8-24-2001

11:00 PM

Oh my, what a day.
I’m not certain where to begin…let’s see…we loaded up all of our equipment and Billy, Travis, Matt, Roger (Pierce), Kenny (from King’s Way), our driver Friday and I all loaded into a van and headed for the local mini-mall and bought an ice chest, ice (not consumable), a canopy and a serious amount of Energade (Gatorade-drink) and bottled water. We then left for the dust bowl, it was about 11:00 when we actually left the mini-mall. The stage was to be set up by 9:00 and the sound guys would be there by then as well. The power was to have been dropped by 11:00 so we were right on time…
only when we got to the field…
there was no stage, no power drop and no sound system…
nobody was there.

This is not good.

I asked the driver to take us to Pastor Flemings church compound, very close by, to see if he knew why this would be so, and to use his cell phone to make some needed calls.

When we arrived at the church gate, we honked to be let in and gained entry. The guard at the gate told us that they had been waiting for us, that the concert had been moved to the church compound. The electrician was there, the sound system was there and set up and “Max” the son of the sound storeowner was there as well. He stayed and ran sound for us and I got to play with Billy, Matt and Travis. Never mind the reality that I didn’t know the songs…I got to know them when we played them. I enjoyed the challenge.

The youth choir that came and sang for us the other night also came and opened up for us as well. Very energetic kids with hearts for singing and praising. We let them use our guitars and equipment and they just beamed. Pastor Flemings said that they never have had the opportunity to play on such equipment or instruments.
We did the right thing.
At one point, after we had been playing, we began a song that the choir knew and they rushed over to the side of the stage where an extra mic was and began to sing along with us, at another point I just gave my mic to them and away they went, singing the song and all. Their style of dance ROCKS! That I may have such rhythm…wow, it was cool.

Anyway, we played for an hour or so and though the rest of the mission team was to have shown up, only Rich showed up during our last song. Everyone else had a very long trip back for the Bush, an hour and a half into the wilderness…75 people came to Christ, but not to the pleasure of the witchdoctors who were exchanging perspectives with Ron and the folks. Ron’s not bashful and Ron’s not shy…an education was had by all, I'm sure.

Rich spent the whole day trying to track down the medicine container and personally seeing it into Zambia, it had been stuck at the border. Unfortunately, the Zambian doctor who ordered the medicine on behalf of PUREWORKS, ordered what he needed in his hospital, not what medical teams needed for street and township clinics…another personal agenda takes its toll.

One person who came to the on-site clinic passed out in line and Dr. T diagnosed him to have acute appendicitis. They immediately loaded him into the bus/van and sped off to a few different clinics to get the right signatures to admit him into a hospital. They successfully got him to the doctors at the hospital who greeted them warmly and they took the man in. His condition was such that he would have definitely died before daybreak, if not shortly after nightfall. Souls and lives were saved, God’s agenda in action.

At one point, they had stopped at a pharmacy to check supplies since the container hadn’t been released. A member of the Zambian CIA, I don’t know what they are called, followed the group from the orphanage to the pharmacy. When Francis saw the man coming, he immediately ducked away from view and got our folks out of the pharmacy before any trouble could start. Clean get a way. This whole scene is surreal…it’s the stuff you hear about or read about (like you’re doing now) but would never had thought to have been caught up in it.

We all came safe and sound, but extremely tired. I re-strung everyone’s guitars tonight (5 in all, including bass) after we returned so we should enjoy our playing that much more. There’s just something about new strings…

Tomorrow, Francis takes Billy, Matt, Travis and me to look at 3 other sites we are supposed to play at next week.

Love to you all-