Newsletter July

Dear friends and family,

Things are going very well here. Amy looks amazing in Zambian fabrics, William has plenty of adventure, and we are all being grown by God, and provided for every day. We have not been hit by malaria, but this last 8 or so days we have been suffering with bacterial dysentery that has been a great hindrance. God is taking care of us though. We have found good antibiotics and are seeing vast improvement.

Two weeks ago a man from Chamboli church was telling me about his wife’s trip to a village in eastern Zambia called Isoka. She had wanted to go to church on Sunday, and there was only one around (it is a rural area) so she went. There she found the pastor (a man with many wives) without a bible, and it just kinda makes sense. He doesn’t even know what a man ought to do, so of course he wouldn’t be doing it. Many of us know what we ought to do, and we still don’t do it. Either way my heart was broken for the people in this area, the polygamist pastor, and the lack of churches. I asked Pastor Chanda what he knew about the area, and he said that it was a violent place where witchcraft is still in common practice, and this stirred me even more. I took this conviction and another conviction about the discipleship of the older youth in the church, and I have started a weekly gathering of young people who want to be in the ministry. We are going through some basic doctrines of Christianity, and we are praying with a goal in mind of raising evangelist, and church planters, and future pastors from within. So in the future, when we hear of a place like Isoka we can simply say “who feels called to go” and then send that person. Some of us will probably be visiting Isoka soon with the goal of church planting and descipling local Christians. I will keep you updated.

The peanut-butter making has been up and down. It was down because for various technical reasons no work was done by the peanut-butter ladies for about half the month. It was up though, because, in that short amount of time we did work we saw about a 60% increase in production. I and a man named Peter have been working on motorizing the hand crank machines to ease the labor on the ladies and boost the production and it is going very well. I see great prospects, and I think that peanut-butter will be of great aid in Chande becoming self-sufficient.

We continue to seek after banana land. We met with the Permanent Secretary, and little did I know that this title describes the man who has top executive governmental authority in the copperbelt region of Zambia. I was excited. Usually we would have met with somebody much lower on the totem, someone who specifically works with land and demarcations and such, but we never seem to do things the normal way. Zambia is changing its system of land ownership, and we are caught in an interesting place. We might not even get control of our own land, but from talking to the P.S. I believe we will get suitable land, and maybe even more then we had.

In a week from today I will be leaving for Pweto, DRC. I am sad to leave Amy and William in Zambia alone, but I am assured that all things will work out for good. Please pray for our team as we go. There has been a lot of violence on the border and we hope to not be involved in any ourselves. We also need prayer that God would be our guide, and that he would prepare the soil of the men’s and women’s hearts whom we will meet. Please pray that our faith will not fail, and that the wives, and families who are left at home will be comforted in the Lord. I am very excited to see how the Spirit will move.

Peter and I have also been working on making two small popcorn machines (popcorn sells well on the streets), and Lord willing we should be finished with those in a few short days.

We have hired a young man who some of you know, named Binwell. He is helping with all the ministry, and I will be raising him up to replace me in the foreman role of some of these small business ventures. Amy got some cookie recipe’s from our sister in law(quite delicious), and we will be selling cookies to help pay Binwell’s salary.

William is growing quite well. We see two more teeth coming in on top, and since he has become mobile we are seeing quite a personality start to appear. I think he will be very adventuress when he grows up a little more. He is already rather curious and courageous with his limited motor skills, so I am almost worried to see how wild he will be at his peak potential. He is a blessing (Mapalo as the Bembas call him), and I can barely even remember what life was like before him. I am sure that it wasn’t quite so joyful though.

Thank you all for your prayers and financial support we praise the Lord for your partnership daily. We will keep you all in our prayers. I have to go now to pick up Pastor Jason, and Randy at Lusaka airport. These men are coming from Wyoming to minister in Congo. I am very excited and blessed to work with them.

God Bless,

`Mat and the Kountz Family