Office of Public Relations
Missouri Baptist University
One College Park Drive
Saint Louis, Missouri 63141-8698
314.392.2307 / fax 314.392.2265
www.mobap.edu / pr@mobap.edu
For Immediate Release
RE: MBU Students Support Zambian Missions
MBU Students Support Zambian Missions
July 3, 2003
Five Missouri Baptist University students spent 24 days in Lusaka, Zambia supporting the missions effort of IMB missionary Mike Howard, May 27 through June 23. Fourteen days of the trip were spent in the wild African bush conducting hut-to-hut evangelism and educating church plant pastors and small group congregations in Christian living, marriage and the family, and basic evangelism.
The team, led by MBU professor of religion, Dr. Curtis McClain, had initially planned a Jesus film campaign for the purposes of evangelism and church planting. As they joined Howard, however, their vision for their trip shifted as their primary goal was to enrich the ministry that the missionary had already begun. Together, they worked, prayed and encouraged each other daily.
The team spent time with four young churches. One, simply named “New Church,” held service with two of four church walls built. They taught pastors and their congregation, touching many lives with their ministry.
Traveling the 30 kilometers of log entrenched dirt path to New Church took over two hours through the bush, as pastor of church plant, Muyanga, does once or twice a month as leadership to the new establishment. A thundershower postponed the service, as there was no rooftop, and was followed by blistering heat. Howard, McClain and students Danny Baker and Ben Hedrick presented the gospel for 2-1/2 hours, sermonizing on holiness and repentance to the 25 natives that congregated.
Howard has been working in Zambia for 15 years, 12 of which were spent church planting. During the time, he has helped startup and build over 200 churches, including the four the MBU students visited.
“As a team and as individuals, we fell in love with Zambian Christians. Now, that is the gospel,” says Dr. McClain.
Team member and junior religion major, Holly Mertz, agreed, “They are the kind of people who would give us their last piece of bread when it meant that they would go hungry. In addition, they were very open to the gospel and to the Word in general.”
“This was my first over-seas mission trip,” says Mertz, “and it gave me the realization that there are places in the world where the people have not heard the gospel yet at all. God did not need me to do his work there; He could do it without a single human hand if He so desired. I am just ecstatic that He blessed me by letting me be a part of what He is doing in Zambia, and I am praying that He sends me back.”
Christianity was initially introduced in Zambia in the 1890’s by foreign missionary groups. Currently, 85% of the country’s population reports Christianity as their religion, the largest denomination being Roman Catholic. Zambian life expectancy has fallen from 51 in 1990 to 42.6 in 2002 as 10% of the population is HIV-positive.
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Missouri Baptist University is a premier Christian university in Saint Louis, offering graduate and undergraduate studies in over thirty specialized fields and nine degrees. MBU's education and fine arts programs are nationally known in addition to business, religion, administration of justice, and more. MBU is one of the fastest growing higher education institutions in Missouri with an enrollment of over 4,500 students at five locations in the bi-state region — West County, Lincoln County, Jefferson County, Franklin County and the new Illinois extension at Lewis and Clark Community College.
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