The time has come to recount our recent return trip to Zambia. Joan and I left on Monday March 10 from Phoenix after an early morning start. We were leaving from two different terminals and meeting in Washington DC. Joan’s mom, Faith, would drive the car back after our departure. Joan was flying Northwest and she was able to check her luggage all the way through to Lusaka. I was leaving on United and was carrying extra luggage because of the speakers and keyboard we were bringing for the Mazabuka church. I was informed that because of fuel prices there were no missionary allowances for extra bags. When I was done checking in, I was ready to pay, but the attendant said we were finished. A welcomed small touch of grace.

I arrived in Washington to check into our South African flight, noticing Joan sitting there, already checked in. Little did I realize what she had just went through. The second leg of her flight from Detroit to Washington had been cancelled. She was able to get on another flight to another airport in Washington. She was travelling without cell phone, credit cards and I had only given her $60 in cash. She had not transferred her phone numbers to her new planner yet, she lives a busy life. A panic set in that most air travelers can relate to. Missing our rendezvous, missing the flight to South Africa, possibly missing the entire trip to Zambia. Underneath it all a gnawing thought that her husband had not taken care of her properly (that’s me).

She arrived at Reagan Airport only to realize that she didn’t have enough cash for a taxi to Dulles. She overheard another man asking about taxis to Dulles and offered to share cab fair. They shared a cab and her cash was able to stretch to meet the need. Her luggage, no way, but et least she would make the rendezvous and the flight. Traffic was light and she was able to beat me to the airport waiting lounge. Time to think about the life implications of her experience.

Eve ate the fruit but God came looking for Adam, who then blamed Even and God indirectly for his action. God’s setup is for a man to be the head of the household. All women, including Christian women, are influenced by the curse found in Gen: 3:16 that they will always desire to rule over their husbands. Husband’s failures are the open doorway for this curse to push women through. My wife dealing with all of the possible outcomes, due to my lack of foresight, in the end had to trust that God would honor her submission to me, her husband.

The insights she gained that day worked there way into her address to the women of the Mazabuka church later on in our visit.

Tonight on the eve of our departure to Zambia to preach and minister I thought I would like to write an article for the james tembo web site. From the web site they could link to this article on basketball with an assist from Tom Cunningham.

My daughters and I went down to the local basketball court in Mazabuka sometime in December after landing in Mazabuka in November. It was a cement court with two rickety backboards with one rim about 6” lower than the other. White girls on the basketball court was quite the novelty but soon they were pushed aside so the young men could properly exhibit their basketball skills. I met several decent players that day with Africa being the only face I can clearly remember along with a young man whose name I cannot remember but was like the official trainer at the time and came and went over the years from university in Namibia. They began to tell me about their team at Saint Edmond’s High School.

The basketball season stretches from February to October. There are several tournaments and each district has a shootout to determine which team will represent the district at these tournaments. St. Edmond’s lately was always losing to their arch rival Chickenkata (English mispronunciation). Chickenkata was a Salvation Army Hospital and private High School that attracted some of the best students from all over the nation. Since St. Edmond’s did not take boarders that would be enough right there to give them an advantage because of the smaller pool of potential students. They let me know what the real reason for their defeat was because Chickenkata had a white American coach. I laughed, but they were very serious because now I was surrounded by about 20 kids. The follow up question was: Would I be their coach? I really wasn’t thinking and assumed there was no possibility of me being their coach but I said yes if the headmaster asked me.

Later that day I had about 20 kids come to my house to let me know that the headmaster had said I could be the coach. I could hardly say no at that point. It was after Christmas that another group of boys came to the house and wanted to know when we would start practicing. January is hot and humid with rains that could come at a moment’s notice. Much to their delight I said right away, so we set a time and on the following day I showed up to the court. They were scrimmaging, but what was peculiar was the fact that most of them had only one shoe on or were barefoot. I didn’t want to say anything to embarrass them so I just watched to see what kind of team they had (later they would explain to me that they rotated their shoes so they would last and they only wore both on game days).  

Their offence consisted of all five of them being on the perimeter taking turns driving in and rather shooting or passing back out for someone else to drive in. They had a basic

2-1-2 lazy man’s defense. This is when I met Bright Mubika our future camera man. Now 8 years later, let me see if I can remember the names: Sabwila the most talented with a vertical leap that enabled him to easily dunk from a standing position. Sebo the tallest and the team facilitator. Eventually Matapi would join us (he is the brother to Bwalya in the film) he turned us into a powerhouse. Bright and Grief were the two guards. Bright was a natural leader and enjoyed the strategy part of the game.

In the first tournament of the season Chickenkata missed the shootout. We were an OK but were handily beaten by Canisius the Catholic powerhouse from outside Monse. The next shootout was at St Edmond’s where we and I would meet the terrible Chickenkata squad. They were big and their best player was very good. It was rumored that he had been given a scholarship to play basketball in the US. Ted, there American coach was visiting the states. We eventually got a lead and were able to win more to their poor play than (one of their players would keep trying 3’s and missing). They made a comeback of sorts with their best player stealing the ball and going down the court for two dunks. The second dunk had one of our players at his feet so he hung onto the rim for a second. The whole backboard came down. We caught this on film. These kind of events become very African. Another excuse for mob action. The mob of students surrounded him, our players defended him the last picture in the film is the backboard being taken up the path towards the school by a large group of folks. We were so far ahead with only minutes to play that we were rewarded the game.

That year we beat Chickenkata a second time where I was able to meet Ted the teacher/pastor/coach and husband of Bella the main doctor at the hospital. They became good friends and I believe they are now in the Dallas area working their ministry with the Salvation Army. It was very close and they should have won. We had one last match with them that year. We traveled to Chickenkata. Ted, who was now a friend, was taking this very serious. They were not use to being beaten by St Edmond’s. One of the reasons for our success was our 1-3-1 defense. It proved to be difficult for most opposing teams to work against. But, Ted had our # now. We changed the positions of Bright and Sabwila on defense. Bright with his competiveness and knowledge we moved to the wing where he would have to box out and battle one on one for the rebound from any shot from the other side of the court. Sabwila took the point with the understanding that we were going to look for him to break away and get a layup when we could get an easy rebound and pass. He was under strict orders to lay it in and not dunk (his fancy dunk that failed almost cost us a game). We won a very tight contest. Ted’s team played great. Ted complimented us afterwards by saying that we played one of the best games he has seen since coming to Zambia.

I ended up coaching for 6 years. The 5^th year Bright was my assistant and the sixth year I was his assistant. During those years we had two great teams. Two medium teams and two poor teams. That first year they beat Canisius while I was not with them. I was told by the headmaster that we were to play for the championship. When we arrived to play, we were informed that even though we had won the game, Canisius had scored more points in the tournament there fore they were playing the championship game. We did our best to keep a right spirit but it was a repeated lesson in Africa: justice can take a back seat to the powers that be. I loved the social events of the tournaments where all of the schools would travel in open trucks. They would play basketball, football (soccer), volleyball, netball, and chess. At the end of each season we would watch the NCAA championship together at my house with hamburgers and cokes. It was a piece of America that I enjoyed right there in Zambia.

PS. Ted’s teams did dominate those years we had poor teams.

I just finished “The Arrow of Gold” by Joseph Conrad. I really don’t understand why I enjoy his writing but I do. This is not as heavy as some of his others and he still has a way of ending the stories without the “and they lived happily ever after”. It was a love story that was worth reading, although I have to admit I could have done without the last notes.

When I read this note about human life it reminded me of a Johnson quote about George Washington in which Washington’s political strength was recognizing the selfishness that is inherent in everyone, not in a bad way just in a normal way. We preachers have a saying when comparing notes with each other: “It’s difficult to get excited about someone else’s revelation”. Here is the quote:

“I suppose you know that the world is selfish, I mean the majority of the people in it, often unconsciously I must admit, and especially people with a mission, with a fixed idea, with some fantastic object in view, or even with only some fantastic illusion.”

As to the insights about love:

“There is a true saying that lips that have been kissed do not lose their freshness.”

The bible goes one better:

Prov 5:18-19 And rejoice with the wife of your youth.

19 As a loving deer and a graceful doe,

Let her breasts satisfy you at all times;

And always be enraptured with her love. NKJV

As the young man wanders the streets fighting the pangs of unrewarded love we have this observation of the carnival that is happening:

“It was the last evening of Carnival. The same masks, the same yells, the same mad rushes, the same bedlam of disguised humanity blowing about the streets in the great gusts of mistral that seemed to make them dance like dead leaves on an earth where all joy is watched by death.”

It reminds me of a writer who returned to Chico State after a trip to India in which he was using similar language to describe life at Chico state “California’s #1 party school”.

Enjoyed the book.

Here is an excerpt from a Mark Steyn  article:

That's one "historical guilt" too many. If it's Historical Guilt vs. Joe Biden and John Edwards, bet on Historical Guilt, and the Democratic base uniting around Hillary and baying "I Am Woman, Hear Me Roar." Instead, it's "I Am Woman, Hear Me Whine About The Unfairness Of It All," as the Clintonites go nuclear and accuse Obama, the ultimate cool black dude, of "imitating Ken Starr," the ultimate uptight squaresville honky.

Read the whole thing, I really enjoy his writing.

Just a quick link to Larry Norman's website. He passed away at the age of 61. There are links there for a stroll down memory lane as well as his farewell message.

Congratulations to Glen & Madge Rupchan going to Lautoka in the Fiji Islands. This is a little after the fact but it was a wonderful event to watch unfold. I had met Glen & Madge in the Northwest where they were pastoring in Canada. They took a big step and went to Vologda Russia where they had favor and established a powerful church. Joan and I were privileged to come and preach for them in 1996. We preached in Vologda and in Sokol. We showed up and preached their first mini conference in which they sent out Yivginny and his wife Sheri-lynn (the daughter of the Rupchans) to Rybinsk. It was one of the more wonderful times of my life.

In Sokol I preached for Sergai who is now the leader of the Russian churches. I followed up with a visit a couple of years later. I preached a how to make money sermon, that when I came back 2 years later I could see that many of them had taken it to heart as communism was replaced with a free market system. This isn’t the post to remember back to all of those experiences.

I was surprised to see Glen and he said he called Pastor Mitchell up 2 weeks before conference and wanted to get things right. Pastor Mitchell brought him to conference. I invited him over to the house for some lunch. Dean and Charlene from Chilliwak came over as well as Sergai and his wife Anya. He laid out what was happening. I was overjoyed when he was announced that Thursday of conference. Sergai gave me a little update from my Sokol preaching. Andre, who was in the Sokal church is now in Viet Nam. Sergai then described a drunk who kept coming to my revival but never got saved till after I left – he is pastoring in Mongolia. Who knows what God can do? Out of Sokol a dirty little industrial town of Russia.

I am back in Prescott after a great week preaching in Seattle for Tom Drout. Great sermon by Pastor Mitchell – 3 spiritual DNA marks of a Christian: worship, praise and joy. The best part of the morning was a couple who had gotten saved Wed. night did the right thing and got married this morning in church after the preaching. Watching them recite the vows, a combination of traditional and biblical, was a site to behold. First the man with a hearty “I do”. Then the woman with a casual, almost embarrassed smile, as the vows are being read with the presence of God and the seriousness of the vows changing the embarrassed smile to worry and then to determination and finally a serious and somber “I do” followed by a joy that visibly swept over our tattooed bride. It was wonderful to behold.