Stinkin’ Faith
/“It is not what a man does that is of final importance…The atmosphere produced by a man, much more than his activities, has the lasting influence.” Oswald Chambers
“But thanks be to God, who always leads us…to spread the aroma of the knowledge of Christ everywhere.” The Apostle Paul (2 Corinthians 2:14)
Abby and I are about to embark on our twenty-fourth trip to Zambia. I’ve been telling everyone it’s our twenty-ninth trip, but I counted today and I was wrong. Twenty-four life changing trips. Twenty four times we’ll have had the privilege of being with Christians who long to know more about following Jesus, who actively put into practice what they learn, and who are being changed over time to smell more like Jesus!
We’re always grateful when people ask us what we’ll be doing in Zambia and Namibia. In a nutshell, we “train the untrained to reach the unreached.” That is, we train small groups of Christian pastors and leaders, both men and women, from different denominations over time in relational, small group settings. These pastors and leaders have already evidenced a heart for evangelism and church planting, and are eager to join more knowledge to their Holy Spirit inspired zeal.
But, as time has gone by, we’ve come to see that there’s something more significant going on here than training, more than the simple passing along of what we have learned to eager disciples. There is “atmospheric” change going on. Friendships are being formed, relationships are deepening, character is being shaped, and destinies are unfolding. Over time, our students and we have begun to smell differently, to increasingly carry the aroma of Christ, to “be” different than we were as we have slowly “become” more like Jesus wants us to be, enabling us to “do” what he’s called us to do.
Increasingly, we want to carry in, with, and through us the atmosphere of Jesus, and to absorb the atmosphere of Jesus from our amazing students and dear friends while we’re in Zambia and Namibia, just as we do from you when we’re here in the States!
To put it bluntly, we just wanna have stinkin’ faith!
A number of you have asked about our itinerary so that you can pray more specifically for us while we’re away, which is awesome. So, here it is:
June 8-10: Travel to Livingstone, Zambia via Johannesburg, SA
June 10-15: Livingstone Zambia - Orientation with Percy Muleba
June 15-19: Mumbwa, Zambia - Phase 1 Discipleship Training
June 19-20: Mongu, Zambia - Visit with former students
June 20-July 3: Sioma, Zambia - Training Trainers Boot Camp (Phase 2)
July 4-17: Katima Mulilo, Namibia: Training Trainers Boot Camp (Phase 1)
July 18-26: Livingstone, Zambia: Rest
July 27-August 10: Livingstone, Zambia - Discipleship Training in Musokotwane and Kazungula, Zambia with GTN colleagues, Scott and Sandra Bauer (day trips)
August 11-September 6: Livingstone, Zambia - Discipleship Training in Musokotwane and Kazungula plus in-studio video recording of our training for the Virtual Learning Project
