Nyanga boasts the highest peak in Zimbabwe, and we stayed in the mountains above the town, at about 2,400 meters (close to 8,000 feet).  So it’s no wonder that we were wearing our warmest coats at breakfast!  But once the sun is over the peaks, things heat up rapidly, and soon it feels like Africa again.

During our visit with the Nerwandes, we had the opportunity to visit a few projects that they have initiated to serve the poor.  Members of the Lifelink/Global Horizons churches will be familiar with the Rekai Tengwena children’s home.  The current facility was built a few years years ago, and remains in excellent condition.  We were well-greeted by the staff and children, who were particularly interested that they were being visited by some children of their own age this time, in addition to the adults.

The Holy Cross Church in Nyanga town also hosts a training program in automobile mechanics.  When we stopped in to visit, Bishop Nerwande told the students that each of us visitors had something to say to them—without warning us first that he was planning to have us speak!  Nonetheless, everyone commended themselves well, with wise and encouraging words shared by all.

Bishop Nerwande also prevailed on us to come and see a project that is still under construction, some 30km (20miles) out in the bush.  Under construction is a residential rehabilitation centre for individuals with physical disabilities.  It’s a recognized area of need by the local government and social services agencies, and the church is stepping up to make a contribution to serving these needy people.

But how did this project begin?  From where did the idea come?  It wasn’t from an analysis of community needs, nor did it begin with a strategic partnership with government services.  Instead, began when a Christian leader with deep concern for the most needy members of society had a dream one night.  Bishop Nerwande dreamed of this site in the bush—some distance from town or any of the churches he oversees.  So vivid was the dream that he traveled there the next day, convinced that God was speaking to him about starting this rehabilitation centre.  During these past two years, Bishop Nerwande has consistently gone out for a couple nights at a time to work personally on the construction, despite now being in his seventies.  They’ve nearly completed construction of five rondavals—one for reception, two residential wards (one male, one female), one for a clinic, and one as a chapel.  Fitting of windows and doors remain, and then the site can go operational.  They also intend to build a larger shelter for residents to gather, where they may work on projects such a sewing, etc.

We were challenged in this visit by Bishop Nerwande’s willingness to stretch out to initiate a new project of this sort, particularly since many people would have surely said they were already doing “enough” for the poor with the other programmes already operating.  But, as far as Bishop Nerwande is concerned, caring for the poor is at the heart of the message of Jesus, and he simply prays that God will enable him to complete what they’ve begun.

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this:  to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. (James 1:27)

The rural area is different than the city.  Really.  In Harare, you get used to things like running water and electricity.  In Muzarabani, we’re keeping an eye out for baboons at the lunch table.  And the participants in our training program tend to run a bit late for the morning meeting…which is understandable since many were walking 15-18km (10-12 miles) from their homesteads to the training site.

The rural area may be different from the city, but the people are just as precious to the Lord in both places.  We discover that we have much in common in Jesus, no matter where we come from or where we live.

We came to Muzarabani to help train instructors to teach Christian Foundations Part 2 in their local church settings.  I had been in Muzarabani last September, and we’d returned to introduce Part 2 of the Foundations material.  Our team from Harare included two Zimbabweans (Silent Gwashavanhu and Peter Muyangwa), two Americans (John Hamstra and Bryan Hoogerwerf), and two “Zambians” (Tenson Kainda and myself, according to the brothers from Zimbabwe).

Forty leaders gathered for these training days, including half a dozen Mission Fellowship in Christ leaders from Mozambique who had walked/hitchhiked across the border to participate!  Simon and Chipo Majoni showed us all wonderful hospitality, and led the event very well.

We’ve had a great group of students in the Essentials of Pastoral Ministry course, and it was a great final week of studying the Bible together, discussing church challenges, and praying for each other.  We’re praying for all these leaders as they continue their ministry in several different regions of Zimbabwe!

We also launched the Harare the new Christian Foundations Part 2 Instructors’ Training, with 30 pastors and lay leaders coming for training in how to teach new believers some important foundations about growing in Christ.

In addition to teaching the College students, we also shared time among the churches, and in an evening multi-church men’s gathering.  It was a full and blessed time in Harare, ahead of going out to Muzarabani for more leaders’ training in that rural region.

Javier Uboldi brought three other friends to encourage leaders during a brief visit to Zambia.  They were part of a larger team from South America that has scattered into several African nations, and it was a joy and blessing to receive them, even for a short visit.

The team met with pastors in Matero and a group of pastors and leaders in Chawama/Makeni.  Javier explained the missionary project they are organizing for 2015—to send thousands of short-term missionaries to over 150 nations, and then segued into a message from Scripture.  From Ephesians 1:15-19, he encouraged everyone to be aware of what God has already given us.  In most South American (and African…and North American) houses, there is a place where many potentially useful things have been collected:  pieces of wire, some screws, half a can of paint, certain tools.  But because we forgot what we have, we go out borrowing the very thing when we need it.  In the same way, many Christians are asking God for things he has already given us.

Javier said we must be committed to training people, not entertaining them. The church here has caught a virus from the occidental church– it is called entertainment. Like HIV it doesn’t kill you outright. Instead, it weakens your ability to fight off other diseases….  Training is a long term commitment because producing a change of mind is a process, a very important process. If we want transformation, we must be committed for a long term.

On Sunday, Javier also shared about the importance of spending time closely with the Lord, reminding the church that no one else can give you intimacy with God.

The ladies in Javier’s team are all daughters of prominent pastors in Argentina, and they gathered a special meeting on Sunday afternoon for the children of church leaders here in Lusaka.  This was very meaningful, because pastor’s children are rarely considered in the course of visiting ministries.  The Argentine ladies spoke about handling the expectations often placed on pastors’ children by the church, while developing your own unique identity.

It was such a blessing having such guests in our home. I needed to depart for Harare just a day after their arrival, but Karen and the girls continued to host them throughout their visit.  As a family, we have been so blessed by hosting a long list of special men and women of God in our home in Lusaka during these years.  We are so thankful for all those who have made the investment in serving here and have shared time with us in our home.

Dinner at home with our Argentine friends

Sarah with Yanina Lara

The Fountain of Life national leaders’ conference had been a scheduling challenge for Hudson Luwi, with the conference centre changing the dates three times.  Originally scheduled for March, the conference actually happened May 6-10 in Mwinilunga.

It’s a long trip from Lusaka to Mwinilunga, in the far northwest corner of  Zambia.  If you push hard with a good vehicle, you can do it in 13 hours, if all goes well.  If you stop to greet relatives and leaders in villages along the way, it takes longer.  Car trouble can add even more time to the trip.  But everyone who made the trip agreed:  it was worth it!

About 100 leaders from Fountain of Life churches, both men and women, gathered in Mwinilunga for prayer, teaching, and interaction together.  Peter Kaunda from the Redemption-Shalom churches spoke on Christian Character; Hudson spoke on leadership; John Leitzel spoke about “the anointing”—the presence of the person of the Holy Spirit—and we also were encouraged by a few other leaders sharing as well.  But it was more than a time for teaching.  Our times of prayer together were genuinely special, and everyone was built up and encouraged.

We’re seeing the emergence of a national leadership for Fountain of Life, with mature leaders from each district beginning to provide care for churches and leaders throughout the districts.  These overseers are cooperating together well to form a national apostolic team, which is providing better support for the many churches than one man—even one as gifted as Hudson—can do on his own.

Jesus’ ministry on earth combined preaching the Kingdom of God together with healing those who were sick.  He calls those of us who follow him to do likewise—proclaiming heaven and transforming earth as he enables us.  For Karen and I, the teaching, preaching, and dealing with disease and sickness combine to keep us pretty well occupied here!

Sometimes it is our own hands-on work, but other times we’re supporting others who are contributing their own gifts to serving here.  Indeed, all our gifts were given to us so that we could demonstrate God’s grace by serving others—whether or not you ever end up in Africa.  1 Peter 4:10 explains:  Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms.  Depending on our individual gifts, there are a variety of ways that we may administer God’s grace.

But using our gifts is not an individual or competitive pursuit.  God intends us all to use our gifts in a way that enables others to use their own gifts effectively as well.

When teaching, the goal is not to simply use my own teaching gift, but to equip others to use their own gifts more effectively as a result of the training.  Many might see restoring health as an end in itself, but God sees beyond curing the disease to the restoration of full function and effectiveness of the person who has been healed, as they in turn use their gifts to serve others.

Be alert for ways that you can contribute towards enabling other people to use their gifts more effectively.  How can you help someone else be fruitful in their service towards God?

There are many ways to do this, but it comes down to an attitude. In all ministry, we’re involved alongside other people, not just doing our own thing.  When we define success in terms of team, instead of individually, we’re positioning ourselves properly.

This month, we went directly from the funeral of a dear friend to hosting a medical team from the USA, while residential training was going on at Hope College in Lusaka.  We had neighborhood clinics, hospital work, college teaching, and hospitality all at once.  As a result, we were hosting, doctoring, cooking, driving, and teaching for a busy time of ministry.  The “spiritual” and “physical” were inseparable.  But the net result was great effectiveness, as we all focused on serving together.

Dr. Brad at clinic

Mark making med packets for clinic

Dr. Karen at neighborhood clinic

Waiting to see the doctor

Nurse Pat seeing patients

Even the waiting area is a ministry opportunity

Access to quality health care remains a challenge…

Frederick Bwalya teaches at Hope College

Students praying for each other

Students taking a break

Silent Gwashavanhu teaching in Lusaka

Silent brings an encouragement

Student dinner at our home

Hope College students in Lusaka

At her funeral, the combined choirs of Fountain of Life sang a Lunda song that was a favorite of Chilombo’s.

Click here to listen to the choirs singing this song:  Nzambi muneni

Nzambi muneni diyi nembilanga                 –God is Almighty
Hinamba kaleka kumwimbilaku                  –I will never stop singing and praising him
Hayuma yeneni yananililiyi                          –For all that he has done for me
Kukenga kwindi hadami kwasweja            –His love towards me is great

Ne’nidi namali mambwambe amavulu      –If I have money, I have so many friends
Neyi nayandi mabwambu akashiya            –When I have nothing, all abandon me
Ilana mwanta Yesu hambakashiyaku        –But Jesus never abandons me
Yesu himbwambu dami washinshika        –He is the only true friend I have

Chinuku kama nutulu twakufwa                  –When I sleep in death
Mabwambu jami akashiya                            –All friends and relatives will abandon me
Ilana mwanta Yesu hambakashiyaku        –But Jesus never will abandon me
Kukenga kwaindi hadami kwasweja          –Because his love towards me is great

Choir worship at the funeral

Living here in Africa, my Western nose is freshly alive to the great variety of scents around me.  Often my sense of smell is bringing to my attention what is invisible to the eye.  Flowering bushes on the other side of the wall are revealed as a touch of wind carries their fragrance outside their enclosure.  My daughters and I have popcorn fantasies as we drive past a cornmeal processing plant.  You can smell the rain coming before it arrives, and the eager plants seem to announce that they are growing as they drink in the life-giving moisture.

Not all the smells are so pleasantly poetic. Wet concrete and clothes that refuse to completely dry out contribute their own distinctive aromas.  Dark clouds of diesel exhaust fill the streets.  There is an abundance of what a farmer would politely consider fertilizer.  The well-dressed gentleman next to me on the bus apparently does not have access to the type of bathing facilities that I enjoy.

But this olfactory adventure highlights the reality I’m trying to describe:  there is more going on than we can see with our eyes.  Smells are real, even though we cannot see them, and often have to infer their source.  In the same way, there are spiritual realities that cannot be seen with our eyes, and which too often we fail to recognize.   Yet God in his grace gives us moments where what is unseen, nonetheless, is very present with us.  And whether or not those experiences seem pleasant at the time, we all need to embrace them with thanksgiving to the God who wants to get our attention.

Often our pursuit of God’s presence is quite intentional, and God is faithful to meet us.  When we gather with other Christians to worship the Lord, we are making an intentional effort to connect with Christ.  So it should be no surprise to find that we experience the touch of the Holy Spirit and a sense of God’s presence as we sing and pray together.  But it is bad theology—and something of a functional tragedy—if we think that we leave Him behind when we exit the church meeting, when he has in fact promised to be with us always, even to the end of the age (Matthew 28:20).  How foolish to think that God would only meet with us on our own terms!  Instead, we need to become more alert to God’s own initiatives in meeting with us, to the times he is calling our attention heavenward in the midst of our daily life.

God calls to us not only in the prayer meetings when we’re seeking him, but in the midst of life—as he is seeking us.  Sometimes it’s a touch of beauty that momentarily takes our breath away.  Last night at dinner, we were saying a prayer of thanks as a family before beginning to eat, and our younger daughter started pointing out the window.  As I’ve been trying to get her to focus more at the dinner table, my first impulse was to try to get her to stop pointing and concentrate on praying, but she exclaimed, “Look at the sunset!”  A moment of beauty penetrated our routine, and we found God present in our praying in a fresh way.

Later the same evening, I had driven back to their home a family who had brought their sick young daughter over to our home for Karen to do a medical consultation.  As I was driving back to our house, my attention was again arrested by the unexpected.  My headlights caught an unexpected object in the middle of one of these vehicle-swallowing, road-flooding washouts that we cheerfully call “puddles” during the rainy season.  Perched by a rock in the centre of the puddle was a large owl, unperturbed by the bright lights as it swiveled its head to stare at me as I stared at it.  Now, there was nothing particularly “spiritual” about the owl itself, but I was struck by the simple beauty of the scene, and made freshly aware that our human activities are superimposed onto a multilayered world.

I discover such moments of beauty in the Christ-like kindness and service of our friends here, such as how one brother immediately came over this morning to help me with a car problem.  We’re touched by the generosity of fellow-Christians who give freely while keeping little: …poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, and yet possessing everything. (2 Corinthians 7:10).  We’re surrounded by believers who “love their neighbors as themselves” by taking into their own homes those who would otherwise have nowhere to stay.  Christ is made visible through their generous service, and Christ’s kingdom comes as his will is done here on earth as it is in heaven.

Such moments of beauty are like frankincense—a scent bringing a fragrance of the presence of heaven into our awareness.  But myrrh is also a gift—the reminder that death approaches each of us, and this mortal life is merely temporary.  Myrrh is an oft-unwelcome gift, to be sure, but precious nonetheless.  It’s no accident that myrrh was used both in embalming and in worship.

As we ache together over the deaths some of Karen’s little patients at the hospital, we find the closeness of heaven.  In the loss of lives so young, we’re pressed into the comfort of Christ.  It’s a bitter scent, but it calls us heavenward.

A week ago, the tang of myrrh broke into my daily plans, as I shared with one of my students in grieving the death of his niece, who was the same age as my older daughter.  The death occurred in a remote rural area (two days travel from the capital), and he would not be able to reach the site in time for the funeral.  The young girl had become ill, and had died while they were trying to transport her to the nearest clinic, miles away.

In the West, most of us try to keep suffering and death as remote from our lives as possible, not realizing that we are actually insulating ourselves from heaven’s touch.  Instead, let’s embrace all the fragrances that cut across what we’re looking at, so that we can respond to God reaching out to us.  For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives so also through Christ our comfort overflows. (2 Corinthians 1:5)

For me it was a fresh reminder of the quality of leaders that I have the privilege of working with here.  I personally enjoyed and benefited from the teaching of my African brothers, and it was a delight to see how effectively they can apply Scriptural revelation to this context.

I was also freshly reminded of the value and urgency of this leadership training, as I considered the scope of ministry represented by our students from these two nations.  Many lives are touched beyond the classroom each time we can provide a training course like these.  The challenging calling is not simply to be strong in faith ourselves, but to reproduce that faith in others who can, in turn, also teach others.

You then, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.  And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others. (2 Timothy 2:1-2)