It is Saturday afternoon 11-19-11 here at 4PM and I just dropped Shelley, David, Ella and Samson off at the Sara Rose Orphanage for a birthday party for Kachingwe and Nicholas. Virginia and Sadie Grace are outside playing with the neighbor kids that also live within our wall fence. Lydia and Mary-Frances are spending time with the youth at Agape Baptist. We will all head to the Walker’s tonight for prayer and family worship where we are also completing Focus on the Families Truth Project as well. I am preaching tomorrow and my message is titled “Possessing a heart for the heart of God.” I am finishing this message as well as writing this post before we leave. In a word I would describe how I feel right now as just thankful today. There are so many reasons why but I will give you a few.
Did you notice whom I dropped off at the Orphanage? Shelley, David, Ella and Samson! Yes, even Samson was dropped off with my other two children. This Tuesday will mark our one-week mark with Samson in our home. He is a good boy and a delight to be around. We are all adjusting well. It really struck me today as I watched him walk into the Orphanage and I realized that for his entire life (he will be 8 in December) he has only walked out of the Orphanage from time to time only to be temporarily away but today he walked in to the Orphanage only to be temporarily there. One day (if all goes well on the 29th) he will appreciate the full magnitude of all that God has done in eternity past to bring this to pass in his life. Shelley and I and most of our children already see the magnitude of this and we feel God has blessed us with Samson in ways we could have never imagined.
This process has been a faith walk for our family. It is not finalized yet. We have to trust God each step of the way. Some days are much harder than others. The fostering process will not be complete until the 29th of this month. We had our first hearing last Tuesday the 15th and we were told it would not last long and that we should be granted the Fostering order in about 15 minutes. The hearing lasted at least an hour and it was quite intense. At the last minute some of Samson’s distant relatives seemed to be getting cold feet. Since Samson has been in the Orphanage since he was 6 weeks old and has only had one visitor from his family come twice to see him I think the judge seemed to see through this. On the 29th we have a second and final hearing and if all goes well we will receive permanent Fostering rights to his age 19. We really need your prayers for this. We only want God’s perfect will to be done which we know will be best for Samson and us. From our vantage it appears that a foster order would be best but we are waiting and praying and depending on Christ. If we get the Fostering order then after 90 days we can begin the Adoption process. Please continue to pray with us.
A little less than a month ago I was invited to give a Marriage and Family Conference at Kafue Baptist Church located in one of the nearby Compounds. The pastor is Mr. Chishiba Mukwamba. Chishiba has become one of my good friends here. He is bi-vocational; in addition to being a pastor he works full time at Centre for Christian Missions as an Administrator. He is a humble, hard working Godly man. The Marriage and Family seminar went extremely well. It was all day on Saturday where I did four sessions. Then on Sunday we all attended the worship service and I preached the 5th Session, which was titled “Biblical Families for the Glory of God and the Advancement of His Kingdom.” There was very solid attendance the entire week-end and the response of the congregation was overwhelming to Chishiba. He was elated by their response to the teaching. It was a joy to serve side by side with this man. I taught each session in English and then Chishiba translated it as we went along into the local tongue, which is Bemba. I sensed the presence and power of God, as I sincerely desired to uncover not the American model or Zambian model but the pure Biblical model for Marriage and Family.
As we are now past the half waypoint in our Mission in Zambia I am so proud of how my family is doing. As you know all of us are having incredible opportunities to serve and we are giving as much of our selves away as we possibly can in any and every way we can. Shelley and I had a special dinner with Bennett and Bonnie last Sunday just the four of us. Our time with them was great and our relationship with them is strong. How God is working through them is amazing to see. CCM is a powerful force for the Gospel, Discipleship and especially World Missions. They gave us a huge compliment at dinner. Bonnie, as you know, is majorly the real deal as far as missionaries go. She is massively gifted and now Bennett and her together make a strong partnership in every way. They told us that the commitment level we have shown to our work and as well the level at which we are serving has blown them away. They said for a family as large as ours with the age range of our children that it is just very rare to see on the Mission field. I must confess at that point my buttons were popping off! I am so proud of Shelley and each one of my children. They have shown much selflessness and a love for Christ and the dear Zambian people. We are all maturing in our walk with our Savior. I give Him thanks for calling us here and for going before us like He has!
Although my class at the Bible College has ended this term I have been given some exciting new opportunities to teach and preach. In addition to preaching tomorrow, Agape Baptist will be starting Evangelism Sunday’s again once a month. (They used to do this very successfully) I will be preaching on Sunday December 4th and this will be pushed hard in the community with many Church members inviting non-Christians to come. I have titled my message “When is believing in Jesus just plain foolishness?” Please pray for me as I prepare this message and pray that the Lord will draw many there who need to hear the gospel and that some will be born again. Also on the Saturday before on the 3rd of December Bonnie and I will be team teaching at a Conference an hour away in Ndola. It is a Conference centered on reaching Muslims. She will speak the first hour on the Doctrine of the Trinity and I will speak the second hour on how the Muslim views the Trinity and practical approaches of sharing the Trinity with Muslims. This will be an honor to speak at and I cannot wait to hear Bonnie on the Trinity. She is a talented and dynamic communicator.
Thank you for your friendship your prayers your emails your giving and your love for our family while we have been here. My Malaria was real intense for 24 hours but gratefully went away fast. The Doctor also treated me for parasites in my digestive track. He thinks I have had this most of the time I have been here. I have tried not to complain but 75% of the time I have been here my stomach has been hurting and messed up. I have also lost too much weight as a result. Today with the malaria and digestive parasites gone I am thankful. At the moment I feel very good and mostly back to normal. If you are interested I have asked Alex Tsou who maintains our family ministry web site (massive kudos to Alex for his service to the Lord in this way) to post some PDF downloads with some of the teachings that I have done. I have added the 5th session from the Marriage and Family conference on family and as well my Sermon for tomorrow on “Possessing an heart for the heart of God.” I will also send the next two messages I am working on as well. So check the web site for these additions. We love you all very much. May all you and all that we do be for the praise of His glorious name!
Dave