May 17, 2024

“You preach like a Pentecostal!”

May 17, 2024/ Doug Vinez

Our two weeks in Lusaka were a marathon. Abby taught women’s groups in eight different churches (with some men sprinkled in), we both preached, Percy led worship, and we ate numerous meals with both pastors and Church of Central Africa (CCAP) Synod officials, including the General Secretary, Deputy General Secretary, Moderator Elect, Youth Coordinator, and Treasurer. The purpose of our visit was to introduce us, and especially Abby, to as many churches as possible, giving them and us a flavor of what our future training relationship will be like, and to prepare for Abby’s ordination by CCAP at the end of August. In all of these ways and more, the trip was a resounding success!

Our biggest question had been whether or not the CCAP needs what we have to offer, whether our theological perspective would be welcomed, and whether there’d be a strong sense of mutuality in our mission. All appear to be the case. So, as the days passed and we got to know people in leadership better, especially the Deputy General Secretary, Rev. Lloyd Mithi, who drove us and often translated for Abby, we felt more and more at peace with this new mission relationship. So, we’re very excited about moving forward.

In future years, Percy and we will spend two weeks teaching pastors in training at the Chasefu Theological College in Lundazi, Zambia, and two weeks teaching church planters, evangelists, pastors’ spouses, and pastors through our typical mobile training strategy in other areas of Zambia. So, four weeks annually is our commitment to CCAP, leaving the majority of our time free to continue training other pastors and leaders in Namibia and elsewhere in Zambia. As always, it will be the three of us working together as a team, focusing on each of our strengths.

Some words from the Rev. Sevatt Gladdens Kabaghe, General Secretary of CCAP, sum things up well:

“Having you for the past few days is a blessing to the…CCAP Synod of Zambia. Your work will always be treasured…As a Church, we would like to mention that you are welcome to walk alongside us. This is in line of developing the School of Excellency that we anticipate to grow so big and reach beyond central Africa. With your able team, we will reach the great heights to the glory of God…We invite Doug, Percy and yourself to be the beacon of this important vision to help the people realize the work of the Lord. May I also extend to other men and women in your organization to be part of the team…I will be so grateful to keep brainstorming together but we are ready to have you at all cost and experience the love of God together. I know with God all shall be well.”

As we close…Abby preached on our first Sunday here and was translated by the Moderator Elect, the Rev. Friday Kapasaka, who did an amazing job. She enjoyed it immensely and it was clear that they didn’t expect her down to earth and passionate style. Apparently, when other Presbyterian pastors have visited from the States, they’ve been a bit heady and dry in their approach. Imagine that! In any case, while we were enjoying a delicious lunch after worship, Friday commented, “You preached like a Pentecostal! I didn’t expect that.” Happily, that was a compliment and we all enjoyed a good laugh together.

Thank you again for your love, partnership and prayer support! And remember, where we go you go!

Abby taught groups of 15 to 35 women at eight different churches!

Small group or partnership breakouts are always effective.

Zambia is in the middle of a power crisis. Daily rolling eight hour blackouts mean sometimes teaching by phone lights!

Abby preached at the CCAP Munali congregation led by the Rev. Susan whose husband, the rev. Mcdonald, leads the Matero congregation.

Moderator elect, the rev. Friday kapasaka (L) translated. deputy general secretary, the rev. Lloyd substone mithi (r), led worship.

The chawama congregation’s women’s group

The women’s group at the munali congregation, the rev. Susan’s church

The rev. Susan’s delightful mother sent us off with a prayer blessing!

The rev. Lloyd enjoying a ten minutes break

This beautiful young woman was standing by the road as we drove out from one of our trainings.

The kanyama CONGREGATION’S women’s group

The kamwala congregation’s women’s group

Children are always peering around corners to see what’s what.

Percy led intercessory prayer on the day doug preached at the kanyama congregation, the rev. Mithi’s church.

Dynamic jinny is a CCAP commissioned evangelist who is planting a church about 20 miles outside Lusaka. She is a widow.

A permanent welcome mat at the kanyama church entrance

God provided a spontaneous meeting with abby’s new sister, Abigail, which delighted them both!

May 07, 2024

“We will not keep this for ourselves!”

May 07, 2024/ Doug Vinez

“And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others.” 2 Timothy 2:2

When we returned to Livingstone on April 22, we had a few days to rest and prepare for our trip to Lusaka. We did, however, train for three evenings with the leaders of Multiply Church, led by Pastor Esau and his wife, Mirriam. Pastor Esau is the prayer coordinator for Percy Muleba’s Biblical Worship Training Center (BWTC). They are an awesome couple and it’s our privilege to know them and to add value to their fruitful ministry. Through Percy’s connection, they are in a working partnership with Multiply Church in Davidson, NC.

Our focus this time was on “A Biblical View of Submission” and the training went really well. We established a proper biblical understanding of the word submission, that it is relational, mutual and voluntary, and that the lack of any of these three is problematic. We then looked at examples of good submission in every area of life, and finished by discussing examples of bad submission, including the itinerant self-styled prophets (“propheliars” Percy calls them) who are wreaking havoc in Southern Africa churches. Interestingly, the early church faced a similar problem, and in the Didache (an early second century Christian handbook for ministry) reasonable parameters are set so that legitimate prophets might be identified and charlatans rejected. We included these Didache parameters in our training.

Our class was spirited and engaged, and our time together mutually encouraging. As our final class ended, one of the students thanked us for our efforts with these encouraging words: “Don’t worry, we will not keep this for ourselves!”

On Friday, April 27, we traveled to Lusaka to begin two weeks of relationship building and training with the Church of Central Africa Presbyterian (CCAP). It was a tedious and tiring road trip due to very heavy traffic, multiple truck breakdowns in our lane, several police checkpoints, etc. Nevertheless, the Lord encouraged us along the way through two unexpected encounters.

The first occurred when we stopped for lunch at our favorite restaurant, Coffeeberry, in Mazabuka, when our old friend, Scottish missionary Keith Waddell, happened to be sitting at the table next to ours with his kids! Keith and his wife, Ida, had hosted Doug on his first trip to Zambia in 2006 at the Simba House in Mwandi village. Keith has been a great friend and mentor to Percy through the years, as well, and it was wonderful to see him!

The second was equally “random” and involved Percy’s friend Kongwa. When we stopped for a bathroom break about ninety minutes from our hotel on the outskirts of Lusaka, it was rush hour and traffic was building quickly. Just as we turned into our parking space, who happened to walk directly in front of our car but Percy’s old friend, Kongwa. He “just happened” to have had a meeting with a client nearby and was walking to the bus to Lusaka, his home. After a warm reunion, Percy, dreading the crazy streets of Lusaka at rush hour, asked Kongwa if he would drive us in to our hotel. He was glad to do so and negotiated rush hour like a hometown pro.

These two encounters were an affirmation to us from the Lord, two little “love gifts from Jesus,” as an old dear professor of ours used to call them. We tumbled into bed after a delicious dinner, keenly anticipating what the coming two weeks would bring. But, that’s a topic for another blog!

A very special thanks is due from us to you, for your partnership, prayers, and encouragement, indeed for your love. We are so very grateful. And remember, where we go, you go!

Pastor Esau (all black in front) and mirriam’s (black with red and yellow) church leaders were wonderful students!

April 27, 2024

“They used to shoot us”

April 27, 2024/ Doug Vinez

Our two weeks in Namibia were great, if a bit troubling. We had a strong Phase 1 experience with new students in Divundu (we’ll return next April for Phase 2), learned some difficult truths from the teachers in Chetto, encouraged and trained students at Pastor Jack’s Bible School, and worshiped and preached both Sundays in Pastor Jack and Kalleny’s church.

We made two visits to Chetto focused on getting to know the teachers there on our first visit and experiencing a classroom on our second. We only had a one hour timeframe for our get to know you session, but it went so well that it stretched to two and a half hours! Our classroom experiences were very interesting. Doug sat in on a fourth grade social studies class led really well by one of the two Khwe teachers, and Abby sat in on a disciplinary session with seven or eight older students where she was asked, without warning, to give a motivational speech!

We learned quite a bit from these experiences, organized by our friend and Chetto life skills teacher, Betty…

First, we learned, unsurprisingly, that the teaching experience at Chetto is very difficult, under-resourced, and discouraging. By and large, the students are unmotivated, their attendance is spotty, and their home lives are very rough, with alcoholism widespread among the parents. The teachers seem committed and have not given up, but they definitely struggle to see results. And, the teachers’ living conditions are rough, to say the least. Extremely rough.

Second, although there are two or three veteran teachers, it appears that most of the teachers are on their first assignment. In addition, they’ve been trained for a traditional school model which is fairly inflexible. And, they are burdened with quite a bit of bureaucratic rules and paperwork. For example, each teacher must daily present a one page lesson plan for every next day’s class periods, amounting to something like twenty pages of lesson plans per week. These lesson plans are checked by the national teaching inspectors who show up every couple of months.

Third, all classes are taught in English which is certainly necessary, but only two of the teachers speak Khwe so communication with the students and their parents can sometimes be difficult, according to the teachers. Doug did discover to his surprise that a number of the fourth grade students seemed to be handling English pretty well, spoken, read and written.

Fourth, it appears that we may have an open door of opportunity through Percy’s “Redemptive Entrepreneurship” training. Katarina, who teaches entrepreneurship to the kids in Chetto, is open to working with Percy’s team over the coming year in this area. It’ll be interesting to see how this unfolds and what impact it might have on our ongoing relationship with the teachers and students.

Finally, it has become even more apparent that we still haven’t found our “man or woman of peace,” someone we can partner with, train and encourage, someone who is called to the Khwe, someone who truly understands their world view and speaks their language, and knows how to apply the Gospel to their lives. Please join us as we continue to pray for this person to come to our attention in God’s time.

On Saturday, we had the opportunity to once again teach in Pastor Jack’s Bible School which is affiliated with a number of small, church-based Bible Schools across Namibia. The students were great and extremely responsive as we trained them on the process of discovering their individually unique God-given life purpose. It was great to see old friends Elder Elias, Pastor Sophia and Elder Arena among the class.

On Sunday, we worshipped again at Pastor Jack and Kalleny’s church and had a beautiful time. Sister Rosa, a member we’ve gotten to know, and who is planting a church in her home village outside Katima Mulilo in very difficult, witchcraft saturated conditions, shared her testimony regarding God’s faithfulness in her successful church planting efforts. We were shocked, however, when she then began to speak about and to us:

“My husband told me that you would be here this week, Doug and Abby, so I had to be here to see you again. You know, I used to be afraid of white people because they used to shoot us! But now, I love you Abby. I love you, Doug. We are one in the Cross and our unity is in Christ!”

We were deeply moved and strengthened by her words and her tender smile, as you can imagine. It is a beautiful thing when the barriers that separate us crumble because of Jesus. Rosa’s a living testimony to the power of the Gospel in the midst of Namibia’s brutal history. She’s a privilege to know. And, we love her, too.

We arrived in Lusaka, Zambia yesterday after a long travel day. We’ll be here for the next two weeks. We’re excited to be getting to know our new friends at the Church of Central Africa Presbyterian (CCAP). The primary purpose of our trip is relational, but we’ll also be doing some training, and Abby will be preaching the next two Sundays in local CCAP churches!

Thank you, as always, for partnering with us and praying for us. We pinch ourselves and often ask, “Why do we get to do this?” You’re a big part of the answer. And, remember, where we go you go!