We've had no internet most of the week (story of my life!) however you are in luck as we got it back yesterday!
Weeks of the 13th ish and 21st Oct
- On Sunday we went to Grace church. I was feeling a bit homesick, and said that to a guy there. His family were heading out to Mulingushi for Sunday and Monday. He invited us along, and we gratefully accepted! It was so nice to get away from Kabwe and have a bit of scenery, go for a boat ride, a walk, and swim in the lake (and pool). The lake apparently has only a couple of crocodiles in it, lucky our limbs are still in tact! Their family (esp the Mum and Dad) were real passionate adventurous Christians, some of the most inspirational people we've met here.
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| On top of that rock again. |
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| I liked this gecko, seems a classic pose. |
Monday evening was a talk by the Mum (Tina). The following Monday evening she did another one. They were amazing. She read this book called 'a more excellent way', which talks about gaining healing by confession/repentance. She is so passionate about what God has done in her, and about his word. She talks about her old self (where she was on the mission field but she was angry at God and barely prayed or read the bible), and her new self and the transformation sounds amazing. It's been a long time since I've come home from a talk feeling like I want to get more into God/his word.
Thursday we had them round for dinner.
Also on Thursday we were told we had to attend a mid-afternoon meeting. We found out about it the day before which was after we'd already made dinner plans. It required a compulsory donation. It was only once we got there that we found out that it was a banquet and food was what the donation was for.
- Jono has been doing an inventory of items at Bethesda (which he finished this week). He also continues to help Peter with computer tasks, one week was help training-up with the newsletter, yes it does take that long! On both Fridays Jono talked at the Makalulu group, the main challenge was he had no interpreter for one.
- We attended the braii on Friday night, Jono got asked to say grace,
he commenced with “God thank you for the All Blacks” which was pretty hilarious
in front of a number of South Africans. That'll be the last time he's asked to say grace at the braii!
School continued to go reasonably well, I enjoy the children a lot.
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| Me making nshima under Brenda's guidance, with an onlooker! |
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| Jono also had a go, much to their amusement! |
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| Kids practising emotions. |
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| What do you do when your truck is too tall for the line that crosses the road? Lift it over the truck of course. Nothing like holding up traffic on the 'state highway 1' of Zambia/Africa! |
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| Ut oh I'm screwed when I get back to NZ! (read the small blue writing under "trading") |
On Saturday we went to the market, I brought lots of Chitengis. Answers to Kabwe-itis (while remaining in Kabwe) Chitengis and juice! (Maybe I’ll include chocolate too!!! Mmmm chocolate). We started watching a boring dvd 'Robin hood men in tights' I think it was meant to
be funny, however the humour didn't appeal to me. We didn't finish it. I couldn't. We also played risk with our neighbour, it's been a long time since I've played (I didn't do very well.)
- Tuesday we went to Volleyball only to discover
it was packed, so many people. So we
decided to bail, but Tina invited us in for a ‘coffee’ and we played pickle
ball with her and her son instead.
Pickle ball is great, like a cross between table tennis and tennis
- I had a small frame made for a 3 year old girl as everything we had was too big. I got to give it out, which was nice.
We had our first thunderstorm, amazeballs, and
our first rain (that was longer then 10 secs). I like rain so much more here! Its amazing what having so long without rain can do to you.
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| Jono excited by that drop of rain, do you see it???? |
Thursday 24th was Zambian independence day which
meant a holiday J
We were planning to head to Ibis gardens (haven’t been there but it has a pool)
but it was too cold after the rain/thunderstorm. Instead we headed to a missionary's farm and
spent some of the day there playing games/eating. We headed home and were busy preparing things
for the next day. We rewatched the pineapple story with our neighbour (he’d been feeling in a bit of culture shock).
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Friday we had the kids independence celebration – I made a
cake, pinyata (we papermached a balloon), pass the parcel,
treasure hunt, and they did traditional Zambian dancing.
We babysat on Saturday for a missionary
family/families most of the day had 3 kids, but part of it had 5! We were
pretty worn out by the time we finished.
Having kids is hard work!!
Prayer thanks
- For safety while we've been travelling
- We have finally obtained our work permits and my physio registration!!! We are now officially allowed to stay a year and a half longer then we intend to.
Prayer requests
- Jono would really love some more awesome thunderstorms
- For safety while we travel
- For our final week here in Kabwe to be good.
- For guidance about what to do when we return.
- That God would be number 1 our marriage number 2
Bethesda prayer items
- For Peter and Brenda as they lead
- For the property for the new school
- For the team to grow in number and spiritually
- For the Makalulu group
- For Sandra, she continues to struggle spiritually in Canada.
- For those involved in the accident
- For Samuel, one of the Bethesda kids. His mother burned his leg for stealing. It's a reasonabley big burn (about the size of 1-2 business cards) and will probably take weeks/months to heal.
OM prayer requests
- For Pastor Melvin and the leadership team to guide OM Zambia well
- For safety and enjoyable times for those going away over the Christmas break
- For good new recruits for next year
- For the building project
