In our discussion with Pastor Chikobela earlier in the week, he had asked us if we would attend with him a new church he had planted in the previous year. It had a building (but no electricity) and about 50-60 congregants (including the children). It was 14 km out in the bush and the road would be rough in spots. No missionaries had ever been there before and he really wanted us to go with him. He wanted one of us to preach but none of us felt prepared for that so Bob had agreed to teach the Sunday School class. I’m not sure how the two differ, teaching and preaching, but apparently pastors know.
There were seven of us who were interested in going but we would only be able to use one vehicle. We would need a driver and Pastor Chikobela would have to ride with us to show the driver where to go – it wasn’t exactly going to be on the beaten path. Chikobela usually rides there on his bicycle.
Dr. Joan arranged a driver for us and we were able to pile all who wanted to go into one of the mission vehicles. It took about 45-60 minutes to drive the 6 miles out to the village. We passed many traditional Zambian home compounds with stick, mud, or brick walls, thatched roofs, cooking huts, cribs and paddocks for harvested crops and animals.
We arrived late, but they were waiting for us and performed a traditional welcoming ceremony for us and then prepared for the service. They had us seated at the front of the church building (clay brick walls, mortared together with clay, thatched roof, doorways but no doors or windows). All the children were seated near the front facing us, with mostly women on one side and men on the other. They explained who we were and where we were from. They greeted us again and told us how excited they were that we had come, how much they appreciated the missionaries. Dr. Kari introduce each of us who were attending and indicated how pleased we were to be with them. They sang, they prayed, they testified. Bob gave the Sunday School lesson he had prepared, pausing every 10-15 words of English so the pastor could translate it into Tonga (the local language). They sang some more, prayed some more, and more again of each, and then made announcements. Then Pastor Chikobela began to preach his sermon, the one he felt led to preach on this occasion – Romans 12:1-2, interestingly the very same verses our group had discussed at length on three of the previous four days, the same verses I’d been impacted by on my first visit to Zimba.
At the conclusion of the preaching, Pastor Chikobela invited people to come forward to be prayed for if they felt a special needed. He asked a couple of us to assist him in praying over those who came forward. It was a very interesting experience since nearly everyone communicated their particular need in a language we couldn’t understand and Pastor Chikobela’s praying was so loud and passionate that it was difficult to hear yourself or to maintain concentration. There was a clear stylistic gap.
As he was concluding the service, I offered a number of comments endorsing his message and expressing our appreciation and gratitude for their welcoming us.
At the conclusion, we all filed out and each person greeted and shook each other’s hand. They had prepared a traditional meal just for us. Pastor Chikobela and the driver showed us more of the intricacies of the proper and polite way to eat the traditional foods. We thanked to whole community for their warm and generous hospitality and departed back to the mission house.
The three who had remained behind had attended the Nakowa Pilgrim Wesleyan Church only about a half a mile from the mission compound. They too had had a wonderful experience and were very impressed by the hard-hitting, passionate preaching of one of the hospital nurses who had been asked to preach that particular Sunday.
It was a fascinating Sunday, as usual.
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