Zambian Culture: The Visitor

I think Zambian culture is pretty interesting. People do not marvel at something they see everyday, but my own culture leaves me wowed sometimes. Granted I have not been brought up in a very traditional set up and perhaps that's why I notice these things and are left mesmerized. But there are certain things I have certainly observed. Take for instance the place of a visitor in Zambian culture.


The Visited

Receiving visitors is a special thing. It is part of our culture to make someone feel welcome. In Zambian culture when a visitor comes to your home, life comes to a halt. It doesn't matter if you have an exam tomorrow that you are not ready for or work for which you are rushing, the visitor immediately becomes priority number one. The visitor must be welcomed into the house and offered a sit at the very least. If the visitor comes close to meal time, he/she is immediately catered for. The visitor must be entertained. If the home owner is away, the children know that theirs is the responsibility to entertain the visitor until the owner gets home. The visitor cannot be left with a television or radio to keep them occupied. If the visitor is ignored the parents are tagged as people who have not brought up their children well and even the children are tagged as rude and even disrespectful.

If the television was on, it is usually muted or turned off to give the visitor full and undivided attention. Also it is rude to ask the visitor what has brought them to your home. Anything which even hints at looking forward to the visitors departure is left out of either conversation or behaviour. Smiles are maintained and interest levels are kept high in the visitor. It is up to the visitor to divulge his reasons for being there.

The visitor is usually served with a drink at least and usually something to eat. Again if a visitor is not served with anything to eat, it reflects badly upon the family. That's where there is an anomaly in Zambian culture. Very rarely will Zambian's share money, but they will certainly share food! If the visitor comes from out of town, they needn't even warn their hosts-to-be of their arrival, they can simply come in, and preparations will be made for them to have a room and a bed. Limited space will mean the eviction of children from a room to the sitting room to leave the room for the visitor(s).

Many families will school their children in what to do when visitors come. Their reputation as a family often hinges on the report that visitors send to others when the leave the home they visitor.


The Visitor


Because of this high value that is placed on the visitor, many have abused our lovely culture. There are some who devise brilliant schemes to take advantage of the place of a visitor in our culture. Some, especially bachelors living on their own and also lazy relatives, will target certain homes and happen to visit those homes at meal times. If they use tact and plan well, they can literally have three meals a day for an entire week being sure to make the visits as apparently abrupt, infrequent and random as possible.

Other relatives will visit with a bag of clothing and spend some weeks staying at a home. They will survive that long because to make a visitor feel that you do not want them is the biggest blunder you can make as you would be disrespecting him/her and be damaging your own reputation. Thus the family can only wonder how long this relative or friend will be around. If the visitor is smart, they will absorb as much hospitality as they can and move on to their next victims in good time before being seen as a burden or inconvenience. This is true especially of older relatives, Uncles, Aunties and Grandparents who have the added advantage of not only being visitors but also being older in age and the value of the visitor in our culture is already high, add to that the value of being older in age and you have someone who cannot be touched!

The visitor however is also in danger of picking up a bad reputation. If the visitor is discovered to be one who employs the schemes described above to take advantage of his/her high value, if word does it's rounds, the visitor will soon discover that they are being avoided and it also becomes easier for the visited to send them off because if the the visitor attempts to share that they were treated very poorly, obviously, it will not carry any weight.

Thankfully, the are those who bring honour to the place of the visitor by being a joy to host by the visitors. Many times, regret is admitted by the family to see them leave and at their departure, an invitation is immediately extended that the visitor return soon. May we all be that kind of visitor!

Finally, the high value of the visitor in Zambian culture has made the sharing of the gospel a very easy task. If you go to a home as a complete stranger you will almost in all cases be given time. Many will let you into their homes and some would even serve refreshments. Thank God for the high value placed on the visitor in our culture!

"Visitor always brings joy to a family, either by their coming or their going."

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Post Funeral Thoughts

Today I attended a funeral. A few things struck me.

First of all, I expected very few people to attend the service. On the contrary, the church car park was quite full; two big buses were in use for transporting people and there were many cars. The church itself was well filled. The reason I expected very few people is because very few people were there for the person who died during his illness. It was a hustle getting people to be by the ailing man's side so as to relieve his wife a while. However to my surprise, there were lots of people.

There were lots of people crying too. I prefer to stand directly outside the exit to watch people stream out from the church after the funeral service. The reality that someone has died really sinks for me as I see people walk out passed the casket consumed with grief even more than seeing the corpse in the casket. So many people were visibly grieved and yet so few showed up when the deceased needed them the most. If you ask any of those people who were walking out, “I can see from your grief, that you really cared for the deceased, didn’t you?” The answer would likely be a yes, and they probably would be telling the truth. The inevitable follow up question would then be, “But why weren’t you there?”

I was further struck by two individuals in the service, the one who lead the proceedings, who happened to be the deceased’s cell group leader and the man who shared from the word. Both of them testified to the exemplary commitment of the deceased to the church and to God. They both made it pretty clear that the deceased was a Christian.

What puzzled me was that I had spent some hours with the deceased about a week before his demise. We spoke at length, exchanging questions. One of the questions I asked him was whether, if he died, he would go to heaven. He replied with a definite ‘no’. “I have sinned too much,” he said. I resolved to tell both the cell group leader and preacher man about it after the service.

After the service, I noticed that both of them were riding in the same car which meant I’d be able to kill two birds with one stone. I went up to them and told them, that the deceased told me that he didn’t think he would go to heaven because of how he had led his life. No accusations, no question, just a statement. Both of them were surprised of course. I went on to asked whether any of them had talked with the deceased concerning his salvation in that last week of his life.

The preacher was the first to respond. I was disappointed. He told me, visibly in defense mode, that the deceased was not in a right frame of mind and that was why he said what he said. He further went on to say that before his illness or before it had advanced, the deceased said he was a Christian and that was what they held on to.

In that moment I wanted to tell the preacher that I had spent hours having intelligible conversation with the man who he thought to be beside himself mentally. I wanted to tell him that the deceased was able to remember me along with my entire family as well as what many of them were doing in life. I wanted to tell him that the deceased on that day, a week before his passing, was lots of things but ‘mentally ill’ was not one of them. But I did not.

The cell group leader, however, replied with a question. He asked me where I was from and who I was to the deceased. I replied and he went on to ask whether, I, having heard the deceased say that he did not think he was going to heaven, proceeded to share the way of salvation with him. For me that was refreshing. He did not jump to defend himself but showed immediate concern for the eternal welfare of the deceased.

The message I was trying to communicate to these men was that assumptions concerning a person, let alone dying person's eternal welfare, must be avoided. If someone claims to be a Christian we should be glad. However, we should also realize that Christianity is a matter of eternal life and eternal death. The question that must soon follow in both our hearts and out loud to that individual must be, “Is it genuine?” Some may say that would be rude or perhaps too forward. Maybe too pessimistic. Well, if the person realizes that they were deceived and weren't really Christian, they'll be eternally grateful for your pessimism because an encounter with an optimist may have resulted in eternal damnation for them. Better to error on the side of caution.

The bible is clear in Matthew just how many people will arrive on the Day of Judgment falsely convinced of their salvation-- many. The possibility that the person who claims to be saved is in fact not, is therefore very high. If you care at all for that person, your next task would be to ensure that the person claiming to be saved actually is. Tapping them on the back and moving on does not demonstrate care. It is dangerous. Something that I hope the men I talked to today realized.

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Is It OK To Take Alcohol?

"It must be surely!" Many say, "after all, even Jesus turned water into wine." That argument seems to be the most quoted by those on the "It's OK" wing.



Yes, it is true. Jesus attended a wedding where the wine ran out and saved the day by providing wine miraculously from water. There are many other positive references regarding the taking of wine in the bible. Wine was fermented in order to preserve it and so was certainly alcoholic even in those days.

He makes grass grow for the cattle, and plants for people to cultivate— bringing forth food from the earth: wine that gladdens human hearts, oil to make their faces shine, and bread that sustains their hearts. ~Psalm 104:14-15.


Let beer be for those who are perishing, wine for those who are in anguish! Let them drink and forget their poverty and remember their misery no more. ~Proverbs 31:6-7.
Note: In the preceding verses of this particular scripture, the writer says that alcohol must not be taken by those in authority lest they make decisions without sound judgement.

Stop drinking only water, and use a little wine because of your stomach and your frequent illnesses.~ 1 Timothy 5:23.


On this mountain the LORD Almighty will prepare a feast of rich food for all peoples, a banquet of aged wine— the best of meats and the finest of wines. ~ Isaiah 25:6.

There are several more verses which can be used to argue that it is OK to take alcohol but there are also some verses that can be used to argue against it. I will not argue for or against taking wine necessarily, however, I will give reasons as to why I do not.

To begin with, the bible does not out rightly condemn taking alcohol, however it does condemn in no uncertain terms, drunkenness. Paul, for instance, mentions drunkenness, in his letter to the Galatian saints, among many other 'acts of the sinful nature' stating that those guilty of such, will not inherit the Kingdom of God.

The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. ~ Galatians 5:19-21.

The only conventional way of getting drunk is to drink alcohol. I do not think it prudent to walk close the edge of the pit of drunkenness by taking alcoholic drink even if it be moderately. I think it would be wiser to avoid it altogether. That is the first reason why I abstain from it.


The second reason is because I want to love my neighbour. I would have said, "I love my neighbour", but most times I do not. However, I desire to.


In my culture (and by culture I mean the worldview of those in the region where I reside), alcohol and Christianity are antithetical. A pastor who spends his evenings drinking in bars will soon have an empty church. Any school boy/girl walking home with friends would not be proud to identify their Pastor if they saw him in a bar drinking. It would be shameful. Thus if I am going to be a light to those around, those in my culture, I will abstain from alcohol. No one can be attracted to Christ in a man who takes alcohol -not in my culture. And for Paul, his desire for people to come to Christ, i.e. to be saved, dictated how he lived only after the requirements of God. Thus he said:


¹⁹For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them. ²⁰ To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law. ²¹To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law. ²² To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. ²³I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings. ~1 Cor 9:19-23 (ESV).


It is always surprising to see 'Christians' in Zambia arguing that it is OK to take alcohol. How do they expect to reach a dying country/region with the gospel? Anyone with a bible in one hand and alcohol in the other will be mocked. If Jesus was born to a culture such as mine, I'd bet my life, he would not take alcohol simple because his desire for alcohol would be nothing compared to his desire to see men and women, boys and girls, accept him as the Son of God and be saved.


Those are the two reasons why I do not take alcohol.


Thanks for reading.

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Why We Exist

There is a friend of mine who I met providentially who is not a Christian. There are times when he seems to be deeply troubled about the things of God and salvation and other times when he seems to drift so far away from the truth.

On several occasions he has asked me heart warming questions, such as, "What does it really mean to surrender your life to God?". After explaining it to him in as simple a manner as I can, he'll ask further and after we've chatted a while we'll part company. When we meet the next time he'll be talking about how we have 'potential' and God has not created us to be followers but rather to be leaders. Etc. It is clear that he is under the influence of pentecostal/charismatic preaching and literature.

The major problem I find with Pentecostal folk is that the emphasis is always on... me. It's all about me. Enter "prosperity gospel".

The question which, for me, settles it is, why am I here? Why did God create me or anyone or anything else on this planet? And this is the question that I asked my dear friend when I last saw him. He went on and on about how we are successes and how God wants us to prosper etc. I thought I could best explain it to him by explaining why we exist. So then, why do we exist?

Well, we must agree that we exist because we were created. The bible says, "Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made." ~John 1:3.

Who created us? God.

Why did God create us?

This question is best explained by answering the question, why does anybody create anything? Why do we buy/lend/create/fix etc, certain things?

What was the last thing you purchased, for instance? Was it a watch? Maybe a bag? Maybe a gift for someone.

Notice that for every item you have ever bought, there is a reason and that reason pertains to the pleasure of yourself. It could have been a gift for someone but the point is, that item you bought was meant to give pleasure to the person you bought it for. You derive pleasure (and sometimes relief) from the pleasure of the other person. There is nothing you can point at that you purchased or created for itself. Nothing. Nothing that you purchased for no particular reason. No one can sincerely say, "I just purchased it." If you sit down and think thoroughly, you'll find there was a reason why you purchased that item and it was all about your pleasure/relief.

Well, why should it be any different with God? Why should God go through the 'trouble' or perhaps, more appropriately, bother of creating man and the world in which he lives?

Did God just create man? I don't think so. I think there must be a reason and just as we as human beings never create or purchase anything unless it will either directly or indirectly bring us pleasure or relief, God has, likewise, created man and everything else to bring him some kind of pleasure.

He did not do it because he needed his creation. If he needed anything, he would cease to be God. Neither did he do it for relief, otherwise he would be doing it out of need and would cease to be God. He did it for his own pleasure. The question that every being on this planet should ask himself/herself is, am I bringing God the pleasure he created me to bring him? I'm I meeting the purpose for which I was created? Or is life about me? Have I ever asked myself  how I aught to bring him pleasure?

Surely God did not create us to merely get rich, have lots of houses, and just have fun. That would be all about us. Our existence is all about Him. And that is where I challenge my Pentecostal friends to begin. To have a view of life from 'the lens of God's eye'.

To think of our sufferings as Christians from God's perspective. To think of our prosperity from the God's perspective. To think of joy, pain, the past, the present, the future, money, love etc, interms of how these issues in my life can be used to bring God pleasure.

You may be thinking "that's insane", how can my entire life revolve around God? What about me? Well, imagine if every appliance in your house took that 'world view' one morning. The kettle figured it didn't want to boil you water anymore, it wants a life of its own too. The taps refuse to let water out, they're tired of serving you. The stove and fridge refused to work anymore, they figure, all those years of serving you, its time they enjoyed themselves too. And all the rest of the things in your house finally decided to have some 'me' time. What would you do? I know what I would do. Get rid of them all and buy appliances that know what they are in my house to do, i.e. serve me. Live for me. The principle is pretty much the same when it comes to our being creatures of God. And that is why evolution is a serious affront against God.

Thankfully, the bible is there to guide us. We do not need a prophet to help us determine how our present circumstances or future endeavours can be maneuvered in such a way as brings God pleasure. He has left us his word.

The puritans put it this way: What is the chief end of man? To glorify God and enjoy Him forever.

So there you have it. You exist for the pleasure (or to glorify) your Creator -God.

For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. ~ Colossians 1:16.

For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen. ~Romans 11:36.

Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole [duty] of man. ~Ecclesiastes 12:13.

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Beautiful Feet

Isaiah 52:7

I'll never forget the day my deskmate, a young lady, came to school in slippers. I couldn't help but notice her feet, particularly her toes. I especially remember not thinking much of them. I wondered how cliche it is to call someone's feet/toes beautiful as seen in movies and the like. I then wondered how many guys, in a bid to win her, would compliment her toes even though they weren't so great. Seeing no reason for speculation, I turned to her and asked,

"Has anyone ever told you that you have beautiful toes?"

"Oh Mwindula! Thankyou so much!", she replied.

It was then that I realised that I had a dilemma on my hands. It seemed that this young lady thought I was actually complimenting her toes. Not wanting to lie and/or be identified with the fleet of young men who had probably deceived her in like manner, I quickly clarified:

"No, what I mean is, 'HAS ANYONE EVER TOLD YOU THAT YOU HAVE BEAUTIFUL TOES'?"

She was not impressed with me.

The feet of gospel-message-carriers are referred to as beautiful. Any bearer of good news is beautiful. The postman's hands with a letter from a loved one with its unkempt and dirty fingernails is beautiful, the secretary's irritating, high pitched voice calling to let you know that you have been offered a job for which you recently applied is beautiful, the repulsive smile of a toothless teacher handing over the test paper marked 'A+', is beautiful. How much more the bearer of the goodnews of our Lord Jesus Christ? That cure for the chronic disease present in the heart of man, sin. O for beautiful feet! O that my own feet would be called beautiful by many because I would have been the means by which they heard the gospel.

Do you have beautiful feet?

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Weddings -Golden Opportunities

What golden opportunities indeed! No other gathering apart from family-get-togethers and funerals, bring family together, especially in our culture. The thing about weddings, that makes them more golden than funerals or get-togethers, perhaps even combined, is that all of your family in attendance are at your disposal. You reserve the right to conduct your wedding however you wish and your family will attend because they care about you.

But do we really realize this?

A couple of months ago, a friend asked me to watch a small clip. It was entitled, "letter from hell". It seems it is/was quite popular. It's about two young men who were close friends, one a Christian, the other not. For some reason the one never shared his faith with the other. The young man who wasn't a Christian died and went to hell. The clip has the young man in hell narrating a letter he had written to his Christian friend who was still on earth.

First he describes the place, then he describes the people he's with. He also describes the pain and the evil spirits there. As the narration progresses its intensity builds gradually, the young man gets more and more emotional after having started out rather collected. And then he finally breaks out as though he had been holding himself back. He asks his Christian friend in a frenzied voice, "Why? Why didn't you warn me? My best guess is that you were not aware of such a place. Who would know of such a place and not warn those he felt were heading there?"

I know of several people who I have not warned about the wrath to come, people who I was not forthright with, people who I will probably never see again, who, as of the last time we were together, were headed down a highway to eternal damnation. This causes me to want to be diligent in sharing the gospel with whoever I rub shoulders. But ofcourse, 'wanting' doesn't avail much. It is not enough to 'want'.

Probably the group we are most guilty of ignoring is our own family. How many of our family have heard the gospel? What percentage of our family have we tried to share the gospel with?

And that is what make weddings golden opportunities. Opportunities that must be capitalized on, first, indirectly but also directly. Indirectly in the way that we carry out our weddings.

Theres been alot of debate about weddings at my church, is this right and is that wrong, etc. Many things are not easy to just put in a box but Paul handles this in that timeless quotation, "Everything is permissible, but not everything is beneficial." There are alot of things that are permissible at weddings, but the question shouldn't be, would it be alright to do this but rather, would this be beneficial.

Would this thing or that thing send a Christian message to my family, friends and acquaintances that will attend my wedding? Will they walk away struck by how different my wedding was? Or will they see the very things that they see in the majority of weddings around? The wedding is such a great opportunity! An opportunity to send a message saying, "I am different, I seek to glorify God even if it means forfeiting things I really wanted and it is not I but Christ that liveth in me!" Oh for weddings that minister to the wretched hearts of those who attend, especially our families merely by the elements they contain (or do not contain!), weddings that send them away wondering, what they lack that you have!

The second way, we must capitalize on weddings is directly. How can you have such a large gathering of family, friends and even associates/acquaintances and not have the gospel message preached?! What an opportunity! Many of those in attendance, you will never get to invite to a church where the truth is preached, how can you pass on an opportunity to bring the church service to them! When I mentioned this to my mother, she immediately mentioned that in her day, gospel messages were common features at weddings. Christians getting married would indeed organize a preacher to give an evangelistic message at their reception.

Maybe I'm just a young man speaking from without. Maybe in the midst of all the excitement or hustle and bustle of wedding preparations I will forget to or even reject the idea of having the gospel preached at my own wedding. Maybe I just don't understand the ins and outs of weddings. Maybe I'm being too idealistic or hyper spiritual. But then again, maybe I'm not. Maybe I'm onto something. Maybe the greatest love you can show your family is to warn them of the wrath of God that awaits them and the love of God that draws them. What more convenient way is there, than at your wedding?

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Chamu

I remember my first impression of him. He seemed like a sort of silent burner. He was never noisy in class but he struck me as a rather naughty fellow.



I recall when our teacher of Math & Physics passed a comment. He was a funny man but very serious at the same time, never laughed at all. If something was very funny he'd tighten the muscles on his face just so he wouldn't be able to smile. So, we'd laugh alot in his classes. One day, after cracking one of his jokes, or saying something funny, he pointed at Chamu at the back of the class and teased him saying, look at that fellow, he has very little skin on his face and so when he smiles, his eyes shut! We has a good laugh. And it was true. His eyed would close when he smiled or laughed.



I could be pretty irritating sometimes. One day, all of us from our class were outside the class room. I found a small piece of mirror on the ground and started reflecting the sunlight off it onto people's eyes. I got a laugh out of the irritation people got. I did it to Chamu. I think he told me to quit it at first, I did it again and then he came after me! He started shoving me backwards and advancing after each push all the while telling me stuff I can't remember. I thought of retaliating but then two thoughts crossed my mind. First that I didn't want to be in a fight and second that I started it. Thankfully, that was the first and last time Chamu and I ever clashed.



Chamu started seeing a classmate of ours. I recall seeing him kiss her. I don't mean kiss her, I mean KISS her. It was a really strange sight to me. I had really only seen it in the movies plus I didn't realise those high school flings were that serious.



It seems he really liked his girlfriend. I remember laughing at him with the other guys when we were at the boarding house. We had all just gotten back from our classes. Chamu jumped onto his bed which was adjacent to the wall, and stayed on the bed facing the wall for hours. Apparently he had gotten into an argument with her and what we were seeing were the results. We all laughed at him since it wasn't consist with his manly front.



I was pretty good friends with his girlfriend (I'd like to think). One time, I forget what Chamu did, but I convinced her that we should "go tell Chamu how disappointed we were with him that he could do such a thing". I meant it as a joke, and his girlfriend seemed to get it. When we got to him, he was standing with someone or something, I started it, "Chamu, we just thought we should tell you that we are disappointed...". I was smiling and acting alittle dramatic, his girlfriend grew cold feet it seemed and only added some emphatic yes-es here and there. Well later when we were with the guys, Chamu expressed his disappointment in me. I was totally surprised, I thought we had all caught on!



He was a pretty good swimmer, or so people said. He didn't really impress me. He was really good at staying long under water. He'd take a deep breath and swim all around the pool along the wall and not come up for air. He was the only one of two at the school boarding house who could do that.



Most of the guys in my class had nicknames, actually I think we all gave each other nicknames, Chamu was called hamster I think! I forget how he got that name...



Chamu, I just learned, died after an illness.



The news of his death hit me pretty hard which surprised me because we weren't close. I always imagined my classmates and I would one day meet at a reunion, and bring our families and catch up and reminisce. Death was not part of the plan. I hope, somehow, he was saved.

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I Got To Preach

Every week our cell group meets to go out into the neighbourhood doing door-to-door evangelism. Over the next couple of weeks, we will be following up those who attended our evangelistic Braai/BBQ which we hosted last year over Christmas. Well, I joined our cell leader as he was following up a young lady staying at a college boarding house. We bounced but opted to speak to a young lady whose room was just opposite.



During our chat with her, she mentioned that her father had died a few months ago and she was quite confused and had a number of questions. I made an appointment to meet her the following day. I planned to attempt answering her questions. I was not aware that my meeting with her would be the toughest I've ever encountered in all my door-to-door evangelism days.



Contrary to what I expected, this young lady wasn't impressed with God, not because he had taken her father away from her and her family. Her concern was that God had allowed her father, a devoted and active man in his Christian life, to suffer so much in the months leading to his death. Apparently her father had a tumor in his belly which the doctors miss diagnosed. They spent time treating a problem that didn't exist and in the end, when they finally pinned the real problem, it was too late. About 2 weeks before he died, he could not even speak.



This young lady told me openly that she no longer really cared about pushing hard in life but just lived each day as it came. She had lost her drive and will. Her father's relatives had not made life any easier, they had been a source of much pain rather than comfort.



The ball was finally in my court, what was I to say to this young lady? How was I going to "defend God" while maintaining sensitivity to her feelings. I stammered and flipped through my bible and stumbled my way through some sort of explanation.



I knew, though, almost immediately, that this young lady felt the way she did about God because she did not understand God's holiness and man's sinfulness. But I really struggled to make my point and she was certainly not convinced. I quickly discovered how much I needed to study this whole subject and be better positioned to respond to such questions.



During our conversation, I received a call from the leaders of a fellowship at DK (David Kaunda High), they wanted me to share a song or two at their meeting the next day. I asked to meet them that same day just to find out who the new leaders were and what they had planned for the year, etc.



I made my way over to DK as soon as I was done with my struggled chat with the young lady. There is a need for sound gospel preaching at the DK fellowship and so I am always keen to offer preachers for their meetings. Fortunately they needed a preacher for the next day and I promised to come with one. I quickly got in touch with my buddy who I thought would jump at the opportunity but he said it was too short a notice. As the evening progressed, it became clear that I probably wouldn't be able to find a preacher in time, and so I decided I'd prepare something in the event that I failed to find someone.



As I sat down to prepare, I had no doubt in my mind as to what I would share if I ended up preaching. I would answer those questions that that young lady had and basically answer the question: "Why do bad things happen to good people?"



Well, I preached at DK the next evening and it was a great experience, it was an awesome experience to share the gospel with 50+ youths. My text was Luke 13:1-9. One of the things I've lacked the few times I've preached is passion. I tend to just talk but this time, I think I thundered (for my standards at least) probably because it was more from the heart than all the other times. When I had exhausted much of my arguments I said something like, "I hope you have began to see why we deserve the very worst from God." And some guys (girls mostly, actually) shouted, "No!". It was pretty interesting, but I think by the time I was done, they could all answer a humble "yes" in their bowels.



The last time I preached, though, it wasn't so great...

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Opposition Guaranteed

There's a group of students who meet every Thursday evening at David Kaunda High School (DK). I usually attend their meetings and even though, I am neither a part of their school nor at their level of education (alittle past), I have been privileged to be accepted and involved there.

I have a burden for that fellowship. Most of the students who attend are not Christians and to have a meeting every week where around 60 students meet 80% of whom aren't Christians (just religious) is a golden opportunity to share the gospel if I ever saw one.

I've been attending the fellowship on and off and when I started consistently again, I was disappointed to see that the gospel was no longer being preached, the fellowship had turned into a joke. In God's providence, the leadership realised that they had very few people to share the preaching of God's word and asked me to provide them preachers, for about a month. It has been a joy to see the gospel preached Thursday after Thursday.

A few hours ago, I was at the meeting. I had been asked to provide a preacher again, I was, of course, much obliged. I had no clue that in the meeting were two young charismatic men, with strong pentecostal roots in the audience. They too, like me were outsiders only this was their first meeting. They had asked if they could be given a few minutes to share in the meeting. Their sharing was to come after the main sharing. I had asked a brother in the Lord to preach today at the meeting. He challenged those who weren't Christians, in his conclusion, to repent as judgement awaited us, his listeners.

The two guys were not impressed with this teaching it seems. After the preacher finished they were invited to share briefly. They implicitly encouraged the audience not to be "afraid" or "threatened" by what had been preached (underline implicitly). They spoke of how everyone in the room should seek to "know God so that he is revealed in your life". "So that you will be able to discern which preachers preach truth and which preach lies". "God's revelation in you will be signified by him sending you the Holy Spirit and this will be evidenced by speaking in tongues".

I was appalled. These two guys literally attempted to undo the gospel. I know we disagree on tongues and stuff but why undermine the gospel??

Several times during he's "sharing", I was tempted to rise and leave. But I endured the heresy.

On my way home and even during the sharing which countered the gospel, I wondered why God would allow he's gospel to be undermined. Then I remembered that the devil is not asleep. It flattered me that the devil would be so threatened by what we thought were feeble efforts so as to send false prophets to disrupt the work. It meant that we were actually having an impact in that place. Anything that is truly God centered will attract the devils opposition, which brings me to my point. (That's right, am only getting started!)

In Philippians 1:27-30, Paul takes it for granted that the Philippians would face opposition and would suffer for Christ:

"Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. Then, whether I come and see you or only hear about you in my absence, I will know that you stand firm in one spirit, contending as one man for the faith of the gospel without being frightened in any way by those who oppose you. This is a sign to them that they will be destroyed, but that you will be saved—and that by God. For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for him, since you are going through the same struggle you saw I had, and now hear that I still have."

I don't blame Paul, do you?

I mean if we "conduct ourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ", opposition would be inevitable. If we spoke up when people say or do things which are sinful e.g. cursing, gossiping, ill speech, lying etc, and if we rebuked those workmates or schoolmates who love to sin, they wouldn't really be fond of us, would they? If we always proclaimed the scripture (since the world proclaims their love for sin, why shouldn't we proclaim our love for Christ?), we would be unpopular. If for all the times our workmates or schoolmates spoke of how nice their sinful weekends were, we spoke of how the Lord spoke to us on Sunday, we wouldn't be liked at all, would we?

People would want to get us fired and in trouble, people would literally hate us and slander us. People would oppose us and cause us to suffer.

If, therefore, we aren't suffering, then we must be compromising. We must not, then, be speaking up when we hear sinful talk and see sinful deeds. We're probably silent when our workmates boast of sinful deeds and sinful weekends. We are not speaking up.

The devil will not sit back when our lives and ministries are God centered and have serious potential, he will oppose us and make us suffer.

I see this in the ministry to DK, as the devil has brought our way, charismatic fools. I know that a battle is inevitable as the charismatics will want to move in and influence the DK meetings and I am not keen on fighting, I'd rather pull out. But I got a message from a brother who also has a heart for DK that encouraged me and I will end with it:

"Now more than ever we need to be relentless in our efforts to share the truth,
it will, with the blessing of he who is the truth, sort its on enemies out."

I'm not going to back out, the devil can bring it on!

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Heart Changer

Opportunities to preach the gospel, I've always felt, should be taken very seriously especially by those called to preach. It's a shame, when after the preaching of God's word, you decide to speak to someone, after, perhaps a church service or evangelistic meeting, and upon asking them how they got saved (since 9/10 Zambians respond in the affirmative when asked whether they are saved), they respond, "Oh, well, I was born a Christian." or maybe "I go to church and do lots of other good things." Upon hearing such a response, I quickly look for the person responsible for such a response, because someone obviously didn't do what they ought to have done. Either the preacher was unclear or lacking in the content of his message or perhaps the particular individual slept through the whole sermon!

I have always felt that preachers should be very clear when preaching the gospel. I have never appreciated evangelistic sermons that are comprised of bombastic words and theological terminologies that unchurched individuals would struggle to grasp. I mean if the majority of your audience is unconverted why use words they probably won't understand? I thought the whole point was to get the gospel message across!

The first/next time I/I'll ever preach, my introduction will be something like this:

"I'd hate for anyone in this auditorium to leave assuming certain things, especially since it's me preaching, and so just to make sure, I'll just make a few clarifications from onset. First off, going to church cannot save you, just like going to the garage doesn't make you a car neither does going to the Bata make you a shoe. Secondly, doing good things cannot save you because the bible says in Isaiah that our good works are like filthy rags before God. Believing in God's existence, lastly, doesn't make you a Christian because the demons believe it much steadfastly than you ever
will!"

This compulsion to always make the gospel plain has landed me in utter frustration. I always thought that if the gospel was preached such that a listener understood it explicitly and the right "atmosphere", one quiet and perhaps one with the hymn "Just As I Am" playing softly in the background, allowing the person to ponder the words of the preacher, then that person was going to get saved. I mean why not?! The sinner has understood the gospel and has had time to think it through-time to reason, how could that individual make it out of that place unrepentant?!

Ofcourse, I was sadly mistaken and terribly disappointed.

Not long ago, I commenced visiting a nearby college, LBTC, where my buddies and I would share the gospel for an hour, 3 times a week. I usually did the sharing myself. I made sure I wrestled with the person's sense of reason, showing them, through questions, that they did not, infact, know the way of salvation and I'd wait until that beautiful question was asked,"How, then, does one become a Christian?" I'd shoot my buddy colleague a quick smile communicating, non-verbally, the words, "We've got him/em' now!", and begin sharing the word ever so passionately. We were good. We had it all figured out. We were going to get the whole college saved before they'd ever have known what hit them. We forgot one thing though, one crucial thing:

It's God who changes the hearts of men.

You could create the most quiet atmosphere and even add a melancholic tune in the background after sharing the most passionate gospel message, with the clarity of the Lord Jesus Christ himself but if God is not pleased to send his Holy Spirit to convict that soul, that poor soul will not get saved!

That is why I always say to my friends that the man of God must spend more time praying than he does preaching because he, the preacher, only does less than 25% of the work, and that might be giving him too much credit! God does the most part. A preacher cannot always get his stuff right. He may be lacking in clarity, passion, depth or even general gifting but if God chooses to use him, his "below par performance" could save a hundred. Perhaps just one statement he utters could be the line God uses to bring home his own. And yet the most gifted man can preach the most powerful sermon in all senses, whereby, as my buddy says, "You feel like you could get saved again.", and yet not a single soul gets saved. Why? Because it is God who changes hearts.

It all really comes down to the one who God chooses to use, we should all pray that God is pleased to use us.

Now to the reason why I began writing this. There are people who seem like they'll never change. We all know them. The irresponsible relative (friend, colleague, father*, mother, brother, sister, cousin, uncle, aunt or gran) who is a constant burden and refuses to amend his/her ways. Always promising to change but nothing ever matures. The perpetual drunk we see all the time in the neighbourhood, reeling and cursing. Those mad men and women we see in the streets who have been passed as having suffered permanent brain damage. Those members of our communities born Muslims or Jehovah's witnesses or Atheists etc, who adamantly refuse to even hear the gospel. Those workmates or schoolmates who have no interest in the things of God.

These people make me thank God that he does the 75%+ of the work in as far as preaching the gospel is concerned. Because if it was left to us, how could we reach the above mentioned, many of whom hear the gospel but refuse to listen to it? How would we reach those who don't even want to hear the word "Christian"? Thank God that he's the heart changer. Thank God that there is still hope for those who we can't seem to even reach because with him nothing is impossible. Our role in the matter is to be played on our knees-praying that God would be pleased to change their hearts and saved them just like he saved us for Jesus sake, Amen!

*This article is dedicated to my sister Mwila, "Mwils, we're praying for the heart changer to change his heart!"

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10 Things I Took For Granted

With only 9 days to New Year, I look back at this year which has flown by and last year as well, and all I see is nothing but God’s grace and love to me.

God’s grace, in that I deserve death, and yet for all that I’ve done wrong and for all the blunders and mistakes I have made in my life, for they are many, God has shown me twice as much mercy. For every mistake, two blessings, and that’s really the definition of grace.

God’s love, in that I am so privileged. I spent over two years away from home, in South Africa, and in those times I learnt many things which I want to compile under the head, “Things I learnt away from home.” Those things have shown me just how privileged I am.

In SA, God has withdrawn a significant portion of his common grace. Proper churches are few and far between. In the town where I stayed, There was no Baptist Church, such a huge contrast from Lusaka and Zambia as a whole where, if you throw a stone, You’ll either hit a Baptist minister or break a Baptist church window!

Not in Nelspruit, SA, the hub of Mpumalanga Province. The only Baptist church there has within its four walls, a single race and a single language, namely Afrikaans, the language of the white South African.

The church I attended was very small, in comparison, of course, to my home church. It was also dead, in comparison to my home church.

One service each Sunday, a midweek prayer meeting in the morning, attended only by retirees who are the only people free at 10hrs in the morning and a men’s meeting once every two fortnights. There was a cell meeting attended by a few church members but I did not once register it as a church midweek programme because in a church where 90% are white, no white person from church ever attended our cell. The average age group of the church, was, I’d guess, around 60. Pastor Steve, himself, is over 70 years old, with the physique of a man 20 years his junior. The church had no youth ministry and no evangelism outreach. I am reliably informed that things have only gotten worse now and it breaks my heart.

Now with a background like KBC where church life is as busy and active as a beehive, this was zero. I felt like one second I was running at full speed down a long, downhill highway and suddenly, the next, I was lying in a bed. Adrenaline pumping and panting for breath and yet, still lying in bed. What a feeling it was! For those of you who don’t exercise, driving a car at 200km/hr, and then suddenly driving at 10km/hr, a total anti-climax.

10 Things I took for granted:

1. The sound preaching of God’s word. My dad is pastor of the church of which I am a member so taking for granted the sound peraching of God's word, was worse. We pastor's children are surrounded by alot of high expectations from those around us and on that final day, God will require from us more than he will from any other something something's child because we sit under the minister's nose each day of our dependent life. Anyway, when excellent preaching becomes a norm, you take it for granted. I found, in the town where I was, a brother some members of our church will remember, Mickey Chikwabe. Mickey was literally starving, spiritually. It was only when he discovered that you could download great sermons from the net, that he was revived. I remember when I returned home for a short while, I heard my dad preach and it was music to my ears! I drank in every word and could not stop smiling and thanking God.
2. Hymns & Zambian congregational singing. At the church I attended in SA, we sang 50% contemporary hymns and 50% good old hymns. Its not that the contemporary hymns and choruses where meaningless, they were excellent and I wish we could start singing some in our churches but I just missed the good old hymns we sang 100% back home, the hymns I grew up singing. I also missed the thunderous singing. I came back home and I could feel the passion of the congregation as we sang and couldn’t help but wish we could sing like that forever and ever and ever. Heaven will be a blast!
3. Youth Fellowship. There existed no youth fellowship when I got to our church in SA, but we started one. Apparently there were attempts to restart it several times in the past but to no avail. In a church having 90% white folks only 0% white youths, attended our youth meetings. I am reliably informed that the ministry is not doing well and has closed its meetings for the festive season.
4. Open doors. In SA our church was in a, I’d say, middle class area, the majority of the families in the neighbourhood, were white. We formed an evangelism team that went out after the church service for one hour. Out of a church of 90% white folks, 0% attended the outreach on Sunday, and we really needed some white folks! After a while a blessing, in form of one white, 14 year old girl, joined us. She added colour to our all black group. We had been praying for white folks to join our crew and had been inviting them Sunday after Sunday, not one person apart from that girl joined us. She had an older sister and two parents who attended our church but she is the only one who answered our call. It was important to us that we have colour in our team if we were going to evangelise in the area around the church because most of the whites were uncomfortable with black people standing outside there gate. It was tough because none of the whites let us in and most of the blacks were poor at English. In our whole team, none of the blacks were indigenous South Africans. We had 5 Zambians, 3 men, 2 female and 2 Ghanaians, both male. The white residents didn’t want us and we could not communicate effectively to the blacks who worked for the whites. Those people who would let you talk to them were as rare as diamond, and I’m serious. When you found someone who was willing to listen you cancelled all your plans and feasted on such an opportunity. If you were supposed to marry your fiancee that same day, you rang her up and said, "Honey, halt! Postpone the wedding! I have found someone willing to listen to the gospel! We can marry some other time." I only entered one house in over a year of evangelistic efforts! You can imagine how crazy I was about evangelism when I got back home, every evening I’d head out there and evangelise. When I began school here, I’d head out to Lusaka Trades as often as my parents would let me. I had finally found open doors. (It’s a shame that many people will read this and get convicted of there lack of diligence in the work of evangelism and yet do nothing about it. I know this because, we all know how privileged we are in Zambia were open doors scream at you and yet we do not maximize on them.)
5. Sanity. You don’t need an imagination in SA. All the women in the streets will show you everything you want to see. With tight clothing, open bosoms, and skirts which look like they were made for people half their age, the dressing in SA is blinding. Nudity is the norm, in the work place, at the mall, in restaurants and at church. I played lots of soccer in SA, Monday and Thursday evenings. But whenever I checked the soccer pitch on weekends and holidays, none of the chaps were there. I soon discovered that every weekend and holiday was set aside for sin. Partying, drinking, orgies, my goodness, God have mercy on that Nation! Pregnant girls all over the place. You cannot live in SA for a year with out getting in contact with a pregnant girl or one who has a child, you just can’t. Either at the work place or school, even church, you are bound to find yourself relating to a girl having a child out of wedlock. I recall my first evening in SA. I was at the dinner table having supper with my new family. I was so appalled with what I heard on the news, “Man rapes his seven month child.” I look around me expecting to see someone faint at such horrid news but no, someone even reached for another helping! Before I knew it, I was the one asking for seconds at such news, because you hear those headlines each and every day! Zambia is heading that way, unfortunately. Mickey loves to say that Zambian ladies are more beautiful than SA ladies, what he actually means is that the decency of Zambian girls make them more appealing and attractive than SA ladies.
6. Opportunity to serve and use my gifts. I thank God for my church more than ever. A place where I can sing and play guitar and write in newsletters and organise camps and concerts and youth meetings. I took all these things for granted. It was difficult in SA because, I was new there and I was not even sure whether or not I was a member, as there is no welcoming of new members, at least not publicly. Anyway, the opportunity to use and be used in a vibrant church is awesome! I now savour every second and work more diligently.
7. Home. On a more personal level, I have gotten to know myself a lot better over the past two to three years. I am now sure who I am, what I like doing, where I like to be and with whom. The search for myself and for identity has come to an end. It is through this discovery of me that I found out that I hate new places and I am not too enthusiastic about new people. So being away from home for extended periods of time is not my cup of tea. When talks with my parents were concluded and it was a done deal, I wasn’t going back to SA, I was ecstatic! After being home for about half a year now, the prospect of going to visit my SA home excites me because, I do have a home in SA now. But I just love home and the people at home can see it, I am having a blast!

I thought I’d make it to 10 but I can’t remember other things I took for granted or perharps I've run out of steam so, I’ll end here.

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Words I really wanna hear.

What words do you really wish to hear the most? You are promoted? Or maybe, you are fired! :D Well, what words do young people, Christian or not, wish to hear the most, these days?



Probably for young men, it isn’t words; it is actually a single word-- “Yes!” For young women its, “will you be…” I know that this is true.

If you want to prove it, sneak near a group of young Christian men or women or both (!) after church, they will be talking about the thing closest to their heart--relationships. Sneak near a group of young non-Christian men, the story is the same, a little more graphic but definitely the same.

I don’t want to sound more spiritual than I really am but honestly, for me, the words I wish to hear the most are found in Acts 16:30- “What must I do to be saved?”

When I’m sharing the gospel with my buddies the words we love to hear, the words we long for from the time we wake up on the day we have agreed to go out and evangelise is, “What must I do to be saved?” Ofcourse it comes in many forms but it is the same thing.

If you are getting alittle agitated reading this, I mean no harm. I too will probly want to hear the word “Yes!” so very, very much but I hope it will never overtake my longing to hear those sweet words, “What must I do to be saved?” One thing is definitely for sure, youths today need to get their priorities right. Unfortunately, Christian youths, too, need to get their priorities right, do you?

Mwindula.

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Were you really repentant?

My buddy and I got into an interesting disscussion not too long ago.

The whole thing really began with myself. I was supposed to preach at a school last thirsday night, it has since been postpone to this coming thirsday evening. Its a whole other story! I don't preach publicly at all. I last preached at the same school for the very first time about two or so years ago.

Anyway, my other buddy, one of the leaders from the same school (DK), had asked me to speak on, "The previlages of being a Christian", from an evangelistic point of view. Being a very controvesial individual, I immediately had a problem. In essence I was being asked to show the non-Christians the previlages of being a Christian inorder to, as it were, entice them into becoming Christians. Unfortunately, or fortunately rather, Christianity doesn't work that way. Its not like convincing or luring someone into changing political parties by telling them the advantages of doing so!

Christianity comes from true repentance, being contrite. And thats where all the problems emanated from with my buddy.

If you agree with the above statement, "Christianity comes from true repentance", you may want to look at the statement alittle more thoroughly! If you don't, let me try to convince you otherwise.

When my buddies and I go out evangelising, we tend to parallel the relationship between our hearer and God as that of the relationship between a son/daughter (who has wronged their father) and his/her father. It is very useful, as it knocks out certain potential problems when we preach the way of slavation.

For example, It knocks out good works as a way of salvation. We say, suppose you have wronged your father and you, perharps, are no longer on speaking terms, would you sending him a gift to rectify the situation? Will your buying him a gift, putting fuel in his car or washing his car or preparing him a great meal or doing anything good for/to him, will any of those things reconcile you to your father? Ofcourse not! You fathers interest is your coming to him and repenting, i.e. saying you are sorry and stopping to do that which upset your relationship in the first place. If anything, he will reject those gifts because things are unwell between you. In the same way, going to church, tithing, giving to the poor, singing in the choir, even getting baptised doesn't reconcile one to God, those "good deeds" only please the father when things are right between you, i.e. when you repent!

Alright, now to convince those who may not agree with the statement, "Christianity comes from true repentance". Using the above principle, A son wrongs his father. We've already seen that sacrifice or gifts don't help the situation. Would you say the son is truely sorry if he decided to make things right because, for example, he hears that his father is contemplating removing him from his will or his father is prosecuting all those who owe him money and jailing those who can't pay. He remembers that he owes his father money and thus rushes off to make things right lest he end up behing bars. Would you call the son truely sorry for what he did? ...I don't think so either! Why? Because fear is driving his apology and that is not true repentance! Well then, if you agree, what would you say about those who say, I became a Christian because I feared that I would go to hell? Is that really being sorry for sin? Is that really someone who has realised his sin and God's love for him inspite and despite his sin? Is that one who truely regrets the life he once led? Or is it someone driven by fear? Well, I leave it to you to decide.

When, then, is a son who has wronged his father truely repentant? As my dad says, "no prize for guessing". It is when one realises that he has sinned against God and that God loves him and will take him back if he genuinely confesses his sin and stops doing that which he used to do, 1 John 1:8-9, Romans 10:9.

I don't cry much. I really don't cry at all, but I remember the day I got saved, 10 years ago this month, I wept like a baby. I sat down to ask myself why I cried like I did that late evening years later, I realised that I was really moved by my sin. I was truely sorry for my sins. I saw myself as one who had wronged a God who did nothing but love me. I'm not saying, if you didn't cry, you aren't saved, by no means! I'm saying if you were not sorry for your sins, you may not be saved. To disagree would be to refute the earlier mentioned example.

As I pondered these thoughts while preparing my sermon, in my heart, I discovered that, I could not for the life of me remember any true christian say that they decided to become a Christian because they were scared of hell. I've probably heard a true Christian say they did become a Christian for fear of hell but as I said, I can not remember any.

I decided to test this on my buddy. He is a christian. I asked him how he got saved and what led him to salvation. It was clear from what he seemed to be saying that it was for fear of God's wrath-hell. Well, from what he said, I really think even though he says it was fear, he definately seemed to have realised he was a sinner when he recieved Christ. That is why in the paragraph before last, I state that you may not be a christian, its because, I know someone who is and yet says he was in essence driven by fear.

How then do I explain my buddy's case? Well, the first thing that trigered his thoughts of God was his watching a graphic movie about hell. He was so scared, he rushed home to pray! But according to him, he says he became a Christian some time later through Christian literature. If you ask me, through that literature he came to faith by true repentance.

In terms of application, I think it is wrong to share the gospel as christians by scaring people by speaking of hell because that is not the gospel. The gospel is, You are a sinner who has wronged a holy God, God loves you despite and inspite of your sin, Repent and believe because he wants you so bad-he really, really loves you! It was good enough for a wretch like me, it should be good enough for the world!

Give me that old time religion

Tis the old time religion,

Tis the old time religion,

And it's good enough for me.

It was good for our mothers.

And it's good enough for me.

Makes me love everybody.

And it's good enough for me.

It has saved our fathers.

And it's good enough for me.

It will do when I am dying.

And it's good enough for me.

It will take us all to heaven.

And it's good enough for me.

Give me that old time religion

Tis the old time religion,

Tis the old time religion,

And it's good enough for me.

Mwindula.

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