Special Family Day Serving In Zambia

On August 11th we started our day by taking the pontoon boat along with our interpreter, Janix, to Mazeba school across the river.  Never thought I’d be the one driving the boat to go do ministry on the river.  With Janix adopted into our family for the morning today was a special family day that really felt like we were missionaries headed out to serve in a very practical way.  We are missionaries!  All of us, just like it reminds us at the back of our church.  But today we had that all alone feeling as Janix was there only to interpret.  The content, the problem solving, and the message was all up to us.  It was an interesting experience to walk into the village once again, but this time with Janix calling out to huts in Ci Lozi as we passed by letting them know we would be starting a program for the kids very soon.  By the time we got to the school we already had several kids following excitedly behind us. 

Janix disappeared into the village for awhile to round up more kids for us while we set up and began trying to play with some of the kids that had followed us.  Teaching the girls how to break the ice with the kids was fun.  Just a simple rhyme we used to do with our girls that ended with a little tickle under the arm really had the kids giggling!  Then we expanded our games to include more kids and finally we had a pretty large group of kids that we were playing a great game of Monkey, Monkey, Baboon with (African style duck duck goose).  It was so much fun to just share Christ’s love with the kids through games for about an hour.  

Then we had the kids and mothers who had gathered come sit in the shade of a big tree and we began share the gospel through object lessons.  Crystelle’s specialty!  We shared the “wordless story” with coloured balloons, and “one way to heaven” with a folded paper made into a arrow and then cross, and also stacking rocks of good deeds that will never make up to heaven.  With verses from the Bible for each story we hope that it was clear that we all need to accept Jesus into our lives so that we can be saved.  We prayed that God would bless them and keep them and that the ministry in their area would help them to grow closer to God.  Then we had time for some more pictures and games.  We thanked Martin for helping us invite the kids and walked over to Induna Bennies hut to thank him for letting us come into his community again.  We don’t know if any kids lives will be changed because of our visit but we trust that God will use the time we spent with them to let them know that they are important to Him and us.  We just want to be faithful to spread His love and message of salvation. Now if I would only do that with the people that I work with everyday…what a change that could produce!

As we checked for crocs and then hopped into the boat to leave it felt good to have stepped up to the challenge of serving this way as a family.  I love the way our girls were involved and excited to spend time with the kids. 

Terrace had a fun moment after we were done where a bunch of girls crowded around her to touch her hair and feel how different it was from theirs.  I think that feeling of being engulfed in a crowd will be remembered for a long time!  In total we had about 70 moms and kids that showed up for our program.

Back at the ministry house we met friends of Jacques who have a ministry on the Zambezi River as well.  Lawrence and Jusillda run Zambezi River Ministires through Operation Mobilization.  We also met their two “sons” who were local boys who are not officially adopted but they are sons none the less.  Their one son was planning to attend the conference and they were along to attend a portion of it as well.  We all headed over to the base to begin the conference.  The afternoon consisted of some praise and worship and then Jacques and Pastor Isaac spoke about “we can’t give what we don’t have” and Psalm 19.  The afternoon came to an end with a time of recommitment and prayer and essentially everyone coming forward requesting prayer.  Jacques believes that some may even have made first time commitments and now understand salvation clearly, and others wanted to reaffirm their faith and receive prayer to anoint them in their new roles as teachers and pastors in their communities.  It was an honour to be able to pray individually with several of these men and commit them to the Lord’s work and to ask for God to give them the strength to be as He would wish for them.  What a great way to have everyone on the same page as they begin the rest of the training portion of the conference.

Our day ended around the fire at supper time.  It was time to reflect on a good day.  Again what a privilege to serve through this day with our girls and not have them even complain once about sitting through four hours of “church”.  It was a long afternoon of sessions but what enthusiasm these people show to participate in the sessions and amazing ability to sing together and praise God as if they were an adult version of the Wawtoto choir.  I will try to keep these men and women in my prayers as they begin their new roles in Sioma, Zambia.

We are thankful that Jacques was feeling considerably better today.  By end of day he was feeling ill again but hopefully the medicine will kick in through the night again and He will be feeling stronger in the morning again.  Please pray for these leaders as they are starting their new roles and that they will be able to implement all they have learned at this conference.