Mission Trips
Zambia
While in Choma, Zambia my heart clearly was broken for the abandoned children of Zambia due to their loss of parents, AIDS, and/or lack of funds to raise them. Kevin and Dosiah are the founders of “Children of the Most High” a ministry that touches the abandoned children, widows, and elderly in Choma. While attending Valley Forge, Kevin went on a mission trip to Zambia where he met Dosiah. Upon his return to the states, he told friends and family that he was going to return and marry her. This happened, and both returned to the states while Kevin continued his studies towards his B.S. in Missions, and Dosiah began her studies for her associate’s. Upon graduation they returned to Zambia where they embarked together on this life changing ministry to many.
Children of the Most High is a ministry of three houses (faith, hope, and love) that supply a residence, provides an education, but most importantly exemplifies what love is and who Christ is. These children are given the hope and dreams of being doctors, teachers, and pastors instead of turning to the streets of drugs and prostitution. Each home has volunteer housemothers that cook, clean, and teach the children, while pouring the love of Jesus into them. Each morning I awoke, I was in awe of the dedication and heart that Kevin, Dosiah, and these housemothers gave day after day. Possessions, appearance, and prestige mean nothing to them rather the future of these children mean the world to them.
While in Zambia, our team was able to stay in the homes of these children. We ministered in churches, schools, and the streets in Choma and surrounding towns. With workshops for the elderly, men, women, and youth that challenged them to continue to strengthen their personal relationship with the Lord and share the word of God with others around them. Our main challenge though was to have the people of Zambia take the Word “Out of Africa” beyond the city limits of Choma, beyond the perimeters of Zambia, and beyond the waters that surround Africa.
Our team also ministered through skits, song, clowning, scripture memorization, and bible stories to the children. The innocent faces beaming with excitement as we lovingly shared our hearts broke me. It was so lucid why Kevin’s heart was drawn to these children and this place. Their genuine hearts and love will stay with me forever.
I remember the day we left; I stood outside of Kevin and Dosiah’s house teaching the children a human video that we ministered with the day before. They wanted to learn the skit so they could share it with their friends in future days, and remind them of the challenge that we left with them there. I don’t think that those children will ever understand what they left in all of our hearts as we pulled away from the village. They thought that we came there to only leave them with something, but I know that each member of our team left more challenged and were able to have our eyes opened wider to the need Choma, Zambia.
Zimbabwe
“Is there anyone here that seeks to accept Jesus Christ in your heart, to share this love with all that you know, to grow in courage and knowledge of his teachings?” This was a question that Richard (one of our teammates) asked to a church right outside of Hwange, Zimbabwe. The crowd was quiet and still until a little boy about 2 years old came running down to the front and screamed “yes, yes, yes.” Soon after, there were crowds of people that were crying out for more of Jesus. I remember sitting back and holding back the tears seeing this little child launching a change in his town.
As you walked down a dark, dusty, and dry land in Hwange, Zimbabwe and you looked beyond the paved road people were able to see a bright light, as people walked closer and closer to see what was under this light they were able to see a tent filled with people from another land (America) sharing a love of Christ. We thought of that bright light as more than just a light that brought a better vision in the dark, but rather the light of Jesus to a darkened world full of poverty, AIDS, and sin.
While in Zimbabwe, we held crusades for the children, men, women, pastors/deacons, and youth. I spent most of my time with the children in Zimbabwe. As we dressed in clown costumes and performed skits for the children, they watched and soaked in the bible lessons that we came to teach them. The children taught us a new song of having Jesus “deep down in our hearts” that our team brought back to the U.S. During these children’s crusades, children came from all over with no parents watching over them, no food for lunch, no shoes to guard their feet, but a passion to hear more about Jesus. I remember filling an entire room with children and seeing twice as many still waiting to be told where to go. They wanted to be held, loved, and felt as special as they truly are.
Our team was also able to do street evangelism. We loaded up our vans, with bibles and tracts in our backpacks and headed to the market to speak with the people. I was astounded at the number of people that were anxious about hearing and talking about Jesus. We were inviting everyone we spoke with to attend our service that evening at the church. Shaking their hands, playing games, and making faces with them brought smiles and a sense of caring that they hadn’t had in a long time. I was impressed at the amount of knowledge that they already had of the Bible, and also encouraged at the amount they strived to learn more.
That evening the service brought so many people that our team had to add two additional services in separate locations. I was impressed by our team of 23 people between the ages of 18 – 53, of how flexible they were able to be. At each service, we were able to sing, do dramas, and encourage the people with the Word. The different locations were at another church and under a tent. That week we referred to these churches as One, Two, and Three. Each service every day and night was sat to capacity, with people standing all around the church, and flowing out of the doors. The impact that the members of the church are able to have on their own is amazing. A country that is infested with AIDS and no hope of a better life, the churches give hope through Christ, and we were there to encourage them and their ministry. The people of Zimbabwe challenged me more to continue striving for more knowledge of Christ and his life on earth, as well to have the courage to impact all of those around me.
Malawi
A gentle sweet man and his family of 9 children shared with me their journey of over 3 weeks that they traveled to come to Chitipa just to "hear the Americans share Christ." I was amazed. I remember in my solo time this evening me thinking that if it snowed too much, or rained too hard then I would stay in bed and not attend Sunday morning services. This family showed me what it truly meant to have dedication and hungry for more of God. "I want that" I thought.
Children's services, Pastor's workshops, youth rallies, and How to be better Men and Women of God were the seminars that our team spoke about. During one of the youth services while I was preaching I remember looking out among the crowd and seeing two distinct things. One, a boy that longed to see so bad what was being spoken about had climbed a tree and stood in it and listened contently to the challenging words that were being spoken to him. It reminded me of Zacheius (you know the wee little boy) that longed to just see Jesus so he climbed up a tree and as Jesus walked past him he noticed and invited him to share a more personal time with him. I searched for that little boy after the service when I found him I saw him smile and call me his friend in his tribal tongue. I smiled in return, we shared a more personal time together playing games and danced. This boy loved Jesus, and helped renew my tired spirits on the trip. He may never know.
The second thing I noticed, was an extremely shocking and confirmation within my heart that I was exactly where God had me to be. While I was back in the states a woman had called me and shared a dream she had with me in it. Mrs. Webb said to me that she "doesn't understand the dream, but maybe one day it will make sense to me." She shared with me a vision of me preaching to hundreds of hundreds of people, but these people were all black, and sat on a dirt hill on rocks and wood pieces. She didn't understand that dream, but she knew she was to share it with me. As I stood in front and preached what God had laid on my heart, I was looking out upon hundreds and hundreds of Africans that carried with them rocks and wood pieces to avoid having to sit on the dusty and dirt hill. I had a friend take a picture of this sight, and later shared the picture with Mrs. Webb. As she cried she looked at me and said, "That is the exact vision I had." I was amazed, and I knew I was where God wanted me to be.
When our team left Malawi, none of us were ready to leave. We all could've stayed for another two weeks. The time that we shared and encouraged the Christian College, the people of Chitipa (a city so far north that they rarely receive visitors), and the pastors/deacons/elderly of the churches. God did amazing things in my life in Chitipa, and showed me tremendously how much he is able to use me and the gifts that he has given me.
The Sudan
As I sat at ‘Tea and Things,’ a center for women and their children to come and freely talk about life, love, and religion. A place to take aerobic and cooking classes, learn English, do crafts with their children, and have a coffee and Danish, but most importantly a place to share Jesus with the Muslim women of Khartoum. At “Tea and Things’ my eyes were opened wider to the people and a country that is so desperate and a harvest that is ripening day by day.
If you would have told me a year ago that Valley Forge would send a team of students to Sudan, Africa with doors wide open to minister through song, dramas, and personal testimonies I would’ve thought you were crazy. But as I was able to join 15 other passionate people and experience the dreams and aspirations of many, we helped spread the word to a highly deceived and blinded country.
Declared an Islamic Republic in 1983, our team spent 13 days in Khartoum, Sudan and two days in Port Sudan, Sudan. For some on the team, eyes were opened to the customs, traditions, society, background, and culture that Islam is and for others the passion, heart, and zeal to return and continue the watering and planting through relationships was deepened. “Relationship building takes a long time, really finding out the importance of longevity and not just ‘hit and run’,” is an experience that one of our teammates, Justin Dela Cruz, is walking away with.
Our team held programs for street children that live in Boys Centers, University Students studying to be doctors, lawyers, and engineers, and other numerous groups including a Dinka Tribe located outside of the city of Khartoum. We each shared our personal testimonies, and challenged the people of Sudan to “#1 love God, #2 love your family, and #3 love your country,” as said by Carrie Baker.
Dialoguing with students at ACE centers (English training centers) and local gardens was another way that we were able to communicate the love of Jesus with the people of Khartoum. Most importantly, relationships were beginning to be built. It’s been said that to be effective you must mention Jesus or the Bible within the first three minutes of meeting someone. To be open, with all we came in contact with, and ready to share our hearts, our team learned the value of establishing open friendships and the value of the boldness to share the truth of Jesus Christ.
In a temperature at its lowest of 110, our team was also able to share more of Jesus through actual physical labor (what we called the ministry through sweat). On our first work day half of our team swept and mopped the living quarters in a boys center while the other half helped lay a new cement floor to make a learning lab for the boys’ education. The second work day, our team sanded and repainted Khartoum Christian Center (KCC), the only established church in a city of about 13 million people. We were able to leave behind not just the memories and our hearts with these people, but as one of the teachers at the boys center said “we will always remember the Americans that came and gave all they had, and will be reminded daily of their love and faith when we see the floor.”
“There are many ways to waste money or your lives . . . investing in The Sudan is one of them,” this was a headline on a South African Newspaper days prior to our arrival in The Sudan. What some would find as a discouragement, our team found as a stepping-stone. Sure, we climbed the pyramids and camped in the Sahara Desert, snorkeled in the Red Sea, and swam across the Nile River but bigger and better things were done through our character and testimonies that were left in the hearts of many Sudanese. If you were to ask any one of the 16 privileged members of our team about this trip, we would all answer how this trip was an encouraging and life changing experience. Still amazed at how God took 16 people from all different backgrounds, futures, and expectations for the trip and used us all as one voice bound together through and for his service.
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