News from Zambia - 30th March 2005 (Good News / Bad News)

This week we have a "good news / bad news" update. First the good

news...

On Sunday morning I was not at our “town centre” church. My primary task

in Zambia is to train national leadership so I left the service to Bro

Chibumba. We again had a “full house” with many visitors. Bro Chibumba

did an outstanding job of presenting the Gospel and we have a number of

follow-up visits to make this week.

I went to a rural church that I helped start two years ago. Buntungwa is

called an “overspill township” because is for people who cannot afford

to live in more permanent housing within the “town limits” of Luanshya.

All the houses are mud brick. The roofs are made of whatever the

residents can find (flattened oil drums, discarded roofing sheets from

other buildings, grass and plastic sheets. The “roads” are all dirt and

- since it had been raining since 3:00 am - they were all mud. Time is

an abstract and the “well-to-do” have a bicycle. None of the houses have

electricity, but several have car batteries for their radios. The house

in which I had lunch had a telephone sitting on a table. When my host

realised that I had seen it he sheepishly explained that he had found

the telephone in a road-side dump and brought it home “for decoration.”

(Most Americans have equally useless junk “decorating” their houses,

too.)

When I arrived at the church site I was greeted by Bro Chomba, the man

who had come to me two years ago with the vision of starting this

church. He was thrilled that I was there, but embarrassed that most of

the church members were not. I spent a few minutes explaining that I was

not concerned and I understood that people were not likely to walk to

church on mud roads through a driving rain. We waited. The service

started 45 minutes “late” and only about half of the expected crowd

arrived. It continued to rain and the people came in slowly. One man

apologised for his appearance. He had slipped in the mud and fallen. He

was covered in mud and was hesitant to come in. I invited him to sit

next to me.

The church building is made of mud bricks and has a grass roof. It was

built entirely by the members of this church, though I helped them with

the transport of the grass and a few metres of plastic sheeting. The

benches were rustic and crooked…and hard. The pulpit was also made of

mud brick and also very crooked. The bamboo that was used to hold the

grass roof in place was being eaten by termites so all though the

service there was very fine dust ­ like saw dust ­ falling from the roof

resembling a light snow. By the end of the service everything in the

building had this “dust” on it ­ including me. Nobody noticed! We were

in God’s house!

Immediately after the communion service which followed the service the

men of the church met with a “brick maker” who was being contracted to

make burnt bricks from the ant hill on the church property. His initial

price was 21¢, but they got him down to 13½¢. They will need about 4,000

bricks so every ½¢ counts! They will be saving every penny to get this

money and may even have extra bricks made so they can sell them to pay

for the ones they need.

After the negotiations we went to lunch. The chicken we were served had

been quite an athlete in his younger days. He have been on the Zambian

poultry Olympic cross country team! The drumstick was nearly 6 inches

long, but the meat on the end would not have filled a serving spoon on

an American table ­ and was tough enough to give a pit bull a challenge.

Still, it was a feast for them and I was deeply appreciative! I finished

my meal with a resounding “Mimi nashiba” (I am full) and we gathered

together for a final word of prayer. All in all, it was a typical Sunday

for me. There were no PowerPoint presentations, no Easter Cantatas and

no sun-rise services, but the fact that the tomb is empty was preached

far and wide.

Now the bad news... We just received a telephone call from the doctor at

Mkushi - where Colin goes to school. Colin was playing rugby and broke

his femur. The doctor said it was a "clean break" and can be easily set,

but he will be in traction for at least 21 days. I am leaving early

tomorrow morning to be at the hospital. Please pray for Colin - and us -

during this time. At last count this is the eight time he has broken a

bone. His first break came when he fell from a kitchen counter at the

age of three. It doesn't make it any easier on Dad and Mom!

What a week!

In His Service,

Patrick & Sherry