7 Days of Zambia: Day 2

The My Hope Vision? 'You Have to Catch It'

June 5, 2011 - Lunch and tea breaks notwithstanding, Day 2 was all about catching a vision, or as the national coordinator so eloquently puts it: "Take up the arc and go."

He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.
— Mark 16:15

By Trevor Freeze

Can you ever be too tired to sleep? Insomniacs may have something to say.

But after catching choppy winks over a 48-hour period, I finally crashed. Think hard drive on a six-year-old PC.

So much so that a to-go granola bar and a handful of nuts sufficed for breakfast. Although I can’t deny, I did think about the “Yum-Yum” on several occasions.

Day Two of training was crisp and focused. Or maybe that was just my mind cleared of the cobwebs.

“December 1 through 3,” National Coordinator Mpundu Mutala emphasized the national TV broadcast dates. “If we lose our focus, we’ll lose our energy.”

Day Two had some similarities to the first day. There were the usual tea breaks (the British influence remains) with muffins and a short lunch, consisting of the country staples, beef, rice and nshima, a food resembling grits that many will ball up and eat with their hands.

But the biggest difference was in talking with the coordinators, as the vision was starting to take root.

“I like this program because it comes in line with my passion,” one pastor from Chililabombwe said. “I am so much inspired.”

“This is my time to stand in the gap,” another pastor from the Copperbelt said.

“This is a strategy that perhaps we’ve never thought of here,” said yet another from Chipata.

But the quote that summed up the spirit of this training came out of a small meeting of the four regional coordinators:

“You can’t teach a vision, you have to catch it.”

Watch the prayer dedication sendoff here.

By the time coordinators were saying their goodbyes, exchanging contact info to pray for one another, it was nearly impossible not to have caught this vision.

My Hope is targeting 6,000 churches, 60,000 host “Matthews” in effort to reach 600,000 Zambians. It’s a pretty significant number in a country of 13 million.

In the United States, it would be like having a goal to reach 14 million Americans with a Gospel presentation over a weekend broadcast.

“God is sending you out,” Mutala said. “Take up the arc and go.”

And that’s exactly what these coordinators did.

Well, not literally. But in every other way.

They hopped in their cars or carpools, caught the late-afternoon bus filled with plenty of hope for their country.

My Hope was now Their Hope.

"7 Days of Zambia" is a first-person blog, following the My Hope Zambia project through the lens of a reporter. For more info on the My Hope project, click here.

Day 1: Running on adrenaline.