Truth is who You are: July 2010

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

The End

So I am finally back in the United States and have sort of managed to overcome jet lag. Let me fill you in on what has happened since my last blog update.

2 Saturdays ago was our last day at the orphanage. We all gave our all to play with and have fun with the kids. We put on some more bible story skits, played some group games, and did a gospel presentation based on the color of the beads of a bracelet we passed out to all of them. It was a very tiring day but definitely worth every bit of energy we put into it. The end was very sad and hard to leave. A lot of kids would ask which day we were coming back and we had to somehow muster the strength to say that we weren't coming back, at least not for a very long time.

The Moffat situation also took some very radical turns. When I last updated as far as we knew Moffat would not be coming back to the U.S. with us, but because of some miracles things quickly changed and we were able to have Zambian Social Services approve his departure of the country and the U.S. Embassy granted him a Visa! The situation was probably one of the most growing moments for my faith on the trip. First of all, it brought me to a position of complete dependence on God; that is I was in a position where if God didn't come through, something I really wanted to happen was not going to happen. Secondly, it showed me that God is greater than every great and horrible thing that happens in life. He is greater than our best efforts, and he is greater than all adversity we face. Regardless of whether or not Moffat was able to return with us, these lessons would have remained on my heart, thankfully what I wanted to happen also was what God wanted to happen, he just chose to show bring us to a state of dependence and awe throughout the process.

During our last 2 days on campus, I was able to meet up again with my friend Chanda and do a bible study one day, and then sort of commission him to continue as a light on campus after I leave. It was really encouraging to see how eager he was to grow, and even after the commission how the idea of spiritual multiplication really made sense (he's a computer science major, just like me).

On Wednesday we bussed down to Livingstone which is where Victoria Falls is (one of the 7 Natural Wonders of the World) and let me just say that it was absolutely breathtaking. God's creativity and majesty was made even more evident because of my time at the falls. While at Livingstone I also had the opportunity to go on a Safari where I saw many wild animals up close like baboons, monkeys, elephants, zebras, giraffes, rhinos, gazelles, impalas, and probably others i'm forgetting. 15 of us also went bungee jumping off a bridge over the Zambezi River (same river the falls is part of). It was a ridiculously awesome faith exercise. The way I looked at it was that if I have the faith to believe in God and His death on the cross, then it should be a way easier step of faith to jump off that bridge after having seen many successful bungee jumps.

After Livingstone we bussed back to Lusaka and then started the crazy trip back to the U.S. We left Lusaka at 12:45pm (6:45 am Eastern time) and arrived in Chicago on Sunday at 2pm Eastern time. I then had to catch 2 flights back to my home near Cleveland. I did not make it back until about 1 a.m (Monday). So needless to say I was quite exhausted. Saying good-bye was pretty hard and something I didn't want to do, but it is a part of life and we all share a bond that nobody will ever take away from us.

This is most likely the last post I'll make, I don't really know if I will use this blog for anything else...who knows. Thank you so much if you read one post, some posts, every post; I am extremely thankful for you and your prayers. God is good, all the time and all the time, God is good. This trip has grown me in so many different ways, many of which I have mentioned in this post or previous posts. As far as prayers, you can pray that this trip doesn't just become an experience that I use to tell stories from, but that it has a lifelong impact on how I minister to others, as well as for my own growth. Pray that we all continue to remember and believe what Jesus said to his disciples before he departed from them in Matthew 28: 18-20. "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

Friday, July 16, 2010

Free Day

Hello everyone! Got a free day today so I decided to give you some bonus coverage of what's going on in Zambia.

Basically this week has been pretty routine with our ministry at UNZA. We went to campus Monday through Thursday in the afternoon and either went sharing or followed up with students we had met before. I had the privilege of meeting up with my new friend Chanda for bible study twice this week. It has been a real growing experience to be put in a position to teach some truth, as well as learn some truth from the people I've been meeting with. This week we focused on growing as a Christian and what that looks like (Holy Spirit, reading the Word, praying, fellowship, ministering to others).

Aside from our normal campus routine, there have been some discouraging events that have taken place this past week. For those of you who don't know, our director has been working for many months trying to work it out so that one of the boys at the orphanage named Moffat, who is blind in one eye and losing vision in another, would be coming back to the U.S. with us next week and potentially have a transplant surgery and hopefully restore his vision. The full story is here: http://zambiahope.com/updates/ Unfortunately as of yesterday it appears that this will not be a reality because of all the hoops we are having to jump through to get his visa approved by the U.S. Embassy and other issues. Thankfully all hope is not lost, there is still a decent chance that he could come at some other point in time, but we just won't have everything set up for him to return with us; so keep praying for him as this is obviously a disappointing time for him, and that the process of making his trip to the U.S. would go smoothly over the next few months.

We also have been expecting a huge aid truck to arrive in Lusaka so that we could distribute food, clothes, etc to the slum the orphanage is in. We found out the other day that the truck was in a bad accident and flipped so the bin with the aid is currently in a ditch on the side of a road. Please pray that they are able to get the bin on another truck and that the contents have not been too badly damaged, and that it arrives in time for us to deliver to the slum.

Lastly, one of the guys on project, Chris, fell quite ill (mainly vomiting and dry heaves) last week around Thursday, and this Wednesday we finally had to take him to the hospital because he had not gotten better in nearly a week. 2 by 2 members of the team were with him for his entire stay, including Jesse and I who spent Wednesday night with him. It was actually really good to see him at the hospital because he was getting hydrated and able to have a lot more energy. Our time with him was a lot of fun. He came home Thursday afternoon and is feeling a lot better!

Tomorrow will be our last day at the orphanage, which will obviously be a ton of fun, but very very sad when we have to leave. We will just continue playing games and doing bible story skits for the kids. My time at the orphanage has really wrenched my heart and I know that it won't just be an experience I can tell people about, but it has really grown my compassion for not just orphans but people with all sorts of troubles. The bible is pretty clear that as Christians we are supposed to care for those who are fatherless, widowed, lame, blind, crippled, poor and that whatever we do for them we've done for Jesus, and whatever we don't do, we didn't do for Jesus.

Next week we will be on campus for 2 days, and then we will be taking a bus down to Livingstone for 2 days. While we are there we will debrief and process everything that God did during our time in Zambia. We will also have the opportunity to see the Victoria Falls (one of the 7 natural wonders of the world), go on a safari, and maybe even bungee jump! It will be a great way to cap off our trip to Zambia and hopefully lead to some wonderful fellowship with the team. I am really going to be sad to say good-bye to everyone.

My next update might not be until I am back in the states, but thanks for reading and praying!

Sunday, July 11, 2010

4 weeks done, 2 to go

this part of the blog post is always formatted differently...

Let me start off by informing you that after having a nice American meal last Sunday (hot dogs, burgers, fries) we were finally able to catch/kill a rat that had been plaguing one of the girls' rooms at our guest house. They can now sleep without worrying if they are going to wake up with a rat nibbling at their hair (which happened to one girl the night before).

Monday through Thursday we walked to UNZA during the afternoons to either share the gospel with random students, or meet up with people we had shared with previously. One of the days I went sharing with one of the staff guys, Jonathan, and we were able to meet a student named Chanda who I met up with later in the week. He told us all about how he had been growing in his faith since he had been at UNZA because of his involvement with a christian fellowship on campus. We planned to meet on Thursday at 14:00 and when I went to his room he had left me a note saying "Kevin and company, I was here at 14:00. just left for a bit, will be back at 14:20. PLEASE wait. Chanda" I was really encouraged that he cared enough about our meeting to leave me a note making sure we still met. Many times members of the team will be stood up with appointments they make to meet with students.

Jonathan also is my discipler for this project, meaning he is an older guy who will spend time with me one on one to talk about God, life, etc. He's pretty awesome and is only a few years out of college so he can relate to a lot of the things I am going through, and has been pretty wise with the advice he has given me. He's also hilarious and a ton of fun to be around. Just another way that God has blessed me this trip.

Two days in a row this week I spent my entire day on campus in a conversation with Jehovah's Witness (a different one each day) about what we believe to be true. The first day we talked about what happens after people die. JW's believe that there are 144,000 who will be able to be in the presence of God after they die, and then the rest who have believed will remain on earth in a world cleansed from unrighteousness. Those who have not believed will just cease to exist (they do not believe in Hell). The second day we had a really good/long conversation with another JW about the trinity. As I think i have mentioned before, they do not believe that Jesus is fully God, or that the Holy Spirit is fully God. Part of this might be because the bible they use has certain differences (i.e. John 1:1 says that the Word was a God instead of the Word was God). We talked about these discrepancies and pointed out that JW's had predicted that Jesus would return the 70's and that never happened, and other errors with their doctrine that are quite easily disproved. Nonetheless he did not budge on his position, and he refused to believe that the trinity existed. While the conversation was seemingly disappointing, it really grew my faith in that I was more sure of what I believed and more sure that it was the truth.

Speaking of the trinity...I did some research (in Jesse's copy of "Systematic Theology" by Wayne Grudem) about where we get the whole idea of the trinity, as it is never explicitly mentioned in the bible. It is really really interesting but basically the scripture indicates three truths. 1. God is three persons (father, son, holy spirit) 2. Each person is fully God 3. There is one God. The term trinity is just a way to express it. The tricky part is explaining this to someone who doesn't believe in it, especially because there are no perfect analogies for it. There are a ton of imperfect analogies for it (water, egg, person who is father, teacher, son) but these are in fact all perfect analogies for heresies, which is something I never knew. The most common heresy is Modalism which is the belief that there is one person of God, but 3 different manifestations which lines up with the 3 analogies I mentioned above. After learning this I grew to love God even more than before; it is pretty humbling to just faithfully believe that God is who he says he is and that He is more complex than we can logically express, but extremely beautiful.

Friday we had a free day so a few of us met up with a girl from UNZA who took us to a market where I purchased a fake AC Milan jersey, and a pretty legit (looking) Barcelona jersey. It was quite the adventure!

Saturday we were very blessed to go to the orphanage and spend the afternoon with them. We were also joined by some people we met on the plane ride from London to Nairobi who were traveling to South Africa for the world cup. They stopped in Lusaka for the weekend and wanted to see the orphanage. One of them was the son of the Nigerian ambassador to Zambia, and he plans on connecting his mom with the orphanage so she can help them with her connections ( she used to run an orphanage). God sure works in crazy ways! The afternoon was a great, half of us played games outside with half of the kids, while the other half was inside putting on skits from bible stories and other activities for the others. I was outside doing games like duck duck goose, red light green light, etc. I also got to give away roughly 30 beanie babies that my mom so generously sent with me, which the kids LOVED. thanks mom!

Last night we met up with our friends from the plane at a restaurant to watch the 3rd place game. They told us that yesterday was the best day of their summer because of their time at the orphanage, and this was after they just saw some world cup games! We had a sweet time watching the game with them, and even got in some good conversations about faith and other stuff like that. I can only say with confidence that 1 of them was a believer, although most of them probably go to church, and one was agnostic, but searching. Hopefully spending the day with us and seeing the orphanage will be used by God to work in all of their hearts.

In other news, I saw Toy Story 3 for $3...heard that lebron is now in miami (NOOOOOO!) and I am pulling for the Netherlands tonight. God has still been doing great things in the lives of people we meet with, and in our own hearts. I've definitely started to love God more and more throughout the entire project, as well as grow in my compassion for the people who are far worse off than myself, and those who do not know Jesus. I've also been growing in that I can't always explain everything about God logically, and that I have to believe it on faith. But that shouldn't be a surprise because I am saved by grace through faith.

also sorry for any typos, i don't proofread

Sunday, July 4, 2010

Happy 4th of July!

So this week in Zambia...

Monday of this week was our first day doing ministry at the University of Zambia (UNZA for short). It has about 10,000 students but the campus is HUGE! it is a lot of ground to cover on the days we go sharing, but I think I have started to have the general layout memorized. This week each of the students spent 4 days on campus, and 1 day at the orphanage (my day at the orphanage was Friday along with 3 other students...more to come on that later). Most of this past week at UNZA was freshman move-in and orientation activities, so the campus wasn't in full swing yet. Unfortunately for the freshman, only a small percentage are assigned rooms, and the rest are forced to fend for themselves and find a room to squat in. We helped these guys move into their room and found out that 6 of them were staying in one room, and there were only 2 twin beds! A typical day at UNZA this week consisted of walking to campus around 1 p.m. and then going around and finding people who were around campus, and initiate spiritual conversations. It was a lot like at Copperbelt, except we haven't started going door to door yet since not a lot of people have moved in yet. (Classes were supposed to start tomorrow, but they were delayed a week, so this week might be similar to last week as far as not having a lot of rooms to go to with occupants). The conversations were pretty easy to start, and the gospel was shared many many times. I had a lot of conversations on what it takes to gain salvation. There are a lot of people who believe the equation is Faith + Works = Heaven but Ephesians 2:8 - 9 would beg to differ, so we would show them scripture and explain that Faith = Heaven and the works are a natural outflowing of us already having salvation. We got some contacts (mostly phone #'s because most didn't have rooms yet) that we will hopefully be able to use use to follow up with and spend some time studying the bible together. Thankfully the days are only 4 hours on campus, so we are not as worn out as we were at Copperbelt.

Wednesday of this week we had a USA vs. Zambia soccer game that consisted of 11 of the americans vs. 11 of the kids from the orphanage. The game took place near a slum called Ng' Ombe and was mainly used to draw attention to the Jesus Film that we showed after. I was lucky enough to be one of the 11 to play the game and it was a blast! We put up a good fight but due to an offsides call and an own goal we could only manage a 3-4 loss. The kids from the orphanage loved it and our director told us that the game was probably something they'd remember for the rest of their lives. I'll gladly take the loss if it means that they can tell all of their friends about the time they beat the Americans in soccer. After the game we all walked to where a projector and screen were set up to show the Jesus Film, which was shown in their native language, Nyanja. The turnout was pretty stellar and at the end of the movie there were so many who prayed to receive Christ as their savior, too many to count! One part of the film that really touched me was when Jesus appeared to the disciples after rising from the dead. The Zambians cheered and cheered when he first appeared and it really shook me how spectacular and wonderful it is that Jesus is who he says he was, and that he rose from the dead to prove it.

On Friday I met up with a team from our director's church who was in Zambia this week specifically working with the orphanage. 3 other students and myself led a devotional in the morning about focusing on Christ, and letting him be our motivation and source of power for the work we were doing at the orphanage. Believe me, it is really easy to get satisfaction out of helping others, but if we aren't doing it in the name of Christ, then it is basically in vain.

After the devotional we all went to the orphanage and continued working on some projects that they were trying to finish this week. They included new windows, an outdoor bathroom, and steps leading to the front door. We made some progress on both of these and as of today everything is pretty much done, except for some last few things with the bathroom. We also had plenty of time to play with the kids again, which was a joy like usual. I had a lot of tickle-fights with some of the younger boys, as well as some good juggling circles with a soccer ball.

Friday night I watched possibly the best soccer game I have ever seen, with Uruguay defeating Ghana in PK's. We went back to the same restaurant as we did when the U.S. game was on, except this time we all were rooting for Ghana. It was a sweet atmosphere teaming up with the other Africans as they held on hope to the last African nation in the world cup. Sadly they lost, but it was still a really fun time.

Last night we went to dinner at the house of the Zambian national director of campus crusade for Christ. His wife prepared a wonderful meal for us, and it was good to relax at the end of the week and enjoy the company of the team from Larry's Church as well as the other Zambian crusade staff members.

Today we went to church and are planning on having a 4th of July dinner, complete with hot dogs, hamburgers, and baked beans. While we are all loving our time in Zambia, we still miss America. Hope you all have/had a wonderful 4th of July!

Truth is who You are