Newsletter May 2018

God created us in a garden, and in the end we will be back in the garden. Before coming to Zambia, I had done very little gardening, I tried a little in Liberia, but failed miserably. Here in Zambia I came to learn to work in the soil, and I have come to find that my most profound revelations were often when I had mud under my nails. Jesus often taught in agriculture terms too. So, as we observe the harvest drying out (as it should), there is an extremely bad yield of maize, the staple food here. It is because of that long dry spell in the middle we had, but the sunflowers (that very few people grow) and cotton look good. Sunflower and cotton are known to be drought resistant plants, and why? Because they grow deep roots: they grow the deep roots to survive a drought, but they also grow deep roots in the drought, looking for water. And it means when the stress eases up, they are left stronger, more productive and more ready to face another onslaught. And so too, we seem to have found that every harder season in our past has made us stronger to face every day rooted in a Father that cares and a Peace, and joy, that never fades.

So, Carl took down the sunflower this last week, and the vegetables keep flooding in and out of the door. And this as we watch the rest of nature fading into the very unexciting colours of autumn. We ourselves are also feeling our roots growing. We have recently been confronted (again) with teaching that sounds nice, but is not always exactly as God’s Word teaches. This came after the most beautiful time of watching the Spiritual Harvest come in, in our small Church family. We had a camp with our brothers and sisters in Christ, and had a beautiful time as we saw especially the children have an amazing time of growing in Christ. Many young people came to be baptised, even in front of their unbelieving friends, proclaiming that they are sold out to Christ. Our smaller children watched, and was under deep impression of what this means. As Simon says: “Mom, everyone’s hearts are changing!” What an amazing privilege to see! Our own children (of the church) took it upon themselves to pray for a friend who was born physically handicapped in a way that had all the adults crying.

Straight after came an old discussion which comes down to some Christians proclaiming that with God there will be no pain or suffering any more. Unfortunately that is not what we believe the Bible tells us, in this way we will always stay plants with shallow roots. And He loves us too much to leave us there. I have no wish to start a whole theological discussion, but it is important that we really dig into our Bibles, and find truth. Not just in one verse, because you can make the Bible say anything you like, but in the whole context of what is written.

Another beautiful picture of harvest, came to us from Liberia. We left there 8 years ago now. Two weeks ago a friend send a picture of one of the boys that was in the Orphanage with us. Momo Peter. He was then 11, now a grown man/boy of 19. After we left and they disassembled the Orphanage, the UN could never find any of his family. So, he and two other boys stayed with our friend. He has grown up, schooling with as our own friend was trying to finish off his schooling. I can not tell you the emotions it brings to look at this picture.

Lastly, I promised to tell you about another young boy/man. Happy is the son of Pastor Brian, our closest Hope Builders Ministries Pastor. He is handling the chickens for Carl. He is a young man that takes pride in his work, as Carl allows him a lot of freedom to set things up for himself. Since he came to work with Carl, there has been such a spiritual shift in the work atmosphere. He really is happy- always smiling and humble.

OK, one more story. Most people see theft as part of live here. There is no culture of picking something up, and then giving it back to his owner. In the first place, we have yet to have any theft, and we have been here for 4 and ¾ years. Saturday, there was a knock on the door, and there was a father with his son. The boy had taken two pieces of clothing from our line, we haven’t even realised. But his father brought him to give back the clothes and ask for forgiveness. God works, honestly, He does.

May your roots grow deep.