The preaching begins...

As you probably already know, I am teaching through the book of Romans
during this quarter and the next. I decided early on that I would share the
wealth with my pastors. I picked a different passage in each chapter,
spreading them out over the 16 chapters and the 6 months we will be going
through this book. Though they picked these passages out of a hat randomly,
there is never randomness with God. This was proved true in the first sermon
that Pastor Anderson Jere preached. He preached on the passage from Romans
2:25-29. The taught that neither circumcision (as the Jews claimed) or
going to church or baptism or anything else we DO on earth will save you. It
is only by grace, by faith, through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ that we
can be made right with God. He shared an amazing testimony of his first
church experience where this church claimed they were the only true church.

Not only am I hoping to help these pastors learn how to preach this
extraordinary book, but I am also hoping that they still remember what we
taught them in the preaching class a few quarters back.

My fears were relieved. Pastor Jere preached great.

After each sermon, the pastors are allowed to share their feedback and that
was also encouraging to me as they were able to articulate not only what he
did well, but how the preacher could improve in the preaching model that I
have taught them.

All in all, a good start...

Stories

This past week in an APC course,Tracy asked the pastors to share their stories of counseling situations. Pastor Mumbi relayed an experience that not only showed him to be a wise counselor, but left the students laughing.

 

Late one night at about ten or eleven, there was a knock at his door from a man in his church. This man was ready to divorce his wife and asked Abusa (pastor) to come. As they made their way through the streets of Kanyama the husband began to explain what had happened to make him want to get out of his marriage. Apparently he and his wife rented a house from his brother and sister-in-law. Shortly after they moved in, the sister-in-law took it upon herself to regularly buy food and come to the rental house to prepare it for them. The situation became intolerable for the husband’s wife and a conflict erupted. A true cat fight ensued, culminating with the wife biting off part of the landlady’s ear. For this the husband wanted to divorce his wife.

 

While still walking to the husband’s house Pastor Mumbi firmly told him that he was not going to divorce his wife and there were two reasons. Number one, biting someone’s ear off is not cause for divorce. Number two, the husband was at fault. The husband was incredulous. His fault? Mumbi said, no, you are the head of the house, and you are responsible for this woman coming into your house and interfering with your wife’s duties.

 

When they got to the rental house the landlady stood there with her ear bleeding but had managed to retain the bitten chunk of ear. Talk of going to the police filled the air. Mumbi said, “There will be no going to the police. You, the sister, who have injured this woman, will take her to the clinic and pay for treatment. This is not a police matter.” And she did.

 

To this day, the couple are faithful members of his church. In fact, a new pulpit for Pastor Mumbi mysteriously appeared one Sunday morning soon after the incident, which was also our first time visiting his church. No one knew where it had come from. But somewhere, there was a grateful couple who are still committed to one another.

 

 

Pastors Advancing through Retreating

From

Class starts today, but I just wanted to share some highlights of last term... Sorry  about the delay in posting...
Thanks for your faithfulness...
Steve







We enjoyed a great day with the pastors at our Ciyanjano day retreat. It was encouraging in so many ways. I had purchased a football for the day from an organization called Alive and Kicking but I didn't have a needle to pump it up. So, since the organization is on the way, we stopped by, got it pumped up and got a tour of the company. Click on the alive and kicking link to see their mission, It is just as impressive to see the people working, many disabled, getting a paycheck, and lunch everday. Really cool.



We then proceeded to Ciyanjano where we had a worship time led by Nathan Ngoma, our Anglican father/pastor in our group. It was great for our pastors to learn a different type of worship. He spoke about Ash Wednesday and the history behind the worship. We sang lots of hymns, which is very unusual for our pastors.



We had some time of sharing and prayer, a great football game where I redeemed myself after getting picked last (last? I never got picked last at the playground:), shutting out the famed Zulu brothers as a goalkeeper. We also had a blast throwing the football around. So funny watching good athletes struggle with throwing and especially catching since all of their athletic experience is with their feet. We also roasted some hotdogs and S'mores over a fire, which felt really nice in 80 degree heat:) We sent Pete off with a cool prayer time, too. He leaves Thursday, but this would be the last time these pastors saw him during this trip. Pete has done another significant job here in Zambia. He is a great question asker, understands the importance of dissecting the culture to minister effectively and is wonderful at building relationships... A huge thanks to Pete and to Oikos Church for letting us borrow your pastor!



We ended with a sweet prayer and worship time. It was a much needed time of rest and fellowship with these hard working pastors.

I'm sorry

I want to apologize that you weren't me this morning.  Seriously, what an amazing morning.  We had a great pancake with the pastors breakfast. Daddy mixes the pancake batter and Bradyn flips! We make a good team. 

 

So the pastors, Pete and I were talking this morning and Peter Zulu shared about the Neighborhood watch they are organizing in their compound. The past month, the police post was burned to the ground because of some injustice that went on, and so with no police post and very little police presence, Peter decided to organize a neighborhood group to walk the streets at night and provide  protection  for the community if someone sees or hears a thief.  He has over 70 people on his phone list, and just last night 24 people walked through the compound patrolling.  He was elected the chairman of this watch committee.  He said that he got the idea of how to help the community by the sessions with Bruce on community development a couple of weeks ago.  I was really encouraged by this. First of all, it is free. Second, he is now helping and befriending many non-Christians.  Third, he is helping the community.  And lastly, he is building a relationship with the police department as a partnership of protection.  Peter said he is using scripture to help guide the meetings. He is always the first one out in the streets as well, which is a big deal.  Once he is out, the others will come out of the house.  For a community that struggles with fear in every dimension, Peter is showing how faith in God can help overcome fears.  Anyways, amazing. 

 

Then,  Pete and I went with Peter and Joseph to visit Peter Zulu's church/school.  It is amazing the progress they are making at the school.  The building is done.  The kids are learning, 40 or so in the morning and another handful in the afternoon.  Amazing.  I have watched this building go up, bit by bit, and now to watch this building being used every day of the week by some of the neediest kids in the community to make a life-changing difference is impossible to even explain.  There was a little girl with orange hair which means that she is malnourished.  Three classrooms in one room.  Three teachers, volunteering.  On a river where no one ever dared to build.  And the bridge. It is almost done.  They are waiting on some rail lines. The water was so high, we couldn't even pass that way.  The bridge will bless the whole community. These kids sang some songs, and posed for the camera happy Mzungus. 

 

And then we went to Joseph's house.  I am pretty embarrassed that for as good of friends as we are, I haven't been there yet.  No excuses, especially in a Zambian culture where visiting one's houses is near the top in importance. Thankfully he is very gracious.  Anyway, it was so good to finally visit.  I met his week old daughter, Hope. What a beautiful little girl.  And I was able to snuggle with Joseph Jr. a bit as well.  He seems so aloof and disinterested when I am there. But Joseph told me that after I leave, he will run around the community telling everyone that a Mzungu came to his house and hugged him. Pretty funny.  The other funny thing was the other day, Kelly and Pete were giving Joseph a ride home and gave him an extra Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwich.   He liked it so much he went and bought some Peanut Butter and Jelly and now his son Joseph Jr. doesn't want Nshima anymore, just a PB and J sandwiches.  Ahh, the lure of America!  After praying for their family, we went to Peter's house.

 

It was there that little Steve and I were reunited, yet, once again.  He is a chubby little guy, super cute and pretty chill with Mzungus.  It was great to see him again, and spend time in Peter's house with his family. Peter told me this week that Steve's brothers call him Professor (since I am Peter's professor). I thought that was pretty funny!

 

We then went from there to Patson's house where we were able to see his community school. Incredible.  I was chatting with Patson afterwards. He was very encouraged by our visit and support and encouragement. We had arrived at lunch time and so I asked them if the kids brought their own food.  He said, "No. We have started a feeding program." The feeding program cost about 1.2 million Kwacha a month  (around $250 and he doesn't make even that amount for himself in a month, I don't think) and so every day, these kids get some porridge for lunch.  “They are very poor.” He said.   Later he mentioned about the feeding program, "We started it by faith. You have to start by taking a step. Some days, we don't have the food and we just hold up our hands to God waiting for him to feed us."  Hello, Mr. George Mueller of Africa, nice to meet you. I am going to go eat some dirt around people less holy than you:)  Oh my goodness, seriously? Who does that? Who seriously lives by that kind of faith?  I have read books about people like you, but how is it that you are my student?  How does he do it? He doesn't. God does. He said, "God is the one doing this. He cares."  Later, he said, "Sometimes I just like to go and watch the kids. I love these kids. My heart is for these kids." 

 

So, like I said, sorry you were not me this morning. That makes me sad. But hopefully I made it up to you a little bit by letting you know what God is doing in and through the pastors here in Zambia. 

 

 

Pastors praying for the sick

One of the goals of our Pastors Leadership Development ministry is to
encourage pastors to serve not only their churches, but also their
communities. One of the ways we have done that is by arranging hospital
visitations for the pastors. I accompanied Patson Sakala (second to right)
last week to the Ngombe clinic to pray and minister to the sick who were
waiting to be seen by the doctor. So far we have 5 pastors in our ACTION
Pastors College who are committing once a week to visit their local clinics
to pray with the sick through the ministry that was introduced and initiated
by Luke Whitfield. It has been a great source of evangelism as well as a
few pastors have seen. What better way to get people into your church who
have been healed and/or prayed for at a clinic! Tonight we are taking the
next step by going to the Ngombe Pastors Fellowship to encourage the pastors
gathered there to also commit to visiting their clinics weekly to pray for
the sick and hurting. Please pray for us to this end!

Welcome to our World.

If this is the first time to this site, welcome! We are so thankful for you.  We have put together this blog to introduce you to the pastors who are part of the ACTION Zambia Pastor's College.  If you take some time, you will see pictures and videos and blogs about amazing pastors from the Lusaka, Zambia area.  If you are a returner, thanks for your patience. We look forward to updating more often this year and keeping the content current.  We want to invite you to watch a 6 minute video that will give you a quick look at all the pastors, their families and the churches that that they pastor.  We can't think of a better way to get you into the shoes of the pastors you are supporting and praying for.

True Worshipers Bible Church

Pastor Mumbi is one of the oldest pastors currently enrolled in the Action Pastor's College (he's the fellow on the left).  He also pastors one of the larger congregations represented in the APC class: regular attendance at True Worshipers Bible Church in Kanyama is over 100.  As a big church, True Worshipers is able to provide a regular salary for Mr. Mumbi, which is very rare in Zambia.  Most pastors work one or two jobs on top of their pastoring responsibilities, just in order to make ends meet.

Even though True Worshipers Bible Church is bigger than most house churches in Lusaka, the congregation breaks up into many smaller groups during the week to foster community and fellowship.  Located in Kanyama Compound, to the West of downtown Lusaka, there are many opportunities for these "Home Cells" to reach out in their neighborhoods as the body of Christ, praying for others and serving in practical ways.

Here's a video of Pastor Mumbi describing what a typical week looks like at True Worshipers Bible Church... enjoy!  As always, you might need to click here to see the video.