Sweeter Than Sugar Cane

Company evangelism and evangelistic education sound like terms straight out of the nineteenth century. However, when a team of missionaries (three doctors, a speech therapist turned pharmacist, an experienced Bible worker turned teacher, and an English faculty member turned preacher) combined their efforts to put on a variety of events in Zambia. The results were surprising.

The team began in Lusaka hosting health expos in the capital’s Central Seventh-day Adventist Church as well as at a local business. After the initial health expo at the church, a television station caught wind of the free health services and came to interview some of the hosts. As a result a couple of successful businesses heard about what was happening and invited the team to inform their employees on the best ways to maintain or improve their health. At first the team expected to have Kettering Cardiologist Brian Schwartz give a lecture on preventing heart disease, a rising threat in Zambia. However, when the team arrived at the first business they were invited to launch a mini health expo. Fortunately for the team, Dr. Marge Cook and Terri Kennedy, also members of the Kettering Health Network, utilized their years of missionary experience to set one up on the fly. When they reached the second business, Dr. Schwartz’s lecture brought on some earnest questions from a couple of employees who sincerely desired to improve their health.

Before they left Lusaka the team also had the privilege of giving some encouraging words at a Christian orphanage. The visit to the orphanage involved a tour before some singing and short talks about the importance of persevering in the Christian life.

All throughout their time in Lusaka, the team was assisted and guided by a group of young people who regularly visit local orphanages and who participate in almost every form of evangelism and missionary work they can find: the IMPACT Team. This group of youth resemble, in some ways, the GYC movement in the U.S. and their willingness and energy inspired the U.S. team. Although the team had to part ways with Dr. Schwartz and his wife (who had hosted a week of prayer filled with health nuggets) they were able to take a couple of IMPACT Bible workers with them to Mazabuka.

The team departed for Mazabuka on a Friday afternoon; as they neared the sweetest town in Zambia, they saw the sugar cane fields burning in the distance. This is a common practice just before the harvest season. However, the Spirit of God would soon light a different kind of fire in this town as the team prepared for an evangelistic series. During the first four days the health practitioners held free health clinics at the same venue that the evangelistic series would take place: a soccer field next to the city’s police station. The church did a great job advertising the events with posters on trees and radio announcements. Hundreds of people flocked to the health clinics to receive free consultations and advice.

Every morning a group of dedicated church members gathered to a Bible working training class that would involve practical application during the evangelistic series and would ensure that the new believers would be nurtured after the mission was over. After the first few days Winston Green, the Weimar College theology student turned Bible work instructor, also took on another large responsibility: teaching the baptismal class. His duties continued to expand offering him an educational experience that he could never have received sitting in a lecture. After the health practitioners departed the people continued to gather every morning. Not wanting a golden opportunity to pass Winston and the Bible workers began to give the people nutritional and spiritual counseling. Most of the nutritional advice came from the IMPACT evangelist/Bible worker Hastings Phiri; who had a wealth of knowledge on natural remedies. This continuing stream of people traveling to the venue for prayers or advice ensured that the Bible workers in training would have plenty of outreach delivered straight to their class. Nevertheless, Winston made sure the class also had a chance to try some door-to-door action and they came out of it with Bible studies lined up after only a few hours.

The revival of old methods extended to the evangelistic series as well. English faculty member, Cosmin Ritivoiu, decided to write his own series of sermons using the themes and Bible verses in the first eight chapters of Steps To Christ mixed with the themes and verses in many chapters in The Great Controversy. To build up to the appeals he used a copy of Louis Torres’ Great Stories for Gaining Decisions that he had borrowed from one of his students back at Weimar College. Finally, to keep the interest of the visual learners he used a new presentation software called Prezi for most of his sermons.

The experimentation with old methods peaked in Cosmin’s estimation when he decided to have the local church elders and Bible workers go out into the field after his sermon. He asked the people to gather in small groups around the elders and Bible workers so that they could repeat the main points of the sermon and answer questions. All this took place before the appeal and closing prayer. At first this method met with some skepticism and some people refused to gather in the small groups. Nevertheless, every night Winston, Hastings, and the other Bible workers would come back with great stories of how they had clarified the sermon to the people. All this was a fulfillment of Testimonies to the Church Volume 6, page 88.

So, do these old methods work in this contemporary context? It is hard to tell because God ultimately gives the increase. The attendance to the series peaked at a thousand people on the second night. Fifty people were baptized in an irrigation dam next to the sugar cane fields at the end of the series. Twenty-two prisoners were baptized after studying with local church members and hearing the series from loud speakers whose sound carried over the prison walls. These seventy-two people underwent a series of serious questions from Pastor Choongo, a man who believes in quality over quantity. Ten Bible workers graduated from Winston’s course. Countless others received precious Biblical counseling to help with the struggles in their lives. In a town where molasses is so plentiful it is dumped on the road to cut back on the dust, a new kind of sweetness entered the hearts of the people. The psalmist exclaimed in Psalms 119:103: “How sweet are Your words to my taste, Sweeter than honey to my mouth!” Some of the people in Mazabuka would likely repeat these words after receiving a taste of the goodness of their Savior.