Jesse: Homestay, day 2

We were not invited to the ceremony–even though we were honored guests. The wedding ceremony is just for close friends and family. It started at 8 am. We were expected at the family’s home by 10 for the celebration. At a little before 9, the pastor, Deb and I walked into town to buy wedding presents. We got to the market as most people were setting up their booths. Pastor bought a blue, plastic pitcher and two red cups. He handed one cup to me and one to Deb, telling us this was our present.

We then walked back to his home to rest for a few min. A little before 10 we started our walk to the celebration. The pastor had said it was not far, to him it was close, to us, it was far. We were the first guests, Jeff and Blake came about 20 minutes later. They sat us under a shade arbor in the sets for the bridal party. But, that was okay because they didn’t arrive for about another hour. When they arrived in a caravan of cars, packed, the bride and groom were ushered into a small building where they stayed there for two hours. At one the mother of the groom took us into the house for rice and chicken. It was really good because we were hungry. By the time we finished lunch they had set up sets for us next to were the bridal party would sit.

The groomsmen and bridesmaids danced and the couple shuffled behind them. We stayed at the celebration until after we had given our gifts and gotten a piece of cake. Five hours later we started our walk back to our suburb of Petauke. It was definitely a cultural experience for us. The guys walked into town to buy us some water and then came to visit us for a while.


Blake watches the wedding party dance to their seats.


Family members of the wedding party get all dressed up for the big celebration--even using glitter!


Guests take turns giving wisdom and advice to the newly-married couple.


The bride and groom, not allowed to look at anyone, stand in front of the crowd as others talk about their future life together.

Jesse: Homestay, day 1

I’m sitting outside of Wallace Phiri’s tailor shop. I’m watching my “partner” for this weekend, Deb, sing with the neighborhood children. They sun is about to set and it has cooled down. Mr. Phiri is behind me making me an outfit to wear this weekend. The three of us walked about ten minutes into town to get a Fanta and buy material. I’m sure we met every relative Mr. Phiri has in Petauke. Five hours later he has finished my shirt. Now he is working on Deb’s skirt. I think she asked for one thing but I’m not sure of what she is going to get. Now Deb is telling stories to all the children.

Earlier Jeff and Blake came to visit. They are staying with a family just around the corner from us. They were headed to the market to buy a gift. We are all going to a wedding tomorrow and the gift is for the bride and groom. The sun should set soon and then it will be bedtime. I’m tired and am looking forward to sleep.

I almost forgot the most important thing that happened at the market today. Deb and I went to buy zippers for our outfits and the woman we bought them from gave us new names. Deb is now called Mwanida and I am called Mbonyiwa.

We’re to sleep in the pastor and his wife’s room. They gave us their nice double bed and we’ve hung a mosquito net that we’ll leave with the family as a gift. Kevin said we’re to call this our “happy place,” it is where no bugs can get to us.


We all packed up this morning and headed out to our homestays.


Wallace Phiri, a tailor by trade, is our African host for the weekend. He is what we call a "tentmaker," because being a tailor allows him to also be a pastor of a small church he started at the edge of town.


Deb helps the children pump water from the well.

Jesse: Last day at bush camp

All 33 of us 40/40 participants went to the immigration office to renew our Zambia visas today. This, of course, took three hours. But as people finished, they went into town. It was funny watching all of us ride in the back of a flat bed truck into the small immigration office in the town of Petauke.

The rest of the day was spent packing for the coming weekend. Everyone is staying with a national family. We’ll stay in teams of two or as a family. Some people are dreading it and some are looking forward to it. Some participants are staying in village huts and others in homes in town.

We have three days to learn everything we can about life for Africans. “This, more than anything, gives the participants a glimpse into African life and issues that are important to the people God has called them to reach,” said our program director Kevin.



There was standing room only on the flatbed truck, as we traveled into the town.


We each prepared a bag of gifts for our host families that included items like bread, sugar, butter and tiny dried fish that we hoped they wouldn't serve us.

Jesse: Life cycle

This morning it was my turn to teach the Bible story in our small group. I had the group act out the story of David and Goliath. The group did really well and got into it. They enjoyed being the different characters.

Later in the day, the group of women attending 40/40 walked 5 kilometers to my helper’s village. Daisy welcomed us to an initiation of a 16-year-old girl.

The girl was passing into womanhood.

Eight of us with four helpers crowded into a small hut and a group of women showed us what they’ve been doing to teach her about married life. Most of it was shocking, but also it was culturally informative.

We had more practical living teaching this afternoon. I learned how to tie knots to hold down luggage from Dan who has been a missionary in Sub-Saharan Africa for 32 years and then I went to soak my feet and scrub them.


The story of David and Goliath gets a new twist with Blake and a Zambian pastor acting out the major characters of the famous story. Africans love this story of the small winning over the large.


We're walking the 5 kilometers to the cultural ceremony of a young girl entering into womanhood.


The ladies of 40/40 experiencing a ceremony not seen by many outsiders. We all packed ourselves into a small hut to watch just a small part of the week-long ceremony.


Kristen's feet are dirty today. After walking a total of about 10 kilometers, on a dry dirt road, it's understandable.


After a couple of days walking around the bush my feet are pretty dirty. The orange, clay-like dirt turns our feet a pale orange and it can take a really hard scrubbing to get it off, after a soak in detergent filled water.


Dan helps Bert practice tying a knot, which will be useful to know to tie luggage to the roof of his 4x4.


Tessa practices driving a stick shift on the left side of the road on the right side of the car. Out in the bush there aren't many other cars, so we were safe.

Jesse: Church in Petauke

How confused is the spiritual landscape?

Sweating, cramped, sitting on the cement pews of the Reformed Church of Zambia, I wondered how the others were doing. The 40/40 group split up and attended 14 different types of churches in the town of Petauke.

I think the church Sarah and I attended was more toward the Presbyterian persuasion. Others went to Catholic, Pentecostal, Anglican, Church of Christ and others.

The reverend preached on 2 Corinthians 5:17-20. He informed his congregation to become ambassadors for Christ – to not just be a Christian but to speak for Christ, his nation. The church was happy to receive us and all the choirs sang beautifully in Chichewa. But, the point of today and all of us attending different kinds of churches was to see how polluted Africa is with "Christian" religion. The fact that we could go to 14 different types of churches in the small town of Petauke shows just how important religion is in Africa. We saw that this part of Africa is saturated with religion that is not necessarily biblically-based. It seems that everyone had an interesting time and it has definitely brought up questions about how to partner with other denominations.

This experience has left me with questions about church planting. When do you let go? When should we give up ownership, and let it be their church? The purpose of church is to worship God. As long as we have Africans who go to scripture for all the answers then maybe its time to leave one place, and go to another.