Like most of the world in the twenty-first century, Zambia is a complex place where generalisations are inevitably inadequate. This is certainly the Third World (or 'Two-Thirds World' as more modern jargon would have it) and there is plenty of evidence of that. At the same time, the copper industry is experiencing a boom with record world copper prices pressing higher; as copper is the essential engine of the Zambian economy the country is doing quite well in relative terms. The mines are reprocessing old tailings using new processes, new mines are opening and copper smelters being built to process the metal. Roads to and within the Copperbelt are being improved. Along the main route to Lusaka, Chinese contractors are working as fast as Africa will allow to install fibre optic cables to improve the still poor communications to the mining area and allow high-speed internet access in the future. Towns like Chingola are doing well out of all this, and are centres of employment that provide a wealth that would otherwise be difficult to obtain in Zambia. The number of vehicles around town, the dress and appearance of the local people and the blossoming of satellite dishes on homes are all testimony to the good times.

No-one could reasonably expect that everyone would benefit, of course. Some people are not going to take part in this kind of economic growth, because it is hard to get a foot on even the first rung of the economic ladder. With unemployment over 90% that is especially true in Zambia. In the towns the poorer areas are visibly much poorer. From a Christian viewpoint, the churches in different areas reflect the economic difference. Chingola's Central Baptist Church, which has  an excellent ministry in English only, is not a great building by any Western standard, but the pastor is quite well looked after (as he should be!) and on Sunday morning the grounds soon fill up with parked vehicles. The sermon is delivered in first-class English that uses a range of vocabulary that would stretch some British congregations. The Scripture exposition is high quality: the pastor has preached in the West and could easily hold down a pastorate anywhere in the world. Accountants, electricians, mine workers of various kinds make up most of the well-dressed congregation. These are people with standards and ambitions that would be recognised anywhere in Europe or North America, although they retain a wonderfully Zambian manner as well. A number of them will have earnings that easily exceed our budget as supported missionaries.

Not very far from central Chingola, there is a district of town called Chiwempala. People here are poor. The Chiwempala Baptist Union Church is well-filled, but there are just a couple of vehicles for all the congregation. This is a vernacular church - the local language is used because the far lower education standards mean that the 'official' language of English is not always well understood. People are not so well-clothed and certainly not so well fed as their central Chingola brothers. The offering is small by any standard not because the people are not faithful but because there is so little money. The pastor gets paid something, but has to be supported by gifts of food as well because the congregation cannot fully financially support him. The exposition of Scripture has to be tuned to African ears and understanding that is more traditional and less knowing of the ways of the developed world. There are not many Bibles, nowhere near enough hymn books. The people here face problems and temptations that are quite different from those that afflict the people of Central Baptist Church. There temptations are common to the human race, of course, but the battle is at a different level in this environment.

There is a third level in Zambia, the rural poor. Even just a few kilometres outside the towns there are mud and thatch huts with no electricity, piped water or waste disposal, children in ragged clothes and a wholly different view of life. These people retain traditional thinking. Unemployment is virtually 100% and living is subsistence level. Witchcraft and animism are dominant and affect even those who become Christians. Indeed, being a serious Christian in this environment is very hard. The tendency is to retain at least some traditional beliefs along with Christianity. English is very little used - in some areas not at all - and to quite a few people practically unknown. One Zambian in conversation referred to this way of life as 'out-country;' as one travels away from the towns and industrial areas, life becomes more and more traditional and less and less touched by the twenty-first century. Communications can be very poor. One might drive to Lusaka in five hours along decent roads. Going 'out-country' might take two days for a similar distance. The educational and medical facilities here are few. Zambians who have managed to get clear of this way of life are not likely want to go back. In one such area, Nabwalya, the first Zambian pastor has only recently gone to serve alongside missionaries. Zambian pastors who have studied at Bible college and attained good education consistently refuse to go to such areas because of the poverty and because most view the witchcraft as a serious and dangerous menace, to be avoided rather than fought. It is useless to compare all this with Europe or North America. Even the contrast with Lusaka is almost too painful.

The need for missionaries in Zambia is something that can be debated, at least when one considers the prosperous areas. African Christianity is alive and well, although grievously affected by the pedlars of the distorted gospel of the health and wealth movement. The exploitation of Africans by the charismatic/pentecostalist movement is also distressing. Africans are easily persuaded by systems that do not even bother to refer to the Bible for authentication, although in that respect they differ little from the adherents of Hillsong and similar movements in the West. You may be offended by the comparison, but it is true enough! Still, there are good churches in Zambia. The Baptist Union is committed to a real evangelical position that puts its namesake in the UK to shame. The number of people claiming to be adherents of the Christian faith in Zambia is over 75%. The President, Levy Mwanawassa, really is a committed believer.

Still, the problems are many. The kind of thinking that questions the need for missionaries in a place like Zambia, coupled with a decline in the support for missions across the Western world, is threatening to turn the real needs in Africa into a spiritual crisis. The myth that revival is sweeping thousands into the kingdom daily is being spread by churches that quite frankly would not know true biblical revival if it bit them in their collective leg! Zambia, like many other countries, needs its missionaries, and that means that giving by Western churches, both financially and in terms of people, has to continue. The spread of the gospel to the poor and needy depends on it. It is realistic to expect the better-off Zambians to do something to support the work, but there is no possibility of their being able to meet the needs unaided.

Maybe there needs to be rethinking on two levels in the West. The first is the most obvious: one message recently told of a church in a very small town in England planning a £2 million rebuild. Now, granted that the church in the UK needs decent facilities, but can that sort of expenditure be justified in the light of the poverty of so many who still need to hear the gospel?

The second level is closely related: does the Apostles Creed mean anything when it says "I believe in . . . . the catholic church, the communion of saints?" That is not intended to be a facetious question, but a reminder that the very essence of the Christian faith is that the Lord is gathering his church from every nation and tribe on earth into one people. Being British, or American or Zambian, is not the issue. When I take the Lord Jesus Christ by faith as my Saviour I no longer look to London, Washington or Lusaka as the place for me. I join Abraham in looking for a city whose builder and maker is God. My earthly loyalties are going to be very short-lived, and I am already called to consider my brothers and sisters in the light of eternity.

From its beginning in the New Testament, the people of the Christian faith knew they were called to consider others of the same faith and meet their needs, across regional and national borders. Paul unashamedly presented the needs of the church in Judah to the gentiles across the Roman world, collected what was given for them and put his own life at risk to deliver the gift. James puts the challenge in terms we can easily understand when he uses the illustration of a rich, well-dressed man visiting the church, at the same time as a poor man, badly dresses. He says that if we treat the rich man well while the poor man is kept down, we have become judges with evil thoughts who dishonour the poor (James 1:27 - 2:6). Africa's poor are not going to come in to most Western churches anytime soon, but it should not mean 'out of sight, out of mind.' They need the gospel, and the exploitation practised by the charismaniacs will not reach most of them. Africa's poor Christians may never be seen by most Westerners until we meet in glory, but they are our needy brothers now. Please pray, and please give.