“Your steadfast love, O Lord, extends to the heavens,
your faithfulness to the clouds.” Psalm 36:5
Hello from Lusaka, Zambia!
I have never seen so many beautiful smiles in my life. I think when God was dishing out beautiful smiles, He gave the Zambians an extra helping.
Friendliness is a hallmark of Zambians. Anytime we go anywhere and meet a new group of people, especially in the church we’re serving in, people are very intentional about coming up to each of us and shaking our hands.
This month we’re working with a local Zambian pastor, Alick Malama. The rest of my team and I live with he and his family in their house. We’ve been spending the entire month helping out in his church, Eagle’s Nest International Ministries, and teaching devotions in a school that’s funded by his church.
Pastor Alick has allowed us to help out in his church is so many great ways. We’ve had the pleasure of sharing testimonies during a revival, sing some songs for the church during worship, and minister to people in a local slum. Ministering to people in the slums has been one of my favorite parts. We would form three teams of about 5-7 people go out into the slums and visit people asking how we can pray for them. There is so much need here.
The slums are filled with one or two room homes made of old cinder blocks or warped wood with several people living in them. Trash is everywhere and sometimes piled in corners. Most of the children are wearing old clothes with holes in them and are barefoot or wearing shoes that often don’t have shoe laces or are far too big. The faces of the residents appear hopeless sometimes. Like they’re waiting for a miracle.
Then, this past week, something amazing happened.
Myself, three of my teammates, and three people from the church went out into the slums, like normal, praying for God to send us to people who need to be encouraged. Usually, every time we would visit a new house, the residents would immediately bring out chairs for all of us to sit in, even without knowing why we were there. Hospitality is a major part of the culture here. Anyway, this particular day, the first few houses we visited didn’t want to talk with us. So, we decided to venture down a road we hadn’t been before… we knocked on a door.
That’s when we met William.
He immediately invited us into his house (a boarding house) and sat us down. We proceeded to offer him encouragement, telling him God loves him in ways he can’t even imagine and asking if there was anything we could pray for him about. Then he told us something that still floors me…
He said our visit was “very timely” and said, “Just five days ago I started to feel I needed to repair my shaky relationship with God, and now you guys show up.” Unreal.
We talked with him for a while and I felt like God wanted me to tell him that Devil wants us to feel condemned for decisions we may have made in the past, but, God freely offers all people a new and abundant life in Christ. Jesus didn’t die for our sins so we would suffer in guilt. He wants to set us free. We also invited him to Eagle’s Nest church.
Just then, his roommate, Confidence (yes, that’s his name), walked in and shared he was a Christian also, but didn’t know his roommate was going through this time of feeling distant from God. He also shared he had just moved there from Zimbabwe and was looking for a new church. We were eager to also invite him to Eagle’s Nest. It was amazing.
We offered to pray over William and Confidence before we left. We stood in a circle to pray, but then William got down on his knees in the middle with his arms stretched towards Heaven. It made my heart skip.
We prayed for God to bless them both and invited them to church. One of the men in our group offered to pick them up on Sunday since William and Confidence weren’t familiar with the area.
Then, yesterday (Sunday), they came to church! My team and I were thrilled. Afterwards, Confidence and William gave us big hugs. I needed God’s presence that morning, and He absolutely showed up. Looking over at William and Confidence worshipping, and with tears streaming down my face, we sang:
“Healing rain is falling down / Healing rain is falling down.”
God is healing the nations.
Pictured: William (the man we ministered to), Me, Anny, Confidence, William (worship leader), Jaymon (sitting).
