Pure Religion
Pastor Carter and Teresa Conlon plus a team of 49 from TSC arrived today in Lusaka.  Pastor Carter was received at the airport by church leaders and a few members of the press who interviewed him there. The team was a sight for sore eyes, as their arrival made the upcoming crusade all the more real in our minds. That evening, Pastor Carter, Teresa and the team joined us for dinner and shared a word of encouragement. Sister Teresa remarked jokingly that based on all the reports she had been given of our teams preaching and sharing in the churches and outreaches, she did not know she would be addressing a ministers’ conference!  “There is enough Gospel in us to preach for the rest of our lives!” Pastor Carter gave us a word that the Lord had given him for us that very afternoon from James 1:27 - “Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.” He also exclaimed from 1 Corinthians 2:9 that “eyes have not seen nor ears heard …the things which God has prepared for them that love Him.”  He exhorted us for having the desire to reach out to the poorest of the poor with the heart of Christ, saying: “a ministry that does not have a heart for hurting humanity, is not of God.” He challenged us to be willing and ready to preach the gospel whenever we are asked without fear, saying, “Don’t dishonor God by apologizing, because it is not you who speaks but the Holy Spirit in you."

Come All Ye Who Are Sick…
Since Monday, October 25th, the medical and dental team has been serving hundreds of people each day at the free medical clinic set up by TSC at Woodlands Stadium, the venue for the crusade. Before the medical clinic opened, the outreach teams worked hard to prepare the medications that were to be given away and clean the area where the tents were set up. The clinics will be open all day through Sunday, October 31st.  The TSC team was joined on Tuesday by a team of 19 from Nigeria, led by Dr. Iko Ibanga, of Pro-Health International, a ministry supported by TSC. The total team of 45 doctors includes: 6 surgeons, 3 eye surgeons, 1 OB/GYN surgeon, 4 doctors doing diagnostics, 2 dentists, 1 optometrist, 20 nurses, consultants for lab testing and HIV testing and education, and  volunteers who do whatever needs to be done to help the process along. The clinic is set up with six tents – three examination tents, one lab tent, one eye exam tent and a large tent where patients are processed and sit to wait for their turn. The surgeries are performed at a popular nearby clinic that offered the free space. Every morning around 9:00AM, all the medical/dental outreach team and volunteers gather to have praise and worship with the crowd waiting in the large tent. For many this is the highlight of the day -- to worship the Lord together dancing and singing with the Zambians. A word is shared and the business of healing begins. 500-700 people are seen each day. HIV/AIDS education is given to the patients while they wait, and outreach teams share the love of Christ with the children and adults. The clinics were widely advertised throughout Lusaka and many poor Zambians have come a long way to see a doctor, often walking long distances because they cannot afford the transport. And the Lord meets them there. Each day the medical/dental teams leap down rejoicing from their bus with many praise reports of healings and Holy Ghost interventions in their work. One team member exclaimed, “I am having the best time of my life…”   
 

You Don’t Really Know Jesus Do You?
The prison outreach team went to visit their first prison today, the Mwombashi Prison, 45 minutes outside Lusaka. The team is working alongside African Prison Fellowship, a ministry supported by TSC based in Cape Town, South Africa. The team ministered inside the prison to the prisoners and almost half raised their hands wanting to know Jesus. At the end of their visit, one of the African Prison Fellowship team went to see the prison warden in his office and the Holy Spirit gave him a sense that the warden was not really saved. He spoke all the right words but did not seem to have the personal knowledge of Christ that characterizes the born-again Christian. The team member confronted him and said, “You don’t really know Jesus, do you?” The warden waffled an answer saying he was an elder in his church, but in the end he finally admitted that he did not. The team member shared the gospel with him and prayed with him, and led him, right then and there to the Lord.
 

Walk Softly and Carry Your Double-Edged Sword
The orphanage team visited a school today attended by orphans as well as poor local kids who cannot afford books or uniforms. As usual the team played and shared with the children. Although the school is state-run and officially Christian, the team soon realized many of the children did not have an intimate knowledge of Christ and began to share the gospel with them. As the team scattered to minister to the different groups of children, the team leader was surprised to find two of our softer-spoken sisters fearlessly casting out demons out of two demon-possessed girls. Praying ardently, they beheld the girls convulsing and finally lying there still as if dead. Then the girls regained consciousness and were set in their right minds. After some members of the team prayed for her, another girl started speaking in English, a language she did not speak before, then prayed in tongues for another five minutes after that. To God be the glory!