By John Launstein

LAST YEAR, CSB Ministries had the privilege of traveling to Lusaka to help establish a ministry to reach and disciple young men and boys in Zambia.

We learned of the opportunity when Jan Boone, executive director of GEMS, told us pastors in Zambia were desperate for a discipleship ministry for the boys in their communities. During a training tour this spring, the pastors shared testimonials of the life-change they were seeing in the women and girls involved in the GEMS ministries there.

Jan told us: “They proceeded to ask . . . nearly beg us, to bring a program for boys and men. They so want and need that.”

It turns out North American churches probably have more things in common with Zambian churches than not. While we may not face the poverty, lack of adequate facilities, rampant AIDS epidemic or devastating unemployment Zambian families face, the churches in Zambia struggle – as they do here – in getting men to engage in their God-given responsibility to disciple the next generation.

Peter Mung’omba, our CSB liaison in Lusaka, told us: “We have been looking for an opportunity to partner with a ministry that will help build our boys and men as committed Christians. Mentoring boys is of the utmost urgency, due to the prevailing situation in our churches and country. If boys and girls are taught and mentored, we will have strong churches, strong marriages, strong families – and a strong Zambia.”

Continue article >>

In August, several CSB regional directors, including Harold Browne from Ontario, embarked on a 30,000 km+ trip to help Zambian churches. Leaders from about a dozen churches gathered for a three-day training conference.

One of the things that really struck our team was the unexpected mix of modern technologies in such a poverty-ridden environment. We were told the average annual family income in Zambia is around $380, and the unemployment rate is in excess of 80 percent. But our training sessions were complete with video projection and wireless internet, and the Zambians who could afford it had modern cell phones.

In one session, an older man told us that in former days, most rural Zambian villages had an insaka. This was a place where older men shared their knowledge to prepare the young men for life. Several other men nodded in agreement, as they recalled this from their own youth in a village.

One pastor shed joyful tears as he described how older village men had mentored him as a teen. “I was shown how to make sleeping mats out of reeds. I could probably do it in my sleep even today – though I learned it over 30 years ago.”

Though the insaka concept is non-existent in the Zambian cities today, the participants got excited. God, they realized, can use this today. They understood that they could be a godly influence on their own sons and other boys,  through mentoring relationships with them.

While resources for launching urban insakas may be limited, these men gained a vision – and grasped its value. They are now partnering with CSB to impact boys and young men for Christ.

csbministries.ca

January 2011