God Continues to Move!

VBS Explodes-

The news is out that the Mzungus (white people) are in the compound so when we pulled up today there was already a huge group that started running alongside the bus as we pulled up to Chipata Overspill. The roads are very narrow with crater like potholes so we parked and walked the quarter mile to Joyful Baptist Church. All the way the children were squealing and laughing and formed a huge procession behind us. Over 300 children showed up and our team and our resources were taxed to the limit today. However, with some quick thinking we were able to adjust and survive. Actually, the day went very well. One great moment occurred today at the game station. Wayne asked for a volunteer juggle a soccer ball in front of the other kids. One of the boys volunteered and began to keep the ball in the air on one foot and the kids counted the hits…20…30…40…50…60…70…80…90…100!…and finally Wayne had to just come over and hug the kid and have them give him a big round of applause because he was taking too much time. We should have known when the kid rolled his pants leg up and pulled his long socks up to the knee in preparation.  

Coloring is something we take for granted, but these kids just can't get enough of!

Acting out the story of the man carried by four friends (from Mark 2)

Picking Ripe Fruit

Thank you so much for your faithful prayers. Because you are lifting us up we had our most fruitful day of evangelism. Over 20 people trusted Christ as Savior and many more were invited to see the Jesus film we will show outdoors on Saturday night at Kamrise Private School. Please pray for this night when hundreds of people from the compound will descend on this outdoor location where we will set up a generator, sound system and video projector to show this 2 hour movie of the Life of Jesus which has been translated into Nyanja. At the conclusion Pastor Banda will give an altar call. We are praying for many to trust Jesus as Savior and Lord.

Another Divine Appointment

God continues to show us that HE put our entire team together including our interpreters. Yesterday, one of our teams walked up to a small shop and began to try to engage the owner but were unable even through the interpreter. It turns out that he spoke an entirely different language called Bimba. When we got back to the bus they shared this story and found out that one of our interpreters is actually from that tribe but has been helping us in translate English to Nyanja. So, today that team was able to go back to the small shop and share Jesus and the shop owner prayed to receive Christ. 

 Never Without Opposition

We have learned that we never go unopposed when we are sharing Jesus. There have been distractions this week such as the occasional town drunk that will want to monopolize our time, phone calls by interpreters during our witnessing, and even a denomination that teaches that Baptist are of the devil. (to keep us from evangelizing their members.) One of our teams faced opposition today of a strange variety. There was a group of five teenage boys sitting out in front of what appeared to be a store. The team approached them and were welcomed. There was no one tending the store at the time. Right in the middle of sharing the gospel, the shop owner returned and began yelling at the team. This is extremely unusual in African culture. They are a very soft spoken people and I have never heard an African raise their voice. It just isn’t done. She scolded the team for not coming into the store and asking for permission to speak to the patrons. She even said that they were trespassing and that if they did that to someone else they might have thrown hot water on them! The proper apologies were made and the team offered to leave but then she said: “No, I will not stop someone from talking about Jesus- so go ahead. But just ask next time.” The establishment turned out to be the local Pub and our missionary thinks it is highly likely that she had been drinking up her profits.  Despite the opposition, these five teenage boys prayed to receive Christ, and we have a discipleship appointment for tomorrow.

Please pray for:

• Our last day of VBS- we will be doing the Bridge to Life demonstration and offering to meet with kids who want to pray to receive Jesus
• People to be drawn to the first service of the new church being planted this Sunday
• Overall endurance of the team- fatigue has began to set in
• Follow Up Appointments tomorrow to present bibles and begin discipleship