Zambia, Home of the past.

The past month we saw a prayer come true. After a year in Africa and hearing about April's childhood of growing up in Zambia we actually made it back there to see the changes that have taken place. Our main purpose in going was to participate with a short term team from Open Baptist Church and conduct a pastors conferenence at Pastor Boston Mwebela's church, Light House Community. We drove for two days north, crossing over the Zambizi river by ferry to enter the lush, tropical highlands with rolling hills and copper mines north of Lusaka the capital city. April's parents spent their first four years in Kitwe which lies in the heart of the copper belt. Even so there is a great amount of crops in this area and once an agricultural college where her father Larry Hills once taught. We were blessed to stay at the U.M. New Life Center, now overseen by Pastor Delbert Groves and his wife Sandy. Two ministries form the main stay that being a print shop and a P.E.T. workshop. It is extraordinary that this wheel chair workshop produces up to 50 P.E.T.s a month. They even have a Wood Mizer which cuts logs into boards which are further formed by the jointer and planner before being used on the wheel chairs. Pastor Charles and Josephine help keep things going and during our time there they were hosting a conference of over 100 pastors meeting in their hall; they have dormitories to host up to 200 people. Every morning we would wake to them singing hymns and let me say the African people can sing! No need for instruments or a sound track, just acappella. What April remembers isn't quite the same, many of the building have gone up over the 40 plus years since she lived there. Although one thing that hasn't change is the smiles and friendlyness of the Zambian people. They wave to you as you drive by in the car, they say hello and hug you without any hesitation. Next trip up we will have to make it deeper into the Kafuee flats to see where April spent the later years of her childhood.