Pastors Mark Driscoll and James MacDonald recently visited Haiti to encourage and support the Church there. I would encourage you to watch this and see what is happening there and to encourage people to generously give to support the work of God in Haiti.

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

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.