December 24, 2010

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas from Our Family to Yours,
While many are dreaming of a white Christmas we will be either having a wet or a warm one, hopefully the latter. As we begin Zambia’s rainy season, we have had another full month in the production of Grace. Hebrews 4:3 comes to mind when we think of the rest that remains for the people of God. The rest is an inward one that actually gives us strength to be productive (1Cor 15:10). We have had a few major events happen.
Arrivals. The first one being the welcoming of new team members: Jediah, Sarah, and their daughter Kezia Tanguay. It seems that Zambia is becoming the hub of missionaries with young families. Since we first came to Zambia the team here has doubled with young team members under the age of 5. Another exciting arrival is Julie’s Mother, Sylvie from Southern France. Sylvie will be with us for close to a month. So we have a full house for Christmas, its great.
University Outreach. Its been about two months now that we have been doing an outreach to the countries biggest University which is about 10 minutes from our house. Every Thursday a team of us go out to do evangelism with the hope that we can eventually get a room to have a service through the students. Although the past month has been a break month there are students that do intensified classes from all different parts of the country. It has been an ordained time from God to reach individuals who we would not normally have a chance to give the Gospel. We are praying also to have concerts and open air meetings to draw students to the Lord.
Grace Defense. Over the course of the past months we have seen a trend of petty theft against some of our church members and Bible college students on their way home. We decided to be proactive and offer self-defense training in the church. It hilarious to see church members faces when we first announced that we would teach Jui Jitsu after church for the two months that Bible college was on break. There was surprise but also gratitude and great interest as our first class had 8 students with more to come. We claimed Ps 18:34 as our capstone verse. We figured if David said that God teaches his hands to war than He can teach ours to defend ourselves.

Grace Defense Class


Malawi Trip
Malawi Christmas. Probably one of the most exciting events of the year was our recent missions trip to Malawi which happened a few days ago. Julie and I took a whirlwind 4 day trip to the nearby capital Lilongwe. Lilongwe is a 12 hour bus trip from Lusaka which makes it the closest Capital city to us here in Zambia. Only a few decades ago Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Malawi were all one country, so many Zambians have relatives in Malawi. There are many similarities. We were so encouraged as Julie got to see Malawi and we also were able to reconnect with some of our contacts that we made 8 months ago. One memorable meeting was with two men, Clifford and Teso, who came to our meeting on the last trip and met with us as we talked about future plans for a church in Malawi. The four of us sat in a small café drinking Cokes and talking about the Grace message and importance of Christ’s Finished Work on the cross. Please pray with us as we make plans to make another visit again in early April.


Lilongwe, Capital of malawi



Pr Chris and julie reconnecting with contacts we met about 8 months ago in Lilongwe, Malawi, Clifford and Teso. Great time of Fellowship.



This is not a Bible study, this is us cramped into a Mini-Bus on our way to the border!!




Fun time at the house with the little ones


Christmas Lights


Julie's mom with the girls.

Cute little Bumi Ntalalsha, born this past Tuesday the 21st of Dec! Congratulations Ntalasha Family!


We are so thankful for all the prayers and help that we receive as we walk in God’s calling. We see the hand of God provide as He motivates His family for every joint to supply. This Christmas we are continually motivated that our God came not to be ministered to but to minister (Matt 20:28, Mark 10:45); not to condemn or destroy but to save (Lu 9:56, John 3:17).

MERRY CHRISTMAS

December 07, 2010

WELCOME TANGUAY FAMILY TO ZAMBIA!



Poema, Regina, Callia and Kezia

What a great team we have! We had our Thanksgiving dinner without a Turkey-to expensive here, and a going away party for Pastor Brown's wife Charity who is going to the States for a few months for her green card. What a awesome time but we will miss you Charity and Linda!! Please pray for them and take care of them,ALL of you, Baltimore Friends!:)


Beautiful Linda


Charity, Linda and Julie


Each end of the month we have a marriage meeting and this past month we had it at our house and we had a record of people from the church! Great time of fellowship!


Fred and Evelyn visiting us. Friends from the Church:)

November 24, 2010

HaPpY tHaNkSgIvInG!

The Arman Kids Slide Show for Sue Veader and Greater Grace Learning Center and for everyone to enjoy.




Happy Thanksgiving!

Blessings,

The Arman Family

November 09, 2010

October-November News

Wow, it has been a whirlwind October. What a blessing it was to have Pr. Scibelli come and visit us for 2 weeks as he so faithfully does. To add to that we also had a team from our sister church in Uganda come by bus (which is a miracle in itself - 4 days of travel). We had our annual Kitwe Leadership Conference with Pr. Adam & Melinda Speedy on "God's Commitment to Us". Another highlight was a speacial dinner we had with the pastors in Lusaka and their wives with Pr. Scibelli. One message I particularly remember was to the leaders from Nehemiah 6. It was about the enemy's attack after every victory of God, that we should come to expect it rather than be suprised at it. God prepared our family for what we are going through now. Right after this great time, One after the other, each one of our family got sick. Now we are in Quarantine status: Julie with Typhoid and the rest of us with stomach viruses. We are meeting God in the situation. We value your prayers.
Pr Chris Arman & Family

Pastors and Wives Meeting with Pr.Scibelli:)

Pr.Bernard and Maggie

Pr.Tembo and Justina

Pr.Scibelli enjoying himself and the food!


Self-portrait

Pr.Adam and Melinda





In October, we had visitors from the Church in Uganda, from Pr sam's Church. After a 4 day bus drive they finally joinned us! What a great blessing!
Pr.Isaac and Ida from Uganda

Our sisters from Uganda

Pr.Brown and Charity and Pr.Sam and Mily from Uganda

Time of fellowship with Pr.Scibelli in Lusaka






September 14, 2010

Sept 2010 - News from a not so far country

Greetings family from sunny Zambia, we have arrived safely and have been set up for about 2 weeks now. We would like to thank God and everyone who made our summer back home such a special one. God used so many different people and families to minister to us during the time we were home. The church in Baltimore especially fed us spiritually and we were so encouraged by every body member. I am thankful to the company that I worked for this summer which gave me double the work I would have normally had making it possible for us to even be back. Also to churches and supporters who continue to pray and give sacrificially as a part of the great work going on here in Southern Africa, we are continually thankful. In Ephesians 4:16 it says that the whole family of God is fitly joined together …and every joint supplies… That was really the case this summer: friends came and helped fix our roof; others took care of expenses, another friend gave us a guitar. We are truly blessed.
We arrived back in Zambia to our same apartment, which was a first for us. We expected to have bugs crawling all over the place and pipes burst; but thank God it was only a little dust. Coming to our first church service was the greatest blessing. To see all our brothers and sisters walking with God and growing is what any missionary desires and it is echoed in 3 John 1:4. We stepped back into our schedule as if we hadn’t even left.
Through all the smiles and joy of our return, we had a bittersweet experience. The caretaker of the church grounds, who lives on the property, lost his son to an unexpected illness. Although the family is new to the church, they asked us to perform the funeral. It was an amazing opportunity to bring in God’s thinking about death and eternity; and to allow God to lift up their heads (Psalm 3:3) with His loving hands. It was the first funeral I have ever done and it was an interesting experience here in Zambia. The whole ceremony was done at the burial ground, which is not a large green lawn with orderly gravestones; but, rather, it was a vast open plain with mounds of dirt occasionally bearing a small plaque with the date a person died. There was one road going through The cemetery (that services almost the whole capital), and it was filled with traffic of multiple funerals going on. I estimated about 1500 – 2000 people at the funeral grounds at various funerals. Unfortunately, funerals here are also a hotbed for alcoholism; so much so, that there are people selling beer right next to those selling flowers and wreaths. Ultimately the family's plot was far from any comotion so it was a beautiful service.
Julie and the girls are doing great. We had Poema's 2nd birthday last week. Pr Renaldo's family came over and the girls had a water balloon battle. Callia is continuing her school year with Julie.
Please pray with us as we continue to have a vision for the surrounding cities and countries. Pr Adam and Melinda are in Nothern Zambia, Pr Victor and Pr Albert are in Congo, Pr Bernard and Maggie are planning to move to Botswana this summer, and for teams for Malawi or Tanzania.

August 05, 2010

Summer Reflections '10

As the summer winds down and we prepare to go back to Zambia (which is a miracle in itself, that we are able to go back), we are reflecting on the time we had here in the States. The Convention in Baltimore was the greatest ever. We were encouraged about redeeming the time in every facet of life. We also had great opportunities of visiting branch churches and talking about Southern Africa. What I could say about our whole summer experience is that we really saw the value of our family in the Body of Christ (the Church). God used all different people in different locations to encourage us and support us, even brothers and sisters who had just met us. God added a fresh new perspective on the value of His family. I could just imagine a missionary family that would come back from the missionfield and not have a church to come back to. They could feel isolated and alone. Thank God that He has called us to a family Psalm 68:6, a church family. That was really evident this summer and it is something we will bring back to our brothers and sisters in Zambia, Tanzania, and Malawi this coming year.

The Armans in Zambia 2009-2010

April 16, 2010

Zamcom 2010



News

COPPERBELT. Our month came out of the box being busy; our whole family jumped on a bus on the first day of March to visit the Speedy’s in Greater Grace Church of the Copperbelt. That in itself was quite an endeavor. Picture the four of us loading up into a taxi at 5:30 am; heading to the bus station where it seems to be full at all hours of the day; and then the four of us making our way through the crowds to our bus. At any moment we could have been going in one of 8 different directions (that is how many countries that Zambia borders); every one trying equally hard to earn our travel expense money. Eventually we made it to our bus and sat down with the girls in tow and seated on our laps. There are two choices of seats: on one side of the bus there is the row of two seats and the other side has the row of three seats. We thought we would give mercy to any single traveler so we chose the row of two seats. After a precious five-hour trip north, we were in the Copperbelt region of Zambia. Our light affliction was just for a moment because we saw our eternal weight of glory. It was the precious people in the 3 works that are happening in the Copperbelt. First there was Chingola (an hour north of Pr. Adam’s home), we met a group of about 20 people gathered in a school classroom waiting to watch Intro to Missions class on video. As we did the review after the class, we could sense each student’s hunger to receive the Word of God. The next two days were spent in Kitwe (where Pr. Adam’s main church is); we also did Bible school and a church service there. We rapped it up on the last day with a trip to Ndola (a city 40 minutes south of Kitwe where there is the 2nd church of the Copperbelt). We spent the whole day evangelizing then gathered for midweek church service and then Bible school. All was so amazing you would think that we were with an army of people; but God is using one family: Pr. Adam, Mindy (who does all this being pregnant), Baby Micah, and Emil Nkulu (a graduate from our Bible College in Lusaka). Pray to the Lord of the Harvest that He may send forth laborers into HIS harvest. This is truly HIS harvest; none of what we do is through our own power or merit.

MALAWEEE. After our return home, and recuperating from the long journey; a week passed and we were at it again. I and two of our local pastors here, Pr. Enoch (the head of Church Operations in our Emmansdale Lusaka Church) and Pr. Nelson Nkoma (the pastor of the Greater Grace Church of Chawama Lusaka), boarded a bus and went on a faith missions trip to Lilongwe, Malawi. The verse God gave us was Joshua 18:4 which says to take 3 men and send them to describe the land according to their inheritance. We felt the Holy Spirit’s assurance that He was leading us (it was also pretty cool that there were 3 of us too). Upon arrival in Malawi, we felt that God really given us a great open door (1Cor 16:9). The people in Lilongwe were open and hungry to hear and be taught the Bible. One man, Owen, stayed with us the whole day and helped us rent a room where we would have the first service of Greater Grace of Malawi. God gave us favor and we felt His good hand upon us (Ezra 7:9) and all this happened on the first day. Day two of our 5 day journey we traveled 3 hours south to the administrative capital of Malawi called Blantyre to enquire about church registration. It was amazing; God even gave us favor with the officers in the Register General’s Office. They took the time to explain to us how we should register the church and what steps we should take. The next two days were remarkable. We had salvations and made many contacts. One of which was a pastor who had seen the Greater Grace Website in Baltimore (www.ggwo.org) and requested a visit to his church 3 years ago. Baltimore had given him Pr. Renaldo’s telephone number and he called it. At the time it was not possible for us to visit him, but when we called him telling him we were in his city he came straightaway to meet us. We invited him to our conference in Zambia next month and he and his assistant said they’d be coming. The whole trip culminated with our first meeting, which was held in a community hall. Twelve people came!!! It was amazing! We spoke about what Grace is – Grace is Jesus Christ, All of God given to All of us. As we were leaving we exchanged information and felt the bond of Spiritual fellowship formed. We left the next day feeling like we were in the first century church praising God for all He had done. Wow! We’ve got some big decisions to make.

Lusaka Explosion. We were not the only missions team to go out that week. In fact, Greater Grace of Zambia sent three teams in three different countries: Congo, Botswana, and Malawi. Pr. Victor Ndwayo and Albert Ntalasha registered the Greater Grace Church of Congo in Lumbumbashi (a city of 10 million people); and Bernard, Maggie, and Lumba (their son) Ntalasha visited Botswana and also enquired on church registration. It was quite a fruitful week. We covet your prayers as we really see the Lord’s leading as we branch out. Please also pray for our annual conference called ZAMCOM; that it would be a great blessing and that God would impart His vision and eternal purpose for this part of the world in each individual’s heart. The title of the conference is “Grace without Boundaries, Love without Borders” (or something like that, I may have mixed it up).

God Bless You,

Pr. Chris, Julie, Callia Chanda, and Poema Chisomo Arman

March 28, 2010

Chris' Trip to Malawi-March 10

One night Bible Study before they went back to Zambia. 12 people came as a result after soulwinning!

Pastor Nelson and Pastor Enock apart of this faith adventure!


A new Vision: MALAWIIIIII! more in the newsletter to come:)

Our trip to Kitwe, with the Speedys

Micah and Mindy

Wed night Bible study

Doorknocking in the surrounding compounds.

Emile, our first missionary sent from the Church in Lusaka

Some Bible College students


Long, long time...
I am greeting you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen:)
I will be uploading our newsletter very soon but for now some pictures of our time in the Copperbelt (northern Zambia)
God Bless. The Armans

A few pictures of the last few months











Door knocking in Emmasdale, around the church area.