After a very good dinner last night, we met in the main lodge to go over logistics and for our time of devotions. We are reading through the book of Jonah, so Nick read and taught the passage. We sang "Hope of the Nations" and "O For a Thousand Tongues" together and had an all together wonderful time of worship and fellowship. Mr. and Mrs. Pitts shared some of themselves and gave us a brief summary of the Tonga. Warnings, precautions, and wisdom was given. After prayer we went back to our Chalets and Vickie, Sarah, John, and Robbie (the chalet mates) sat on our porch and did an overview of our creation to Christ stories to brush up on and critique one another's stories. We ladies took showers, cold and slightly gritty, then sleep. I slept like a baby.
The alarm went off at 6 AM and we rolled out of bed and got dressed. Breakfast at 6:30 AM, devotions with the resort staff at 7 AM. Monkeys watched us eat breakfast, as well as a man outside the gate who begged us for food for his family. This made me lose my appetite, as we couldn't give him anything. Gluttony stared at me from my bowl of warm oatmeal with apples. The devotions this morning were wonderful. The men's singing literally gave me chills. It was all men, but the harmonies, melodies and rhythms made me close my yes in delight. The fact that they were praising God was a sweet start to our day. Now off to meet the evangelism team. May God be glorified in word and deed today!
5ish PM--Sunset Deck
What an amazing first day of ministry! We were slightly delayed because the two brothers who we were supposed to work with couldn't be found. Mr. Duncan and Nick went off in the truck to find them, but had no luck. They found Kelvin, one of the interpreters, so we loaded int0 the overlander and set off. We parked on the side of the road near a school, disembarking our enormous mode of transportation. We didn't have permission from the head man to begin evangelism, so we spent the morning doing some sight seeing. We walked around the small clusters of mud and stick huts, exploring and being laughed at by the women we encountered. They jabbered Tonga at us, and when we smiled in our confusion, they laughed heartily at us. One of the ladies knew a little English, so they immediately began teaching us the Tonga equivalent to every word they could think of. They all knew "Good afternoon" and "thank you", but otherwise it was quite the challenge to communicate with out an interpreter. When we got to the school, the teacher dismissed class, so we were surrounded by curious children. They were gathered together and they sang us a song. We went back to the truck and the guys broke out a soccer ball. Cheers went up and all the guys set off for the barren sandy scrap of land on the other side of the road to begin a game with the boys. We continued to talk with the women and I had a chance to ask Mrs. Tatiana about some of the ministries they were doing, including discipleship. She gave a lot of insights into the Tonga people and piqued my interest to learn more. We broke for lunch around noon, going back to Mlbizi to eat some mac and cheese. We went back out after forming into evangelism teams. We went to the school where we had visited that morning. They gathered all the children again and they assembled for us. They sang for us, we sang for them and Robbie gave his testimony. Nick talked to the kids about staying in school and listening to their teachers. He also incorporated the story of the rich young ruler. The children were dismissed, but they hung around, staring at us and whispering with giggles whenever we tried to speak to them. My evangelism team, Brad, Tony, Robbie, Edward, Alex, and myself set off for the huts in the bush behind the school. We spoke first to Silus, a 54 year old man who was sitting in the shade of his hut, twisting rope. Brad shared the C2C (Creation to Christ) story and he prayed to put his trust in Christ. My faint heart doubted his profession of faith, as we have been told that the Tonga will tell you yes to please you. However, God knows the man's heart, and if it was a genuine confession, a souls has been brought into the kingdom of God! At the second house, I shared the C2C, but they said they went to the Church of Christ church. The other two homes visited were Church of Christ, so we invited them to the service tomorrow. We walked back to the truck and head back to the resort.
9:19 PM--Mlbizi Resort
The sunset was gorgeous tonight. As I watched the sun sink on the horizon of Zambia, I wondered how it was possible that anyone could believe there wasn't a creator and designer. A group of clouds sat just above the horizon, ablaze with the sun as it sunk through them and finally emerged at the horizon's edge. The blazing ball of fiery red rapidly sunk, leaving nothing but a hazy pink sky and soft golden clouds above. The lake was peaceful, and the remaining blue sky and clouds reflected in the shallows as it gently lapped on the shore. Absolutely beautiful.
Dinner was good again; we had a good time of visiting and fellowship. Our time of devotions was interesting with Tony leading. We sang Kumbaya, held hands, and most of the team danced to Jambulani Africa!. Not me of course. :-) We are leading staff devotions tomorrow morning and we'll be singing. Breakfast at 6:30 AM, full day of ministry planned. I pray God uses us!
No comments:
Post a Comment