December 30, 2009

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year 2010






Thank you for all your prayers and support for our family these past few months and the New Year to come. We are so thankful for God’s faithfulness. God is moving greatly in the church here. We had a beautiful Christmas service with over 170 people in attendance including all four churches. Julie and the girls are doing very well. All of us are healthy for the most part, thanks be to God.

Callia (3 ½ years old going on 18) is continually excited about every church event. She began practicing with the worship team and sings with them at the end of service as people are leaving.

Poema (1 1/2 years old) is running all over the house and church following her sister saying a handful of words. She just began to comprehend Christmas as she opened her presents.

Julie and I are finding our place in things. One area that has been fun and rewarding is with the couple’s ministry. We are trying to think of creative ways to minister to the church couples. The day after Christmas we showed the popular movie, “Fireproof”, and had a discussion about growing in our marriages. We had over 30 people attend and had a great time of questions and answers. We made popcorn for all the couples and called it “Couples Movie Night”. It was a welcome treat for the church as many church members have never been to a movie, not to mention a Christian movie with redemptive values.

Please pray for us as we are still looking for housing for our family. We really believe God has the perfect place for us. Our deadline to move is January 15th. We are sure God will help us find that place before then.

Pray also for the coming missions trip to Malawi in February, which will answer many questions about the future vision of our family. Pray that God’s voice would be clear.

Prayer answered: we finally found wheels so we are now mobile. We now save a bundle of money from taking local mini buses and taxis. Thank God

God Bless You,



Our Car!!!


Poema


Sophie, Barb and Carol


Callia and her forced smile:)

December 06, 2009

Missions: The Health of A Family

Hello All. Thanks for your prayers. Here is an update on our family. Chris. Is concluding his Bible College class “Great Men of the Bible” which was very encouraging. That particular class is always fun to teach because you can get very personal with each one you teach on. He also is excited about helping with the new “inreach” program in the main church which consists of coordinating visitation for new visitors and church members. Julie. Is amazing. There is no other way to put it. She parents 2 children, is part of the music ministry, evangelizes with the kids, and keeps her home. She was very happy to see one of her close friends and disciples at the church last week after not seeing her for 4 years. Callia. Is having a ball. She runs around the church, sings up on the stage occasionally with the worship team or Mom . Today she was “playing church”. She pretended to sing a solo and then asked her Dad to preach. She has really been growing in evangelism. She calls tracts “God Loves You’s” and then hands them to people. Our church is in a area with a lot of Somalian immigrants. So we see a lot of Muslim women walk by with full burkas covering everything but their eyes . We told her that they were princesses that didn’t know that Jesus loved them. So Callia has a ministry to them. Poema. Is really growing quickly. When we first arrived she was barely walking now she is running around the house. She loves opening cabinets. She fearlessly climbs things: shelves, coffee tables, etc. She says her first words: Da, Ma, boir(drink in French), and her first word was gatay (hug in French). That one is so cute because she says it while hugging her baby doll.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We are very thankful for what God is doing in all of our lives. We were especially thankful after this past Thanksgiving with five allstars of the kitchen: Julie, Carol, Sophie, Barbara, and Pr. Brown, teaming up to prepare an incredible feast. One thing that we often take for granted is our spiritual nourishment. As team here was listening to a church service from our home church in Baltimore, I realized that I had heard it before. In fact, before we left to come to Zambia I had heard it and even taken notes. What I noticed that there was so much that I missed when I heard it the first time. It is no wonder that Christ put an such a great emphasis on hearing in Matt 13. I was really encouraged to value every opportunity to hear God’s word as a true heavenly feast. The Investment of Visitation One staple that we always have had in the church here has been visitation. It is an area that is really lacking in many Zambian churches. Usually we try to visit all our first time visitor’s homes within a week of their visit to us. We are greeted at their homes with amazement and statements like: “We have never had a pastor or church leader ever visit our home in any of the churches we’ve gone too.” This reminded us of the verse in Jeremiah 23:2 which talks about the false pastors in Israel who “scattered the flock, drove them away, and did not visit them.” Recently we began increasing our efforts to continue visiting new people and visit all the church members. The initial results have been amazing. Just the excitement of the visitation teams has been worth it. It is like the Holy Spirit gave us a child-like anticipation of what He would do. All the visits have been memorable, even with exciting twists; such as, rodent encounters resulting in the screaming of certain lady team members in public restaurants. The response from the local waitress was, “Relax, they don’t bite.” Never a dull moment. We found that if you really want to be encouraged visit someone at their home or workplace. God will encourage the person you visit while edifying you at the same time. Thanks for all your prayers and support. You are part of everything we say and do here. If God leads you to partner with us in prayer or financially we greatly value all you are led to do.
God Bless and Keep You,
Pr. Chris, Julie, Callia,& Poema Arman.

November 13, 2009

Team Zambia Pictures

Charity Brown


Food Fellowship - Grace Bwalya in the front
Dave and Jami Lyn visiting

Team Speedy and The Brown Family

Team Zambia - November 09

Icecream cage match -missions goes ugly- sponsored by Pr Scibelli


Poema, Micah Speedy and Linda Brown




Pr. Scibelli and the little ones

October 16, 2009

The 5th baptism of GG church of Zambia




 about 15 people got baptized.


Carol and Barbara

Lorraine, Julie and Poema

October Newsletter

Baptism Picture

Sunday Morning Service

Poema enjoying zambian music

Trying to occupying the girls during the message:)

Team Dinner


Muli Bwanji (“Hello” in Zambian Local Language). It is so great to be writing you from Lusaka. It seems like it was only 2 weeks ago that we were in Baltimore. Oh wait, it was only 2 weeks ago. God has really done wonderful things for our family in order for us to be here. Currently we are staying with Pr. Renaldo & Family until we find a place of our own. We jumped right back into the missions schedule of “full time” ministry with the bonus of our 2 daughters in the mix now. They are adjusting well and feeling at home at the church here. They are very free with everyone. Callia is quick to make friends; in fact, anyone she meets she says they are her “best friend”. We just had our 5th baptism which always stirs us up as we see church members declaring to everyone their faith in Christ. We are preparing to welcome a group of guests coming for Pr Scibelli’s semi-annual visit. We also plan to visit the two new churches Pr. Adam Speedy and his team are pioneering and take a missions trip to Malawi (one of our next targeted countries). We are very excited about the trip to Malawi because it may give us a vision for a new country in the future.

Pray for us in the overall adjustment process. Things have to be done in stages here and many things that we take for granted in the west have to be done very thoughtfully and prayerfully over here. For instance, we began looking for a car; and, believe me, it is quite an endeavor over here. In Zambia, durable goods are hard to come by, so they tend to be very expensive. The plus side is that they hold their value a lot longer. A car here is like a house in the west; so even used cars are 2 to 3 times more in price. Thankfully two of the church members are mechanics and truly have a ministry to us in helping us make the right choice.

After we find a car we will tackle the housing issue. Again, thankfully Pr. Renaldo, Charity, Baby Linda, and Pr. Joe Roche have opened their home and laid down their lives to allow us to stay with them. It has become one big team house again with 8 people living under one roof (wow! – try that in Africa Jon & Kate). Julie is truly a champion. She has organized our whole family and our stuff all in one room and also manages to keep it clean. She cooks and takes care of the children and even finds time to give pre-school lessons to Callia. I think the most blessed part is when we bring the whole family to evangelism. Who can say no to Callia and Poema both handing you a tract. People ask me if it is a risk to take our family on the mission field. I see it as an investment in our family. Already I see us getting closer to each other as we draw near to God in His work.

The church has now multiplied from one church into 6 (4 churches in Lusaka and 2 that are 5 hours north). I am teaching in the Bible College again – Great Men of the Bible Class. Many of the graduates are now also teaching the classes and/or going on the new missions teams. By God’s grace we will send a team to Congo in April and another to Botswana 6 months after that. In Exodus 25:9, God told Moses to make the tabernacle and the utensils after a pattern. We don’t have to reinvent the wheel; we just do what we’ve seen other great men of God do. We simply follow the same pattern that we see in the book of Acts: Love God, Love the Word, and Love Lost Souls. Pr. Renaldo and the church here have done an awesome job following God’s pattern for touching people’s lives. God bless you and thank you for your prayers and support.

In Him,

The Arman Squad

September 13, 2009

Trip to Tanzania - April 2009


After being in Lusaka, Zambia, Chris and Jediah took a trip to Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania and to Zanzibar.



Sketchboard in Zanzibar

Pictures of Team members and members of Greater Grace Church of Zambia


Pr Renaldo and Charity


Ntalasha and Maguy


Sophie and Rachel


Pastor Joe and his Dad

Two new Team members: Micah and Linda:)

Pastor Adam and Melinda, missionaries in the Northern part of Zambia in Kitwe

Recent trip to Zambia - April 2009


Pastor Renaldo, Charity Brown and their daughter Linda



Enock, Pr. Ashumba (from SA), Chris, Pr. Belias and Jediah


Wesley and Evelyn


4 year Bible College graduation

Why sit we here until we die?

In 2 Kings 7 God gives an incredible story of 4 lepers who are in the impossible situation of being surrounded by the enemy without food on the verge of death. They asked themselves the question, “Why sit we here until we die,” and then they walked into enemy territory either to their death or any good graces of their enemies. What they found was far greater; God had driven their enemies away for them to take the spoil. This is a lot like our lives. Everyday we venture into enemy territory with precious seed, but we find that the battle is already won and we just walk in a path prepared before us by God.

We feel that God has spoken to us to go back on the mission field after three years of being back in Baltimore. With two new team members, our two daughters, we are planning to return to Zambia with a goal to encourage the body there and visit surrounding countries for possible sites for future churches.

This past April I had the privilege of attending the first four-year graduation of Greater Grace Bible College of Zambia. My heart was stirred with seeing how God has motivated the Zambian believers; seven of them were ordained and two were sent out on the mission field. One church in Lusaka has become six. God has truly watered thirsty souls.

I also saw the great need and openness of the entire Southern central Region of Africa. Jediah Tanguay and I (on the same trip) visited Dar-es-Salam in Tanzania and for five days found a multitude of open hearts. Seeing this, my heart yearns to see the countries of Malawi and Botswana, to see what God will do when we arrive. Zambia is a Key Starting point because it borders all of these countries; we see that it can be a training center for the Whole Region.

This is the vision: establish Churches, start Bible Schools, open Christian Schools, and make Disciples. It seems too great for us, but look at what God has done already. We look at our own situation and say, “How is this possible with two children and a house?” But then we open our eyes in faith and ask different questions like “Is anything too hard for God?” and “Hasn’t God said it, will He not do it?” We believe God that He will provide the means for us to move back to Zambia this fall.

Please pray for God’s leading, open hearts, hungry disciples, traveling safety, health of the children, and proper housing.


God Bless You, Pr Chris