to rise up in Mozambique to continue and strengthen the work in Northern Mozambique among the Nsenga People.

Times like this are rare. They are precious and very humbling. As Kendall always says, “I am just a simple man. I was a teacher and a coach and God called me to Zambia.” It is just awesome to look back over the past three years to see how God has perfectly orchestrated His workers to be united in reaching the Nsenga of Mozambique together. Please pray for Jere and Harrison as they lead the Zambue Baptist Association in Mozambique. Pray for Kendall as he begins traveling to Mozambique once a week to begin teaching through the Book of Acts. Pray for the men and women of Mozambique to be transformed by the teaching of God’s Word and for their conversions to be genuine.

A Must Have...

Each time friends come to visit our home from America, they ask, “where can I get some of that African fabric? It is so pretty and so African!” Then after they have stayed with us a few days they say, “WOW, I never knew that the chitenje had so many uses!” I reply, “Yeah, I have started making a mental list of all of the things you can do with a chitenje!” While the Omega Team was here, they finally convinced me that I should write a blog about all of the things you can use a chitenje for! 

What is a chitenje?!

Chitenje (ch-tan-jay)- a two meter piece of fabric that is sold in markets all over Africa. They come in hundreds of colors with prints that vary from fish to pots and from suitcases to pictures of village life.They are also used to show support for a presidential candidate or church affiliation. A chitenje can range from $2.00 -$4.00 depending on where they have come from and the quality that they are. Wax chitenjes are of better quality and are usually more expensive. Chitenjes are made in the Ivory Coast, Namibia, Tanzania, and the Congo (just to name a few). 

Just a few uses of a chitenje ( I have used them for all of the following!)

Dress, shirt, skirt, head covering, purse, laundry basket, baby carrier (pappoon), tablecloth, sofa cover, chair cover, curtain, quilt, blanket, diaper, pot holder, umbrella, napkin, towel, pillow, floor mat, kleenex, shawl, and a cushion for the water jug to sit on when you are carrying water on your head!!! 

I never go anywhere without a chitenge and when we travel, I have a minimum of 4 chitenjes with me!!

The women in this picture are using a total of 9 chitenjes! They have them on as skirts, baby carriers, water carriers! Awesome, huh?!

UCBC Omega Team

God blessed the time that we shared with the Universal City Baptist "Omega" Team. Over 50 people prayed to receive Christ during their time of ministry and they were able to experience ministry in a whole new light. We enjoyed them and are blessed to call them friends and family now! The pictures will tell the story of their ministry here better than I can!

The soccer field that the kids played soccer on and the same field that over 600 people would view the Jesus Film.

The youth (ages 1-35) gathered with the team as they shared Christ with them and answered their questions about God's Word.

 Jim, Aaron, and Daniel gathered with the men and answered their questions about God. 

Julia, Jen, and Sarah shared special time with the women and had a good time of discussion about the Lord.

Most importantly, they sang with them. I believe that an African's heart language is singing!

Many young girls were in attendance to hear the Good News of Jesus Christ!

Aaron loves to play soccer, he really ministered to the men there by playing "football" with them!

Julia, Sarah, and Daniel played netball with the girls. They had a blast!

They said that the girls were tough and they were afraid to get under the "net".

And they WON!!! Playing net ball was an AWESOME way to show love to these young women!

Easton loved being with the team, playing with tires, and sleeping in a tent for the weekend!

After a long day, it was "chill out" time for the Helgren kiddos!

Jim and Benjamin shared with each other about ministry and life, what an encouragement to both men!

Zeria and I cooked on the Dutch Oven...we attempted to make Peach Cobbler, but forgot the flour! Instead we poured in the custard and added white bread and made "African Peach Surprise" it was YUM!

Jen showed love to so many children. Getting down on their level to greet them was such a huge witness!

Daniel sharing his testimony with the youth.

Julia shared her testimony about how the Lord has set her free and given her joy complete!

Jen shared her testimony and Aaron prepared to share his as well. 

Jim taught God's Word about salvation. 

Aaron taught the kids a game and they loved playing it with him! The laughter was abundant!

Kendall preached from the book of John on Sunday. He taught the "I Am" statements to encourage and challenge the people of Sinda.

Sarah shared her testimony on Sunday during church.

The young men were intently studying God's Word as Jim, Aaron, and Daniel helped them answer the questions that they had about life and God.

Jen and Sarah with some of the youth after their time of singing and teaching.

The team was always loving the kids in some small way, laughter is a huge bridge to the love of Jesus Christ!

Everyone that attended the meeting in Sinda was so thankful for the sacrifice that the team had made to come to Zambia to share Christ with them. They showed their appreciation with gifts of love and a handshake.

These were some of the gifts: peanuts, oranges, sugar cane, flip flops, sweet potatos, and money.

Sunday night we watched the World Cup final and played African Uno!

The next two days of their stay in Nyimba, they visited two villages to do evangelism. Jim greeted the children in Kamphota Village and they met him with a smile.

Jim and Jen were able to evangelize together, what a blessing to share Christ as a couple!

Jen and Aaron with a family in the village.

I love this! This is a typical picture in the bush. Several women sitting around sharing a meal of nshima together. Dogs present and children close by!

Sarah said goodbye to a lady in the village.

The story behind this picture is awesome. In short, Aaron (pictured on the far left) and Julia were able to share Christ with the lady next to Aaron. They said that after she prayed she jumped up and was so happy that she was hugging them and she truly was filled with joy in the fact that she had salvation in Jesus Christ alone! I pray that I will always be like this woman and NEVER forget the joy of my salvation!

The woman pictured near the middle of the picture in the yellow skirt with the big smile on her face prayed to receive Christ! Look at the joy on her face! Julia and Daniel said that she really understood and turned her heart to Jesus!

Another sister in Jesus is the one holding the baby.

Charms that were worn by babies were removed and burned after their mother's prayed to receive Christ!

This is my favorite picture and I feel that it truly sums up the Omega teams ministry here in Zambia. This little boy's eyes are full of wonder but he is at peace and Daniel is showing him with his smile and gentle touch that there is someone who loves him more than anything in the world and one day, we pray that his mother will come to Christ and share with him the greatest gift and love of all, Jesus Christ! So many people found hope, love, and salvation in Jesus Christ because of the willingness to serve that this team had! Praise the Lord for youth who are willing to share the love of Christ in a culture that they are not familiar with!