My team’s ministry our first month is a bit different from a normal World Race month. All other teams have a missionary contact that will give them their mission assignment, but this month we are finding the contacts. The World Race is a growing program at Adventures in Missions. As more people go on the World Race, Adventures in Missions wants to have more contacts so the mission can expand to serve even more of the world. So this month we get the awesome opportunity to serve future racers by being in the community and finding people who are furthering God’s Kingdom. This ministry is called Unsung Heroes. Unsung Heroes was created to find those people who are doing God’s work that may not be getting any recognition. It is for the lady who has a heart to help prostitutes because she has seen the destruction of HIV in her own family. So she gives her own time and the little money she has to help these girls. Often the time is late at night and the money she spends also must support her family. But no matter the cost this lady sacrifices herself to love just like Jesus. But no one knows about her, there is no website on her, or charity to support her (as of now). But through unsung heroes I got the chance to hear about Irene through people and I got the chance to sit down with her personally and hear her story. Because Irene is a Unsung Hero many women, who some people would have taken a second look at, have come to know Jesus.
Getting to hear people’s stories like Irene, has made this month so encouraging. We have the privilege to see how God is already at work here in Zambia through some amazing people. Also this month has been stretching out team. We were 7 people who had only been around each other a week prior to coming on the race. Then we were put in a country and told to find some contacts. We had no idea how each other worked or how to work with each other, but God knew exactly what He was doing. Our team has come together and fought together for the same goal… Jesus! Philippians 2:2! We have had to depend God to show us contacts, to provide a place to sleep, and to overcome language barriers. But with every obstacle God has been faithful and provided.
On our first traveling adventure we heard about an orphanage in Kitwe, Zambia. We decided this place was worth checking out so we started our journey to Kitwe without a definite place to stay. But the Lord provided at the right moment there was one place that was out of our budget to stay but then through some connections in Kitwe, God provided a place to sleep! But this was no surprise to God he had us go exactly where He wanted us, because here we met Charles. Charles was the director of the New Life Center that graciously allowed us to stay at their facility, and we got to here his story. Charles went out one day to pray, he had just graduated from seminary and he ended up in prison! Yes prison. He was praying in a spot near a drug bust and the Drug Enforcement Agents agents took him in and arrested him even though the men involved in the smuggling testified Charles was not one of them. The DEA is corrupt in Zambia and they collect money for the amount of people they turn in not if the people are innocent or guilty. While in prison Charles had a hard time accepting his fate he questioned God and was angry. But through the four months he was in the prison, God was there. Charles was treated with undeserved kindness and then he got the ability to preach in places that most outsiders cannot go and 86 prisoners came to believe in Jesus as their Lord and Savior. So we got to hear about the prison ministry he started plus all the ministries that come from the New Life Center.
These are just two stories from people God is using here in Zambia. There are many more stories of God’s Faithfulness from this month. So check out my teammates blogs (Zealous Love), and if you would like to here more of Charles’s story go to http://www.newlifezambia.com/New_Life_Prison_Ministry.html (It’s a really awesome story of God using what seemed like a horrible situation into a glorifying one)
Our team has been through a lot this month we have traveled many hours to all parts of Zambia to find all the contacts we could, and it is so evident that God is doing some big things here and I am so blessed that I got to see a little glimpse through the people who are being his hands and feet.
