“I know what I call you in Bemba” Vincent said, “Umuntu! It means you’re like me!” Those were words that were told me on a recent trip I made to Ndola, Zambia to assist in the building of a school. In writing The Hole in Our Gospel, Stearns notes that the Gospel we preach has often left out the command to seek justice for the poor and oppressed, to love our neighbor. Stearns is right that we, who have received the mercy of God in infinite abundance, have so often failed to show and share that mercy with our fellow men around the world, who lay dying. So Stearns issues a prophetic, God-honoring call to action…but misses a beat.

His vision is somewhat dampened, I think, by the sense that it is Christians who will put all wrong to right in the world. We are the agents of redemption, but this redemption will be realized and consummated by Christ. I would heartily recommend reading The Hole in Our Gospel to anyone, only exhorting them to trust in the sovereign work of God and not depend upon their own actions, but the Holy Spirit’s effective power.

I have been reflecting a bit on this flight back to the States – mostly sleeping, but some reflecting. One of the things that struck me about being in Zambia was how at-home I felt almost every moment. It didn’t matter that I only knew a few words in Bemba and our co-workers weren’t the best English-speakers….I was comfortable. Some would say that I felt this way because that was clearly where God wanted me, but I think that puts too much credit to my account. Rather, I am coming to believe that I felt this way because I was living in the open door of ministry that God had provided.

Contentment in ministry will never be found in a paycheck, in relationships, or even in the quantitative success of your work…it can only come from entering and living in the open door God provides. For Paul, those doors were sometimes behind bars (Philippians)…and sometimes it was years in a city (Acts 28 in Rome). But in the pursuit of Christ, the training of His Lord forced him to embrace these doors. I hope, as much as anything else God has taught me on this trip, that He will allow me to see the doors He provides.

PS: Not much conversation on the flight back…didn’t get seats by English-speakers until we were flying from D.C. to Pittsburgh. Really made me wish I knew Bemba or Swahili!

Note: This concludes the Zambia journal for E-Team 2009. Hope you were blessed by it! -DK

I’ll be honest here…I don’t want to write in this journal right now. Important conversation and my body’s insistent demands for sleep provide, to my mind, plent of reason not to write tonight. But where, then, is grace? So, I write.

There’s not a whole lot to write, however. Today was our drive from Ndola to Lusaka. We are staying at Lilayi Lodge – a very nice compound which maintains a safari-like game reserve. Tomorrow at 8:30 AM, we will depart, eventually getting to Lusaka Int’l Airport to begin our final leg of travel back to Pittsburgh. I’m very curious to see what God will do.

These last few days have been interesting at the least…utterly captivating at the most. Sunday was incredibly restful – two fantastic worship services serving as bookends to a shopping trip in Kitwe and the provocation to a soul-sifting discussion that night, both with the team and my roommate.

Monday brought us the challenge of our goal: ten courses of cement block or each of the four classrooms. This was followed by another fine dinner (and a lot of head calculations for bill-paying) at Michaelangelo’s and yet another soul-sifter of a conversation.

Today, we met out goal – mostly. Due to an apparent shortness of mortar availability and a delay in sand for cement arriving on Monday morning, we were unable to get all ten courses for the storage rooms and offices by the classrooms…but the classroom walls are finished! God was so faithful in that building process.

That is the “okay” stuff. Us site works had an opportunity yesterday and today to meet and be blessed by the kids at Lighthouse Christian School. Phenomenal, energetic, needy children who sing praises to Jesus (Yesu Krist) with joy. Not only that, but God has answered our prayers and each of the men from the site heard and indicated a desire to respond to the Gospel!!!! I pray God will bear glorious fruit in their lives!

Now for the title…Sunday and Tuesday evenings, I went to the hotel bar with three other guys from the team. Sebastian, a wonderful Christian man, was bartending Sunday evening and prevailed upon me to try a Mosi, which is a lager produced right here in Ndola. The Mosi was not the point, but the conversations and fellowship with my teammate and our bartenders – Sebastian and Chris – that came because of sitting there having a Mosi were beneficial to my soul.

It reminded me of the two disciples on the road to Emmaus Jesus taught them so much as they conversed, but it was in the table fellowship that they saw their Master. Jesus is certainly in these kinds of situations…

I got a new name today. Vincent, one of the crew members told me “I know what I call you in Bemba – Umuntu.” I asked him what it meant. Gesturing towards himself with both hands, as if gathering air to his chest, he said, “It means you’re like me. Like me!” It is amazing that just working with these guys, even when I’ve not been the best conversationalist, has given us a bond that is friendly and open – a world where we see each other as men, with mutual respect and honor.

So many connections…new faces and names and friendly bonds forming. My heart is tied to Zambia and I will serve this people in whatever ways God allows as I pursue my calling. God help me if it drives away any who would otherwise support me.

While today was our halfway point for work days, the paradox of working here is while we have taken great strides in progressing on the school, it is really only the beginning…so twambe nichito (let’s get to work) is certainly appropriate. The work crew is an energetic, hard-working bunch who have definitely been given the short end of the stick, but who demonstrate remarkable spirit in the face of it. I pray God would draw them to Himself and grow the seeds of faith that we are attempting to plant.

On a completely unrelated note…we jumped in the pool today. Ice-cold and without much incentive to move, Jason and I didn’t stay in too long…hot shower water is a blessing (and we do have it!).

There was a fire today in the valley. Not the first we’ve seen…but it was quckly contained by the village residents. The resilience, energy and vigor demonstrated by these Zambians is a challenge to me. If they can go about the most mundane, day-to-day sameness with such energy – why should I, or any Christian, be that different?

A number of people are feeling ill to one degree or another. One of us has chills, a running fever of 104 F and is sweating a great deal. Others are wrestling with ill feeling in their stomachs – probably a our bodies attempt to adjust to the food and other things. But we do what we can – we pray, take medicine as necessary, and have faith in the God Who called us here.

That same faith is producing marvelous results. Even as the school building progresses, relationships and seeds of faith are forming in the lives of the people we are working with. They see, I think, many people who care for them, will work hard beside them, and have fun with them. We may not have the privilege of seeing the fruit of all this, but it is a privilege to be part of the work. This is ministry and no matter the challenges and conflicts, I am utterly in love with it.

God’s goodness is very evident today. The E-Team began work (the ladies with the kids and the guys on construction). We had quite the lesson in African building construction and many of us are quickly beginning to produce quality courses of block (if slowly produced compared to our Zambian co-workers).

You see, the way this process works is that ditches are dug around the outside walls of where the desired structure will be. Then, they lay down rebar  in concrete that is poured into the ditch. This is then built up with cement blocks that were made by sunbaking cement in forms. Then they level the ground between the foundation walls and pour a concrete slab into the space. Then the space is ready for walls. Walls are placed by laying cement (in thick portions) down and placing cement blocks (smaller than the foundation blocks) in a course (row). The aim is for 20 cm height distance per course including the cement mortar and block. And so on it goes until you’ve reached the top course (which, in our case, was ten courses).

God really marked our team with joy in these tasks and gave us the physical strength to handle them. We got a good deal of work done and I was very glad to see that even people who have never touched cement in their lives did really well once they got a feel for the work.

It makes me think, though, of what difference it would make if we built the Church in the same joy – the same Spirit. Are not the results just as tangible? Are they not even more impacting? I don’t know the answer…but I know God is good and will finish every work He begins, and that is a promise.

We’re here! Long travels with flights, waits and drives and stops. But we had some amazing times of worship and lots of folks on the team had a chance to share the Gospel with flight passengers. we got here at the Hotel Savoy around 10:45 PM, Lusaka time (4:45 EDT). All luggage and supplies arrived in one piece and all of us are healthy thus far.

I am definitely seeing a need for grace, particularly to be bold with the people I encounter here in Zambia. I want to serve my God and my neighbor well…I also want to make Wilfred proud….Oh yeah!

(Many thanks to my friend, Wilfred Mutale, a fantastic brother in the Lord from Zambia that I’ve had the privilege of studying with at Geneva College.)

Note: This is the first of several journal entries that were written during the duration of the trip to Zambia from Providence Church. One will be posted each day. Please note that this is, in many ways, just my own musings and thoughts on the trip and is not intended to represent an entire picture of the trip….for which you would have to get much input from the other twenty-one members of the team. -DK

As we were sent off, two individuals in the church brought prophetic words. The first word came out of Nehemiah 4, where the builders under Nehemiah’s leadership built with one hand and were prepared with a sword in the other. So too, we would need to be ready to face the attacks of the enemy. This was concluded with an exhortation from Ephesians 4, to see the need for this team to show grace and forgiveness toward one another.

The next prophetic word was a promise that joy would characterize our team and it would encourage and build up the church in Zambia. He read us a charge from Philippians 4, reminding us that our joy comes from the reality that “the Lord is at hand.” God definitely is moving powerfully in this trip.