Worship at New Jerusalem

Sunday was a sweet time of fellowship with our brothers and sisters in Christ at New Jerusalem Baptist Church. God really used Mark and Christian as they shared their testimony and shared from God's Word. We know that the Word of God does not return void and the congregation was encouraged and challenged. We were welcomed with open arms and warm hearts.

Mark shared his testimony of salvation and challenged the church to have good works that are a result of their faith and love in Jesus Christ.

 Love the children watching as Christian was introduced to the church. 

 

Christian preached a great sermon about love and giving our hearts to Jesus and turning from sin.

Mark, Pastor Samson Lungu, and Christian

The congregation of New Jerusalem Baptist!

For more pictures from Mark and Christian's time in Zambia, please see the link below:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150851414776634.404886.674241633&type=1&l=daff3ecd83

Some Precious Friends

The village near our house is a place of great darkness. Prostitution, drunkeness, witchcraft, and abuse are just some of the problems that these families face on a daily basis. I am a mother of three but to be honest, I never felt like I could share Christ with the children here. I was scared, nervous, and afraid of rejection. How crazy does that sound? Sounds like Satan, doesn't it? My heart has become so soft and open and broken for these children. Their stories are full of sadness and some happiness. God impressed on my heart to start a Bible Study with these children on Saturday mornings. The Saturday that I taught about creation, none of the children knew how long it took God to create the world. I knew then that the task was great and so important. Each week there are 45-60 children. I love walking the dirt road to Jumbe's house, where we meet. As I get close, I can see a few children on the lookout for "Amai Joy"! When they see me coming they run and scream to all of the children that I am coming. If I sneak up on them, then I hear their mothers yelling, "Amai Joy is here!!" My heart smiles and I am filled with joy! Please pray that the children will continue to want to learn about God's Word and that some of them may give their hearts to Jesus Christ. Most of these children do not go to church. Read the story below for an amazing surprise!

This is Bupe and her siblings, Faith, John, and Tembo. Jumbe came to me after the third week of Bible study and told me that their mother had stopped taking them to the Seventh Day Adventist on Saturdays so that they could come to "Friends of Jesus Club". I was overwhelmed and so happy. The interesting thing about this Bible study is that although it is for the children I can look around me and there are adults hiding in the sunflowers, behind houses, on the road, and in their yards listening to God's Word too. Pray for the light of Jesus to shine in our neighborhood!

The kids were so excited when Christian and Mark came to visit! We were about to leave and they asked, "Can we tell them our names?" So each child said their name and it made them smile so big that the visitors knew their names!

True Love Waits at Mambo

"Now flee from youthful lusts and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart."  2 Timothy 2:22

Yesterday was the first time that I had been a part of presenting True Love Waits. True Love Waits teaches God's Word and is a program teaching youth and adults about purity and abstinence.

Jumbe and I had prepared, studied, and were so excited to teach this program at Mambo Basic School. On our way to the school, we picked up Samson Lungu and his wife, Christina to go with us. When we arrived at the school, a member of New Jerusalem Baptist came too! I was so encouraged because the members of the nearest Baptist church came to support us and it was awesome to see them want to be involved in ministering to the youth at the school!

The head master, Mr. L and the head teacher, Mr. M had cancelled some other activities and delayed sports for the day in order for us to share with the students that are in grades 7-9. We told them that we just needed an hour of their time today and Jumbe and I were in agreement that we did not want to go over time in order that we may be invited back again.

We began the program by sharing the plan of salvation and how we need to live our lives in honor and respect of a holy God. Many times we can teach about abstinence but how will they ever desire to live a life of purity without Jesus Christ? We only taught the first two sessions of True Love Waits but were excited when the administration asked us to come again to continue the teachings. It is so neat to see how God has opened this door to teach in the school! Jumbe, Samson, and myself are excited to return and continue to teach them about godly relationships and living a life of purity.

The Death of A Church

When I first saw this picture in March, it reminded me that the "enemy prowls around looking for someone to destroy." Another thought that came to mind was sometimes when we are looking so intently for something we don't stop to look backward to see if it is behind us.

My greatest thought about this picture is that we should not fail to look back at where we have come and reflect upon the things that we have learned good and bad in order to grow and become more mature in life and ministry.

This Sunday was one of those times for us. Church planting is not easy. It takes time, patience, a great amount of prayer, and reliance upon the Lord to move in the hearts of nationals to continue the work. There is a village near our home called Yosali. Four years ago, we began evangelism in this village, a man of peace was found, and a church was planted. The members were baptized and they were meeting on a weekly basis. Kendall spent many days teaching Bible Study there and the believers were growing. Throughout the time that was spent there difficulties were abundant. Drunkeness, smoking marijuana, prostitution, adultery, and thieves were just a few of the problems. We prayed for sick babies, transported people to the hospital, met with families that were in turmoil, prayed for the demon possessed, and loved them in abundance. Every team that has come from America has spent time with this church and in its village. We have invested so much time into the hearts of the people at Ukhose. As we drove to church on Sunday, we passed Ukhose and the church had been burned down. We found out that it was not by accident either.

It was saddening, hurtful, frustrating, upsetting, made Kendall quite angry, and most of all we felt like we had failed. For most of the day, Kendall beat himself up about it because of the amount of time that he has put into Ukhose and felt like he had wasted time and there were other areas that needed his attention. He began to understand a little bit more how frustrated Paul was with the Corinthians in their floundering. We also began to understand at a deeper level "And if any place will not receive you and they will not listen to you, when you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them." Mark 6:11 The people of Ukhose have heard the Gospel for 4 years. They have rejected the Gospel and given themselves over to their fleshly desires.

Is it easy to leave them? No. Does it feel like all of it was for naught? Yes. Do we believe it was for naught? No. Church planting is hard. Will we ever look at another missionary and think less of him for having a church die? No. God is in control of all things, we just have to be ready to follow Him and share the Gospel wherever and whenever. For some reason, Ukhose did not survive. Will we continue to pray for the people there? YES! They need prayer. The darkness in that village is rampant. Do we think that God is too small not to revive the hearts of the people at Ukhose and revive a church? NO! That is our prayer!
Looking back is not always easy. Admitting that a church has died, is not easy, but it is honest. It happens. But looking back and knowing that Kendall was obedient to God is one of the greatest things that we can use to look forward and press on. Sunday was a hard day, as a wife, it was hard to see my husband so frustrated and down. Satan wanted him to feel defeated by the darkness that surrounds us, but Kendall knows that God is in control. In the depths of his heart, I know that Kendall wants those people to KNOW, LOVE, and LIFE FOR CHRIST! That is his earnest plea to the Lord. We are still growing, learning and never failing to look back at what God has done and looking forward to what He WILL do!
"Finally, brother, pray for us, that the Word of the Lord may speed ahead and be honored, as happened among you,.....For not all have faith. But the Lord is faithful. He will establish and guard you against the evil one."  2 Thessalonians 3:1, 2b-3

You're In Our Home!!!

One of the coolest things about living where we do in Zambia is that we have the awesome opportunity to visit the new missionaries that are coming to Africa to serve with the company! Each year there is a month long orientation called 40/40. For the bush part of the orientation, all of the participants come to Kawere Mission/Farm in Petauke to live and learn. Petauke is 45 minutes from Nyimba and is part of the area that we serve. It is so fun to go and meet new people and see old friends! This 40/40 is special for our family because we were blessed to see a friend that we have known for a long time and friends that we made in Texas! We arrived at the Farm at 1:45pm and left after dinner around 7:15pm on Saturday! Our kids had the best time running around with new friends and played their little hearts out. Kendall and I had an awesome time seeing people and catching up and learning more about other's callings and how to pray for them. We went home tired, with full hearts, and completely encouraged!

 In the picture above is our family and the Hailes family. When we were in Texas, Kendall and I met Adam at the BGCT convention in Corpus Christi. Long story short, the entire family came to see and have some BBQ and chocolate chip cookies one afternoon on their way to family Thanksgiving. Although we have only seen the Hailes family 2 times in person, we feel so close to them. Amazing how God knits our hearts together! Pray for Adam, Suzie, Phoebe, Emma, and Bailey as they serve the Lord in Madagascar!

When we went through our three month orientation in the US before we came to Zambia back in 2007, one of our neighbors was Amanda Brock. She went on to serve the Lord in the jungles of Peru. We kept in touch during our first term and became even better friends. When we were in the States we were blessed to spend some great time with Brock at the kids first high school football game, riding 4-wheelers at the Ranch, eating at Jason's Deli, and playing Farkle! It was such great news to hear that she was going to be serving the Lord in Africa and was coming to Zambia for her orientation! It was so fun to see her and more memories are added to the list! Our kids love "Brock" and can't wait to see her again...SOON! Pray for her as she serves in Burkino Faso in West Africa.

 Lily and Bailey were instant friends and were sad to say goodbye!

Adam and Kendall had a good time laughing and sharing about life and ministry. It was an encouragement for Kendall!

Loved catching up with Suzie and seeing her to hear all that God is teaching her and how life in Mada is!



Always Be Ready....

Monday night at 7pm, Kendall's phone rang. Jumbe was on the other end of the line. He told Kendall that he was on the bus coming back to Nyimba from Lusaka and the bus had been in a road accident. He quickly explained that the bus had hit a man and he died immediately. Jumbe then told Kendall that the driver of the bus and the passengers were all wanting to hear a word from God's Word. Jumbe asked Kendall what passage of Scripture he should share with them in the midst of this time. Kendall asked Jumbe, "what have you been learning?" Jumbe thought and then Kendall advised him on some other passages. We stopped everything and prayed for Jumbe that God would use him in a mighty way. The verse that came to my mind in this time was 2 Timothy 4:2, "preach the Word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction."
We went to bed that night not knowing what had happened or how the Lord had spoken to the hearts of the people on the bus.
The next morning, Jumbe came to our home with great news. He had preached for 80 kilometers of the trip. God laid on his heart to share from Luke 16:19-31, Daniel 9, and Revelation. He shared how to receive Christ as their Lord and Savior and people prayed in their seats and in their hearts as he prayed over the people in the bus. We were so excited to see this young believer take a stand for Christ and share about His love in a time of fear for many people.
This was a challenge to us as well to always be prepared to share of the hope and salvation that we have! May we never miss an opportunity to share God's love and eternal life with those around us.

One....

"What do you think? If a man has 100 sheep, and one of them goes astray, won’t he leave the 99 on the hillside and go and search for the stray?  And if he finds it, I assure you: He rejoices over that sheep more than over the 99 that did not go astray.  In the same way, it is not the will of your Father in heaven that one of these little ones perish."  Matthew 18:12-14

As we ate breakfast one morning this week, the kids asked me to share a Bible story with them. I did the "open the Bible and read what you see" method and came to Matthew 18:12-14. At the end of the verses I asked the kids what the verse meant. Lauren immediately sat up tall in her chair and held her finger high in the air and said, "ONE! ONE! He went after the ONE! He is a GOOD Shepherd!"

I looked at Lily and Easton and said, "whatdya think?" They said, "that is right! Everyone is important to Jesus and He wants to find us all!" It was a sweet time of reading and discussing God's Word. They are never too young to learn and understand. A true blessing.

Life Is But A Vapor

July 2011, Kelli came to serve alongside us in Nyimba. We started out the morning in prayer and Bible Study before we set off to share the Good News of Jesus Christ in the neighboring village. The first house we stopped at had three teenage boys sitting under a mango tree in the front yard.
We sat on rickety chairs made of wood, and water jugs and began to ask them about their faith. They told us that they attended Acts Apostolic Faith church and that they had never prayed to receive Christ. With smiles on their faces the three young men prayed to receive Christ. Soon after they asked questions about what to do when witchcraft came to them at night. Immediately we looked at the Armor of God and how we should call upon the name of the Lord in our time of need. That day, Manda prayed to receive Christ.

April 4, 2012, it was late, he had worked a long hard day loading maize (corn) onto the truck. They started their journey home after dark. Deep in the bush, with a four hour drive ahead of them, the trip was dangerous. The load was large and the people on top of the maize were probably exhausted. Suddenly, Manda fell from the top of the load and was crushed under the weight of the truck. I pray that his decision for Christ was genuine, if so, Manda at 21 years old was immediately escorted to Heaven by the angels. His mother, brother, and sister Margaret along with many others wept at his sudden death. I was stunned, shocked, and thankful for that day with Kelli, Jumbe, and Zeria that Manda had heard the Gospel.

May 1, 2012, the coolness of the morning was still in the air. The gardener walked the dusty path to work. A young man, 24 years of age, asked him for 1,000 kwacha (20 cents) to buy tomatos. The gardener told him that he was not carrying money today but if he could borrow it from someone else then he would give him the 1,000 kwacha to repay the person who loaned him the money. The gardener was fearful that the young man would use the money for beer, but honestly did not have any money. 3:00pm the phone rings, the news on the other end of the line shot a bolt of shock, sadness, and fear through the gardener. The young man, 24 years old, was hit and killed by a truck on the road near his home at 11:00am. The same road that the gardener had seen him on that morning. Sadly, this time the young man had not been given the chance to accept Christ like his brother Manda was. Sadly, his mother has lost both of her sons in one month. Margaret, their sister, is weeping again one month after the loss of Manda. Margaret is a follower of Jesus Christ and so is her mother. Both of them attend the Baptist church.

Recently the Lord has drawn me time and time again to Luke 16:19-30. The Gospel is available to all people and we need to be bold to share it. I am praying from the deepest part of my heart that Manda's brother did at some time come to know Christ. If not, he is begging for a drop of water from Abraham. If we truly love people, we must tell them about the good news of Jesus Christ. Life is but a vapor, here today and gone tomorrow. Who have you told about Jesus today? Will you be like the gardener and wished that you had taken the time to share the Gospel with that person?

Dog Comes From Water

 God created some pretty unique, beautiful, and sometimes scary looking creatures. Today, I came across a bug that I was not used to seeing. I called our gardener to come and see this piece of God's creation. I asked him what it was called. He said, "a dog comes from water". I said, "huh??" Make a long story short, this critter lives in the dirt and can be found near the rivers and ponds. He said that they are great fishing bait. The longer that I looked at this thing the more that I saw that the front looks like a crawdad and the back like a cricket. Again, another lesson about bugs in Zambia. God is good! This scary looking critter is completely harmless and does have a purpose in life!

How Old Do You Have To Be??

"Father God, thank you for this day, for the whole world you created....." as he finished his prayer, the pastor looked up and said, "Ah, I am amazed that he can pray!"
We were shocked at the amazement of the pastor who is the father of five children. This small scenario sparked a fire of questions that began to ring in my head and as the days passed the curiosity increased.
I began to ask our national friends at what age they began to pray on their own. Their answers not only shocked me, but infuriated me and drove me to want to do something about it. The average age that they began to pray on their own was 13 years old.
I thought that maybe it was just the bush where children were not taught how to call upon the Lord in the good and bad times. I asked a friend of mine that is a missionary in Lusaka (the capital city) and she told me that when children there are asked to pray outloud they always pray the Lord's Prayer. I am not saying that praying the Lord's Prayer is bad but it is rhetorical sometimes and that is the prayer that is prayed.
I have a mission now. I want to use each opportunity that I have with children, either one on one or in a large group, to teach them how to pray. Out of all of the people that I asked, Zeria was the only person that was taught to pray when she was a young child.
Teaching our children to pray is so important even though their prayers may be elementary to begin, we all have to start somewhere and grow in our walk and our prayers of petition, intercession, confession, praise, and thanksgiving. As I continued to be baffled about this issue Kendall said something that hit home with me. He said, "Children do what they see. If they see their parents pray, they will learn. If they don't see their parents pray then they don't know how to pray or that it is important." DING! The lightbulb went off in my head. So at the meeting last week, the last thing that I taught was the Prayer Hand and the five forms of prayer: Confession, Petition, Intercession, Thanksgiving, and Praise. It was awesome to see the faces of young women and older women light up at this teaching. They held their hands high in the air as I taught them how each finger represents a type of prayer and they were excited! I will never take for granted my godly parents, Sunday School teachers, and other influential adults who took the time to teach me how to pray. It is something that none of us will fully understand nor perfect, but it is a powerful and amazing blessing given to us by our Heavenly Father!
My prayer is like that of Paul for the Ephesians:

"For this reason I kneel before the Father from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named. I pray that He may grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power in the inner man through His Spirit, and that the Messiah may dwell in your hearts through faith. I pray that you, being rooted and firmly established in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the length and width, height and depth of God’s love, and to know the Messiah’s love that surpasses knowledge, so you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

 Now to Him who is able to do above and beyond all that we ask or think according to the power that works in us— to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen. "    Ephesians 3:14-21

Water and A Wrecking Ball

 As I traveled to the women's meeting, I turned the radio on and listened to the song, "Voice of Truth" by Casting Crowns. I cried out to the Lord asking Him to show these women that He IS the Voice of Truth. I continued praying that these women would see Jesus in me and that I really do love them. My plea was that they would see that I am more than just a white missionary from America, but a wife, mother, daughter, and child of the King. For 4 years now, I have been trying to show them love and help them but there always seemed to be disconnect and a huge wall staring me in the face. I begged the Lord for this wall to come down, some way, any way!
After lunch, one of the leaders announced that it was time to get water from the well. Usually at this time women will stand up and get a 20 liter yellow jug and begin the trek to the well. This time, no one stood up. Their faces were gloomy and sad for some reason. I put my Bible and notebook down on the reed mat, stood up and said, "Tiyeni! Nizayenda ndi inu!" (Come along, I will go with you!) Amai Masiye looked at me and said, "Amai Joy...borehole...PATALI!" (Mrs. Joy...the well....is FAR!) I replied, "Chabwino, tiyeni!" (Okay, let's go!) Then Amai Lungu looked at me and said,"Amai...patali, ndithu!" (Mrs....far, really.) By this time, I was convinced that the borehole was patali (far). For a Zambian to say that something is far is rare, so when they do, it is truth and to a westerner, we would never dream of traveling that far on foot! (sad but true) I stopped, looked at the truck and said, "we will go with the truck!" They were so happy! So here we go, 8 women, a 50 gallon drum, and 12- 20 liter jugs on the way to the borehole.

We arrived and I was thinking..."wow, they were right this is far!" (Not to mention that it was downhill going and uphill all the way back.) We arrived and walked about 400 meters through a village to the borehole. They began drawing water and when the jugs were full we all started to get the jugs to take them to fill the 50 gallon drum inside our truck. (I wish that I had taken my camera). I bent down and began to pick up one of the jugs when Amai Masiye said,"Amai JOOOOOYYYYY...Iyai (no!)" I said, "Iyai, ningatenge! Ndithu!) (No, I can take, really!) They handed me a small bucket and I resisted. I then took off my chitenge (fabric wrap over my skirt) and made it into a coil to put on my head to carry the jug. By this time they were laughing and making the sounds that they make that mean words but are basic utterances only. I took the 20 liter jug and put it on my head and began to walk. Along the way, I started singing a song that we all love to sing. They joined with me and it was a time that I will never forget! We filled the drum and went back a second time. In that moment as the water spilled down my face as I carried that jug, I felt a wall crumbling all around me. I think that they knew then that I love them. I am not just a missionary living in Zambia and taking up space but I love to learn from them and experience things that they do everyday.
On Sunday, we traveled that same road to church. When we reached the borehole I asked Kendall to see how far it was from the borehole to the church. It was 1.8 kilometers one way. It was PATALI! (pah-tah-lee)
I am so thankful that the Lord allowed me this opportunity to show these women how much I love them and more importantly how much the Lord loves them!