“And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness.  God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will.”  2 Timothy 2:24-26

Dear family and friends,

Greetings again from Zambia after an extended period of silence.  The silence was due to a combination of our hectic schedule and indecision about what to write.  The hectic schedule hasn’t let up, but there’s news that must be shared.  Did you know that the qualities of a missionary listed in the verses above are nothing short of miraculous?  They are absolutely impossible in human effort and willpower.  After almost a year and a half, we are still sometimes surprised that depraved sinners can act so…so…DEPRAVED!  It is no easy thing to remain kind, patient, and gentle when the people you are trying to reach with the gospel are shouting irrationally, or bullying you in a humiliating manner, or ungratefully using you.

But with the Lord’s help, we can look beyond the behavior to the source.  They are slaves - slaves to their own sin nature and to Satan.  As slaves, they are incapable of acting otherwise, until the gospel sets them free.  And our enemy refuses to release his captives easily.  The intense resistance that we have felt of late is great encouragement that the enemy is nervous and we are on the right track.  So, what track are we on lately?  Well, the latest developments in the work have to do with children.

Over the past few months, the Lord has been repeatedly pointing us toward a more focused ministry with the children of the villages.  First, we noticed that the “novelty factor” was wearing off and fewer adults were attending our Bible studies.  But at the same time, the number of children was increasing.  Then I received advice from some fellow church-planting pastors in the Zambian Reformed Baptist churches emphasizing the need for children’s ministry.  One pastor planting a church in the Lozi capital of Mongu described how he began working with children 5 years ago.  Now those kids are teens and many are converted.  In just a few more years of teaching and training, they will be the young adults and future leaders of the church.  In 10 years, a whole new generation has been raised up with a loyalty to Jesus Christ and scriptural truth.  They have never been brainwashed by the false religions.  That is a vision to get excited about!  At the same time I was receiving that counsel, and unknown to us, Vincent was hosting a Bible study on our land.  That study was attended by 30 children.  When Vincent told us about it, we asked if he deliberately targeted the kids.  His answer was ‘yes,’ explaining that he had also noticed the growing number of children at our studies, and he felt the need to do something special to reach them.  That’s cool, huh?

In the midst of this new emphasis on children, 2 young ladies arrived from Greenville, South Carolina with the priceless result of several months hard work.  New Covenant Christian Fellowship in Greenville felt led by the Lord to produce the first catechism specifically for Lozi children.  A team of 4 composed the 12 questions and answers, with related Scriptures.  Our friend Enoch, from the church in Livingstone, did the translation work with Michael‘s help.  One of the team, an art teacher, painted illustrations for each of the 12 questions.  These beautiful illustrations are culturally accurate and sensitive, depicting village life and a Jesus who isn’t white.  We love it, and so do the Lozi!  The books are excellent quality, and this is the first in a series, focusing on the person of God, with questions like: Who is God?  How big is God?  Can I see God?  What can God do?  What does God know?  How can I know God?

For 6 days, the 2 ladies and Enoch taught 2 sessions per day - our local village in the morning, and the big village in the afternoon.  Each session covered 2 questions and lasted 2 hours, mixing teaching with games and songs.  Enoch wrote 10 new Lozi songs for the questions, to help cement the truths in their minds.  The kids and adults loved the songs, and it was rewarding to hear kids singing them as they walked down the road and our crew singing them as they worked (we required our work crew to attend the morning session).  The art teacher also designed another treat for the kids.  He had a program that made line drawings from his illustrations, and the church put these together into coloring books with the 12 questions and pictures.  On the last day, the children and adults were grouped according to homes.  Each home received a catechism book, and each child received a coloring book and a 4-pack of crayons.  It was humbling to realize that this was the first book many of them had ever owned.

This was a brilliant way for a church to make an eternal contribution to the evangelization of the Lozi. The book is being sold for about $10 each by the online publisher Lulu.  If anyone is interested, email me and I can forward you the information.  I don’t have a link right now.  It would be such a blessing if persons or churches could make orders, and then fresh supplies of books could be sent with teams from the U.S.  Shipping to Africa is financially out of the question.  We’re focusing on getting 1 catechism in each home in our area, and a few in the school.  The school teachers will use it in their “Religious Education” class!  Yes, that’s still a required subject in Zambian grade school.

Considering the eternal significance of the past 2 weeks, it was no surprise that we faced almost constant harassment from seemingly endless sources: neighbors disgruntled over our attempts to buy grass (a disagreement that took 6 days to clear up, despite our willingness to be cheated, the help of Vincent and Enoch, and the support of our village headman and elders);  physical illness; a pet puppy that seemed to be dying; an unexpected, unpleasant trip to the Royal Council; and the discovery of leopard tracks on our land.  All of this felt like the most unrelenting harassment yet, as the enemy tried to frighten, distract, and discourage us.  The good news is two-fold: 1) none of this surprised us (we are less ignorant of his schemes); and 2) his attempts failed, as Christ’s strength was proven sufficient in our weakness.

I should elaborate on one of these attacks - the trip to the Kuta (Royal Council).  Shannon and I have been reading Jerry Bridge’s excellent book “Respectable Sins - Confronting the Sins We Tolerate.”  This is a dangerous book!  There is only one way that God purifies sin and works maturity in us in areas like impatience, pride, selfishness, anger, and anxiety.  He does not grow us through comfortable, trouble-free circumstances.  Thus, it was no surprise that our latest Kuta trip was custom designed by God to evoke negative responses in all of the aforementioned areas.  Our fifth trip to the Kuta seemed like a “comedy of errors” and we felt ambushed from all new angles.  Let me list the challenges that were against us:

1. Due to changes on the council, there is a new “chief judge” who is totally ignorant of our case.  Our chief said that he is the meanest of all the judges.
2. The rest of the court acted as if they had never seen us, although at least 3 of them had been present for our 4 previous visits.
3. The two youngest, most reasonable judges, who are knowledgeable of our case, were not there.
4. Our regional chief is severely incompetent (or corrupt, or both).  We discovered that our case had not been summoned to the court.  Our chief used us for transport so that he could appear for another case.  In that case, it came to light that our chief had handled it very badly.  The Kuta was not happy with him.  Then he raised our case, which only made them more angry.
5. Racial prejudice. The chief judge rebuked our chief, our headman, and the whole audience in the court.  “Why do you run to the whites?  You have forgotten what they are capable of.  You should run away from them.”
6. Irrational suspicion.  The chief judge added, “When the whites ask you for land, you can be sure that their friends have already marked that land and there are minerals hidden there.”  Sadly, in the case of these last 2 challenges, we are facing the backlash of horrible behavior by whites in Africa’s past.
7. Religious opposition.  Enoch endured a pretty severe attack in Lozi, while we were given no opportunity to answer.  Enoch was bombarded with mocking questions:  “What are Baptists?  Why do we need another church?  We have plenty of churches and they all pray to the same God.  How are Baptists different?  Are you saying that the other churches are wrong?”  One woman on the council even said, “Do you think you can beat us?  We’re all in here.”  It became obvious that most of the council is New Apostle, the cult most responsible for false Christianity in Zambia.
8. Corruption.  The chief judge kept saying, “I need to be convinced before I take your case to the Senior Chief.”  During lunch break, we saw the judges mingling in the same shops and lunch stands with the people who are bringing cases to them.  It’s not hard to figure out what “convince me” is code for.

At least 8 strikes against us, and this is our fifth visit. Are you beginning to see that if God doesn’t do this, it will never happen?  I hope so, because we sure need your prayers.  We go back to the Kuta this Friday for our sixth visit.  Please pray that the Lord will defeat the enemy’s opposition and turn the Kuta’s hearts in our favor.  Despite an extremely negative reception at the Kuta, I drove back to camp with peace in my heart and a smile on my face.  Why?  Not because we made progress on the land issue (we went backward).  I had peace because maybe, just maybe, these missionaries finally passed a test in the area of patience and humility.  Perhaps the Lord was pleased and honored by our attitudes, words, and behavior that day.  If so, that is enough.

One other prayer request needs mentioned.  Our family is about to experience a new sacrifice for Christ’s sake.  Our son, Michael, will be flying back to the U.S. at the end of September.  Some men in the Greenville church have graciously offered him a job and a place to live, and he hopes to pursue marriage to a special young lady.  Dad is going to miss his right-hand man, but this change will be especially heartbreaking for his mother.  Please pray for sustaining grace and supernatural joy for her.  After Michael’s departure, both Reece families will travel to spend a few weeks with friends in South Africa.  We are all looking forward to our first real break since arriving in Africa.

Thanks for remembering us in your prayers.  May you know more of Christ and his resurrection power at work within you.

That His Name be Great among the Lozi,
Sean