Chimodzi Modzi

Children are the same everywhere, or, chimodzi modzi. Water is an invitation to have boat races whether they're made out of folded paper or rigid styrofoam pieces, as in this case.

On my walk today I heard squealing from a flooded area at the school. Because of the heavy rains last night, the sidewalk became submerged. Cheering on their favorite nautical vessels were these children from the community. It didn't matter that their boats were cast off pieces of polystyrene. They floated! What fun it was to watch them at play!

Who's Terrorizing Whom?

Zambia's rainy season is upon us and with it newly hatched termites. One night we saw things flying in the air and realized they were wood-eating insects. We looked to see where they were coming out and found several holes in the dirt. But, waiting at the mouth of each hole were small toads, hungry for a meal. While we watched, a long tongue (not ours) snatched up an emerging termite. After a while the termites became a little more reluctant and shy.

Our neighbor, Tim, thought it would be funny to take a picture of us waiting with the toads for the termite prizes. We do plan to try them, but we are told to wait until the bigger ones arrive. Yum!

Petrol and Diesel and Lines, Oh My!

Thankfully the fuel shortage is over for now. Several weeks ago service stations were out of petrol. The past week it's been diesel that has been scarce. If you look through the window of the mini bus that is for sale in this picture, you can see the front end of our vehicle as we waited for fuel. We were sixth in line and waited over one and half hours to fill up our tank as well as some jerry cans (gas cans). Our director, Tim, took this picture of our line while he waited as well for fuel.

Tensions were rather high among drivers especially when a third line began forming to our left, people who were nudging their way in line. However, peoples' sense of justice was high as well and drivers stayed bumper to bumper to keep out cheaters.

Once we got up to the pump the frenzy began of getting out of the car amidst a mob of jerry can users, making sure the wallet stayed in the back pocket, seeing that the attendant started the fueling on zero, pulling out the jerry cans for fuel, keeping the doors locked, and getting a receipt. Quite a stressful morning~and, we were supposed to be on a date! Anyway, we're thankful our first round of fuel shortages is over.

An Huge Thank You!

On Oct 28 we distributed New Living Translation Study Bibles to the pastors in Action Pastors College, our primary ministry to Zambian pastors. These Bibles came to Africa via a Tyndale Publishing's special program put together by Bonnie Cain, a personal friend, and also assistant to Tyndale's president. This program makes these Life Application Study Bibles available at a cost of $9.00, an unbelievably great deal for majority world pastors. We raised money to purchase Bibles to give to pastors in our programs. The students selected one of their own, Bruce Kaumba, to speak a word of thanks to supporters who helped provide these Bibles. If you are on Facebook, you can view and hear his message by clicking here.

APC Makes A Difference

Pastor Mumbi is one of the older, wiser, and also humbler pastors in our group. He also pastors one of the larger churches, with over 100 in regular attendance. At the close of a recent class he asked for a moment to speak to the class. Six months previous the class had a discussion about issues where Bible believing Christians disagree with one another. We were specifically discussing what the Bible says about how leaders are chosen for offices in the church. It is not uncommon among independent African Pentecostal churches that pastors have sole authority for the appointment of all leaders. Of course, there are problems with this approach and abuses of authority are common. In the discussion we looked at various Bible passages and talked about a range of options that would reflect a wiser and more biblical approach, from a democratic model in a congregational church to a Presbyterian model where leaders are appointed by the church elders.

Pastor Mumbi was the only pastor in the class who admitted that he had sole authority to appoint leaders. Now six months later he shared with the class that it was time for confession. As a result of our study and discussion he had worked with the church board to develop a new policy for leadership selection. The new policy required that the pastor would work with a committee of elders in the church for the annual appointment of new leaders.

This is a small but significant shift toward thinking more biblically about church life and ministry. This small step reflects the impact of Action Pastors College (APC) on the pastors in our program. It is exciting because this change is not just the impact of the teacher’s beliefs but also the result of pastors being taught to do exegesis of the biblical text and then together discussing their findings and critiquing their own practices. It is especially encouraging because in recent discussions among our PLD missionary team we identified the need to nurture and encourage pastors toward a more biblical model of leadership structure as a key component for extending financial aid to pastors and churches for ministry projects. Praise God that He is going with us and before us as we instruct and train church leaders.

Our Interns' Labors

Action Zambia Ministries broke ground this past spring by inviting two interns, Tyler Dingman and Owen Thompson, to become part of its team for a few months. One of their labors was to interview each pastor of our college and to create a blog, posting their stories in writing, pictures, and in video. I visited the pastors' blog today and was very impressed~thank you so much, Tyler and Owen. If you'd like to check out the testimonies of the pastors AZM works with, click here.

Join Us For A Braai

Discipling compound pastors is a ministry of Action Zambia Ministries (AZM). Led by teammates Brent Roberts and Luke Whitfield, Discipleship 2:7 (taken from Colossians 2:7) is a one-year program that meets each week on Thursdays.

AZM recently welcomed its new group of eleven pastors with a braai (pronounced "bri" with a long "i" sound), or barbecue. Also attending were Tracy, Steve Allen, and consultant, Wozifera
Ngoma.

After the meal Tracy introduced AZM's other ministries, namely NextGen and the C.R.O.S.S. ministry. The pastors shared where they live, mostly in the Matero, Ng'ombe, and Garden compounds.
Some shared their testimonies~one in particular shared how he used to be a Muslim and what his life in Islam was like.

The men also shared some of Zambia's interesting and bizarre cultural practices. Having children in this culture is very important and childless marriages are deemed abnormal. In fact, if newly-
weds aren't pregnant in the first three months the neighbors begin to talk. If a man fails to produce a legacy it is a huge disgrace. In days past when a man died without leaving offspring, a piece of charcoal was placed in one of his body's orifices before burial. And, it wasn't the mouth! Makes one wince, doesn't it? Why charcoal, I have no idea, but it symbolized that he had left no seed.