Then on Advent 3....

...I flew to Zambia for long, long overdue reunions during Christmas and New Year with those who nurtured, formed and shaped a much younger minister/mission partner in the 1990s. It was wonderful to see everyone: just wonderful, and reminded me that I owe Zambia a debt I can never repay. 

This blog post, subsequently, is very self-indulgent and little more than a picture sequence of now and then. Feel free to Google alternative entertainment...

At that time - 1992-1998 - the mission appointment was to serve the United Church of Zambia (UCZ), Ndola North Consistory, as a minister of word, sacrament and pastoral care, with occasional teaching at the UCZ theological college. Then, after Ordination in the UCZ at St Andrew's, Ndola, (later followed by Reception into Full Connexion of the British Methodist Church - we did it the wrong way around...), to be Consistory Chair of 17 congregations: Circuit Super in Methodist terms. In an area with a Church of Scotland heritage, the vocabulary then was of Consistories, Presbyteries, Elders and Moderators - though the Moderators became Bishops along the way, with very little fuss. Sensible. 

Here are just a few Zambia pictures: of people not really of places, because that's what it was about. And, as I said, thanks for the indulgence on what's supposed to be a Pacific focussed blog.  God so loved the world fortunately...

On arrival in Lusaka, with With Rev Mutale Mulumbwa, recently retired UCZ Synod Bishop - we were colleagues in Ndola years ago - and Rev Mwape Chilekwa, my first ever Circuit Superintendent. As a probationer minister, I was fortunate enough to experience models of leadership that have influenced me for life.

FM Radio stations are a big aspect of outreach and community service in the UCZ these days. Really impressive - and I love radio anyway! I was interviewed on United Voice (Lusaka) and Radio Chimwemwe (Ndola). 

And Girls' Brigade is as feisty and fun as ever - here with recent World President Ruth Chikasa and Officer Ellen Musaka, both members of St Andrew's Ndola in the days when I was  ministering there. Brilliant to see them. Everything I said earlier about influential leadership models replicated in my good sisters below...

...and most stunningly in the Revd Dr Peggy Kabonde, now General Secretary of UCZ. We were Circuit colleagues too, back in the days...I was fortunate. Along with Revd Agnes Mulenga who was a student minister then, now serving in Lusaka.

Overjoyed to meet again Mr and Mrs Peter Ndolo - Church elders extraordinaire from Kaniki, Ndola - now living in Kapiri Mposhi. 

And this is 'Mum' - Mrs Joyce Kapesa Simengwa outside our house in Lubuto compound. 

...and with Dalton, Ruth and other friends just before leaving Ndola to think about returning to an airport. Painful...

St Andrew's UCZ in the centre of Ndola, next door to the Manse, a thriving, energetic and diverse Church family even more so now - though indeed it was 25 years ago too. How good it was to cross-over into 2017 with St Andrew's and worship together on New Year's Day...

...and, looking out into the congregation, it was all of a sudden 27 Feb 1994 again - my Ordination Day. I remember so vividly standing alone in front of a Church packed to the rafters as silence fell and we waited for the Clergy procession to enter. It was headed by my friends-in-ministry Revds Peggy Kabonde and Mwape Chilekwa who've just featured in the reunion photos above. There were solemn promises to be made, then the laying on of hands, by many hands. Rev Brian Brown, then Africa Secretary at the Methodist Church in Britain's Overseas Division was in attendance. There was a UCZ stole presented and a Bible: I treasure them, particularly the presentation Bible's inscription.

And then we moved to Holy Communion. Word and Sacrament. A feast for life.

Shall I bore you with the scanned in picture sequence from '94?

According to the Methodist Church in Britain, my date of entry into ministry is logged as 1 Sept 1992, so 2017 marks 25 years. Two responses really: profound amazement and deep gratitude. 

The bidding and text of the Methodist Covenant prayer - needed much more at the start of a fresh calendar year than a new 'Methodist' year in my humble opinion -  has been ever sustaining during these minister/mission partner/tutor years because of its sheer, raw, uncompromising truthfulness.

Christ has many service to be done:
some are easy, others are difficult;
some bring honour, others bring reproach;
Some are suited to our natural inclinations and material interests,
others are contrary to both;
in some we may please Christ and please ourselves;
in others we cannot please Christ except by denying ourselves.
Yet the power to do all these things is given to us in Christ who strengthens us. 

I am no longer my own but yours. 
Put me to what you will, rank me with whom you will; 
put me to doing, put me to suffering; 
let me be employed for you, or laid aside for you, 
exalted for you, or brought low for you; 
let me be full, let me be empty, 
let me have all things, let me have nothing: 
I freely and wholeheartedly yield all things to your pleasure and disposal. 
And now, glorious and blessèd God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, 
you are mine and I am yours. 
So be it.
And the covenant now made on earth, 
let it be ratified in heaven. 
Amen. 

Methodist Worship Book, page 290. © 1999 Trustees for Methodist Church Purposes. 

Vocationally, wherever the place and whatever the circumstances, that's the deal.


Thanks be to God.