Blog Contest #2!!

14Sep10

Preaching in Petauke

While Gordy was off the Makungwe with John to preach against HIV/AIDS stigma, I was doing the same think in Petauke. The Reformed Church in Zambia (RCZ) church in Petauke has about 1,000 members and 2 services. The 8:00 service is in English and is attended by mostly young adults. The 10:00 service is in Chewa. Had I known there would be so many young adults at the early service I would have preached a different sermon, one on responsible behavior. There were probably 200 people at the first service and probably 500 people at the second service, which was packed to capacity.

The interviews we’ve done in Petauke show that there is a lot of stigma towards people with HIV/AIDS and it is even in the RCZ church there is Petauke. There is even stigma in that RCZ church as people complained that since their HIV/AIDS diagnosis they weren’t chosen for leadership positions. So the anti-stigma sermon was in order. My friend Rev. Pearson Banda, the coordinator for the HIV/AIDS desk at the RCZ synod office says every sermon can be made into an HIV sermon and he is right. It is very easy to incorporate something about HIV into a sermon. At the close of the second service the elders and the pastor presented me with a gift, shown in the picture below.

The new contest is for you to guess what is in the bag. The first person to guess the correct answer wins the prize, yet to be determined. Blog contest ends 22 September 2010 at 8.a.m. Houston time. So, put your thinking caps on and come up with a good answer.