CART

Yesterday we received a container through the Christian African Relief Trust. They are old friends of Mwandi Mission and had sent us a previous one in 2009. The truck actually arrived in the dark on Monday evening and got stuck in the sand outside the OVC. It had come from Beira via Mutare and Victoria Falls to Livingstone and then on to Mwandi. It was dug out before 0800h on Tuesday and was driven to just outside the chapel, where the unloading took place with the help of 9 members of staff and volunteers.

We had requested mattresses for the Mission Hospital and 103 were unloaded and stacked in the chapel. At the moment the hospital is undergoing major renovations. Ida is investigating now the costs and logistics of acquiring and purchasing new hospital beds in Zambia.  There were a number of boxes for the Hospital Central Stores and some orthopedic crutches and sticks. Chairs and desks for the school were off-loaded into the Landrover 130 and driven to the school. We also borrowed the OVC truck to transport the other boxes of clothes to be stored until they can distributed through the local congregations.

We are very grateful for the generosity of all the unpaid volunteers in Britain who gather and pack the goods into containers and to those who kindly donate money and goods, as well as those who staff the charity shop where the takings help pay for running costs and contribute towards the sending of some containers.

From past experience we know that the goods sent help relieve people living in extreme poverty. Also with these goods, especially the aquaboxes, we have been able to directly help those who have lost their houses either through fire or flooding. The school furniture and school books have helped us to support development of education in all the areas of education run locally by the UCZ in Pre-school, Primary and Secondary. Under-resourced local organisations have also benefited. In the medical field the bedside-lockers are still used and greatly appreciated.  The sewing machines will be used to good effect by the Formula Mothers Support Group. They raise a regular income by sewing for Mission Hospital and selling bags and tie-dye clothes and materials to visitors. There has been a poor harvest this year and we are prescribing food mainly beans and soya to those with a body mass of less than 19. The tins of food that were sent will provide a little more variety.

BUILDING ON SOLID FOUNDATIONS

Today is Wednesday and Ida has gone with the car to an Aids Relief Meeting in Lusaka. Just after she left, Mubita broke out in a rash that looked like chickenpox! After lunch we went down to the OPD where Mr Sully the Clinical Officer confirmed the suspicion. We usually do our weekly trip to Livingstone for supplies on a Wednesday but today we are confined to barracks. Mubi is feeling a wee bit ‘hingy’ so is sitting on my knee helping me type this!

This is a good opportunity for an update on recent events locally and nationally. Ida has been busy with Dr Ozzie Reynold’s eye-team who have undertaken 47 eye-cataract operations in the past week. Before that we had visits from Albemarle Church who came with former PCUSA Mission Partners Joyce and Richard Lambert. They were followed by Goldsboro, both of these Churches are a blessing to many with their faithful support of the Formula Programme.

We also enjoyed meeting up with some good old friends from Hickory on two separate occasions. Ellie and Conway came for the American Board Meeting and Jo Brenda, Cathie and Jim came with a group of student nurses and supplied artificial limbs to those attending the clinic and in need. The most moving time was when a woman from the rural areas got her limbs and learned to walk for the first time. Other patients who had received limbs in the past came to have them checked, adjusted or replaced too.

Renovations are underway at the hospital; over US$300 000 is being spent to improve the toilets, ablutions and wards. The patients have been moved to the previously-cleared TB and Infectious Diseases Wards while this work is underway. A Zambian contractor, who worked on the new Levy (Mwanawasa) Mall has been engaged to undertake this.

Work has also started on the new UCZ Mwandi Church building being constructed on the site of the original 1913 church. It is interesting that this is happening 100 years to the year of the inauguration of the Sesheke (Mwandi) Church on 25 December 1913. This brick Church was constructed by John Roulet and was dedicated in the presence of Prince Litia with a congregation of 400. Others in attendance were Evangelist Josefe Masupa and the teacher Daniel.

At Sikuzu, the two staff latrines are presently under construction and should be complete and functioning by the end of June. A preliminary visit was made to look at the requirements and the necessary work to undertake the digging of the well to secure pure drinking water for the school and community. Once the surface water recedes some more we will be able to reach the location of the well which is still underwater. It was good that Greg was able to see the work being undertaken and speak to those involved when he was over for the American Board Meeting too.  

Last Saturday Rob, Fiona’s father and I did a tour of the hand pumps located at the Diptank, Makanga, Namango and the 3 pumps at Mabumbu. All registered unacceptably high levels of salinity, which if drunk continually over time could impair kidney function and lead to increased cases of High Blood Pressure. Ironically the best and purest drinking water came from the river at Kasaya!

Nationally the latest major controversy to hit the headlines and cause UNZA students to demonstrate was the removal of tax-payer funded subsidies to maize, fuel and fertilizer. The main rationale for their abolition was that the Government was spending, comparatively speaking, huge sums and an unacceptably high proportion of the budget on subsidizing these items supposedly for the benefit of the poor but in reality those mainly benefiting from the maize subsidy were the millers, who have racketeered with their prices for years. The subsidized fertilizer price was enjoyed mainly by commercial farmers. None of our local subsistence farmers, here to my knowledge, were able to regularly avail themselves of this commodity. Even at a subsidized price there are few here that could afford it. The most commonly-used fertilizer here is cattle manure. The subsidized fuel supported, in the main the transport industry, and those fortunate enough to own a vehicle. These vested interests combined and have managed to make a lot of noise as can be imagined, over this move away from subsidies.

The Government says it wants to focus on putting in place direct cash transfers to low income households and cutting taxes. The removal of these subsidies and the saved revenue can be used for many other pressing social and infrastructural development projects in sectors like health, education, power supply and roads. It can also be invested in capital projects and used to reduce domestic and external debt.  If done as promised, this is probably a much better way to tackle poverty, meet 2015 MDG (Millennium Development Goals) and grow the economy for the common good rather than through these subsidies which inadvertently benefited the already well-off.

ORDINATION AND SYNOD EXECUTIVE 2013

ORDINATION AND COMMISSIONING

We set out from Mwandi at 1000h on Friday morning in the newly-serviced mission bus for the journey to Kabwe. Unworried was our driver. The new tires and shocks would enhance our comfort and safety on the deteriorating pot-holed sections of the road. The all age group of 18, consisting of the Minister and his family, the Deaconess and her relatives with supporters from the Consistory and congregations headed for the UCZ Synod Executive, the equivalent of the General Assembly, for the ordination and commissioning services which would take place on the Sunday. The back seat was commandeered for the assortment of all our suitcases, bags, crates and cool boxes that were carefully stacked there, bonded like bricks, or one of those cube puzzles, to utilize the space available as fully and effectively as possible.

The next stop two hours later was a quick visit to Coillard Church and the Livingstone shopping mall for banking, shopping, talk-time and lunch. With Hungry Lion chicken and chip carry-outs, Cokes and Cabanas, we again started off on the trip north, through Zimba to Kalomo where we dropped off crates and had a children’s ‘pit-stop’;  then on to Choma where we picked up Deaconess Josephine and her big brother and  also took on fuel. The next stop was in Mazabuka, outside Debonair Pizzas, where we handed over Arissa, a Mwandi granddaughter, to family there and received a massive pizza to share out in return. We trundled on over the Munali Hills to Kafue, Innocent’s home-town. He would overnight here and rejoin the group tomorrow. The sun was setting as we passed Munda Wanga Zoo and the Chilanga Cement works on the final stretch to Lusaka in thickening traffic.

We were welcomed by ululating, flapping chitenges and the Zambian cheek to cheek embrace and handshakes at St Paul’s Church where the Lusaka Presbytery has its office.

The St Paul’s and Mwandi Anamoyo (Women’s Christian Fellowship) are twinned so the St Paul’s Anamoyo had prepared a delicious and rib-sticking supper of nshima, chicken, mixed cut beef and cabbage. We enjoyed the meal and fellowship and after the Rev Kasovu’s prayer and blessing, we then scattered to the various places arranged for overnight accommodation. The next morning we all gathered together outside the Church as we arrived back from all over Lusaka; the Mwandi-exiles in Lusaka also came to say hello and see us off to Kabwe.

By mid-morning we were on our way to Kabwe, contrasting the tall khaki coloured maize in the fields at Chisamba, with the stunted frazzled crop at home. We received a warm welcome from the Rev Lydia Mwale at All Saints with thirst-quenching chilled watermelon while accommodation was prepared. Again this was another good opportunity for some of the group to meet up and stay with friends and relatives.

The bus picked us up just after 0800h to take the group, resplendent in the red black and white of the Anamoyo and Alume uniforms and the Lozi women’s Musissi dresses. Like the Scots and the kilt, the musissi and siziba are worn by the Lozis for special occasions and celebrations; I did wonder about combining the MCF red jacket and kilt but thought better of it! I think we’d need to design a special MCF tartan.

St Peters is on the southern outskirts of Kabwe. The old church is too small for the young and growing congregation so a new structure is being erected. It presently consists of the concrete slab with a large rectangular barn-like steel framework which is roofed. The windows, walls and doors and interior walls have still to be tackled. It however provided a wonderful shaded and fresh air-conditioned canopy for the ordination and commissioning service. Before the service the opportunity was taken to greet old friends and acquaintances and make connections. In the world it is said than on meeting anyone you are only three people away from being known in the Church family even closer and is easy to find some-one mutually known. We met up with Sulota Drong, our old friend from Mwandi, the Bangladeshi Mission Partner and Nursing Officer at Mbereshi, who had also been invited to the Synod Executive.

The service began with the procession of the ordinands, and the participating UCZ clergy, headed by the Synod Bishop, Rev Mutale Mulumbwa. The worship leader was Rev David Mujumila, North Western  Presbytery Bishop and the preacher was Rev Musonda Bowa. After the call to worship, the opening hymn -How great Thou art in Bemba-, the prayers of approach, confession, intercession and the Apostle’s Creed, Deaconesses Author Nyondo and Josephine Kabamba were commissioned and presented with a Bible and towel to remind them to be a witness to the Gospel and of their calling to servanthood in supporting the weak, binding up the broken, gathering in the outcast, welcoming the stranger and seeking the lost.

Next followed the presentation of the ordinands who had previously been licentiate probationers in various presbyteries; they were Elijah Chisulo NE Presbytery, Mwenya W Kangwa N Pres, Charles Musonda N Pres, Howard Haamwinga NW Pres, Melvin Mubanga  S Pres, Godfrey Gama S Pres, Oscar Musonda S Pres and Wezi Manda W Pres. After affirmation and reading and signing the oath the ordinands were dressed in their white cassocks, white rope girdles and red stoles embroidered with a cross of their choice. They too received a Bible as a sign of being Ministers of Word and Sacrament.

It was  moving to then offer them the right hand of fellowship.

The Readings were Psalm 24:1-2, John 21:4-8 and Hebrews 11:8-11 and the theme of the sermon was Prudent Stewardship by a Prudent Engineer. Rev Bowa took three heads from them firmness, being satisfied with God’s provision – the lines from Psalm 65 came to mind here: We surely shall be satisfied by thy abundant grace – and finally connectivity – vertically and horizontally.

The Ministers Deaconesses and invited clergy celebrated the Lord’s Supper in the French fashion standing in a horse-shoe around the Communion Table. This was followed by the offering, the final hymn, 200 in the Bemba Hymnary – I am so glad that our Father in heaven - and the benediction.

After lunch at the Diakonia Centre the Mwandi Party minus Ida and me set off for Lusaka to overnight there again and proceed to Mwandi on Monday, where they arrived safely in the evening.

SYNOD EXECUTIVE

After lunch on Sunday we were invited to the opening session of the Synod Executive, chaired by the Synod Bishop. The General Secretary Rev Peggy Kabonde Mulambya had sent invitations to all Mission Partners serving with the UCZ. This was another time to greet and catch up with old friends that we had not seen for some time including the Health Secretary Rev Sitali and Albert Chituka, the Head at Chipembi who was acting Education Secretary.

Prior to this the Executive had been busy with pastoral issues, the Finance Committee and planning and development. The theme for the meeting was Seeking the Church transformed through prudent stewardship.

After roll call and the choosing of officers the welcome and notices and adoption of the previous minutes we went to matters arising and the action sheet. This covered a wide area of concerns including Church lands, pensions and increments, Health and Education institutions, building, twinnings, media, radio and communications and policies manuals for scholarships and study, doctrinal guidance for congregations and finally a document on preachers and lay-preachers. Health and education matters were dealt with including Church schools, health clinics and the inclusion of both Chipembi and Mindolo as faculties in the new UCZ University. 

The major issue discussed at this session was the UCZ Investment Complex. This will comprise of 2 buildings, one office and one residential; all office units and apartments would be leased. The Fundraising Committee is levying K10 per urban member and K5 for rural members; there remains a need to further sensitise some presbyteries and their consistories where committees are yet to be formed. The National Committee would be starting out in faith soon and begin to build, while a coordinator would shortly be appointed to help organize and bring together this and other Church projects.

On Monday morning we met up with again with Sulota, Liton and Laya Mozunder and their children Akash and Chandra who serve at Chipembi. Laya is the school nurse and Liton is the accountant at the Agricultural College. Also with us were Edward and Marina Summadar with their now 3 year old daughter, Prokriti. Marina is a former Mwandi nurse too, but they are now stationed in Choma. Marina is the school nurse at Njase School and Edward is a Church Social Worker in Choma. They have a little daughter, Prokriti.

After devotions each of us were asked to address the Executive and report about our life and work as Mission Partners in Zambia. This was a useful and appreciated opportunity to share the successes and challenges each of us face and to thank Synod and the UCZ for their help and support.

Following our slot, the meeting continued with recommendations from the Christian Training Committee and from Appointments and Stationing. It was here that the Rev K Munjita was appointed and took his seat as Constitution, Rules and Regulation Officer.

The Mission and Evangelism Committee then gave is report. There was reinforcement of the standards expected with clerical attire and the liturgical colours used for drops at different seasons and occasions in the Church Year. Mention was made of the growing trend of removing pulpits and wooden pews and replacing them with plastic garden furniture. It was emphasized that the pulpit is a special sign and symbol of special significance to the Reformed tradition of which the UCZ is a part.

Highlights from the Board of Trustees were presented including the requirement for all Congregations, Consistories and Presbyteries submit building plans to Synod for ratification. The UCZ Theological College presented its report. The next item on the Agenda was the Misprol Board’s brief report covering the Diakonia Centre, Mpongwe Beekeeping Enterprises, United Church Printers (UCP) and Chilomba Farms. 

We adjourned in the early afternoon and after lunch Ida and I caught the bus to Lusaka. Then the Bishops, clergy and executive met with the Honorable Wynter Kabimba, Patriotic Front Secretary General and Minister of Justice, to receive an update on the state of the nation and hear about the Governments commitment to fight corruption. He said that corruption was a vice and sin and deprives citizens of much needed resources and can eventually kill those most in need. The Church should be unequivocal in its condemnation of corruption and abuse of power but should also commend and encourage law enforcement agencies in this struggle.

 

In His Footsteps

 Each denomination has its own natural places of pilgrimages, often after hearing about the life of a pioneer Christian who worked in a particular place, comes the desire to visit and follow in their footsteps. This month marks the 200^th Anniversary of the birth of David Livingstone and to celebrate this, the Moderator of the Church of Scotland, the Right Rev Albert Bogle, invited by our Sister-Church, the United Church of Zambia, paid a visit to Zambia, where Livingstone began his journeys to the East and West and where his heart is buried. As part of the commemoration the Moderator and his travelling companions flew from Lusaka to spend two days with us here in the South and West of Zambia where Livingstone explored and evangelized.

Reverends Manyando & Sivile and Deaconess Mubita with Ida and me met and welcomed the Moderator, his wife, Martha, Rev Ian Alexander, the Council Secretary of the World Mission Council and Carol Finlay, the Twinning and Local Development Secretary off the Proflight plane late on Tuesday afternoon. Incidentally, Ida and Carol are both Newburgh girls and were in the Guides together. We immediately set off for Mwandi Mission, through the Mosi oa Tunya Game Park where the giraffes, zebra and impala who were obviously waiting and lining the roadside, obliged us with several fine photo opportunities.

We arrived in Mwandi in time for an Inshima, Cabbage, Chicken and Fish Buffet Supper in Tutwa Mission House with local Church workers and individuals from the Mission Hospital and Schools’ Management. It was a good time of fellowship with much joy in the laughter, stories and conversation. We ended this evening with a devotion led by Rev Wezi Manda who stressed that our coming to meet and eat together, hailing as we do from the East and West, North and South to extend God’s Kingdom was a start to Jesus’ prayer that we all may be one and a foretaste of the Marriage Feast of the Lamb. We were here in this rural Mission on the banks of the Zambezi from all over Zambia, Scotland, Italy and Indonesia; our earthly fellowship here and now, foreshadowing our final fellowship with God and pointing to a greater reality than the present. It was David Livingstone’s work for God exactly150 years ago that had brought us here. We closed by singing ‘We are here by the grace of God’ and then in prayer led by Father Klements, from St Arnold’s Catholic Mission.

After breakfast on Wednesday we undertook a tour of the all areas of Mission Ministry run by the Church. These are our attempts at practical Christianity in action rooted in the here and now, the every day in front of us, showing that our pilgrimage is not all about other-worldly-spirituality.  The party met the residents and workers in Kandiana, our sheltered village for the aged, then we saw the farm with its butchery, layers, dairy, beef, pigs and fish. Time was spent with the Hospital Adminstrator followed by a tour of the Wards, Theatre, Pharmacy and Out Patients. We next moved on to the Orphan and Vulnerable Children’s Centre seeing all of the opportunities and activities it has to offer. After that next on the list was a visit the Basic and High Schools and finally the Mission Pre-School and Church.

The Paris Mission, sent by the Church of Lesotho, was the founder of the present-day UCZ Mwandi Mission, the oldest Mission Station in Zambia. A bell stands in front of the Church, a gift from the Church of Lesotho, inscribed in Sesotho with the text from 1 John 4:10 This is love: not that we loved God but that he loved us. The Gospel was brought here at considerable cost and there is a plaque to the first casualty in 1878, Eleazer, an Evangelist from Lesotho and colleague of Coillard, who died of fever.

The ground for a new and larger sanctuary has been cleared. This new Church will stand on the site of the original building. This area is where Livingstone preached the Gospel for the first time on the North Bank of the Zambezi to a congregation of around 600.

The first Church was a burned brick and thatched sanctuary that was opened on Christmas Day in 1913 and dedicated by Rev Jean Roulet. This unfortunately burned down and was replaced by the present Church building.

After an early lunch we set off for the meeting with UCZ’s Livingstone Consistory at the Coillard Memorial Church. En route we stopped off at Kasaya to see the rural Church that will have its thatched roof replaced by corrugated iron sheets with help from a Scottish congregation. We were warmly greeted by the choir and church office-bearers and enjoyed a short time of music, song, talk and laughter together. It was another opportunity to celebrate with friends and companions we met on the way. We followed again in Livingstone’s footsteps through Sikaunzwe, past Mambova, Kazungula, Katombora, Simonga and on to Livingstone 

There we were welcomed by the Anamoyo Choir, an MCF Quartet and the Consistory Officebearers and the Church workers Reverends Manyando, Sevile and Kaluba and Deaconesses Mubita and Sivile. The Moderator led the devotion on Hebrews 11:1&2 Since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses…… let us run the race…..Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith. We are like those before us, resident aliens, citizens of heaven put on earth to run the race to completion. Our pilgrimage has a purpose and goal, looking to Jesus and finding our way to the perfect place. Livingstone Consistory then presented a paper on Twinning. The sharing and discussion that followed also wove in neatly to the pilgrimage theme. Twinning is about walking together, a commitment to building mutually beneficial relationships, exchanging, hosting, sharing joys and sorrows, giving and receiving, praying, worshipping and reaching out together. All of this, over time, leads to a sense of belonging and oneness.

We overnighted in Livingstone and the next morning set off for the Smoke that Thunders - the Victoria Falls. Livingtone using scientific lyricism in his ‘Missionary Travels’ decribes them thus: 

The mass of water causes clouds of vapour to ascend, as it leaps clear of the rock and forms a thick unbroken fleece all the way to the bottom. Its whiteness gave the idea of snow, a sight I had not seen for many a day. As it broke into pieces, all rushing in the same direction, each gave off rays of foam as bits of steel burned in oxygen gas, give off rays of sparks. The snow-white sheet seemed like myriads of small comets rushing on in one direction, each of which left behind its nucleus rays of foam; scenes so lovely must have been gazed upon by angels in their flight.

The Falls are a spectacularly beautiful and impressive site to eye various aspects of the natural beauty of creation. From the climate and vegetation, with its tropical rainforest and wild flowers, the geology with the black basalt rocks and the raw power of the falling water at this time of year, cannot help but reinforce the idea of Eden untouched since the creation, reminding us that all life east of Eden can be considered a pilgrimage. It is easy there to feel God’s presence and feel present to God.

However, in the timeless there is also the immediate and there are few things less mystical than the feel of sodden clothes and the smell of a wet sweaty plastic pancho or few things more glaikit-looking than smiling, drookit and dreepin individuals with rolled-up trousers and kilted-up dresses!

This was rectified after a dash to the airport and a quick change into dry clothes, before saying farewell and the visitors taking the flight to South Africa. For us and the visitors we feel it was a time out for a bit of reflection, an outward expression of an inward journey, time spent on the edge with Christ as guide, and then our return to our more usual lives and work. We thank every one for their help in making this visit so positive an experience and for living up to the Lord’s words in his gospel that ‘whoever welcomes you welcomes me’.

DO ALL HAVE GIFTS OF HEALING?

As Zambia continues to reduce its HIV/AIDS rate and improves on its diagnosis, treatment and care, there has been, however, a worrying increase in the number of defaulters - people with HIV/AIDS who have stopped taking their medication. Zambian newspapers have carried reports of a worrying trend amongst some mainly self-styled and self-appointed preachers claiming to be able to cure HIV/AIDS and after praying for healing, telling followers to stop taking medication or even to burn it to prove their faith, so that God will heal them. See Report on ThinkAfricaPress site.

Throughout Africa, the Church is growing and Pentecostalism in particular has exploded. Unfortunately, alongside it, so too, has a non-affiliated, almost cult-type, of quasi-charismatic-pentecostalism with its emphasis on the 'prosperity gospel',  'health-and-wealth gospel' and the 'faith gospel' - which claims faith and donations will be rewarded by God here on earth. The idea is that God wants to bless his followers, and that these blessings can be 'unlocked' through prayer and by demonstrations of faith, which giving large sums of money as an offering to the church. This dogma smacks of the return to indulgences and clerical rapacity to my rather orthodox reformed mind.

The preachers in question are so-called prophets “anointed by God”, making them untouchable and unchallengeable to their mainly poorly educated and discipled congregations, so that any doubt, complaint or criticism against the preacher is a hand raised against God. Telly-evangelism has much to do with the growth of this ‘prosperity gospel’. In Zambia we have Trinity Broadcasting, One Gospel and Rhema, Real Christian TV that are widely watched, since they are free and an alternative to the State-Broadcaster. These channels broadcast programmes 24/7 with an over-emphasis on giving and then receiving ten-fold, healing miracles and exorcisms.

The TV evangelists from these stations have become celebrities in Zambia, attracting followers because of their fame, fortunes, influence and life-styles and clergy from all denominations try to emulate them, also in their style of preaching and praying. For many a career in the Church is such, it is not a calling but the road to status, professional and economic advancement. A Kenyan source reports that over 90% of Kenyan clergy have no call at all. They became ministers because a better career could not be found elsewhere.

What then should be the response?  Those who claim to be healed need to be retested, restart medication if necessary and find an HIV-competent and supportive Church. Some patients will still say the machines are lying or have been told by preachers that they simply did not pray hard enough or give a large enough offering to the church, so they refuse to go for re-testing.

Destroying ARVs is illegal and can lead to arrest and imprisonment. Surely encouraging HIV+ people to stop taking life-saving medicine is a form of murder? But people are reluctant to speak out against 'men of God'.

Community-based education regarding HIV/AIDS by health workers who provide home-based care, regular visits and the formation of support groups is being piloted. The Zambian media both print and broadcasting have a duty to raise awareness and warn of these "merchants of death" in churches.

Another initiative being tried is with the District AIDS Task Forces and Ministry of Health, engaging with church leaders to discuss healing and the Bible in a non-confrontational way.

In a Choma Church every Sunday before the Preaching of the Word, the preacher makes the following announcement. "There is not, and has never been, a cure for AIDS. If you are HIV positive, you can take medication called ARVs... Some people claim to have found the cure for AIDS and they want to sell it to you. It is not true. If you are HIV positive, take ARVs."

This article is in no way belittling those who stress that healing is part of the fullness of the blessing of the Gospel of Christ. This can be clearly seen in the lives of ordinary but godly people, as well as in more prominent Christians honoured by God. But I also know, having myself prayed earnestly and believingly for a dear friend, that special healing will not always be granted but that God’s will shall be done. Even St Paul prayed three times for the thorn to be removed but was told to glory in his infirmity. This is an equally authentic Christian testimony as are the signs and wonders accompanying the Ministry of the Word. We need to pray for a spirit of discernment for believers to be able to judge rightly between the true and the false, and seek to be like those who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil. (Heb5:15)

All Creatures That Grate and Pall!

People often ask us about the various creepie-crawlies and mini-beasties you come across here.



At this time of year during the annual inundation, the insect life here is prolific and as the water level rises and more holes, burrows, mounds and tunnels become flooded, high and dry real estate becomes a premium for all creation. So at this time you learn to share terra firma with a myriad of etymological refugees.



At the moment we are being plagued by ants. I am afraid it got so bad we blotted our green credentials by going out and buying Termodan spray to evict and extirpate the persistent columns of ants and their soldiers who were seeking refuge in our kitchen, dining-room and office, making it impossible to stand, sit or work there.



The ants quickly covered any available surface and gave any exposed human flesh a sharp and irritating nip. Since applying the spray, each morning we swept out the debris of ant corpses which looked like heaps of spilt coffee-grinds. It is now bliss, typing this, as my bare feet no longer have to be kept lifted to keep them out of the way of the marauding ants on safari underneath the desk.



Two trivial ant facts:

1. What people call ants eggs are usually the silk cocoons containing a chrysalis. The eggs are pinhead size white and shiny and found in bunches.

2. There can be more than a dozen queens in a large nest. They don’t fight or kill each other as bees do.



Another war we constantly wage is against the ravenous regiments of the wrongly named white ant. They are actually neither white nor ants but termites with soft bodies and no narrow waist like true ants. As a rule their food is wood and they do great damage by eating holes, galleries and trenches in the furniture and floors. They are not averse to books either. They are certainly industriously destructive as they cover the object they covet with a clay and saliva shell, gradually enlarging this and finally engulfing the object with termite clay, if left to their own devices.



The workers and soldiers are blind and stunted by their diet, but other brothers and sisters are fed on richer food and become kings and queens of new nests. Now, when the weather is warm and just after a heavy shower of rain, these winged termites leave the nest and fly up into the air on their nuptial flight. When they land they shed their wings and look for a place for a new nest.



These are the inswa that people in Central Africa gather and roast as relish, after they have already run the gauntlet of birds, frogs and lizards. It is reckoned only one in 10 000 survive and succeed in starting a new colony, for which we should be thankful.



Last week on our weekly trip to Livingstone our car was engulfed at Sikaunzwe by a massive swarm of ephemeroptera, known as mayflies. The high grey cloud stretched for at least 4 kilometres along the road. The car was so thickly covered by the dead insects that we needed to have it washed in Livingstone. Sikaunzwe is another area bisected by rivers, a low-lying fertile floodplain. It is a day’s march from Mwandi and where Livingstone spent his first night on the way to the Falls.



These tiny white insects are only about 5mm in length and have two pairs of wings and two tail filaments at the end of their abdomen. They do not feed and only live for a few hours, hence their name. Their only function is to mate and then lay their eggs. The eggs are laid in the water and the larvae live for a long time, feeding on decaying animal and plant matter on the waterbed. They are interesting in that they emerge in a pre-adult stage and then moult into the true imago. Sikaunzwe is a good spot to fish at the moment especially for lindombe (catfish), obviously the larvae must be an important element in the diet of local fish.



In contrast to the mayfly, the cicada is one of the longest-living insects. You hear the loud shrill love song of the male all the time here during the hot summer months during the hot noonday hours and in the still, warm nights. It can be almost deafening at times



The cicada has a long beak which it uses to pierce tree-bark to feed on tree sap. He does not make the racket by rubbing his hind legs or wings like a grasshopper or cricket. He has a pair of drums on his body just behind his back legs. He uses the rapid movement of certain muscles to vibrate the drums. The male enjoys six weeks feasting and singing before he dies.



Tuesday was Woman’s Day and I have been undergoing a gender sensitization process since then so now let me deal with the female cicada. Before dying she lays her eggs in the bark of trees. After a few weeks the eggs hatch, the offspring are similar to the adults but lack wings but are equipped with thick strong front legs and blunt teeth for digging. They drop to earth and burrow into the ground and feed off sap in roots. Depending on the type cicadas spend anything from 2 to15 years underground. After that they crawl to the surface, climb a tree and split their skin. The adult emerges and flies away.



Oh, I forgot to say only the male can sing, the female is completely silent.

As Xenophon put it over 2000 years ago:

“Happy are the cicadas’ lives,

For they are blessed with voiceless wives.”

Sugar, Sugar….

When we drive to Lusaka, about 6 hours after leaving Mwandi, we pass through Mazabuka, about 140km away from Lusaka. Mazabuka is the sweetest town in Zambia, according to the billboards advertising the Zambia Sugar’s plantation, where most of Zambia’s sugar is grown and for Associated British Food shareholders it is indeed a sweet place!

The Guardian (link:http://www.guardian.co.u k/business/2013/feb/09/british-sugar-giant-tax-scandal) has revealed that the multi-national, FTSE 100 company, Associated British Foods that produces Silver Spoon Sugar, Twinnings Tea and Kingsmill Bread is avoiding paying tax in Zambia by remitting most of their profit abroad. Zambia Sugar (Illovo), is the local subsidiary here. A report from ActionAid “Tax Justice” reveals that Zambian Sugar boasted it paid virtually no corporation tax to the Zambian Revenue Authority, it actually paid less than 0.5% of its $123m pre-tax profits in corporation tax between 2007 and 2012. Zambia Sugar, however, has recently posted record pre-tax profits and its plantation has doubled its capacity over the same period to produce sugar for markets in Europe and Africa.

The company benefits from capital allowance and tax-relief schemes in Zambia, but still, almost one third of its pre-tax profits are remitted to Ireland, Mauritius and the Netherlands. There are sister companies in these tax havens, some with no employees, which means the ZRA cannot even charge their normal tax on money leaving the country. These allowances and tax-relief schemes were granted to it by the ZRA to finance its expansion. They even obtained one by taking the Zambian government to court. Apparently, according to the firm, these payments made to overseas companies, are largely for ‘historical reasons’, (read neo-colonialism) and are not driven by tax considerations.

Ironically, it is estimated that this form of tax avoidance in Zambia amounts to a sum 14 times larger than that which the UK provided in aid to Zambia to combat hunger and improve food security. 45% of Zambian children suffer from chronic malnutrition. Globally, the total loss to Treasuries in the less developed world through tax avoidance by multinationals in is estimated to be around GBP70bn a year. This, if targeted properly, it is reckoned, could save the lives annually of 85,000 children under the age of five in the world’s poorest countries. .And yet, Associated British Foods have gone to great lengths to ensure it pays virtually no corporation tax in an impoverished country. There are also other transactions done that reduce Zambia Sugar’s taxable profit and other taxes that are usually paid to the ZRA on payments made abroad.

Of course, the Company denies it doing anything illegal or immoral by reducing the tax it is due to the Zambian government. It claims GBP150m has been invested and 5000 jobs created and the allowances on this investment mean no company tax is due. They say they are merely enjoying the tax-holiday designed to attract investors!

God’s principles concerning fair trade, fair dealing and right relationships are clear in this situation. The Old Testament Law demands that justice is seen to be done and the rights of the poor are safe-guarded to prevent a downward spiral of poverty. Amos clearly condemns the use of dishonest scales, skimping measures or selling sweepings as wheat.

This is another clear case of the world trading system working for the rich and powerful. Associated British Food through Zambia Sugar has almost a monopoly in the Zambian sugar market and is able to call the tune to the disadvantage of the ZRA and Zambian Government.

In the story of Lazarus, the rich man is condemned because he did nothing to change the situation. Jesus condemns exploitative and uncaring relationships between the rich and the poor. James too highlights the luxury and self-indulgence of the rich at the expense of the poor and suggests that we should treat others in the way we would want God to treat us.

This is an unjust situation which is causing oppression and is giving an unfair advantage to a special group. The present Zambia Sugar Trading Organisation needs recreation and transformation in order to be a system that deals fairly with others and encourages right relationships.



Road Carnage

Zambia has just experienced one of its worst road traffic accidents ever. On Thursday morning 51 passengers aboard a Post Services Bus, travelling from Ndola to Lusaka were killed on the spot in a horrific head-on collision at Chibombo about an hour’s drive North of Lusaka, when the bus and a truck hit each other. Three days of national mourning have been declared and the Council of Churches in Zambia (CCZ) says the church will hold prayers for the wellbeing of the nation because Zambia cannot afford to distance itself from God.

CCZ general secretary Suzanne Matale said the country needed prayers in such hard and trying moments and needed God’s intervention now more than ever before. It was important for all churches in the country to pray for the nation and especially for the families who have lost loved ones in these tragic circumstances.