| Zambia Update - June 2, 2009 | | Print | |
| Coordinator Blogs & Articles - Africa | |||
| Wednesday, 03 June 2009 15:12 | |||
|
"I lift my eyes to the hills, from where does my help come? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. . . . The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore." Psalm 121 On Monday two weeks ago, we finished our three week marathon of customs, immigration, internet, and banking. The day after our new bank accounts were finally opened, we loaded our legally registered vehicles and headed for the bush. For two and a half years I had dreamed of the day that I would drive my family up the road to Dominic's of Ilwendo. Emotions soared within me as we left the paved road and bounced in a cloud of dust for the next fifty kilometers along the Zambezi River. As we crested the hill on "our" land just before Dom's village, his entire Bible-study group was waiting to greet us. My emotions soared even higher! What a privilege that we have been entrusted with these precious souls. The family's reaction to the site of our future home was everything I'd hoped. In fact, Joyce and the kids enjoyed camping on the land so much, they didn't want to return to Livingstone. In our two short days in the bush, we conducted two teaching sessions, each lasting over two hours.  For the unconverted, we taught on the errors of their beliefs concerning ancestors. For those who might be saved, we taught on replacing jealousy and rivalry with humility and servanthood. Each session was followed by an intense question and answer time. We were thrilled to see that Dom's Bible study group had grown again - especially young men who are questioning the false religions that dominate that region. The Q&A times revealed some of the false teaching that these poor people are wrestling with. The New Apostle cult has flooded Zambia with their damnable heresies. I was shocked to learn that the indulgence system is still alive and well 500 years after Martin Luther confronted the Catholics. It is amazing how much the New Apostle cult resembles the Catholic heresy of the 1500's. The incredibly impoverished Lozi are taught to pray, pay money to the ‘church', and be baptized for their dead relatives (especially infants who die) in order to transfer their souls from hell to heaven. New Apostle members are not allowed to read their own Bibles or bring them to worship meeting. Only the "shepherd" is allowed to read the Bible during his teaching, and no one is allowed to question him publicly. You can imagine how shocking it is when we encourage them to bring their Lozi Bibles, have them read the passages aloud, teach directly from the Scripture passage (the ‘shepherd' never explains a Scripture text), and then we take questions! Many are drawn to this startling contrast, but it is not easy for them to walk away from years of cherished man-centered religion. Pray that God will reveal to them the glories of His gospel of grace. Our families accompanied us to greet Dom's Bible study group and the village chief. They all rejoiced that we had finally kept our word and that God had been faithful in bringing us to them. The chief had an unpleasant surprise for us though - he insisted that we turn right around and come back the next week to meet the royal council concerning the land. Since we also had friends coming from the U.S. who wanted to visit the village, this would require three back-to-back trips to the bush in three weeks. So we returned to Livingstone with our families, "rested" for a couple of days, then Shannon and I loaded up and headed back to Ilwendo. The next two days were pretty brutal - driving long hours on horrible roads, waiting and more waiting, meetings and more meetings with the chiefs and the village and the royal council. The worst was beholding our ugly pride and selfishness as we catered to demanding, presumptuous, ungrateful villagers who care nothing about our Bible teaching and only value our services as a taxi and ambulance. To top it all off, our visit to the royal council resolved nothing. (Silly us for thinking the land issue could be settled in one visit - nothing is ever accomplished in one visit in Zambia!) We must return to meet the senior chief (assistant Lozi king over the southern region) and get his approval. Then some delegates from the council must come and officially mark off our land boundaries. So the land issue is nowhere near done. There were a few bright spots in the trip as we had one-on-one discipleship time with Dom and his friends. Once again we were thrilled with the simple faith and humility that the Spirit is working in Dominic. We never know when just one of these conversations may be the Lord's purpose for the entire difficult trip.  Please pray for us as we continue learning to live every moment in submission to our Master's will. Well, I must get busy packing for the next trip to the village. Until next time . . . . Sean
|
More articles :
