Zambia: Justice and Mercy

We greeted our fourth day in Zambia with bright sun and the faint smell of charcoal which is used as cooking fuel. After a hearty breakfast – yes, we are privileged to have three meals a day - we drove to the International Justice Mission (IJM) to introduce ourselves and to meet its new director Claire Wilkinson and her staff. The IJM’s mission is to provide legal assistance to disadvantaged Zambians. For example, widows and orphans often face land and property grabs which means their property is taken by paternal relatives when the father of the household dies. Similar to US law property flows to widows and children, so IJM fights for those rights. Claire’s energy and passion for this difficult work was hopeful.

Our afternoon was filled with feeding program visits sponsored by three churches within a 26 church network that is supported by the Jubilee Center, one of CPC’s Zambian partners. Beautiful children crowded around, welcoming us with outstretched hands and wide smiles. Kiersti gave a two minute kids sermon, based upon Psalms 139: 14 “I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made”. The team all took turns cooking nshima, a thick, cream-of-wheat type staple which is often eaten at each meal. Volunteers lovingly make these meals. We are never far from seeing God’s hand at work.

Over eighty percent of the children we served today are HIV positive. Their antiretroviral drugs (ARV’s) are to be taken with food, so these feeding programs are literally life saving. The children showered us with love and joy. Though we left with nshima, dust, dirty dishwater, and sticky who-knows-what on our clothes, we left having received more than we gave.

Our evenings have closed with intimate, reflective, candlelight (due to intermittent power outages) conversation. We share what we have sensed and felt. We ask tough questions and try to wrap our heads around each day. And we also laugh. A lot. We are blessed to have Pastors Paul and Rich shepherding this trip. As Rich would say. “It’s another beautiful day in Africa.” Amen.

Anne and George West

Zambia: Humbled and Inspired

This is our first trip to Zambia and we were greeted with, “Welcome to Zambia, you are home, you are family. We are inspired and humbled by the hospitality that our hosts have shown, the stories of the people, the compassion they show to others, and their deep faith in Christ. When we arrived and saw the landscape, the condition of the streets, the housing, and the poverty, it was a shock. The longer we are here the more we have discovered the beauty within. We spent the last couple of days visiting schools that are the size of five small rooms. Some of these schools educate up to 543 kids and do it with none of the tools we have at home. Ventilation, light, and room to sit and move are not luxuries afforded them, but they do have passion, hope and a sense of duty to the kids and their communities.

We have visited sick people who are supported by the church home-based caregivers who volunteer their time and support them with food, compassion and their time. The sick have allowed us to come to their homes and sit and talk with them. I can say I am not that gracious when I am sick. We have met with members of support groups who shared the challenges they face and the support they give each other. We also have met people who are HIV positive themselves who reach out to others in their communities to support and care for them.

We have met a ton of kids who are friendly, curious about “white people”, love to show off and have their picture taken. They soak up the attention and will be with you as long as you let them. They are fun to be with too. We asked one child how was doing and his response was a simple and amazing: “Happy.” We learned something today.

The week is barely half over and we are still processing all that we are taking in. The churches and their leaders are the soul of the support we are experiencing and seeing. I feel hopeful because of them.

Karen and Dave Parrin

Zambia: Learning to Listen

What a day this has been! After a challenging start (a bus with a dead, or mostly dead battery), we began our day joined by a room full of pastors and lay care volunteers belonging to a network of 26 churches connected to the Jubilee Centre. After some time of worship and side-splitting icebreakers, Rich and Kiersti did an amazing job facilitating a training workshop focused on the art of listening in the context of caring. After a hearty lunch of authentic Zambian food, the rest of the group went to get a tour of the community elementary schools. As we process what we experienced and saw, the lessons we draw from this with continue to reverberate in our hearts for and minds.

Zambia: Unfettered Worship

After four flights, over three continents, and 27 hours, we ended our journey from Minneapolis to Lusaka late Saturday evening. The excitement of finally getting here made the long trip worth it. Worship the next morning would put it all in perspective. The nine of us (Rich Phenow, Kiersti Phenow--who flew up from Cape Town, South Africa to join us--Mike Sobol, Jeannine Kellogg, Dave and Karen Parrin, George and Anne West, and Paul Tshihamba) would split up into three groups and attend three churches in the Lusaka suburb of George, where we've been in partnership with 26 vibrant Zambian churches for the last three years, thru the facilitation of the Jubilee Centre. Three of us were asked to preach the sermon. Jeannine volunteered, while Rich and Paul weren't given a choice:).

As is typical here, the experience of worship was powerful and genuine. Beginning the week with dear Zambian friends in worship was an important reminder of ties we've forged with this community.

Paul Tshihamba

2013 Zambia Trip: Visiting Jubilee Center

On Friday, six members of Christ Presbyterian Church will leave Minneapolis to go visit our partner, The Jubilee Center, in George, Zambia. The team will be led by Missions Pastor, Paul Tshihamba and Congregational Care Pastor, Rich Phenow. CPC has a long-standing partnership in Zambia, see the video below to learn more.

2013 Easter Offering from Christ Presbyterian Church on Vimeo.

Watch their journey unfold as they post stories and pictures on this blog. They welcome your comments and questions. 

Pastor Rich Phenow making new friends in Zambia. 

Israel/Palestine Sunday January 27

Shalom from Jerusalem!  We have experienced so much in the past few days that it is hard to take it all in. We continue to meet wonderful people both Arab and Jew. It is an interesting time to be here as they just had their elections this past Tuesday -lots of conversations with Israeli's about this. 

We spent Friday morning at the Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem - Yad Vashem -Memorial and Name. This is a memorial to those who lived through and died during the holocaust along with those who risked their lives to help the persecuted. Our tour of the museum told a story of the lives of the Jews before the Nazi's came into power. What struck us as we saw the holocaust unfold was the millions of lives that were exterminated and never allowed to begin - the generations that would never be.
 We then spent the afternoon in old Jerusalem and prayed at the Western (Wailing) Wall. It was a holy experience. It was fascinating watching all of the religious Jews and their different degrees of orthodoxy. We spent the evening with a local family for Shabat dinner.  Shabat is the Jewish Sabbath which lasts from sundown on Friday to sundown on Saturday. They had a traditonal Shabat dinner with all of the blessings, singing, and the following of the laws required by observant Jews. This family opened their home and welcomed 14 of us to share in this ceremony that they joyfully embrace each Friday evening.

We spent today in Bethlehem meeting with Palestinian Christians. People, who over and over again have experienced oppression; injustices that have made their everyday life difficult. But what we have heard over and over again was a hope, a hope that comes out of our Christian values of equality, justice and freedom. A hope that comes out of God's call to be peacemakers. A hope that we can love one another as Christ told us to do.

We started this trip with a devotion from Matthew 22:37-39, " Jesus replied, ' Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'  With every story we hear, our hearts return to this commandment.

Shalom, Salome,

Debbie Manning

Israel/Palestine: Blessed Are You

We began our day in the coastal city of Haifa, reconnecting with our dear friend, Archbishop Elias Chacour of the Melkite Church. He had visited us in Minnesota in September, and so having the chance to pay him a visit in his own context was an immense privilege for us. Following our time at his residence, we spent time at the House of Grace, a ministry to former prisoners run by the Shehada family, a Christian Israeli Arab family. In addition to hearing about this unique 30 year-old ministry, we were also given a glimpse into the unique challenges of being Arab, Christian, and Israeli.

We then embarked on a drive that took us on a loop that would eventually culminate in an evening arrival in Jerusalem.

Much of our time was spent around the Sea of Galilee, Capernaum, and the Mount of Beatitudes...places with familiar names that now take on a new sense of fresh, palpable reality. The juxtaposition of the ordinariness of the places we saw with the holiness and significance of their history was at times overpowering. Interspersed throughout the day were readings from the gospels that connected the ancient story to our current story. Whether it was the place in Luke chapter 4 where Jesus taught in the synagogue, or the hillside where he delivered his Sermon on the Mount, or the place along the shore where, according to John's account, following the resurrection, Peter was restored, we were drawn into a whole new appreciation of "incarnation."

At nearly 700 feet below sea level, the Sea of Galilee is in some ways symbolic of the ironic movement of Christ's incarnation and atonement.

I end this entry with what for me is the quintessential text of St Paul, describing the mystery of the incarnation.
"Have the same mindset as Christ, who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death--even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
~Philippians 2:6-11.