A quick add too...

I realize the 1st post is lengthy, so do get a cup of coffee, a glass of tea or your favorite brew to enjoy as you experience this story.
   The writing of this is pretty awesome in itself.  I do not write much, at all, usually.  I do not like to sit and read or write much, I fall asleep usually if I sit long at all. Especially on an airplane, after a week of cold interrupted sleeping on the ground.
   One of these nights, just before we started back to Lusaka, I woke up at about 3AM(Africa time) and could not go back to sleep.  So I started to pray.  Then I thought I needed to write my experiences down, before I forgot them all.  I had not been able to email all as I had planned, so no 'news' had gone out. I finally went back to sleep.
  A couple of days later, on the plane, I could not wait to start writing. I began  writing some, quite a bit actually, then I got tired and settled in to sleep.  This sleep was about an hour.  It was great. Then I awoke, and was ready to write.  I wrote. And wrote. And Wrote.  One passenger next to me, commented " You have been writing." I said yes I HAD to get some stuff down from the trip.  This guy had been doing some work on his lap top beside me for awhile himself.  He then said " No, You have really been writing, for like 8 hours."  I had.
  I wrote like this on the trip from London to Houston also. One day break in between as we were in Sofitel. The meals they brought were not removed fast enough.    I was driven to write this down.  I hand wrote 50 pages.
   I do not write.  I was inspired, God inspired. I hope you are too.

As it happened, written on the way home.

We arrived in Lusaka, Zambia on Monday, August, 9, 2010, at 6:20 in the morning.  My big question? Was Tony going to be there?

            Let me back up a little bit, well actually back up about 10 hours . When we were about to board the plane in London.  I met a young lady named Naomi, I asked if she was going to Lusaka and she said she was and that her home was in Zambia.  She said she was actually born and raised in Zambia, her father was a missionary, and had actually been in Zambia, when it was called Rodesia. I told her that I would like to meet her dad when we landed.  I  was planning and lining up and preparing to possibly not be picked up by Tony.  What a great resource she and her father would be ,someone so familiar with Lusaka etc. I, obviously not having faith.

   As we cleared customs and stepped out of the airport, there was Tony with his big beaming smile.  Thank God.  Even though I was lacking in my faith , faith that I was in Gods  hands and God was in complete control. Oh, If I had only known, what He had in store for David and me.

   “God is God and I am not.”

Apparently I would find out I was not only here to share “Happiness Unboxed” but was actually going to experience it..

            Well, when we met Naomi’s father he was visiting with a young man.  This man, Chishamba Chibwe, had actually come with Tony .  It seems that Naomi’s fathers church is just across he street from Chishamba’s grandfathers home.  Chishamba had been a child when he first knew Naomies father.  Now Chishamba  is a pastor, will be participating  in the training we are going to present, in Chibombo. Chishimba has been pasturing down in CapeTown South Africa for a time, and has just recently returned to this  area.   Chibombo is 60 KMs north.

   I was in for a treat, for the next 2 days we were able to spend with Chishimba and his wife Lillian and their young daughters Deborah and Saviour.  They are members of the church in Chibombo and he is looking for a church to pastor of his own in Chibombo.

            The woman I meet on the plane is the daughter of a man who pastored a man I was to spend two days with sharing some great teachings with that he can possibly take to his next church he pastors.  Heaven is a place where God’s will is done.

            Tony and Vishnu, Tony’s right hand man, deliver us to  the place we will be staying for 2 days.  Tony calls our accommodation “This is a little guest house, like a little cabin.”  This place is beautiful, quiet and has hot water, most of the time, if the power is on 

            A short time later, Tony and Vishnu return take to us to Bishop Simons home where Deborah and Kyian,(Vishnus wife and son and Judy are staying.  Judy and Deborah will be cooking for us for the duration of our trip.  Tony and Vishnu will be sleeping in the floor of he church.

Vishnu Deborah and Kyian

           Bishop Simon is a very serious man of short stature.  He would prove to be very knowledgable and he has a great vision for planting churches and disciple in his area.  He has planted several churches already and struggling to train leaders for these churches as they are all 10 -15 km away.  Bishop Simon said he needs 10 bicycles to send these pastors out.

Bishop Simon

            Judy and Deborah’s first meal to prepare  for us was lunch, they prepared and served many more for us through out the trip.  These ladies have such a serving heart and attitude.  Each  meal they made us would have 3-5 different foods to choose from and they, themselves would not eat until we had finished our meal.  They are great cooks.

After lunch we went to the church to meet some of those that would be participating in the training.  Some of these people traveled a great distance, 20 or 30 KL.

            Vishnu is unloading the trailer and setting up for the presentation. Setting up the projector, and the speakers, several.  Vishnu is amazing, he works under some interesting conditions with no tools to speak of, and keeps things put together and working. 

None of Tony’s team ever complained.

“Heaven is a Place Where God’s Will is Done.

These guys left South Africa 3 weeks ago had been ministering all through Zimbabwe and Botswawna then into Zambia and had made 2 stops south of Lusaka before picking up the 2 spoiled American white boys for the one week out of our sheltered lives. 

            After a few hours, when almost dark, they were going to show a video at the church.

            David took a short nap in the afternoon, I stayed awake to get on the Zambia time.

            David was able to stay for the video and Tony took me back to the guest house.  I was falling asleep in conversation with the pastor.   When  he realized I would not be returning to the Bishops house for dinner he said he would come back for me, a 20 K drive each way.  I told him I would be fine.  I asked a lady at the guest house if I could get dinner there, for just this night.  This lady was the same hard working woman I had seen cleaning, raking leaves and working in the garden earlier in the day.  Jessie, also prepared my dinner. Jessie brought out a quarter of a chicken and chips (French fries).

I talked with Jessie some. Her Husband had died about a year ago.  She had 7 kids and 4 grandchildren.  She stood near my table as I ate, I asked her when she was finished with work.  She told me when I finished my meal.   I found out later that Jessie would get to the guest house sometime before daylight and leave after dark, she is the help, she cleans, cooks, and rakes leaves and tends to the garden, 6 days a week.  A bit later in the week, as David and I ate breakfast, Jessie is working and singing as she works.

Set up for  Movie Night.

8/10/2010

            Tuesday Morning:  Tony takes us to the church to start.  They open with a lot of  singing and praise.  Everyone there is so gracious and excited that there are Americans there.  David starts our ‘part’ , with the first videos and introduction of ‘Happiness Unboxed’.  He is very talented with teaching as we approached lunch – we had been through ‘Belonging’ .  David was eager and jumped up and asked if there were any questions.    This started a line of questioning that got out of hand quickly and Bishop Simon got up and asked the people to just listen to what we had to say.  We broke about an hour late for lunch and returned to teach  “Winning’  We each did a section on Winning, David did a great job.  We had discussed during lunch to not talk too long and make the discussion ‘about us.’

 When we finished in the evening, Tony said we were going to go out to a church and show a video. David asked where the church was and Tony said “In the bush.”.  Well we drove down dirt roads that turned into trails and finally in about 30 minutes we arrived at this great little church.  There greeting us are mostly kids, as we tried to help Vishnu set up for the movie. ( He really did not NEED our help). 

Wow, here are people that have probably never even seen a movie and their first to see is to be “Passion of Christ” .  The showing was fantastic, the little church was packed and even some were outside.  As the sun set it was beautiful.  After the sun went down it was even more powerful.  I have never seen that many stars.  My favorite nights were those with no moon so I can see the stars.  This is why I love living in the country, no city lights to diminish the darkness.  Let me tell you, after the sun goes down in Africa country, it is DARK.

8/11/10 Wednesday

            Breakfast at 7:30, like everyday. Happy hard working Jessie serving and singing her way back to the kitchen ,which was across the grounds from the outdoor pavillion, where we ate. 

We had a full day of teaching we only sang one song and pressed hard through the day, a long day, but very good.  After a day of teaching Tony says “Another bush Film.”  Tony is great. My kind of guy. 

We want the most out of our time here, and as Bobo says, “Leave it on the trail.”.

Again, off we go, today I notice one of the older men that had been in the session, he is on a bicycle going the direction we are going.  It was about 15 K to the bush church, this man arrived at the church about 5 minutes after we did. Amazing.

Vishnu, hard at work, as always.  This time as we prepared for the movie three ladies bring us a treat, a juice made from maze, and not real sure what else.  Tony says it is a custom to share something with visitors, and this was their sharing.  I waited until the ladies went inside the church, and passed on the sharing. David and Tony indulged on a sip.

8/12/10 Thursday

Travel day, today we travel to the Sarenje District, northwest about 350-400 k’s.  At home this would take no time to travel this, but here it is much different.  David and I have breakfast and I get a chance to talk with David.  I want to share something that I hope will help him out.  He was very gracious and receptive. As God would have it we had a great deal of time to talk, Tony was late today, he did not arrive until 11:00 am.  In Africa when someone says 9 it is okay to expect 10 or 11.  Looking back, at the great discussion David and I had, and the time we had to pray together, it was amazing. God  is God and we are not.  I know this was  “…just what we needed.”  to prepare for the next,more challenging, and ever more rewarding ‘teaching’ to come, than the first.

            We got on the road about 11:30 and what a journey this was.  Our first chance to really be around Judy, Deborah and Kaylen.  David and I started our standard cutting up and giving all around a ‘hard time’.  This also gave us and opportunity to see Pastor Tony in action.

I did not realize how long Tony had been planting churches all over Africa. Actually Tony himself does not ‘realize’ all the time he has been doin this either, or at least he does not credit himself with it. Tony was sharing a story from 1976, WOW! Tony has been all over South Africa, Zimbabwe, Maliwi, Mosambique and the Congo, Botswana and Zambia.  Tony is such a great leader, his team has the utmost respect for him and for good reason, he is an example of what we are sharing with others from Happiness Unboxed. 

We pass police check points, over and over again. The first checkpoints we pretty much just pass through. But as we get close to the border of the Republic of Congo, we come to a checkpoint where the policeman starts to give Tony a hard time, different from the fun hard time I give.  The policeman wants to know what we are doing there and wants to see passports and papers.  Tony gives him some Gospel Tracks, and says “We are missionaries. We are doing the Lords work.”  The guy looks at the tracts and says “ What are you giving me? Pull over to the side.”  So we pull over and Tony gets out and goes into the station.  Knowing the corruption there is in the police military in this country we were a bit uneasy.  So we prayed. After what seemed like a really long time, Tony comes out, gets in the car and says “We are now on to do the Lords work after being detained for a short time by the Devil.”  Wow! 

Psalm 33:16-21 No king is saved by the size of his army; no warrior escapes by his great strength.  A horse s a ain hope for deliverance, despite all it’s reag strength it cannot save. But the Eyes of the Lord are on those who fear him, on those whose hope is in his unfailing love, to deliver them from death and keep them alive in famine We wait in hope for the Lord, he is our help and our shield.  In him our hearts rejoice for we trust in his holy name

We continued up through the mountains. Our comforts were changing.  It had started getting pretty cool, before we left Chibombo and as we gained altitude it was getting really cold.  This was kind of nice for a couple of boys from Texas , except for the fact that I had brought nothing for and David had brought very little clothing for cold weather.  Also up until this point I had been able to talk with Christy on our cell phone each evening, for about 5 minutes a day.  The area we were going into had no cell service.  It was about an hour after dark when we reached a car parked on the side of the highway, at a dirt road. There we met Pastor Isaac, he is the district pastor for this area an the pastor of the church we were destined to start training the next day, Mpepetu.  Another man also joined us, Bonface, a jovial stocky guy with a big smile.  Bonface is a captain in the Zambian military. I will share more of Bonface and his influence a bit later.

 After meeting up with these men we start traveling on the dirt road, it is pitch dark.  We drive about 30 minutes at a pretty fast speed, it is a ‘good’ dirt road. Tony explains we are n tribal land and sometime while here we will have to go to meet the chief.  We finally arrive at the church.  If you think you have been to the middle of nowhere before, I thought I had been too. But now I know where the middle of nowhere actually is.  There were people there, who were very glad to see us, or at least Tony.  Tony is a household name.  It was quite clear to me that our great reception was because we were in the company of Pastor Tony.  Now I have heard Tony tell me stories that were amazing, but now I was in the midst of  people who are sharing their experiences with Tony. “ Tony do you remember the young boy who we bathed and doctored that day with sores all over his body? He has recovered and is well.”  Things like this over and over. 

Vishnu, of course is setting up for the next movie.  We began to realize there was not a cute little guest house nearby.  David and I were having such a great time visiting with these people and watching them get caught up with Tony, and the seeing the different people he had been working with for years, where we slept was not really a concern.  Judy and Deborah had already started dinner for us on blazers, perforated bucket that holds charcoal, Tony David and I were sitting in a hut that had about a 3 foot wall around, with a 2 foot opening on top of that and a grass roof on top of that.  We were visiting with Pator Issac and Bonface.  The wind is swirling around and the smoke from the fire is killing us, but we continue to talk with tears running down our faces.  David and I are not going to give up.  Finally, Pastor Issac grabs his eys and says “Waaa, this is bad.  Whew, David and I thought we were just whimps, so glad it was bothering them too!  The movie ended so we moved to the church.  The ladies finished their cooking and we had another great meal, about 10:30 or 11 pm.   One of the dishes I was spooning onto my rice was described by Judy to be “tin fish” Curry, I am thinking this must be a species of fish I have not heard of, then Tony adds “ In America you call it can fish.” This still does not help me much, then David leans over and says “Sardines.” Still all wonderful.

Tony has an old refrigerator that he hauls on his trailer from South Africa. They at times will be bringing food that they will need for months at a time.  They use the refrigerator as an ice chest, basically. The Pastors have a small freezer in their homes and they make ice to keep this refrigerator cold. 

Tony offers to take us down to a guest house, probably 40 k away. We told him we would rather spend night at the same place they did. David and I slept in a 10x10 room in the back of the church.   Tony had a comforter and 2 light weight sleeping bags for us.  The temperature that night may have been 35, we were breathin heavy fog as we talked.  All of the buildings were built with vents at the top of the solid walls,  so the wind can breeze through. 

The ladies slept in the big part of the church and Tony and Vishnu slept out by the fire.  They put a ‘blazer’ with hot charcol in it, in the room near us, this was great.

About 2 am I heard he steel door open and sat straight up and said “Who’s that?” one of the men from the church said “Sorry Sorry , just putting in more charcoal.”

We depend on you for life.

Sorry? Really? Please, these guys stoked that fire about 4 times that night.

The next morning as David and I went out, they heated pots of water for us to wash our faces .

8/13/10 Friday

Chilly start to our day, the water the guys heated for us was great, but after we threw it on our face it cooled off quickly.  We packed up to leave, but not until the ladies warmed some beef steak sausage and or course some tin fish curry.  Oh,  did I mention one of the dishes that was ever present at each meal, curry. Curry, I have learned, is a style of dish as well as a spice.  The steak was great.

 We load up and head down the road enjoying the warmth of the vehicle, thinking how cold I had been.  We started passing the toddlers and children coming out to the road to wave goodbye to us.  These children had very little if any clothing on, and none had shoes.  That will make a grown man feel like a weenie. 

Give us this day our Daily Bread. We depend on you for life., daily sustenance.

      We just get started and Tony says, “ Lets sing some songs”. Well this does NOT sound fun.  Tony begins to sing, very well. Then he says “David read us your favorite Psalm, David reads Psalm 1

Psalms 1-411 Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. 2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD,and on his law he meditates day and night. 3 He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers. 4 Not so the wicked! They are like chaff that the wind blows away. 5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous. 6 For the LORD watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.

“Anyone else?” asks Tony.  My turn, I read Psalms 23

 1 The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not be in want. 2 He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, 3 he restores my soul. He guides me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. 4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. 5 You prepare a table before me  in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. 6 Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.

Valley of death and fearing no evil seemed fitting after the past night, to me.  Judy and Deborah each also read a Psalms, which I don’t recall, but each spoke to us in a special way.   

Well it seems that holy thoughts and reciting Psalms and singing of songs is not protection against flat tires.  We had a flat on the trailer.  As we were changing the tire a family that lived near and saw us, came over bringing cassava and sweet potatoes.  Tony and Vishnu and I changed the tire, David stayed in the vehicle with the other chicks.(Just checking to see if David is reading this)  After changing the tire Tony made the comment that “The Devil bit the tire trying to keep us from doing Gods work.”  I saw the tire, so I had to tell Tony “ The Devil has been chewing on that tire for about 40,0000 K it is a miracle it has lasted this long, you could see the air through it!”

We traveled mostly on dirt roads for about 45 minutes to Mpepetu,  Tony shows us the church on the left, about 100 yards down the road is a large iron gate with soldiers guarding it.  These guys had very nice AK 47’s, with pistol grips, not the tyipal weapons seen in Africa, usually the firearms I have seen do not seem operable.  Tony says this may take a while, we have to send our passports ahead to gain access to the base.  This is a Zambian military base.  They make bombs and ammunition.  This is nestled in the mountains like a box canyon. Just as we pull up, Pastor Issac pulls up on a bicycle, and says something to the guard nd they open the gate.  Tony says “ Praise God. I used to sit outside this gate for 5 or 6 hours sometimes, but since Bonface ‘the bull’ joined the church we can get right through.”   How many times might one ever approach a bomb facility military base in Zambia and have faith the God would open the gates? My partner Tony.  Pastor Issac lives on the base in on of the barracks that was in pretty bad shape.  They allowed him to live there if he would fix it up.  He has patched the roof and replaced the wiring and a few other things.  They said they would give him a year of free rent, until he fixed the wiring then they decided to charge him electricity.  They did give him another year extention to stay, but still he is pretty much day by day, …. Great faith.

We finally get into the church , about 4pm American and 9am African.  David and I decide that we should start teaching on Saturday. We will do some introductions and show the Passion of Christ again.  Some people have still not arrived, Issac says that he sent a truck to pick up some folks from one of the furthest church 40K away and they were not there yet so he says he would like us to sing some and have testimonies from those that are here. Hearing the word testimony causes the hair on the back of my neck to stand up (borrowing a phrase from my good friend Tom Beard.) I think ‘Oh no!” thinking of experiences I have had in the states from this sort of thing.  How very wrong I was! I know I know hard for most of you to imagine, but I have actually been wrong on occasion. “Often wrong , never in doubt.” (my favorite Steve Brown quote)

These people came one by one, not with the attitude of  ‘my testimony is better than yours’ but in sincere open hearts  of what God has done in their lives.  Many had in some way or another helped or been ministered to by Tony over the years.  Some would share a testimony and then a song.  Others would just sing.  Then Vishnu the hard working, go to, get er done guy, that barely said 5 words the whole week , shyly, humbly steped forward.  Vishnu starts to explain how he was completely abandoned when he was very young, and how Tony had taken him in and shared the Gospel with him.  He said he was grateful to Tony, but mostly God. He still has pain from his earlier life, but this pain gets less every day, as he learns to turn it over to God.  Vishnu chokes up, Tony, David and I may have……I may have….. can’t recall. Ha!  Powerful.  Then just when I thought I would be able to gain my composure, not that I had actually lost it, this teenage girl, Nomsa, comes forward. I had seen her at the pastors house, she is a neighbor of his and lives with her mom, her father had left  them sometime back.  She says she would like to share a song, her singing was absolutely the most beautiful thing I have ever heard.  So much for me composing myself.  Another lady steps up and tells of her child setting their home on fire and that she praises God that she was able to rescue her child from those flames and how God has provided all that they need since then, no word of what she has lost.

 A young man, Chris, comes next, I met him at Issac home.  Issac and his wife had taken Chris in because he had no family.  Chris says he is about to leave on Sunday to go to Ndola, to school. He tells of what God and his parents have done for him.  Issac steps up and put his arms around him and prays for him.  Issac then truns and says it is time to turn it over to the “Great White Men of God, that came to teach to these poor Zambian.” Or at least that is how my ears heard it.  I was definitely humbled.  It is dusk and I look at my watch, we had been doing this for almost 2 hours.  It seemed like maybe 5 minutes.  All I could say, to these people; I am humbled at hearing their powerful testimonies and beautiful singing.  I think David was equally touched, as he had little to say after this also.  After this, we began the Passion of Christ, which again was received well.

8/14/10 Saturday

We woke early to have breakfast and prepare for a long day of teaching.

  I forgot to mention we were in a small motel down near the bomb factory.  This would probably be considered high class by most African standards and downright creepy by ours.  Our  sleeping situation was still way ahead of the other South African team, who all slept in the floor of the church. 

The first night David had bad dreams, we accredit that to the paint fumes in our room.  The rooms had been newly painted with oil based paint and turpentine, probably in anticipation of our stay.  I myself woke with a pretty bad headache. 

There was hot water, in the sink. The tub did not work actually.  So we were to go 3 days without showers.  We now would smell Zambian, instead of like sweet Americans. We are so spoiled.

We had asked Issac and Tony to start at 8am,(9:30AM Zambian time).  We met in a room this time at the school, instead of outside church area, because the temperature was still somewhere below 40.  Our motel room was a bit warmer, I think probably about 41. These hotel rooms were about the same as the other, openings across the top of the room for cross breeze, with no way to cover. 

The teaching went well for the majority of the morning until one woman made a comment of if a believer then one should no longer be sinning.  She said the Bible says that Paul never sinned once he believed.  Obviously not using the same Bible we were. Or a different translation.  We had Tony take over, he explaned and showed her some truth in the Bible, this did take some time away from our teaching. We finally broke for lunch.  During lunch I talked to Isaac and he confirmed what I suspected this woman was doing.  She was trying to pull us into something, away from the teaching, to stir and control the local church body. How refreshing, (Not) after the night before I thought how nice it was they did not have the ‘typical desension stirring souls’ that we have experienced at home.  God though, did not allow anything to ruin the precious evening… God’s Grace!

 Isaac spoke after lunch to silence the minion, and we continued. I presented Vertical relationships and David started Horizontal Relationships and preparing to do a part of forgiveness.  Tony passed a note to me saying we should leave at 3:15 to see the ‘Chief.  I passed this note to David, this gave him 15 minutes to conclude.  Cutting his 35 minutes to 15, was great! It was short and sweet and much more impactful. (You did great David! Just razzing you, a bit)

This ‘activity’ was my least favorite part of the trip.  We drove for over 30 minutes to the ‘Chief’s Palace’. To me, this was the equivilant to going to DC and kissing a politicians butt. This is however important to Tony’s ministry.  At the beginning of his ministry and contact with these people a lot of children were dying from an unknown illness. The chief and tribe concluded that Tony and his team were the cause of the deaths, and they were evil. It took Tony some time to convince them of the truth. Tony shared the gospel with this chief.  Once meeting this chief I could see the respect he has now for Tony.  I personally had no desire to go into the palace and meet this chief (butt kissing and man pleasing is not something I aspire to) Tony though, very much wanted us to meet the chief, out of respect for Tony, I complied.  Just as we reached the door, Tony turns and adds, to his reluctant friend.  “When you go in you are to bend down and clap your hands, 3times to the left and then three to the right.” And demonstrates this ridiculous  ritual.  So convenient to have left this out.    “ You are kidding me.” I exclaim a bit harshly. He was not kidding, so glad no one had video.

This Chief Guy offered to give Tony any of the land that he wants to build on or do whatever he would like to with.  He wanted Vishnu to fix his truck.  Tony explained that we did not have time to repair his truck.  Finally we leave. I am so ready to get back to Mpepetu and show the movie.  Did I say before this is my least favorite part of the trip? As we start to drive off, Tony says we are going to stop and see the Chieftiness on the way back.  Chieftiness? I ask. Yes a chieftiness over another tribe.  Well there ya go, what I thought was a bad experience is about to get worse. So, we pulled up to the Cheiftiness palace one or her subjects meets us, he takes us to the front porch and we sit and wait to kiss her highneyness, (that is funny I don’t care who you are.) We wait for an hour, finally she appears out of the front door. In all of Chieftiness Royalty and drunkenness.  What a contrast to the genuine God fearing people we met the night before.

God is God and we are not.  Even as hard as we try to rule.  This woman could sure benefit from Happiness Unboxed.

Chieftiness goes back in. We still wait, again. Why? 15 minutes later she re-appears and invites us inside. I guess she had to straighten up?

God showed us the contrast of someone who has seemingly everything, in her culture here on earth. She has subjects to do everything she wills. 

Heaven is a place where Gods will is done.

I think her life her way is hell.

The people at the church , little or nothing, yet they are so rich, praising God for what he provides, content in Him. He provides all they truly need.

Give us this day our daily bread

This chieftiness begged us to stay, she told Tony if we did not stay she would cry until 4 AM.

I am thinking OK, I will cry if I have to stay another minute! Tony says “We must go right now, we are late to do God’s work and that is the most important thing.”

We start back, finally. We get within a mile of the church and here comes “The Bull” Bonface, he had become concerned with us being late and thought we had run into trouble and had set out to rescue us. My kind of guy. We returned to show another movie. 

We went to Issacs home to wait dinner around 10PM, Chris the pastors young son,  who is leaving the next day for school, (riding with Bonface),  comes in and asks Tony if he would pray for him. Tony and David and I pray with him.  Later that evening I see him in the backyard praying with his father.

8/15/10 Sunday

I asked Tony to pick us up early, if possible, so we can get a head start on the long journey back to Lusaka.  I also wanted some time to spend with the team so we could unwind and share. Early must mean Early even in Africa, Tony arrived at 7:30. Miracles do happen.

As we left the motel Tony explained that we would need to stop by and see the Colonel , the base commander. Man oh Man I have packed a lifetime (mine) of butt kissing into just two days.  Or maybe just maybe I’m learning ‘this is just what I needed.’  Tony sees the big picture, a picture I think I have been refusing to look at, to consider. These things, that I consider butt kissing, allow him to continue his ministry, it allows him to cover all bases. Not only those he is planning on reaching but those that get in the way.  Tony is unrelenting in his pursuit to do God’s work, police, military, Chiefs, Chieftiness’, flat tires, stubborn Americans, nothing stops him.  We NEED this faith!

Tony shared with us that when he leaves South Africa with a team, he asks them to leave their cell phones at home. “If someone dies they die. Just like the time Debrorah's uncle died, then we are praying for Deborah and she is crying and crying just leave em at home, we have God’s work to do.”.  You da man Tony.

We went to visit the Colonel and woke his wife, she came to the door wearing her robe, and said the Colonel was out of town.  She knew Tony and Judy and was glad they had dropped by. We then went to the church and worked on the trailer lights for about an hour.

Whilst we (British phrase used often, fancy ain’t it?)wait we joined the beginning of the church service. We participated in worship with music with this young ‘choir’, lacking any better term to refer to them.

We saw this group Friday evening also, pretty amazing. The pastor said they use the ‘original keyboard’ a tribal drum. The leader plays it with a stick, he wacks it on top and the wooden side of the drum, as they sing.  He would lead with a beautiful bass voice and the choir accompanies, it is a sweet sweet sound. They stand in a circle facing each other and march out to the beat of the drum. They shook our hands and then went out through the congregation. It was awesome to see.  We said a few words and hopped back into the car for a short 8 hour trip to Lusaka.

We had a lot of fun in this trip, joking and cutting up and down.  I had brought some silly string with me, as a weapon to fend off cannibals from eating David, and did not have to use it, so I pulled out the silly string and shot it.  I  shot the windshield the steering wheel and the back seat. Tony never turned his head from the road, but was most interested in ‘this stuff’.

As we neared Lusaka we came to another Police checkpoint, not the first of the day. This time though was not the typical pass through, these police asked Tony for paperwork.  Tony gets out lots of documents and hands them to the official, all in order.  The official then starts to look around the outside of the vehicle, he tells Tony he has no reflectors on the front bumper as he should.  Here we go again.  We pull to the side. Tony goes in. Vishnu gets and goes to the trailer.  I do not notice, but Vishnu goes and takes the reflectors off of the back of the trailer, which had already been inspected.  Vishnu takes these reflector to the station and explains he has just found the reflectors to put on the front of the vehicle, he had just forgotten to put them on.  Thinking on his feet , a get er done guy, a guy after my own heart.

Tony had plans to take us back to Chibombo, the same guest house and bed there and leave early in the morning to get Lusaka airport at 5:30, the required 3 hours earlier check in for our 8:30 flight out.  After our flat tire, and the various unpredictable police stops, and remembering the over abundance of traffic in Lusaka, I thought this may not be the best plan to make our flight. I wanted to be as close to the airport as possible, because Africa happens.  This time I do not believe it to be a lack of faith, it is just using the good sense God gave me.  I told Tony that ‘we’ (the MBC Happiness Unboxed team) wanted to gift Tony and his team with a stay Sunday night  in a hotel and a meal (giving Judy and Deborah a break) in Lusaka. Tony agreed and we drove through Lusaka, passed several hotels going towards the airport.  We get to the airport and no hotels are near. Tony suggests we just pull off the road and camp out in the grass near the airport.  NO, Tony. We start back towards town, and stop at the hotel there.  I was able to ‘jew’ them down some on their price, and got us in three rooms there including meals. 

We were able to take showers, after 3 days of none, we needed them.  Those on the 10 hours flight to London, don’t know how blessed they were that we did not camp out in the grass before our flight out.  We ate a great meal, with out the woman building the fire. We were able to sit back and reflect and have some fellowship. I thank God for providing my spiritual sustenance this night.

Now a 2 day journey and we are home.

Hoping this journey did not bore you, I felt a need to share this experience. I hope you feel the desire to experience it through word.  I want to thank all of you who; supported us with prayer and funding.  Your prayers and faith is the only way this can come together.  I shudder to think of all the things that could have ‘gone wrong’ . However God is God and we are not. So I want to encourage all of you to make yourselves available. Make yourself available at home, or wherever God may be leading you. You definitely do not need to be eloquent in speech or writing, you do not need be a great teacher or speaker. All you have to do is be available, God will do all the rest. 

Remember:

Happiness is when our circumstances = expectations.

 Accept whatever comes into your life as ‘just what you needed.’

God IS God, and you are not.

How we relate to others effects our relationship with God

Love God, love others.

If you would like to know more about this, these quotes, what they mean, what inspired Tim to write them, this road to contentment. It is from Happiness Unboxed, and inspired by The Truth, the Living Word, God’s Word, the Bible. I would love to discuss any of this with you, share, fellowship.

Thank you, Tim Dunn, for this book. It has changed my life. 

I would finally like to thank my beautiful wife Christy, who is my inspiration.  Christy is also putting this blog together for me, to allow me to share this with others. 

The background music is Nomsa Nyirenda, the teenage girl in Mpepetu Zambia that sang so beautifully. (Thanks David for helping me get this)

Thanks David for being ‘my partner in crime’ so to speak.

In your next trial, and it will be there, put your faith in God and say…

“This is just what I needed.”

Keith