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
