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.