I’m preaching from Matthew 11:2-11 this week. It’s one of the lectionary texts for Advent. I remembered this quote from Bono who was preaching speaking at the NAACP Awards in 2008. I generally love U2 and I think Bono is amazing. His theology is far from perfect (but so is yours and mine) but I think Bono generally understands God’s concern for the poor. You can watch the speech on YouTube, the quote I’m using below starts at 2:49 and goes till the end. True religion will not let us fall asleep in the comfort of our freedom. Love thy neighbor is not a piece of advice it’s a command. And that means in the global village that we’re going to have to start loving...Read More →
Category: Africa
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December 11, 2010
Advent Week 3: Bono on True Religion
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January 26, 2009
The Mob.
Who do you get when you take a poor person in a slum in Ndola Zambia and give them… a house, a fenced in back yard, a two car garage, cable television with a DVR, two cars for that garage, and a job that pays me well but makes me work 50+ hours a week? You get a person who has just lost all they had going for them: Community and relationships. Sure. They had nothing. But you’ve just replaced nothing with nothing. That’s not much of an improvement if you ask me. Mobs do things that individuals would never do on their own. Individuals in mobs do things that that don’t make much rational sense. Individuals in mobs climb live electric poles and flip...Read More →
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December 11, 2008
The Slave Tree in Ndola, Zambia
This summer I went to Zambia to work with a two other pastors from the states and our good friend George Palo who is doing some awesome work there with the Zambian Church. George pastors in Ndola which is about 4 hours north of the capital, Lusaka. Just outside Ndola is a tree known as “The Slave Tree.” This stood or hundred years and it was called this because it was a key location on the slave trading route in Africa. About a year or so ago, George and a few other churches felt the sense that this tree symbolized an attitude of servanthood (not the good kind) and inferiority in the people of their city. Since this tree was the symbol for this...Read More →
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August 27, 2008
Ecclesia, Africa and Best Western Breakfasts
I’m sitting in the Best Western in Richmond, VA at the continental breakfast bar area. It’s been about 7 minutes since I had one of their breakfast sandwiches and things are already getting interesting in my stomach… but I guess that’s a story for another time… I’m here with Tom Ward of East Point Community Church in Deleware and George Palo of Harvest City Church in Ndola, Zambia. We’re meeting with some guys from our network, Ecclesia and we’ll be talking about more details regarding the partnership between George’s network of churches and our network. We had a great conversation on the way down about the current way of connecting churches in America and Africa and some of the challenges this approach brings. Basically, the...Read More →
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July 2, 2008
Are You Rioting with the Suburban Mob?
Okay, its been about a half a week since I’ve been back from Zambia. I’ve not done much deep writing around the trip because there is so much in my head that I am just trying to sort it all out. Sunday morning, I preached a mess of a sermon that I am hoping made sense. I really tried to share my heart and what God is doing with Melanie and I since I’ve returned. The sermon didn’t record for some reason so I’m going to try and lay it out in a shorter version here: Thought #1 – The culture in Zambia is beautiful and they get worship, prayer and community better than we ever have. Its part of their DNA. It’s beautiful really....Read More →
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June 28, 2008
Final Zambia Reflections
I am finally back from Zambia after two weeks of spending time with Pastor George Palo of Harvest City Church in Ndola, Zambia. I have a ton in my head and I have to say that these two weeks will likely turnout to be a watershed moment for the lives of the Hiestands. You’ll have to be in church tomorrow to get my more complete reflections (or listen online when i post it) but here are some major themes/thoughts: Community Sunday night was awesome as we sat around the fire sharing stories with the men from Harvest City Church after studying the scriptures together, taking communion and praying for one another. They told some awesome stories about the community and life in the bush. From...Read More →
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June 21, 2008
Zambia Update: Saturday, June 21, 2008
I am sitting in nice cosy guest house that we are in and just reflecting a bit on our last two days. Its been an encouraging and challenging two days as we have begun to meet with the Zambian people and specifically some of the church leaders. Last night Tom and I spoke at the leadership team meeting for George’s church, Harvest City Church. There were about 40 people there. Some were pastors and some were lay leaders. We spoke on the topic of leadership and creativity. As I wrote in my last blog post there is a challenge of having creativity as they seek to be witnesses to Jesus here in Zambia. This is mostly because the western missionaries brought with them a “correct”...Read More →
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June 20, 2008
Zambia Update: Friday Morning
I only have a limited amount of time here on the web. I have to buy it by the half hour and I’m trying to get as much done in this time as possible. But, not surprisingly, the web is so slow. So, I am going to brain dump as much as a I can here: I jumped off a bridge at Victoria Falls with a rubber band attached to my ankles. Pictures are on my flickr account. It was nuts. Video will be coming home with me. Google: Victoria Falls Bungee Jump and you’ll see what I did. We started this trip with two days of downtime with a trip to Victoria Falls (google this, it makes Niagara falls look like a kitchen sink...Read More →
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June 18, 2008
Zamba Day 1-3: Sleep, Pot Holes, Victoria Falls
So, after about 36 hours of travel and maybe 2 hours of sleep, we arrived in Lusaka. Sleeping on the plane was harder than I thought so I ended up just watching movies. Five of them. So, I saw: Charlie Wilson’s War, Semi-Pro, Jumper, The Great Debaters, and one more that was apparently very forgettable. The only problem now is that I have used up all the decent movies on the way there and I don’t know what I am going to do on the way back. After we met up with Pastor George, we grabbed some breakfast and then quickly took a much needed five hour nap. So, the first day here (Tuesday) was pretty much a bust. We were supposed to start speaking...Read More →
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June 15, 2008
Waiting in JFK
So after a fantastic service at The Well this morning we’ve finally made it up to JFK airport in NYC. (If you weren’t at The Well today… go to our church website and listen to Gary’s sermon on Acts 19. It was fantastic. Definitely worth 29 minutes of your time. I was thinking today during our service that I am so happy to be able to say that I love the church family that we are leaving behind for the next two weeks. In fact, in a sense, The Well is coming with me because who I am is a result of all these people and I bring with me not only my passions but theirs as well. They were such an encouragement this morning...Read More →
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June 15, 2008
Zambia Interary
This is the tentative itinerary for our team while we are in Zambia so that you can pray more specifically while we are gone. I might be posting updates here on my blog during the trip if time and technology allows. In case you missed it, there are two main goals for the trip: The first is the immediate interaction with those we are speaking with and meeting. Obviously the goal here is that we can be an encouragement and begin many friendships that where we can learn from each other. A lot of our interaction will be in the areas of leadership development and pastoral encouragement. The second is that this trip would be another step towards a long-term partnership between The Well and...Read More →
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June 14, 2008
Zambia by the Numbers
It’s now just under 24 hours before me and two other pastors (my good friend Tom Ward is one of them) make the trek to JFK Airport and head for Zambia on British Airways. Here is a rundown of the next two weeks by the numbers: 3 – The number of people on our team that leaves Tomorrow. 7 – The number of hours it takes to get to London from JFK in NYC. 10 – The number of hours we will toll around London looking for a good English pub. 10 – The number of hours it takes to fly from London to Zambia. 13 – The number of times we will be speaking to pastors, college students and others during the trip. 10...Read More →
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June 11, 2008
Envision 08 Conference Thoughts
I spent the last two and a half days in the sweltering heat at Princeton University / Seminary at the Envision 08 conference. This conference was described on their website as: “Envision ‘08 is about the power of the gospel to transform the public square. It’s about Jesus and justice, evangelical history and heritage, and practiced theology. It’s about the next one hundred years of the church and its impact on the common good.” I was pleasantly surprised at the conference. There was such a wide range of speakers and views shared but they were (relatively) hopeful and spent a lot of time trying to imagine a better future. I have been to enough conferences where there was simply deconstruction and this was refreshing. I...Read More →
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June 3, 2008
Zambian Food – MMM, MMM Good
If you are a regular reader you know that I head to Zambia in two weeks. One of the pastors I am going with noted the wikipedia entry has some good information about Zambia. An excerpt: “There are a lot of Zambian foods which are peculiar to Zambia such as inswa (flying ants), fyunkubala (caterpillars), Hopani (monitor lizards), Mbeba (mice), magande (giant toads) and Kolwe (monkey meat).” Wow. That sounds awesome! I can’t wait to try some giant toads mixed with some moniter lizards and then wash that down with some monkey meat…
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May 19, 2008
Is the Bible “Missional?”
In about three weeks I head to Zambia. I’ll be spending two weeks there working with Pastor George Palo of Harvest City Church. I’ve known George for about a year now and I’m really excited to see his country and see in person all the people and stories that he’s shared. One of the things that is most exciting to me is George’s heart for mission. It was not too far into a recent conversation that I realized that he really understood and had a great grasp on the fact that the church is called for the sake of mission, for the sake of being a community that is a “sign witness and foretaste of the Kingdom of God.” (From Newbigin I think). He used...Read More →
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May 13, 2008
Understanding Africa 6-11
Still reading through the book African Friends and Money Matters by David Maranz. This book goes through 90 general observations about African Life, especially in relation to money. Below are observations: 6, 7, 7W, 8, 9. (Here is 1-5) 6. The fact that most people are overextended financially produces profound effects on society. “Maranz writes, “The level of individual worry is very high. There are widespread anxieties over the basic food supply, employment, health in general and AIDS in particular, government instabilities, education for children or self, increase in thievery in many urban areas and others…” Some implications are: Friendships strained as they borrow from friends and can’t pay back. They aren’t in credit card debt but instead to their friends, they have the constant...Read More →
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May 8, 2008
African Friends and Money Matters: 1-5
As I stated recently, I am reading the book African Friends and Money Matters in preparation for my trip to Zambia. This book is broken up into 90 general observations about the differences between African and Western cultures. The author appropriately states that these are general observations and, like in any culture, there are exceptions to them. I am basically going to try and read about 5 of these observations every day or so until I leave. We’ll see how my plan goes. I’ve found these observations really, really fascinating. Here are the first five: The financial need that occurs first as the first claim on the available resources. Resources are to be used, not hoarded. Money is to be spent before friends or relatives...Read More →
