First Teaching Day and First Nshima Experience

Just returned from the teaching. I believe we had a very good day. The men were very responsive and attentive. The men very much were challenged and humbled by the teaching on being Christ-centered men. They confessed that the culture in Zambia is much too personality oriented and about building their own personal kingdoms that Christ's. One man, whom I ate lunch with, was very moved and determined to live all out for Christ. He said he felt alone but was so encouraged to hear of others who felt as he did and he was tired of the compromised pastors in this city. It really is a shame that the prosperity gospel is so popular here. From what I can gather, the only one's who are prospering are the preachers. These men felt emboldened when they heard someone articulate what they felt was biblical but were somewhat intimidated by the health and wealth guys. TBN and other American TV stations have done immeasurable damage to the cause of Christ worldwide. These men are good men who are sacrificing so much to serve Christ here. Their sincerity and gentleness endears them to you almost immediately. James was surprised how quickly they caught on to my sense of humor!! He said he has not seen anything like that... I don't know if that was a compliment or not!!!

Lunch was a cultural experience. Poor Randy found out the hard way. We lined up for the meal and it looked like we were having chicken, mashed potatoes, spinach, and a gravy. So when Randy was served the potatoes he took the gravy ladle from the lady and poured it on his potatoes. She gave me the oddest look like... "I have never seen that before". I realized something was up so I just did what the Zambians did. You can imagine Randy's dismay when he got to the end of the line and there was no silverware. The reason was that we were not having mashed potatoes; we were having Nshima. It is a corn meal (like grits) but boiled down to be like (although a little more stiffer) mashed potatoes. You roll some in your hand and then use that piece as a scoop to eat the rest of your meal. So Randy's Nshima was very wet to work with. Hence no silverware. Zambians say you have not really eaten until you have had Nshima...so now I have really eaten!!!