Thursday, August 26, 2010

We're Off


Thank you to many of you who have supported us in our race for the underprivileged children of Zambia. This morning Kerri and I are leaving for a 6 hour bus ride to Zimbabwe, Africa. On Sunday, we will be running in the Victoria Falls Marathon/Half Marathon. We are currently a little over halfway to our goal of raising $3,000. If you haven't done so already, would you please consider helping us get the rest of the way there? You can donate by going to the following link (Click Here). All donations are 100% tax deductible.

For more information on the race, you can visit our race site: Kilometers for Kids

Thank you again,
Brent & Kerri Roberts
Action Zambia Ministries

Saturday, August 21, 2010

Hammer Mill Construction Underway

(Trench for Electric Lines for Hammer Mill - 200 Meters of cable)

(Aiesha - Hired to dig the trench for the electric cables)

(Concrete pillars which will support the shipping container that holds the machinery)

The first of our income generation projects, Ciyanjano Hammer Mill, is now under construction. In the rural area surrounding the ministry centre, we have many small and large scale farming operations which grow maize. A hammer mill is a machine which shells and grinds the maize into "Mealie," which is a staple food in the Zambian diet. Our hope is that this hammer mill will provide revenues which will make the ministry centre more sustainable and also provide local villagers with a closer place to process their maize.

We have actually developed a three year plan for the income generation & livelihood training ministry. The hammer mill is only the beginning. We also hope to provide a place where Zambians can come to receive discipleship & hands-on training in farming (crops, livestock & fish). Please continue to pray for this ministry as it is in its infancy.

Thursday, August 19, 2010

A Prophet Among Us



Tonight, Kerri and I went on a date with some of our new missionaries, The Huckabys. As we were leaving, Gracyn told Kerri that she didn't want us to go because she was afraid that we would get in a car accident and be hurt. Well, part of her fears were realized. As we were turning into the restaurant, a car was trying to pass us and the car in front of us in the oncoming lane. If we had turned just a few seconds later, it could have been a very bad collision. Fortunately, though, the Lord was watching over us.

No one, including the driver of the other vehicle were injured. The only damages were to our vehicles. As you can see from the pictures, his vehicle side swiped us and ripped the bumper off of our car. The other bad news, was that, even though he was passing us in the oncoming lane, I couldn't remember if my turn signal was on. So, I was charged with being at fault in the accident.

The next time Gracyn tells us that she doesn't want us to go somewhere, I think I might give it a little more consideration!

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Kids!

Last week our kids had the opportunity to attend vacation bible school at a church near our home here in Lusaka. They had a fantastic time and it was a welcome change of pace! Here Caleb, Thomas and Gracyn are sporting their SonRock shirt and hats with our friend and neighbor, Esther.

Sometimes when I'm preparing dinner I just can't believe I'm fixing this many plates! We have 5 children!!! Sometimes the reality still shocks us!

"Summer" Break

Just a few pictures of our kids enjoying their time off from school!

God has blessed us with lots of friends with big families. We had the Allen and Guffey families over for dinner last night, which adds up to 19 people!



The littlest wild monkeys



The biggest ones playing some wii



The middle girls having some girlie time



Gracyn's play date with a new friend!



Maddie's princess dress du jour



Caleb's awesome new hat! He's worn it 24/7 since he got it




Thomas getting in a brotherly tackle!


Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Kilometers for Kids



This past Saturday marked the last of our long runs (22 Miles!) in preparation for the Victoria Falls Marathon. Kerri, myself and some of our teammates will be headed down to Zimbabwe to take part in this marathon in an effort to raise funds for kids camps in Zambia. Specifically, we are trying to raise money to develop our Ministry Centre, Ciyanjano, for the purpose of providing a place for the underprivileged children of Zambia to participate in camps! We would love your help with this project.

For more information, go to our race website: Kilometers for Kids

If you would like to assist us in this effort, you can Donate Now by clicking this link!

Monday, August 09, 2010

Home School Graduation


(To view the slideshow, go to: www.RobertsinZambia.Blogspot.com)

Well, they did it! Caleb and Gracyn have finished 3rd and 1st grades with flying colors! Our school schedule runs year-round with 3 months on and 1 month off. So, as our school year just ended, several of our homeschooling friends got together to honor our kids and their accomplishments this year with a casual ceremony and some banana splits! We presented the kids with certificates and took a moment to praise each one individually. Then each child made a presentation to the crowd of proud parents and little siblings. Caleb and Gracyn both chose to play the piano.

Caleb received an award for his hard work and determination. He has worked hard to accomplish his tasks with school and is a super smart kid! He has also excelled in sports and recreation and has done great with his first semester of piano lessons. In our minds, however, his greatest achievement this year has been in welcoming and mentoring his new brother. I've actually been amazed at his patience (most of the time :-) ) and how he has adjusted to having Thomas be his constant shadow. We are so proud of Caleb!

Gracyn's award was for her willing spirit and eagerness to learn. She is a joy to teach and loves her work. She has developed a love for reading this year and can often be found curled up in a corner somewhere exploring a book. She is also taking piano lessons, and the ability seems to come naturally to her. Her favorite activity, which borders on obsession, is horseback riding. It's actually really inexpensive to take riding lessons here in Zambia. Gracyn started last fall and is in love with riding! She has also been a great friend and big sister to her new brother and and huge help to her Mommy with the little sisters!

Thomas received an encouragement award for all that he has learned and adjusted to over the last 5 months. A whole new life! This fall he will dive head-first into 1st grade and more organized sports. Thomas was the star player on each of the two soccer teams he played on this semester!

Maddie and Ellie are the adoring little sisters who are cute all the time and just make our life funny and entertaining!

We are so thankful for this full quiver that God has blessed us with. We really don't deserve such great kids! Now we are looking forward to enjoying the month of August off from school and will start back in September!

Saturday, August 07, 2010

Board Braii


(To view the slideshow, go to: www.RobertsinZambia.Blogspot.com)

Last Saturday, the ACTION Zambia missionaries went out to our ministry centre for a cookout (or Braii) with our ACTION Zambia board. Being that our board members are spread out all over Zambia, some of them living as far as 5 hours away, it was a great opportunity just to spend time getting to know them and their families a little bit better. After the meal, we took the opportunity to show them around the property and see all of the new construction. They were very impressed with the property and how it is being used to benefit the local church here.

Friday, August 06, 2010

Sorry


I first want to apologize for not writing much on the blog lately. It seems like these past few months have been a haze as they have gone by incredibly fast! Going forward, I hope to be better at keeping you informed about what is happening here in Zambia. But I just wanted the opportunity to say sorry for my posts being few and far between.

That being said, let me update you on the most recent happening with ACTION Zambia the office move. I know what you're thinking: sounds boring. Well, I can't promise you it won't be, but I'll try to make it somewhat worth reading.

About a month ago, we found out that our Landlord for our current office space was raising the rent by 35%, an amount we could not afford. I won't get into the details, but let's just say we weren't happy. Real estate here is in very high demand. So, for the past few months, our director has been beating down doors trying to find suitable space for us to move to. Well, at the 11th hour, the Lord provided. Literally, the day we were moving out of the office space we were in, God provided another space and we were able to move our stuff straight in.

Anyways, the day we moved, we had everything out except for the office safe. It turned out that when we originally moved in to the previous space, we brought the safe through a door that was no longer available for use. And to our surprise, the safe was too big to fit through the front door. We tried everything we could to get it out, short of destroying the doorway, but we just couldn't make it work.

So, we were left with two options: leave the safe in the previous office space or alter the safe so we could get it through the door. We chose option two. One of our pastors is a metal fabricator. So, we contracted him and his business partner to cut the safe in half, move it to the new office space, and then weld it back together after moving it in. All that to say, it worked like a charm. But I can't promise that if we have to move again that it will go with us!

Sunday, August 01, 2010

Chikankata Outreach

During my parents stay, our ministry took part in a pretty significant outreach in a village about 2 hours south of Lusaka. Below is a report from one of our missionaries, Luke Whitfield, about how it went. God did some pretty amazing things during their 4 day trip to the bush and many people came to know Christ as their Savior. Please take the time to read this update (a bit long, but very encouraging) and begin praying for the next outreach in November.

Dear Friends

Where do I begin, so much happened during our four days in the bush of Chikankata a short book could be written about our experiences. For those short on time I will give a brief overview of what happened during our time there and those wanting more detail can read on. Let me begin first by praising God for His faithfulness in answering our prayers and the prayers of the many that petitioned the Lord on our behalf…….God is so real and we all experienced His presence in a mighty way over the past few days.

The team we travelled with consisted of five local pastors from Action Zambia Pastoral Leadership Development program, a seasoned Zambian missionary as well as fellow missionary Steve Allen, his daughter Bradyn and my daughter Emma. In all we showed the Jesus Film six times over four days to an estimated 1600 individuals. We believe somewhere near 400 people had their spiritual eyes opened and received Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior. During our time in Chikankata the Lord used our group to deliver at least six individuals from demonic possession including breaking the strong hold of a well known wizard who had terrorized the local people for almost seventy years. There were also at least four testimonies that the group could confirm of physically healings including healings of chronic back pain, spinal cord damage, headaches, and urinary tract damage. Many of the people we ministered to also testified that the fear that had once bound them left after receiving prayers for deliverance. We were also blessed to watch the local Church in Chikankata grow as efforts were made to connect all those who professed Christ with the local pastors we were working hand in hand with. God’s power showed up in amazing ways over the course of the four days and the team left Chikankata confident that a shift in the spiritual realm had taken place………..all praise be to God!

………..below is a detailed account of some of the significant events that took place during our stay


Friday Night

During the second showing of our trip we experienced a mighty outpouring of God’s presence during and after the film was shown. This showing took place in an area known as Highlands and we use an old storage building as the venue. The building was literally packed full, so much that we had to ask those still coming to stand outside and listen to the story on the loudspeaker. At the point in the film where the crucifixion of Christ occurs we began to hear people wailing, similar to what you would hear at a typical African funeral. There are not words to describe how I felt in that moment as I listened to those cries of deep despair from individuals who most likely were experiencing the story of Jesus in its entirety for the very first time.

Following the film we asked everyone, probably close to 400 people, to come outside where we gave those desiring to respond to the Gospel a chance to do so. We also asked any who needed prayers for deliverance or for healing to come forward and receive prayer from our team.

It was at this point that we met Violet, a young girl that was probably no more than fifteen years of age. As we prayed for Violet she manifested demonically in ways I have never seen before. Her convulsions were so violent that it was almost impossible for five full grown men to restrain her.

After it became apparent that we were not making any progress with the demons the group decided to take her to her home which was about a mile and a half away. As we approached her small one room hut it became evident that the source of Violet’s torment was located there. Violet refused to go into the house and after talking for a while with her parents we found out that the house contained numerous witchcraft charms (articles such as pieces of roots and specials powders) which the family believed would protect them from evil spirits.

We explained that instead of protection the charms were actually functioning as magnets that were attracting the very demonic forces that had overcome their daughter. As their eyes were open to the reality of the situation they agreed to go inside and turn over to us every single charm they had accumulated over the years. Immediately, we proclaimed the name of Jesus over Violet again and she became still for the first time that evening. This caused great amazement in Violet’s father and he, without hesitation, asked to be prayed for as well. As the team prayed over him he also manifested demonically, fell to the ground and then became still as the demons left him. Immediately after his deliverance Violet and her parents expressed their desire to turn from living under the bondage of darkness and accepted Christ. Shortly after, Violet ran to a neighbor’s house to tell him that she had watched the demons leave here home and flee to his. Full of fear and having just witness what had happened he ran into his house, gathered all his charms as well and asked us to pray with him to receive Christ. I think the most amazing thing about the evening was that despite it being almost ten p.m., a large crowd had gathered to see what was going on. These bystanders not only got to witness the power of God first hand but also had the opportunity to hear the life altering message that is the Gospel of Christ. What makes this story so much cooler is the fact that earlier that morning during our team’s devotions we as a team asked God not for large crowds but rather one individual whose conversion would transform the village……….Violet was His answer!

Saturday Night

With the previous night’s events still fresh on our minds a new expectancy seemed to grip the group as we eagerly awaited for what the Lord had for us next. During the showing of the film Saturday evening it came to our attention that villagers nearby, who had heard of what had happened in Violet’s village, wanted the team to come and deal with a situation they were facing. They explained about a young girl, probably fifteen years old, who was demonically possessed in their village. This girl had recently been married and they believed the demons had come upon her during the traditional ceremonies surround her wedding. As we arrived at the crowed one room home we found the girl lying on the couch clearly unaware of her surroundings. We began to pray for her, and similarly to Violet, she began to manifest demonically speaking in foreign languages her family said she did not know how to speak. The demons began to cause her to fit violently flailing her body about the room. As we prayed for her she would experience moments of release only to return back to her tantrums almost immediately. After some time the team finally felt as though the situation was under control and we left to rejoin the team at the showing of the film. We would not find out until Sunday morning that our assumptions had been wrong….

Sunday Morning

As we awoke on the last day of our trip Steve and I, along with our daughters, decided to climb a foot hill close to our camp site. It was on our way down the mountain that I heard a familiar sound that I recognized from the night before. What I heard was the low toned voice of the demonically possessed girl the team had prayed for on Saturday night still screaming and ranting in the nearby village. As a team we decided that half of us would go to conduct the last showing of the film while the rest of the team would go and deal with the situation we thought we had dealt with the night before. We arrived to a scene that can only be described as pure chaos. The young girl we had prayed for Saturday, whose name we later found out was Rocinet (rose knit) had gone to the house of another young girl in the village where the demons overcame this girl as well. The two of them, Rocinet and Esnat, had then travelled to the house of an old man that they accused of being the one who sent the demons to torment them.

A large group of villagers, probably around one hundred when we first arrived, had assembled at the man’s house and rumors were spreading that he was in fact a wizard. These two girls, empowered by the demons, had attacked the old man, beaten him and began to demolish everything within the house. It was obvious they were searching for something and as they did they took articles from inside and threw them out on the front porch where the crowd was watching in disbelief and gripped with fear. The team was unsure of where to begin so with the eyes of the bystanders anxiously watching us we stopped to pray and ask God for direction. We decided we needed to take the two girls back into the house in order to minister to them so we would be out of view from the crowd.

As we approached the girls we commanded them in the name of Jesus to return inside and they immediately obeyed. The team began again, to command (in the name of Jesus) the demons to release their control on the two young girls. After a while the Holy Spirit revealed to me that the problem was that the house was in fact full of demons and that we needed to get the girls out of the house for them to be delivered. We carried them from the house and took them to a small building away from the main house. As we began to pray again the demons immediately left the girls and their demeanor and countenance changed at once. Where there had previously been pain and torment their faces now regained color and reflected the peace that had come upon them. We shared the Gospel with them and without hesitation they both prayed to receive Christ.

One of our team members felt the Holy Spirit was telling him that we needed to bring the old man in with the girls to get a better understanding of what was happening. The first thing we asked him was if in fact there were any charms in the house…….without hesitation he said no. The girls immediately called him on it and began to describe the articles of witchcraft they had been seeking out. At this point the man confessed that all these articles were medicines he needed for his high blood pressure. Too weak to help us locate them the team began to search through the rubble ourselves….to our amazement we found hundreds of witchcraft charms including every article the girls had described to us. We decided to burn the articles so that the anger of the crowd might be appeased (at this point they wanted to burn everything in this man’s house).

The fear that gripped the crowd was amazing as they gasped as team members handled the charms without any harm coming to them. This provided a wonderful opportunity to explain that our immunity was not because of any personal powers but rather that…He that is in us is greater than he that is in the world. We finished disposing of the articles and began to preach the Gospel to those watching what was going on. It was also at this time that we brought out the previously possessed girls as testimony to the crowd of what God had just accomplished. They all stepped back in fear at first glance but were overcome with awe as these two young girls began to smile and explain what had happened. When we gave an invitation for individuals to respond to the Message no one within the crowd blinked an eye. We ask again and a little old man stepped forward and raised his hand. This village elder was then followed by another of the village’s head men. As the crowd watched these two we began to hear them softly say we all want pray and receive Christ……what an overwhelming experience!

In all, we figure that two hundred people prayed Sunday morning to receive Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior…...hallelujah and amen! Later Sunday afternoon the team joined Chieftainess Mwenda (the traditional leader of the area) for lunch to debrief a bit about the trip. As we described the morning’s events she explained to us that the man the two girls had accused had been tormenting the people of that area with witchcraft since she was a little girl (the Chieftainess is in her late sixties) and that she felt a major stronghold had been broken that morning……praise God!

Friends, God is moving in Chikankata. Action Zambia has been given a huge open door to proclaim the Kingdom of Heaven to the peoples of Chikankata. This is a unique opportunity and I would ask that you would pray for continued wisdom in how AZ should move forward. Lord willing we are planning another follow up trip at the end of November to go to some even more remote areas in the Chikankata area. Let me close by encouraging you that what God did and is doing in Chikankata, He is also able to do where you are right now. Anywhere the Spirit of God indwells believers there exists the opportunity to see the powers of darkness in the world we live in overcome and cast down. Remember the words of Jesus……..as the Father has sent me, so I also send you. Go light your world!

Luke