visit to a student's church (6)

Bartholomew, his wife Aneli, and their children in front of their home

 On Sunday the 28th of April we visited the church of our student named Bartholomew.  Bartholomew is a very smiley, very cheerful and very dedicated student whose very short stature has earned him the affectionate nickname 'Zaccheus.'  He serves as one of the elders in a 'section' of the Reformed Church of Zambia (RCZ) in the Sinda area, which is about a half-hour's drive east of us.  The larger RCZ congregations are divided into smaller 'sections', small congregations which meet separately but are under the shepherding oversight of the larger. 

The RCZ is a Dutch Reformed church planted from South Africa years ago.  Unfortunately it is no longer as 'Reformed' as it once was, as evidenced by some larger more liberal congregations which are welcoming women ministers, and the worship is becoming very modern and unsound.  However we have really enjoyed visiting several of our students who come from RCZ churches, and Bartholomew was no exception.

Bartholomew told us that we should leave at 9:30am for the service which would start at 10am, so we did so.  He rode along with us, and we were also joined by fellow students Alex (whose Pentecostal congregation we visited 2 weeks ago) and Kawaleka (who is a pastor in the larger Sinda area RCZ main congregation).  In case you were wondering how we all fit into the vehicle, since there were not enough seats, Alex and Kawaleka sat in the bed of the pickup (there's a canopy so they were sheltered) where we have an old mattress to provide a bit of padding and comfort as we lurch down the road.  They were most happy there and I think Alex even took a bit of a snooze on the way home!  :)

We headed down the road, and in the end it took closer to 40 minutes to get to Bartholomew's congregation, which is in a village about 10 minutes' drive beyond the tiny town of Sinda.  So we got there a few minutes past 10am.  But instead of directing us to the church (which was plainly evident at the roadside), Bartholomew directed us to his parents' house, which was about 100 yards away.  We parked the truck there and were introduced to his parents and ushered into their living room.  In the past we have been greeted and 'entertained' and offered drinks before a service started, so we thought perhaps that was what they intended.  No... they just wanted to visit.  There was no indication of the service starting anytime soon.  :)  This is where you learn to just be flexible, because you never know what a church visit will have in store!

So we were sitting in Bartholomew's parents' living room.  They actually had a good-size house by Zambian standards, a large living/dining area, and three smaller rooms, presumably bedrooms -- and a small kitchen room in the back.  They had two solar panels on the roof which powered two electric lights and a small television, on which they were watching an evangelistic service which was being broadcast from a HUGE pentecostal church somewhere else in Zambia. As we were sitting there, a few men came trickling in one and by one and greeted us - they were other elders from the church.  They sat down and still there was no sign of church starting.  :)  David asked Bartholomew a couple of times, 'When will the service start?' and was told, 'soon...'  :)  After another ten minutes David asked Bartholomew, 'Is the congregation just waiting for us?'  and Bartholomew said, 'Yes....'  :)  Hard to fathom sometimes what exactly is going on!?  Finally about 25 minutes after 10, Alex & Kawaleka said that they would walk to the church and find out what the plan was.  They came back in a few minutes saying that it was almost time to go over.  Within another few minutes, we heard singing, and to our surprise, a group from the church was walking the 100 yards to the house to greet us with singing and escort us to the church!  So we joined them and walked up the path to the church as they sang.  It was an experience we hadn't had before.  :)

the church building

The church itself was a very simple building made of bricks plastered with mud, and the roof was constructed of grasses and branches.  The floor, the benches on which the congregation sat, and the pulpit were all made of mud.  We were given two rickety wooden chairs next to the pulpit, at the front of the church.  There was a steady cold breeze blowing directly on us through the vent in the wall just behind our heads!  It was difficult to get the kids settled as there were no seats for them, and I couldn't balance myself on the chair very well with a child in my lap.  Elijah and Ketzia were distracted by the lovely mud benches which were just MADE to be climbed on, so the first part of the service was me trying to keep them from being too noisy and distracting while they insisted that they were going to 'sit' on the front bench and then climbed into the hollow between it and the next bench.  Sigh.

this gives you an idea of the inside of the church...

Anyway, the service started with singing - unlike most of the churches we've visited recently, the RCZ actually sings some hymns, not just praise choruses, so that was a nice change.  They sang a couple of hymns, and had a fairly basic liturgy: they repeated the Lord's prayer together, had an offering, repeated the Apostle's creed, sang a couple more hymns, and so on.  Eventually the choirs were called upon to perform.  There were 3 choirs in all: a mixed (men & women) choir which sang only two songs, then a women's choir, then a second women's choir.  The singing lasted for quite a while.

the first choir singing (from their seats)

Meanwhile I was wrestling with Ketzia who was so, so unhappy.  She was exhausted having not had a morning nap!  Normally she goes down for a nap a few minutes past 8am, no later than 8:30, and sleeps until close to 10am.  On Sunday mornings we always take a short walk with the kids, to help them get their wiggles out before church, and this particular morning our walk had been delayed slightly so we weren't back until late -- about 8:40am.  At that point I asked David for some advice, 'Should I go ahead and put Ketzia down for her nap, and at least she can sleep for 40 minutes before we have to wake her up and leave?'  And his advice was, 'No, keep her up, and she can sleep in the car on the way to church.'  My response was, 'Well, she doesn't always fall asleep in the car, so that might not work...' but I did what he told me to do.  And of course Ketzia did NOT sleep in the car.  So here she was at church, absolutely beside herself with tiredness and becoming crankier and crankier.  I was hoping that maybe I could convince her to just relax and fall asleep in church, while knowing that there was absolutely no chance -  she just doesn't sleep in church.  (For the record, that is the LAST time that I listen to David and intentionally skip her morning nap assuming she'll sleep in the car.  From now on, we are sticking to the schedule because it WORKS!)  Church is stressful enough without a screaming toddler!  :)

So, in the end, having already been out twice to help Elijah relieve himself, I had to take Ketzia out just as David was called into the pulpit for the reading and preaching of God's Word.  Both kids came with me and I sat them down outside the front church door, in the shade, hoping that I could get Ketzia calmed down. She was beside herself.  She is just at the stage where she can communicate only a little bit, and it's enough to frustrate her, so she's recently been just 'venting' by screaming about everything that she doesn't like, and sleep deprivation is something she doesn't like.  So she was just screaming.  So we were sitting on some bricks outside the church door and I could hear a little bit of the introduction to David's sermon -- he was preaching on being dead in sin from Ephesians 2 -- while distracting the kids with some munchies.  But Ketzia was just inconsolable, and as soon as one mouthful was finished she would be sobbing again.  I tried for a long time to get her soothed and calmed down, hoping maybe she would even just collapse on the chitenge (multi-purpose piece of cloth used here for carrying babies, blanket, as a shawl, etc.) and go to sleep, having worn herself out.  But nope, it wasn't going to happen.

After at least 15 minutes of wondering what on earth I was going to do, knowing I wasn't going to hear a word of the sermon but not knowing what I should do with Ketzia, Bartholomew's mother came out of the church and told me to come back to her house with Elijah and Ketzia.  I felt so bad that she might have left the service because of me -- but I was very grateful. So we went back to the house and sat back down in the living room.  Then I spent the next hour trying to keep Elijah from killing their VERY patient and long-suffering little cat with affection, and trying to keep the kids distracted from the fact that the clock was ticking and it was now 12:30pm and past lunchtime and getting VERY close to nap time.....  It was a long time to wait for the service to be over.  :)

Elijah and Ketzia 'loving' their very long suffering cat, Jane, to death

  Eventually David and the rest of the group rejoined us, to Elijah's great delight.  We then waited another 10 or 15 minutes before food was served to us -- the typical meal of nshima with chicken, greens, and what they call 'gravy' (a tomato sauce).  Bartholomew, Alex, Kawaleka, Bartholomew's parents, and the other 'section' elders all ate with us.  I was glad that Elijah and Ketzia ate their lunch even though they were both at the end of their rope.

Elijah was DELIGHTED to see his daddy coming back from church

 

Ketzia was delighted, too!

Afterwards, we greeted everyone - Bartholomew's wife and children (he has 4 children) live in the house just beyond his parents' house, where the cooking of the meal was done - and a group from church wandered over.  So they wanted their photo taken.  :)

the group from church... Bartholomew's father is on the far left and his mother is 4th from the right

I should mention that this was a REAL treat for Bartholomew to get to visit his home and family during the semester, because he cannot afford to come home during the term!  You think, he only lives about 40 minutes away, but it's too far for him to afford the cost of traveling.  So he is one of our 'weekend students' who boards at the College over the weekend, and he is very faithful about always doing jobs in order to earn a little bit of money, and always helps with the Children's Ministry (outreach program) on Saturday afternoons.  But imagine being separated from your family and only getting to see them twice a year - during the school holidays!  His kids were delighted to see him at home.

We left around 2pm for the drive home, and got home around 2:45.  The kids slept the whole way home and woke up when we arrived, so there was no rest for weary Mommy and Daddy.  :)  Just one of those days.  We really enjoyed visiting Bartholomew's church and the fellowship that we had with his parents who welcomed us into their home, and the other students and elders.  It is such a privilege to get to know our men a bit better this way.

home again, home again, jiggity jog...

This past week has been rather a blur because we got back from 6 nights away in Lusaka on Tues the 23rd, and returning in the middle of the work week always makes things feel a little hectic.  :)  Our trips to Lusaka (the capital of Zambia) are always crazy, so I thought I'd describe it a bit for you.  We left on Wednesday the 17th, around 10am, along with Rev. Allan who would be flying home to Scotland the next day.  That was our primary reason for going to Lusaka - to take him back to the airport.  It's about a 5-hour drive (can be done a bit faster, but not with 2 small children!).  Elijah is toilet-trained now, and doing fantastically well.  In the car we use a small plastic potty which he can even use while we are driving - but then he's a bit jammed on the floor between his seat and the back of the front seat and it's hard to maneuver him back into his seat without potentially spilling the contents of the potty - so that 'on the go' maneuver is saved only for dire emergencies, and we found a place to pull over whenever he felt the call of nature, so that he wasn't having to balance on the floor of a moving vehicle!  :)

a common sight along the Great East Road

The road to Lusaka (there is one road - the Great East Road which runs through the entire province) is not too bad, but not wonderful either.  At least it is a paved road...  But it is very dangerous because of the heavy traffic of trailer trucks (lorries) and large buses hurtling up and down this road, so we do not take safe travels for granted.  Nearly every time that we travel up and down we see an accident or break-down along this road.

Rev. Andrew Allan seizing the moment to photograph the huge baobab tree on the way to Lusaka

I packed a lunch and we made fairly good time along the road, arriving in Lusaka around 3;30.  There are 3 big shopping malls in Lusaka now and we stopped quickly at one of them on the way through town, to buy nappies as our supply was finished.  (We can buy nappies locally, but not size 5's! -- why? because the Zambians who can afford disposable nappies would never keep a child in nappies until they are that size!) 

It is hard to find an affordable place to stay in Lusaka, but we've been blessed to find a small guesthouse run by a missions organization called Flying Mission Zambia, which is affordable for our family to stay, and a REALLY lovely place, besides!  It's located on the FAR side of town from where we're coming from, so it actually takes a extra hour to drive all the way across town and out into the countryside where FMZ is.  So we didn't reach the guesthouse until 4:30, just missing rush hour which would have delayed our arrival significantly.   Traffic is always a problem in Lusaka, but certain times of day are an absolute nightmare, especially if you're trying to get from one side of town to the other!

The FMZ guesthouse is a very peaceful and relaxing place to stay, and they take such good care of you.  Breakfast is free and lunches and dinners are available at a very reasonable cost, so I was very thankful to have a few days' break from cooking and cleaning.  :)  The guesthouse serves all meals at the big dining table, so all guests eat together, and you never know who you will meet during your stay.

Every time we're in Lusaka, there is always SO much we have to take care of while we're there.  And this time was NO exception!

Our first day in Lusaka, Thursday, didn't exactly go as planned.  Our vehicle was due for a routine service, so David left early (by 6:30am) to take it in to the shop.  Services here are annoying, because you have to make an appointment, but then when you turn up, it's first come first served on the day.  So David left as early as possible in order to be in the queue before it was terribly long... and it was still terribly long.  He ended up waiting there the ENTIRE day for the truck to be attended to!  In the past we've always gotten the vehicle back by midday, but not this time. He finally got the truck back at 4pm and then had the 40 minute drive back to the guesthouse from the center of town.  It was a long day.  I was at the guesthouse with the children the whole day, thankful that they have toys for the kids to play with which kept them happily occupied.  After dinner, we put the children to bed, and once they were settled, David took Rev. Allan to the airport for his flight (which left just before midnight).  It was an hour's drive each way, so a late night for us.

playing under a nice shady tree at the eye hospital, waiting for the eye drops to take effect

The next day, Friday, Elijah had an appointment in the morning with an ophthalmologist at the Lusaka Eye Hospital run by the Seventh Day Adventists.  This doctor had been recommended to us.  We wanted to get Elijah checked out because he had experienced sudden crossing of his eyes on the 1st of April - just to make sure there was nothing wrong.  We were extremely pleased by the care we received at this eye hospital.  It wasn't too far away from where we were staying - the same side of town, which was really convenient.  The doctor was very good with children, and had clever ways of making them think she was playing a game with them while she was really examining their eyes!  We stayed there for quite a while because after the initial examination, Elijah needed to see a second doctor to check if he needed glasses, which involved a series of eye drops and then waiting 1 hour for his eyes to dilate.  The poor guy was really struggling at the end - not able to see properly because of his dilated eyes - but he was very brave, and very obedient, and we were so proud of him.  The results from their very thorough examinations showed that there is nothing wrong with his eyesight, for which we are very thankful.

Poor little guy... you can tell his eyes were really bothering him by this time!

After his appointment we took Elijah out for icecream to reward him for his excellent behavior at the doctor's office!  We had gotten a packed lunch from the guesthouse (we did this most days that we were in Lusaka so that we could use our time most effectively with all the errands that needed to be run) and ate it in the car on our way into town.  We went first to the KLM ticket office to speak to them in person and find out whether we could change our tickets to allow us to travel to the UK before the baby is due in October (our original tickets were booked for 22 October).  We were told that this was no problem at all, and that we could get a flight out on the 3rd of September, which was really good news.  We decided to come back to the ticket office on Monday after my antenatal appointment, once we had the due date confirmed and knew how things were going with the pregnancy, to book the tickets at that time.  After the ticket office, we stopped at UTH - University Teaching Hospital - one of the biggest hospitals in Lusaka, to meet up with our colleague Rev. Zulu's wife, who has been in Lusaka for weeks for medical tests, and give her something from her husband.  It was nice to see her.  We also stopped by the Immigration office to check if our renewed work permit was available yet.  They wouldn't serve us because it was before 2pm and that is still 'lunch break' -- and we weren't willing to wait around in the car with tired kids.  At that point it was mid-afternoon so we decided to head back as it was still close to an hour's drive to get back to the guesthouse and we didn't want to wait too long and get stuck in horrid traffic.  When we got back we let the kids play in the guesthouse swimming pool - they didn't actually swim, but they had fun splashing around.  It wasn't the warmest day so neither David and I went properly swimming either, but we had promised Elijah we'd let him get into the pool!  (Funnily enough, Elijah is scared of swimming pools and kept telling us there were 'sharks' in the water -- Ketzia, on the other hand, is extremely brave and would jump right in knowing her daddy would hold on to her!)

Ketzia learned how to eat with utensils on this trip!

On Saturday morning we headed out after breakfast, back into town.  David had some errands to run for the College - like going to the hardware store, and filling up the gas cylinder which we use for cooking at home - which we didn't want to drag the kids around for, so he dropped me and the kids off at a new place in town called Bump Birth and Beyond.  Basically it is a center run by a retired midwife which offers all sorts of antenatal classes, birth preparation classes, and support groups for breastfeeding, child safety classes, etc. to help, support, and inform parents.  A great place.  I wanted to meet her because I've been trying to make as many contacts in the Lusaka area as possible, since we were originally thinking of having the baby.  Margot, the lady who runs it, was in a class but she told me on the phone to just hang out in their cafe area and let the kids play, and she would be finished at 11am to come meet me for a chat.  So I spent a couple of hours in their pleasant garden area, which has been turned into an outdoor child-friendly cafe, and the kids had a great time playing with the toys and on the swingset.

 

watching the man who came to paint the rest of the lines for hopscotch

trying to do a chin-up...

succeeding with the chin-up! what a big boy!

 Margot was finished right around the time that David came back to pick us up, so we both got to meet her, and that was really encouraging.  We drove straight back to the guesthouse for lunch, and the kids got a proper nap (not in the car) that afternoon!  After they got up from our naps we drove back out as far as the main intersection (20 minutes away) where there was a supermarket, to pick up a few things for Sunday.

On Sunday we drove 40 minutes and went to the morning service at Kabwata Baptist Church, a Reformed Baptist congregation which is pastored by Conrad Mbewe, an internationally-known preacher and speaker who also happens to be one of the Trustees for Covenant College.  His church is conservative, friendly, and has good Gospel preaching, so we often worship there (or at one of the KBC church plants in the Lusaka area) if we are in Lusaka over a weekend.  After the service we met a few more people - it's nice that every time we seem to meet a few more folks, so we're getting to know people bit by bit - and chatted for a little while.  Then we drove to our friends the Williamsons', an American family with 6 children, who had invited us over for the afternoon.  We had a yummy lunch with them, and enjoyed a relaxed visit.  Around 4pm we all headed out together to an international Bible study which meets at the Baptist Mission of Zambia guesthouse.  The Williamsons had started attending this Bible study, which was really benefiting themselves and their children because of the fellowship and teaching, and so we had heard about it from them and decided to go, hoping to make some new contacts.  I knew that there were different classes for different age groups, and was hoping that Elijah would be in the youngest group so that I could enjoy listening to a Bible study without wrestling a 3-year-old for once... but alas, he was still too young.  They were talking about what it means to 'meditate on God's Word' and I could see his eyes just glaze over!  So that was that.  I stayed out in the small tots' play group with Elijah and Ketzia with a few other moms and babies, and David stayed in the adult Bible study and really enjoyed it.  We didn't meet too many folks but it was nice to get out and see a diverse group of expats meeting to study God's Word together.  The Bible study didn't finish until about 6pm, and then it was a long drive back to the guesthouse, so we were back QUITE late... I had bought some sandwich fixings at the supermarket the day before, so we had a light supper and put the kids to bed as quickly as possible!  A full but enjoyable day with God's people!

Monday was also full.  :)  We left early in the morning, again, fighting some rush-hour traffic to get back to the Williamson family's house, where we dropped off Elijah.  Their oldest daughter, Sarah, babysat Elijah for us while I had my antenatal appointment.  We thought about leaving Ketzia, too, but she is still not comfortable with Mommy leaving her, so we decided to keep her with us. So we dropped Elijah off and he never even looked back -- he was so happy to be back with the friends and toys he had played with the day before!  Then we drove the rest of the way to Victoria Hospital, a small hospital which I had heard a good story about from someone who had a baby there, so I decided to try it out by having an antenatal appointment.  My appointment went smoothly apart from an office mix-up which meant I waited longer than I should have to be called back, but that wasn't a big deal.  Once they called me back, everything went very smoothly and promptly, and I felt like I got good care.  I saw a female gynecologist who was from Slovenia, and seemed to be a competent doctor.  She did a basic check-up first, and we listened to the baby's heartbeat, and then she sent us for labwork - blood check and urinalysis.  At her advice we decided to get David's bloodwork checked at the same time, to make sure he wasn't anaemic or anything.  I struggled so much with anaemia in my pregnancy with Ketzia in 2011, as a result of the malaria I contracted in the second trimester, and we've been really really hoping that my hemoglobin levels would have recovered since then.  And they HAD!!  My bloodwork came back looking perfect, and David's as well.  It's also nice to know that we haven't contracted any horrible diseases from living in Africa.  :)  That was good news.  While we were waiting for the lab results, the doctor did a scan and we got to see the baby -- healthy, happy, moving, growing baby.  :)  Everything looks great.  At the time I was about 16 weeks along.  The scan gave an approximate due date of 5 October.  We were so thankful to have a good doctor's appointment and that the Lord has blessed us so far with another healthy pregnancy.

After the appointment we picked Elijah back up, ate lunch in the car again, and headed straight for the KLM office again where we could officially rebook our tickets now that we knew everything was looking good with the baby so far.  I went up to the office and took care of the tickets while David stayed in the car with the kids.  Everything was processed smoothly and we are scheduled to leave Lusaka on 3 September, arriving in Glasgow on 4 September!  I will be almost exactly 36 weeks which is the airline cut-off for flying in pregnancy.  :-p  Please be praying with us that the Lord will allow this pregnancy to continue healthy and without complications.  At KLM's request, I will be seeing a doctor at the beginning of August to get the required clearance to fly. (I will have other antenatal appointments between now and then, but that one is required so that I have the medical paperwork to allow me to fly in September.)

After getting everything sorted with KLM, we went to the big Manda Hill shopping center to do some of our dry-goods shopping.  That didn't take too long, thankfully.  Then we had another stop to make to buy some office supplies for the College (like printer paper, and pens and binders for the students) at a wholesale supply place.  And then it was time to drive all the way back to the guesthouse again... having accomplished a lot!

eating breakfast at the guesthouse

 On Tuesday morning we were up early (as always... our children don't often sleep past 5:30am!) and getting the truck packed for our trip home.  We left right after breakfast, needing to make a couple stops first, and aiming to leave town around 11am.  Our first stop was Immigration (again) and this time they told us they couldn't serve us because there was a staff meeting scheduled for that morning.  So we weren't able to check on the status of our renewed work permit, but in the meantime we have gotten another temporary extension from our local immigration officer.  Then we went back to Manda Hill, to the big supermarket there which is called Shoprite.  That's where I do my shopping for things I can't get where we live.  :)  Thankfully I was able to get everything on my list this time - including mozzarella cheese!  :-D  My wonderful mother-in-law has sent us pepperoni so I think homemade pizza will be coming up sometime soon.  :)  On our way out of Manda Hill, we ordered takeaway pizza as a special treat for lunch - on Tuesdays they had buy 1 get 1 free! - and also got small icecreams as a farewell treat.  Then it was time to hit the road. First we took a small detour to pick up our colleague Rev. Zulu who had come to Lusaka unexpectedly to be with his wife during some invasive medical tests over the weekend, and who would be riding back home with us.  Then we got on the road -- right around 11:30am, with pizza for lunch.  :)  After a long day of travel, we reached home around 5pm which meant we had time to unload the car and make some dinner, and then we could get the kids settled in for the night after 6 nights away from home!

Hopefully I haven't bored your socks off by writing about this... I thought some of you might enjoy reading about our 'big trip to the big city'!  We hadn't been to Lusaka for 3 months, and we won't go again for 2 months, so this is a big deal for our life here.  :)  We are thankful to the Lord that we are able to go somewhere to have doctor's appointments and do shopping which is not possible where we live.  He provides so many blessings and encouragements for us!

visit to a student's church (5)

On Sunday the 15th of April we visited the congregation of our student Alex.  The first year that we lived in Zambia, we visited Alex at his previous church, but since then (quite recently - about 3 months ago) he joined a different church which has been much more supportive of his studies for the ministry.  We are glad to see how well he has been accepted into this new church family.

Alex goes to a Pentecostal church called the 'Redeemed Christian Church of God,' which we were told stems from a Danish Pentecostal group.  They meet on the outskirts of town, about a 20-minute drive from us. The pastor of the congregation (who was out of town when we visited) is also the principal of a local Trades School, so the congregation meets in one of the rooms in the Trades School complex (which is a very, very nice complex).

Alex is translating for David, student Bartholomew is in the foreground

In terms of physical comfort, this was the nicest church we've visited yet!  The room which they were meeting in was airy, with a clean tile floor, and rows of seating.  As usual, there was special seating at the front designated for us as the visitors (our family plus Rev. Allan who was visiting from Scotland at the time, plus another student, Bartholomew).  But this was unusually special seating - actual sofas, three totally comfy over-stuffed sofas, making it look like a living room instead of a church!  :)  It was so amusing, but we sure were comfortable!

Rev. Allan is on Bartholomew's right, the pastor's wife is in pink behind him, Alex's wife Edith is next to her

We were told the service would begin at 9:30am, and when we arrived we found that the pre-service Bible study was just beginning.  And it was led by the pastor's wife, as her husband was out of town!  I believe that the Bible teaches very clearly that a woman should not lead or teach in church (1 Cor. 14:34-35) so I will share honestly that I find it very difficult to sit under the teaching of a woman in churches which do not honor this Scriptural mandate.  In this situation, she was reading from notes (not her own) which were teaching from Romans 6 about a 'victorious life' - but what that was, exactly, was never defined. 

After the Bible study, which lasted about 30 minutes, they began a time of 'praise and worship,' which I would unfortunately have to describe more as 'fun and games'!  The congregation danced and they pranced and they sang, while giving high-fives to each other, and marching around the room (singing 'we are marching, we are marching, for Jesus') and oddly enough balancing chairs, baby bottles, Bibles and any other random objects on their HEADS during another song!  No idea why... there was no explanation given.  :)  It was very odd.

And it was VERY LOUD.  They had an amplifier and huge speakers in this room which was not exactly a LARGE room.... and it was just BLARING.  It was making the floor vibrate!  We were seated at the front of the room with a speaker just in front of us, poor David had it booming into his left ear from about 3 feet away for more than an hour.  It is sad to see churches which are using technological gadgets which are entirely unnecessary in their particular surroundings.  This room had excellent acoustics so the use of the mics and amplifiers was totally unnecessary and indeed made it impossible for those who didn't know the songs to participate, because you couldn't hear the words that the congregation was singing.  It was so loud that I actually took the children out after more than 30 minutes of continuous blaring noise, because I was concerned for their hearing.

The 'fun and games' went on and on, for just under a full hour.  And then they called David up to preach.  He gracefully declined the offer of a mic, saying that it would be like David trying to fight in Saul's armor.  :)  He told me afterwards that it took more than 10 minutes of speaking before his head cleared from all the cacophony, as he had been left half-deafened.  He felt like the audience also was struggling to concentrate at the very beginning of his sermon because of the drastic change between the overwhelming noise of a few minutes prior and the comparative silence of the room during his sermon.  David's voice, un-amplified, was entirely sufficient for everyone in the room to hear his message clearly, so I was very glad that he had refused to use the mic as I felt like it gave a good example to the congregation that such implements are not always necessary.  :)

Elijah got to sit in 'Daddy's chair' while David was preaching - note the proximity to the speaker!

David preached from Revelation about the final day of judgement and I felt like the Lord gave him good freedom in his message.  Afterwards if I remember correctly they took up an offering, and gave some announcements and the service was over.  By that time it was right about 11:30 or so.  We were told that we would be taken over to the pastor's house, so after a few minutes of visiting in the parking lot, we went over there.  The pastor lives in a house which is in the same Trade School complex, on the other side, so it was very close by.  They have a nice view from their front door, across the main road which leads from town to the 'turn-off' (at the Great East Rd which runs from Lusaka to Malawi) and if you looked straight out across the valley (the town is on a ridge), you were practically looking straight at the location of Covenant College.  Very scenic!

The view from the front door

So we were welcomed into the house by the pastor's wife (she later told us she has 3 little girls, one of whom came into the living room with us, and one of whom was an infant of 6 months who was napping in a crib in the dining room) and we all took a seat in their living room, which was very nicely furnished.  It was ourselves, Rev. Allan, Bartholomew the other student, Alex the student we were visiting, and an elder from the congregation.  The women - the pastor's wife, Alex's wife Edith, and the elder's wife - were busy in the kitchen and we barely saw them except when they served the food to us.  So I was the only woman in the group visiting in the living room.  :)  We just visited for a while, chatting about this and that related to our life at the College, what we do there, Rev. Allan asking questions of the students about their families, and the elder sharing his testimony of how the Lord had saved him out of a life of drunkenness.

hungry little girl waiting patiently for her lunch

Alex

 

Rev. Allan and Bartholomew

At some point the pastor's wife sent her little girl into the room to switch on the big flat-screen TV which was mounted on the wall, I think she was thinking that we'd like it to amuse Elijah and Ketzia.  We don't ever watch TV, and don't allow movies on the Lord's Day, so we would have preferred that it stay off.  :)  Surprisingly, this happens a lot when we are visiting people's homes on the Lord's Day. They often have the TV switched on and keep it on even when they have visitors in the room trying to hold a conversation!  So the rest of the time as we waited for lunch was spent trying to have conversation while distracted by really rather horrid cartoons (modern-day cartoons are so obnoxious and sickening - full of witchcraft, lying, hatred, and all sorts of evil behavior!).

not a good photo - but Edith serving us drinks

visiting

We were served drinks while we waited, and meanwhile we could smell good smells coming from the kitchen.  :)  In the end we waited for an hour and then dinner was served, right around 1pm.  It was very tasty -- nshima served with different 'relishes' of chicken, greens, potatoes & onions, and sauce.  Ketzia and Elijah did really well waiting patiently for their late lunch and then ate well when it arrived.  We didn't stay too long after lunch, though, because the kids were desperately needing a nap.  Rev. Allan took a group photo and then we said goodbye to everyone, leaving a bit after 1;30 and getting home right around 2pm.  (Sorry I don't have a copy of the photo he took!)

We were favorably impressed with the friendliness and Christian love shown by this congregation, who were very warm and welcoming.  We would like to see them learn more how to worship 'in spirit and in truth' but we trust that as they continue to open the Scriptures, the Lord will teach them these things in his time.  It was an enjoyable visit and it was also nice to hear from our student, Alex, about the church's plans to ordain him as a minister and send him to plant a church in the northern province after he graduates in October this year.  We pray that he will continue to grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord so that his pastorate will be an edification to many.

a few things you should know before you move to Zambia :)

1) No matter how strongly you feel about having your children secured in their car seats, there will be times when you have to put personal preference aside and squeeze more folks in.  Because ‘you can always fit one more’ is the byword of Zambian transportation theory, and when you happen to own one of the only vehicles for miles, lots of people will be asking for rides to church, hospital, shopping, etc.

2) There is no rubbish collection, and you have to burn your bags of trash.  (I'm no good at starting fires so I delegate this responsibility to my hired house help, or to my husband.)  :)  Anything that’s not burnable is generally ‘recyclable’ – that is, we wash it and give it away to the local staff and students who can use all sorts of things – tin cans, plastic milk jugs, and bottles and containers of all shapes and sizes, for all sorts of things – even catching rodents so that they don’t go hungry.

3) The cleanliness of your kitchen has no relation to whether or not you have cockroaches in your kitchen.  They live here, too.  Regardless of how much you scrub and spray and how horrid you think they are, they are present.

4) Greetings are very, very important in Zambian culture.  But asking ‘politely’ is not.  Our Western mindset leads us to teach our children to say ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ before they can even talk!  But here, that is not important and indeed it’s never done.  The word ‘please’ is virtually not found in conversation.  If you want something, you say, ‘Give me that,’ or ‘I want that.’  It’s not considered rude here!  It can be rather jarring and takes some adjustment in our American minds – as we meanwhile refuse to give our toddler something until they have asked ‘nicely.’  :)  Thankfully they do use ‘Thank you’ extensively!

5) Zambians find our Western habit of ‘taking a walk’ for recreation very amusing.  They can’t understand it, because they would never do it.  Walking is something you do because you have to, here.  But we do it because we like it, and because we want ‘exercise,’ or a chance to talk. Marjanne and I take a walk together every weekday afternoon at 4pm, which has been christened a ‘chat-walk’ by our amused colleagues.  We both really enjoy these walks because it gives us a chance to get some fresh air, clear our heads after each long and sometimes rather stressful day, and visit together when otherwise we wouldn’t see much of each other if we didn’t carve out this time to walk.

Just a few things I thought I’d share with you!  It's funny how after living somewhere for a couple of years you get used to little things like this, and don't think about them as much, until one day you realize that if you share it with your friends, they will find it really interesting and amusing - because it's different from where you are from.

visit to a student's church (4)

This past Sunday we had opportunity to visit a student who has planted a church in the nearest village to the College...

This is a village still in the grasp of witchcraft, superstition, and a general apathy towards bettering themselves.  It is one of the poorest of the villages around -- the children are visibly unwashed, dressed in rags, and you can almost sense despair.  In the past there have been attempts to start a school in the village, but nothing has ever lasted - because none of the villagers were serious enough about it.

In the past there was a small Baptist congregation there which was under the leadership of a College student who has since graduated - at the time he was 'pastoring' 7 different congregations which essentially meant that he was never present at this one particular village and there was no one caring for them.  During this sad period of neglect the congregation fell away and although we visited several times, there was no leadership and it was evident that the church would not be in existence much longer.

For more than a year now there have not been services held in this village.  It has really been heavy on our hearts that these, our nearest neighbors, who pass through our Bible College every day, are without any place of worship in their village and are living in such spiritual darkness.  Of the small number of villagers who actually made an effort to attend 'church', some gravitated to the nearby mosque, while others had to walk for miles to attend church in other villages.  We have been gravely aware of the need for a Gospel witness in this place.

In light of this an evangelism program was begun at the College this year, which involves the College students walking into this village every Wednesday afternoon to share the Gospel.  Some weeks they preach to a gathered group, other weeks they do door-to-door outreach. We are thankful for the willingness of the village head-woman who gave us permission to have this program.  Next term we hope to expand this program into other nearby villages as well, once we get permission from the various village leaders.  In the meantime, the students are faithfully going to this village weekly.

Within one or two weeks of the evangelism program starting, one of our students came to us and said that he was going to start a church in the village and would be going there every week on Sunday to lead a service.  This was an answer to prayer, as we had been hoping that the Lord would lay it on the hearts of one of our students, or one of our staff members whose church would be capable of church planting, to start something in this village!

So this student, Levy (who is from a Pentecostal church) has been faithfully going to the village every week to lead a service.  Levy is one of our 'weekend students' - there are a few students who live more than 2 1/2 hours away from the College and cannot afford to travel home each weekend, so they stay at the College each weekend (often trying to do a bit of 'piecework' to support themselves). So Levy is in the unfortunate situation of not being able to go home and see his family and his church more than twice in a year!  But what this does mean, is that he has the opportunity to minister to this local village which doesn't have any spiritual leadership.  So we thank God for giving Levy the willingness and the compassion to be a 'missionary' in this way.

He asked us to come and visit, and David to preach this past week.  It's not too far to the village at all -- about a 15 minute walk through the 'bush', with two places where you have to cross streams on a very rustic bridge made of dead logs and mud.  :)  Our total group included our family (with the two kids in our fantastic double stroller, but Elijah walked part way -- he's just not quite old enough to walk BOTH ways in the blazing sun), Rev. Allan our visiting trustee from Scotland, our colleague Marjanne who often joins us when we visit students' churches because it's an opportunity for her to hear an English sermon since David is usually preaching, and Joseph the trustee from England.  We were told the service would start at 9:30 so we left the house around 9:15 to walk down to the village.

When we got to the village Levy was finishing up his time of Bible study with the congregation.  They were meeting in the open air, under the shelter of a tree. The men were all sitting on the right side on a collection of logs and rocks, and the women and children were all sitting in the grass on the left side.  There was a small assortment of chairs, stools, and small benches for our group because we were the special visitors.  David and the other two men, with Levy, sat at the front facing the congregation, and Marjanne and myself sat with the kids at the back of the women's section.

the men at the front -- Levy standing, David, Rev. Allan and Joseph

Unfortunately under the tree where we were meeting was grassy, and the grass had not been 'slashed', everything was quite overgrown, so it wasn't a very pleasant place to sit, even with a stool to perch on!  And what was even worse.... there were thornbushes everywhere with horrible sticky burs that were really painful.  So, I spent a lot of time picking painful thorns off myself and the children, and trying to protect them as much as possible from landing or sitting in a thorny patch.

the women and children sitting in the grass

This was not a typical village church service, in that there was virtually no singing, and it was almost just a sermon and hardly anything else to make it a service!  They welcomed us and introduced each visitor.  They sang one song while taking up an offering, and Levy (strangely enough) 'performed' another song as a solo, marching up and down at the front... And then Levy invited David up for the reading and preaching of the Word. David had chosen as his text Luke 16, the portion where Christ is sharing the parable of the rich man and Lazarus.  David's sermon was about the finality of death and what happens after we die -- that those who trust in Christ go to heaven, those who don't go to hell, and that there is no way that those souls or spirits can return to earth again.  He preached this because of the massive amounts of superstition and witchcraft present in this and many other villages.  They still believe in ancestral spirits which can affect your life for good or evil  -- that the ancestors can curse you or bless you, and whatever happens is a result of witchcraft in one way or another.  So David wanted to preach a very clear sermon about what the Bible has to say about death and the afterlife, to reach out to this villagers in bondage.

David preaching and Levy translating

I sadly didn't get much out of the service, because I was busy wrestling Elijah and Ketzia who were quite restless.  Ketzia in particular was really struggling - she kept crying, and I couldn't figure out why, and I had to take her out of the 'service' (which really just meant that I left the shade of the tree and went behind the nearby hut to deal with her) multiple times.  Still couldn't figure out what was wrong. It may have been teething related, or it may have been that she kept getting pricked by thorns and I just wasn't finding them. But anyway, the kids struggled to such an extent that I hardly heard a word of the entire sermon, which was really discouraging! 

little blond child on the mat with the other children

(On a positive note, Elijah is doing so very well with toilet training that for more than a month now, he's been wearing underwear on our outings to church and to town for our shopping, and we take along his little portable plastic potty so that he can use it even in the car, or wherever we happen to be!  So I brought it in the bottom of the stroller, and he used it during the service (behind the hut again, with a couple of village kids giggling at him) and I was very proud of him.  He only wears nappies when he sleeps now.)

After the sermon, Marjanne led the children in a few songs which they have learned at her weekly Children's Ministry on Saturday afternooons at the College, and that was the extent of the congregational singing!  And then that was the end of the service!  They ushered us out and everyone else stayed behind because apparently they were having some kind of congregational meeting.  So that was it... we walked back home in the blazing sun.

proof that I was there, too :)

It was kind of a funny anticlimatic ending to a service, which to be honest, really wasn't a proper service at all.  You can tell that the villagers still don't really have the wherewithal to arrange things properly, even when they have faithful leadership.  The fact that the service wasn't very organized, and that the grass hadn't even been slashed to provide a decent place to be seated...  But it was encouraging to see Levy's desire to make a difference in this village and to provide them with faithful Gospel preaching.  We pray that the Lord will give him much wisdom and grace in his leadership, and that the Lord will be working in the hearts of the villagers to make them more receptive to and more desirous of the truth of the Scriptures!  Only the Truth will set them free.

Trust meeting

 Well, I fell off the blogging bandwagon again, but this time I feel more justified.  After all, there are higher priorities than blogging, like feeding my houseguests, keeping up with the ever-present mound of dirty dishes, and keeping my house at least tidy enough that my guests don't feel like they are constantly wading through the flotsam and jetsam strewn everywhere by two energetic children.  :)  And that's what I've been doing.

Last week was one of the busiest weeks of the year here at Covenant College, because it was the Annual General Meeting of our Trust (the board of directors responsible for the College, the Farm, and the Christian Education Ministry).  There is always a lot of 'paper' preparation for this once-a-year meeting, writing up reports and dealing with the budget, etc, facing people like David primarily, but also a lot of logistical preparations, which is where I can find a way to help.  The days leading up to the Trust meeting were busy with extra shopping trips to get food and other supplies for the visiting Trustees, as well as things like plumbing parts for a repair which had to be done on one of the guesthouses at the last minute.  Then arranging to have the guesthouses cleaned (by one of the wives of Zambian staff members here - they really appreciate the little cleaning jobs which give them extra income).  And then stocking the guesthouses with all the 'stuff' to make their stay comfortable.

the Aucamp family from South Africa - Johannes is one of our trustees, and also lectures for the College twice each year. Their family travels throughout southern Africa in an army lorry which has been converted into a 'camper', providing training for rural pastors.

 The visiting Trustees were spread out between the 3 guesthouses, and the student dormitory, and our home.  Our family hosted two Trustees, Rev. Allan from Scotland who is staying with us a total of 3 weeks (he is also teaching a course here at the College), and Pastor Mbewe from Lusaka, who is an internationally-known preacher and speaker.  It was really enjoyable having them in our home, which gave an added opportunity for fellowship between meetings.

There are 11 Trustees on the board, and 9 of them were present this year (1 South African and 1 Zambian Trustee were absent).  There were 3 South Africans, 5 Zambians, 1 Scotsman and 1 Englishman, and then of course the local staff here - Phil (English), Marjanne (Dutch), and David (who knows what? :).  So a nice international flavour!

the meetings ended earlier than expected (Friday night) and some trustees left early, but here's a photo of the trustees who were still around on Saturday morning

our colleague, full-time lecturer Rev. Charles Zulu, and his representative from his supporting church in South Africa

Beyond keeping the 3 men in my household fed as needed whenever they reappeared from the sessions, my main responsibility was to provide tea and coffee to the Trustees during the evening meetings on Thursday and Friday nights.  I did some baking and served homemade oatmeal cookies and banana bread, which was well received.  The trickiest part was carrying over the heavy trays with big pots of tea and coffee, and stacks of mugs, from our house across to the College buildings after dark, balancing my mobile phone (with flashlight on) in my teeth because my hands were full!  At least my kids were sleeping peacefully and soundly, so I could leave them alone in the house for 10 minutes.

me sneaking in mid-session to serve refreshments

We also had extra dinner company on the Friday and Saturday nights, taking advantage of the opportunity to spend more time with visitors who wouldn't be around very long!  So I was really busy keeping up with all the cooking AND all the washing up in these few days.  I am so very thankful for the help of Dinas, the daughter of our staff member Nelson, whom I've hired to come a few mornings each week to help me with housework like cleaning floors and washing dishes, which makes it so that I can get off my feet.  I'm having to be very, very careful not to push myself too much these days, because I'm having a lot of trouble with sciatica and pain in my pelvis and hips.  If I'm on my feet too much, by the end of the day I can't walk.... and I can't make dinner from bed, so I'm learning to limit myself in order to still be on my feet at the end of the day.  :)  I am really thankful that Dinas was able to work an extra morning for me to help out with the extra dishes and hosting-clean up!

Marjanne giving an informal presentation about her work with local village schools

Did you know that Marjanne is a published children's author?  She is working on a series of books about life in Zambia.  This is her most recent one - another is just finished and getting ready for publication.  Unfortunately not available in English yet!

 In all we were blessed by a smooth Trust meeting with a spirit of unity, and we are very grateful for that and for the men who came from so far for this meeting.  We pray that the Lord will bless the decisions that were made and also bless the Trustees as they continue to work through various projects which will extend through part of the year.

trustees and ministry leaders (David - College, Phil - Farm, Marjanne - Schools) on Saturday morning