“We pray out of fear of Satan, not love of God” “There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear…” 1 John 4:18

Abby and I arrived in Livingstone, Zambia on April 13th where we spent several days resting and adjusting to the time zone change. We did worship at House of Kings on our first Sunday at the invitation of our friends, Innocent and Ossy, who are husband and wife co-pastors there. It was Doug’s privilege to preach, and his text was 1 Thessalonians 1:1-10.

Then on Monday and Tuesday, we traveled to Mumbwa, Zambia, about a nine hour drive. We went with a strong sense of excitement because last year, Dan and Nanah Mayeya had invited us on behalf of Percy Muleba’s Biblical Worship Training Centre (BWTC) to lead a weekend workshop for the churches in Mumbwa, and it had gone very well. Dan and Nanah are the Southern Africa Coordinators for BWTC. This year, Bishop Bishop - yes, that’s his title and name - had worked with Dan and Nanah to gather and prepare fifteen pastors, both men and women, from area churches who were eager to commit to all three phases of our training.

We began Phase 1 as we usually do now, with Abby teaching “The Wounded Healer” and Doug teaching “Understanding Guilt, Shame, and Fear.” These classes establish common ground with our students and open the possibility of sharing our lives and ministries at a deep level. After seven days of training, Abby and I agreed that this was, perhaps, the best Phase 1 training we’ve ever experienced because of our students’ engagement, openness, and vulnerability. In short, our students were amazing.

One of the benefits of teaching a small class is the opportunity to get to know our students at a deeper level than would be possible in a larger, lecture style format. One student we got to know better was a young twenty-eight year old pastor named George. One afternoon, we talked for a couple of hours with him and another pastor named Given, Jr. We discussed their backgrounds, calls to ministry, and current work.

During the course of our conversation, George said something arresting. “Here, we often pray out of fear of Satan, not love of God. I’m learning that we pastors are leading people into fear, not love!”

In a fear-power culture like Zambia’s, people are often driven to gain mastery over their fear through spiritual power, whether it’s through a witch doctor’s drugs and incantations or coming to church and casting out devils in Jesus’ name. Don’t get us wrong, the devil is very real in Zambia (as he is at home), and the witch doctors are well-connected in that realm. That’s why the fear of Satan and the cries for spiritual power can often dominate the prayers of Christians here, whether public or private.

The Bible teaches us, however, that the solution to fear is not the acquisition of spiritual power, but the reality and experience of the love of God for us in Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit. It is love, not power, that is the solution to our fear problem. As John, the disciple whom Jesus loved (John 13:23) says in his first letter, “There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear.” (1 John 4:18)

Thank you for praying for us and supporting our work in Zambia and beyond. We are, as always, incredibly grateful for this amazing opportunity. And, remember, where we go you go!

The nametags of our amazing Mumbwa class!

Small group breakouts are always worthwhile in our training.

What a joy to get to know george lifasi, a deeply committed young pastor, who was hungry for knowledge about god, the church, and people.

Gathering around gods word brought our students, both men and women, together.

“All the nations…will come and worship before you, Lord…” Psalm 86:9

This morning, we left for Zambia, and are now spending a few hours in the Newark, NJ airport, about twenty minutes from Abby’s childhood home in north Jersey! Just got two fabulous cups of coffee for $5.00. Such a deal.

We’re looking forward to friendships and ministry for eight weeks in Zambia and Namibia. Our current plan looks like this:

April 11-13: Travel to Livingstone, Zambia

April 13- : Rest and adjust in Livingstone

April 17: Travel to Mumbwa, Zambia

April 18-27: Phase 1 Training in Mumbwa with pastors and leaders from multiple churches

April 28: Travel to Mongu, Zambia

April 29-30: Personal ministry to old friends who pastor and plant churches

May 1: Travel to Katima Mulilo, Namibia

May 2-7: Phase 2 Training in Katima with pastors and leaders from multiple churches, including 3 Khwe men and 2 Khwe women

May 8-21: Relationship building/training with the Khwe leaders in Chetto and Omega

May 22: Travel to Livingstone, Zambia

May 23-June 3: Training, visits, and studio work recording video classes.

May 26-28: Boot Camp 2 for Percy’s BWTC team

June 4-5: Travel Home

We deeply appreciate your prayers and support and will blog regularly while we’re away as internet access allows. And, remember, where we go you go!

Success or Significance?

We’ve been home from Zambia for about ten days and have rested really, really well. We’ve had wonderful reunions with our kids and grandsons. Such joy! We’ve eaten late season South Carolina peaches. So good! And we’ve worshipped with our church family. What a privilege!

Now we’ve begun to reflect a bit on our trip to Zambia and Namibia. We think about our trips a lot once we’ve returned home and we’ve learned to ask one very important question as the years have gone by. Not, “Was our trip a success?” But rather, “Was our trip significant?”

What’s the difference, you might ask. Well…When we think of success, we tend to think in terms of accomplishments, of numbers, of programs done well. But when we think of significance, we think of legacy. And when we think of legacy, we think not about programs or numbers or accomplishments, but rather about people. We think about multi-generational impact. We think about children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. We think about people. About disciples.

Sadly, it seems the church sometimes aims for success rather than significance. Jim Cymbala, the pastor of the Brooklyn Tabernacle, once wrote something to the effect that the church was always in danger of worshipping the “unholy trinity of attendance, buildings, and cash.” In other words, of aiming for success rather than significance. Jesus, after all, commanded us to make disciples, not develop popular programs, build buildings, and maximize giving. Disciples making disciples making disciples, then, are our legacy.

Our significance, in other words, does not come from our accomplishments, but rather our legacy of people. It’s not what we accomplish, but the impact we’ve had on others and the impact they’ve had on us. And then their impact on others and so on. Success is programmatic. Significance is relational. Success can be measured. Significance is multiplied. Success is temporal. Significance is eternal.

The question, then, is not how many attended, but rather how many are living out their discipleship on a daily basis? The question is not how nice is our building, but what happens in, with, and through people when they gather there? The question is not how much money are people contributing, but how radically are they sharing whatever they have with others?

The Apostle Paul tried to convince the Corinthians that they had missed the mark, that they were aiming for success, but not significance. He wrote: “…Do we need…letters of recommendation to you or from you? You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everyone. You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts” (2 Corinthians 3:1-3). In other words, our ministry is you, Paul says, and your discipleship. Our legacy is you. Our significance is you. And it’s all the Holy Spirit’s doing.

So, how did our trip go? Well, it wasn’t really much of a success, to be honest. We taught small numbers of people. We met in unfinished buildings with outdoor toilets. And, we did not take up any offerings.

On the other hand, we think our trip was significant. Significant both for us and for our students. And for this, we are incredibly grateful.

Let’s put it like this. We can’t wait to hear how our students influence others as they walk with Jesus and share the Good News over the coming years and across multiple generations of believers. The truth is, though, that once our influence reaches the third or fourth generation, they will not know our names and we, in all likelihood, will not know theirs. But, that’s okay because Jesus knows every one of us by name. And that is more than enough for us.

Thank you for giving us the privilege of going once again to Zambia and Namibia. Thank you for sharing your love, your prayers, and your generosity to and through us. You are significant to us. Thank you for making us so significant to you. Both our students and we are your legacy.

“…you are a letter from christ, the result of our ministry, writtEn not with ink but with the spirit of the living god…on human hearts.” (2 CoRinthians 3:3)

Reading the Bible in A Whole New Way

Every time we come to Zambia we learn new things. This year, we’ve learned the power of modeling intensive and in-depth Bible study with our students. Don’t get me wrong, all of our training is biblically based and even includes a twelve hour class called Understanding the Bible. We teach and preach, to the best of our ability, from a sound doctrinal perspective which is grounded in systematic biblical truth, no matter the subject of our classes.

This year, however, we have taught Nehemiah and the Psalms by spending time with the text, going verse by verse with our students, adding historical, grammatical, and theological depth when appropriate in a systematic way. And, it has had a major impact on them. One student put it this way: “You’re teaching me to read the Bible in a whole new way, to read it more deeply and more slowly. I never knew there was so much in these verses.” Another said, “I’ve never read the Bible like this before. It has changed me. It will change the way I teach and preach.”

We’ve also learned again the necessity of teaching with a strong understanding of the context in which we train. It is simply impossible to teach effectively without a firm grasp on the cultural and personal context of our students. We have to know them as people, to learn their names and listen to their stories. And they need to know us. They are not students, they are Kenneth and Gift, Esther and Grace, Innocent and Ossy, to name a few. We have to get to know their personal lives, their struggles, and their local questions. Otherwise, our training becomes simply information dispensed and loses, to a great extent, the power of transformation through relationships. When this contextual shift happens in a class, it’s palpable. The room becomes more relaxed, the faces more eager, the questions and discussions more significant, and the laughter (and tears) more natural as we are relationally transformed by God’s Word in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Percy Muleba, our dear Zambian son and GTN colleague, puts it very frankly when he describes our relationship: “You have destroyed me!” Yes, we have, and he has destroyed us. We are not the same because of the thousands of hours we have spent with him, hosting each other in our homes, sharing meals together when on the road in Zambia, sitting under a tree just chatting, and talking deeply about the things of God. We know him and he knows us. We know each other’s families, each other’s histories, each other’s victories, and each other’s failures. And we have come to love one another as family. And it has, indeed, destroyed us!

So, we have learned to take our time, to allow relationships a chance to develop and mature. That’s why we go back to the same students several times. For example, over the last five or six years, we have visited Musokotwane several times to teach and preach on Sundays. Once, several years ago, we also spent a week together in training. This year, we began our formal Phase 1 training with twenty leaders from the Musokotwane and Mwiinga churches. Because we had already begun to know one another, the atmosphere was changed from that first week of training years ago. The conversations flowed. Key questions were raised. Personal stories were shared. Worship was richer. And, real transformation happened. To all of us. For this, we are very, very grateful.

In closing, as you might imagine, we had a very meaningful week of training in Musokotwane and with a new group of young leaders from House of Kings church in Livingstone where Abby and I also taught and preached this past Sunday. If you’d like to watch that service and see Abby and me in action, it’s available on Facebook. Just search for Royal TV and look for Live Sunday Service where you will find separate clips of Abby and of me. And, several more of our training videos have now been uploaded onto YouTube. Just search on YouTube under Biblical Worship Training Centre, Percy’s ministry for which we are consultants.

This, our last full week in Zambia, will be spent with strategic planning meetings, meals with students and friends, packing, and culminate on Sunday when Abby and I teach and preach at Musokotwane once again.

Thank you for making it possible for us to experience this, our twenty-fourth trip. We are deeply appreciative of your prayers and financial support, and for your many encouraging words. You have no idea how much these mean to us. And remember, where we go you go!

This is the Room we met in for worship and training in musokotwane, a small village about an hour northwest of livingstone. The larger structure behind is the church they have been slowly building one brick at a time for years.

Abby loves teaching bible stuDy (with percy translating) during combined worship with the musokotwane and mwiinga churches!

Our training in musokotwane has taken on a new, more intimate, dimension this year.

Its a joy to watch our students dig into the word together!

This is the poRtable kitchen outside the church in musokotwane where nshima or rice, roasted chicken, and an awesome gravy were prepared.

These leaders are from two Pentecostal Assemblies of God (PAOG) churches in musokotwane and mwiinga. The paog came to zambia many Years ago Through missionaries sent by the canadian assemblies of god denomination.

We loved training these Vibrant leaders from house of kings ministries in livingstone. L to r: Pastors innocent and ossy, emmanuel, jr., percy, steven, prisca, cecilia, grace, kyle, asiatu, and emmanuel.

Over fifty years ago, my uncle Jack had these two shirts custom made for himself by an african seamstress In south florida. He found them recently, unworn, in the back of a drawer as he and my aunt Lani were packing to move. He gave them to me to bring to Zambia. I think percy muleba and i look pretty good in them!