Christmas thoughts

Merry Christmas to all

It is the day after Christmas here at Namwianga and much about Chtristmas is new and much the same as at home. We are enjoying the rainy season here and it is warm and muggy. Everything is green and lush and beautiful flowers are blooming in our yard. It is very hard to remember it is December and Christmas at times. A complaint I often voiced at home and one which is still around, is the fact that Christmas had gotten so commercialized and lost its meaning. Also that the stores all started putting up decorations way too early, right after Halloween, and how people had forgotten what the original meaning of Christmas was. Well let me just say, Zambia rights my perspective. The only Christmas decorations we have seen were in the stores in Lusaka, the capital. None in our small town near the mission and no incessant Christmas music played overhead in stores anywhere. The only way I knew it was Christmas was the calendar. We played our Christmas CD's and had dinner yesterday with other missionaries. No frantic shopping in the mall, no late night sessions of gift wrapping. In fact no gift exchange at all. Unless you want to count the money given out to buy formula for two babies whose Mom's are HIV + and so are unable to nurse their newborns. We did buy essentials for our workers, without whom we wouldn't be able to manage to get any other work done. That was so satisfying to see their faces when we gave them large tubs filled with mealie meal, sugar, salt, oil, beans and a tin of cookies. It is definitely much more blessed to give than receive. We did shop along the side of the road from the young kids selling baskets. The traffic was awful. We had to stop five times for goats on the road.But we did receive much. We shared the gifts of friendship, song, laughter, and good food with others. We received a cake from Charity our worker, who had baked it as a Christmas gift to us. We got to go to a lake resort nearby and spend three days with other missionaries marveling at the awesome creation spread out before us. We got to spend some hours in prayer for this mission and our work. We received messages via email from friends back home and thru the wonder of computers, got to skype our families on Christmas day. God has indeed blessed us beyond measure and we look forward to a busy, productive year in 2008. Please pray that His purposes will be fulfilled this year at Namwianga.

In the glory of the Almighty we live

Graduations and hospitals

This week has been eventful. We attended the Grade 9 Graduation for one of our sponsored students. You have heard me talk of Webby before. This was like no other graduation we have ever attended. The students marched out to the choir singing. The procession was really a slightly swaying two step. This is the norm here. Then once the speakers finished, and they were just like American commencement speakers, long. Then the students were called up to receive their certificates. But what happened next was strictly Zambian. As each young man or girl went up, some member of their family or friends went running up to them, singing and dancing to give them hugs and gifts. Sometimes it was many people who went up. No one seemed to think this was unusual. It was loud, happy and the students loved it. Because both living to be a grade 9 student and the chance to atttend school is so rare, much is made of this occcasion . So when our student was called I gave him our gift, even though I found it difficult to act as the Zambians did, such a quiet person that I am. But Webby was happy to have us there and now we wait for his results for the grade 9 exams to be ready. In this country you don't get to go on to 10th grade unless you pass the 9th grade exams. He won't know until January or Feb. They have a holiday from now until in January. So please pray for our student that he will have done well and can continue school. He wants so much to go. He has studied hard.

Then, yesterday we accompanied Rogers Namuswa, one of the church development leaders, to the Kalomo hospital and family shelter. We took some of the donated food from America to the family shelter and he handed it out. We had prayers in the wards and then I spoke to the women gathered . This is the place families can stay while they have family in the hospital. Unlike the U.S. families move in to these shelters and cook meals for themselves and provide care for their family who are a patient. It is a bare concrete building, no furniture of any kind, only a covered picinic like shelter to cook or wash in. They bring their food, their cooking utensils and stay there for weeks sometimes. As we entered the shelter, flies were everywhere, they were sitting on the bare concrete floor, and they brought us a couple of stones to sit on. I was so humbled to be asked to speak to them. How could I give them anything of worth. I spoke to them about their courage and then shared with them the verses about God being able to do more than we ask or imagine. About how the power of the Holy Spirit living in us can overcome all things. Then Don prayed with them and we passed out the food. As I talked with some of them I could see Jesus in their eyes. It is times like this that God reminds me why we are here. To help in their suffering, to offer a cup of cold water, and also to share in the joy of one young man as he obtained recognition for hard work and effort. Thanks to God we are here among His people.

More About Webby

He comes each day after he finishes his day's exams. He is eager to study the Bible and it is a challenge because I never really know how much he comprehends about what we study. Zambians are so polite that they won't disagree with what you say and won't tell you always if they don't understand a word. So yesterday we talked about what redeemption means. Finding examples from this culure is also a challenge. But we go on and God's spirit moves in this boy. He is 18 and just writing his grade 9 exams. In this country you only get to go on to grade ten if you pass grade 9. He won't know until January and then it will be Feburary before he can start class.

He is an orphan who walked with an aunt some 60 kilometers to ask for sponsership so he could go into grade 9. He was given money to attend a school near where he was living in Kabonga area but when he returned to pay the fees, he was told there was no room. So instead of just keeping the money, about 12$, he walked all the way back , alone, in the rain, to return the money. Somehow God worked it so that Webby could be enrolled here at Namwianga basic and we have been honored to help support him since then. Since he is in the basic school(grade school) he has a place to stay, but has to cook his own meals and wash his own clothers. So we have been providing those things for him. He comes each weekend to work around our home in the garden, even doing some laundry, to help pay off his support. Last week his much of his clothing was stolen and so we are helping get him some new things. I have never heard him whine about how rough he has it, or asking why these things have happened to him. He just keeps going. He wants to be a preacher and so we study and pray together. I am honored to be allowed to work where God already has been active.

For the technically challenged

Hi to all

At long last I am able to access our blog again. So bear with me I am going to update some of the happenings/ We have had Harding University students here for a semester abroad. 24 of the most incredible young Christian people you would ever want to meet. Really folks, the future of the church is good judging from the quality of these kids. Bright, caring and unfazed by the inconveniences of living here in Africa. Some were pre-med and some pre nursing and many of them were future missionaries who adjusted to life here with laughter and song and lots of interaction with the zambians. We took them to villages where they preached , led singing, did the communion talk and generally participated in the worship. They learned Tonga and became fluent in many of the songs. They went home to the villages with their tutors and experienced that life. So now that they have returned home we are missing them a lot.

Right now Don is busy learning a new computer system for the business office so that they can be more efficient in their work. He has been involved with the students of Harding and has been part of the management of their daily life. I have been teaching the pre health students as they came to the clinic about health care in Zambia. Now I am trying to thread through the red tape to get the provencial minister of Health here to help us make the assessment for moving up to a hospital status. We are becoming closer to our students we support especially one, Webby. We have started studying with him because he wants to learn the Bible so he can be a preacher. He is eager and despite being in finals week at school, still comes each day to study. I hope to be able to send more pictures now that this blog is working. Here goes.....

We are finally back from the Zambia Medical Mission of 2007. It was great. We saw 15,000 people and had over 140 baptisms. Many new congreagations will be started from the contact made during the bible classes, preaching and counseling sessions. We treated some very ill patients this year and even took several of them to hospitals for more care. Of course we had to also provide the medicine they would need in those hospitals. Often the local hospitals here have very few medicines and supplies. As you know, we currently have a rural health center here at Namewianga. That is like an outpatient clinic in the states. Because our clinic is supported from the U.S. we usuallly have medicine and supplies for care. So we often get patients from outside our area. Many of the patients will come from long distances by foot in order to get this care and medicine.
If you remeber I mentioned I had to take a national nursing test for foreign trained nurses in June. Well, Praise God, I passed. So that was the last thing to finish before we could get our work permits. I appreciate all of your prayers. Now that the medical mission is completed, my task is to start organizing and prioritizing tasks to ready ourselves to become an inpatient hospital. Currently we are a mixture of government supported and mission supported facility. The government pays the salaries of the 4 nurses and one clinical officer and the pharmacy tech and the dentist. The mission pays for the support personel, the lab tech, teach the xray tech and of course, all of the medicine. The mission also pays the utilites. So there is a fine line to walk in trying to establish this clinic to become a hospital. A well run,well outfitted hospital is a desperate need here. We had a child of our lab tech die last week because of this lack of supplies at the hospital they had her in. People tell us they also come here because our staff treat them with dignity and kindness. We strive to be like Jesus. As I look at them each day, line up to be seen, I remeber the Word saying, Jesus had compassion on the crowds. They were like lost sheep without a shepherd. We start each clinic day with a short devotional for the staff and any patients already at the clinic. This helps keep us focused on whose we are and why we do this work. Please pray for the work here, the clinic, the hospital to be, the teachings of Jesus to all we meet. Don and I will return to the schedule of outreaches to the villages each weekend. This coming weekend we have a 3 day meeting of several congregations and we will be working with them. We will resume this thursday night our weekly bible study on spiritual formation. We had suspended it during the medical mission. Don continues to teach in the business office for the College and secondary schools. They have a new computer system for the financials. He has daily meetings to work through many areas of change for them. Harding Univerisity is doing a semeser abroad starting in Sept. Don will be assisting with the logistics and help problem solve. This will be their first time here and 24 students with teachers will arrive on Sept 3. This will be unlike any other semester abroad, since this is truly a 3rd world country. Many concerns that they would never see in Europe are here. So He will be busier. Please pray for all of these areas and our energy and focus.
In Him
Don and Laura

Lost treasures: FOUND

It is cold and windy here this week. Our home doesn't have heat but we just add another layer of clothes. As the Zambians would say," we are used". So each day I go to the hospital and begin organizing supplies for the medical mission that goes way up to ithe northern part of Zambia. This is the second year for its work in Mumena. Some of you may have had a chance to meet the Chief Mumena when he visited America last year. Although Don and I participated in that short medical mission last year, we won't be able to do so this year. The team for the ZMM medical mission have begun to arrive and we are quite busy. So we couldn't be gone for almost 10 days right now. I have been digging through much of the boxed supplies sent on the containers from Abilene in Dec and Jan trying to sort out what will be needed for the mission trip and what is for the hospital. Each day I find new treasures. The people here are so used to doing without things that they don't understand the American's determination to find what we need, no matter what.
This makes me think of our culture which says never do without, always get what you need. Of course our definition of what is a need and what is a want should be examined. Here the needs are real and urgent. Food, water, clothes and if you are lucky, education. We support two basic school(grade school) students. One is 16 and in grade 7 and the other is 18 and is in grade 9. One has parents but they have been too poor to send him to school on a regular basis and the other is an orphan. Education is often hit or miss, mostly miss. But they are eager to go to school and each week Chimulka, the 7th grader, brings us his work to see how he is doing. Basic students also have to do all their own buying and cooking of meals. This means walking into town, 7 kilometers away, buy their foods and then cook their own meals. No fast foods here. Their food is basic and limited in choices. They board here at the school but that just means a place to sleep. But they are happy, gracious polite young men. Each week they walk to our house and help do chores. This is expected by all supported students. It gives them a sense of participating in their own educational independence. They speak some English and often laugh at our attempts at Tonga. What really strikes me is the realization that these young men and the other students we have come to know, are really the lost treasures of Zambia. This country has a real treasure in its young people. As Don and I participate in providing the means for them to get an education, and most important, share the ongoing spiritual formation found in letting the Holy Spirit work in all our lives, we pray God will secure the future of these young people to be God seekers.

Potholes of Love and Mercy

The fallen world often intrudes in our lives right in the midst of what we hope is a mountain top experience. As someone said,"How wude". Well on our last note to you we shared one such intrusion in our life here on the mission field. But two weeks have passed and God has blessed us with so many prayers and reassurances from our neighbors that we are overwhelmed in a good way. Besides these moments of love and caring by them, we have been able to go with the students here at Namwianga on outreach. These outreaches are meant to encourage and strengthen the church in villages around here. One of these was quite unique. We took some of the secondary (high school) students from Namwianga to a another high school in a town called Zimba. All students in Zambia board at school. So these Zimba high school students are on campus all the time, Sundays also. No one has a car or truck to pick them up for church anywhere. They organize their own service each week. So we took our students and went to Zimba to join them in worship . Our students actually did the lead in the service. The led the singing and it was awesome. Anyone who has ever been to Africa will tell you the people here are born singing in four part harmony. They are good. One of the students did the communion talk, a mini sermon. That is the custom here. Then one of our other students did the preaching. He was passionate and knowledgable. Another custom here is that both the guests and hosts have some time after services to sing. We were the ones greatly encouraged.

Then today we went on a two hour drive over potholes, crevases, and impossible bycicle paths to a small church. They started about 30 minutes after we arrived. It was a thatched roof, tree branched pew church. There was about 20 people besides our group of students and us and the Gregersen's. Again the students, college this time, did all the worship leading and were good. The faces of the people are lined with laughter and are full of joy. They celebrated our arrival with heartfelt welcomes and punctuated the services with Amens and Hallelujahs.

Yesterday we were the speakers for a marriage seminar. It was a gathering of several congregations and there were around 150 people. As we shared the words of God concerning our treatment of each other during 38 years of marriage we again received affirmation from God that this was his work, not ours. It was a positive note to us that God was in charge of His work here and Satan would not be successful in chasing us away. Don and I are still busy each week with the hospital and the business office. Don has been working to simplify and clarify the financial spreadsheets for the college and secondary charges and expenses. I have been seeing patients and now will take the national nursing test on Thursday June 7. Please pray that I will remember what I know and what I have studied. We began a weekly bible study at our home with some of the Zambians here at Nawianga. It is on spiritual formation. They are eager for the word and it is a pleasure to be in their presence. We learn so much from their courage in living the hard life they have here. Well I have to go study. May God bless you in your work in His Kingdom, wherever you are.


In Him we still move and live and our being.

Don and Laura