Looking Ahead and Getting Ready

          Tomorrow I have an appointment at the Duke Travel Clinic.  Sherri recommended that I check with Duke about which immunizations and malaria prevention medication I need to have.  When I first traveled to Tabasco, Mexico in 1994, I took a certain kind of malaria prevention medicine which caused me to have strange waking and sleeping hallucinations.  I hope that doesn't happen again!

           Some immunizations/medications I may need to have include Hepatitis A and B, typhoid, malaria, and Cipro (antibiotic).

           On a trip to Tabasco, Mexico in the 1990's, a friend who is a family practice physician used to pass out "before-and-after dinner mints" on the van (Pepto Bismol tablets).  That seemed to work well, and Sherri recommends the same treatment.

          Dustin has asked me if I would like to take an overnight trip to a wildlife park.  This will be a great adventure.  Other folks who have had the opportunity to see animals in the African wild have encouraged me to take advantage of any opportunity I may have.  Many people know that I love elephants (and have since I was a little boy).  Perhaps I'll have the chance to see some magnificent elephants in their natural habitat.

 

 

            I have finished working through the chapters and exercises in the Greek grammar textbook.

Now I need to go back and review again and start thinking about lesson plans and quizzes.  It's been fun working with the Greek again! 

 

 

                                              The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and

                                              the love of God and the communion

                                              of the Holy Spirit be with all of you.

 

                                                                                        2 Corinthians 13:13



The Countdown Begins!

          Six weeks from today I begin my Zambian adventure!

Into Africa

          When I was a sophomore at Davidson College, I wanted to go to Africa.  Davidson had a program in Kenya and many students spent time there, working in a school.  One of my closest friends at Davidson spent a year there.  For different reasons, I never made it to Africa.  However, my interest in going never waned.

          Thirty-eight years later, I have the opportunity to travel to Africa. However, where I'm going is approximately 1100 miles south of where I thought I wanted to go when I was a college sophomore. 

              

Area: Zambia covers 752,614 sq km of land, slightly larger than the state of Texas.
Population:  Approximately 13 million

Language: English (official); major vernaculars include Bemba, Kaonda, Lozi, Lunda, Luvale, Nyanja, Tonga, and about 70 other indigenous languages.
Religion: Christian 50%-75%, Muslim and Hindu 24%-49%, indigenous beliefs 1%.

Average Annual Income: $1,070

Literacy Rate:  71%

Life Expectancy:  43 years

I’d like to thank our congregation, for your willing support of Dustin and Sherri in their work in Zambia and of my teaching trip to Zambia in June.  I’d also like to thank our session for their encouragement to pursue this opportunity to represent our congregation in person in Lusaka. 

            Most of all, I thank God for his blessings and for the opportunity we all have to prepare preachers.  For “how are they to hear without someone to proclaim him?  And how are they to proclaim him unless they are sent?  So faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the word of Christ.”

What I Will Be Doing in Zambia

                 For years, the Wallace Presbyterian Church supported Lardner and Mollie Moore in their work at the Yodogawa Christian Hospital in Osaka, Japan.  When the Moores retired, we decided to look for some more missionaries to support.  At a covered dish mission dinner, I asked members of the congregation to fill out a simple survey that asked two questions:  Where in the world do you want to support a mission worker?  and What kind of mission work do you want to support?  The results were crystal clear:  educational mission work in Africa.  Using that information, I researched newly appointed Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) missionaries and found a couple involved in educational mission in southern Africa.  An added bonus was they have ties to North Carolina, which made it possible for them to visit us in Wallace when they are back in the States.  Exactly two years ago today, on Tuesday, April 19, 2011, the session unanimously approved a recommendation from the Outreach Committee that our congregation help support Rev. Dustin and Sherri Ellington in their work in Lusaka, Zambia.  Dustin serves on the faculty of Justo Mwale Theological University College and teaches New Testament studies.

          The Ellingtons paid us a visit that summer and we were impressed and thankful for the work they are doing in Lusaka.  Since our relationship has begun, our congregation has provided money to purchase bicycles for their graduates to use in their new ministries.  Church members have read and edited senior theses for graduating students.  Curt and Regina Simpson have developed an online relationship with a student named Zacchaeus Chilembo.  Our congregation supports the Ellingtons financially, along with other Presbyterian congregations in southeastern North Carolina and in other places.

 

          Last fall, Dustin e-mailed me and extended an invitation to teach at the university college in June.  Some of the faculty will be on sabbatical and he needs help covering all of the courses that need to be taught.  Dr. Marty Soards, Professor of New Testament Studies at Louisville Presbyterian Seminary, will be also be visiting and teaching in Lusaka.  Our session gave me the green-light to pursue this opportunity.  I am most grateful for this chance to visit the Ellingtons on site in Zambia, to represent our congregation, and to help prepare preachers for their ministry in Zambia.

                The other day Nancy asked me what I had been working on.  “I was reviewing periphrastic participles and articular infinitives,” I said.  “Oh boy,” was her reply!  I can’t help it if studying Greek is fun for me!!  Dustin asked me to teach the third section of a three part course, Introduction to New Testament Greek.  I’ll be teaching in the classroom for thirty hours during the weeks of June 10, June 17, and June 24.  I get to teach the final chapters of the Greek grammar textbook, which are usually the hardest lessons for students to learn!  Oh boy! Dustin has also asked me to preach in the university chapel.

 

 

            Here are some pictures of the students who will be in my class:

 

 

 

 



Who and What is Justo Mwale?

Preparing preachers and sending them out to proclaim Jesus Christ – that’s the mission of the Justo Mwale Theological University College in Lusaka, Zambia.  The university college was originally called the Reformed Church Theological College and was begun in 1951 in the Eastern Province of Zambia.  In 1969, the college moved to Lusaka, the capital city of Zambia.  In 1975, the college was renamed Justo Mwale Theological College, in honor of the first Zambian in the Reformed Church in Zambia to be ordained as a minister of Word, on September 29, 1929.

          The university college is governed by a board made up of members from the Reformed Church in Zambia, the Church of Central Africa Presbyterian, the Uniting Presbyterian Church in Southern Africa, and the Reformed Church in Zimbabwe.  The university college is a leading theological institution in Central and Southern Africa.  Students come from Zambia, Malawi, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Mozambique, Kenya, and South Africa.

          The mission and vision of the university are impressive:

          The mission of Justo Mwale Theological University College is to provide quality, contextual and holistic theological education from a Biblical, Reformed and Presbyterian perspective for Christian men and women, to enable them to carry out God’s redemptive mission in the Church, society and academy in Africa and beyond in order to realise his Kingdom.

          Our vision is to be a leading private institution for tertiary education in Sub-Saharan Africa characterised by quality academic programmes and organisational excellence, which concretely addresses the needs of the Church, Society and Academy.

          Our motto Nditumikira Kristu (I serve Christ) characterises our ministry.  The ministerial training offered at JMTUC is holistic, covering the academic, vocational and spiritual sides of congregational ministry.

          In our service to the Church, Society and Academy we uphold specific core values; as a Christian Institution we shall seek to be governed by, to uphold and to propagate:  Responsible Stewardship, Innovation and creativity, Spirituality, Credibility and Integrity, Justice, Academic Excellence, Gender equity and equality, Servant Leadership, Transparency.

          Read more about the school at www.justomwale.net/

Preparing for my Zambian Adventure

This is the first blog I have ever written.
Thanks to Curt Simpson for setting up my blog, "drphilszambianadventure."
I want to get used to blogging, so I can send updates from Zambia when I am there during the weeks of June 10, 17, 24.
More about that later.  Right now I'm just trying to learn how to blog!