Some Pictures of Victoria Falls from the Zambian Side
Lou Ann and Jeff Hawkins work in Zambia and India equipping and training the indigenous church to make disciples. It is a purely native, indigenous ministry that is bearing much fruit to the glory of God. Hope Builders Ministries (www.HBMin.org) is the parent mission Jeff and Lou Ann are partnered with.
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Monday, April 28, 2008
Re-capping the April Trip to Zambia
Hello Friends,
As most of you know I returned home on Thursday the 24th. The Lord blessed the trip to Zambia.
Lou Ann and I left that evening for parts unknown and ended up at Cumberland Falls on Friday. It is a beautiful place and recommend the Dupont Lodge as a great place to stay. Great food too. The Falls were gorgeous. They don't compare in size to the Victoria Falls but the beauty of both declare the awesome Glory of God.
I arrived in Livingstone, Zambia on April 2nd. It was my joy to overnight in Johannesburg with Hennie and DiDi. This gave me a chance to recoup from the long 18 hour flight from NY. I stayed with them last September too. When I arrived in Livingstone I was met by Kennedy Mukumbo. He is family to Denson. The trunk with our computers did not arrive so we proceeded to his guesthouse and got settled in.
The Sunbird Guesthouse is a nice fascility. I was so very comfortable and therefore grateful for a nice place to stay while we waited on the computers to arrive. You can check out his business at http://www.sunbirdguesthouse-livingstone.blogspot.com/. I helped him develop this site to attract more business and be competitve with the other higher cost places near the Falls. I ate with the Mukumbo's at their home in the evenings. May the Lord bless them now and on that Day for their kindness to me.
April 3 - The trunk arrived and we began the "process" of clearing customs. It took two days and $950 to accomplish this. We were thankful it did not cost more and that they arrived safely. I had planned to leave Thursday for Monze but we ended up staying until Saturday.
In between times I had the joy of revisiting the Victoria Falls. Because of the recent heavy rains they were on FULL display. I will try and attach a few videos to this blog. Again, the majesty and might of God are seen in His creation.
April 5 - Kennedy drove me the 4 hours to Monze where I met Denson and we made final preparations for the conference to begin Monday. On Sunday we both preached in two different churches. I preached at the Reformed church where our host, Joseph Phiri, is the pastor. Denson preached at Pastor Derek's church (Pentecostal). Both of us preached on the Authority and Sufficiency of the Word of God. A needed message all over the world as feelings, opinions and personal interpretations dominate much of Christianity today.
April 7 - 10 Monze Pastor's Conference. This conference was sponsored by another rural church planting organization (Evangelical Rural Missions -ERM). Denson and I were not surprised at the mixture of "ilks" but we were surprised that there were also six women "pastors" in attendance. 'NOW don't you know' this put a bit of pressure on me to be "sensitive" and not overbearing with these dear sisters. I must say that all of them were totally sincere in their sense of "calling." So I too had to be careful to "speak the truth in love" as we dealt with critical leadership passages in the conference. This basic conference is focused on church leadership, i.e. male leadership. I taught from Acts 20, 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus. These made up the heart of our study.
I am pleased to say that the Scriptures were well received by the Grace of God and His Holy Spirit's working. Some of our sisters struggled but four of them were challenged to re-adjust their thinking and admit that the role of the man and woman are different in Church just as they are in the home and nature. The equality of the Christian man and woman and the priesthood of the believer was emphasized. The brothers were challenged to respect the sisters as equals in the church while recognizing God's established order of leadership.
April 10th when we finished the conference Denson and I loaded up and headed to Lusaka but stopped in Mazabuka on the way. This is the home of our dear brother and Hub leader Michael Mufaya (MU-Fi-Ah). Last July our team from the US and South Africa worked with local Christians to evangelize hundreds and plant several new churches. Pastor Michael is our leader there training the new pastors.
Friday, April 25, 2008
Back in the USA
Hello friends.
I arrived in the USA Thursday morning the 24th at 545 AM. From there I flew to Nashville to find my luggage still in South Africa. My daughter Grace picked me up at 10AM and drove me to Bowling Green and then I proceded on to Letcher, KY arriving around 4:30PM. Lou Ann got home from work 5 minutes later. We said hello to friends and co-workers at Calvary Campus where we are living and then off we went for the weekend. I am posting from the Holiday Inn Express in parts unknown.
May the Lord be continually praise for all He accomplished these days. I will be sending pics and info soon.
Be Blessed because YOU ARE in Christ.
Jeff
I arrived in the USA Thursday morning the 24th at 545 AM. From there I flew to Nashville to find my luggage still in South Africa. My daughter Grace picked me up at 10AM and drove me to Bowling Green and then I proceded on to Letcher, KY arriving around 4:30PM. Lou Ann got home from work 5 minutes later. We said hello to friends and co-workers at Calvary Campus where we are living and then off we went for the weekend. I am posting from the Holiday Inn Express in parts unknown.
May the Lord be continually praise for all He accomplished these days. I will be sending pics and info soon.
Be Blessed because YOU ARE in Christ.
Jeff
Saturday, April 12, 2008
From Lusaka
Hello friends,
Denson and I finished the conference in Monze on Thursday. What a blessed time! The conferences are always a challenge to everyone, the attendees and the teacher! There were 34 men and women in attendance from all different Christian backgrounds... everything from Reformed to Pentecostal to Salvation Army and one Baptist! The challenge for them is that I am not coming from any of their particular positions. I am assigned to teach the Word of God as I have found it to be, while being open to being wrong, but until proven from the Scriptures I hold fast the teaching. What a good time! Most appreciate the challenge, some don't but they prove to not really know why they are of a particular persuasion.
The dear sisters were especially challenged! I walked carefully and prayerfully and spoke the truth in love. The Pastoral Epistle which we spend four hours in do not leave any room for sisters as Pastors or Elders.
The main goal of the conference is to help bring the men (and women) back to the authority of the Scriptures and the sufficiency of the Scriptures. Most of the testimonies came to this... "Thank you for helping me to see and understand that the Bible is all I need and it also judges my own thoughts and the "word" I hear in my heart or head." The Word of God is our Standard.
What a privilege for me to be used of the Lord to help our pastors and leaders in Zambia see that. There are so many winds of doctrine floating around and most do not have their bases in the clear teaching of Scripture. It has also been wonderful to teach the simple method of Bible Study that recognizes the literal approach to the Scriptures. God is not speaking in hidden and secret ways. He has spoken plainly and finally in His Son Jesus Christ as revealed on the pages of the Scriptures. What a comforting truth. I do not have to speculate on the many voices out there speaking in the "name of God" as if they are hearing revelation. It is so subjective... BUT God's written Word is not subjective. It is objective truth revealed to all who have been saved and thus "annointed" with the Holy Spirit to understand, if we will.
PASTORS in Africa, especially rural Africa are of a completely different brand then we in the West are. They so willingly suffer the loss of ALL things for the Glory of God and the Preaching of the Gospel. ONE pastor, Derrick, who attended the conference is a pentecostal (wife is a baptist :) ) and I could see his home everyday as I pulled out of the guesthouse and picked him up for the 5 mile ride to the conference. His home was the typical mud brick house about the size of dinning room or living room in most of our homes. It was only half covered with tin. He lives there next to the church with his wife and two children. One night (I think Tuesday) it rained a bucket! lightening, wind... everything. My goodness... Wednesday when we picked him up I asked how he faired in the night... He did not complain! I then asked him how much more was needed to finish his "house". He said One Million Kwasha... about $300 US. I said I would pray...
WELL when I was teaching on the "rewards justification" of James 2 I read the "be warm, be filled, be blessed" passage and was struck in my heart... and then the Lord did something more... Honeybees invaded their little house and took up residence in their only small 1 x 2 foot dresser...! I decided then to take him to his house and extract the bees for him... being a 30 year beekeeper I found this to be an adventure I could not pass up! Especially AFRICAN bees! So when we arrived at his house during the lunch break his good Baptist wife had taken my verbal advice and smoked them out herself...! Yes the 2 lbs of bees (about 10 or 20 thousand) were clustered outside on a nearby brush...they left later that day (defeated).
BUT back to the main point... When I walked into this small what we would call a "kid's fort" or homemade playhouse, I walked into the home of this dear young pastor. Half of the roof was finished,but even that half had a 6 to8 inch gap all the way across... so no room was completely sheltered. Two or three rooms in a house of maybe 16 by or 20by 8/10... no more... nothing but mud walls and mud floors and rags for doors...! EYeee! My heart was burdened... Here I was not even owning a home and yet lavishly cared for compared to my young faithful brother... I knew then were my tithe was going this month! Praise the Lord...
Another Brother, Eldridge, shared in tears how God spoke to him in the Word when we studied trusting the Lord for all provisions. I had shared a testimony from our early days in ministry, how we were flat broke... bills due, no food and 4 middle age and teenage children to care for... HOw in one day the Lord provided all we needed for the bills and then on that very weekend church friends from over 500 miles away came with a car load of groceries! And we had told no one but God!... This YOUNG Eldridge told me with tears how a neighbors animals came and destroyed 75% of his large family garden... their only means of food... He said he wept as he asked God why and how was he to care for his family now and do the work of a pastor. The messge encouraged his heart and he was glad he followed the Lord. HE did not go after the neighbor... He kept his Christian and pastoral testimony... The neighbors said to go after him, make him pay etc... He waited on God... The neighbor has admitted to the wrong... now Eldridge is waiting on the Lord to continue to Provide! Pray for him! He is, by faith, trusting the Lord! How about us?
THIS is where we COME in. WE can submit to the Lord and be a part of helping these dear pastors in Zambia. Instead of churches "investing" in the things that perish, like bigger fascilities and more "assessories" for "worship" or to be worshiped?... why not help our brothers in Africa.
Can you help? NO... Will you help? Let me know if you are interested and you can be a part of planting hundreds and even thousands of churches in Zambia and discipling pastors and saving thousands of souls!
Since the year 2000 Hope Builders International partnered with Harvesters International Ministries Zambia have planted over 800 churches! A large portion of these are Baptist churches but many are of all different kinds of evangelical churches. We work with all who preach the Gospel of Grace alone, faith alone, in Christ alone! Then we have the privilege of training these churches in the Bible. What a privilege! Each of these pastors need to be trained and the churches discipled... HELP US.
Pray. Tomorrow the teaching team from ITEM will arrive to conduct the pastor's conference here in Lusaka. Our team of leaders has organized it. We are meeting at the Salvation Army fascilities... I like to call it the "barracks"... smile... It will be a great time. PRAY.
Thank you to all who have made this trip and these conferences possible by being faithful to the Lord.
blessings,
jeff
Denson and I finished the conference in Monze on Thursday. What a blessed time! The conferences are always a challenge to everyone, the attendees and the teacher! There were 34 men and women in attendance from all different Christian backgrounds... everything from Reformed to Pentecostal to Salvation Army and one Baptist! The challenge for them is that I am not coming from any of their particular positions. I am assigned to teach the Word of God as I have found it to be, while being open to being wrong, but until proven from the Scriptures I hold fast the teaching. What a good time! Most appreciate the challenge, some don't but they prove to not really know why they are of a particular persuasion.
The dear sisters were especially challenged! I walked carefully and prayerfully and spoke the truth in love. The Pastoral Epistle which we spend four hours in do not leave any room for sisters as Pastors or Elders.
The main goal of the conference is to help bring the men (and women) back to the authority of the Scriptures and the sufficiency of the Scriptures. Most of the testimonies came to this... "Thank you for helping me to see and understand that the Bible is all I need and it also judges my own thoughts and the "word" I hear in my heart or head." The Word of God is our Standard.
What a privilege for me to be used of the Lord to help our pastors and leaders in Zambia see that. There are so many winds of doctrine floating around and most do not have their bases in the clear teaching of Scripture. It has also been wonderful to teach the simple method of Bible Study that recognizes the literal approach to the Scriptures. God is not speaking in hidden and secret ways. He has spoken plainly and finally in His Son Jesus Christ as revealed on the pages of the Scriptures. What a comforting truth. I do not have to speculate on the many voices out there speaking in the "name of God" as if they are hearing revelation. It is so subjective... BUT God's written Word is not subjective. It is objective truth revealed to all who have been saved and thus "annointed" with the Holy Spirit to understand, if we will.
PASTORS in Africa, especially rural Africa are of a completely different brand then we in the West are. They so willingly suffer the loss of ALL things for the Glory of God and the Preaching of the Gospel. ONE pastor, Derrick, who attended the conference is a pentecostal (wife is a baptist :) ) and I could see his home everyday as I pulled out of the guesthouse and picked him up for the 5 mile ride to the conference. His home was the typical mud brick house about the size of dinning room or living room in most of our homes. It was only half covered with tin. He lives there next to the church with his wife and two children. One night (I think Tuesday) it rained a bucket! lightening, wind... everything. My goodness... Wednesday when we picked him up I asked how he faired in the night... He did not complain! I then asked him how much more was needed to finish his "house". He said One Million Kwasha... about $300 US. I said I would pray...
WELL when I was teaching on the "rewards justification" of James 2 I read the "be warm, be filled, be blessed" passage and was struck in my heart... and then the Lord did something more... Honeybees invaded their little house and took up residence in their only small 1 x 2 foot dresser...! I decided then to take him to his house and extract the bees for him... being a 30 year beekeeper I found this to be an adventure I could not pass up! Especially AFRICAN bees! So when we arrived at his house during the lunch break his good Baptist wife had taken my verbal advice and smoked them out herself...! Yes the 2 lbs of bees (about 10 or 20 thousand) were clustered outside on a nearby brush...they left later that day (defeated).
BUT back to the main point... When I walked into this small what we would call a "kid's fort" or homemade playhouse, I walked into the home of this dear young pastor. Half of the roof was finished,but even that half had a 6 to8 inch gap all the way across... so no room was completely sheltered. Two or three rooms in a house of maybe 16 by or 20by 8/10... no more... nothing but mud walls and mud floors and rags for doors...! EYeee! My heart was burdened... Here I was not even owning a home and yet lavishly cared for compared to my young faithful brother... I knew then were my tithe was going this month! Praise the Lord...
Another Brother, Eldridge, shared in tears how God spoke to him in the Word when we studied trusting the Lord for all provisions. I had shared a testimony from our early days in ministry, how we were flat broke... bills due, no food and 4 middle age and teenage children to care for... HOw in one day the Lord provided all we needed for the bills and then on that very weekend church friends from over 500 miles away came with a car load of groceries! And we had told no one but God!... This YOUNG Eldridge told me with tears how a neighbors animals came and destroyed 75% of his large family garden... their only means of food... He said he wept as he asked God why and how was he to care for his family now and do the work of a pastor. The messge encouraged his heart and he was glad he followed the Lord. HE did not go after the neighbor... He kept his Christian and pastoral testimony... The neighbors said to go after him, make him pay etc... He waited on God... The neighbor has admitted to the wrong... now Eldridge is waiting on the Lord to continue to Provide! Pray for him! He is, by faith, trusting the Lord! How about us?
THIS is where we COME in. WE can submit to the Lord and be a part of helping these dear pastors in Zambia. Instead of churches "investing" in the things that perish, like bigger fascilities and more "assessories" for "worship" or to be worshiped?... why not help our brothers in Africa.
Can you help? NO... Will you help? Let me know if you are interested and you can be a part of planting hundreds and even thousands of churches in Zambia and discipling pastors and saving thousands of souls!
Since the year 2000 Hope Builders International partnered with Harvesters International Ministries Zambia have planted over 800 churches! A large portion of these are Baptist churches but many are of all different kinds of evangelical churches. We work with all who preach the Gospel of Grace alone, faith alone, in Christ alone! Then we have the privilege of training these churches in the Bible. What a privilege! Each of these pastors need to be trained and the churches discipled... HELP US.
Pray. Tomorrow the teaching team from ITEM will arrive to conduct the pastor's conference here in Lusaka. Our team of leaders has organized it. We are meeting at the Salvation Army fascilities... I like to call it the "barracks"... smile... It will be a great time. PRAY.
Thank you to all who have made this trip and these conferences possible by being faithful to the Lord.
blessings,
jeff
Friday, April 4, 2008
Computers Arrived!
The Computers arrived safely on Thursday but were held up until Friday by customs. The minisry has ended up paying an unexpected $900 to get them into the country. WE are thankful and know that the Lord will provide.
I have had a marvelous extra two days with Brother Kennedy (Rev. Denson's brother in law). He is the owner of the guesthouse I am staying at. I have helped him develop a new blog for his business. www.sunbirdguesthouse-livingstone.blogspot.com
Tomorrow/Saturday he will drive me the 4 hours to Monze and Denson. I told Denson to rest for a day or so before I arrived. He has been working very hard and under a lot of pressure with all the ministry that is going on right now.
ITINERARY
Many, including my WIFE! are asking for my itinerary. Here it is again...
Saturday 5th - travel to Monze.
Monday 7th - Thursday 10th Monze Pastor's Conference
Friday - Sunday 13th travel and prep for Lusaka Conference.
Monday - Thursday 17th Lusaka Pastor's Conference with ITEM and my friend Keith Walsworth
Friday 18th Travel 8 hours to Chingola
Sunday 20th ministry and visit to Chililabombwe Baptist Church
Monday/tuesday 22nd help with pastor's conference in Chingola or Ndola with ITEM.
Wednesday 23 Fly home
Thursday 24th arrive in Nashville and drive to E. KY
Friday 25th - celebrate my 55th birthday! AM I THAT OLD?
I have had a marvelous extra two days with Brother Kennedy (Rev. Denson's brother in law). He is the owner of the guesthouse I am staying at. I have helped him develop a new blog for his business. www.sunbirdguesthouse-livingstone.blogspot.com
Tomorrow/Saturday he will drive me the 4 hours to Monze and Denson. I told Denson to rest for a day or so before I arrived. He has been working very hard and under a lot of pressure with all the ministry that is going on right now.
ITINERARY
Many, including my WIFE! are asking for my itinerary. Here it is again...
Saturday 5th - travel to Monze.
Monday 7th - Thursday 10th Monze Pastor's Conference
Friday - Sunday 13th travel and prep for Lusaka Conference.
Monday - Thursday 17th Lusaka Pastor's Conference with ITEM and my friend Keith Walsworth
Friday 18th Travel 8 hours to Chingola
Sunday 20th ministry and visit to Chililabombwe Baptist Church
Monday/tuesday 22nd help with pastor's conference in Chingola or Ndola with ITEM.
Wednesday 23 Fly home
Thursday 24th arrive in Nashville and drive to E. KY
Friday 25th - celebrate my 55th birthday! AM I THAT OLD?
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
Zambia or Bust!
March 31 Jeff flew out of Nashville heading towards Zambia.
There was precious cargo aboard. HBI provided 20 nice compact laptop computers to be used to train our people in zambia how to use Windows and office. It will also be a means of providing fuel money for the vehicle HBI/HIM provided our national director, Denson Mushitala.
The flight was long and uneventful until I arrived 20 hours later at Johannesburg Airport April 1. There, as has been the case on previous trips my luggage was not all there... the laptop trunk in particular.
jeff stayed with friends in J'burg that night and then off to the airport for the final leg to Livingstone, Zambia. No luggage yet.
I will post again tomorrow and let you know if it shows up...
jeff
There was precious cargo aboard. HBI provided 20 nice compact laptop computers to be used to train our people in zambia how to use Windows and office. It will also be a means of providing fuel money for the vehicle HBI/HIM provided our national director, Denson Mushitala.
The flight was long and uneventful until I arrived 20 hours later at Johannesburg Airport April 1. There, as has been the case on previous trips my luggage was not all there... the laptop trunk in particular.
jeff stayed with friends in J'burg that night and then off to the airport for the final leg to Livingstone, Zambia. No luggage yet.
I will post again tomorrow and let you know if it shows up...
jeff
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