Perhaps the highlight of the trip so far was Sunday’s divine worship service at the CLC-Zambia church in Kitwe. There are two CLC churches in the area and they held a joint service so that we could all worship together.
Before the service, our team presented our children’s evangelism program and the kids did a great job listening, answering questions, and singing “I Just Wanna Be a Sheep”. The service itself was a perfect blend of Lutheran liturgy (Confession and Absolution, Apostles’ Creed, Lord’s Prayer, etc.) and traditional Zambian music (joyous, rhythmic acapella singing and dance--see video above). The service was conducted in the local Bemba language and translated into English for the American visitors. Missionary Ohlmann gave a sermon on Jesus’ words to Martha in John 11, “I am the resurrection and the life.”
Afterwards we enjoyed a meal of chicken, rice, and sauce, and the children enjoyed their gifts of cross necklaces, toothbrushes, and a new soccer ball.
What a tremendous blessing to worship with likeminded believers thousands of miles away from home! As Missionary Ohlmann said in his sermon, we may have many differences—skin color, language, etc—but we all have the same Savior Jesus and the same confession of faith.
Blest be the tie that binds,
Our hearts in Christian love.
The fellowship of kindred minds
Is like to that above!
Today we’re bussing back to Lusaka where we’ll spend a few days teaching at local schools before heading to Pastor Ibrahim’s congregations in Livingstone on Thursday.
Kulumbanya Lesa! (Bemba for “Praise the Lord”)
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