The Freedom of A Fence!

Some time ago, I read an article about an elementary school that had a large and fabulous new playground installed. The teachers were frustrated, however, because the kids only played near the school building and rarely ventured to the far side of the playground even though some of the best equipment was located there. One day, everything changed. A playground fence had been installed over the weekend. That Monday, the kids swarmed every piece of equipment, near and far. The fence had brought freedom to the kids to play to their heart's content and make full use of the playground.

Today, the fence for our IMC land was completed. And, just like those kids, we now have the freedom to make full use of the land we've been given by Chief Inyambo Yeta to our heart's content!

This is our first step toward the Training Center and Farm we believe the Lord has called us to complete as part of our strategy to reach the Western Province of Zambia and beyond. It was an historic day. The Lord is good!

Four young men, three of them our Live School students, completed the fence around the 5+ acres in extremely hot conditions. They volunteered to do the job, by the way, and were content with some food and a large tent to sleep in. Their names are Alex, Bosco, Mulenga and Obby and they did an amazing job! (Alex and Mulenga are pictured above.) Thanks, men!

Our next steps are to bring water and electricity to the property and this will be done very soon. We already have the water tank and have made arrangements with the powers that be for installation. Once this is accomplished, we can look ahead to 2016 and our hope to launch the Farm and begin building the Training Center.

Next week, two local churches will bring their youth groups for a retreat on our land which will be led by our three students, Alex, Bosco and Obby, with Percy, Abby & me on hand to provide support and some teaching. This will be the first official use of IMC land as a Training Center!

Please pray for us as we move forward with God's vision for IMC!

"And the things you have heard me say...entrust to reliable people who will be able to teach others."

These words from the Apostle Paul (2 Timothy 2:2) came to mind as I was thinking about the small gathering we joined following worship this past Sunday in a community building in Sesheke, Zambia. Ten of our “3 Weeks Intensive” students from our June class were there, along with a few family members and the fantastic Youth Choir from the Evangelical Church of Zambia, Sesheke.

We were gathered to award completion certificates to our students, to celebrate in song, and to hear how our students have been putting into practice what they had learned.

One student, Misheck Sendol, had this to say, to the best of my recollection: “As you know, I was only able to attend the last week of the class. Nevertheless, I took what I learned and began to study the Bible differently, asking the Lord what he had in mind for me to do. As I studied, I felt strongly that the Lord wanted me to start a prison ministry here in Sesheke. But you had also taught us not to start a ministry alone, so I called a friend and shared with him my vision. He agreed to help me. Today, we minister the Gospel in the prison every other Sunday afternoon and in the hospital the other Sundays. Also, we have approached the high school about starting a Scripture Union Club there for the students and they have approved our request. We will soon begin that ministry, as well.”

Wow! And it didn't end there. Pastor Chimyaya Situmbeko told us that he's been using our manual to train ten young people in his church and that if we ever do another “3 Weeks Intensive” class in Sesheke he will bring these ten students to the class.

Pastor Moses Yamba reported that he had just returned from a mission trip to Angola with a team from his church and that they would be returning to teach church planting to the pastors they had met during the trip who want to go into the bush and share the Gospel with those who have never heard the name of Jesus.

Pastor Hellen Tembo's church has now launched a mission to Malawi and they intend to continue to develop that mission in the months and years to come.

In addition, Pastor Yamba announced that a Live School will be launched immediately in Sesheke. Live School, which we recommended to the class, is video based and contains 242 hours of outcome based mission training developed by World Mission Center out of South Africa. It will be exciting to hear the impact of Live School in Sesheke!

It was a wonderful day, as you can imagine, and underlined what God is doing in Zambia. Thank you for being part of his plan, for your prayers and support.

This weekend, we travel 300 miles north to Senanga to meet with the Ministers' Association and plan next year's which will be held in June. Please pray that our meeting goes well, that we make every connection God has in mind for us and for traveling mercies, as well. Thanks!

How good and pleasant it is when God's people dwell together in unity!

We capped off our ten days in Lusaka at a wonderful worship service. All the Eternal Glory house churches came together for a joint worship celebration and it was awesome!

About two hundred worshipers packed a small hall in the lodge where we'd been doing our training and over the course of about two and a half hours we sang and danced, had a great Bible study, prayed, praised, received the Word, gave and enjoyed warm fellowship.

I (Doug) was privileged to preach. I chose John 20:19-23 as my text and focused on the five P's of the Greatest Commission, as some have called it, on Jesus' Presence, Peace, Pattern, Power and Purpose. A local elder translated my sermon into Nyanja, a language that crosses tribal languages and is commonly used in Lusaka. He and I did really well together. What a pleasure!

One of the things I loved about the worship was the full participation of the children, including the lovely little girl pictured above. They danced and sang, prayed and praised, and even listened, for the most part. :)

God's family, together in unity, is indeed a precious thing!

It Wasn't What I Expected!

"It wasn't what I expected." Dr. Silavwe was praising Abby's approach and content when he said these words at the end of the first day of training in Lusaka, but as the week unfolded it wasn't what we expected either. It was better!

Whenever you gather leaders from far (hundreds of miles) and near, you expect it will take 2-3 days to become comfortable enough with one another to have significant discussions and meaningful applications of our training. But this wasn't the case. The first day, the class members were wide open and meaningful interactive learning began to take place immediately. In the subsequent days of training, we manged to cover an amazing amount of ground. More importantly, we were able to apply the principles we were teaching to specific situations and opportunities and, as a consequence, all of us learned a great deal from one another. What a joy!

In five days, we covered Understanding the Bible, The Wounded Healer, Family & Ministry Systems, Missionary God, Vision in Ministry, A Biblical View of Worship, Church Planting Basics, How to Use the Global Study Bible, and Being, Becoming and Doing!

The students were amazing people, eager to learn and had a deep passion for multiplying the Gospel in their communities. It will be interesting to hear about how they apply what they learned in the coming months and years.

As the week ended, we were able to give each student an IMC Training Manual which we self-publish. It contains detailed outlines of everything we taught this week and much more!

We also gave each student a Global Study Bible. This amazing Bible, published by Crossway (now out of print), is intended for Majority World Christians and contains helps and articles applicable to their world. The students literally broke into cheers when we surprised them with the Bibles because a tool like this is so very difficult to afford in Zambia. Thanks to donors at Global Training Network and Centre Presbyterian Church (Mooresville, NC) we were able to bless the students with this outstanding study tool!

Last, but certainly not least, Dr. and Mrs. Silavwe and the Eternal Glory Church members were very gracious hosts and the meeting place, food, lodging and schedule were all conducive to learning and growing together. All in all, it was a great week!