Hospice Seminars and Home Care with Bethlehem Baptist Church

Recently ACTION Zambia hosted a short-term mission team from Bethlehem Baptist Church (BBC) in Minneapolis. Some of you may have seen a note about this in our newsletter - thank you for your prayers for this team!

Eight folks, including Kristin Dearth who is a former teammate of ours, visited Ciyanjano to join us in conducting home-care, health & hygiene seminars with many churches that have graduated from our 16-week CROSS classes over the past year or two. CROSS teaches a gospel-centered approach to HIV and surrounding issues; HIV is a personal, physical, spiritual, and societal issue that touches all of our lives here in Zambia. Some pastors and groups in Lusaka have reported to us an infection rate as high as 60% when they have conducted testing.

Monica and Kristin visiting ladies in the compound.

These seminars are one of our favourite ministry events that we hold at Ciyanjano and we were so happy to do this for the third time. We have also heard feedback from participants that this training is incredibly hands-on and useful for their home-visit ministries and care teams. It is really difficult to put into words how important these ministries are in the Zambian church - it is a very central way that Christians can be the hands and feet of Jesus Christ in their community.

Cheryl & Eta teaching a break-out group.

The team broke the church groups up into smaller groups that rotated through a variety of teaching stations. They covered some very basic medical information such as hand-washing, and more complicated skills like serving bedridden people by bathing them and changing their linens. 

A break-out group practicing bandaging.

At our regular staff meeting we were so happy to hear a testimony from Pastor Wozifera Ngoma. Pastor Ngoma of Faith Tabernacle Church in George Compound is a leader in the Discipleship 2:7 program with ACTION Zambia. He made a commitment to taking home-care groups from his church into the community in the weeks after the training so that his members could use the skills they acquired right away. This is so important!

John Chitambo translates for Steve.

He shared with us about breaking people up into teams and letting them know that THEY would be doing the talking and ministering themselves and that he was along to observe and help if there was a problem. Being forced to take the lead helped the participants to gain confidence and put their knowledge into ACTION (so to speak…) One team visited a bedridden elderly lady whose caregiver was fatigued and discouraged. The team was able to assist with a bath for the old woman, washing laundry, and encouraging both the old woman and her caregiver. All in the name of Jesus Christ.

It is wonderful to hear stories of Christ-like service as a result of these workshops. Praise God our Father in heaven! We plan to follow up with more of the churches that participated so that we can share a few more testimonies of how these practical skills were used to bless people.

We ask you to pray for God’s blessing on the BBC team who gave of their time and expertise. We also ask you to fervently pray for the churches who came to the seminars - that they would use the knowledge and skills they’ve acquired to the glory of God and to bless their communities. You can also be in prayer for Andy & Jennifer Ott and their family, John Chitambo, and Eta Imasiku who make up our CROSS team, teaching churches a Christ-like view of HIV.

The Otts!