Meet Pastor Sakala

"Out of the most severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity. For I testify that they gave as much as they were able, and even beyond their ability." 1 Corinthians 8:2-3

Patson Sakala and his wife Patricia have five children (Isaac, Patson Jr, Joyce, Gabriel, and Sherri), and currently live in a small two-room house in the heart of Ngombe (pronounced "nome-bay") Compound. In the past few years, however, the property on which they live has seen the expansion of a huge add-on. The five additional rooms on the side of their home serve not as extra living space, however, or for any business interests, but rather as a school for those who otherwise would not have access to education. A builder by trade, Patson has constructed this school with his own hands, often in the evenings after having worked a full day elsewhere to support his family. He truly gives beyond his ability for the furthering of the gospel in his neighborhood.

Patson is the son of a polygamist tribal leader from Mozambique. His mother, a Zambian, was his father's first wife, and so Patson spent much of his early childhood outside of Zambia until the Mozambican Civil War caused he and his mother to return to Zambia in 1989. A refugee, Patson had only a 4th grade education when he came to Lusaka, so he started looking for work as a builder. It was during this time that he met a local businessman and pastor who led him to Christ, and who helped to mentor him in the Lord as a father figure. Patson served in this man's church for several years, planting churches with him while working for his business, until deciding that he should continue to pursue his education. So at the age of 23 Patson began to study every evening until he was able to read and write in English, his primary motivation to be able to dive into God's word more deeply.

This period in his life gave Patson a passion for education that he has never lost. Today he is running a school built by his own hands, and is faithfully leading his family in the Lord as he attends ABI classes three times each week. Only a handful of his students are able to pay even a mere $3 per month for their education, so the teachers in his school work almost entirely for free. Patson works in constuction during the day in order to support his family, and in order to keep up basic maintenance at his school.

Please be praying for Patson and his family as they continue to support both a school and a church out of their own home. Please also be praying that they be able to fight through the many discouragements that they face daily, and that they would continue to trust in the Lord for the daily provision of their many needs. Thank you so much for all that you are doing for Patson and his family as he continues to take classes from ABI on top of a busy schedule with many other responsibilities!

Here is a brief video of Patson introducing himself; if you are reading this post via email you may need to click here to see the video. God Bless!

Changing the world, one church at a time.

As the year comes to a close, we want to again thank you for all your financial support, prayers, emails and packages.  As you probably know, we have 15 pastors that we are currently training in ministry as part of our Action Pastor’s College and our Discipleship College. These pastors reside in poor compounds and cannot afford Bible college.  Most of them work in addition to pastoring.  So, we are looking for sponsors who can commit to sponsoring these pastors for  a year to pay for a room in which to meet, to provide transportation to and from the training center, books, and a bag of mealie meal (their food staple) each month. With the economic crisis we know that there are many places one can invest money, so we don’t take it lightly that you might consider investing in our ministry. As we evaluate our program and the amount of money it takes to move forward, we have asked the question, is it worth it?        

In some senses, it is difficult to demonstrate in pictures why we think it is worth it. A word picture we like to use is comparing the ministry to the growth of a tree. A picture taken of a tree from day to day would not be very impressive. But a picture taken over a period of three years would show tremendous change and growth in a seedling. Christ invested heavily for that length of time in a few disciples who ended up changing the world! Our hope and belief is that Zambia will only be changed by such a similar investment in a few people for a long period of time. As we are patient and faithful to water and prune the tree, the fruit will come.

With the first year of the program drawing to a close, we are seeing lots of encouraging signs that we are on the right path. The pastors are growing in their love and understanding of the Bible. We have given them the tools to exegete and interpret passages, to know how the Bible came to be, and they have seen how God has guided the church through twenty centuries to the truth of the Scriptures. They have also  been taught how to interact with Jehovah Witnesses as well as how to address money matters in their congregations. Just this morning, one of the pastors could not say enough about how much he is learning and the impact it is having in his church and life. Because of the class another pastor changed the leadership structure of his church from a culturally Zambian model to a biblical model. We recently took two pastors down to the rural area to evangelize in villages and they couldn’t say enough about the importance of pastors being involved in missions.  Because day to day growth can be hard to gauge we delight in such stories as shared above. These stories are a confirmation to us that this path is worth every minute and every dollar spent. 

Recently the Pastoral Leadership Development team had an off-site retreat and one of the desired goals was to improve our responsibilities in partnering with prospective donors.  A significant way in which we can be a better partner is through our newly created Pastors Blog. In the past six months two interns have worked diligently to put together videos, pictures, and interviews on this blog. Hopefully this site will help our supporters to better understand the impact of their gifts.  If you would like to check out the site, the website is: www.az-pld-sponsor.blogspot.com. At least every three weeks, a blog will be posted and with the link provided you can check in on the latest from Zambia. By enabling you the opportunity to get to know all the pastors over the course of the year, the blog will serve to strengthen our partnership and broaden your heart and love for the pastors of Zambia.  

While it takes around $60 a month to sponsor a pastor, we don’t want you to miss out on being an integral part in this ministry. It may be that you could give $5 or $10 or $25 a month and that we can get more people giving smaller amount and yet still accomplish the same goal.  Would you consider joining us this year?  You can give monthly or a one-time gift.  If you would like to give, click here for the link to the Action International donation website.  Thank you again for partnering with us.