Shipping for Jesus!

Getting the crates loaded onto the truck on our sloped driveway was exciting for truck driver, Tony!

Gale Keef, Interact club adviser at Liberty Prep, delivers the shoes!

Rachel Sanford organized the shoe drive at Liberty Prep!

What weighs 1500 lbs and holds: 19 bags of clothing, 23 boxes and 4 bags of shoes, 8 cases of Bibles, 4 boxes of books, 1 keyboard with stand and stool, 1 PA system, 1 chain saw, 1 ax, 1 box of hats, 3 electric guitars, 1 coat, 1 hoe and 2 tents?

With the generous help of Centre Presbyterian Church, Interact, Rotary and many, many individual donors, we just shipped two large packing crates to Zambia! We've never done this before so it will be interesting to see how it works out. The crates are expected to arrive in Zambia in mid-July.

The shoes were donated by the Interact Club at Liberty Prep due to the initiative of Rachel Sanford (pictured) who organized a shoe dirve. The Interact adviser, Gale Keef (pictured), was great to work with, as well. Zambian kids can't attend school without shoes so these will be a great blessing to a lot of kids!

Emily,  our daughter, used her huge social network and collected 33 bins of clothing over the last year from her friends. Once we vacuum-packed them, we ended up with 19 bags weighing about 35 lbs each! That's a lot of clothing! Andrew, Emily's husband, used his expertise to procure a terific PA system suitable for the sub-Saharan climate and it has an 8 hour battery! His company Special Events Services (SES) generously contributed several micrphones and cables! Our daughter, Jen, and her husband, James, were instrumental in getting the chain saw with case and tools, the ax and hoe. Thanks kids!

A huge thank you to everyone who helped so much in this effort. You gave, we packed and Zambia will be blessed. I can't wait to hear Percy playing his keyboard over the new PA system!

Please join us in praying for the safe arrival of the crates, a good customs experience and for the transportation of the crates to Mwandi once they arrive in Zambia!

What do Arizona and Texas have to do with Zambia?

One of the questions we get asked a lot is, "What are you guys doing while you're home from Zambia?" Sometimes its a question asked with genuinel interest, and other times it seems like more of a challenge question, something like, "Why are you wasting your time here when you should be in Zambia?"

Whatever the "real" question being asked, it's a fair question. What have we been doing while we're home from Zambia? The answer is pretty simple, really. We've been laying a stronger base of support and getting the strategic training we need for our next phase of our work in Zambia which will begin June 1st. We're also doing all we can to strengthen the church here until then.

Last month, we went to Phoenix where we gathered with our Global Training Network colleagues for a strategic planning retreat. We were excited by the possibilities that came from our time together. It turns out that another GTN team will be in Livingstone, Zambia in July and this will allow us to introduce Percy to our GTN leadership and colleagues. We hope it will begin laying the groundwork for further GTN participation in our Zambia mission!

Abby & I were also asked by GTN to consider the possibility of becoming part of a team to Rwanda and/or Ethiopia later this year or in 2017. We are very excited about this possibility!

Following the GTN retreat, we went to the Dallas area for a Support Raising Solutions Boot Camp. Sounds fun, huh? Actually, it was great. We learned so much about how to build a stronger support team of mission partners beyond the awesome friends who are already standing with us. The training was visionary, encouraging and content-rich. We're glad we went!

Now that we're home, we've been meeting with potential new ministry partners and preparing for our Missionary God class at Lake Forest Church (Huntersville), beginning April 10th for four Sunday evenings from 6-7:45pm. We'd love to have you join us!

Missionary God

Abby & I are excited to announce that Lake Forest Church (Huntersville) has invited us to teach our Missionary God class from April 10th - May 1st on Sunday evenings from 6-7:45pm (child care provided for 0-10 yrs.).

This is the same class we include in our 3 Weeks Intensive training in Zambia!

Missionary God answers some common questions: So, what exactly is God’s mission, anyway? What’s God really up to in the world? And, does God actually need our help to get the job done?

Together, by looking deeply into God’s Word, the Bible, we'll discover the story of God’s mission and its challenges. We’ll also examine the identity and secret of God’s mission. Along the way, we’ll uncover God’s ultimate goal and how we fit into his amazing plan!

More information can be found and you can register at: http://lakeforest.org/get-involved/classes/

We'd love to see you there!

Amazing Grace!

Alex is one of our students, a Live School graduate, one of the young men who built the fence on our IMC land earlier this year, and who now lives as the caretaker on our property in a tent. (Alex is pictured above at far left.)

Alex is now, also, a church planter.

Alex and a friend recently hitched a ride with Paul, a Christian veterinarian from the U.S., to Lataba, a small village forty miles into the bush. Once there, Alex and his friend shared the Gospel and seventeen people responded and gave their lives to Jesus!

Alex and his friend then walked home (from 9pm-7am) where they met with Pastor Sikute, our IMC Chair in Zambia and a Live School graduate himself, to discuss a request from the new Christians to plant a new church in their community so they can continue to grow!

It's hard for us to fathom the courage of young men like this, not to mention the simplicity of their effort. Two committed Christians hitched a ride, shared the Story, led people to Jesus and are now in the process of planting a church. There have been no community surveys, no core group development, no projected budgets, and, frankly, no financial resources.

It was just two willing Christians with a heart for people who do not know Jesus' love who stepped out in faith. And, now seventeen people know the grace of God in their lives for the first time. Amazing!

It's humbling, as always, to contemplate how the Lord uses people like us to spread his Kingdom. As Abby and I often find ourselves saying, "Why do we get to be a part of something like this?" Grace!

If you're on our team, you're an integral part of this story, too. If you're not yet on our team, why not prayerfully consider becoming part of what Jesus is doing in Zambia?