Siamabele

I have no idea how many kilometers it is to Siamabele, but it takes 90 minutes in the Izusu, and Ruhtt could rarely inch the speedometer past 70 kph. Kadonsi led the way on his motorcycle because the turn off the main road is not marked, and the next turn is in the bush, and it would be impossible to distinguish unless you knew it well. After driving down this narrow dirt path with tall grass brushing the vehicle on both sides, we turned east and a wide area opened up. Ruhtt explained that this is the river, and you cannot cross it in the rainy season. After last Sunday’s rains, there was water pooled across the trail where the vehicle was supposed to pass, so Kadonsi led us through the marsh grass on the left side of the trail and the tracks we made soon filled with water behind us. Mary Beth was coaching Ruhtt from the back seat, so we wouldn’t get stuck. 300 meters more and we were at Siamabele Church of Christ.

A beautiful brick building stands out in the middle of nowhere, near a bore hole that is 80 meters deep, surrounded by grass, and bush, and trees of varying sizes. The smells of Zambia greeted me – dust, smoke, dry grass, people. Our excited hosts greeted us one by one and we were given seats of honor under the tree. Once again we were served chibwantu, but Ruhtt explains that we’ve already had breakfast, so there was no need. I think Mary Beth and Sherry were relieved; no one wanted to get sick because they ate or drank something that is foreign to their stomachs. Their courage had increased by lunch time when we were served nshima, village chicken and goat. The nshima was great, but even I passed on the chicken and goat. It was well cooked, but not my favorite.

Ruhtt brought us to Siamabele to participate in a marriage seminar weekend that began on Friday and would last through Sunday. It is difficult to describe what this is like because there are few points of reference in North America. Some of these people have walked distances from surrounding villages, they will sleep on the ground for two nights, eat every meal together (mostly chibwantu and nshima), and listen to speaker after speaker all day long. On Saturday alone, there were 3 presenters before lunch, (Mary Beth, Kadonsi and I), and 3 presenters in the afternoon (David, Sherry, and Mr. Mono). David spoke to the men, while Sherry spoke to the women. There was even going to be an evening meeting that began at 7 p.m.

One of the problems in this church is the way that men are choosing one scripture (1 Corinthians 14:34) and binding it in such a way that they are not allowing the women to speak at all – not in church, not at home, even to their husbands. That seems really ridiculous, but God taught me an important lesson today. Tradition can very easily get in the way of the identifying characteristics of a Christian, which are loving one another and submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ. There are other problems here, too, all of which would disappear if love and mutual submission ruled every thought and every action. I ask you, how is that different from my home congregation, or any other place? My prayer is that God will keep this lesson alive in my heart in the coming days when I return to the life I live “that side”. ----- Martha

This is the original meeting place of the Siamabele Church of Christ.

Here we are at Siamabele:  Sherry, Mary Beth, Martha, a church leader, David, and Oscar, our translator and friend.