Faith at Work

So how do you start a project in a remote village in Zambia and get the locals to take ownership? That is hopefully what I will be finding out this week in North Carolina. Equip Ministries International runs a week long training program called Community Health Evangelism. We're hoping this program will give us the framework for working on different projects in the villages of Chikankata.

Mulungu Ali Bwino (God is Good!)

We just wanted to quickly give you an update on our finances and thank the many of you who have been praying for our return to Zambia. Last week, we shared that we were at 81% of our monthly needs and 37% of our one-time needs. Well, the Lord did some pretty amazing things this past week. We received over $14,000 in one-time donations and are now at 100% of our one-time funding!

In addition to this, our monthly support has increased a little as well (up 1% to 82%). We have also received 6 additional commitments for monthly support but we are waiting to find out the total amount of these commitments. Needless to say, we're getting close. Our prayer is that we would be fully funded within the next month so we can shift our focus to planning for our return. Would you join us in this same prayer?

Without Your Help, He Might Be Lost Forever

(If you are receiving this post via email, CLICK HERE to view the video)

Please take the time to watch this video. We have a crisis. The American culture is getting to Thomas. And we believe we are on the verge of losing him FOREVER! Recently, he disappeared in the house with the IPAD and shot this a video. Kerri and I immediately went to the Lord in prayer on his behalf. During this time, we came away with only one answer: We need to get him back to Zambia.


To that end, we are planning on returning November 30th but we need your help in leaving on this date. We're still looking for financial partners who will commit to monthly giving. It doesn't have to be a lot, even a gift of $10 to $20 a month could make a significant impact in helping us reach our monthly goal. Would you consider helping us avert this crisis?


To make online donations, please visit us on the web at: www.CTEN.org/brentroberts.


Thank you


P.S.
If, by chance, you didn't catch the humor in this post, we will be in prayer for you ; )

Recent Provisions

When Kerri and I decided to step out in faith and move to a different location in Zambia, with a different organization, we really didn't know what to expect. We knew that if the Lord was truly calling us to do this, then He would also move on our behalf to provide for our needs, of both prayer and finances. Below is testimony of the many ways that He has already moved on our behalf. We share these in hopes that they might encourage you to step out, wherever you are, and trust Him. Listen to what God has already done!

• Before leaving Zambia, the chieftainess agreed to give our family and the Whitfield family 50 - 100 acres of ancestral tribal land on which to start a new ministry center.
  



• The Lord provided housing, basically in the middle of nowhere, that is adequate for both the Roberts and Whitfield families. Think about that, 4 adults & 10 kids worth of space!
  



• Since our transition to CTEN, we have received $290 a month in new pledges and many of our existing supporters came with us, meaning that we are now at 81% of our targeted monthly budget. Only 19% ($1,000) more needed before our November 30th departure.
  



• We have received an additional $7,450 (37%) in one-time setup donations. These donations will go towards such things as fixing our vehicle, buying appliances more suitable for rural living, etc.
  



• Then, very recently, we received two rather sizable donations:
  
  A company in Chicago has agreed to donate new power tools and 2 generators valued at approximately $15,000; and
  
  A church here in Columbia, is purchasing a 40ft shipping container and will be helping us coordinate shipping these tools and generators and other ministry items to "hit the ground running" in Zambia.

Don't we serve an amazing God!

Now, with these recent provisions, we also have additional needs. So, please be in prayer for us. As we mentioned earlier, we are still trying to raise $1,000 in monthly support and $12,550 in one-time setup support. In addition to this, we are asking God to find individuals, small groups & churches to assist us with donations that will not only allow us to fill the shipping container, but also cover the cost of shipping ($13,000).

If you would like more information on any of these opportunities to assist our ministry, please feel free to contact us at RobertsinZambia@gmail.com. If you would like to make a donation, please do so at the following links:

• Monthly and One-Time Setup Donations: www.CTEN.org/brentroberts
  



• Shipping Container Project: For financial donations send checks to Chapin Baptist Church, 950 Old Lexington Hwy, Chapin, SC 29036. Be sure to include "Wednesday Knights Zambia Fund" in the memo field. A list of items needed for the container will be published at a later date.

Above all we ask for your prayers as we continue to trust God and believe that in Him we will not be disappointed (1 Peter 2:6)!

Introducing the Roberts

(Click the Picture Above to View the Video)

A dear friend of ours, Leon Bouknight, recently assisted us in putting together a new ministry video for our ministry in Zambia. Please take a look if you get a chance. It is meant to be a simple video introducing us and our ministry to individuals who don't know us very well. It's 9 minutes in duration. So, if you have a chance watch it and maybe share it with someone else who has not heard about us or our ministry!

Utterly Meaningless

(Click Here if you are receiving this video via email)

If you opened up this post to receive a thought provoking story. You have wasted your time. While we do value communicating certain spiritual truths, ministry updates and missionary life experiences through our posts, we also believe it is important that you see our silliness as well. The above video is a prime example. It's called: Cookie Face Race. Enjoy!

Renovations Are Underway!

One of the reasons we cannot return until the end of November is because we currently do not have a home to move into. The Reaves, our landlords, have just begun the addition of a bed and bathroom to our house in Zambia. This addition is scheduled to be finished shortly before we return November 30th. Anyways, we just thought you would want to see some pictures of the progress that they are making.

A Day of Worship

This week I had a last minute opportunity to attend a conference in Chicago with our friends and ministry partners Luke and Elise Whitfield. Thanks to frequent flyer miles (provided by my dad) and cheap lodging (free) the trip was possible. It's been fun getting to meet the rest of the Whitfield family and see where Luke grew up. Yesterday was pretty amazing too, as we attended the first day of this three day conference. The first speaker spoke about being completely sold out to Jesus no matter what the cost. Worship in the evening was lead by Hillsong United. Needless to say, we all had a great time.

Please pray for us the next few days. Blessings!

August Report

(To View the Letter, Click Here or Click the Picture Above)

We've put together an update for August. It will be mailed out next week, but we wanted to make it available online before then. We think you will enjoy the short story at the beginning of the update. Also included is an overview of the new ministry in Chikankata.

Blessings,

The Roberts

Every Man, Woman & Child

(Kerri Roberts & Allison Shipman doing a little tubing on Lake Murray)

This past weekend, we had the priveledge of attending a gathering/conference on Church Planting. There was a guest speaker, Dwight Smith, who is the president and founder of Saturation Church Planting International and a few other local leaders all with a similar vision: "Reaching every man, woman & child in a geographic area with a repeated opportunity to hear and accept or reject the Gospel of Christ."

Most of the attenders were church planters who live and work in South Carolina, but our location was irrelevant. We, just like them, have been put in a specific place (Chikankata, Zambia) at a specific point in the history of the world (2012 and the foreseeable future) to repeatedly reach a people who need to hear the Good News of Jesus Christ. Sometimes it's good to get away with people with a similar vision for ministry and dream big for what God wants to accomplish through his people. And to that end, the weekend was a success!

Kerri and I came away from the weekend very refreshed in our journey with God and challenged in our future ministry both in our family and to the Tonga People of Chikankata, Zambia.

Please do pray for these church planters who want to make an impact right here in South Carolina. There were couples present who are currently planting churches in Columbia, Lexington, Aiken and Charleston.

Sharing in Chapin

Sunday morning we had the privelege of sharing about our ministry in Zambia with a combined Sunday School at Chapin Baptist Church. This is the second time we have had the opportunity to visit with our friends here. Typically when we share, we leave at least half of the time for questions & answers. Our thought is that we could rack our brains trying to figure out everything to cover, but there will still be people who want to know something about Zambia, our ministry or family life that we wouldn't think of.

While we do field some of the same questions, I am amazed at how many times we get questions we haven't been asked before. For instance, today, a couple wanted to know about how the kids were schooled. Something I wouldn't think to cover in a presentation, but something of interest to those hearing about our ministry.

We enjoyed our time with Chapin Baptist this morning and are thankful for the relationships that God has given us with some of the members of this church. But in order to fulfill His vision of reaching Chikankata, we need additional prayer and financial partners standing behind us in this work. It is through speaking engagements such as these that the Lord has and continues to build our support network.

How about you? Do you have a church, small group or a few friends who might be interested in hearing about our ministry in Zambia? We would love the opportunity to share. Please contact us at RobertsinZambia@gmail.com if you would like to set something up.

Our New Ministry

Above is a video introducing Chikankata and our new ministry. Please take the time to watch if you get a chance. It's just under 5 minutes in duration.

If you are receiving this post via email, please go to the following link to view the video: CLICK HERE.

A Four Year Summary

Our friends and partners in ministry are about to make the trip back to the States to join us in support raising for the next several months before returning to Zambia in the new year. Above is a pictoral summary of their ministry over the past 4 years. It's a really good video of the impact their ministry has already had in Lusaka and beyond. Please take the time to watch.

If you are receiving this post via email:

CLICK HERE to view this video

Saved a Life, but...

Here is a post that our friend Steve Allen wrote a little while ago. It gives great insight in to the cultural stigma attached to HIV/AIDS in Zambia. Difficult, but great read!

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I saved a life this week... And it probably won't matter. (It didn't)

I don’t write these kinds of blogs very often, but I really need to give you a sobering look at HIV/AIDS in Africa. This is probably going to hurt a bit, but I think if you can hang in there long enough, you might be able to save a life as well.

Last Sunday, I was picking up ACTION missionaries Paul and Patrick from a church in a compound near my house. When I arrived, I asked the pastor how his niece was doing. His mother was carrying this little girl and when I approached her to pray for the baby, I was shocked by the size of her face. On Friday night, the baby began crying, and as they later discovered, had sores all over the inside of her mouth and then her face began to swell. When I saw her on Sunday, she hadn’t eaten anything in a day and a half. She has been to two clinics. I stood there, by my car, in this dirty, crowded compound, with this desperate mother and whimpering child, gawked at by all the Zambians, wondering what I should do.

I spoke first to the pastor, saying, “Why don’t you call me in the morning and if she is still bad, I can take her to a private hospital.” But, I thought, she might not be alive in the morning. I have witnessed too many babies dying of such preventable causes that I just couldn’t leave her but, honestly, I also didn’t want to give up my Sunday afternoon nap. (Just being honest.)

After praying for this sister-in-law of the pastor, she walked towards the house of the pastor. I was very conflicted. What do I do? I got in the car, and began driving out of the compound, but said, “I need to take her to the hospital.” And so I got the o.k. from my guests and pulled over by the house. I saw my pastor friend and told him what I was thinking. The mother with the child and the wife of the pastor came along with the pastor and we all headed out the hospital, over bumps, through gullies, alongside little raggedy shops, kids yelling out and waving, with this dying little 2 year old dying in my car.

We made it to the hospital and I left them waiting for a consultation. An hour later the baby was admitted to the hospital for what would become a four night stay. The baby had HIV. They found that out after the second day when I had to convince the pastor to have the baby tested. With medicine and ARV’s, the baby could have a chance, unlike the sister before him, who had died around the same age.

If the mother had been tested any time in the past few years, and had taken ARV’s drugs, this baby could have been born without HIV. If the baby had been taking ARV’s from the beginning, it could have been saved from this traumatic event. But, what is even more maddening, is that, the baby will probably not live, because they will probably not either be faithful to give the baby the ARV’s or will refuse to, out of fear of stigma and mistreatment of people in the community or some other obstacle that happens so often.

I am not kidding. The fear of HIV/AIDS runs so deep that people will choose to live in ignorance and denial rather than receive a free test, free counseling, free medicine and free follow-ups for the rest of their lives. Please pray for Zambians and African in general.

--------------------Update-------------------------

After four days in the hospital, and a relatively healthy month, the parents stopped giving their baby medicines because they couldn’t afford the “review” price. If there is one thing you can't do with HIV medicine is miss even a day. I was in the states at the time. They finally got the money to go and switched to a free government clinic. A few weeks later, though, the baby got sick one Friday afternoon, went to the clinic for a blood draw and then died that night. That was three days ago. I didn't go to the funeral. I am not sure why. Maybe I am still to angry. It conflicted with my own family schedule. I am still wrestling with all of that. I should have gone. It was the right thing to do culturally. Anyway, we move on... Will the mother finally get tested and get on ARV’S? It remains to be seen. Such is the life we live here... Pray for us, too... I apologize if this was a little too raw. Sometimes, reality cannot be ignored.

One more thing, my title was a bit of an exaggeration. It did matter. She got another couple months with her only daughter. She learned that the cause of the death is HIV related (whether she will admit that is another situation altogether) and hopefully as a result she will get tested, thus allowing her to live a healthier life and give birth to more children who are healthy. Maybe I didn't save the life of this baby, but perhaps I will allow a life to live if there is another baby.

So how do you play out in all of this? Could you pray? Check out our HIV/AIDS ministry that I am more and more sold on as a significant way to help fight this war against AIDS in Africa. Lastly, do a little inventory of your own life. Is there anything you are too afraid of checking into that you would rather (literally) die than deal with?

Timeline for Our Return

One of the most frequently asked questions we have had thus far since being back in the States is "When are you scheduled to return to Zambia?" I don't know if it is because people are ready to get rid of us ; ) or if they are just curious, but we figured we would write this short post to give you a timeline for our return.

If you're someone with a short attention span, don't like to read more than two paragraphs, or just want a high-level answer, then you can stop reading here: It's November 30th

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If you're a details person and want to know how we will be spending the next few months while here in the States, then here is the longer answer:

While we are ready to return tomorrow and we can't wait to get back to Zambia, there are a few things that are contributing to our return date being November 30th:

• Rental Home Renovations - Our rental home in Zambia is under renovation. Being that this house is the only one in the area that can accomodate our family, we must wait for the renovations to be completed. To that end, we are hoping they will be complete upon our return. (If you are receiving this post via email, CLICK HERE to view a video tour of our rental home in Chikankata)






• Various Training Opportunities - Luke and I are scheduled to attend several training sessions in September and October that we see as vital to this new ministry. These include:

1. September 5 - 9: Community Health Evangelism,


2. October 3 - 7: Hand Drilling Water Wells


3. October 3 - 7: Chronological Bible Storying for Illiterate and Semi-Illiterate Cultures


4. October 10 - 14: Water Pump Installation

• Support Raising - Based on where we are moving, we will have a few one-time needs in Chikankata that we didn't have in the city (i.e. generator, satelite internet, etc.). In addition to this, our montly support could use a boost and we need to raise ministry funds so that we can fulfill the vision to which the Lord has called us. So, over the next few months, we will be trying to meet with individuals, small groups and churches in order to raise these much needed funds.

On that front, please be in prayer for us. While this new ministry is a great opportunity and God has given us and the Whitfields a heart for the people of Chikankata, we need financial backing to do the work. Pray that God would raise up financial and prayer partners over these next few months who are committed to helping us fulfill this vision of reaching every man, woman and child in these 240 villages of Chikankata, Zambia!

A Third World Project

While I was back in Zambia, we were able to finish construction on the hammer mill. A hammer mill is used to process Maize (corn) into mealie (Zambian's staple food). This project is expected to provide the community with a nearby location for processing their maize while at the same time provide in-country funding for AZ's ministry centre.

We just thought you would like to see this Third World income generating project and how it was started. So, above, is a video of the project from the beginning up until implementation (opening day). If you are receiving this post via email, you can view the video by going to the following link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=reox2ZOCMew.

Thank you to all of you who sacrificed to support this project.

It's Official

www.CTEN.org

It’s official! We have finished our commitment with Action International Ministries and have signed on with a new sending agency (Commission to Every Nation) to go back to Zambia.

www.EleeoProject.Org

We will be moving from the city (Lusaka) to rural Zambia (Chikankata) to start a new ministry. Working alongside the local tribal leader, we will seek to address the physical and spiritual poverty of the Tonga people through various biblically based ministries. We have given this new ministry the name Eleeo Project. Please take the opportunity to find out more about this ministry at www.EleeoProject.org.

Future Speaking Engagements:
If you are associated with any churches, small groups, individuals, etc., who might be interested in hearing about our new ministry, we would love the opportunity to share. Please contact us at RobertsinZambia@gmail.com with any inquiries.

Orientation

Greetings from Kerrville, Texas! We arrived here on Monday afternoon for our three-day orientation with our new sending agency, Commission To Every Nation. We had a great first day, getting to hear more about the vision of CTEN from its founder, Richard Malm. We also heard from each of the pastoral care team members and received some encouragement and instruction in the areas of Partnership Development and taxes! Of course, we also had the privilege of meeting about 25 neat people who God has called to various work around the world. We are already very excited about this new partnership and look forward to learning more over the next two days. Please pray for us, as well as for our kids and parents back home in SC!

Do They Look Alike?

I am one of those people who will watch a movie and then people watch to see when people look like movie stars. Well, tonight, I think I found a movie star in my own home. Kerri's favorite movie is Dumb and Dumber. You can ask her about that one. But as I sat there and looked at Ellie sitting in her seat, I kept thinking of Jeff Daniels from Dumb and Dumber. Do you see the striking resemblence to his character in the movie? I think it's time for Ellie to get a hair cut!

Zambia Report

We are in the process of shifting gears in terms of a new ministry and support raising, but before posting anything on the new ministry, I wanted to give an update on how things unfolded on my most recent trip back to Zambia.


As you recall, the trip had multiple purposes: to move our household goods into storage in Chikankata, prepare Action Zambia for their year-end financial audit, a few other administrative tasks such as switching the ownership on the motorcycle, planning for the new ministry in Chikankata and finally starting the hammer-mill business at Ciyanjano that I had been working on before returning to the States last December.

Well, in terms of getting everything done that I set out to accomplish, the trip was a success! We moved our home the first week I was back in Zambia, started the audit (which was wrapping up when I left) in the third week, changed ownership on the bike (with the help of a Zambian friend Chilito), made significant progress in planning for the new ministry with the Chieftainess and 3 days before I left, opened up the Ciyanjano hammer-mill business with a free day for the community.

I must say that spending 6 weeks away from the family was not easy, but I was thankful for the time that I had to be back in Zambia to get these much needed things completed and to reconnect with our friends and teammates.