Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Today is Sunday! We split into two teams today and I took one group (1/2 USA team & 1/2 Africa team) to one church and another mixed group went to a different church. The church we visited and ministered in was Lighthouse Baptist Church in Endola. This is a larger town and the people seemed to have a little more than the people in Luanshya and most definitely the people who lived in the villages. In this town you had small cinder block homes and then some more upscale places for around here. The church had 110 people present and half of them were young people and children, 30% were women, and 20% were men. The Pastor's name was, "Pastor Myson." He was a very nice and grateful man. His son was the youth pastor and was doing a great work with the young people. The church service lasted 2 1/2 hours. They did the traditional announcements, but everything else was anything but traditional in most U.S. Baptist churches. The youth sang several songs, the ladies sang many songs, they shared quite a bit about their offering ($25.00 was given today), and people came up and placed their offering in the container on the communion table while the congregation sang. Jim shared his testimony and did a great job and I preached a message on how Christ wants to demolish sin strongholds in our lives. At the end of the service, the invitation lasted several minutes, and the people who came forward were counseling. 4 ladies said they did not know that worry was a sin and God convicted them of that today and the stronghold that supported that sin, 1 man asked for prayer, another said he wanted to be closer to God, and another young man trusted Christ on Tuesday this week and gave public testimony today. It was great! At the end of the service they asked me to pray a prayer of blessing on those who came forward and then they asked us to exit the church as we did a "fellowship line" outside. This was really neat as our entire team stood in a big "u" outside and everyone in the church came out singing while they went around in a big "singing" line and shook our hands. Then we were invited back in for cookies, a banana, and a soft drink. This was a very big deal. This is the most food I had seen anyone in Zambia have to give away. The pastor and some of his associates are coming to the pastor's conference tomorrow. We went to lunch at a mall nearby. This town is only one of 5 or 6 large towns in all of Zambia that have anything close to America in the likes of a small mall, etc. After several days of being here, this is the first time I had seen anything like this. After the mall, we went and visited an orphanage with 18 orphans from young children to teenagers. The two ladies that ran the orphanage were very nice. The orphanage was nice in comparison to what we've seen this week but pitiful in comparison to U.S. standards by far. The children were so glad to see us. We sang songs for them, shared the Gospel, gave them Gospel tracts, and some goodies. The orphanage survives on whatever people decide to drop off to them. I was reminded as I left that precious place that God is the defender of the orphan and the widow and that all who place their faith and trust in Christ will not be left as orphans, but become children of the Most High God. Thank you Lord Jesus for loving the fatherless and making a way for us to have the Heavenly Father.
- comments