We are back from Chipata, located in the Eastern Province of Zambia. It’s about 7 hours drive. Thankfully the road is perfect. Often I have to keep singing and listening to hymns and sermons to keep my mind awake. However, the stress of such a journey is all forgotten when I think about the successful mission we had.
We had a good time of fellowship at Chipata Christian Tabernacle where I taught on “Discerning the Lord’s Body” before proceeding to Muuma Village which was the purpose of our mission.
Like all other villages in Zambia, Muuma of Chief Mnukwa is away from the luxuries and noisome activities of cities. My wife and I stayed there for three days. We lived in a nice thatched house. With no conventional electric lights anywhere, the night is quite dark in this village. However, this made us enjoy the beautiful sight of the sky dotted with stars and spruced with a brightly lit moon. Later in the night, from a distance is a din of the beating of African drums. Some for entertainment and others for revering spirits.
In a village like this, one gets to experience lost cultural values of family and friendship. Sitting and reading under a tree-shade, different passers-by would wave or bow in greeting. Back in city people hardly greet even in closely compacted rooms of elevators.
The sad state of Villages
Great missionaries like Dr David Livingstone had left Europe to come and preach and also teach us how to read.
Today we can read and earn an income but sadly very few have thought about taking the Light of Life to the rural places. Young people are mainly obsessed with building and investing in the city. Meanwhile old folks are left to break their backs in the hot sun of the villages. What is more, we now have a new breed of missionaries who care less about simple basics of the Gospel of helping the needy of the world. Modern missionaries are market researchers given to search for niches where they can siphon out the little that people earn, promising them God’s blessings in exchange. Their revivals thrive on people’s superstition and ignorance. Thus rural areas have remained impoverished. There are no decent schools. I was so appalled to see one dilapidated school (watch a brief video report at the end of this report). There are no churches (except for a few traditional ones. Clearly in such places there are no people with the ‘seed’ to sow in the ‘Give and Prosper Ministries’!)
Meeting the chief and headmen
On the morning of going to meet the chief and headmen to secure land for a church and mission school, we closed up ourselves with my wife in a beautiful thatched room where we prayed, calling on the Light of God to shine over the village. Ours is a mission to pick up from where early European missionaries left from.We managed to meet the chief, after going through the protocol of conversing with his security personnel. We presented an official letter of our request and then went on to discuss the goal of our mission. He was very pleased. “Giving land to a church is top on our priorities because through that our people will be helped spiritually as well as physically.” I knew what he meant by “physically”. In the village a person will do very hard work in exchange for a simple shirt to wear. Many families work for salt, a rare commodity in the villages. After being assured of a wonderful size of land, I was so grateful in my heart and I said to myself, “Kuyere!” (Let there be Light).
Office and Residence of Chief Mnukwa.
Just as we were leaving the palace, walking towards our car, two women rushed to come and greet us. “Do you remember us?” They asked. They went on to explain and testified of how we once prayed for them at a home revival meeting and how great the revival they experienced. That was as if something was beckoning to say, “Come, this is a ripe field for the Lord’s work.”
At this time we are planning crusade activities and are working on a project to construct a church building in Muuma Village. Pray with us, and if you feel led, your financial support will be of much help. God bless.