It has been an exciting couple months.  In the beginning of July, we joined the women of the Assemblies of God Zambia for their annual conference.  Below is Bishop Mando sharing his heart with them.  

I started shadowing at Circle of Hope Clinic.  I was excited to see a rotavirus vaccine has made it to Zambia.  Diarrheal illnesses are one of the most common killers of children in Zambia.  This vaccine will save many lives.  Besides doing HIV care, they also provide normal well child visits, call "under-5" and vaccines and prenatal care for any pregnant women.

This is the mobile clinic and Christine and her nurse who helps with the cervical cancer screening.  It is going very well and she hopes to do her first mobile visit next month.

I visited our CHE group in Choma and got to see little Rosie.  She is growing so fast like kids do.  I was very pleased to hear how well Moringa has been incorporated into their diets.  Everyone has a tree and uses the leaves in their veggies or as tea.  One woman's blood pressure is much better controlled since she has been taking moringa tea regularly.  I am so impressed with these women's work!  They have added a new food to a community's diet.  That is no small feat anywhere in the world.  I am excited to share now how they can expand the use to water purification, fertilizer, and animal feed.

In mid-July we also had a visit from Jerry Ireland, head of AG Care (compassion ministries in Africa) and several other visitors from the States.  We visited our CHE group in Liteta.  They showed us their amazing gardens and did a skit for us.  It was about a woman who was sick visiting a clinic, witch doctor and then pastor.  The picture is portraying the visit to the witch doctor.  The message was a balanced view of prayer and healthy practices (like eating moringa) to help stay healthy.

 We also visited a few homes.  This woman is a patient I saw several years ago at the hospital.  She remembered me.  We had a great time spontaneously singing with the kids.

During the week, we also did a vision seminar with the pastors and leaders of the Assemblies of God Zambia.  They were very excited to see how CHE could impact their communities.  Here they are looking at different appropriate technology projects.  We are looking forward to seeing God open more doors as people catch the vision.

In amongst the busyness, Christine and I took a day at a local preserve to enjoy God's creation.  It was amazing the amount of animals that came out that day to say hello.  We serve a creative, good God.

Some of the best news has been I got my work permit!  I know I have been shown God's favor.

Just this week I also picked up my official Zambian medical license.  I am a fully registered medical officer in Zambia!  Thank you all for your prayers because I know they made this all possible in just the first 2 months of being here.

The next 10 weeks I will be taking a language course.  I will be learning Nyanja/Chichewa.  I am so looking forward understanding the conversations going on around me and communicating without a translator.  I might not be looking forward to feeling like I am back in preschool learning basics and stretching my brain.  

Keep Zambia in your prayers the next few days as the presidential elections took place yesterday and we are waiting to see the results.  Thankfully everything has been peaceful so far.