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

our family is growing :)

We've announced it already on Facebook and in our recent family newsletter, but let me officially announce here on this blog that we are expecting our 3rd child! 

Some of you may have seen a photo posted on Facebook a few weeks ago, of me standing in our kitchen, and David captioning it, '______, barefoot, in the kitchen.'  If you were bewildered, wondering what on earth David was trying to say, or just plain missed the joke because it was too obscure -- that's okay.  I told David he would be likely to lose some folks in translation, but he insisted on announcing it that way.  So, if you were wondering, now you know.  :)  David was playing on a joke we have in America about a 'pregnant, barefoot wife in the kitchen.'

Yes, so our family is growing and the newest addition is expected sometime around the first week of October.  :)  I will admit that the timing is bit awkward, because we have tickets booked to travel to the UK on the 22nd of October, and that is too soon to travel after the expected arrival of a baby... and our tickets are non-refundable and non-changeable.  But we are trusting that the Lord, in His providence, knew all about details like this when He allowed this baby to be given to us at this time, and we are praying for Him to give us wisdom to know what to do and how to plan the end of our year. 

A few of you have asked me what our plans are for this baby.  The answer is -- we don't know yet. (And we appreciate your prayers for us as we wrestle with decisions and plans.)  Our initial plan, which really was quite settled in our own minds, was to stay here in Zambia and have the baby in a hospital in Lusaka.  In one sense this would be the simplest option.  We had already informed our Missions Committee that we would not be able to change our tickets and thus would not be able to come back to the UK as planned this year, and they were very understanding.

However, as we have done more and more research, the decision to give birth in Lusaka has been HEAVILY negated by ex-pats whose advice we have asked.  It has been really discouraging, but also really confusing because you get so many different opinions and stories.  But to sum up, in my search to find if there are any hospitals which are recommended by those who've had babies here, I've instead found mostly horror stories... and most people telling us to please just leave the country to have a baby, and not risk it here.  There have been only a couple of exceptions.  And even the women who had babies in this country, and whose births went smoothly, don't recommend it.  Essentially what I am hearing is, 'Well, if you have a healthy birth with no complications, then you're fine, but if there are any life-threatening situations, you're sunk,' because hospitals in Lusaka are just not equipped (and/or do not have staff trained adequately) to handle big problems.

So we are very unsure what to do. We want to be wise, and we are crying out to the Lord for wisdom in making our decisions.  We want to be confident in whatever we choose. 

Now what we are looking into is the cost of getting tickets at the beginning of September, to fly back to the UK and have the baby there.  We may get to see our dear friends in Scotland this year after all.  :)  This decision would require a lot of logistical arrangements including a place to live in Scotland, and finding out whether or not I am eligible for free NHS care... as well as the approval of our Missions Committee on our plans.

As you can tell, there is a great deal of uncertainty surrounding the details of this baby's forecasted arrival into the world.  We hope to know more in a few weeks when I have my first antenatal appointment in Lusaka in mid-April.  This will give us a chance to visit a few hospitals and see what our options are. 

We as a family greatly value your prayers for us as we wrestle with these difficult decisions.  And I personally beg you to be praying for me, because I am finding the uncertainty very stressful, and the weight of decision very wearing.  Please also pray that the Lord will sustain all of us with good health, but particularly myself and our unborn child, because any complications could seriously affect ANY plans we make, and even my ability to fly out of the country to get better medical care.

In the midst of uncertainties, it is so good to know that we serve a gracious God -- who has first of all chosen to give us this child, but also chosen the time and all the surrounding circumstances.  We know that He does everything right, and what blessings He showers upon us!

'I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; that my soul knoweth right well.  My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being imperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them.  How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God!  how great is the sum of them!  If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand: when I awake, I am still with thee.'
Psalm 139:14-18

visit to a student's church (3)

This past Sunday we visited another village congregation, this one pastored by Amos, a graduate of Covenant College.  Although it wasn't a current student's church, I've decided to include it, because this man was indeed one of the first students at the College when it began, so I think it should count.  :) 

This Baptist church is one of the largest congregations in the area, and we've visited it on numerous occasions.  It's good to keep up our relationship with the nearby villages and also with our graduates.  This weekend Marjanne had a group of Dutch young folks visiting her, and decided to take them to this church to give them a real 'village church' experience.  Our family decided to join them because we hadn't gone to this church in several months.  Marjanne's group walked -- it's about a 40 minute walk away.  We decided to drive due to the children's limited patience and my problems with sciatica.  The service started around 10:30 and lasted until 12:30... a very typical African service. 

Unlike the other churches we've visited in previous weeks, this one actually has a proper building, made of bricks, with a proper metal sheet roof.  The bricks are designed so that there are little 'windows' in the brick wall down the length of the church, so that a welcome bit of breeze can come in. here is also a proper cement floor!  The congregation sits in the typical Zambian format - divided into a men's side and a women's side, but then there is extra benches on the left side for the mixed (men and women) choir, and extra benches at the front on the right, next to the pulpit, for the women's choir.  Because there are only a few benches, a lot of the women and children sit on grass mats on the floor along the right-hand wall.  David sat on the men's side with Elijah, and I sat on the women's side with Ketzia.  We traded children a few times during the service, but by and large Elijah did very well and was very happy getting to sit with his daddy for a change!  Ketzia wasn't feeling well (teething) and actually fell asleep part-way through the service, lying on a chitenge on the floor. Shocking.  She's never done that before!

The service started with singing from the 'mixed' choir of men and women.  This church actually has well-trained choirs which sing very, very well.  The ability of Africans to harmonize is showcased nicely here!  The first song was sung sitting down, and then the next song was their 'marching up' song.  Choirs here do not just sing.... they usually have a song for 'marching up', then they stand in front of the congregation and continue their repertoire while they stamp, sway, clap, and otherwise 'dance' according to the type of song they are singing, and then they have a 'marching back' song when they return to their seats. Some of the marching is highly stylized to show off the capability of the choir.

The choir sang for quite a long time.  (If you are interested in what they sang... well, all the songs are in the local language so I don't catch very much, but I do know the translation of one VERY POPULAR chorus which just about every single church in the province loves to sing, which says something like, 'when you call God on the phone, he will answer...'  All the songs are very repetitious which is partly because of the oral culture.)

After the choir sat back down, there were some announcements and a welcome to the visitors. Then one of the women from the women's choir stood up and led a time of congregational praise and worship - more choruses.  I think you get the idea that the African churches love to sing.  :) 

After that it was time for the women's choir to perform.  Again the 'marching up' to the front, then singing for a while, then marching back to their seats.  Lots and lots of singing.

Then they took up the offering.  In this particular church they have bowls at the front by the pulpit and the congregation gets up from their seats to put the money in.  Afterwards they asked two people - a man and a woman - from the congregation to pray.  Then they sang a song to welcome to the preacher to the pulpit.  When we arrived at the church at the beginning of the service Amos immediately asked David to preach, but David said no this time because we wanted to worship as a family for a change. The next time we visit David will be preaching. So Amos took the service himself. 

We were pleasantly surprised at the amount of Scripture which was read before the sermon.  You will find that Scripture reading is very short in most village churches, partially because the Chichewa Bible is difficult to read (even for those few who know how to read) and partially because there is such an emphasis put on singing in the service rather than the Word of God.  But this time they read two chapters -- Matt. 26 and John 16. 

Amos preached a sermon about Jesus preparing himself to go to the Cross, and we found his application quite helpful - he was urging his congregation to make sure that they are right with God so that they will be ready to die when their time comes.  It was the longest sermon we've ever heard Amos preach (he typically won't preach for more than 10 minutes, and this was closer to 20) and the one with the best application. So that was very encouraging.  But it does say something that in spite of that, the total length of the sermon was less than 1/3 of the time spent singing!

After the sermon there were some closing announcements, a last song, and a closing prayer.  Then the women's choir sang as we all filed out and shook hands in greeting.  It was a lengthy but pleasant service and nice to visit there again after some time.  On the way home, we had a truck PACKED full with children (relatives of Nelson) wanting a lift down the road.  There was no space left in the bed of the truck, so the College cook Nelson and one of our students, Kawaleka were sitting on the open tailgate hanging on.  :)  The front seat was occupied by Nelson's very elderly aunt who can practically not walk at all.  She was extremely grateful to be given a lift down the road.  It was later than usual by the time we got home - after 1pm - so a quick bite to eat for lunch and then we put the children (whom we had barely managed to keep awake on the short ride home) straight to bed for their afternoon naps!

the end of another week.

I don't want to go a week without posting, so I'll just give a brief update of our week.

Ketzia had a fever for two days, so she was massively uncomfortable and unhappy.  It seems to be teething related -- we think her two lower molars are coming in.  Then she was healthy and happy for a whole day, and the next day she woke up with a congested nose and a bad cough. That was yesterday... today she's definitely been in all-out teething mode!  Miserable, crying (she cried almost the whole night last night), drooling, sniffling, chewing on her fingers.  Poor baby.  Even my trusty teething remedies aren't doing much for her at the moment.  Thankfully this too shall pass.  But it has been a week of cuddling a very sad little girl, and not much else!  I hope she feels better soon.

Our weekends are usually pretty much the same sort of thing -- a collective sigh of relief breathed on Friday about lunchtime, which is the end of the study week with the students. (Most of our students travel back to their homes for each weekend, in order to care for their families, fields, and the churches where they minister.  Only a few students live too far away to travel back every week, so they are known as the 'weekend' students - they stay in the dormitory over the weekend, fend for themselves, and find local places to worship.)  Usually David's afternoon on Fridays is a bit more low-key because he doesn't have to prepare a class for the next day.  However, sometimes it is used for sermon prep - but most often for catching up on College administration.  On Fridays at 3pm we have a language lesson each week with Sangwani, our student from Malawi.  This has been extremely helpful to us and we are so thankful for Sangwani's willingness to tutor us weekly.  In the evenings on Friday usually we just want to kick back and relax after a very long week packed to the brim! Sometimes we will watch a movie (one of the digital copies we have on our computer given by friends).  Sometimes we will play a game, or have homemade popcorn or some other special treat. It's always a nice feeling to get to the end of another week.  :)

Saturday is a busy day for us.  But it starts early - we often have weekend students looking for 'piecework' to earn money during the day knocking on our gate by 7am!  If I can manage to pull David away from the ever-present call of College business at all during the week, Saturday is my best chance.  :)  So sometimes that's when we do household projects together, or he spends a bit more time with the kids than he has a chance to during the week.  But usually Saturday mornings are when we do our weekly shopping in town.  We only go to town once a week for a couple of reasons -- first of all, I can't drive and David doesn't have the time to drop everything and take me into town to shop more than once a week, and secondly, it saves fuel if we cut our trips down to the bare minimum.  So Saturday is our shopping morning. We shop not only for ourselves but also for the College's needs for the upcoming week.  The rest of the day is spent with David in his study and me probably not getting as much done as I should to prepare for the Lord's Day.  Sigh.  I always seem to run out of steam on Saturday afternoons, when I have a pile of laundry, a pile of dishes, and a house to tidy staring me in the face!  But tonight, I don't have a choice, because we have some visitors coming over for a cup of coffee tomorrow evening so I need my house to be a bit presentable.  :)

a grand day out

Yesterday we had a grand day out!  :)  We drove to Chipata which is two hours' east of here, close to the Malawi border, to do some shopping.  Originally we had thought that we would be making a trip to Lusaka this month, but it turns out we won't be going to Lusaka until next month.  There's always a list of special things that we want to buy during our trips to 'civilization' which we can't get locally, so when it was decided not to travel to Lusaka we thought we would arrange to go to Chipata instead, which is much closer and also has two large supermarkets where we would be able to find most of the things we needed.  The last time we did a big shop in civilization was about 2 months ago!  This was only my second time ever going to Chipata since we moved here in February 2011.  So it really was a big deal to have a day out like this!

So we loaded up the kids and left around 8:15 am for the drive east.  The kids slept in the car, which is always nice, and David and I enjoyed the opportunity to just talk for a bit and have a quiet ride as a family!  These are rarer than you would expect as there are always people wanting to get a lift from us!  The scenery as you drive east is quite pretty in the rainy season, with lots of lush green vegetation and some nice views of the plains and hills.  As you get close to Chipata the road surface improves drastically.  :)  Chipata is the provincial capital of Eastern Province. It is much larger than Petauke.

Our first stop was Shoprite, which is the main chain of supermarkets here.  Would you like to know what sorts of things are on my 'when we're in civilization' shopping list?  :)  Things like jam, spices and seasonings (oregano, basil, paprika, etc.), tinned tuna, salad dressing (YES, I admit that I use store-bought dressings on the RARE occasions when I have lettuce), condiments like mustard and soy sauce, dill pickles!  Paper goods like paper plates (just one pack, for rare occasions or emergencies), paper towels (again, one pack, for emergencies - there's nothing like paper towels for cleaning up unmentionables!), foil, toilet paper (we can buy toilet paper locally and sometimes do, but getting nice soft quality toilet paper is really nice!).  Shampoo.  Baby wipes.  Disposable nappies.  Dog kibble (our dogs eat nshima mixed with kapenta -tiny dried fish - during the week, but our hired help who makes the food for us doesn't work on weekends, so on weekends we give the dogs a bowlful of kibble). 

But I think the most important thing for me is the fresh produce.  Broccoli!  Lettuce!  Courgettes! (Okay, that's zucchini... it is so hard to write this blog sometimes going back and forth between British-speak and American-speak. I am so afraid of confusing one or the other of my readers.)  Mushrooms!  Fruit 'treats' like grapes and plums!  Carrots!  We can't get much produce other than tomatoes, onions, green beans, green peppers, and cabbage in the local market... so being able to pick up a few special things is SUCH a blessing!

Also the frozen vegetables... of which I can only get a couple of bags, because of the size of my freezer, but they are really nice to supplement our diet with for a few weeks - making them last as long as possible!

Finishing up my list are the essential 'treats': a couple of packs of beef cuts (we rarely ever find beef other than mince in Petauke), a bottle or two of fresh cream,  and some mozzarella cheese.  I always like to get a couple of blocks of mozzarella cheese so that I can make homemade pizza. Otherwise, no pizza for us for months on end! 

Speaking of mozzarella cheese... leads me to a funny story.  I looked at Shoprite but they were essentially out of cheese, which was VERY disappointing. No mozzarella to be found!  Oh, well, I thought, I'll look at Spar (the other supermarket).  We finished our shopping, got all the cold food loaded into our cooler in the back of the truck, and went along to Spar.  I went straight to the cheese.  There is ONE block of mozzarella cheese left.  Yes!  I pick it up... NO!!  It is covered with mold!  :(  I looked around to see if by ANY chance I had missed another block sitting somewhere... and there, reposing splendidly next to it, is a MASSIVE huge block of mozzarella.  I wish I had picked it up to see how much it weighed.  It must have been a foot long slab of mozzarella.  What I did see was the PRICE... 179 Kwacha...  That is more than £20!  More than $35!!  Obviously I had to walk away and leave the beautiful slab of mozzarella sitting there... sniff sniff. It was so sad. David said, 'It would have been easier if there was absolutely no mozzarella there at all!'

Our shopping was finished, and it was time for lunch.  Being in 'civilization' meant a real treat - going out for pizza!  There is a new fast food pizza place in Chipata and I, who have been craving pizza for weeks, was delighted. Yum, yum.  I got a '4 seasons' pizza with pepperoni and olives (!!!) on it, and David got a sweet and sour chicken pizza.  We shared with the kids.  Just as we got to the pizza place it started pouring rain (perfect time) as a storm came rolling in, so we sat and watched the bucketing rain.  After finishing our food, the kids were antsy and wanting to play around. They ended up going out onto the porch and holding their hands out to feel the raindrops.  :)  This led VERY quickly to them abandoning all restraint and going straight out into the rain!  There was a little patio with outside seating where they were running around in the rain having an absolute BLAST.  It was so cute!!  We have way too much mud at our house when it rains, so I don't let them out in it.  This was a great opportunity for them to play in the rain because there was no lightning, either.    They must have splashed and run and screamed with laughter for at least 15 minutes.  There were a lot of Zambians standing under the porch overhang sheltering from the rain, and they were SO amused by the children.  Cell phones and cameras came out and our kids were celebrities being filmed!  Talk about a grand day out.  When does Mommy ever let you play in the rain until you are soaked to the skin?!

Then it was time to head home!  The children slept part of the way home.  We were tired but happy after an enjoyable day.  Even with no mozzarella...  :)  It was about 3pm when we got back home.  Glad for the opportunity to get out of the house for a few hours and buy some helpful, special things.  The Lord is good to us!

visit to a student's church (2)

Yesterday we visited a small village congregation.  One of our students, Peter, planted this church in a village very close to the College which didn't have any place of worship.  He has been laboring faithfully in outreach and evangelism in this village, preaching the Gospel and looking after his flock.  This was our 3rd time visiting his congregation.  The first time we went, they were meeting in the shade of a gigantic tree!  The second time we went (last year with the Woods who were visiting from Scotland) they were meeting in a grass shelter which also serves as the school building for the village.  This year they had a slight upgrade - the grass shelter now has a sheet of plastic over the roof to provide protection during the rainy season.  We were very glad to receive another invitation from Peter who is anxious for his congregation to benefit from Biblical preaching.

Peter's church

You may be wondering, what is a typical village like?  Well, we have found that some villages have  mostly brick houses with tin roofs, and other villages are mud huts with grass roofs.  This particular village is made up of mud buildings with grass roofs.  Some of the huts are circular and some are rectangular.  The huts are mainly used for sleeping and there are separate shelters (without walls) for cooking, again with grass roofs.  Cooking is done over open fires or braziers.   The areas around the huts are kept hoed and completely clear of grass, so each village is a large expanse of good red Zambian soil.  The villagers do this partly to guard against snakes, because you can see them coming a lot further away when there is no grass to hide behind!  Through the villages, pigs, chickens, goats, dogs, and cows wander freely.

Although the village is within walking distance (it takes about 30-40 minutes to walk there) we chose to drive because storms can blow in so quickly at this time of year.  We were joined by Jairos, another student who assists Peter in the congregation, who helped us load a few benches into the back of the truck to provide extra seating in the church.  We were also joined by Kawaleka, currently our oldest student and pastor of a church in Sinda (half an hour drive away).  He had been invited to teach the Bible study before the service. We left a few minutes before 9 and arrived just about 9:15, having driven the 'long way around' to avoid the shortcut which is generally impassable during the rainy season.  When we arrived the congregation was finishing a time of prayer, and they began the Bible study.  Because Kawaleka read and taught in the local language, I'm not 100% sure of what he was saying, but I think I gathered that he was reading from the book of Joshua and teaching about the Israelites' attack on Ai, possibly.  I was wishing I could understand what he was saying because it sounded interesting!

David sat at the front with the church leaders next to the pulpit and Marjanne and I sat on a bench at the back of the shelter with the children, on the women's side.  The women and children sat on grass mats on the floor and the men sat on a collection of tree trunks and benches.  The shelter was made of grass for the roof and walls, held up with various size sticks and logs, and there was a dirt floor.  The grasses are getting a bit 'tired' after more than a year's worth of use, so there are cracks in the walls through which Elijah was fascinated to watch the village cowboys driving the herds of cows along and other scenes of village life!  (When we met under the tree the first time we visited, the cows walked through during the service!)

the choir performing

After the Bible study, which didn't last too long, the service began, first with a time of praise and worship.  First the choir marched in, and sang a few choruses at the front.  Again, this is very typical - most churches have at least one choir.  This one was mixed, men and women.  Afterwards the Sunday school children marched in and sang two songs very nicely, with a lot of clapping and excited ululating from their proud parents.  Then the congregation sang some choruses, led by two women at the front.  They ended with a time of mass prayer again as mentioned last week. Although the Pentecostal churches claim this as a mark of being Pentecostal, you will find it is quite common across the spectrum of Zambian churches including the Reformed Church of Zambia and other denominations.

students sitting at the front - L to R, Kawaleka, Peter, Jairos

Then there was a short time of announcements, and welcoming visitors.  After that, more singing of choruses, during which Elijah escaped from me and wet his pants outside!  Then it was time for the sermon. David was preaching from Ephesians 2:1-7, about the state of man in sin - that all are dead in sin, but we can be made alive in Christ.  Unfortunately, Elijah who had managed to do fairly well, though not excellently, up to that point in the service, welcomed the first words of the Bible reading with a wail and I had to usher him out for some discipline.  More unfortunately still, said discipline failed to have any effect upon my stubborn little boy's behavior which continued to decline rapidly.  He just simply didn't want to be in church, and was determined to fuss and misbehave incessantly.  Pretty soon it became obvious that I would have to take him out because he was being so disruptive.  Ketzia was doing quite well considering that she normally sleeps around the time we were leaving for church, and didn't get any morning nap.

David and Peter reading from the Bible before the sermon

Elijah ended up howling so much about being disciplined that I eventually gave up on staying in for the service.  I got my chitenges (chitenges are useful multi-purpose pieces of cloth which are used here as wrap skirts for the women, or for carrying children or anything else on the back, or for sitting on, or for tablecloths, etc.) and escorted both children out to a nearby tree, where we sat on the ground in the shade for the remainder of the service.  But Elijah still didn't get to play as he had hoped - I made him sit next to me on the chitenge until the service was over.  Sadly, I didn't get to hear the sermon because I was so distracted by disciplining children!  But I am having to accept that this is the stage of life I'm in just now, and I don't get to hear much of the service when David's preaching.  (I don't know what I'll do when I have 3 children... I hope that Elijah has greatly improved by then!)

sitting outside the church for misbehavior

At the end of the service we rejoined the others in time for the closing announcements and closing prayer.  Then everyone filed out and we all shook hands in a line, the normal Zambian greeting.  The men helped load the benches back into the back of the truck.  Peter asked us to come back inside the shelter where he provided each of us with a cold bottle of soda as refreshment.  He doesn't have a family, and so is not able to invite us for a meal, so this was a very kind way of welcoming us and thanking us for our visit.  We are so honored by the generosity of these people!

waiting hopefully for soda

After enjoying our soda, we greeted everyone a last time and headed home.  It was a very enjoyable day despite Elijah's misbehavior and we look forward to our next visit to Peter's congregation in the future.  This village is our near neighbor so we try to keep our relationship with them strong.  Praise the Lord for the work he is doing in these villages and all the people who will be reached by this faithful Gospel witness!  And please pray for Peter as he continues to study and learn and grow in grace himself, so that he is better enabled to shepherd his flock!

Peter in front of his church

visit to a student's church (1)

During this year I've decided to write blog posts about our visits to different churches in the area to try to share this glimpse of our lives with you.  So this post will be about our 1st visit to a student's church this year, which occurred last week.

Visiting the churches which our students are involved in is a very important aspect of David's role here at the College.  It is one of the ways in which we mentor a student (because of the personal aspect of a visit to their church and home and spending time with them outside of the College campus) but it also is vital for maintaining the College's relationships with these varied churches which are sending and supporting our students.  It is also a valuable experience for our family because each visit is a chance to learn - we learn something new, we see new aspects of the culture, and we develop our relationship with our student even further.

So last Lord's Day we visited the church of Wilson, a student from the local area who lives in the 'boma' (the colloquial term for the town - Petauke).  He is the pastor of a Pentecostal congregation which meets in one of the classrooms in a large school complex in Petauke.  Our family, joined by Marjanne who often likes to join us for visits to students' churches, left home a few minutes after 9am and arrived in time for the beginning of the Bible study period which began at 9:30am.  This is quite a common thing you will find in churches here - they generally have 30 minutes to an hour of Bible study immediately preceding the service.

I didn't notice how long the Bible study lasted because I was rather distracted by the form of the Bible study itself.  Unfortunately it was led by a man who was acting as assistant to the pastor and who had no Bible training himself.  All he knows about preaching and teaching is what he sees on the television - televangelists and all sorts of nonsense.  That is such a harmful influence on the churches here!  He was posturing and prancing (David described him later 'like a peacock') and literally SCREAMING at the top of his lungs.  The Bible study was supposed to be about the beginning verses of John 14, but really he was screaming things about the gifts of the Spirit, and other things that didn't have anything to do with the text.  Every phrase - not just every sentence- was punctuated with shouts of 'Amen!'  'Hallelujah!'  Sometimes it was rather amusing, like when he started a story... 'I was trying to get a lift from a lorry driver, AMEN!'  But overall it was just saddening.  He was using the words 'Amen' and 'Hallelujah' the way a lot of unbelievers use swear words - to punctuate and add emphasis to his sentences.  The screaming was so intense that I fairly quickly had to 'tune him out' - I just couldn't focus because of the raucousness of his speech.  Elijah was really disturbed by all the shouting, so I was busy trying to keep him from getting upset.

kids sitting on the floor during the service

Eventually the screaming ended and the service began. It was a typical service, with singing, prayer, and preaching.  They had an AMPLIFIER, but thankfully it wasn't cranked up as loud as it could have been!  The only element of anything 'Pentecostal' in the service was simply the 'chaos prayer' as we have nicknamed it - the whole congregation praying out loud simultaneously, in a cacophony of noise (again, some people screaming and repeating names of Christ over and over again at the end of every phrase).  I noticed with amusement that Ketzia, when she heard 'Let us pray' obediently folded her hands and bowed her head as we do in family worship.... and then stared around her in shock as this great hubbub arose.  Strange that a 1-year-old knows about reverence in prayer than those around her...

Then David preached on the first verse of Jude.  It seemed to be well received.  I was a bit distracted during the service because Elijah manged to sneak away from my restraining grasp while I was helping Ketzia with something, and was wandering on the other side of the congregation. Most churches have a 'women's side' and a 'men's side' and that was the case here, so he was wandering around on the men's side.  As usual, when faced with a dilemma like this (which is fairly often when David's preaching) I always have to weigh whether Elijah is causing enough disruption to warrant the disruption of me getting out of my seat and crossing the church to collect him.  At one point he strolled to the front of the church where there was a flower arrangement bedecked with fake apples and oranges, and before I could move a muscle he had yanked one of the oranges right off!  I grabbed him and smacked his hand while making him sit down next to me, but one of the ladies grabbed my hand to stop me from smacking him and smiled 'It's all right!'  Sigh.  So much for parental authority.  It's good to know that they're not bothered by misbehaving children, but...  :)  Part of David's sermon, Elijah was sitting with Wilson, our student, at the front of the church next to the pulpit.  He got a bit bored and Wilson didn't restrain him in any way, so the next thing I knew Elijah was walking back and forth next to the wall behind the pulpit where they had hung up decorative cloths to form a nice backing.  He was between the cloth and the wall walking up and down shrouded in lacy sheets.  Thankfully he was behind David's back so David couldn't see what was happening and get distracted!!  Now you know what my Lord's Days are like when David is preaching...

Elijah sitting with Wilson

After the service we drove a short way into the nearby neighborhood to Wilson's house to join his family for lunch.  This is very traditional for them to invite their special guest to share a meal with them afterwards.  Wilson and his family live in a very simple tiny 2-room house in a triplex of 3 houses stuck together.  They have a front room which is a living room, and a back room which is a bedroom.  There is no bathroom or running water.  There is electricity, which allows them to use the crowning feature of their living room - the massive flat screen TV complete with DVD player, etc.  It is so funny to see how Zambians prioritize their money!  The ladies were cooking outside over charcoal braziers on the front step. (The meal was delayed a bit because when we arrived it was pouring rain and they couldn't start cooking until the storm had passed!) Elijah was fascinated with the TV (of course) so they obligingly turned on a DVD for him which unfortunately was left playing throughout our meal, making it very difficult to concentrate on conversation!

Wilson and his wife Miriam have 7 children and when we arrived at their house we immediately realized that Miriam was heavily pregnant with #8.  Zambians do not talk about pregnancy or expecting babies, and Miriam had not been at church (Wilson said 'she was sick' - again another very Zambian way of describing the situation - when a Zambian woman goes into labor 'she is very, very sick, a matter of life and death!').  It was obvious that she was imminently due!  We found out on Wednesday that she gave birth that night!  :)  What a fun story.

Wilson is not originally from this area -he was born in the Copperbelt province of Zambia and raised in Lusaka, so in our conversation over dinner he was sharing that living in Eastern Province has been a learning experience for him, too.  Just like us, he has faced cultural differences and even challenges with the language (a different language is spoken in Copperbelt and Lusaka than in Eastern Province).

Three of Wilson and Miriam's children are living in Lusaka, and the rest are still at home where we were introduced to them one by one during the meal.  The ladies brought in bowls of nshima, chicken, and vegetables which we shared together.  It was a very tasty meal.  One of the interesting things that Wilson shared with us during the meal was that during the afternoon service at his church they often have 'deliverance' services to cast out ancestral spirits and heal diseases.  This is a poignant reminder to us of why the College is here and why it is SO important to train these men in the Scriptures, so that they will have the discernment to turn away from these unbiblical practices.

It was all in all a lovely visit with a student and his wife, and enjoyable fellowship with their congregation. Apart from the Bible study, the service was quite normal and we pray that it was edifying to all.  And it is always a privilege to get to see a little bit of how Zambians live their daily lives in their tiny little homes without many of the comforts that we take for granted.  And of course, sharing a meal of tasty nshima and chicken is always a nice thing to fellowship over!  :)

with a portion of the congregation after the service

blessings

Finally I have a chance to blog about our adventures at the beginning of the month.  March 'blew in' with a bang for us... literally! 

On Saturday 2nd March we had a massive thunderstorm and lightning struck the College transformer.  I was sitting in the living room reading my Kindle and cringing at the lightning strikes which were VERY close. David was cuddling with Elijah in the bedroom, who was having trouble sleeping because of the storm. The rain was bucketing down -- until you've heard an African rainstorm on an African metal roof, you truly cannot understand how LOUD the rain is -- so loud you can't hold a conversation and you can't hear yourself think.  Honestly I've listened to the rain at times and wondered if it was physically possible for it to rain ANY harder.  Unbelievable.

But suddenly as I was sitting on the sofa I heard a very strange noise which was loud enough that I could actually hear it over the bucketing rain -- it was a pulsating, humming, buzzing noise.  It filled the whole house. I immediately jumped up, not knowing what to think but I think part of me wondered if maybe something on the roof was on fire.  I ran into the kitchen and saw out the window the entire sky was lit up with a glowing blue light.  So I quickly went into the bedroom to alert David, 'You need to come quickly, something's really wrong!'  I ran out the front door (which faces the direction the transformer is in) and saw one of the scariest things I've ever seen. The entire horizon was exploding!  It was a bright blue, glowing, pulsating light and you could hear the electricity just pulsating through the air.  It really was freaky.  I had never seen a transformer explode before, but David had, so he knew immediately what was happening.  Within 30 seconds the light faded and we were left in darkness.

The next morning the damage was accessed.  There are 3 lines from the transformer -- one is our line to our house and then to the Zulus; one is Phil & Marjanne's line which also serves the College buildings, and one is the Farm line.  Our internet uses all 3 lines to function, and so does the grinding mill at the Farm.  Of the 3 lines, 2 were badly damaged -- the Farm line and ours.  Phil and Marjanne's line was slightly damaged but still functioning after the lightning strike and quickly back to 100%.  Our line was the worst damaged - the fuse box at the transformer was actually charred black.  The power company was very quick to respond, since it was major damage on the main line through Eastern Province, and everyone except ourselves had their electricity back on well within 24 hours!  But our line had suffered other faults as a result of the lightning strike, and so the electrician spent the whole day on Monday fixing all the burnt-out fuses and everything else.  In the end, we were without power for 2 days.

MEANWHILE... on Saturday morning, the same day of the lightning strike, the water pump had mysteriously stopped working and we were suddenly without any water!  Phil was scrambling to troubleshoot the problem.  Thankfully the powerful storm that evening meant that we were able put put out all our buckets and basins to catch the rain water, which was then used to wash dishes (after being boiled) and flush the toilet, and wash our faces before bedtime.  But drinking water was severely rationed.  When the water ran out we had only THREE 2-liter bottles in our house for the four of us.  We managed to make it last until Monday afternoon.  All the staff were sharing with each other to get through -- the Zulus were sharing with the weekend students, and we were sharing with the Zulus, and so on.  On Monday David was able to go into town and buy a case of bottles of drinking water for each family on staff, and for the students.  This got us through until the problem was finally repaired on Tuesday afternoon! 

It turned out that the underground pipes which bring the water up from the borehole (powered by the pump) were starting to disintegrate.  There was no water pressure anymore because of some large holes in the pipes.  With the help of a man from the water department in town (not the water COMPANY -- they don't supply water, they just oversee dams and lakes and well/borehole projects and things), Phil was able to get the pipes pulled up and replaced with new ones.  It was a very tricky job and we were so thankful that it went without any complications.  On Tuesday afternoon, we at last had clean running water once again, after 3 1/2 days without!

This was a good reminder to us of how blessed we are to have a regular supply of electricity and clean drinking water.  True, it would be impossible to run an educational institution without these things... just having a water shortage of 3 days duration, with 7 staff families and 22 students dependent on the failing water supply, was ample proof of that... but they are nonetheless blessings.  And in this part of the world, these blessings set us apart from many of those around us who are not so fortunate.  It was a healthy and gentle reminder from the Lord not to take these things for granted.  We are serving Him and we are thankful for these good gifts that He gives us, and for caring for our every need!

chickens

I now have 5 hens! They arrived here on Saturday afternoon.  Unfortunately, my dogs immediately manifested a propensity to view them as fast food.  Why is it that some dogs seem genetically predetermined to eat chickens, and other dogs would never dream of even chasing them?  Anyway, we're working on getting the dogs to recognize for good that these tempting, clucking creatures are NOT a succulent mouthful to supplement their diet.  The chickens are living in the extra room in the shed.  I've been letting them out into the garden each morning with the dogs tied up, so that the dogs will learn their lesson.  Today was a bit of an adventure, because this morning one of the hens managed to fly over the top of our fence!  She disappeared into the bush area at the back of our house, and I wasn't about to chase her through the bush, so thought maybe I'd lost her.  But then again, I knew she might just come back because they already know where their food is. Sure enough, just after we finished dinner I heard the squawking of a chicken and she'd come back... It took a few minutes to chase her into the shed, avoiding the jaws of the dogs on the way, but now all 5 are back safe and sound.  Tomorrow we're going to clip their wings so that they can't fly over the fence anymore.  So far they seem to REALLY enjoy the tasty treats found in my garden!  I am hoping that our tick and flea problems are solved now. Do hens eat ants too?

baking class

Recently I was asked by Violet, the wife of the pastor of the local Reformed Baptist church if I would be willing to teach a baking class for some of the ladies in the church.  They wanted to learn how to bake some 'goodies' so that they can have a bake sale and earn money for the church, which is trying to build its own building.

I was more than happy too, but it meant I had to do some homework.  I had to find recipes that would work with ingredients that could be found locally -- i.e., no special ingredients that I had to bring from Lusaka.  This meant that I couldn't use recipes calling for baking soda or vanilla extract, or special spices like cinnamon!  In the end I decided on 8 recipes.

Our baking classes were scheduled for the first two Saturday mornings in March, starting at 8am.  The first week the ladies were on time -- 6 came along, which wasn't quite as many as the 10 I had been expecting, but a few of them had been too late to catch a ride that morning.  Violet had asked me to lead a short Bible study, so we began the morning by reading and talking about the story of Hannah at the beginning of 1st Samuel, and the importance of prayer.  Then we moved on to baking class!

The first Saturday morning we started by making 2 loaves of banana bread.  While it was baking we made a batch of flour tortillas (which are more commonly known in Africa as 'chipatis' - chipatis are very similar to tortillas but they are thicker and usually cooked in oil).  While waiting for things to finish baking we enjoyed a cup of tea together in the living room and chatted.  We ended the morning by making a 13x9 pan of brownies.  Everyone got to taste what we made and then each woman got to take home a sampling of 'goodies' to share with her family.

The following Saturday morning we met again. This time only 2 women were the same from the group that came the week before -- and there were only 5 women total.  But everyone got a copy of all the recipes we learned whether they were there both weeks or not.  This time we got straight to baking because our time had gone too quickly the week before.  We started by making 2 loaves of lemon tea bread.  Then we made the dough for sugar cookies and put it in the fridge to chill.  Meanwhile we made a batch of buttermilk pancakes.  The ladies also worked together to cleverly construct their own set of 'measuring cups' cut from the bottom of different size plastic bottles!  It is amazing how resourceful they are!  When the bread finished baking then we made a double batch of buttermilk scones (more commonly known in the States as buttermilk biscuits).  Again everyone got to taste what we made, and then each woman took some 'samples' home. I was hoping to have a chance to make some oatmeal cookies but we ran out of time.  However, I gave them the recipe (which is really easy) and some of the ladies had tasted them the week before because we had some with our tea. 

So, in all, the ladies were sent home with 8 new recipes to try and a whole bunch of new ideas for ways to raise money for their church!  It was an enjoyable chance to visit with these women and be able to teach them something that I felt marginally qualified to teach.  I genuinely hope that these baking classes will be of great use to them and that they will be able to use these skills to benefit others.  Also, the conversations we had were really interesting - ranging from how long do Zambian women typically breastfeed their babies, to when do babies first eat 'nshima' (the staple Zambian food), to one older woman asking me how can she help her children learn if she herself does not know how to read or write?  Can you imagine?  I encouraged her that it is never too late to learn, and that she should try to find someone in her village who can teach her how to read!  It was a really lovely opportunity to visit with these women!