Testimony from Western Zambia

In June my co-leader, Patrick, and I took a team to the western province of Zambia. We had traveled to Kapau village, located inside the Sioma National Park. We had to take a park guard in with us because of the wild animals that lived around the village. This was proven to us as we saw the lion and leopard tracks on the road into the village. I had been in this village during my recon trip in the end of May and had asked for permission to bring the team to do ministry. It was already night when we finally arrived, and we were greeted by the headmaster and several of the villagers. We made camp, and the following morning gained permission from the headman of the village to have a soccer match and hold an evangelism meeting. The only requirements he gave us was that he did not want a church planted in the village and that we must meet with the leaders of the local church. The church that is in place there is a very legalistic religion and has unfortunately moved away from the Gospel message. They focus on a works based message. As Patrick and I sat in a classroom at the school, we found ourselves being grilled with question after question about what our intentions were in the villages, what the message is that we preached, and the most trivial questions one could imagine (i.e. what denomination does God belong to, what day should the sabbath be). After this Q&A, we held a soccer game against the young men of the village and held a crusade meeting afterwards. It was during this meeting that four young men gave their lives to Christ. One of the mothers started yelling that her son had just decided to serve Satan and that we were satanists. It turns out that after I had left during my recon trip, rumors had started about satanists in the area, which they associated with us. The people in Kapau village had never had missionaries visit before and were hesitant about our meeting. However, the joy in the young men's face as they were filled with the Spirit of God is worth a million times worse then any rumor started by the enemy. We left these men with Bibles and as much teaching material we had on us, with the hope that one of the local pastors in the area will continue follow up until we can return there to further share of the Message of Christ. Please pray for these men as they continue in their walk and may others come to know Christ through them.