LATELY in LUSAKA

Yesterday morning we visited one of the branch churches in Lusaka. P. Tembo and Justina and their 8 year old daughter Miracle, are an amazing family, very dear to the extended body.


P Renaldo and Charity were also visiting and we enjoyed [another] life changing message on FORGIVENESS. I have never heard the 'forgive and forget' phenomenum explained so clearly. I bet you haven't either.
Y

-> i will dble check on the reference and write a summary of the message, shortly...

After singing a beautiful song with Wezi, Jediah took on the task of watching the kids!
Apparently they had a lot of fun :)

Quote of the day

What am i saying?? QUOTE OF THE CENTURY:

"TEAM LIFE IS NOT SEXY."

P.R.

HELLO TIME FLIES

SOOOOOOOOOooooooooooooooooooo much to write, so much to say.... abt the last month and a half.

Last sunday, we picked up Sam from Uganda,whom Jediah had met in Kitwe on outreach,for our service. He is a businessman, married to a zambian lady. While tending to a crazy toddler and a hungry baby- i overheard P Renaldo say; the end of your forgiveness is the end of your love...
I can't love someone beyond my willingness to forgive them. That is just soooooo amazing. Cutting to the core of things.

This morning on the way to the team mtg, jediah read to us the intro of the 1st chapter of the book *crowded to Christ* by L.E.Maxwell (founder of prairie b. inst. that Elizabeth Elliott went to)

" I am one of the Jews who escaped from Germany, Says Abraham Poljak. I thank God for all the strokes with which I was driven from the darkness to light. IT IS BETTER THAT WE ARRIVE BEATEN AND BLEEDING AT THE GLORIOUS GOAL THAN THAT WE DECAY HAPPILY AND CONTENTED IN DARKNESS. (...) We have lost our earthly support, but won the friendship of the ravens of Elijah. On the bitter ways of emigration we have found Jesus,the Riches of all worlds."

HIGHLIGHTS FROM THIS PAST MONTH:

The girls are growing and keeping us busy. oh and Liliana is crawling!




On our way back from Kitwe we stopped in Kabue and met a missionary family of 10 kids from Annapolis,MD (!!!) who work on a dairy farm and pastor a church and orphanage. Great people. One of their sons got sprayed by a cobra while we were there!!ha! it was epic..
Here the father, looking for the cobra. It was not their first one.


We are LOVING having a car and have been visiting pple in the church and other acquaintances in their own homes -which is a totally different experience.

P ENOCH and his wife FRANCESCA. 2 pillars in the Lusaka ch. While visiting we got to ask a lot of questions abt Zambia's history and got an amazing timeline by p Enoch. Fr Queen of England to Sata!

P PAUL & AGNES and kids in Ngombe. One of the branch churches in Lusaka.


Julie's birthday!! It was a fun time.


.................and now the picture of the week......................


see that homemade sprinkler?!

THIS WEEK we are looking forward to:

* the Singles mtg on saturday, which Jediah leads;
* visiting a couple from the church, Fred and Eunice on wednesday;
* hanging out with Jediah's new friend fr South Africa, Wezi;
* training Liliana to fall asleep on her own and having a tighter schedule during the day wh will hopefully help her no wake up at night... (sigh)
* learning a couple more songs in nyanja
* P Renaldo's team devotional on thursday; they are always very practical and inspirational
* going on more family walks or jogs

on the road going north...

LANDMARK!

soooooooooooooo I finally SUCCESSFULLY made Nshima!! And a 'whole' nshima at that, called 'roller nshima'. It brought back so many memories. it was like being back at my parents house in Togo 15 years ago. Peanut sauce and some chicken YUM!! even those that weren't a big fan of nshima enjoyed the meal.
pictures below are just fr the web, to give you an idea of what it looks like.\

COPPERBELT!!

here we are in the Copperbelt of Zambia visiting the amazing Speedys.
[Copperbelt Province in Zambia covers the mineral-rich Copperbelt, and farming and bush areas to the south. It was the backbone of the Northern Rhodesian economy during British colonial rule and fuelled the hopes of the immediate post-independence period, but its economic importance was severely damaged by a crash in global copper prices in 1973 and the nationalization of the copper mines by the government of Kenneth Kaunda]

P.Adam and Melinda Speedy



KITWE is one of the main cities of the Copperbelt area, North of Zambia.
We left Lusaka Tuesday on a cool early morning. Picked up Kennedy at a filling (gas) station on the way, and off we were on our FIRST african-with our own car-road trip as a family! 5 hours later and no incidents whatsoever, only beautiful countryside, cows and a Welcome to the Copperbelt sign....









... we finally hit Kitwe, second biggest city of Zambia of about 550,000 pple. As we got on one of it's main roads, we got pulled over by the police for supposedly speeding. Jediah tried to talk himself out of the fine ($180,000 -> $35) but the officerjust gave him a cold shoulder. Now. these guys had just knocked at the wrong door. this was part of our food money for the week and i wasn't ready to see it go down somebody's unofficial pocket.[remember this is africa] Mama bear got out of the car with her 2 cubbs and showed up at the window of the officer who had been sitting and playing on his phone the whole time. "Hello officer, I just wanted to ask you for mercy and let you know that this money is our food money, we are not like other Muzungus, blabla bla" Oh boy, i could have insulted him in 15 languages and the reaction wouldn't have been anymore virulent. To make a long story short -after scolding us for treating them like ignorants of the english language for using a word in their dialect and for accusing them of corruption - he told us we could go. [understand; we could go without paying a dime, or a kwacha in this case] I think the most offensive part of it all was that it was woman addressing him. But as Jediah put it, the 'insult' got him distracted from the real offense. With sighs of relief we resumed our journey and arrived at the Speedys dwelling place.

Directly accross from their house, a miracle awaited us. The owners hd agreed to let us stay -free of charge- in their 'cottage' for rent for a week or 2! They even furnished it with 2 beds, a couch, a table and chairs, and a refrigerator! Along with a few items generously supplied by Mindy and a few we brought, we feel very much at home.
Our bed has an amazing mosquito net with a frame at the top, just all perfectly convenient, invented by some genius if you ask me. I want one like that for my birthday. [JED!]
You have to have slept under a regular net in a mosquito infested room to truly appreciate the difference.

So. Kitwe. Yes we are considering it being our next move. So far it's only been blessings. Soon i will post photos taken on outreach and at a bible study in one of the lady's house. Kitwe-ans seem to be a spunky, open, generous, happy pple. They speak Bemba. Bulishani? How are you! Toatotela! Thank you! I'm sure i am totally misspelling those phrases. But i am sure P Adam will correct me (lol)
And so besides a few upset stomachs, we are loving our visit to the Copperbelt!

It rained like crazy yesterday. View fr the living room window.

LUSAKA LIFE

breakfast dinner w/ the Armans!

WE'RE DRIVING!

yup! we have finally found a car!!! after MANY many MAAAAAAAAAANY negotiations, and almost buying a car whose odometer had been tampered with (Jediah figured it out seconds after he had signed the papers -and so proceeded to rip them up) and looooots of prayers and waiting and invaluable help from P Bernard Ntalasha, voila!


it's a Spacio Toyota, a little beat up -even has a non-professional paint job, but looks great from a distance! and doesn't have any major issues -that we know of LOL- so we are just out of our brains estatic! :)

Thanks to all those who helped and prayed!!

here in our living room, praying after signing the contract.



3 times a week we walk up (we'll drive up fr now on!) to P Renaldo's house for team mtgs. Though we would get there all sweaty, those 25 mn brisk walks were most of the time quite enjoyable. 7 am. Slight breeze, blue skies, streets are already bustling (splg), Phil&Tedds stroller is perfect, Liliana is ready for her fist nap and Kezia is singing away the ride. Jediah and take advantage with nice talks or prayer time. Occasionally arguing. hey! no one's perfect.



most roads are dirt roads, and most of those have more potholes than actual road!
the last stretch of road (pic below) before P Renaldo's street has actually been 'fixed up!'




This precious lady, Charity, sells tomatoes, donuts and eggs. On New Year's Eve, her little shack got burnt down...heap of ashes behind her on pic. We helped her by providing whatever we could to build it back up. (she already had most of the wooden frame)


[for bigger view of the pics just click on them]

safety is so relative

We live in a somewhat safe area (some areas in baltimore were way more dangerous!!! )but still, crazy pple are everywhere. Apparently the neighbors directly behind us have had the police called on them before for drug use etc.
The wooden doors on our house are very flimzy and could be knocked down -i'm sure of it- with one single kick. A few months after we moved in we were able to get metal guard doors put it, which does help our sense of safety, especially at night. This morning i found the kitchen door that leads to outside open -as well as the guard door! both unlocked... God really is our security :)

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Team meetings have been SO rich! on thursdays p. renaldo shares a devotion and we talk abtout visitations, upcoming events etc. while all 4 little girls play outside under the watchful eye of Patience.

Here are a few thoughts gleaned.
God has "sleepers". Like certain not-so-famous foreign agencies, that have sleepers set in strategic places. Someone that goes to school, works, live like anyone else, totally blended in and seemingly a nodoby- until ..
Nehemiah was a sleeper. A cup bearer. So mundane. But it was for God's glory. [i can't get over that amazing concept!]
And then one day -bing! Nehemiah started thinking of his people.
Even the events that seem accidental are ordered by God.

photos of last week