This is Fred, but I call him Freddie. He is 21 and lives by himself in a Zambian village called Nsongwe, (pronounced song-way). He serves the Lord through Overland Missions as a translator. Every single week of this man’s life is spent in the African bush serving alongside other missionaries. He taught me more in one month than most have taught me my whole life.
I wanted to write a short blog on him. He has an amazing singing voice that sounds like broken sunlight. That really is the only way I know how to describe it. He is kind in everything that he does. He is smart. He gets up at dawn to bring back water from the well. He definitely can navigate the African bush even if it is pitch black dark. He always puts others first. Even though it pretty much shatters the most basic rule in the African culture, he sits down with me after meals and helps clean the dishes. He was the picture of a man who loved Jesus by loving others.
We were walking back to camp after a long day of ministry, in the blaring heat of the afternoon sun. Well actually I was just shuffling my feet; he was walking. I was complaining to him for several minutes about how miserable this walk was- were we almost there? Was he hot too? How was this real life? If I died would he carry me? Then, I stopped walking. I just stopped. I wanted to fly away, I told him. Or at least find a swimming pool. He just quietly laughed and listened to me complain some more before saying the most amazing four words-
“You are being chopped.”
What the heck did that mean? Chopped. He explained it to me-that God was chopping away parts of me so that there would be room for Him, and sometimes that meant doing things that didn’t feel good, or that was uncomfortable. Four words changed my life.
I spent the next 3 weeks in Zambia being chopped. I continue to be chopped here in South Africa. Sometimes, I can still hear him say those words in my head. “…Chopped. You are being chopped. Make room.”
I love you Fred. May God bless your life as much as you have blessed mine.
