First Wesley Service last week

Wesley's first service was last Wednesday night in the Grand Hall at the new Tate Center. Kelly Pickler (the American Idol, now country singer) was doing the building dedication the next day so we got to use her sound and light equipment...we've never sounded better! We had about 1300 students come to worship and about 1200 last night. Crossroads (Campus Crusade at UGA) had 400 their first night, and I think BCM had a good night on Tuesday as well. There is a unity prayer service September 8th in this same room (we're all cancelling our individual services) to ask God to awaken the yet-followers who are on campus. Every year I find myself asking the Lord to increase his church here, that the numbers of people connected to communities of faith wouldn't fall off but increase August to May, that his body would be growing up into him, building itself up in love. It's the way it was meant to be--we carry with us an advancing kingdom. We have hope...
I'll try to post some pics of our Leadership Prayer meeting if I can. We're actually meeting in one of the auditorium classrooms in the middle of campus this year, which I think is pretty significant from the perspective of the coming-kingdom. Thanks for praying for us.

good days...bad days

Tonight after dinner, after we did the swings in the backyard, we walked our walking stroller down to Aunt Dawn whose little Luke is three weeks on Wednesday. Emmaleigh, of course, insisted on pushing it and kept running the thing into the neighbors ditch. To her credit, she stuck with it. The weather the past few days has been unbelievable in the evenings. Just before dusk it feels like an Athens fall day and the outside pulls on you like Friday afternoon before a vacation. When we got back to the house, I stuck the girls up in the big magnolia that sits in the front. Hannah takes her turn and Emmaleigh is running around the yard pretending like she doesn't see her: "is she in the bushes? is she under the steps?" It was serene.
A week ago, Carolyn and I were sitting in bed and heard the unmistakable thump of Emmaleigh's body hitting the floor as she fell out of bed. We, of course, rush in to make sure that she hasn't broken something, but she's only screaming because she's scared. As I pick her up to snuggle her and put her back in bed, I notice that she has a big lump on her stomach. I ask her, "what's that, Lou?" And she answers, "its the baby in my belly. Just like Mommy." I pulled out a stuffed giraffe and she cracks a big grin before crawling under the covers and falling asleep.

The last three months have been difficult, though, to say the least. Jon, our brother-in-law, had massive infections in his blood and on his heart and brain. As soon as he recovered, Jena (his wife) started her battle with AML. She finished her second round of chemo last week and is at home waiting for bone marrow treatments beginning in the middle of September. Three weeks ago, we found out that our pregnancy was a doublet, twins, and only 7 days later that we lost the weaker of them. In the last week, Carolyn's mom has also developed health problems and is undergoing tests. Really unbelievable.

We keep giving the Father opportunities t0 show up and (no surprise) he does. He's still good...

Long overdue...

So, it's been a while since I've posted. My sister-in-law has been fighting with leukemia the last month and we've been scattered about caring for all sorts of things. To update: she'll be undergoing more chemo and then a bone marrow transplant in the next few months. Her age and relative health are in her favor, but her sub-type makes her 'high risk.' We'd appreciate your prayers.

In the meantime, the girls have become good friends--something we've been waiting for! Here they are on the swing at Papa and Nana's...and with the cousins Abby (left) and Rose (right).For my birthday, my parents took the family to the Georgia Aquarium complete with picnic. It was a great time for everyone, although Emmaleigh ate it up more than any of us. The post-aquarium picnic...the girls observing fish with Granddad's steadying hand guarding for falls...with Mom and Aunt Becs...with me in the tunnel...an exhausted Hannah at the end of the day...Thanks for the day, parents!

second week in Zambia

It's been a good week since I've been back...mostly been working on the house and getting started with summer Wesley. Here's some pictures of the last week of the trip. This is Jean Claude, a student at the University of Zambia and president of Chi Alpha (a campus ministry). He attended Dave's conference last year and ,over dinner at our place, he told us about how he has started several discipleship groups at the college...

This is Jack (on the left) and Simon (on the right). We stayed in the guest house of a Baptist seminary surrounded by other small houses with the students and their families. I let them listen to my iPod the first day and these two boys, especially Simon, came around the house to play the rest of the week...
They were preparing to pave the road that led to the seminary. Dave and I walked down it everyday to get to the grocery store. The road had large rocks just below the level of the upcoming pavement, so about twice an hour you'd hear a boom and feel the shake as they blew them up with explosives! In this picture, you can see pedestrians on the right side of the road walking past the dust storm of a freshly exploded rock! While you might expect a road closure or something like that, they had a guy with a whistle and a red flag...unbelievable.
These are the pastors and deacons that we taught the second week (I'm taking the picture!). It was somewhat disappointing considering that the pastor setting up the conference told Dave that he'd be able to get more pastors than last year (25) and wasn't able to do so because of lack of forethought and pre-planning. The week was good, though, and those that came were extremely receptive to the material. We're not despising the day of small beginnings--the kingdom is yeast in the dough and a mustard seed...
Thanks so much for your prayers while I was away.

Friday

We finished up the conference for the pastors/deacons/church leaders in Lusaka today. We have a day tomorrow of rest and packing and then we'll head home Sunday! Thanks for your prayers. I'll post some pics when I get back.

Wednesdays post...

So we got to Lusaka Monday at 10:30 in the morning. We were planning on talking with the Pastor who set up the conference here and then plan the week...we tried and didn't hear back from him until 8:45 that night. Most of the afternoon we were wondering if there was going to be a conference at all! Welcome to Africa! It worked out, though, and we just finished our second day of teaching. The pastors and deacons that we are teaching are really moving with us through the material well and seem to be responding really positively. They are not nearly as engaged in interacting with our questions or asking their own compared to the students last week, but its hard to describe the hunger of the students at the college. We'll be doing the same thing tomorrow and Friday, then resting on Saturday before leaving early Sunday for the long trip back! Keep praying for us!

Sunday.

The church plant turned out to be a house church in one of the 'compounds' just outside of Kitwe. The compound is where the poorest of the poor urban people live--the government provides a small lot and the people construct whatever form of house they can manage. The house that we worshiped in this morning was a small three room house. Walking in the door from the sunlight I could hardly see my hand in front of my face and I smelled only dirt. We sat walked through the kitchen area and into the living area where there were several old couches and a few straight-back chairs along the walls. The floors were dirt and the outer walls were clay bricks with a loose-concrete mortar. The church usually met up the road a bit in another home, but the wife of that house had just suffered a seizure and wasn't able to host the church. We were able to visit her and pray after the service. There was also a funeral in the community this morning, so the usual 30-40 counting children was whittled down to about 8 adults and 15-20 kids. After some singing they called me to preach, and I think I surprised them a bit when I asked if I could sit on the floor and teach the children before giving the message. I taught the kids from Matthew 19 and the adults the same thing that I shared in the previous church--sowing and reaping in the kingdom of God and how that sort of activity is opposed to the sowing and reaping of the kingdoms of the world (from Isaiah 9, Matthew 13, and Galatians 6). I was blessed to be a part of the small community there, only less than a year in existence. There was genuine life in the leaders Robert, Gertrude, and Blessed, and they were upbeat and hopeful about being able to reach the compound with the gospel. They blessed me even more by cooking a meal after church, chicken, rice and potatoes, an expensive meal in their context. The generosity and graciousness of the Zambian people continues to convict my heart.

Packed and rested...to Lusaka in the morning.