Doug & Barb Petersen Newsletter (Spring 2021)

Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory, through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore
my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the
Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.

I Cor. 15:57,58 NKJ

Dear Family and Friends,

We trust that you are all well. I know we are all ready to be done with Covid-19 protocols.  Zambia has not had a large-scale problem for which we are very grateful. Thankfully, Doug and I have been well the whole time. We praise God for His mercy and goodness to us regarding our health.  

Doug has been working long hours in the office. I will be starting to teach again next week as we begin a new term. I will teach Theology and Christology. We have 47 students who are excited to learn and grow. We praise God for this open door to share God’s truth with these young believers.

Those of you who have been with us from the beginning know the cycles of our year. This is the time of year we are able to run a fourth Boot Camp during school break. It is now Fall in Zambia so we are opposite of you since we are below the equator. This BC ran in Wangibasha and will finish this week. This location is where we are running a new BMW (Bible School)—It opened with 15 students. The infrastructure is still being built, but we were able to go ahead and get started once we had a dorm and a classroom built. Once again the BC has been overflowing with team members. We were able and willing to take the extra teens knowing that God has plans for their lives. It just didn’t seem right to turn them away, rather we would just stretch the budget to work for this number. Oscar Chama is coordinating this BC. He will be back this weekend and we will get more reports and know how many people gave their lives to Jesus. We do know that the first night there were 30 teens who gave their lives to the Lord.   

One thing that has happened in the recent weeks is that we have been hearing from team members and students from the past years who are still walking with Jesus and in ministry.  One couple, Alex and Janet Mulenga,  stopped in to see us. He was in the very first class of eight students over 20 years ago—we called that class the “ pioneers”. (Oscar Chama was also in that class.) Janet graduated with the second class. They married and have been with Operation Mobiliization (OM)since their graduation. We went back over a lot of old history with them. At that time, this land was not even close to being all cleared. In mentioning this, we just want to give God all of the glory for the young people, some are now middle-aged people, who have followed Jesus into many countries around the world. This is His doing.   God says, “One sows, another waters, another reaps and God gives the increase.”  We praise God for HIS increase.

Another young man, named Mutemba Kapepe shared with me the other day as he remembered being a little kid at the Solwezi Rescue Unit. He remembers when Doug and I led a US team there more than 14 years ago.  He grew up, going to school with the help of the facilitators, Richard and Mukuka Matolokoshi. He received Jesus at Boot Camp there.  Now he has graduated from BMW and is an intern here at Ndola base. He said, “Everything I am, God has worked in me through the Teen Missions Ministry.”  We give God the Glory.  Another young man, Mwewa Kashingwa, told me the very same thing. He was at the Luswishi Rescue Unit. He could not speak English when he came to Bible school, but he wanted to come  so badly and he said, “I will learn.”  He has worked so hard and is reading and writing and still learning. But to see where these young people have come from and where they are going  with the Lord, we can only give God all of the glory since He is the one who changes lives! We share these stories to encourage you and to lift up the Lord Jesus. He says in Rev. 12:11 “that we overcome the devil through the Blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony and loving not our lives even unto death”.

We will give you a peek at the Wangibasha Boot Camp with a few pictures. They do all of the usual things like have Bible classes, run the OC, do puppets and music classes, have rallies at night and light their candles as they go out to work on their projects. We still get blessed every time we see the young ones and the impact a Boot Camp can have in changing their lives forever. I trust that the pictures will bless you also.

Thank you again for your love, prayers and support,  We love you!!!

God bless you as we labor together…

In His Harvest,

Doug and Barb Petersen

Matt. 6:33  Gal. 2:20