Greetings from Luanshya! This will be the last of the weekly updates for 2005 and it seems like just last week we were just starting this year. Time flies when you're having fun!
People all over town are asking "How was your Christmas?" Usually in Africa that means: "Did you have enough food?" Our Christmas was, indeed, wonderful, but it was not just about the food on the table.
Our weekend began with S.C.U.B.A. - the Friday afternoon Bible Club for the children. Every week the group grows. We have two more weeks to go until school resumes on 9th January. We appreciate your prayers as we continue to teach the children the Bible truths they are learning on Friday afternoons.
On Saturday, Christmas Eve, Colin and I visited the six veterans of World War Two that live in Luanshya. Most of these men are pretty feeble now. They fought in the "Northern Rhodesian" section of the British armed forces. One of them travelled as far away as Japan and Burma. We took food "hampers" supplied by eight different businesses here in Luanshya. These men were so touched by the fact that someone had remembered them that one of them actually hugged us - not common among
men of this culture.
On Christmas Sunday morning I went to the golf course for my "Caddy Chapel". There were not many men there because of the rain, but we had a brief time of prayer and I shared a portion of Scripture. Some of these men have started coming to the Wednesday Bible study and the Friday film presentations.
After the service we went to the Lighthouse Children's Home and passed out goodies to the children including toys, clothes and books. The older children each received a small bottle of perfume/cologne. The whole house was filled with a "sweet aroma" for a few days. We remember the first Christmas there five years ago. We only had three children at that time and they were petrified with fear. On that first Christmas the house was filled with the odour of medicine because all three children were being treated for cuts and abrasions from the physical abuse they had been enduring in the village. What a difference love makes!
Our Christmas blessing did not end on Sunday. One of our visitors asked me to come by and visit him at work on Tuesday. He is a teacher at Luanshya Boys High School. I took one of our young men with who is studying the "Evangelism Explosion" lessons me. We talked to Mr Kafuli for about 45 minutes and he accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as his personal Saviour.
Yes, we had a marvellous Christmas! God continues to bless. Our year has been filled with challenges and victories. We are looking forward to the coming year and deeply appreciate your prayer and support for this ministry.
Together in His Service,
Patrick & Sherry
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This is a regular (almost) update of the multi-faceted ministry of Patrick and Sherry Coleman who serve the Lord in Zambia, Africa.
About Us
Patrick was born and raised in the Los Angeles area of California. He moved to Lubumbashi, Zaire, (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo) in 1985. In 1991 he was evacuated from Lubumbashi because of civil unrest. Patrick based his family in Luanshya, Zambia.
Sherry was born and raised in a Jewish home in New Jersey. She came to know the Lord as her Messiah and personal Saviour when she was 17. She came to Zambia in 1990 to administrate a correspondence Bible school. She also taught in area schools and in churches.
They met and were married on August 1, 1997.
Today both Patrick and Sherry Coleman serve the Lord together in Zambia. Their ministry responsibilities have grown. They own and operate the Lighthouse Children's Home with six AIDS orphans, they have opened their personal library to the public in Luanshya through the Christian Resource Centre, Sherry still has a correspondence Bible school and Patrick still works with local church leaders as well as serving in leadership at Fellowship Chapel in Luanshya.
Note from the Web Guy
Greetings from the Web presence of the Coleman Ministry. Please check the archives for any posts you may have missed.
This is the Colemans' oldest son, who is responsible for this website. My father refers to himself as "Technologically Reclined". Despite my best efforts to make posting to this site as easy and quick as possible, he insists on using the worst method available and occasionally forgetting to notify me for more than a year.As a result, sometimes posts get added in the background. They do not hit the front page, which only shows the latest update I have received, reformatted, and republished. As of this writing, I have a dozen posts to put up and back-date, and more coming in. I estimate that I will finish this effort by late July. Maybe not this year, but it will be a July.
So please, peruse the archives.