Home Sweet Home

Well, it’s nice to be back (with all body parts attached.) No Ebola of anything else as far as I can tell, however Emma and a couple of the leaders got hit with Malaria while we were there. Today is a bit of a decompression time, there is a bit of a haze floating around in my head. And I need to get my legs working again. Even when you stand up and walk around stretch etc, 20+ hour of flying still mess you up. Anyway, the airport here was a highlight. It’s nice to missed and to be cuddled by Brit all the way to the van is one of Gods blessings that I can’t be expressed with words. Oh I look forward too wading through 1000 emails oh the joy.

Wrapping Things up

I am off tomorrow and I am current looking at trying to get everything back home. We’ll see how creative my packing can become. Anyway, Sunday was a lot of fun and kind of sad at the same time. I was able to bring the message to the leaders and the local church which was exciting. It was well received, I felt really honored to be a part of encouraging the church forward. It was a little sad as well, because I said my last goodbyes to many of the people I had been spending so much time with.
Today I ran errands with Tammy our host missionary who works entirely too hard. She has been putting together this leadership training here in Zambia from scratch. She is teacher, administrator, food organizer, registrar, accountant, really she does everything and doesn’t stop. She is part of planning and building some new facilities across the road which will be both leadership training as well as vocational school. If that isn’t enough, she has also served as the host for George and I for the past weeks. She is driven and focused, yet she has not lost her sense of humor or warmth, I have been really impressed with the ministry she has been doing. (If anyone is looking for a good excuse to visit Zambia I am sure she would welcome any help you’d like to give.)
Anyway, tomorrow I enter a different world and I have really appreciated all you prayers. Look forward to see you all and sharing my experience.

Finishing up

I figure we needed a bit of a pick up since my last posting, sorry I left it for so long without writing anything else. I think God had just been working on me for a while and I needed a bit of an outlet. It’s good for us to have a bit of a shake up and some time to rethink some thing.
Well, we are done (for the most part) I’m preaching Sunday. We handed out certificates for everyone’s participation in the classes and everyone was excited about that. Part of that reason was because the certificates had their picture on it.
George (the other teacher) and I were given gifts form the national church. One of the most touching things was that the women pooled their money together for some gifts for our wife’s. It was really hard for me, to know how little these ladies have and how thoughtful they are to do something like that. Anyway, I look forward to spending some more time with the people here without the teaching component. I also look forward to sharing with all of you some of the experiences. I’m still around till Tuesday until I fly back in time to all of you. Talk to ya soon.

Second week of teaching

Ok, well it is business as usual. We are well into our second week of teaching. I can’t express how diligent everyone is in learning. We still are trying to balance the language and education barriers, but by no means is this group not smart or quick learners. I have fallen in love with many of them, such sweet spirits. However, I keep catching myself and realize that we are worlds apart in many regards. I can’t explain the feeling of seeing how much we share in common and yet many live in conditions that are so foreign to us. And it has nothing to do with lack of work or anything like that. Most everyone I talk with here are such hard workers and very resourceful, many are doing business while on their trip here in Lusaka, but an average wage here is $3 US a day.
I struggle on 2 fronts, 1.When I see injustice by an atmosphere of broken promises and corruption and 2.When there is needless pain from fixable problems.
I talked with one of the ladies who has over 200 50kg bags of maze that her and her husband have harvest by hand and the promise from the government to buy and redistribute hasn’t come through and they aren’t allowed to sell across the boarder because of the restrictions by the same governments. So there is only so much maze one can sell when everyone has excess and those who need it can’t get it.
And if there is a child who doesn’t have a meal I get frustrated, because that just doesn’t need to happen. I’m not worried that many of these people live in mud huts or don’t have chairs or stoves. Sure that would be nice for all to have well built homes full of wonderful things, but I don’t need to impose my ideas standard of living on them. And you know what? People are very resilient especially the children and many of them haven’t known anything different, so it’s not even an issue. But simple medicine, or a cob of corn for a meal, there just isn’t an excuse. Anyway sorry to leave you with a little bit of depression, I think I needed a little outlet, there is still hope and God has and will continue to do amazing things.

Sunday fun

This is Mailesi she is the national leader of the Zambian church. She’s a great lady and is overseeing 400 churches. She is very smart, and does a great job of administrating and working with the leaders of the different regions and districts.
This Sunday we spent a couple hours (3 to be exact) worshiping in the church here in Lusaka. Again it was nice to see worship that wasn’t westernized, but very much African clapping, drums and dancing. You would think that things would be a little chaotic or out of control, but everything moved along nicely with wonderful expressions of genuine joy.
We ended the morning with a land dedication ceremony across the road where they are beginning to build a wall around the property. It will eventually be turned into theological training and vocational school. It currently hosts the football field for the neighborhood.
Today was also exciting because I got to spend time with the Lusakan church not just the leaders of the Zambia. So many wonderful people just doing life in community, loving God and each other. Anyway, another great day, blessings on everyone.

Another Day in Africa

Just wanted to share a picture of one of our youngest students. They start them young when it comes to learning about spiritual disciplines. It's so cool.
This is Nshima. It is corn meal and it is the staple. When it is prepared it comes out looking like mash potatoes only stuck together kind of gelatin like. It also really has no taste by itself, probably a lot like paper match. In fact they quote the scripture Jesus is the Nshima of life. The custom is to break small amounts off and roll it into a ball in your hand. Then you make a cup/spoon like thingy out of it and use it to scoop whatever else you are eating. Anyway this is our lunch usually accompanied with cooked cabbage and some kind of meat. Also we eat with our hands and use the Nshima for the spoon. However I do get to live my childhood dream of eating with my hands.
Anyway, this is Emma she is visiting Tammy the missionary we are staying with. She is the most gracious, loving, kind, humble person with the cutest most innocent laugh. She is from Kenya and has been a blessing to spend time with. Ok well, we'll talk again soon.

Students

Today was the 3rd day of classes and we are having a good time. I think everyone is settling in to the rhythm. I needed to make some adjustments in the speed of the teaching, both in how fast I was talking and in keeping concepts and terms as simplistic as possible. Even though everyone can speak English for many it is their 3rd or 4th language (and as you know I write and talk as if its my 3rd or 4th language - "I gots ungood grammar"). So when it goes beyond common speech and into any technical language we have a bit of a challenge. The reality is that most of these leaders are very sharp and on the ball. So because they are smart it doesn't take long to bridge any gaps.
Most of the leaders are made up of men, however we have about 10 women out of the group involved. (As well as a couple babies a long for the ride). We also have a handful of leaders from a couple other countries. Many have traveled 100's of km over a couple of days to come and it is so encouraging to see everyone's enthusiasms and desire to learn. Everyone is so grateful to have this opportunity and always come ready to learn, full of joy.
Yesterday after class I had and opportunity to go and sit in on choir practice. Again this was a very moving experience for me. Oh the sound! no instruments, no mics. I know I am a bit of a sissy from time to time, but I had to stop listening as I was about moved to tears. Needless to say when I get to heaven I think I will be hang'n in the African section quite a bit. However, I think there is a good possibility the music I have been hearing might be the music everyone will be singing when we arrive.
The work camp from Mill Creek was able to bring some extra money in order buy each leader a bag full of clothing and some blankets. Everyone was so grateful. We heard that the ladies of the group were up to wee hours in the night talking about the gifts they had been given. One in all serious said she is going to request she be buried with the blanket because it is a gift from God. These gifts are so little according to North American standards and they are met with so much gratitude. Anyway, hope all is well talk to you soon. Dave

A couple more pics

 
 
  

picture of the locals

Sorry for the delay, here are a couple pictures that I haven't been able to upload.


 

Meeting the locals

Hey everyone sorry about the time gap. I guess we had a few days before all the students would arrive so we took a couple days to see the sights before putting our noses to the grind stone. This was actually really good for me because I was able to connect with the culture and geography before jumping right into teaching.
Friday morning we headed to Livingstone(5yr drive), where we checked in at a local lodge and went to Mosi-o-tunya National Park. Wow! I ended up having a pretty surreal experience my second day into the trip. I’m sitting on the top of our Land Rover snapping pictures of the wild Locals. Elephants, Rhinos etc. No fences, no daily feedings or baths by caretakers, just the odd vehicle cruising around. Nobody got upset and tried to scare us off by a good charge, so we had a good experience.
Saturday was spent at Victoria Falls. You really don’t need to ask why it is one of the natural wonders of the world. It is as if God carved a line with His finger along a flat plain and had all the water of the Zambezi drop off the edge. Incredible! So huge, so inspiring, a wall of water. The heaven declare his glory the mountains speak of his handy works.
Today we ended up going to a church in Mukuni village. Met some wonderful people and a fine pastor full of love and caring for his people. We went to the new sight of the church being built with stone, the last one had the grass roof give way and collapse. So we worshiped in the school and the three young boys drumming were incredible, all in all the music was great.
Tonight we get ready for our first day of classes. I am looking forward to meeting everyone and spending time hearing there stories and encouraging them. Sorry for the rushed point form overview, I just have too much to write about to put it down here at this time. Hope everyone is doing well. Well talk tomorrow.
Dave.

Day Whatever...

Hi everyone, I guess it's Thursday, thanks for your prayers. I took off at 7:15pm Wednesday from London, landed in Lusaka and was immediately asked about the terrorist plot. I guess I had just missed this issue by a thin margin. No delays, no getting stranded in an airport bathroom with only the clothes on my back. Regardless of CNN these are a few picture of my experience in London. I had 7 hours of layover so I headed in on the tube to see Westminster Abby.


I arrived this morning Thursday, at 7:00am after 2 days of travel and hit the ground running. We spent all day running errands for the camp, so to say the least I am somewhat delirious with lack of sleep. I am sorry I have literally had no time for pictures of my spot here, only of London.
Pray for everyone still stranded at the airport in LondonYou can pray for me in regards to catching up on some sleep. The great thing is that I am not really getting worked over with Jet lag, throughout the trip I had no idea of the time here or at home and I am so tired that it isn’t going to be an issue. I’ll sleep well tonight and be ready for tomorrow. Take care, I’ll write more later and maybe tomorrow things won’t be as surreal.