A few weeks ago, we talked about having a life of faith or a life of feeling. We saw Jesus heal a Royal Official’s son in Cana in Galilee (John 4).

The Official came to Jesus and asked Him to heal his son. Jesus said, “Go home, your son is healed.” The Bible records that, “The official took Jesus at His word, turned, and went home.” The Official lived by faith – there was no longer a debate as to whether or not Jesus was speaking truth. The Official ended any debate in his mind and believed. His son was healed and his whole household started to follow Jesus. They all exercised faith – the debate ended. Jesus was who He said He was and His words were truth and worthy of being followed.

We looked at that and determined that if we based our life on faith in Jesus, we would then put it into action that would turn into intuitive behavior. As we habitually act on our faith, we look like and know the Truth and we live the hope of Jesus. A life of faith results in experiencing perpetual life now.

Conversely, if we based our life on feelings as the Official seemed to do as he urgently approached Jesus, we end up in a very different place. A foundation of feelings gives way to an obsession about our appearance. We want to feel secure so we start dumping all our energy into looking secure. If others think I am secure then I can think that too. The focus on appearance leads to a growing impatience because our feelings are never settled. We crave feeling content so we look anywhere we can to find comfort and take as many short-cuts as we can to get there. The result is a life of torture. We are tortured because we never “feel” good and we torture everyone around us because it must be their fault – we maintain the appearance of feeling secure. The end result is a spiritual, relational, emotional, and mental hunger that cannot be satisfied (Levels">see graphic).We starve.  

OK – all that as a lead up to the question that was texted in – “If you are already at the point of hunger, how do you go back to the way you should be living by faith?” Great question!

Let’s go back to the Royal Official. He had come to the end of his solutions. He would have been wealthy and powerful, yet he was unable to escape his feelings of uselessness at the fact that he could not save his son. He humbled himself and went to find Jesus. He admitted the way he was trying to find a solution did not and would not work. He found Jesus, listened, and changed his life.

It is a decision to change our minds – to start thinking faith first. One must decide to come to Jesus and seek His words and love. Like the Official, we need to come and admit that we can’t do it ourselves and we need Jesus. We then believe His words when He says we are forgiven and eternally loved. Once we hear Jesus say, “You are healed” we can take Him at his word.  The best starts include a community of people who are already on this path. Being part of a small group of Jesus followers gives us others to grow with. We also build our “faith muscles” by serving and in serving, we see the habits of following Jesus emerge.

The simple answer to your question – “How do I go from a life based on feeling to a life based on faith?” is to realize you can’t solve this, go to Jesus, hear His words of love and forgiveness, take Him at His word and end the debate. You are loved by the Creator and Sustainer of the Universe and He calls you His child.

Click on 'read more' to view the video.

Click on 'read more' to view the video.

Click on 'read more' to view the video.

I sat outside this morning as the sun came up on another Zambian day. 

I enjoyed the gift God gave as the warmth covered my face and I saw God's promise to cast out the darkness with His light no matter how dark it is in any part of His world. I found my heart leaping between incredible joy and injury. My face went from a smile to tears. 

We finished our time yesterday in Living Hope Church. They are a "high impact" church in Lusaka. In this church, there are professionals and orphans and everything in between. The Zambian President’s Press Secretary and dying HIV/AIDS victims dance side by side to Jesus. They are a bright spot and a church we will work with to teach other churches.

Within the other 27 church partners we have in Lusaka, there are over a thousand at-risk children (lack of safety, nutrition, education, shelter) and over 600 orphans (there are so many that this is a separate category). That equals 1600 children who need intense help. These 27 churches are predominantly very poor and their pastors do not get a salary and they meet in impoverished facilities.

We have seen progress in every area we serve these churches. More child-led homes are becoming stable, 61 children are given education and a solid family, grants are provided for businesses to start, churches are reaching lost people, hungry kids with TB and HIV/AIDS are being regularly fed, pastors are learning and sensing they have partners and a support network. God is working and lives are being changed.

"Father in Heaven, thank you for all that you are somehow doing through our meager efforts. Thank you for bringing your hope to children and homes - eternally and immediately. Thank you that you have blessed us with the opportunity to do more - to do more. Please continue to serve the least of these through RP and thank you for allowing us to look like Jesus in a poverty stricken place. Your Kingdom come, Your will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven!"

It is time to leave the warmth of this sun and come home to the beauty of the snow (I'm trying to look at the up side). God has answered your prayers and used the resources you released into the Kingdom to bring Heaven here in Zambia. Thank You!

See you soon - Love you all,

Jim

We finished our second day of the pastor's conference in Lusaka - the township of George - and we have just tomorrow to go.

I teach in one of the largest churches in Zambia Sunday. They only have two services so it is like a part-time gig. We debrief Sunday afternoon and fly home on Monday. I can't believe it is almost time to come home. I will miss all my friends - our friends – here, but I miss Cathy and the kids and all of you more. I can't wait to see all of you and to share all that I have seen Jesus doing here. My heart is rejoicing as it is also breaking. God is doing miracles and there are so many more that need to happen.

One of the really bright spots is Pastor Chris's ministry. When we met Pastor Chris four years ago, he had a group of less than 50 people meeting together and a small, run-down building. Their calling was to feed the children of their neighborhood one solid meal a week. It took all the resources they could muster to do that. Chris has been faithful and his church has grown one new believer at a time. They now are more than 150 strong.

Through a business grant, the church built a "chicken run" on their property. A year later, they had saved enough money from the profits from selling adult chickens raised from chicks to build a second "run." They also have built three homes on their property for at-risk families. They doubled the size of the building where they feed the children and they now feed them three meals a week. They focus on HIV/AIDS positive kids and children with Tuberculosis.

They have now finished the foundation and the floor of a church building - they are building the building for themselves last! They are praying that God will provide so they can have the walls and roof up in the next 24 months. Every Saturday morning, they have a Children's program and last Saturday, they had 200 children - playing, doing crafts, eating a healthy snack, and learning about Jesus. 

Chris asked me to please thank all of you for your support - believe me, we're talking hundreds of dollars and not a thousand. That's all it took to empower these believers to become self-sufficient as a church and to become salt and light in their world and to bring change one soul at a time. How cool is that?! Thanks Ridge Pointers!

Keep praying so we can keep these types of stories coming. For every hungry child Chris feeds, there are hundreds of thousands more.

When I travel from Ndola in the North of Zambia to Lusaka in the middle of the country, I always have the same reaction - "I didn't think poverty could get worse."

The churches we partner with in Ndola serve areas of extensive poverty. No roads, sewage, or water. Huts with leaky roofs (if there is a roof), disease, and addiction are the norm. The hospital in Ndola has windows that are broken out and they have been that way for all the years I have been coming here. I am shocked when I get to Ndola - no one should have to live as they are forced to.

Then I come to Lusaka and to the community of George. The sheer people density takes my breath away. The air pollution makes my eyes water and my throat hurt. They hand dig wells and scoop the water out to wash, eat and drink - it is brown and thick. The smell is overwhelming. The piles of trash are as tall as I am in places and the children play on them as our kids play on the sand dunes. HIV/AIDS is rampant and cholera is far worse. This year, they are thankful they are getting less rain than normal and the sewage and trash is not washing into their homes. Because of these inhumane conditions, violence is growing and the pastors are beginning to fear civil unrest.

We started our pastor's training in George today. These men and women made their way to the conference site from the place I described above and sang and danced and praised and worshipped and thanked God for His love and grace. I just sat with tears in my eyes. I was convicted of my selfishness and shallowness. The fact that I ever complain or am discontent with ALL the blessings I have is embarrassing. I again was humbled to be in the presence of these people of faith.

Keep us in your prayers. Tomorrow, we continue to study how Jesus teaches us to lead change and we will begin to develop plans for each church to be used by God to intentionally reach lost people and lead them to full life in Jesus.

These leaders are on the front line of a disaster - ecologically, socially, physically, and politically and they believe God will use them to fix it all. I believe that too.

They told me to tell Ridge Point that the leaders of George say, "Thank you and we love you." When they say they love you they mean it - I'll bring you the hugs!

I love you and miss you all - you are here with me!

We have ended our first Pastor's conference in Ndola, Zambia.

Our worship as we ended was just like Heaven - and exhausting. We danced and sang and loved Jesus together - I sang and watched them dance.

 

I am so thrilled with how God brought learning and how these leaders can’t wait to get back to their churches to lead them to think, love, serve, and live like Jesus! I have come to so love these leaders. They live in huts, live on pennies, do more funerals than weekend services, have more orphans in their churches than children with families, and don't know where the ministry resources will come from but they KNOW God has called them and that He will bring success and victory. They KNOW God will use their churches to stop the spread of HIV/AIDS, hunger, disease, poverty, crime, death, and hatred. They just KNOW it and they live like it!

 

Pastor Joyce is one of my friends. She is an HIV/AIDS widow who was discouraged when I met her and ready to give up. Four years later, she is energized and rejoicing. She attended an HIV/AIDS victim counseling session because of a grant. At the training, the government official that runs the clinic in her community saw her and asked her if she would be a counselor at the government-run clinic. She now counsels those who test positive for HIV/AIDS and is free to share her faith and volunteer people from her church to continue to serve the person. How cool is that?

 

I also had lunch with the little boy Cathy, our kids, and I sponsor. His name is Evaristo and he is a handsome young man. He was shy, but when the hamburger was placed in front of him at the restaurant his wide eyes reflected the same delight as any young man faced with a good lunch. Cathy sent a package of Hot Wheel cars for him and his eyes lit up as he and I talked about making roads and playing with them.

 

Ridge Pointers sponsor 61 children here in Zambia. The $25 dollars a month provides food, clothes, and school fees for them. Every penny gets to the child and the family from their church that has taken them in as their own. Every penny is getting the child an education and providing health and hope. In the future, 61 families will have parents telling their kids about the church in West Michigan that cared enough to give. Those 61 kids will change the next generation.

 

I love you all - I am proud of you. Through Jesus, you are making a difference in sub-Saharan Africa. You are actively bringing hope. That makes me want to dance!

 

More soon - Jim

Can you imagine being a 17 year-old young man and having to support and care for your 16 year-old sister and her two children?

Do you know what it would be like to go to bed every night knowing you most likely will never finish school, go to college, or escape the poverty that has forced you to rely on others to survive? At 17, could you choose to go hungry or sleep in the dirt so your sister’s children could eat? Would you give up your future - all of it - to support your sister who has two children by two dads, neither of whom are being fathers?

Victor knows the answers to all those questions. He is a leader of a "Child Led Home" and he supports his sister and his two nieces. He is mom, dad, uncle, brother, and guide. At 17, he has taken on more than some of us will accept in a lifetime. His parents died of AIDS a few years ago because his father contracted it and gave it to his mom. Just like that, he was thrust into adulthood.   The church in his community saw his need and helped without being asked. We – Ridge Point - were able to assist with a small grant so that the church could put a roof on their house and add a small room so Victor could have a room - think walk-in closet - and his sister and her babies could have another. Because of another grant we were able to be part of, Victor started a business that earns him enough money to support his "family." He is now independent and they have a church - fathers and mothers - to walk with him and his sister and girls.   Victor has come to know Jesus and now is a volunteer with the youth ministry. He is able to talk to students about the real consequences of HIV/AIDS. The disease took his parents and his future. Victor can also tell them - and he does - about the grace of God, the love of the church, the joy of achievement, and the family he has because Jesus started His church. How cool is that?!?   Those two little girls are so cute. The two year-old grabbed my hand and didn't let go the whole time we were there. They will see a real man when they look at their uncle. Through God's grace, those girls will live a different and pure life.   It took a little bit - a few hundred dollars and the work of the church in their neighborhood - to transform their lives. They still have a huge uphill climb, but now they have the Family of Jesus to climb with. Thanks for being part of that.   Victor and Lexona - his sister - say thank you!   Love you guys - keep praying, Jim

We arrived in Zambia on Sunday afternoon and we hit the road running.

We quickly checked into our guest house - I had to encourage a couple of geckos to find alternative housing for a few nights - and began a tour of ministry sites made possible through God's grace and the faithful giving of resources by Ridge Pointers and our partnership with Jubilee Centre here in Zambia.

  I also met Agnes. Agnes has two teenage sons and is a widow. Through her church - we always work through the local church and the pastors in partnership with Jubilee - Agnes received a $150 grant to begin a business. She has taken the grant and built it into a successful fruit and grain "kiosk" at her local market. She earns enough to support her boys and to keep them in school. She is tithing to her church and volunteers to mentor other women in becoming independent.   She looked at me with tearful eyes and a weather-worn face and asked me to please thank all of you. "Please thank everyone at your church for helping me and my family."   Instead of begging and seeing her boys lose their chance of realizing the potential God has placed in them as His sons, she is an independent, self-sufficient, Jesus-loving, giving, volunteering, woman of Jesus. All she needed was a little help. Thanks for supplying it. You've been part of changing her life and the lives of her boys and all those she serves.   Way to go God!   I'll be writing all week and I will try to also post some video. No promises. I'll try. We start the pastor's conference this morning (Monday). Pray hard - you are all here with me. Thanks - Love you all!   Jim