"Be fruitful and multiply!"

"And what you have heard from me...entrust to reliable people who will be able to teach others also."  2 Timothy 2:2

The Apostle Paul came to understand in the course of his missionary journeys that he had to hand off the mission to qualified leaders who, in turn, would hand off the mission to other qualified leaders. In other words, Paul understood that mission multiplication of indigenous leaders would have the greatest long term impact.

That's why we're always looking for this multiplication principle at work during our training. Interestingly, during one of our breaks, we saw it in a beautiful way, as the photo above shows.

Paul, the pastor who had organized last week's training, is a very accomplished worship leader and musician. He found himself approached at every break by other students who wanted to learn more about using the keyboard in worship.

It was a beautiful thing to watch Paul gently and skillfully teach these younger leaders. As their relationships deepened, we knew the multiplication principle was at work as these young leaders were returning to their different congregations to apply what they had learned from Paul.

Please pray that our training continue to be multiplied in formal and informal ways in the coming weeks!

Reunited and it feels so good!

Percy Muleba (R) and four of our Livingstone students. We have a total of eight students, six men and two women from five churches!

We've been in Zambia for a week now and it's been great to get back. Percy Muleba, our dear friend and colleague, welcomed us last Friday and has been directing our training efforts since then. It's been great to see Percy and spend time together. We'll see his wife, Muyunda, and his daughters, Thabo and Nsala next week. What a privilege and joy to work with him!

Just before leaving the States, we received word that our Three Weeks Intensive Training, scheduled to be held in Senanga, had been postponed until 2017. Well, that was a bit of a shock, to be honest, as understandable as the reasons were.

Yet...God had another plan in mind. You know how he likes to keeps us in a place of dependency and trust, right?

In any case, Pastor Paul, Percy's friend and a worship leader in Livingstone, was very glad that we were suddenly available. He immediately organized a week's training with seven young pastors and leaders he knew in Livingstone (plus himself). And what a great group of young leaders they are!

In addition, our Mwandi friends immediately requested that we give them the remaining two weeks for follow-up training, so that's what we'll do next.

At the last minute, Fawlty Towers was able to extend our lodging in Livingstone and Kati Wallis, our Australian missionary friend, was able to provide housing in Fiona's old house in Mwandi and that was quite a relief, as well.

God's plan for us this summer is unfolding. Percy has suggested we simply buckle up our seat belts in the back seat and let God do the driving. So, that's what we're going to do!

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!