Pictures Are Worth A Thousand Words

I love everything about weekend women's meetings: sleeping in the tent, singing and dancing with friends, hearing God's Word taught, seeing women confess their sins and give their hearts to Christ, eating nshima, being outside, and celebrating life with good friends.

Each time I come home from one of these meetings, I am tired, my heart is heavy, my thoughts are abundant, and the work that God has done and is doing is evident in the lives of the women that I have been with. My emotions are so varied, that I cannot effectively describe or communicate what God taught me, besides the things that I saw with my own eyes, this is the reason that I must spend a great amount of time in prayer and reflection before blogging about such an event.

The meeting in Petauke was awesome. 400 women were in attendance. The them was "Living the Christian Life". Amai Leya Phiri, Amai Josephine Tembo, and myself were the teachers for this meeting. God was once again faithful in allowing my language to be clear and His message to be communicated effectively. Praise Him! 75 women prayed to receive Christ, many were set free from the bondage of demons, and hearts were exposed to the sin that lie within them. The pictures below each tell a story.

Leya Phiri is the chairlady for the Baptist Women of Zambia. I am so blessed to have spent these days with her, I learned to much about the amazing gifts that God has blessed each of His children with. She is truly gifted by the Holy Spirit and taught the women of Petauke straight from God's Word.

Remember Kondwera (Happy) from my meeting in April? I was so happy to see him again. He is healthy and happy and his mother truly loves the Lord with all of her heart! Praise the Lord!

My sister, Zeria.

The beast of burden: chitumwa (charms).

These just look like pieces of string with beads on them, right? WRONG.

Women are bound by witchcraft and African tradition in Zambia. All of these are charms that mother's at the meeting wanted to be removed from their babies. Each of these were bought at the witch doctor in order to protect their babies from death, illness, or evil spirits. Myself and Leya taught that these just invite Satan to live among their child. Praise the Lord for the freedom these babies and mothers found. Pray that they will remain free and not return to this sinful behavior and cling to Jesus Christ alone!

Charms are all different, this one has a sewn pouch with medicine made of roots/plants to protect the child.

This charm was made from the hide of an animal, with the fur.

No, these charms do not have power over us, who are children of God, but the meaning behind them is deeply satanic. Therefore, we burned them immediately and prayed again that the blood of Jesus would cover the children and mothers.

This is one of the huge pots that they use to cook the nshima to feed all 400 of us!

This precious boy has been set free, he was one of the children with three charms on his body. Two on his waist, and one around his neck. His mother denied that he had anymore than one, but was confronted and confessed that he had two more. Pray for this little boy and his mother to live a life in Christ alone.

The women, almost everyone was in this picture.

My friend, Sarah, surprised me and came to the meeting on Friday. I loved having her there to see what all goes on at the meetings and she had a great time meeting my friends and camping out!

Ber

Bertha was elected the Vice Secretary for the Petauke Women's Association! Zeria and I were so happy for her!

Zeria, Amai Daisy Chipanga, and Bertha. I love these women so much! Daisy was just elected the new chairlady for the Petauke Women's Association! Once again, I was so happy to be there to celebrate this honored position with them!

I was so happy to see my kiddos again! I miss them when I am gone for three nights! I wanted a picture with Leya and the kids decided to jump in with us!