Crossroads Videos
The Crossroads Christian Church team is here in Zambia and I had the opportunity to take a few interviews with them. Check them out!
George Ripley interview
Ted Kovarik interview
Jailos Sakala interview
Jesse Swafford interview
Ed Ramos interview
Vacaville Day 1 – Progress Made
I thought I’d post a few pics showing the progress made by the end of the day on Tuesday. For never having laid bricks before, things were looking great! Several minor changes will be made on the next chalet – such as making the mortar joints thicker for better bonding, and laying wire every 4 courses of brick. Check out the good work!
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Vacaville Day 1 – Beginning Brickwork
After a good night’s sleep and a hot breakfast, George, Ed, Jesse and Ted felt refreshed. We started the day by meditating on a short excerpt Jeremiah 9:
Thus says the LORD: “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the LORD.”
(Jer 9:23-24)
The most important thing in life is being in relationship with the Lord. Everything else that we do, especially ministry, flows out of our knowledge of and aquaintance with the Lord. We can truly know God and that’s precisely what the world around us is doubtful of. So our primary focus is to know the Lord who is love justice and righteousness. God’s kingdom will come, not by wisdom, riches or might but by the King of Kings reigning in each of our hearts. When this happens, the world is transformed… one person at a time.
We then spent some time in prayer commiting the week’s activities to the Lord. Time was also spent briefing the team about Ciyanjano Center and the big picture game plan for the property. So much had changed since the team members had last been here. I walked them through the various phases of development on the property and how their work project fit into the whole scheme of things. The morning temperatures have been cool and refreshing so we took a stroll around the property to look at the 100 plus trees that had been planted, perimeter fencing, and building structures that had either been erected or refurbished.
By 11:00 hrs, the guys were ancy to get to work. Having never laid brick before, the team got pointers from Jailos, Boniface and Richard who were experienced in constructing village homes. Eventually, course 1, course 2… etc was laid. Here are a few pictures from the first couple of hours of work.
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Crossroads Christian Church Arrives!
Megan Bloemker and I travelled to Lusaka International Airport to welcome the Crossroads Christian Church short term team, arriving from Vacaville, California. After thirty-something hours of journeying, the crew arrived in tact. Flying from London to Lusaka on Ethiopian Airlines, they had a friendly layover in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia where they had to switch planes. After hours of delays and having to pay excess baggage charges exceeding $600 they finally boarded for Lusaka…arriving around 1600 hrs local time. The four man team is comprised of (left to right in photo): Jesse Swafford, team leader George Ripley, Ted Kovarik and Ed Ramos. With three on the team having been to Zambia before, the landing brought back many memories of previous missions trips.
The ACTION Zambia team is encouraged by the enthusiasm, servanthood and unique skillsets that these men are bringing with them. Their objective? Over their two week visit, they hope to conduct ministry outreach and finish construction on 6 chalet structures to be used by churches and children ministries. The team will spend their first few days concentrating on the building project at Ciyanjano which is situated in a rural setting (see pic below). Tonight they will get some early shut-eye at Ciyanjano ministry center in Lusaka West. Nothing feels better than a hot shower and a hot meal after days of travel.
Stockpiling Food
Megan Bloemker is responsible for coordinating our ACTION Zambia short-term teams. With an eye for detail and a gift for administration, she has devised all sorts of schedules and documents to aid in our preparation for visiting short term teams. Crossroads Christian Church will be our second team to come in 2010. Women on our team have volunteered to cook meals in advance. We then freeze them so that they are ready to go whenever the team is ready for them. Megan has a master meal plan and knows just how much food is needed. She makes sure that a fresh assortment of fruits, vegetables and ingredients are on hand at all times. Before a team arrives, she goes on a shopping spree and buys around three carts full of food. I snapped a pic of Megan and Jailos showing off the food purchased for the upcoming team.
Brick Prep for Vacaville
We’ve been working hard to prepare for construction teams which are coming from the States. For the next work project, Crossroads Christian Church in Vacaville, CA is sending a short-term team of four men to come and help Action Zambia with chalet construction.
Because they will undetake a brick-laying project, we have been working ahead at shifting the bricks to the chalet foundations. Lord willing, the team will begin laying 8 courses of our own kiln-baked bricks. The bricks were made over a year ago and were stacked and covered with plastic covering – but the rains were successful last season in leaking in. Inevitably, as the mud brick dampened they began to crack. 25% of them cracked in fact, making them unusable for the lower walls. Even still, we should have just enough to complete the 5 chalets.
The 8 courses should reach a little over one meter high all the way round the chalet slab. Then the brick walls will be finished off with a concrete shell for added protection from the rain. From the top of the brick wall to the ceiling header board, we plan on framing out with timber wood pieces. The idea is to create framing so that mosquito screens can be fastened. It’s kind of difficult to communicate my ideas to others, so I tried sketching the concept.
Saturday Pastor’s Conference
The PLD (Pastoral Leadership Development) ministry of Action Zambia has been planning a half day conference to be held in conjunction with the visiting team from Mt. Morris. The conference was successful with an attendence of around 75-80 pastors and leaders. The pastors from AZ programs 2:7 and APC each invited 2 church leaders they were aware of. The conference focussed on three themes strategically identified by Zambian pastors. These themes were, the centrality of gospil, humility, and servant leadership. Pastor Bruce McKanna started the day off with the first session articulating well the truth of salvation by grace. The middle session was also taught by a visiting speaker Elder Jamie Collins from Steve Allen’s home church. Steve finished up the conference teaching on servant leadership. Tim lead guided tour of Ciyanjano and Pastor Tracy Singleton was bid farewell by the pastors for his upcoming home assignment.
Please be in prayer for upcoming outreach on Wed. The EFCMM team will be sharing testimonies and visiting people in and around Ciyanjano. They will partner with Pastor Victor Makungu from a nearby church. From the last such outreach 8 of 12 people who made professions for Christ are still in attendence at Victor’s church and following the Lord. We pray that God will use members of the EFCMM team to bring people to himself through this time of outreach.
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Getting the work started
God is good! All four men from Mt. Morris had a good night’s sleep and woke up ready to get down to business. After being briefed first by Tim about the purpose, history and vision for Ciyanjano the men started work around 8a.m. Luke Whitfield was there to lay out the details of the day’s work and the men wasted no time in framing out the roofs for the 5 chalets.
It has been a beautiful day for working outside other than a small rain shower in the afternoon. The EFCMM team surprised us all in their speed at accomplishing the work. At the end of the day they had 2 roofs framed and ready to be tinned. At this rate, we’ll be able to give them even more work than what we hoped to accomplish.
Below are some pics of them on-site.
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Pics from the first day
Here are some of the pics to go along with yesterday’s blog entry.
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EFCMM arrives!!
Tim rose early this morning to go fetch the Evangelical Free Church Mt. Morris short term team this morning. The flight was almost an hour late giving time for me to make breakfast for Tim before he left at 6am. All the bags also arrived without problem – always a concern when traveling internationally. We praise God they made it safely and from all accounts are doing well.
Today they will visit the AZ office, get a tour of town, visit Kanyama CMML church (where EFCMM donated money for the church building), and then head out to Ciyanjano where they will spend the majority of their time. Tim is planning a hike this afternoon in an effort to keep them moving and hopefully help them deal with jet-lag. Tim will also spend the night with the team out at Ciyanjano.
Ireen is really excited to see “Pastor Bruce” after I explained that he is Jack and Andrew’s father…haha! She also wanted to know if any of the other men had children her age. I suppose these are the most important things to a 5 yr old girl.
We’ll keep you updated on their trip right here on this blog. Hopefully tomorrow we’ll even have some pictures of the short term team.