Love Thy Neighbor

A Letter from Charles and Melissa Johnson, serving in Zambia

April 2018

“Can you stay and talk with me? Since you work for the church you may be the person I need to speak with.” In another context this might not have been surprising, but today I was standing in the bright, sunlit courtyard of the home of Ishmael, a local businessman who was one of the first members of the Indian community Charles and I met when we first arrived in Lundazi. The quiet woman with the black headscarf who wanted to speak with me is Ishmael’s sister, Nashira. It seemed as if those around us instinctively knew that this was a request for a private conversation, and as I turned to speak with Nashira, everyone else seemed to quietly distance themselves from us. Nashira started telling me her story, a story that is filled with sorrow and loss. But as heartbreaking as her story is, the thing that struck me the most was the women having this conversation — an American Christian woman standing in Zambia having a conversation with an Indian Muslim woman about the struggles in her life and feeling abandoned by God.

Sometimes I wonder why God has brought me here to Zambia, especially when I am feeling frustrated by the slowness and the challenges of working in another culture. As Americans, we expect things to happen instantly, but in Zambia, even simple things like opening a bank account can take months. But then something like this happens, and I realize that God has a plan much bigger than mine and He can use me in ways I would have never imagined and that are far outside my job description to show His love and grace.

While our jobs with PC(USA) as mission co-workers partnering with the Church of Central Africa Presbyterian, Synod of Zambia (CCAP) focus on development work in the areas of agriculture and health, God uses us in every aspect of our lives here. Sometimes I think one of the most important ways God works through us is in building relationships in our community. God is also working through the people we meet to change and transform us.

Charles has a tattoo. Yes, you read that right — a tattoo! Are you surprised? The tattoo reads, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” But it is nearly impossible to love our neighbors if we don’t know our neighbors. Relationships matter. Stories matter. These are a few examples of those stories and relationships.

A Rasta man, whose dreds are always neatly contained in a head wrap, a man who wears small, oval wire-rimmed glasses and an infectious smile, helped transform the house we are renting into a beautiful, comfortable home. Brother Ledebbe Tembo is that man and he is an artist, although he would tell you that he is simply a painter. This quiet, humble man worked in our house for several months when we first arrived, painting the entire interior of our house and laying tiles in some unfinished rooms. During the months he was working here in our home, we realized that not only was he transforming this house: he was also transforming us by helping us learn about the language, the culture and our community.

Without even trying, I was also able to teach him a little about us and our culture, which frequently challenges the gender roles here in Zambia. I was changing a door knob one day and had a screw driver in my hand. Brother Tembo expressed a sound of surprise and asked me if I do construction. Laughing, I told him that, yes, I can use a screwdriver and do small repairs, but I wouldn’t consider that construction. He said that such a thing is unheard of for a woman in Zambia. Most recently, my co-worker Richard Willima and I hired Brother Tembo to paint a space at the church. I was taking pictures of the transformed room and snapped a picture of him. He told me he has no “snaps” of himself. After promising to print one for him, he stated that he didn’t want to be a part of “Babylon” and explained that in today’s world there is so much confusion and falsehood being spread through the internet and that he doesn’t want to be a part of that. I was struck by how relevant his comments were, given the current state of our country and the world, and how similar we all are despite our differences.

Some of the relationships are not comfortable and sometimes even a little scary, and I feel God prodding me to get out of my comfort zone. There is a woman here who suffers from mental health issues. A woman whose name we don’t even know. Sometimes she is perfectly normal, and other times she is screaming, violent and demanding. In the beginning, she was just someone who yelled and demanded money from us when we saw her in town. Then she tried to move into our house when we weren’t home because she was once again homeless, having been chased from where she had been squatting in a vacant house. Thankfully, she was afraid of our dog, Gus. While these interactions were disturbing, they never really challenged me or softened my heart. As we drive down the dusty, red dirt road to our home, we frequently pass her outside the dilapidated house where she is now staying just a short distance from our gate. She yells and points, and we avoid making eye contact, telling ourselves that there is nothing we can do.

However, after a recent sermon given by our friend Judith Mwanza about showing God’s grace and love — even to those who make it difficult — God has been prodding me and making me reconsider my relationship with this woman. How can I show God’s love to this woman who is loud, demanding, difficult and possibly dangerous? Through this difficult relationship, God is pushing me out of my comfort zone to show love to this woman who is our neighbor.

God calls us to love our neighbor as our self. Through learning our neighbor’s stories and building relationships, we change each other. I would have never imagined the diversity of people and the relationships that we are forming here in Zambia. Even more importantly, without taking time to get to know people, to listen to their stories, and to build these relationships, we would have never known or imagined our sameness. God is transforming us, and we hope that we are also transforming those we meet by showing them God’s love and grace.

Charles and I want to thank each and every one of you for your prayerful and financial support for our ministries here in Zambia. Charles’ work as a development specialist and my work as a health education program facilitator provide us with endless opportunities to develop new relationships as a part of the transformational work being done through the holistic ministry of our partner CCAP. We would love to hear your stories as a way to continue to build our relationship with you. Drop us a line via email or snail mail. Our emails are: melissa.johnson@pcusa.org and charles.johnson@pcusa.org. Our mailing address is P.O. Box 530124, Lundazi, Zambia 10100.

We invite you to continue supporting our ministries here with your prayers and financial gifts. We invite you to come to Zambia to start writing your own stories and building relationships that will transform your life and the lives of those you will meet.

Melissa