Professional Dissertations DMin

Date of Award

2010

Document Type

Project Report

Degree Name

Doctor of Ministry

College

Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary

Program

Doctor of Ministry DMin

First Advisor

Skip Bell

Second Advisor

Stanley Patterson

Third Advisor

Walton Williams

Abstract

Problem

The failure to meet the basic needs of life for the many widowed women in Kabwe East and West Mission District of the Adventist Church has affected the faith of widows in God’s ability to help them meet their physical needs and has eroded their confidence in the ability of the local church to help, as well as the genuineness of purpose the local church has in helping its needy members. The many widowed women in this region of Zambia, represented as 50% by some researchers, make responding to the problem urgent.

Method

Literature on leadership and community efforts to solve the needs of life was surveyed. Investigation of the biblical and Spirit of Prophecy teachings on the feasibility and possible advantages of teaming up in small or larger associations was done. Indirect- participant-observer cases were used to shed light on the nature of the problem and possible solutions. Their suggested solutions were scrutinized for application. The resulting observations were evaluated for strategic implementation in solving the problem.

Results

Women have recovered the will to enthusiastically fight against life problems, the will to win and the will to live in the hope of faith. The widows association was formed and their constitution was approved by the church and registered in the National Register of Societies of Zambia. As a result, their dependence on non-Adventist sources for help has decreased drastically and the witness that the church cares is evident.

Conclusions

The study establishes that by setting aside our differences as well as our feelings of hopelessness and working together for a common cause our differences tend to vanish and our desperation gives way to victory. Two-member teams as well as larger teams provide a basis for explosive evangelism and are effective machineries of need alleviation.

Subject Area

Widows--Zambia; Church work with widows--Seventh-day Adventists; Central Zambia Conference of Seventh-day Adventists

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.

DOI

https://dx.doi.org/10.32597/dmin/595

Download

Share

COinS