Romans 15:13 "Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you are faithful to Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit."
This is the verse that I have been meditating on for the past couple of weeks, as I prepared for this journey. Yeah, I've been to Zambia a few times...and Africa a bunch of times, so this is nothing new. But building a farm - in less than 2 weeks - that is something new. And something I'm not skilled at whatsoever. Thankfully God has partnered me with Jose (who is an incredibly skilled builder) and Curt (who is a master animal scientist), so I don't really need to do anything other than lead...and God has skilled me with that.
However, I've still gotta be faithful. And that is the interesting word in this verse. Most who read this verse, and any who have memorized it, will know it to say "...as you BELIEVE in Him..." But that is a bit of a beef that brother Rob and I have with our modern Bible translators. The Greek word in that verse is pisteuo, the present-active-infinitive verb of pistis. It means the "conviction of the truth of anything." However, our translators make it sound like it is a head knowledge, or an understanding. Rob and I understand it do be an active verb that requires us to do something. This translator's curveball is the reason that we have done something like start S2S. We don't feel like our pistis is real unless it causes us to do something. We can believe there are starving people in the Zambian church. But joy and peace are offered when we actually take steps to do someting about it. Anyway, that's a little insight into how S2S reads the Bible. And honestly, that verse is proving true this morning. I am filled with joy and peace, and it is going to overflow with hope to the 40-50 or so men that I come in contact with today.
Before I talk about today, let me share about the past 44 hours. Lisa got up at 3:00 am on Thursday and took me to Des Moines International. We were on the 6:00 am flight to Chicago...the 10:00 am flight to Addis Ababa...the 10:00 am flight (8 time zones difference!) to Lilongwe...and what turned out to be a 3 hour 45 minute van ride to Chipata (that is longer than expected, but way better than the 11 hour ride from the Zambian airport in Lusaka). In the middle of that journey, we went through a customs control into Malawi which turned out to be as equally easy as finding our luggage was difficult...but the 6 bags all made it! And then we had to cross over from Malawi to Zambia, and that is what the cover photo represents. That is the border crossing station on the highway between the 2 countries.
I try not to eat any plane food, in order to protect my stomach at the front end of the trip; so I was very hungry at the end of that journey. Thankfully, we are staying at the very familiar Cross Roads Hotel in Chipata, and the kitchen had chicken stir fry and french fries waiting for me when I walked into the dining room. In addition, the room is fantastic with plenty of space, a normal bathroom experience and lots of hot water. In case you are ever travelling to the African continent, the bathroom experience can often determine the overall confort of the trip. But a Eurepean style toilet and a hot shower will make this 2 week stay very pleasant. One of the things I am most excited about this year is the 2 week stay in Chipata. If you've followed my travel blog before, you know that we rarely stay more than 1 or 2 nights in the same hotel. We are constantly moving around the country with 6-10 hour bus rides between each stop. Not this year. This year, because we are building the farm at Repentance Baptist Church, we will be stayting in this one location. However, since a big part of my trip is the S2S pastoral training, we will bring as many of our 120 pastors as possible into Chipata. So they get to ride the bus, rather than me. Sorry guys, but my American frailties are very appreciative!
Oh, by the way, all of the travel went very well. We had 1 extra hour on the tarmac in Chicago, turning that 14-hour flight into 15 hours...but if that is the worst travel hiccup we experience then we will be thanking God all the way home for His gracious provision.
Now for today...team breakfast at 7:30. Then we will drive to the farm site at 8:00 am (less than 30 minutes away). I can't wait to see Jose and our newst team member, carpenter William Banda - under the direction of Dr. Youngs - begin to bring this modern American/Zambian farm to life. I'm told they have already dug the holes for the 3 1/2 acres of fencing...and started the foundation on the Chicken building. Once the plan is in place for the construction team, Curt and I will go with Thomas to try to find a local partner who can sell us the chickens with all of the necessary care paraphernalia.
Those are the 2 main tasks for this day. Please pray with me for God's hand on our labors on His bahalf. Ready to PISTEUO!
Here we go...
