Today's picture is a pile of fresh maize recently harvested at one of the ZIAP test plots. They are a little bit ahead of the growers that were trained at the test plots, but the harvest is getting closer! Even as we continue to focus as an organization on how we can use the harvest period as an opportunity to feed more of our brothers and sisters, life holds many of the same challenges in Zambia that it does here. Consider...
As I type this, one of our team of six in Zambia is back in the hospital, have struggled physically for years. A second member of our team has traveled from Lusaka to Solwezi with a third member of our team who just lost his father. They will lay his earthly body to rest tomorrow.
My heart is heavy for these families that I have grown to love deeply over the last 6 years. And still...
We have purchased our first batch of maize from an anonymous farmer in Mambwe who offered to sell to us at a 25% discount compared to what we paid a year ago. As that was happening, another farmer approached the same Mambwe pastor/trainer involved and said he also has maize he would be willing to sell for the same discounted price. The cynic in me is wondering what the game is. Do they know something we don't know? Or is it possible the GOOD NEWS that we believe has been in the heart of God since the creation of humanity, a GOSPEL of LOVE and COMPASSION for those who are struggling and in need, a belief that we are meant to LOVE and CARE for EACH OTHER, has been planted in the hearts of these Zambian growers?
Since we first started Shoulder 2 Shoulder, we have shared our understanding of this GOSPEL of LOVE both here and as we traveled annually throughout Zambia.
Here in America that message has resulted in a total of 150 American households leaning into our effort to share from our SURPLUS with our Zambian brothers and sisters who are living in DEFICIT. Our 150th donor gave us a gift this week, at the same time becoming the 50th American donor of 2026. It is AMAZING how much so few can do for so many because of the difference in the economic realities of our two countries.
In Zambia, when Rog and I first visited in August of 2022, we brought this message of sharing from surplus to deficit to a group of Zambian pastors who were typically left shaking their heads in wonder. And to crowds of Zambian brothers and sisters who were left with full bellies. Over the nearly four years since then, the message has continued to deepen and be refined. In August of 2023, Rog went back over using the same 2 Corinthians 8 text to encourage a little more accountability in the process by involving other church leaders besides just the pastor. When I went back in August of 2024, I had a message I am now calling the "Acts Road" - this message has stops in Acts chapters 2, 4, 6 and 11, always asking our Zambian leadership partners, "Why did the early church do this?" Feel free to take that road yourself and ask yourself that same question. I know my answer and would be happy to share it, but wouldn't it be more fun to check it out yourself first? :) Rog was back in Zambia last August with a clever message of MEAT versus MILK, even as he explored with one of the world's foremost experts in animal husbandry the possibility of helping them add some MEAT to their literal diets through the raising of animals.
Each message seems to build on the previous message and always carefully inviting any Zambians with surplus to join us in responding to the NEEDS around us in the way that first church did. Maybe two farmers in rural Mambwe heard the message and responded as they were able. At this point I know very little about them. But as a ministry we are grateful. And their brothers and sisters - their literal neighbors - are grateful. Maybe there are more of these scattered throughout our network in Zambia.
We will continue to do our part. And I continue to invite my American brothers and sisters to first of all step back and consider: Do I have SURPLUS?
And then, if the answer is something like, "I'm not at all sure. How much do I NEED to accumulate for x, y, and retirement?" - join us as we wrestle with questions like that, individually and in community with each other.
If the answer is a resounding, "YES!" - join us as we SHARE from our SURPLUS into the DEFICIT lives of our brothers and sisters halfway around the world.
