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Dear Prayer Warriors, Ministry in the Chiawa/Lower Zambezi Region:
The Drive… Mozambique vs. Zambia but same application - everybody seems to have a story... When we were in Mozambique we were continually warned not to step outside the car, to wander off the road, because of landmines. Here in the Lower Zambezi River Region, we receive the same exhortations but for different reasons. A young boy needed to use the restroom. The driver stopped the car and walked him a few yards into the bush. A lioness was waiting. The driver sacrificed himself for the child. A truck driver needed to relieve himself. He pulled up, got out of the truck, stepped just off the road and a python was waiting. It ate him whole. Story after story. In the lower Zambezi Region, all stories that begin with “…and he left the road to step into the bush…” never end well and are not for the squeamish of heart. However, if you stay in the car, it is a beautiful part of the country with many interesting sights.
The First Night… Hippos, elephants, bats, stars, snakes and baboons God Sends a Gecko: Part Two-- Part One was India and spiders, Part Two was Zambia and moths. You may remember my relating how years ago , in India, God sent a gecko. I went into the bathroom of the small room supplied to me and the ceiling was swarming with spiders, biting flies and stinging bugs. I did not know how I would be able to use the bathroom in the night and really prayed about this as I went to bed. The next morning when I tentatively entered the room, I looked up and it was bug free. Instead was a large gecko, gorged with bugs. He remained there the entire time, keeping the bathroom bug free for me. God sent a gecko. If there is anything that El hates, it is to have moths or bugs fluttering around her face in the dark. In our room, there was a high ceiling with loads of moths. El was all right till she got in bed and looked up. I sent up a quick prayer. In a little bit she said, “John, look.” A gecko emerged from a crack in the wood and began tracking and eating moths. God sent a gecko. I looked in my Bible for geckos and I found this - Leviticus 11:29-30 “'Now these are to you the unclean among the swarming things which swarm on the earth: the mole, and the mouse, and the great lizard in its kinds, and the gecko, and the crocodile, and the lizard, and the sand reptile, and the chameleon.” The Israelites were not allowed to eat geckos and I am happy for that. They may have been unclean under Jewish law in terms of eating but, as God’s creatures, they are a very handy deliverer in terms of ridding rooms of noxious bugs, which would torment poor missionaries. I remember my daughter, Becca, telling us when we visited them in Mozambique, where they were serving as missionaries, that she loved geckos because they ate roaches. Sure enough, we saw them running around with roaches in their mouths. They looked like working men with cigars sticking out of their mouths. In Genesis 1:28, God the Holy Spirit reveals to us that man has rule over all creatures, including the lowly gecko: “God blessed them; and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.’" God has used geckos for my daughter, for myself and now for Eleanor. May their tribe increase!! One additional nice thing was that we did not need our alarm - monkeys are early risers and their fighting over scraps would wake us in the morning. They sound a lot like a pack of 20 or so cats, all fighting at the same time.
There were deck chairs on the porch of the lodge where we stayed. One night, Immidy Musipa pointed out to us that there was a poisonous snake coiled under a chair. One of the men who worked at the conference center came and killed it and ate it. Good riddance!! The director of the conference center had had a kennel with guard dogs. There was a troop of baboons that moved into the area led by a giant, grey, particularly vicious male. They broke into the kennel, killed the dogs and ate them. This same troop was responsible for the children’s program having to be canceled and the children joining their parents for the full seminar inside. There was a little noise but I was impressed that they sat as quietly as they did for six hours. The myth that third-world services are full of crying babies, ill-mannered children and old ladies is a lie of satan.
The Conference… The hosting pastor said that this conference was the first of its kind in the Chiawa/Lower Zambezi Region. He shared that there had not been any real unity among the various churches and that this conference brought pastors, leaders and village headmen all together for the first time. The zeal of attendees, earnestness of translator and attentiveness of the audience was a great challenge to me. In addition, our host, Nelson Musipa, continues to set the pace in serving.
Your gifts supplied Chichewa New Testaments to all conferees. We had English and Chichewa notes and devotionals printed up. The church had to bring in extra chairs and still there were people standing in back. A Christian ministry came and we were interviewed for a radio/TV spot on anti-corruption, on our policy to not pay bribes. In addition to having to cancel the outdoor part of the children’s program due to baboons (The pastors came early and chased them off the roof where they were waiting), we had to end early because a herd of elephants was moving through and many who walked needed to get home early. This is not a game park, this is the real Africa.
We spent our 39th anniversary teaching on marriage, as it fell on Saturday, May 24th. Each evening found me printing extra copies of handouts and devotional materials at night on my little travel printer, as we listened to George Beverly Shea sing “All That Thrills My Soul Is Jesus”; “The Old Rugged Cross”; “Have Thine Own Way, Lord”; “The Longer I Serve Him, The Sweeter He Grows” and other great hymns (as, in the background, hippos grunted in the night and the occasional elephant let out a trumpet and then a lion would roar in response.)
At the Sunday service, I spoke on Colossians 3:1, 17 – 25 on “Zealously Serving God in our Marriages.” I memorized Colossians 3 back in 1973 and it still remains one of my favorite chapters in my back review. I always look forward to working my way towards it. At lunch, the pastors’ wives cooked on open fires - chicken, goat, nshima (kind of like grits) and greens. I had to work to keep them awake during the afternoon sessions after such a great meal.
I hope this gives you a little idea of how the ministry went in the Lower Zambezi Region. It was a time greatly blessed of God and we know that it was your prayers which have empowered our ministry these past two weeks.
By His mercy, II Corinthians 4:1 Rev. John S. Mahon Director – Grace Community Int. – Chiawa - in the Lower Zambezi Region, Zambia (across the crocodile-infested river we can see Zimbabwe.)
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