God’s Plan—Not Coincidence

Okay, Laurie has been writing all the blog posts so far, now it is my turn. Here goes.

Wow, God is so amazing! We just finished doing ministry with a team from Wynne, Arkansas in Sinazongwe, Zambia. The ministry involved prayer walking, survey work, and evangelism. Because we were such a large group, 30 altogether, we divided into four smaller groups. On the first day, my group went to an area near the chief’s village. As we were heading back to where we were staying, we ran into a three men coming from a funeral—they had been drinking heavily; in fact, they were drunk! When the three men found out what we were doing, they told us we should go to the village where the funeral was being held and tell them the good news. Knowing that a funeral is the biggest social gathering in a community, I led the team to the village where we shared a story called “Creation to Christ.” The village elders asked us to come back the next afternoon to share again, and so without hesitation we accepted the invitation. Three old men, and two women accepted Christ.

One of the women who accepted Christ lived about 20 km from the funeral. She asked us to please come to her village to share with her people. We made an appointment for Friday afternoon, which would be our last day of ministry. She gave us the name of the place where she lived and a few instructions. She also gave us the name of the headman in her area, and told us that he could direct us to her home.

Friday afternoon came, and our group headed out to the woman’s village. On our way, we saw an old man walking on the road. Not sure if we were going in the right direction, we stopped and asked him to direct us to the headman’s village. He said, “I will take you there,” and climbed in the vehicle. Five kilometers later, driving down a very narrow path, we arrived at the headman’s village. At first the headman did not know who the woman was, but after more discussion he said, “I think I know her.” However, he added, “You can’t get there from here; the river is too high to cross.”

We looked at one another, wondering what we should do. We decided to wait. As we waited, people began to gather under a tree; a group of about thirty. We decided to share the story of “Creation to Christ.” After sharing the story, eight people accepted the invitation to receive Christ as their Savior. Three of these were the headman of the village, the vice headman and the village secretary. Even the old man that took us to the headman’s village, accepted Christ. Although we could not find the lady from the funeral, God had brought us to this place to share with these people so that some of them could find Jesus.

None of the events that had led us to this point were coincidental; running into the three drunks, attending the funeral, meeting the lady who invited us to her village, finding the old man on the road, the river that was too full to cross, and the people gathering together under the tree. Our God is truly amazing!