The Beaman Family Weblog

Missionary Todd Hudson encouraged me to post my testimony. This is a great idea. I wish I would have thought of it. The following is that testimony. I first heard the Gospel when I was eight years old. A family member had died and I asked where she was. The reply was heaven. That sounded good so I asked how I could go and join her. When this was explained I wanted to pray the prayer right then and there. The problem was I did not know who Jesus was and what he had done for me. Years later I heard a sermon from Romans 10:14 which stated, “How shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard?” This made me realize that I was not a Christian. I had not prayed to someone I believed in and I had not prayed to someone I had ever heard about. That night I called on Christ to forgive me of my sin and to be my savior. Many months later I was baptized by immersion to show to others what Christ had done in my life. I have never doubted God’s saving grace. Salvation comes by Grace alone, through faith alone, and in Christ alone.

“Love is naturally productive of love; it scatters heavenly sparks around, and these kindle the gentle flame where they fall…Let a minister of Christ ascend the sacred desk, with a heart glowing with the love of souls, and what an amiable, engaging figure does he make…Love gives a smooth, though sharp edge to his address.  Love animates his persuasions and exhortations.  Love breathes through his invitations and renders them irresistible.  Love brightens the evidence of conviction, and sweetly forces it upon unwilling minds…

My glorious and condescending Lord has appointed me the most pleasing work—the work of love and benevolence.  He only requires me to shew myself a lover of souls—souls, whom He loves, and whom he redeemed—souls, whom his Father loves, and for whom he gave up his own Son unto death—souls, whom my fellow—servants of a superior order, the blessed angels, love, and to whom they concur with me in ministering—souls, precious in themselves, and of more value than the whole material universe—souls, that must be happy, or miserable, in the highest degree, through and immortal duration—souls, united to me by the endearing ties of our common humanity—souls, for whom I must give an account to the great Shepherd and Bishop of souls.  And, oh! Can I help loving these souls?  Why does not my heart always glow with affection and zeal for them.  But, ah! To love them more! glow, my zeal!  kindle, my affections! speak, my tongue! flow, my blood! be exerted, all my powers! be, my life! if necessary, a sacrifice to save souls from death!  Let labour be a pleasure:  let difficulties appear glorious and inviting in his service.  O thou God of Love! kindle a flame of love in this cold heart of mine; and then I shall perform my work with alacrity and success.”

Samuel Davies believed the above statement with all of his heart and soul.  He departed this world on February 4, 1761, at the age of thirty-seven.  His first wife and child perished on September 15, 1847.  He knew what it meant to languish in moods of melancholy, expecting death, but only heartache followed.  These times of darkness prepared him for the rigors of ministry, and the love of souls spurred him on to greater service.  May we carry the banner of the cross with as much dignity and grace.  Knowing that “He that goeth forth bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.” Psalm 126:6

This month Trinity Baptist Church of Ndola started meeting on Sunday mornings. We start gathering at 10 for prayer, singing, and Sunday school. At 11 we begin our Worship service. The number of visitors is not staggering. We have had four new contacts in four Sundays of meeting. What has encouraged me the most is being able to minister together as a family. Our meetings before consisted of an Adult Bible study and a separate children’s ministry running at the same time. Kathy and the kids were mostly away in the young people’s meeting while I was alone with the adults. Now we are able to have corporate prayer, singing and worship together. Not that we have not been together in the ministry’s we have visited. It was different. Those ministries were not “ours”. I don’t say that to say that we own the ministry in Ndola. The Church is the Lord’s and He has promised to build it. Somehow with me preaching and having my family all present has been very special. What the Lord has in store for this ministry I am uncertain, but I am certain that this has been a real blessing and the when God calls you to do something He equips you for the task.

Well if you are reading my blog you know that my posts have been few and far between in the past year.  I apologize for my lack of writing.  Facebook is so much easier to keep people informed these days.  Your summer, our winter, has flown by with lightning speed.  We have had visitors from May to August to make our schedule full and fun.  The BJU Africa team was with us for four weeks.  This was a team of 18 and they kept us busy with ministry and with fun and games.  A couple of days after they left my brother-in-law and his family came for a three week visit.  This gave me the opportunity of going back up to the Luapula province for another survey trip.  We were able to pass out many tracts and give the gospel to those we came in contact with.  The area is deep bush and where David Livingstone died and his heart is buried.  The last months of his life were spent in this vast marshland teaming with Black Lechwe and hundreds of different bird species.  We then took the opportunity to survey the city of Livingstone and the surrounding area during a family vacation to Victoria Falls.  This is a city of two hundred thousand people and the hub of tourism in Zambia. 

Our family is thrilled to see the beginning of Trinity Baptist Church in Ndola.  For the past three years we have labored towards this end and a couple of weeks ago we had our first Sunday morning meeting.  We have had three visitors that were able to hear a clear Gospel presentation.  In the past month we have seen eleven young people come to know Christ as their savior.  In September I am looking to visit  the city of Chipata in the Eastern province for a short survey trip of the area.  We head home for furlough in nine months and one of my first term goals was to see as much of Zambia as possible to discern what is happening in this country for the Gospel.  During the week I continue to teach at CABC.  I am currently teaching Pulpit Speech, Church History, and half the semster, Systematic Theology.  This keeps me quite busy.  On Saturday with the assistance of another missionary and a couple of my college students, and some men from our Ndola ministry, we have been passing out invitations for Church and tracts as well as helping a pastor friend prepare for ordination.  Thank you to all who have been praying for our family.

John Smith and I have been talking of surveying the surrounding towns and cities for some time. Now that I am mostly recovered from my accident we decided to venture out to the city of Chingola. Chingola is about an hour away from Kitwe and is another one of the large cities in the Copperbelt. Home to one of the largest open pit mines in the world it is definitely by looks and feel a mining community. The city center was nice and the shopping centers were similar to that of Kitwe and Ndola. We split up with John going to the left with Pastor Edward, one of our graduates from CABC, and I went to the right. In a mining town I hit the mother lode. No less than two hundred teenagers came walking by me as they were leaving school which was situated around the corner and one block over. As quickly as I could hand out the tracts they were taking them until I ran out. My truck was close-by so I walked over and pulled out several hundred more tracts. I then met up with Edward and John and they were laughing because all the kids that passed them already had tracts. John and I then went in search of where the kids were coming from and Edward stationed himself on the corner. The entire time we walked to the school we passed dozens of students each one receiving a tract. Imagine the impact the Gospel could have on that school! In our walks we spoke to many adults and found the same results. Most are Catholic, Pentecostal or Jehovah’s Witnesses. In the week that followed I have received many texts from those that were given the Word. The area is needy. We know some successful mission work is being done in that city, but much more is required. Pray for the city of Chingola that God would send forth laborer’s into that harvest field.

On Tuesday I headed out with another missionary and my two oldest boys to see the Luapula Province and Lake Bangweulu.  This area is famous for being the site of famed missionary David Livingstone’s last months of ministry and where he died and his heart is buried.  Our first order of buisness was to see the monument and gravesite of the famed missionary explorer.  This took us an hour off the main road through marshland to a quaint little village.  As we took pictures we drew a few people and were able to ask them some questions regarding their faith.  They were Roman Catholic, but very responsive to the gospel.  We gave them each a Bible and a study on salvation.  After paying our respects to Livingstone we headed to Kasanka National Park to stay the night.  This is a

beautiful place that is well known for its rather large fruit bats.  None are present this time of year, but in Nov and Dec they have over 8 million bats filling the sky.  Now that is a sight I would love to see!  We brought our own food and the park chef prepared everything for us.  The men working there were from the New Apostolic Church and the United Church of Zambia.  I left ten Bibles and study guides with the staff and we headed out to Mansa in the North.  This is a town that is an important cross road for those coming and going to the Congo.  As in any other place we saw many Catholics and a great number of Jehovah’s Witnesses.  One of the JW’s took my Bible study material and was thrilled.  This proved that he was only a JW in name.  A true JW would fear disfellowship and will never take your material.  On Thursday we headed to Lake Bangweulu.  This place is awesome.  Picturesque and quite inviting.  The problem is lots of Crocodiles, Bilharzia, and the Tsetse fly.  The Tsetse fly is now on my list of most annoying creatures.  They are a bit bigger than a house fly but very aggressive.  When they bite they draw blood and it hurts!  Many times we were swarmed by them on our journey.  We drove around the lake and gave out tracts along the way.  All in all we learned that not much is going on if anything at all for the sake of the true Gospel.  People were everywhere, but walking in darkness.  In July we will return and hopefully have the opportunity to preach and teach as well as hand out Bible study material.  Pray that our efforts would have effect on the hearts of the people we met and left literature with.  “Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God”.

On Tuesday morning I was riding my motorcycle over to the Hafler’s house so I could speak with Steve.  This is a residential area and the speed limit is about 35 mph.  When I was nearing his home a car pulled out in front of me so I cruised around him on my bike.  This brought me right up to Steve’s driveway and so I put on my brakes and went to start my turn.  That is when I heard a car shifting gears and speeding towards me.  What I did not know is that I had a car coming right behind me when I passed the other car.  I knew I had left the passed car well behind me as he was driving slow.  The car following was looking I believe to buzz by me as well.  When I came back into the oncoming lane to turn into the drive way he had just started speeding up after he passed the other car.  I heard the tires squeel as he locked up his brakes and then wham I felt the impact.  The crash immediately removed me off the motorcycle but my left foot got tangled on the peddle and the gear shift and then smashed against the road.  My momemtum pulled me free and sent me flying superman style through the air.  All I could think was “wow my foot is killing me, and I better get out of the road”.  I quickly rolled into the Hafler driveway and yelled for help.  This quickly drew a crowd.  Many were yelling at the driver that hit me while one lady tried to remove my helmet.  This was prevented by my chin strap.   After a minute Steve came out and got the crowd under control and took care of the motorcycle.  The next door neighbor is a nurse and she made sure I was ok.  I was then rushed to the doctor.  After many x-rays everything came up negative.  I have many bumps and bruises and a very swollen left foot.  There are no cuts or scrapes to speak of.  My motorcycle looks like nothing happened.  The Lord intervened on my behalf and for that I am thankful.  In a couple of weeks I should be as good as new.  Though no more 4 door cars as passengers.  I prefer to ride alone!

October 24 is Independence Day for Zambia.  In 1964 the Zambian flag was raised for the first time.  President Kenneth Kaunda recieved the passing of the baton from the last Governor of Northern Rhodesia, Sir Evelyn Hone.  The flag of Zambia is a field of geen depicting the richness of Zambia’s land, the red stripe represents the struggle for freedom, black the people, and orange the nation’s mineral wealth and the eagle is taken from the nations coat of arms.  The national anthem is as follows:

Stand and sing of Zambia, proud and free

Land of work and joy in unity

Victors in the struggle for the right

We’ve won freedom’s fight

All one, strong and free…

Praise be to God

Praise be, Praise be, Praise be

Bless our great nation

Zambia, Zambia, Zambia

Free men we stand

Under the flag of our land

Zambia–Praise to thee

All one, strong and free

When we first started thinking about coming to Zambia several years ago I began researching areas that were more remote and less reached for the Gospel.  Two of the areas I targeted were the Northern and Eastern Province.  In September we have our mid-term break from school and during this time I had the opportunity of seeing these two regions.  I was more than satisfied of the great need represented in this vast part of Zambia.  The overall size of Zambia is imposing.  As big as Texas and few good roads to get you where you want to go makes the task of reaching these people for Christ difficult.  The Eastern Province is around a sixteen hour drive from Kitwe and the Northern Province up to Mpulungu takes over thirteen hours.  We spent several days in each Province and utilized our time in the North to see what is going on spiritually.  During our 13 hour trip we counted over 35 Kingdom Halls until we got tired of the game.  Upon walking the streets we were met by Muslims, Seventh Day Adventists and of course the Jehovah’s Witnesses.  Currently our team is making a plan on how to best reach these areas for Christ.  If we do not act the false religions have shown they are already willing to make disciples.  I hope to return to the Northern Province to research another area in the next several months.  Our plan is to do some evangelism in this area next June/July.

This week Andrew, Isaac, Emily, and Paul had the privilege of attending church camp at one of the local churches.  Three were on one team and one was on the other.  Andrew had the opportunity of being one of the “youth” leaders and he really enjoyed it.  They came up with cheers and costumes to help spur their team on to victory.  During the week they were challenged from the Word of God and were encouraged to memorize verses as well as participate in the games.