Yesterday Wes and I went to a luncheon in honor of a man named Brian Maydew. Brian who? I know that most of you don’t know him, but I’m sure he is well known by our Father in heaven.
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| Brian Maydew and Wes together at luncheon. |
Brian is a very generous man who helps many different ministries in Zambia to have the things they need to do their work.
Wes was asked to represent the different ministries by saying a word of thanks. Wes had two minutes to speak, so he summed up what he wanted to say with a verse from Proverbs 22:9, “A generous man will himself be blessed for he shares his food with the poor.” Brian has definitely been a generous man. He has been actively involved in supporting Zambian ministries for many years through shipping containers from the states filled with books, clothing, medical supplies, farm equipment, sports equipment, literature, care packages and so much more. Brian has helped New Day by transporting many of the things we need, free of charge. He even gave us a tractor and a container to use as a place to store things on the property
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| Wes did a good job of keeping his speech to two minutes, which is not easy for him! |
How did we meet Brian? Some would say we were lucky to meet Brian, but in God’s Kingdom it is not luck, it is providence. Brian is a member of my brother’s church in Omaha, Nebraska. When my brother found out that he was sending containers to Zambia, he talked to Brian about the possibility of helping us transport some things we needed for the orphanage. We thought it would just be a one-time thing, but Brian has so graciously allowed us to continue to send things that we need.
As I sat there today at the luncheon in honor of Brian, I couldn’t help but think what a GREAT GOD we serve. He has all the resources we will ever need to do the work that He has called us to do, and He is the best networker. He is able to connect us to the people that have the resources, the skills--all the things we need to do our work. He has connected us to so many wonderful people: some to give, some to pray, some to volunteer, some to give us wisdom, and some to be our encouragers. I’m not sure why we ever worry about the future and the things we need when we serve such an awesome God!
Today we also saw God at work in the area of networking. We were prepared to go to one of our Zambian Baptist churches here in Lusaka this morning, but our battery was dead and no one was around to give us a jump start. The guard at the gate of the Baptist Mission Guesthouse told us we should go to the Chinese Bible study, so that is what we did. After the Bible study a young man came up to us and said, “When I heard that you are working at an orphanage, I just had to come and introduce myself.” After talking to him for awhile, we learned that he has been a Christian for about seven months through the ministry of a man from Missouri working in China. The young man is presently working at a mine in Zambia, but during the year he has two months off. He spends one month in China, but wants to do ministry the other month. He wanted to know if we could use a volunteer. Although we do not know what the future holds in our relationship with this young man, and we won’t try to guess, we know it was not an accident that we met him today.
