Friday

Today James took Robert and Brian up to Kabanana to see the Lusaka College.
They sat in on one of the classes and then had lunch and were able to meet the students there.

It went well and then Robert had something to deliver to one of the boys there from his sponsor back in California.
So they went to his home and gave him the gift. He liked it, though the Zambian culture is very reserved in expressing their excitement or even approval of something. (At least all those that we have interacted with). So his older brother was watching on and he seemed to express some of the joy and excitement.
Last Friday when we delivered the mosquito nets and blankets and sweaters, we only got an occasional smile.
Though one boy, Wisdom did get visibly excited about the new sweater when I asked him to try it on.
It was refreshing, and Fanny said, he couldn't contain his excitement.

Often I will take a picture of kids asking them to smile and they are pretty expressionless and then after I show them themselves on the camera they will break out in the smiles and laughter. Only then its too late.

So we head up to the Copperbelt tomorrow for the weekend. Robert and Brian are flying up and we will be driving. As soon as we arrive I have a meeting scheduled with all the orphans and I am bringing letters and pictures of their sponsors for them.
I also made cookies and brownies and hope to give that to them as a treat. Brian brought over a duffle bag full of medical supplies and toothbrushes and toothpaste, so I have packed the toothbrushes and paste to give to the kids.
Maureen translated all the letters and she will be going with me to meet the kids.

Pastors arrived

Pastor Robert Elliot and Brian Borgman arrived here early this morning. They are scheduled to teach this coming week at the Copperbelt Ministerial College.

They joined James, Emma and I as we visited an orphanage that I have been visiting the last few weeks.
Here is a picture from this morning. The kids at the orphanage are just starving for attention. They come up to us and just all wanted to be held and loved on.




They will head up to Ndola on Saturday. We are also going up to visit over the weekend.
Please pray for the preaching and the upcoming classes this week.

Traveling around Zambia

We saw this pretty soon after we left Lusaka.
I had no idea what this meant.
It is quite common for the minibuses around town to have sayings or just words on their bus, but this one was quite funny. What is this supposed to mean?




Driving around Zambia is interesting. As soon as you get out of the main cities, there is really just huts and villages everywhere. The drive we took to Eastern Province and up to South Luwangwa Park was on one of the main roads in Zambia.
It is a 2 lane highway. With Monkeys, cows, chickens, dogs and goats roaming about. Not to mention all the people walking on the sides of the road or riding their bicycles.
Once we came over a hill and their were about a dozen monkeys just hanging out in the middle of the road.
Another time, Cows crossing back and forth. One almost ran into our car.


As part of James's job as missions coordinator we made two quick stops on the way up and then attended a church service at one of the churches in Petauke.

We also saw the boys that herd cows. One of the churches in Sinda has a ministry to reach out to these boys.










Sometimes we saw smoke rising up in the distance from far off villages.



One of the challenges of traveling is that you can not stop whenever you want for gas or food. We drove all day long and apart from a few snacks I had brought we didn't eat lunch and then didn't have dinner until about 8:30 at night.
There were no places to get lunch. Same with using the facilities. We stopped at one of the gas stations at which point we opted to continue on until we found a place in the great outdoors outside of town. (Think worst public bathroom you have ever seen and then multiply it... that would get you out of town fast!)
Coming from a girl who used to get off the interstate, take a good look at the gas stations from the outside and then choose which one to stop at, this is quite a change to say, "Let's get out of town and then find a place. " Who would have thought?!

The other challenge is finding a place for us to stay. We stayed at 3 different places, all of which included me in one house or cottage with some kids and James in another with the other kids. Not quite what you picture when you think, "Family vacation". And then they charge you on a per person basis. So each person has to pay, not just a flat rate for the room, so it can be very pricey when you are paying for 7 individuals.

We really enjoyed the time in the Park, though we thought it was ironic that we were the farthest out in nature we have ever been and it was not peace and quiet at night. We both didn't sleep very well. We heard lions and Hippos burping and making hippo noises all throughout the night!

South Luwangwa National Park

One of the most amazing things to see was all the different animals together.
Elephants, Impala, Zebra, Bush Buck, Kudu, Monkeys, Warthogs, Birds...
It Made me think of what it will be like in the new Heaven and Earth, where the lion lays down with the lamb and all the animals are living in harmony. This scene also made me think about what it would have been like for Noah and all the animals after the flood.

We saw so many animals, but when we would drive up to a valley and just see animals everywhere, all kinds of them together, that was truly Amazing!



There were so many hippos!




This picture looked like the hungry hungry hippo game. 4 of them floated into the corners. We tried to explain the game to the kids but realized they have never played it or seen it!








Elephants











Ian scoping out the wildlife with his binoculars



On the last drive of the day they surprised us with a bush brunch!
We were driving way out where no one was and we arrived with a table set up and tea and a full brunch.
We overlooked the river with hippos. It was quite nice!




The Baobab Tree

The Predators

We saw LIONS and LEOPARDS









We saw a leopard in the daytime up in the tree, then we saw him again that evening drinking water at a stream.
The photo doesn't capture the beauty of it all. It was so beautiful, the driver turned the engine off and shined the light on him and we just sat there in the peaceful quiet and watched him with his reflection in the water.




Then the next evening we saw a leopard again with a kill. It was up in the tree. An impala.
The leopard was guarding his kill, and at the bottom of the tree were about half a dozen hyenas, just circling.

Lusaka Ministerial College

Post by James

Thanks very much for praying for Lusaka Ministerial College, which began meeting in the middle of May. We are more than half-way through the first term, which will end in early August. In our first couple of months we were here, we saw a great need for and interest in theological training in what are called “compounds” or townships—what we also call shanty towns, which are unplanned areas that have a high density of population and poverty. Churches seem to start up and close down overnight here, and the main “education” for those doing church planting are the TV preachers or tent revival sort of speakers they may happen to have come across. All of this only serves to confirm the people in ignorance and superstition with a glaze of Christianity cast over it all. Most people in the compounds would profess to be Christians, and a large majority go to “church,” and yet the drunkenness, laziness, superstition and dishonesty in these places remains dominant and entrenched. Whatever gospel is being proclaimed is certainly not “the power of God unto salvation” from the enslavement of sin and ignorance. It is usually, rather, the promise of prosperity and riches and healing (if you have enough faith), mixed with some self-help counseling on topics of interest. The name of Jesus is readily and frequently mentioned, as well as different Bible texts, but all with a distorted meaning and disconnected from a truly Christian worldview. That is the bad news, but the good news is that several of the pastors in these areas feel their need to know God’s Word better, and are teachable and engaged.

I began to speak with pastors in these compound areas about the need and potential for training. Eventually, the idea of starting a college formed. Though there is a theological institution run by the Reformed Baptist churches here and elsewhere in Southern Africa (called Sovereign Grace Theological Seminary (SGTS)), it is mostly a correspondence school, and is out of range in terms of location, curriculum and cost for the pastors in the compound areas. With the blessing and help of the churches here, therefore, we started this work back in mid-May. We began by meeting Wed and Fri mornings, but have since extended the hours until 4pm on those days to make sure we cover the courses thoroughly by the end of the term. The college is set up to have three terms per year with about a month off between each term, which is how schools in Zambia operate. We are planning on teaching 4-5 classes per term. The majority of lecturers are pastors in the area, and I am also scheduled to teach at least one class per term. Right now, we have 19 students, which is very encouraging. The students pay a modest fee for the school, and also for the books which we ask them to read. The fees are a bit of a challenge to meet, but not impossible. They cover about 20% of the school’s costs right now. The reason we require payment for the school and for books is that Africa as a whole has been cursed by a hand-out mentality that dominates the society. Often, missionaries have unwittingly fostered this mentality by simply giving out for free everything to the students. And where there is no personal “investment,” there is often little personal application and impact into life.

The other area we think is critically important is mentorship of the students. This is a bit of a challenge with students who are pastors of churches. However, we are asking instructors to visit at least one of the students’ churches per month, and also that the students visit one of the instructors’ churches once a month. You can see the reasoning behind this articulated well in Pastor Mbewe’s blog from a recent forum he participated in, where he talks about preaching being “caught not taught”: www.conradmbewe.com. In short, the issue is that we are wanting to do more than dump instruction on the students. It is our burden to see that they “get it” and that their churches change and grow as a result. And that cannot be done without relationship on the personal level, pastor to student, and on the corporate level, as a student sees and participates in the normal local church life of a healthy congregation.

About our students: around half of our students have a Pentecostal background of one type or another, and the other half are mostly Baptists, with a couple of other types mixed in. Many of our students started the churches which they currently pastor. These churches are usually under 30 or 40 in attendance, and the pastors have a very low salary. The churches are usually fairly new, having begun in the last three or four years. In light of the theological diversity of the students, we made it clear upfront that we would be teaching from a Reformed perspective and have a confessional basis. We ask that students let us know of any disagreements with the statement of faith which the college believes. However, many of the students don’t have a confession of faith in their churches and are not clear on what they believe themselves. But I also told the students that we aren’t here to change the church sign or denominational affiliation of any of them—just to see them come to understand and apply God’s Word in their lives and churches. The great need here is first and foremost a grasp of the heart and message of Scripture, and the development of a consistent and faithful way of interpreting and preaching it. So, that is our concentration. Thankfully, we have had help in teaching courses from others, including Victor Kanyense and Isaac Makashyini, two Reformed Baptist pastors from the area. They are doing a great job and it is a privilege to be able to work with them in training the men.

Starting a college has proven to be a huge undertaking! It consumes a lot of my time and energy, as I am wearing a lot of “hats” like the college administrator, principle, lecturer for two of the five courses, lunch coordinator (now that we meet in the afternoon), and a lot of other jobs. I am seeking to get some of the students and other lecturers involved as much as possible and am beginning to get some help from them, which is a relief. We now have a small library taken from books I brought over earlier for KBC. Because the books were a combination from two libraries, we had a second copy of several of the books, and these are now acessible for the LMC students. What a blessing, since we didn’t even know that this college would come into existence when we first planned the KBC library project! It is encouraging to see the men checking out Martyn Lloyd-Jones, J.C. Ryle, Sinclair Ferguson, A.W. Pink, and other good authors when the main influence to this point for several men had been Benny Hinn, Kenneth Hagin, Joel Osteen, and others. During the interviews with the students, such teachers were commonly mentioned in answer to the question, “Who has had an impact/influence on you and your ministry?” Those of you familiar with these names will understand how it was sad to hear that and showed how much work there was ahead. In the first couple of weeks, I hit hard the prosperity gospel which teaches that the more faith you have, the more blessings and prosperity will come your way. It is a huge problem in Zambia. The students were receptive and seemed appreciative of these lessons. The Lord has helped us and it is encouraging to see changes in their thinking and interaction slowly developing as they sit under the teaching in the college. We need much prayer for this work!

Another Level

Living in Africa is difficult. Every day there are things that don't work as they should, something that was suppose to happen does not happen, things take twice or three times longer to accomplish than back in the States.
Sometimes things seem like an Endurance test. It's long and hard and then when you think you can't wait any longer, or hold out, you have to wait more and hold out some more.
Roads are rough and crowded, water is cold, and trickles out instead of full blast many times, ...the list could go on.
My point is not complaint but stating the difficulties here.

But living in Africa is difficult on another level. Not just difficult because we come from a pampered life style in the good old US of A, where we can expect certain things.
But difficult because of what we see and hear every day. DIfficult on an even greater level.
I felt this most last week.

We see so much. Just in one day, last Tuesday for example. Everywhere we drive we see kids in tattered clothes, no shoes.
I was visiting a friend's house and realized that she only has water for a few hours each day.
Then the time at the orphanage, which I already mentioned about Akim. But another little boy was crying and crying. One of the workers was kind of rough and tired of his screaming and grabbed him and took him to another room to cry by himself and settle down. He tends to cry everytime I am there but that day he was even more upset. He was eventually brought back in and started crying again. I was putting another baby down and saw him start throwing up a little. It was from being worked up and crying so much. So I went to get him and wrapped him in a blanket and took him to the porch. He laid his head on me and just wimpered and tried to settle down.
It was time to go and so I had to put him back and then he started crying again.

Leaving the orphanage to pick up the kids, I passed the UTH hospital, which is known for not being a good place to go when you are sick, but the only option for most Zambians. Next to the hospital is the morgue. Where I pass the turn off to the mortuary, there are 2 signs that stand out and then a line up of ladies selling flower arrangements. The one sign talks of the risk of AIDS and promotes abstinence and exposes the lie that relations with a young girl does not cure AIDS, and the other sign is a simple one posted to a tree and says, "Cheap coffins for sale".

At the next traffic light there was a funeral procession with the casket. Every day we hear or see a funeral procession.
Every day! If we are not driving around town and see one, we will hear one going by the house. Because people stand in the back of a truck and sing as they drive to the burial. A couple streets from us is where one of the graveyards is.
After we picked the kids up I told James in the car on the way home that Akim died, last week. And then I just started crying. When the woman at the orphanage told me, it was so matter of factly, because it happens all the time.


As I was waiting for James at school, one little girl came up and told me that her Auntie died and earlier this morning Sarah said a classmates cousin who was 8 yrs old died. Encok was off early one day to attend a funeral as was Mr. Chipeta a few weeks ago. Then as we drove onto our road we saw a mentally ill man walking in only a pair of shorts and torn up socks. He was covered in dirt and just walking around. And it was windy and cold.

I did see Johns at the market last week and he helped with the bag. I was noticing he had a torn up falling apart windbreaker on.
So after we got the vegetables I went to a place where they were selling used clothing. They had jackets for $4. I wanted to get him one. So I bought it and gave it to him and told him to wear it. He put it on reluctantly and I was not sure why. Then when we went to the car I tried to explain I did not want him to sell it, or have another boy take it, but it was for him. He said ok ok and then put it on. Well he left and normally I take off in the car, but I had gone with a Zambian friend and so I went back to look for her. I was standing by the entry and saw him. He just stopped in the distance and looked at me. I waved and looked at him...no coat on. Then I looked away trying to find my friend. Then a few minutes later he walked by with the coat on and said, "Hello Madame" and waved.

So I don't know if the other boys will say something to him, or if he gave it away for something, or if he hid it somewhere b/c he looks more pathetic in rags and therefore might get a better "tip". I don't know, but even that was a bit discouraging.

I had asked my friend in Kabanana to see if the kids we are starting to support there have warm blankets and coats, what they need to be fine for the cold. She said no, and now is going to find out what we can get for them.
But these are just examples from the past week. It is hard living here. One friend told me that over the course of a month, her mother goes to about 20 funerals. But this is normal. I don't think I could explain it to the Zambians why it is difficult. And I think maybe even the few Zambians that I know read this, might not understand exactly, because it is not normal for us.

I wrote to a friend back home and was explaining the difficulty of all this, but I said it is not that I want to leave. I don't. I just wanted her here to go through it with me. To help.
So that is the "another level".

Thankfully in God's perfect timing we had already been planning a "holiday away". We have been here almost 6 months and were both feeling the need to have a break. So we left last Saturday and just returned home last night.
We went to South Luwanga Park. So the next few blogs I hope to show pictures and tell you of our "Holiday".