Somewhat quieter week...only me and the dog in the house (a little too quiet sometimes:)  Last night was a good reminder of the amazing team I get to call my Missionfield Fellowship.  Our area directors Billy and Sue Burr are retiring and Lance and Mindy Hines are taking their place.  Last night Billy, Lance and Mindy joined our team for a braii (cookout) and time of fellowship. Many encouraging words were spoken.  I was reminded of how God's timing and placement are perfect. I was reminded of the legacy I stand on and of the people who have made my path possible by all they are given of their lives before me.  Such a joy to serve here!

I realized I forgot to give a very positive update from a past prayer request.  I previously asked prayer for a little three y/o boy with seizures in Nkoloma.  When we visited with my parents, we saw him.  Instead of limping around, barely talking or interacting, he is now at a full run, smiling, talking to me and giving high-fives.  We gave him a referral to the local health clinic.  His family took him and he started on seizure medication.  He is now having only about 1 seizure/week down from daily.  Praise the Lord!

On a sad note, I had to take the ministry center cat to the vet today to meet his Maker.  I will miss his constant meows as he walks across the center to greet me ( but not his claws).  Unfortunately something went wrong in his brain, and he had started attacking people randomly. RIP

Monday this week we went to Special Hope Network.  I followed up with a few medical issues of the children there.   Dad helped two guys attach carseats on to wheelchairs for kids who have stability problems in just a chair.  Dad said it's amazing to see the ingenuity of the Zambians working with what they have.  Pretty nice various wheelchair with random donated carseats of all types and a bag of old straps and seatbelts.  They carefully talked to the moms and helped fit the seats to the children's physical needs.  Mom helped out with reading and sensory lessons.  In the evening they got to meet Bishop Simunyola and his family over dinner.  It was a lovely time.  

Tuesday we met two missionaries working with CHE and Healthcare Ministries.  The McConnels are here for a week to see CHE working on the ground before they begin to train people in the States and around the world.  We went to the Nkoloma CHE group.  They always amaze us with their forward thinking and actions.  Below is one of the goats getting her picture taken (not willingly).  The second picture is the "goat house" where they sleep at night.  Multiple benefits:  they stay dry during rainy season, preventing disease, they have some protection, and the dung collects in one place and can be used for fertilizer.  

 This group showed us a test plot of maize.  They used purchased fertilizer on half and chicken manure on the other half.  They will see which one does better.  I encouraged them that even if they are equal, that is a success because they didn't need to spend money on fertilizer if chicken manure does just as well.

This is mom and dad with the village headman.  Dad was disappointed he took off his cool fedora hat for the picture.

 Tuesday we met with Pastor Malembeka and she blessed mom with two chitenge as a thank you for her teaching the GEMS girls' class.  Everyone is so generous!  Below is the children's meeting area outside in the church yard.  It's great with the breeze coming through in the hot weather.

 We then got together with one of my Michigan partners.  Mike Chupp and his wife Pam met us for lunch.  He is a surgeon with me at Southwestern Medical Clinic.  He serves at Tenwek Hospital in Kenya.  It was wonderful for my parents to meet them and to catch up.

 Wed night we have missions prayer group.  We had supper together so mom and I tried our hands at different papaya dishes.  I made green paw paw thai salad, and she made paw paw kuchen.  Both were good but hers was best.  Below is the whole group of missionaries.  Such a privilege to work with all of them.

Tonight I sent mom and dad off to Amsterdam and then home to Wisconsin.  It was hard to say goodbye, but God blessed our time together.  I got to show them so many things, and they got to meet everyone I really wanted them to (not a small miracle).  It feels so good for them to know in such a tangible way what I am doing and who I'm working with (Zambian and American).

Last week I drove my parents on the long road down to Livingstone from Lusaka.  I didn't realize how dry Victoria Falls is during the dry season.  Someone correctly called it "Victoria Rocks."  The huge cliffs are still impressive but not as fun as getting completely soaked by the spray.  We enjoyed walking down to the Boiling Pot at the base of the Zambezi River after the Falls.  It was beautiful and cool down by the riverside.  The only scary part was the baboons along the path.  They made us take a very quick accent back up.  We also took an elephant back safari.  Amazing to be riding on such a large animal in the quiet of the bush.  Mom loved it!

Sunset at Vic Falls

Mom on the elephant.

Dad feeding his elephant after the ride.

 Victoria Falls in dry season.

The Boiling Pot.

Last week Thursday I drove with my parents, Lovemore, and Pastor Gabby to Mungule, Kabwe, and Kapiri Mposhe for our feeding program.  We dropped off two months worth of high energy protein supplement (HEPS), groundnuts, cooking oil and money for local veggies.  I also gave a lesson on  planting and harvesting moringa trees and gave a seedling and seeds for them to plant. Mom and Dad got to talk with people at the home of the pastor in Kabwe.  Mom swapped garden stories with the ladies. The drive was very long but successful.

Mom and Dad with Kapiri CHE group. 

Last Saturday Mom and I went to the girls GEMS group at Oasis of Love Church. We had a nice time with Grace and Pastor Malembeka who run the program and about six girls.  This Saturday Mom and I got to teach the lesson with the girls.  Just over thirty girls came ranging from four years to about twelve years old.  It was a great time talking about how we can show mercy and health lesson about water.   Here's a picture with all of us at the end of the day.

Today we enjoyed church in Liteta with Pastor Zulu and his congregation.  

Below is the wonderful staff at Balm Clinic.  We visited this week and brought a supply of medications I had my parents bring over.

I have been keeping up a full schedule for my parents.  Last week we spent three days at South Luangwa National Park in Eastern Province.  It was their first safari game drive.  Over the few days we saw so many animals!  The regular elephants, giraffes, impala, zebras, hippos, crocs, birds, cool plants (baobab trees etc).  Then we were blessed to see a lion and two leopards (rather amorous even). My other favorite was seeing a newborn giraffe-born just that day-still wobbly on his feet.  It was while we were on a walking safari so we were able to be quite close.

Elephant parade.

 Classic African sunset: impala, elephants and brush.

 Mom and Dad's first game drive.

 Gotta have zebra!

 Mom's favorite bird here, the lilac-breasted roller.

 Teenage lion.

 Baby giraffe only hours old with one year old and mamma.

Mom holding the fruit from a sausage tree.  Don't want one of them landing on your head!
Stay tuned for ministry day and Victoria Falls.

Mom and Dad have landed in Zambia and we've had a great 3 days so far.  I finished my class, including being initiated into the Bemba tradition for young women just before they get married.

Had a good time showing my parents the Ministry Center yesterday with all my flowers and gardens. They got to meet Redson, Isaac, and Mr. Daka. Today was lovely at the Saturday Craft Fair. Made a number of merchants happy with our purchases. Dad even got a great deal bargaining by himself. At lunch caught up with Christine. They have learned what "load-shedding" is and met a few of my neighbors.  

It was a great day at church Sunday. The process to really getting to know people takes time. So grateful Zambians are friendly by nature and don't mind spending time. 

I love how God brings certain messages at certain times. This week I've been reading a book by Ted Dekker called "The Slumber of Christianity." It's about how many in the church have stopped looking forward with passion to the wonders of heaven trying to be satisfied with the pleasures of earth. This leads to disappointment and apathy when life on earth doesn't produce the desired happiness. He posits we need to be hoping (in the New Testament sense) for heaven while on earth which makes life on earth available for more true happiness but the best is yet to come! The sermon was on heaven and Christ's return. Not being caught unaware b/c He's coming as a thief in the night to take us to where there will be no sickness or death or stealing or pain. We will all have perfect bodies and no sin and know even as we are known. Ended with the hymn that has been in my head all week, Blessed Assurance. Praising my Saviour all the day long!

Learning great amounts every day in class! Yesterday was a very balanced presentation by a super intelligent man on pre-colonial Zambia. Bottom line: colonialism weeded out some bad things in the tribal culture while bringing some promotion but also caused harms in other areas. My take away: Sin and redemption whispers are in every culture.   Highlights:  Positive things the colonialists brought included abolishment of slavery (stronger tribes sold weaker tribes to the Arab slavetraders), help in creating a nationhood feeling amongst so many different tribal groups, helped bring new modern things (first farming of oranges, rice, wheat for example).  The negatives take a little more explanation, but I found them fascinating so hope you don't mind a lengthier post then normal.  First macrotribalism.  This stems from 70 different tribes being in the area of what was then Northern Rhodesia.  The British couldn't learn all those languages etc so looked at which tribes were strongest/biggest.  They picked a few to focus on, knowing they could transmit info to the rest.  This results in the marginalization of smaller, less powerful tribes.  Along with that the histories of the strongest four tribes were written down.  In one sense this makes the other ones not exist, leading to oppression and levels of ethnicity.  Third, the British introduced a "hut tax" to be paid in cash.  In an agrarian culture, that led to urbanization as people went to the cities to get jobs that paid cash instead of farming.  The British made the local chiefs collect it though.  It came to the coffers of the British.  They left chiefs in charge of some local decisions but then also had govt courts. To this day Zambia has two different courts and centers of power. It gets confusing when the chiefs and the govt leaders don't agree.  Lastly they looked to see what word the locals used for "God" and transplanted the more male dominated idea of God for the genderless concept that was prevalent in the African traditional religion.  This brought in a depreciation of women not as present before.  Several of the main tribes here are matriarchal instead of patriarchal. Not sure I fully agree or understand his last point.  But he feels Zambia will not be able to progress until the more nuturing or mothering aspects become more prominent in society instead of just strength and power.  He was also very fair to bring out that the missionaries and colonialists were two separate group of people.  Missionaries stood against the apartheid policies and had the interest of the local people in mind instead of just making money from the land.  But they depended on a number of things from the colonialist hence had some level of association.  So much to think about.   

Other topics included HIV/AIDS and how the epidemic has affected the fabric of society here. This morning was on the history of the churches of Zambia. Second was on homeless "street" kids in Zambia. Huge lesson there was "Don't give away money or food or anything to begging kids." It only increases that child's draw into an unhealthy lifestyle and draws in more children. In Zambia (it's different in every country) the main reason kids run away from home and end up on the streets is because of family neglect and divorce.  The majority of street children have at least one parent who is living.  What happens is they run away from a bad situation at home to the streets.  Within 2-3 days they are introduced to a lifestyle that includes easy money (begging), unprecidented freedom, and drug highs from sniffing.  If they aren't found by someone who will help them, they get sucked into this and don't want to leave the streets.  The freedom and high of the drugs and money in the pocket has a hard time competing with a family where the child felt unloved (perceived or real) and maybe abused.  The man presenting works with a ministry that  are daily on the streets.  They work to catch the kids 2-3 days into coming to the streets and working on reuniting them with their families with healing and learning on both ends. 
They have a center where the kids can stay.  They track down families and have the kids meet with their families.  Over time they work with the kids and parents/families with the goal of the child returning home.  The children may spend 3 months to 5 years at the center depending on the situation.  The goal is to make sure help in parenting skills is given to the family.  They work with teaching the children to not just run away from problems but work through them.  

In other exciting news, my parents will have enjoyed a day in Amsterdam by now and are heading to my continent as we speak!