Good Week, Tough Week

I've been busy running registration for our pastors conference and trying to facilitate ministries for our church team visiting.  So, I have had literally no time to put any posts up this week.  For that I am sorry.  Here are a couple of posts (in one post).  This Monday through Wednesday, we will be in Livingstone with the team.  So, again there will be no posts for a couple of days.  I just wanted to let you know what was going on.  The regular updates should resume by the end of next week.

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A team from our home church has been visiting.  So, we tried to arrange their schedule such that they would get to experience many different aspects of the ministry and meet many of our Zambian friends.  Among other things, they have visited with orphanages, held kids camps, participated in HIV/AIDS outreach and ministered at the hospital.  Throughout all of this, they have built relationships with many Zambians and had fun while doing so.  For the most part, I would guess that they have had a good trip, one that they would consider a success!

But while this week has been one of good experiences, it has had its emotional tolls.  On Wednesday, we went to University Teaching Hospital for hospital ministry.  The administrators at the hospital gave us permission to come in and provide hygiene kits and some food for families who were caring for children in the malnutrition ward.  Just as they entered the ward, one of the children passed away.  Gail, a team member, had the opportunity to pray with and encourage the mother during this tragedy.  Then, while we were still there, another child in the same ward also passed away.  While this is not a normal thing to happen while doing hospital ministry, I think it revealed to us all just how fragile life is, especially over here.

As if that wasn't enough, during Thursday outreach, another tragedy occurred.  Just after we had setup for the event and began playing music, there was a large explosion one road over from the field we were using for outreach.  At first, we were told that it was a transformer that had blown.  It was the biggest fire I had ever seen in my life.  Needless to say, the people who we were trying to attract were more attracted to the fire.  As we waited for things to settle down, the people were still not returning.  So, I walked over to see what was going on.  It was not a transformer that had exploded at all, but a dump truck.  Apparently, while trying to dump a load of sand, the top of the truck bed caught a power line and the truck erupted into flames.  I was looking for the pastor who I assumed had walked down by the truck.  So, I headed that way myself.  I had assumed that the truck was empty, but I had assumed wrong.  By the time I got down there, they had pulled the driver out of the truck and had his body laid on the ground.  I won't go into details, but needless to say, I have never seen anything like that in my entire life.  Because of all that had happened, we decided to cancel the outreach. 

So, all of that to say, it's been a good week of ministry, but it has also been a tough week of ministry.