Post holiday boring bits and pieces (Clearly more holidays were needed!!)

So I left you after conference.  My memory of things that happened between now and then is now rusty! But here goes . . .  Schools were meant to be on holiday, however Bethesda continued as we had outreaches coming to see the school.

The kids with Sandra

Me on a home visit

Sandra making the most of the 'fancy' equipment we have here

About time I had a photo of someone cooking Nshima!!

Nandi is a gorgeous wee girl with Cerebal Palsy, she was the one we home visited.

Eric, having written his name for the first time, albeit backwards.  Still, when I came he could only do an E. Shows how pushing a kid can sometimes be beneficial.

One of the outreaches involved ‘the shoe ministry’ and the commencement of distribution of the hundreds upon hundreds of shoes.  It was definitely eye opening.  When goods are donated, it seems like it can often create jealousy for those who don’t get whatever it is.  It’s a delicate operation to give them to who you want to have them, without getting a whole pile of additional people turning up also.  And how do you balance giving items without creating dependency? Or people just comi

ng to you because of the free stuff?  Seems like the whole thing can be one massive headache!

I had the opportunity to lead the Bethesda discipleship group.  I decided that we should mix things up a little.  Typically the discipleship group looks somewhat similar to a church service.  So I decided to take a piece of scripture – 1 Corinthians 13 v 4.  Pretty much all I did was ask them questions, and tried to get some discussion about what they thought was patience, kindness etc.

This week I also finally got to attend the Makalulu branch that had started.  It was cool to be able to meet the people there.  Suprisingly the group consisted of mainly males, the opposite of the Nakoli group! (The Nakoli group and Makalulu group combined the following week for the final one for the term.)

The Makalulu group and Nakoli group combined

Lukando and Peter.  Lukando is a bright wee kid, he attends a normal school, his Dad brings him to the Makalulu group.

The following week, it was pretty quiet:

The Highs

• We had our neighbour and also some missionaries over for dinner/lunch.

Missionaries at lunch with Jono

• Jono got to give/preach the bible study at church on Sunday

Jono doing his thing

• We had Tuesday off. Welcome break. I love holidays

The Lows

• Most staff members were on their two week holiday.  For some reason our temporary team leader decided that Bethesda support groups needed to keep going so we attended those. 
• We went to Lusaka to drop some kids at Beitcure Hospital for their club foot operations.  I got to briefly see the paper machae chairs and standing frames they make (that part was not low).  While we were there we realised that our immigration stamps was due that day, so we rushed back to Kabwe to try and get it on time.  

• While we were in Lusaka we went to the Zambian health council to see how my registration was coming.  They told me I hadn’t submitted my certificate of good standing, which I told them I had emailed through to them as I had been advised I could.  So off they go to check their emails to find it there!  Sigh so now it MAYBE in the process.  They hadn’t replied to any of my emails, and I sent several, they hadn’t answered their phone and I called several times, Jono got in touch once with them, and they were going to ring back, which they didn’t.  Pay all this money (more then what I pay for my NZ registration) for them to sit on their arses doing nothing.  To top it all off they sent me a letter saying I had to respond with my certificate of good standing in 7 days otherwise they’d terminate my application, which I received a month later, the day after we’d been to Lusaka and I’d talked to them in person! Sigh.  It seems nothing gets done here unless you go in and do it in person.  And I still haven’t heard from them since then, I’ve been too busy to chase them up too.

The Other

•  Jono had been working on getting ahead on TTC stuff, preparing lessons for the next term.
• I had to lead discipleship again!  Part two as I didn’t finish the previous week (I was hoping to cover 1 Corinthians 13 v4-8), still didn’t finish it though! Not sure I enjoy that role very much.   
•  



One of the many big things that drive on the roads here

• 

  A sight I never thought I'd see, so therefore there had to be photographic evidence!

 Prayer thanks

• We had a fabulous week off, visited South Luwanga (to come in a blog at some stage), awesome sights
• We've had safe travels
• We're feeling a bit more refreshed which is great.

Prayer requests

• For continued safety while we travel
• For my physio registration
• That we'll connect well with locals and fellow missionaries
• That we'll place God number one then our marriage

Bethesda prayer requests

• For healing and progress for our patients and kids
• For the land application
• For increased financial support
• For the team to expand and grow for the future
• For Bernard and the application for the electronics course
• Continued prayer for the accident victims

OM prayer requests

• Thanks for the finances to start building the dormitories, pray for further finances to finish them
• For  whomever the new leader of OM Zambia is (we've been away, but we assume they've appointed someone)

No more holiday :( (FOR NOW!!!!!) :) :)

Internet and busyness continue to be problems.  I guess that's the way here?!
As if having a holiday wasn't busy enough.  The weekend right after Mum and Dad left we headed to Mkushi for an outreach.  We were invited to go there by Pastor Makanda when we were in Insano.

Points of interest from Mkushi

• Hotel Zambian styles.  The Mukushi church had very generously put us up at a hotel (really sweet of them).  However!!! It had no hot water, and minimal running cold water, luckily the toilet worked!!  We asked for some hot water so we could have a bucket wash.  I think the others went ‘ah la natural’. Ew?
•  I found priorities here somewhat strange!  We went to two separate house that are nice by Zambian standards.  They both had massive flat screen tvs.  I used the toilet in both houses, neither toilet had a toilet seat, toilet paper, or a sink with running water!?!
• One of the funniest things I’ve seen here, was this solar type panel on the roof of a tiny straw roofed mud house.  I wanted to take a photo, but people you don’t know can be funny about taking pictures here.  Why on earth would you need a solar panel, on your hut that probably doesn't have electricity?
• Why we were there: We went out door to door in the community to try to minister to people, encourage them and try to get them along to church.  The actual time doing that seemed a bit on the short side. 
•  The hospitality was great and we were well fed again
• Jono once again had the opportunity to lead the bible study!  He's turning into quite the preacher!

The outreach team

Church on Sunday morning in Mkushi

Some rocky business near Mkushi

Typical scene here, fire on the side of the road

'Serenity' Sunset on the return journey

So I've lost some weeks, as I am SO far behind and haven't written up much on word!  Ut oh!

I'm unsure exactly when things happened.  However here's some possible points of interest from the next few weeks!

• We moved from frustrating shoes, to frustrating books.  We went to help set up the bookshop which is new (about to open).  We get there and are asked to help place books in piles on the already full shelves.  The books on the shelves have NO order.  So trying to match the books coming out of the boxes to the ones on the shelves was like this ridiculous memory game.  Being the 'absolutely amazing and logical' person I am I suggested alphabeticalising it to make things easier, which was shot down.  How on earth is this process logical?? How many piles of each book is there?? What happens when you want to find a book? You walk round thinking I think I've seen this now where was it again?  Talk about banging ones head against the wall!
• We washed hundreds of chairs for conference.  I think that may have been about the only useful thing we did leading up to conference! For some reason we seemed to miss the handout of jobs, maybe we got back from holiday and everyone had already been assigned everything or something.

Some random pictures - to try to keep you interested!
Looks like someone had a whoopsie!

So we like our sunset pictures

Conference (points of note, perhaps?)

• It was good but in what appears to be typical Zambian style, it was packed leaving little time for rest!  I don't get why you need two key note speakers in one evening, and how come at christian conferences they don't seem to leave time for your own personal time with God.  
• Jono got to sing as part of the worship team. Unfortunately for me (as I love my sleep) his slot was mainly first thing in the morning, 6.45 AKA RIDICULOUS O'CLOCK.
• Jono's highlights were the talk we went to on knowing God more. It talked about a cycle - Spend time with God, Know him more, love him more, obey him more, he reveals more of himself to you, which means you know him more, and more of his will (Knowing God's will was the title of the talk).  
• For me, probably the most challenging thing came from one sentence someone said.  "You can tell how much of a servant heart you have when you get treated like a servant".  I realised my 'servant' heart was not really that servant, as I seriously dislike being treated like a servant.
• We both enjoyed the workshop on living in submission.  It was fascinating to see the clash of cultures.
• We had a Bethesda stall in the missions tent which we manned from time to time.  We had quite a number of people come through. It was good to talk to people about Bethesda and we've hopefully made some good contacts.

Jono doing his thing

More of his thing

Conference venue

The duet he did :) In front of hundreds of people . . . with very little practice

Every blog I wonder why I don't take more photos!  I really need to get in the habit of it!

Prayer thanks

• For safety while we've been travelling
• This week has been a dramatic week, Peter and Brendah's son ran away from home, it took about 4 days to find him. However thanks be to God he is at home now safe and unharmed.
• Some of the Bethesda school kids seem to be making reasonable progress.  
• For the privilege of working with such awesome kids (even when they are naughty)

Prayer requests

• For safety as we travel
• For an enjoyable time in South Luwanga (we leave for a break tomorrow), with lots of awesome animal sightings :)
• For my physio registration. I haven't heard anything and I've been too busy to follow up on it.
• That we'll enjoy our time here and connect with locals and fellow missionaries well.  I've continued to feel a bit flat/homesick, but it seems to be getting a little better.
• That we'll put God first then our marriage, it's been a bit challenging given the busyness of late.

Bethesda prayer requests

• Continued prayer for those involved with the accident that happened on the way home from wheelchair camp.
• For healing for our patients and progress with the kids who come to school.
• That the children will regularly attend class
• For the land application
• For increased financial support
• For the team to increase so we can expand which is our future vision.
• One of our long term Bethesda Members, Bernard who suffered a spinal injury when he fell off the back of  truck on the way to a funeral, is very interested in electronics.  As a young man in his twenties who is driven and motivated to work towards his dream, Behtesda are supporting him in applying for a place on an electronics course at a vocational training centre in Ndola for young adults with disabilities.  The estimated cost is around $200 - $300 USD for the year including transport.  He may be able to get a bursary for some of this but we will not know this until he applies.  Please pray for funding for this course which will have such a positive impact on the direction of this young man’s life. 

OM prayer requests

• Thanks that we've received some finances for the dormitories.  So building work has started.  However more finances are needed to complete the job.
• For the right decision for a replacement leader for OM Zambia.

The final instalment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . of Mum and Dad's trip :)

I am seriously behind!!! It seems to be a struggle to get these things out now.  Combo of no/poor internet and busyness.

After spending the night in Lusaka we attempted to make our way back to Kabwe.  Our plan was slightly foiled by the buses being booked out all morning.  However we had another option, to taxi back, more expensive but better then waiting around in Lusaka.  Once we arrived back we went to the OM base and did the dam walk which has water lillies (for Mum)

 and then had lunch at the fig tree café (mmmm lemon meringue pie for Dad AND ME!!!).

Not how we saw it, but the water lilly patch one evening.

We then went to the Kabwe green markets (different from the Livingstone markets, people don’t harass you so much.) bought some veges, but I think the best bit of that was showing Mum and Dad the fish and catepillars that are for sale there.  Jono and I haven’t braved those yet! (Mum and Dad weren’t keen either!)

Sunday we went to church.  4 hour Zambian church service for Mum and Dad.  Quite different I imagine.  Perhaps they would like to comment about it!  It was quite challenging- a guy talking about how God is good all the time, despite the fact he’s going through struggles and couldn't really afford food that week.

Monday we started the day at the OM base for the devotional time.  Then we took Mum and Dad to Bethesda so they could see where I work, me in action kinda.  Once school finished we did a home visit to the Bethesda kid who hadn’t been at school for 2 months, to find that he needed to see the Dr (Jono took him later that week).  They pulled out their best chairs (that are rickety) for Dad and Jono to sit on.  Then we went to Nakoli school which is one of the schools OM has set up in partnership with one of the churches here.  From there we headed back to the base for a late lunch.  We showed them around the base and introduced them to some of the people there.  On the way home we drove a little way through Makalulu which is one of the shanti compounds here, this is where Bethesda is starting to branch into.  Peter and Brendah had generously offered to host us for a Zambian meal, which was lovely (and of course included Nshima).  The best Zambian food I’ve had here!

I love this, "Asphalt Roads Zambia", with a dirt road in front of it.  Sign on the way to Bethesda

Beatrice sitting in a box of balls - we have to make the most of what we can :)

Saw this sign near where we did the home visit

Eric walking - OH YEAH!

Come into class one day and what do I see Clement sitting there with these fancy shades on, what a crack up!

Unfortunately blurry,  but I really like it all the same!

Lovely smiles boys!

Tuesday we took Mum and Dad to the airport at Lusaka it would have been great to have had them for longer, but a REAL blessing to have had them for the time they were here.  We did a couple of other bits and pieces around Lusaka before heading home.  

And why didn't I take any photos of this bit of the trip! I've had to pad it with other photos (ut oh! Out of sequence, hopefully I don't repeat them!) so it's more interesting.

The part week that was (post holiday)

-          Upon return from holiday, we discover OM base is a hive of activity with the Love Africa conference coming up that weekend, I don’t think I’ve seen it so busy, everyone with their jobs to do.  

-          Wednesday Sandra and I taught the Bethesda children as Brenda was away.  What a tiring morning!  Huge respect to all the teachers out there!! I suspect the task would have been easier could I have spoken Bemba!

Just some more random Bethesda pics

Beatrice actually smiling, which is amazing, as she normally cries!

-          Jono took the Bethesda child mentioned earlier to the Dr.  This finally happened after several weeks of me prompting Bethesda staff that we should investigate why he hasn’t been there for so long.  It’s a learning/educational process!

-          The community clinic had a good turn out, with regular patients, which is good. 

-          The shoe ministry was back with a vengance!  Jono thought that it was over when we left for holiday.  He’d left the shoes with the UK shoes sorted on shelves.  Some people were going to tie them, count them and package them up.  There are 2 lots of donated shoes some from the UK and some from the US.  We return to find that all the shoes have been mixed up (although generally in separate boxes) and piled at the back of the book store, blocking the garage door.  They wanted to know how many there were, so Jono went and asked who he thought had been in charge of the shoes in his absence, only to find the shoes weren’t counted.  So we spent most of Thursday moving shoes.  It took quite some effort (and some muscles!) to move the boxes away from the garage door so we could open it.  Not the easiest task when there is limited space and big heavy boxes! Then the US shoes had to be transported to another location, which wasn’t ready till the end of the day.  Luckily we had some helpers right at the end of the day.  However we didn’t finish.  Friday was more of the same, shoes shoes SHOES!!  One perk is that Bethesda (i.e. me) has acquired some lovely shoes for the children!

Random picture

One of the many Abnormal/es that go past

Prayer thanks
- For safety while we've been travelling
- For the weeks holiday we've just had (more to come on that)

Prayer requests
- For continued safety on the roads
- That my physio registration will come through (haven't heard anything, sick of chasing)
- That we will really enjoy our time here (We've been feeling a bit busy/flat the last little while) and will connect well with locals and fellow missionaries
- That we'll put God in top spot followed by our marriage.

Bethesda prayer requests
- Wheelchair camp seemed to go off pretty smoothly, so thanks for that.
- On the way back from wheelchair camp one of the Lake Tanganika team ran over and therefore killed a two year old that ran out in front of the truck he was driving.  He got out to try to help and was beaten up by the community (which is sad since it wasn't his fault), the truck was also beaten.  Both he and the grieving family need your prayers.
- For unity amongst the team (different personality styles continue to be in conflict)
- For safety as we travel, we are heading up to Kitwe to visit another disability school.
- For the land application
- For healing for our patients
- For increased financial support
- For the Bethesda support groups to grow in number and spiritually.

OM prayer requests
- For the classes that have just started/about to start
- For finances to build dormitories.
- For the new leader (Melvin who has been leading OM Zambia is leaving for South Africa at some stage, I assume in the new year)