MY TRIP TO ZAMBIA

Hello ladies and gentlemen, I hope that this finds you and yours doing well, and I want to thank you for joining me.

This video is just an overview of my recent trip to Zambia. I had a wonderful trip there and so I wanted to share with you just a few of the highlights, some of the things that I experienced, some of the people that I met.

I hope that this video will be an encouragement to you. The trip truly was to me, so please do watch this video all the way through because I'll have a couple of videos of some brothers that I met while I was there and they were a tremendous encouragement to me and I trust that they will be to you as well.

So I just wanted to share with you a little bit about my trip. I left here in Montana, I left the day before Thanksgiving and after about two days of travel,

I arrived in Zambia and a little tired, but other than that, no worse for the wear.

After one night's good sleep, I'm pretty well calibrated. I get my bearings again and good to go.

So I landed and slept pretty hard that night and got up.

My first engagement was a meeting of some of the graduates of the

Central Africa Baptist College and Seminary in Kitwe, Zambia.

There was not a big group there, maybe, I don't know, 30 or so, mainly men.

I think there were two sisters who were there, but had a really good, just kind of an informal

Q &A with them. Surprisingly, the first two questions

I was asked at this Q &A, the first one was about Benny Hinn and whether or not he has repented.

They had heard about that, so I walked them through that and explained to them that Benny Hinn has not repented.

And then, believe it or not, the second question I received was about Kanye West. Some of you may know that I did two videos, actually three videos on some of my concerns.

Well, really two, technically three, because Lakewood Church filed a copyright claim, but I got that taken away.

So anyway, go back to my YouTube channel, you can see those. But at any rate, I was asked about Kanye West, and I was not expecting that.

I was not expecting to arrive in Zambia, Africa, and be asked about Kanye West.

But I was. In fact, through the whole time I was there in Zambia, I was asked about him fairly regularly.

And people in Zambia had actually watched the videos that I did on Kanye West.

So we talked about that, and yeah, a surprise, but nonetheless there was quite a bit of interest.

And happily, I suppose, everyone that asked me about it actually agreed with me.

They saw my videos, or at least heard about my videos, some saw, but they all agreed with me.

And once we kind of walked through the issues there, they didn't have any problem with it whatsoever and thanked me for the videos.

So that was kind of a pleasant surprise, I suppose. You may have heard, as a little tag along with that, that Kanye West has now scheduled more events with Joel Osteen.

That's a development since my last video, but at any rate, this video is not about Kanye West.

So that was on a Saturday, and then the next day, Sunday, I preached at a

Baptist church there. Now when I say Baptist, I was at several Baptist churches, and I was at a

Baptist conference, but these are not Southern Baptists, these are just kind of independent,

I suppose, Baptist churches. But even when I say that, don't think IFB, don't think American Independent Fundamentalist Baptist.

Not the King James only kind of stuff that we have here. They're just Baptist churches in Africa.

So anyway, that next Sunday I preached at a little Baptist church there in Kituwe, and had a wonderful time there, just did exposition.

But the following Monday, that was the main conference. This was the conference at the

Central Africa Baptist College and Seminary. And I taught at that conference the entire week.

I was not the only speaker, there were a number of other speakers as well. Tim Chalice was there,

Conrad Mbewe was there, a gentleman named Sam Horn was there, and who else?

There was a number of local African pastors, Zambian pastors who were there.

I've got their names here, Henry Mukunda, Pastor Chue Mwitwa, not sure if I'm saying that right, and then

Pastor Chopo Mwana. And don't hold me to those pronunciations 100%,

I'm pretty sure I got the first names right, but the last name's not 100 % sure about. But just dear, dear brothers, really, really enjoyed my time with them.

Also, Phil Hunt, he is on staff there, kind of the head of the

Central African Baptist College and Seminary. And just wonderful, wonderful brothers.

I cannot tell you how much I enjoyed my time there. It was just wonderful.

There was about 500 in attendance, I think, give or take, and most of them were

Zambians, of course, but there were a number of attendees who had come from some surrounding countries like Mozambique, Uganda, Tanzania.

So there were a number of attendees from surrounding countries, and that was really good to see as well.

Now, from what I was told, over half of these attendees were charismatic.

A number of them were pastors, I don't know the exact percentage, a lot of them were pastors. Not all of them, but probably more than half of the attendees at this conference were indeed charismatics to varying degrees.

And the whole thrust of the conference was Search the Scriptures, and I dealt with the

Word of Faith movement, New Apostolic Reformation, the Prosperity Gospel. I kind of did my seminar,

Clouds Without Water. And as you might expect, with being over half of the attendees were charismatic, me teaching that, of course, went against the grain of the beliefs of more than half of the people who were there.

But nobody, at least to my knowledge, got mad. Now, a lot of people were challenged, to be sure.

I gave them a lot to think about and chew on, but you know what? They stayed for the whole conference, and we had some wonderful Q &A sessions throughout the week, some really good questions, and people received it.

I don't know that 100 % of the people were convinced by what I taught, or Conrad and Bewe taught, or Phil Hunt, or Tim, or Pastor Chopo, or any of these others.

But nonetheless, they stayed for the whole conference, and they seemed very appreciative of it, and so I was very, very encouraged by that.

Just met a lot of wonderful, dear people. The Word of Faith movement and the Prosperity Gospel is absolutely massive in Africa.

As bad as it is here, it is exponentially worse in Africa. Undoubtedly, the

Word of Faith movement, Prosperity Gospel, is America's worst export. It is undoubtedly the worst thing that we have ever exported.

We created that theology here in the United States of America, and we have exported it to the rest of the world.

And so now, wherever you go in the world, unfortunately, the face of Christianity today is either

Roman Catholicism or Word of Faith, Prosperity Gospel, or a blending of those two.

It is rampant in Central and South America, all throughout Africa, India.

I mean, it truly is a cancer. It's our worst export. So there's a tremendous, tremendous need there.

But you know, I was glad to have that opportunity. It's nice to kind of not always be preaching to the choir, so to speak.

I kind of like to go into venues where I know that not everybody is going to agree with me.

So anyway, very, very grateful for that. I want to introduce you briefly to a couple of brothers that I met.

The first one is named Muhammad. Now, you might be able to tell by his name that Muhammad was not born into a

Christian family. He was born into an Islamic family in Sudan. And at some point in his early adult life,

Muhammad came across or was given a New Testament, and he began to read it, and he was saved.

God saved him simply by reading the scriptures. And as you might imagine, it cost him dearly.

His family has all but disowned him. There's no relationship there between he and his family members who are, as of right now, still

Muslim. I think there's a little bit of communication, but not a lot. They basically disowned him.

But what a dear, dear brother. He helped me all the time. He was always helping me with my scooter, getting my little electric three -wheel scooter out of the truck every morning and helping me get that set up, and just a great, great guy.

And then I also met this young man. His name is Sayaka.

I'm not 100 % sure I'm pronouncing that right, but I met him, had a couple of opportunities to talk to him.

He, too, was saved out of Islam, in fact, recently, just within the last year or so,

I believe. And he is now attending a good, doctrinally sound church. In fact, the church that I preached at that first Sunday that I was there in Zambia.

So just very, very encouraging. You know what? This is the real power of the Holy Spirit of God, not angel feathers and gold dust and all this kind of stuff.

It's when God saves someone, when he saves someone out of deception and transforms their lives and begins that progressive work of sanctification, that is the true power of the

Holy Spirit of God. And I don't know. I just rejoice to meet these brothers and hear their stories and praise

God for them and pray for them. I am praying for them, so pray for Muhammad and pray for Sayaka, and that God will continue to bless them, and pray for their family members, that God will use their witness to soften their hard hearts to the gospel.

Pray for that. A couple other highlights. One of the things that put a smile on my face every day is kind of down in the front, over to the left side of the audience there, was a section that they had dedicated for their deaf attendees.

There was a number of deaf people who attended the conference, and I presume they do every year, and they had a number of different interpreters, signers who would interpret everything that was going on for them.

And I just love to watch these interpreters, and I met a couple of them, just very sweet people.

And one of the men there, a deaf man who was there, I met and I heard just a little bit of his story.

And I asked him if he would tell his story through sign language, and I recorded it on video.

So watch this. Okay, so I'm in Zambia, and I just met this dear brother,

Matunda, who is deaf, and this is Cherith, who has been signing for him.

So one day, I was playing,

I was walking with my friends, and a false prophet came up to me, and he met with me, and he began to talk to me about my body, he saw that I was good, and all of that.

And the false prophet asked me, can you hear? And I said, no,

I can't hear anything. And he said, oh, you can't hear anything? He said, can I pray for you? And I said, yes, fine, no problem.

So he started to pray for me, and he put his hand on my head, and he prayed, and he prayed for a really long time.

And after he finished praying, he stood behind me, and he began clapping, and I still couldn't hear anything.

And again, he clapped, I still couldn't hear anything. And finally, he told me, he said, no, you are from the devil.

And so I was very upset, and said, how is it that I'm from the devil, how? That's all.

The false prophet is not true. What he said is not true. Jesus' Bible is what's true.

So thank you. So you see one of the reasons why

I say that the prosperity gospel is indeed America's worst export. This is rampant in Africa.

African preachers have learned the tricks of the trade by watching American television.

And so now you've got indigenous false teachers, you know, word of faith false teachers in Africa exploiting their own people.

And these churches are massive. Guys like Pastor Chris and David Oyedepo, I believe

David Oyedepo has the largest church in Africa. It's absolutely massive.

He's good friends with Kenneth Copeland, so that tells you a lot. But anyway, this is what you just saw.

It's just some of the bad fruit that is born from this false gospel. But praise the

Lord that God delivered that man. Apparently that happened to him when he was much younger, when he was a boy,

I guess. But praise the Lord that God delivered him out of that deception. And now he is attending good, doctrinally sound conferences and getting taught and fed truth.

So praise the Lord for that. But just a great time, dear friends, just a great, great time at the conference.

Timothy Murdock is a Native American, not a

Native American. I mean, he was born in America, but now he's living in Zambia. And I don't have a picture of Timothy, unfortunately, but he helped me every morning.

He came to pick me up at the hotel and helped me get my socks and shoes on and things like that.

And shuttled me back and forth every day. Just a wonderful, wonderful guy, he and his wife,

Lisa. But anyway, I met so many people. And that's one of the joys that is mine in traveling around the world is

I get to have fellowship with like -minded brothers and sisters in Christ all over the world.

And it does not matter where I am. It doesn't matter what culture I'm in, what country I'm in.

It doesn't matter what language is spoken. And it certainly does not matter what color our skin is.

When I am with like -minded believers in Christ, there is an instant bond, an instant fellowship, an instant love that I have for these folks and that they have for me.

We don't care what color our skin is. None of these things matter because we're family. We are family.

We are brothers and sisters in Christ. We have been adopted into the family of God. And there's that bond there that transcends all of these superficial differences.

And anyway, it truly is a joy. One of the great blessings that is mine in doing what

I do in evangelism. So the conference wrapped up on Friday. And Conrad Mbewe was there.

And Conrad lives in Lusaka, which is about a six -hour drive from Kitwe, where we were at Central Africa Baptist College and Seminary.

So I had the privilege of riding with Conrad Mbewe. He was driving, of course.

And there were a few other young men in the backseat that traveled along with us. But I had an opportunity to drive with Conrad all the way from Kitwe down to Lusaka.

So we had about six hours together. And just a really neat opportunity to get to know

Conrad Mbewe a little bit better. We've been together in a couple of conferences, but we've never had any real extended time to fellowship with one another.

But we did. And when we finally got to Lusaka, we went to his home. And his wife,

Felistas, had cooked us a wonderful meal. And so we ate dinner there at Conrad's house.

And wife, Felistas, was so very sweet. I really enjoyed getting to meet her as well.

And so Conrad took me to the hotel there in Lusaka.

The next day I went to another Baptist church, a small Baptist church.

And this was my smallest venue. There was just kind of a youth meeting at this church.

And there was only about eight or ten young people, teenagers, kind of older teenagers that were there.

But I was grateful to have the opportunity. And I preached. And we had a really good

Q &A session. They asked some really good questions. And I did my best to answer those. So even though it was just a handful of young people there, hey,

I loved it. And they seemed to enjoy it. I'll show you a picture of this young man. There were steps going.

Of course, in Zambia, pretty much every building has steps. And that presents a challenge, of course.

But he made a makeshift ramp for me to get my little electric three -wheel scooter up and into the church.

Just a fantastic young guy. And I had a great time.

And then the next day was Sunday. And I preached at two more churches, a different one for morning and evening.

Sunday morning, I was at Conrad's church. It was at Caboada Baptist Church, pastored by Conrad M.

Bayway. And I had a really good time with him as well. I met with him and the other elders before the service and had a good time of prayer.

They prayed for me. I went into the service. And something kind of neat that I noticed that these churches in Zambia do, if they have a guest speaker, they will ask the guest speaker to come up before the sermon.

And they will just do a brief interview. And they did this with me at Caboada Baptist Church. And then the church that I was at that evening, a different Baptist church, they just had me come up and ask me a few questions about me, where I live, my family, things like that.

Prayer requests. Both of the churches asked me how they could pray for me. And they do this just to introduce the congregation to the speaker.

And Conrad said also to let people hear your accent, at least get them kind of exposed a little bit to your accent before you actually begin to preach.

And I do my best to mitigate my southern accent when I'm preaching, but it still comes across.

But anyway, just a really neat time. And then I did exposition Sunday morning, both churches,

Sunday morning, Sunday night, and had a really good time. I want to say something else. I want to show you a picture here.

You can't tell because all you can see right now is his head, but that is Conrad. That is

Conrad in Bayway helping me with my socks and shoes. I have swelling, edema or whatever you want to call it, in my feet and lower legs, significant swelling.

So I wear compression socks to try to keep that swelling at bay at least somewhat. Normal socks

I can get on, compression socks I couldn't get on if my life depended on it.

I just can't do it. And Conrad helped me every morning while I was with him to get my compression socks and my shoes on.

You know, I've heard a lot of people, I've seen a lot of people disparaging the evangelical elite.

And I know there are some well -known evangelicals out there that have issues with pride and other things.

Not that any of us is without pride, I didn't mean that. But anyway,

I've heard a lot of people disparage some of the big -name preachers. And Conrad in Bayway would fit into that category, the evangelical elite,

I suppose, by these folks' definition, these critics' definition anyway. Here he is helping me get my compression socks and shoes on.

And he did it every morning, and he did it with joy. In fact, he would text me.

We would text each other on the WhatsApp app. And that's really popular overseas.

But he would text me and he would say, coming over for our little morning ritual, you know, and that's kind of what he called it.

And he did it with joy. Honestly, I have to ask people to do this one because I just can't.

It's a bit embarrassing, but I have to get over that. I guess even that's some pride. But I share this with you just to, you know, there's a lot of good guys out there.

And a lot of them. And some of the big names are, you know what, they're really good guys.

They are. And so every time when Conrad would come over and help me with my socks and shoes,

I'm thinking, yeah, here's your evangelical elite for you. So anyway,

I digress. But yeah, there's some out there that I would have issues with too, but not all of them.

Just because someone has a big platform does not always mean that that person is full of pride and not the real deal.

There are a number of them, and I know them, that are absolutely the real deal.

And Conrad is. I'd like to play this video for you. When I was in Zambia, I learned that there are 73 different languages spoken in one country.

English is the official language, but apparently there are 72 other languages that are also spoken in Zambia.

Bimba is one of the next to English, I believe, probably the most widely spoken. But Thursday night at the conference, they had a group of the attendees, some of the leaders there at CABCS.

And they sang How Great Thou Art in English and in six or seven other languages.

And I'd like you to just watch this, and I know it'll bless you.

How Great Thou Art in English and in six or seven other languages.

And I'd like you to just watch this, and I know it'll bless you. How Great Thou Art in English and in six or seven other languages.

And I'd like you to just watch this, and I know it'll bless you. And I met at Conrad's church.

Now, he doesn't attend Conrad's church. He attends a different one. But anyway, long story short, he heard that I was going to be at Caboada Baptist Church.

And so he came, and I got to meet him. And his name is Cayumba. And Cayumba was born blind.

I took a video of him sharing his testimony. It's a bit long, so I'm not going to show you the whole thing.

But he was converted as a young man. And now, well, just see for yourself.

Being a visually impaired person in Africa, and in Zambia specifically, has its own challenges and nuances to it.

First of all, traditionally, in the African context, we tend to think of disability as something of a curse from the supernatural.

And so, sometimes attitudes that are reflected, especially in places where people are not very well educated, tend to be reflective of the fact that this person might be a result of a curse or things like that.

It's similar to what you read in the Bible concerning the

Jews and some of their attitudes to persons with disabilities. Ruling out, of course, the providence of God and how

God can work sovereignly even in disability. So, Mr.

Peter's here because he's using a wheelchair or he's using crutches.

The thought would generally be, well, he's disabled because of something that happened in the family.

That's the African traditionalist perspective.

But, of course, as more and more people have become educated, some of these attitudes have begun to change.

Except that what has brought problems is the neo -Pentecostalism that has come and it is creating a lot of problems, especially in Africa and in Zambia here where we are.

Because then when people see a person living with a disability, they want to take them to these, in quotation marks, men of God.

And these men of God should pray over them and they should get well. I have had such encounters myself, many of them.

One of them was when I lived with my older brother in South Africa and someone came visiting.

And they said to my older brother, look, your younger brother can be taken to this man of God.

Apparently, that man of God was in Johannesburg. He had a church there and again in quotation marks and where people would be taken to be prayed for and they would get well.

So, I had made my position very clear to everybody else around me that I believed that the

Lord wanted to use the fact that I was blind for his own glory.

And my older brother gave that response to this visitor who had come. And she was surprised that a person who was visually impaired would actually refuse, in her view, an opportunity to regain his sight.

In actual fact, what I did was just to say that, you see, the

Lord had purposed that I should be visually impaired. And that he would use this disability for his own glory.

I had come to that realization when I was in high school. I was in 10th grade and I was reading through the

Gospel of John, chapter 9, the first three verses.

Where the disciples asked the Lord Jesus, after they met a man who had been blind from birth, who is it that had sinned between the blind man and all his parents.

And so the Lord said, neither had sinned, but this had happened so that the

Lord might glorify himself. And I had come to that conviction myself and based on that I had begun to use my gifts in the church.

One of them being singing and the other being preaching.

And so that, of course, surprised this lady.

I think the other event I had was when

I met another gentleman, he was Zimbabwean, while still in South Africa, who actually recommended surgery.

And he was willing to finance it, that my eyesight should be restored.

I said, look, I believe God wants to use me this way. It doesn't mean that my life as a person living with a disability in Africa doesn't have challenges, but my belief is that God wants to glorify himself this way.

And that happened about close to 12 years ago now.

And most recently, it's about two or three months ago, my wife and I were on a public bus.

We were going to visit an aunt, my wife's aunt, across town from where we are.

And another lady was going to attend one of these churches in court.

And they were having a deliverance, in quotation marks, session.

And so she saw me and talking to my wife and she had a leaflet of this, in quotation marks, man of God who would pray over me and I would get well.

So she gave this leaflet to my wife. And in our local language here, one of the languages that is used most commonly is

Bemba. She said, meaning, you should bring him to our church and he is going to see.

And my wife said to me, if only she knew the person she was talking about.

And so these are some of the encounters I have had.

Now, I believe that the Lord has used this visual impairment in many ways.

One of them being the fact that when people see a person with a disability serving

God with zeal, with a whole heart,

I think it brings a different level of encouragement. I don't know what it is, but the

Lord uses it. And I have seen that when I have preached or even when

I have sung at different places, people would come up to me and tell me how they've been blessed.

But the way they would express it, you could tell that there is something unique that has taken place.

Other people would actually openly come and tell me how they've been encouraged, specifically by my testimony.

I think I had those encounters when I was in university. Friends of mine would actually tell me, when you minister, a lot of people are blessed.

Yeah, that's about me. I currently work here in Zambia, Busaka, as a teacher.

And I was in the youth ministry. I still am, but I was in the youth ministry as a youth leader there.

I was the youth ministry chairperson for about three years.

And I still participate in church life, mainly in the music ministry, and also when opportunities are available,

I also preach. Amen, brother. And you preach in a bit different way, a unique way.

Tell us about that. You have some kind of a reader? Yes, I depend on a software.

It's a screen reader. So, on a laptop, you install the software that will read aloud what is on the screen.

And so I prepare my SEMO notes on the laptop like any other teacher would. I have my

Bible in soft copy, and then

I preach that way. So, I'll listen to my own notes,

I'll have my own notes read to me, and then I will preach that way.

Sometimes I use my Android tablet. It has a feature there called

TalkBack, which reads aloud what's on the screen. And I'm able to type using that, and then preach the gospel using that.

Amen, brother. Well, Kayumba, God bless you, brother.

Thank you for sharing your testimony with us. You've been a great encouragement to me, and I know you will be to many, many others.

Thank you, brother. Bless you, too. Bless you and your wife. Thank you. So, dear friends,

I hope that that video encouraged you at least half as much as it did me. You know, this is the true power of the

Holy Spirit of God, as He saves people and then sanctifies them for His glory.

You know, more often than not, God is most glorified in us. Not when things are going well, not when there's plenty of money in the bank, not when our bodies are strong and healthy, not when everybody likes us.

But sometimes He's most glorified in us in times of suffering.

When we go through trials, trials of persecution, like what we saw with Muhammad and Syaka, trials of bodily weakness, sickness, disease, handicaps, like we saw with Matunda and Kayumba.

And yet, through these trials, through the persecution, through the suffering, through the sickness and disease, through the disabilities, we remain faithful to Christ and we seek to honor

Him by our lives of obedience. Sometimes God is most honored and glorified in us in times like that.

So, thank you for watching, dear friends. I hope that this video has been an encouragement to you. I know that many of you pray for me and the ministry and my wife

Kathy and our little dog Mia that you see there. So, covet your prayers, dear friends.

Thank you very much. Please do continue to pray for us and we pray for you as well.

Thank you. It's a tremendous encouragement. So, until our next time together, well,

Merry Christmas if you're watching this before Christmas. But until our next time together, may the grace of our

Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of His Holy Spirit be with you all.