Muri Bwanji

We know know enough Nyanja to make fools of ourselves. Nyanja is the language of the people around Lusaka and east. Fortunately, most people speak English. There are 72 tribal languages that are spoken in Zambia.

We are working in three areas.

Pastor with young couple

Bethel Baptist Church

1.     Kafue. Kafue is a small city of about 50,000 people south of Lusaka (I think). I want to look at Google Earth and find it on Google Earth. The church is only a couple blocks from the Steel Mill in Kafue. The church in Kafue is Bethel Baptist Church. They have a school (k-9). They have about 800 students, but hope to expand. The pastor is Rev. Bonface Mwalusaka. He works for USAID in Lusaka which is at the US Embassy. Their building is very nice and has potential of much growth. The community made of single family homes and multifamily units. Around the church, there are a number of industries where the people work. My teaching partner, Rev. Dwight Cook, formerly the pastor of Trinity Baptist Church in Honolulu, and I both preached at Bethel Church on Sunday. The music was awesome. I think it was Women’s Sunday because the Women’s Praise group led the singing, not the normal praise team. Rev. Cleveland Thompson of Emmanuel Missionary Baptist Church in Colorado Springs and Eleazar Z. are leading the stewardship workshop at Kafue.

Church in Chongwe

2.     Chongwe: We drove East of Lasaka to get to Chongwe. This church is located in the rural church of Chongwe. About two hundred people live in Chongwe. It is much what we imagine African villages to be. The homes are built of blocks with thatch roofs. The extend family lives in various houses, but in the center is a family kitchen, which has an open fire and a thatch roof. As the families are able, they put sheet metal roofs on their houses. Dwight and I taught on stewardship today and we will return tomorrow to Chongwe. We had a huge crowd for the workshop today. The pastor shared with us that many of the families are headed by widows. HIV/Aids is still a huge issue in Zambia.

3.     Lusaka: The third site is at the Garden Center Church in Lusaka, the capital. I cannot share any pictures of this church because we have not been to this church yet. Rev. Thompson preached at this church on Sunday and Rev. Rodney Perry from Central Baptist Church in Denver and Rev. Sean Tucker from Second Baptist Church in Mumford NY are leading the stewardship workshop at this church.

After years of traveling to Mexico and enduring the very roads, Zambia has been a breeze as far as driving. They highways are in great shape. When I commented on this, the President of the Baptist Convention of Zambia, Rev. Isaac Zulu, explained that Zambia has been taking out many loans from China to build the roads. Of course, this also helps China import their cheep products and export Zambia’s rich natural resources.

Well, I should go and prepare to meet with our team.

Zikomo kwa mbili,

Mike