I believe this is my first time to post here, so I'll introduce myself. My wife and I serve as mission co-workers in Zambia, with Presbyterian (U.S.A.) World Mission, in partnership with The Church of Central Africa Presbyterian Synod of Zambia. Prior to joining Presbyterian World Mission, we lived in San Antonio, and I owned a business in Pearsall.

In Zambia, I work in agricultural development and Melissa works with our partner church's health department. I tend to be a lurker on these boards, but I'll try to post things you might enjoy, like worship music and the like.

Awesome! Welcome, and I look forward to hearing more about Zambia.

Thanks for the welcome. We love it here. The history of our partner church dates back to the Scottish missionaries who came into Malawi, then into Eastern Zambia. The Scottish missionaries believed in holistic ministry, both to the spirit and body. Because of that, in addition to evangelism, they built schools, clinics, taught agriculture and so on.

Presbyterian mission only occurs when it is invited by a partner church to come alongside them as a partner-in other words, to do with, not to do for. The idea is to create enable and build capacity among our partners to ensure sustainability, and avoid dependency which was the result of a lot of past mission in Africa.

I look forward to sharing here.

Curious about the worship music

Welcome to R&P

I always enjoy your posts on OB.

First, our worship services last about 2 1/2-3 hours. The first portion is the different choirs singing (and dancing). The voices here are incredible-last week we were at an induction service for a new pastor in a village about an hour away from Lundazi, and in the youth choir, there was a young woman, who was sitting nursing her baby. When they began to sing-oh my goodness! Her voice was as beautiful as any I've ever heard, and we've heard some amazing ones here. I want to go back and record some of their songs.

Here are several clips of various choirs I've uploaded to YouTube,

This is the Bethlehem Station Choir (youth) singing during the offertory on Easter Sunday,


This is the Dorcas International Choir (women's). The uniforms signify they are members of the umanyano, or the Christian Women's Guild. They sing more traditional songs-the language spoken here is Chitumbuka.


This is the youth choir at the church in Chasefu. The old church was part of a mission station founded by the Scottish missionaries in the 1920s. During the 1950s, the British colonial government destroyed the mission station because the Scottish missionaries were preaching independence and self-determination to the Zambians. All but the church was destroyed.


A few more from the Chasefu choir,




Finally, the women of Chandeke congregation.

That looks like a blast! Praise the Lord!

One-Eyed Fat Man said:

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I believe this is my first time to post here, so I'll introduce myself. My wife and I serve as mission co-workers in Zambia, with Presbyterian (U.S.A.) World Mission, in partnership with The Church of Central Africa Presbyterian Synod of Zambia. Prior to joining Presbyterian World Mission, we lived in San Antonio, and I owned a business in Pearsall.

In Zambia, I work in agricultural development and Melissa works with our partner church's health department. I tend to be a lurker on these boards, but I'll try to post things you might enjoy, like worship music and the like.

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Best of luck to you. I will be in Ghana next month accompanying my wife as she and her team from the University of Utah's global health team work in rural villages---well, face it, they need an errand boy.

I wish I could understand what they are saying.

I'm sure they're praising the Lord!

Thanks for uploading and sharing!

Always love the passion from that culture.

We struggle big time to get the men in our church to sing at all, much less to be passionate.

Cool! I've spent multiple several-month-long stints in Zambia, mostly in Chongwe. I love the people there and still have friends I stay in touch with. I pray God blesses y'alls ministry.

Really digging the first video! Keep up the incredible work and keep the faith....

After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could count, from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb...

Has the Bible been translated into their language yet? If so, do you have access to these Bibles?

Certainly! Chitumbuka is the language spoken here and the Bible is available in our language. The history of the church here is a rich one. Presbyterian World Mission works in a partnership model-we only go where we're invited by an existing local church, to partner with them, to help build their capacity and grow. In other words, more of a participatory community development model, which leads to sustainability. Our partner here is the Church of Central Africa Presbyterian Synod of Zambia (CCAP). The church began in Malawi in the late 1800s through the work of the Free Church of Scotland, which followed David Livingstone's presence in this region.

As we began coming to Congo for short term mission about 7 years ago, I began doing a lot of reading and realized we weren't taught anything about Africa and colonization of the continent in school. Much of the mission here was a part of the colonization effort, paternalistic in nature. It's interesting that the mission station at Chasefu, where I teach courses in sustainable agriculture was destroyed by the British colonial government because the Scottish missionaries were preaching independence and self determination to the Zambians.

If you've never read it, I recommend the book, King Leopold's Ghost, about his personal colonization of Congo. There are some books about Samuel Lapsley and William Sheppard, the first Presbyterian missionaries in Congo, back in the 1890s. And of course, there's a number of books about David Livingstone's work in this region of Africa.

Back to you question about the Bible, there are a number of entities like Wycliffe that translate Bibles.

Good question!