8 December 2015

The Unpredictability of the Preconceived Certainty.

Often we take so many things for granted!! We open a bottle of milk and presume that it is still fresh and pour it into our coffee. We buy a bottle of medicine and we just presume that it is not past its expiry date. We take good care of our vehicle and we presume that when we get into it, it will start and drive well, why? Because we have taken the time to service and maintain it. In fact when we really sit down and think about it, a lot in life we just presume will be as we want it.

But there is that time when the milk we buy is sour even though it is before its expiry date. The bottle of medicine is in fact expired and the car breaks for no apparent reason. Well this is what happened to us this last week. I use the Isuzu Trooper to go out to the village to do ministry. I try my best to keep it maintained to the best I can and then it breaks on me.

But there is ONE who is outside of this principle of unpredictability and that is the Lord. You see it was an absolute miracle that I made it back from the village with a completely broken wheel bearing. Scientific logic was defied as I drove into the yard and parked the vehicle only to discover that the wheel was almost dislodged from the axle.

So even though we live in a world where we try and keep everything predictable and certain we will always have the unpredictability and uncertainty that comes along. How do we handle it? Trust in the Lord as He is the only one who is outside of this principle. There are absolutely no uncertainties with Him!

Well I have the new bearings and will be repairing this vehicle in the next few weeks. But I need to keep my trust in Him.

“It is better to take refuge in the Lord, than to trust in man.” Psalm 118:8

 

19 November 2015

Preparing For Rain

The rains are upon us! I love this time of the year when the first big rain clouds start to build up and and stretch way up into the heavens as they absorb moisture. It seems all of life waits in anticipation for the heavens to open and the refreshing rains to fall.

But it is not all peace and joy. Yes we want the rains to start but at the same time are we ready for the rains. There is so much that we need to do in preparation for the rains. We have very seasonal weather here and it would be very out of the norm to have rains during the dry season so we tend to relax about covering things. But as we approach the rainy season we begin frantically to prepare. Things need to be covered and tired down as sometimes high winds can accompany the rain. Lands need to be prepared and seeds planted. The rainy season cattle kraal needs to be prepared in anticipation for the cattle during the rains. Ministry in the village needs to finish as the roads just become impassable. So much to do! Do I really want the rains to come now? Yes, yes and yes.

But this reminds me so much of life. So often we are wanting something out of life, but are we really ready for it? In our professions we would love to land a great contract, but are we really ready for it. Up here I have been praying for God to render His Heavens and come down and move among the folks in a mighty way. Oh that so many folks would be saved! But then are we ready for it? You see we really do not have enough spiritual leaders to manage a huge revival. Making leaders takes time and God in His infinite wisdom knows when we will have enough. So I keep praying and waiting for the Lord’s spiritual rain to fall while continuing to disciple folks. All in His time I guess.

12 November 2015

Body Surfing

Yesterday, while in town,I spent some time visiting a friend. I enjoy our visits as he comes up with some profound insights into life in Zambia and the current economic situations that we are facing. One of the profound things that he said yesterday was,’’In Africa we always seem to miss the crest of the wave”. What he was saying is that in Africa we always seem to be late to the feast that the rest of the world has eaten and we are left with the crumbs.

Now I  grew up in Port Elizabeth, which is a beautiful city on the sea. One of my fondest memories was heading down to the sea for a good swim and some body surfing. Oh how I loved the thrill of flying down the face of the wave, feeling the power of the wave hurtling me forward with incredible speed and power. There was nothing like the feeling of having caught the perfect wave.

But timing was everything. If you were too late in swimming you floated over the crest of the wave watching it leave you from behind and you felt a little let down. You nearly had it and felt a bit of its power but it was gone. Now my fault was that I always tried to catch it a bit early. I was always a little closer to the shore than I needed to be. Well the result was that you got nicely “dumped”. As you set off ahead of the wave it kind of curled over you and hit you from the top. The result was that you were eating sand and seaweed for a while. But when you timed it perfectly it was amazing!! The feeling of riding and harnessing all that power was out of this world.

It got me thinking about life. Timing in life is so important. I am a bit early for most things. I try and plan, not for the good results, but to anticipate the problems. I am way ahead of today as I want to fix the problems before they have even happened. So I end up living life in the future and tend to get “dumped” many times. Why not get the timing right and ride the perfect wave? Well it is all about timing.

The Lord challenges us to wait on Him. Well I guess that is good advice as He is the One who created the waves and orchestrates life and its events. Catching the perfect wave in life would be having an eye and ear on the Lord and waiting for him to say “go”. So hard when you just want to surf that wave! I have been dumped so many times in life as I learn to read the waves. But as I  spend time with the Lord I am slowly beginning to read the waves. Some days I get a great ride, others I am afraid I get horribly dumped. But the things is, we have to get up, get the sand out of all those nasty places and try again. The Lord is so gracious with us and keeps the waves coming. Lets learn to get the timing right!

“Wait for the Lord;

be strong and take heart

and wait for the Lord.” Psalm 27:14

11 November 2105

Things are not always as they seem.

Our impression of things in life are not always what we perceive them to be. This morning, around the breakfast table, we were discussing the economic instability that we are facing as a country. This brought back a profound experience that I had when we first came to Zambia.

I needed some cash from the bank. This was before the days of ATMs. So first thing, as soon as the bank opens I am there. I really do not like standing in queues! I fill out the necessary forms and head to the counter to meet the smiling teller. She looks at the cash withdrawal slip and hesitates for a moment. My first reaction is that I have made a mistake on the slip so I ask if all is ok. She then looks at me and says that they do not have any cash in the bank at this time but if I would be ever so kind and take a seat until someone comes to make a deposit. My mouth dropped. I thought banks always had cash!! Well needless to say it was a slow morning but I did get my cash eventually.

Life with all its up and downs is very much like this. As we face each trial, usually that trial blinds our perception of the rest of our life. Yet in reality it should not when we compare it to all of life. I think this is why the Lord reminds us not to worry, as He knows life from the right perspective.Oh so hard to follow!!! Yet so right!!

 “ Therefore, I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes?”

Matthew 6:25

10 November 2015

Out of Place

Have you ever felt very out of place. Perhaps you at an event and you feel that you are not quite dressed appropriately or you find yourself among a group of engineers and they are talking shop and you have no idea what they are saying. Sucks really!!

Reminds me of my boat. Its real place should be in the water. I mean that is what it was designed and built for and here it finds that most of its life it spends sitting on a trailer out of the water. Its not really fulfilling its desired intended purpose!

Sometimes as Christians we may feel like this boat. A little out of place in this world. We try to fit in and but we truly do feel out of place. Our desired purpose is different from that of the world. We should be following the Master’s Plan but we tend to find that we live our lives on a “trailer” instead of in the “water”. I know that I do at times.

This world needs that Lamp that is placed in a high place for all to see as spoken about in Matthew 5:14-15. Oh how this world needs the Light of Jesus to shine through us.

“The more we live like Jesus the more others will be drawn to Him.” ODB

 

6 November 2015

Building Fences

“A willing spirit changes the drudgery of duty into a labour of love.” ODB

Building or constructing fences are one of those chores that need to be done but we tend to put it off until we cannot anymore.

We have an electric fence around our housing compound and we originally put it up to keep our dogs inside. They are very free spirited dogs and having grown up on the farm love to go hunting when they should be at home around the house.

Well after a few years of neglect our fence is in need of some serious repair. In fact it has got so bad that we will have to redo it completely. Some of the wire and fittings we can save but it would mean rebuilding the whole fence.

We have two moods we can choose as we do this. We can tackle it as something that just needs to be done and we tackle it as a drudgery of duty or we can go at it with gusto seeing it as a joy and labour of love. The choice is ours as the job needs to be done.

Everyday there are many tasks like this that we face. Every task comes with a choice. How are we going to tackle these tasks, with a drudgery of duty or a labour of love?

 

5 November 2015

Same Road

Different Sky

“Life takes on perspective in the Light of Christ.” ODB

On my way back from Chibote Village this afternoon I came across this amazing site on a road I often travel. This time it was not clear skies but a sky full of heavy clouds announcing the start of our rains. It is so beautiful to see the change in the seasons up here. We really only have two, the dry and the rainy season. Simple, just the way we love it in Africa.

But it got me thinking that we all have the road of life to walk with all its joys and challengers. Today I was informed, one of the Pastors that is in my class, lost his sister to TB yesterday. So sudden and so sad. Yet we all walk this road. Every one of us will experience the death of a loved one whilst we are alive and will finally sir come to death ourselves when we die.

Oh but life as we live takes on a different perspective when we walk it with Christ. We see the joys and the challengers of life through different lenses. Yes the emotions are still very real but we have a hope that nothing can take away from us. A hope that this life is just a prelude to the eternity that awaits us to those who are in Christ Jesus.

Same Life

Different Perspective.

18 October 2015

 

“You must teach what is in accord with sound doctrine.” Titus 2:1

The main part of our ministry up here in Mbala is teaching folks firstly, sound doctrine, and then secondly, how to put feet to that doctrine. On Wednesdays we go out to a village about 40Km from Mbala, called Chilwa. Since last year we have been looking at the Christian living within the family and community. It is not easy for Christians to follow godly lives and principles in the village community. There is so much superstition and witchcraft. Even the understanding of marriage as God intended it is very foreign.

Many men will take a second wife and divorce is rampant. But slowly we look at these issues and look at the Biblical principles concerning marriage and family. We then look at the local cultural practises and the changes that need to be made. Making these changes can cause a lot of persecution through mockery and isolation. Please pray for these folks as they try to put feet to their faith.

17 October 2015

 

Greetings to all!! This last year I have tried to keep all those interested in our ministry abreast of the goings on through Face Book. But over the past few weeks I have come to realise that there are a number of folks who are not subscribed to Face Book and are therefore not able to pickup any news. I know that social media has many negative aspects but one of the great positives is that I have been able to communicate with many folks about missionary life up here in Mbala. And so I have decided to start writing some of these things on my blog. For about a year I had trouble with Live Writer that I use. It simply would not work on my new computer. Well my new computer died forcing me to return to my old faithful and Live Writer still functions on this. So here I am back.

 

“And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will be qualified to teach others” 2 Timothy 2:2

For many years living and ministering here in Mbala I come more under the conviction that many of the folks that I have been teaching have a very simple literacy. What I mean is that many of them are able to read and write but are not really able to comprehend what they have read or really struggle doing so. In the culture that I come from a lot of what I have learnt about my walk from the Lord has come through the written Word and various other books dealing with certain aspects of our faith. We are so blessed that we have this resource. Sadly, here this is not the case and so I find that I have been teaching and providing teaching materials and notes yet the impact is not as expected.

And so as I was driving back from a village one day I began to think of trying to produce a Catechism in picture form geared at the African community. I am not an artist in anyway but by God’s grace I was connected with an artist in South Africa and together I believe that we have almost produced the first plate. “What is the Chief aim of man?” To glorify God in all he is and does. We have a long way to go and it seems quite an overwhelming task at times, but we need to look at it at one plate at a time. Please do pray for us as we continue in this project.

 

 

“ Your Word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.” Psalm 119:105 

As mentioned in the previous post many folks struggle to read and comprehend the Scriptures. As we are all aware, as Christians, it is vitally important that we spend time in God’s Word everyday in order to grow and mature in the our walk with Him. For many of us from a literacy background that is not difficult in the sense that we can all read and comprehend. It is usually other excuses that we have that hinder us from this spiritual practise.

But to the oral person and culture the reading and comprehending is a major challenge. So we have come up with a solution to this. Most folks around us have small radios that take SD cards. They are a great bit of technology that keep the music going in the African Village. So by placing the Bemba New Testament onto these SD cards we have now been able to hand out about 20 of these cards with a great response. We glue the safe switch on the side so that the Bible can never be erased to be replaced by music. I have had many requests for more SD cards and recently received another 20 in the mail to copy. In the next month these will also be distributed. Please pray that as the Word of God goes out in audio it will impact people’s lives. Will keep you posted as to how things go.

“ … that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.”

Zambia, as I am sure many of you are aware are facing a small economic crises at present. Due to the low international copper prices we do not have a lot of cash to go around. Copper is Zambia’s main industry and employer. Even though the copper is mined only in a relatively small area of the country this situation effects every person and institution. We have a young friend who is very keen on becoming a teacher. He is an orphan, or vulnerable person, the term I prefer. We helped him through school and now would like to help him put himself through Teaching College. The fees are just to much for us to afford so we devised a little business opportunity.

Every Zambian eats “nshima” which is made from mielie meal or corn meal. So we decided earlier this year that I would take some of our savings and buy maize or corn in the village and then grind it and package it to raise funds for him. He has been helped by a church in the USA for one session but we feel that we just needed something more sustainable. So he spends is day grinding the maize in a mill and then we bag it and sell it.

But I felt why not use this opportunity for the Lord as well. So in each bag of 10Kg of mielie meal or corn meal we place a small exercise book and a Gospel tract. I would love to have used a picture tract as I early explained about the literacy aspect but we do not have any so we use what we have. Well it has been such a great success that we have run out of maize or corn. Unfortunately, we did not have enough capital to buy enough maize for a year when it was cheap, so once this batch is finished we will clean up and wait for next year’s buying season. We are hoping to buy about 1200 100Kg bags but that will cost in the region of US$ 10 000. But this will create something sustainable not only for this young man but for others that may follow him. Pray that we can buy this quantity. This year we have raised about US$ 1000 from the business. Pray that the Word goes out and lives are touched by the tract.