Hey everybody,

My life has been pretty quiet, not to mention a touch on the lonely side, the last couple of days. (Somebody please buy Sarah a plane ticket back here.) Just kidding...kind of. Being able to rest has been good though. It was very much needed after going like a madman with the team for the last three weeks. Today I went to Murundu. I hitched a ride in one of the huge mine dumptrucks. Kind of fun. I went out to the edge of Mufulira by the road that goes to Murundu and some guys started hollering to come over and wait for transport with them. I did and it turned out that they know Dr. T, as soon as I said Agape, they said, "oh, Thinus." Anyway, they flagged down the dumptruck for me and then hit me up for some kwachas...which I gave them. I was walking into Murundu, after getting off the truck, and as I turned the corner to Joseph's street, I was greeted by one of the little ones from our VBS. I don't know his name, but he said, "Hallo Dave," and promptly grabbed my hand and held it the rest of the way to Joseph's. It is nice to feel welcome. Kids tend to do that better than adults, no matter what part of the world you are in.

The purpose of my visit was to check out a little more of the chicken farming venture that I am getting into. The more I see and find out about this, the better I like it. I think it shows promise of being able to almost totally support the orphanage that Joseph and Hilda are building. Please pray for the birth and growth of that business as it will very directly effect how about 60 kids are living and eating. In addition to seeing the farming operation, I also got to see the piece of property that Joseph bought as the future location of his orphanage. It is 25 hectares (I don't know the exact conversion, but it is a huge piece of property) and it is located on the edge of Murundu and actually has frontage on the main highway. It seems like a pretty perfect scenario. Please also pray that God would provide the funds for building the houses for the kids on this land. He will need about $15,000 to build two homes that would allow him to take in about 50 children. Within that first $15,000 a very large part of the expense is in getting a well and a pump and having electricity run to the property. So, after the first two houses, each subsequent structure should be only cost around $4000. Once everything is built, the idea is to use the remaining land to farm. With that land, they should be able to produce enough to feed the kids and cover nearly, if not all, of the costs of running the orphanage. Another prayer request is that God would show me if this is a project that I am supposed to be significantly involved in. Right now, my involvement there is minimal, but it looks like it might be a good place to consider getting more involved.

Today was fun. Tomorrow I will be leaving Mufulira for Ndola to spend some time with the Vineyard church there. That should be fun too. I will talk to you all later.

dave

Posted by Dave Lashbrook at 10:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Well, everyone is gone. The team left Lusaka yesterday. Dr. T is driving to South Africa. And I am back in Mufulira alone and very quiet. I did finally retrieve my guitar though. After dropping the team at the airport, I took public transport from Lusaka back up here. It should have taken about 5.5-6 hrs for the trip, but it wound up taking more than 7.5 due to road construction and the fact (which I discovered about 5hrs into the journey) that this particular bus company had many accidents last year and a bunch of people died and the government shut them down for a while and they just got their license back, so all their drivers only drive at about 45mph now. Yesterday, we left the house for Lusaka at 4am and I didn't get back until after midnight last night. Today has been a good rest.

One thing about the ride back that was really cool was that right after I got on the bus, Pastor Joseph got on the same bus. Pastor Joseph is the guy that has been feeding the orphans in Murundu and hosting us there. He had ridden down to Lusaka with us, but had been off all day taking care of some other business and came to the bus station and got on my very same bus. That was nice of God to organize a travel buddy for me. We had a really good talk on the way back. We spent most of the time discussing a chicken farming venture that I am going to invest a couple hundred bucks in. Joseph and his wife have been raising some chickens and using the money from that to feed the kids. As we spoke, I shared some ideas for growing the business. Joseph was liking the ideas, so I think I am going to be a partner in a small Zambian chicken farm. That will be a new one for me. My portion of the proceeds (assuming there are some) will go towards other ministry here.

This past week was real interesting. I had a pretty solid run in with Malaria. Actually, I can't say that, my illness was brief. Thanks for all of you who were praying for me. I feel totally fine now. Tuesday I started feeling like I was getting the flu or something. I was still well enough to go through our VBS program and then go shopping for more stuff that we were going to be giving the kids. By Tuesday night, I felt pretty horrible. Then, at about 5am I woke up very feverish, freezing cold and my whole body was aching terribly. It was miserable. Dr. T was already up and he got me another blanket. When I told him all my symptoms, he said it was almost certainly malaria. Later that morning, he got me some medicine called fancidar (not sure if I'm spelling that right). Fancidar is some quinine super-cocktail that blasts malaria out of your system quickly (if you take it early enough). I took the medicine probably around 10am. The fever and aches and all that got worse and worse and this peaked around 230pm, then the fever broke and it was like I was immediately a human again. I still didn't feel good, but the difference was night and day, and it happened so quickly. Thursday I still spent a good bit of time in bed but by the afternoon, I was pretty much over it. 48 hour malaria is pretty reasonable. Thank God for quick healing and quinine.

Because I was ill, the others took care of handing out all the clothes and shoes and treats we bought for the kids. Hats of to the team for handling all of that. I know it was a pain. The kids always are pretty rowdy when you are handing stuff out. Here is a brief rundown on what you all at home gave the kids at Murundu. 22 have their school fees paid through December, got a new school uniform, and a pair of school shoes and a pair of flip flops. The kids not in school (about another 34 that are too young) got a new shirt or two, a pair of shoes, and a pair of flip flops. All of them got a bag of treats. Also, we were able to cover the cost of feeding the children daily during the three weeks of our program. It is a drop in the bucket as there are more than 1000 orphans in just this little village, but to these 56 kids it is huge. The other part of what you sent over is that they all heard the gospel and all the ones who wanted a hug or piggy back ride or to be spun around (or all of the above over and over) got their wish.

Later,
dave

ps. Just one final thought. One of the most annoying parts of this trip for the whole team was anytime that we were handing anything out--like coloring pages or crayons or candy. The kids would freak out and push and punch each other and the little ones would get knocked down and start to cry. Then you would see another kid with 5 pages behind is back and his hand out again. It really sucked, every time. It was hard to keep a good attitude. Each day, everyone would get theirs, we always had enough. Didn't they remember yesterday when they all got one. Didn't they understand when we said to sit there and wait that we were going to make sure they were taken care of. It was real frustrating. Wonder if God ever feels like that with me?

Posted by Dave Lashbrook at 11:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Hello Jacksonville!
It is very late on Tuesday night, the last week of our trip. I cannot believe that the end is so near...everything has gone by so fast. It seems like yesterday when I was writing the first blog of the trip, and now I am writing one of the last. We will be back in Jacksonville this Saturday afternoon.
Today was our last day with the kids in Murundu. It went like most of the other days. We could see the crowd of children gathered and waiting for us as we drove our van into the village. They were all grinning and hopping and clapping their hands...it's really quite a reception. We definitely know that they've been waiting for us. Lately, our team has gotten a little worn out. We've been going non-stop for about two and a half weeks. During the first week, most of us ran around with the kids,and played games, and kicked balls as soon as we arrived. A few of us are still doing that, but myself and some of the others have taken to holding the kids, sitting with them, letting them play with our hair. It's quality time spent, but it's a lot easier on the body when you're tired. I really enjoy this part of our day. We have very little to actually say to each other because of the language barrier, but you find ways to communicate. There's one small girl (she's about six) named Colvier. I've taught her how to say, "I love you" in sign language. I've tried to translate it into Bemba so that she knows what we're saying...I'm actually not sure that she does, but she has a pretty good time when sign it to each other.
Today we reviewed the Gospel story and prayed the salvation prayer with the kids. We did that last week, as well, but there have been so many new kids this week that we decided to do it again. I expected that all the kids would want to pray the prayer, and they did. After that, we explained to the children that we wanted to pray for them. So we had them raise their hands if they wanted prayer while we walked around. I really enjoyed this time. I sort of expected it to be a madhouse, with a riot of kids wanting prayer because it's another way to get attention from us. But it wasn't like that at all. In fact, they were very quiet, for the most part, and when we prayed for them and laid hands on them, they covered their eyes and bowed their heads. It seemed to me that our time spent praying for them really meant something to them...it wasn't a joke. It's amazing to feel the Holy Spirit at work, and to be a part of something eternal that's being done. I feel incredibly blessed that God has allowed me to be a part of the time spent in prayer with the kids today.
In fact, I feel blessed to have been able to come on this trip. This was a short-term trip, and after we leave on Friday, we're gone. Those kids will stay, and they will continue living the way that they were living before we arrived. We have been able to provide for some of their material needs while we've been here, and that's awesome. I'm glad that some of those needs are being met. But even if that wasn't the case, even if all we were able to do was spend a little bit of time with them, it would have been good. These kids, they're so hungry for attention. They climb all over us when we arrive, and they don't let go. To be able to give them the kind of love from an adult that they ought to be receiving anyway, even if it's only for a short while, has been good. They need that. And I thank God that I've been able to do that for a child...to help her know that she is special, that she is worth something, and to do that just by holding her.
All right, it is very late now. Good night to everyone in Jacksonville...we will all see you very soon!

Sarah

Posted by Sarah Cope at 6:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Hey Yall,

Just wanted to give you all an update on what has been going on for us the last couple of days. We spent the weekend in Ndola, a town about an hour and a half south of where we are staying. Ndola is a bigger city and some of the areas there are really nice. We stayed in a bed and breakfast place that was in a neighborhood that looked like it could have been suburban Anytown, USA (except for all the potholes in the road). It was really nice there though. We spent Saturday in a community named "Overspill." It was named that because they ran out of houses and had to build more. Zambians often aren't really creative with naming things, but they sure are accurate. Anyway, we were there all day and had our Stop the Spread meeting under a little tent while Dr. Thinus had a meeting with a bunch of pastors inside the church. The location of all this was on top of a hill and looking out off it, you could see into the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Which of course did not look any different from Zambia, but it is one of those things that is cool for some reason even though I couldn't really say why.

Our meeting was attended by about 15 youths from the church and one town drunkard who was fairly disruptive at several points during the meeting but what can you expect from someone that is wasted at 10am. Chris took that guy under his wing and wound up praying with him and giving him his flip flops. Good stuff. I was proud. STS recently hired a Zambian guy named Henry to be the full time coordinator of the program. Henry basically ran the meeting and we provided a little assistance. Sarah put together some short skits and the team did a great job performing them. It was a good day all around.

Sunday, we got to visit a Vineyard church in Ndola. This was actually my first time to a Vineyard in Africa and it was absolutely amazing. It just felt like home. I have not felt that in any of the other churches I have been to. Everybody on the team said the same thing. The worship was amazing and the pastors (they have 3 on staff) were all really great. Sam did an awesome job sharing his testimony. He is becoming more and more of a public speaker...even though he would deny it to the end. I got to preach and it just felt real good. I have a love/hate relationship with preaching. I hate the stress of preparing it and wondering if you are getting ready to speak the word of God or if you are just about to run your own mouth so you can listen to the sound of your own voice for a while. I hate having expectations (my own) of what a successful message sounds like or what the results of it should be. I also hate the question of whether I am doing this for God or so that people will think I am a good person. But, I love doing it nonetheless. I love knowing that I can make a difference. I love knowing that God can speak through me. I love knowing that at times, he has spoken through me. I hate falling into the trap of thinking that it is me that is making the difference in peoples lives, and not God. I hate my tendency to be results driven with it, but I really do love it. It is definitely a niche for me. On top of having a really good experience on Sunday, I am going to be spending the next couple of weeks after the team leaves, in Ndola, working with that church. I am really looking forward to it. I will keep you all posted.

The next couple days, we will be wrapping up our VBS with the kids at Murundu. We bought a bunch of clothes and shoes and will be giving that stuff out on Wednesday afternoon. That should be fun. Please pray for us. We are all really tired and several of us don't feel well. It is nothing too serious at the moment, we are just run down. We need a little boost to make it through the next couple of days. Talk to you later, dave

Posted by Dave Lashbrook at 5:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

God is good all the time. We are the bad ones, and that is why that statement at times may not seem true. Here in Zambia, we pick up orphans all day. They sneeze on their hand and then come running up to you, expecting you to hold it. I just smile and look up to God and laugh, after the initial cringe. Orphan snot appears to be on a whole new level compared to people snot. It just grosses me out more, but you laugh and play and sing songs all day. They are great (the kids), if you are tired and sick and lazy. You can pick one up, for many are quite small, and just hold them. There is something very special about holding a young orphan in your arms and praying for them. Love is felt there. It is a special kind of Love, which I wish I perceived more. I am very tired. But I suppose if I had just got done hiking ten miles through a desert. I would be much more tired than I am now, so that makes me think I am really not that tired now. My head hurts a little, but that too is a passing frivolity. (Thought- If I assume that pains to the body are of minor notice, does that mean I count pleasures to the body of a similar minor notice. New Thought- Are pleasures to the body of any real concern. Certainly severe pains to the body are of need; they let us know something is wrong. Something needs to be corrected, made right, so we can go on living the way we should. Now pleasures, are they opposites of pains? Entirely different than a warning notice of some necessary correction? Are they then a notice of something done correct. A sort of message that says, “Hey Chris, you are doing everything right. This is why you are experiencing this, Keep at it.” A beautiful sunrise, a delightful meal (after a long hard days work might I add), sensual enjoyment. Are these gifts for behaving correctly? I don’t know.) Where was I? Oh, yes. Writing about how tired I was. I’m o.k. I suppose because I’ve never really endured real suffering, physically, that I call this physical suffering. For is not our greatest moment of pain used, or which should be used, to measure our current status? It should be. Or it helps me. Whenever I am tired of running, I think to how in lifeguard training they made me run far beyond what I thought I was capable of running. This experience of immense pain was groundbreaking distances for me, so whenever I now run, it is a piece of cake compared to that lifeguard running experience at Huguenot Park. However, as that memory is becoming more faded, I am becoming less concerned with how it felt then, and more concerned with how I feel now. It is good to be pressed to your limits and then beyond, in order to know you can do it right now. You have already overcome that thought, that doubt, Can I really make it? Once you know you can really make it. You can run the race with ease, even though you are still suffering. The ease on your mind is indescribably important when you are facing tough situations. It allows you to do it with peace. You get used to the suffering where it does not bother you anymore, and in time the suffering seems to decrease and greater enjoyment is found in the midst.

I can compare knowing, without any hint of doubt, that you can make it with trusting Jesus Christ. When you are really trusting Him, not just a little bit or a lot, but with all of your heart and not depending on your own understanding, I find I am able to have great peace inside of me. Now, if you trusted God 100% there would be no room for doubt. No room for error. There would be no uncertainties and absolutely no worries. This would be wonderful to live like this. No worries about tomorrow. For tomorrow will work itself out because God is taking care of it. Now I do not mean being lazy, oh course you work as hard as you can. But seek the Lord in all you do and He will direct your paths. Now, if we all really trusted God, 100%, we would have great eternal peace because there would be no anxieties within us. :) Wouldn’t that be nice? Well that is the way God intended us to go through life. Trusting Him. Really trusting Him. Not just saying we do, but really trusting Him and having no doubts in the back of our minds because we know God has got it. Well, I have tasted that from time to time and would like to Live my life like that. I think it all starts with fearing the LORD, and that starts with gaining wisdom, and that starts with reading Proverbs everyday like a good little boy and growing up to be Christ like. A Christian. A real Christian. Not a lazy, insecure, doubting, feeble Christian. (I direct all of these comments on me, please do not feel that I am projecting this to the outside world, though I do believe there are similarities here and there and I am not alone in this.) Trusting in the power of God. Not thinking we are like God and can do his job. Believing that He will take care us, and that He will really do it. That is neat. That is how I want to Live. I’m working on it. Are you?? God’s so cool. Infinite He is. Endless topics of conversation and endless areas of Life. All is well in God’s hands. I am very glad to be there once again. Is escape possible?? I won’t get into that. Goodnight. I Love Y’all. Take care, Chris

Posted by Chris Reeves at 5:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Hello everyone,

Just a quick note tonight to let you know what is going on. Tomorrow we will head to a town (Ndola) about an hour and a half south of where we are staying. We will be there Saturday and Sunday. Saturday we will be doing a youth rally geared towards HIV prevention. This is tied into a lot of the work I have been doing here the past couple of years, but it is not something that we as a team have prepared for at all. The opportunity just got handed to us and so we are doing our best to roll along with it. The team has been really great about being willing to jump in even with next to no notice. They all rock and have been doing a great job this whole time.

Sunday, we will be visiting the Vineyard church in Ndola. They are a church of a couple hundred...and I will be preaching. I don't think I have preached in front of that many people before. Should be fun. Then, in the afternoon, we will be repeating our HIV prevention rally for the Vineyard's youth group. Anyway, you won't hear much from us for the next couple of days and we won't be answering the phone either. Please pray for us as we travel and also as we try to jump in and do a good job with some ministry stuff that we aren't really prepared for. Love you all. --dave

Posted by Dave Lashbrook at 3:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I wrote a poem the other day. Before it was over the wind blew it away. I was not sad because the paper was gone. For if you listen, my heart still beats this song. Thum duddle le dum dum. Thum duddle le dum dum. The ants go marching one by one. Hoorah!! Hoorah!! The ants go marching one by one. Hoorah!! Hoorah!! They carry the people over the hill. Who knows what happens? Nobody will. And the ants go marching on. Dun nuh nuh. The ants go marching three by three. Hoorah!! Hoorah!! The ants go marching three by three. Hoorah!! Hoorah!! The birds can no longer see the sea. The ants have carried it away to me. And the ants go marching in on. Dun dun da. And the ants go marching four by four. HooRah!! Hoorah!! The ants go marching four by four. Hoorah!! Hoorah!! And over the hill once again. The splendour and thrills not known to men. And the ants go marching on. Dun da dun! Oh how silly the rainbows are when the get together and drink their tea. My, My, my mother always said.

Africa is great. My sanity, more or less, but the trip is going on quite nicely. I never know what to write when I get on to these silly things, so I wrote what first came to mind. Undoubtedly, I have been graced by the Muse. But I can not brag. NO! For I have done nothing to earn this. It is a free gift from up above for the world around me. No need to thank me. Thank Heaven for the wonderful things of your life. That is where they come from. Not your silly toiling and excessive hard work, but from God above. If only we stopped to believe this, we might enjoy life a bit more. We might be a bit more successful at enjoying Life. However, if you do do a quite successful duty with your daily duties. My apologies. I simply reflected my own feelings on to the whole of humanity, and I realise that their might be several of you out there who will read this and quite possibly be offended because your daily living exceeds my jeering and therefore are not inclined to these words I say; so, if that is you. I’m sorry. My comments are only intended to those with likemindedness, so beware unless the pigeon lays an egg. And out pops a rhinoceros!! I’m losing it. It’s late. Excuses excuses cloud my brain. Perhaps I will see the correct road when the fog is gone. Or can the only escape come from when we stumble upon the correct trail and are then lifted above this pending danger?? I don’t know. I do know we have a guide who will help us to the right direction, whether we see it or not. One day all things will be made clear. Do we have to die first??

And here I find a new dilemma. I wanted to add a note at the bottom which said -Dave, if you post this please do not spell check any changes. Now. If I wrote this entirely for myself. Which at times I thought I did, quite proudly, for I often fear what people think of myself. Now, if you were to speelcheck it and put forth a similar but different display than I produced, Why should I care? for I am writing for myself and not for the sake of others. With this I leave it. I have written my blog. I have spelled out delightful tid bits of my own mind. And I have shared it with the world, or a much smaller section which matters much more to me. I am finished. Goodnight.

Posted by Chris Reeves at 3:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Hello Everyone,

I would like to quickly give you all a description of Murundu Village and fill you in on a couple of statistics that I found very interesting. Murundu is a collection of small, one room houses. On average I would guess that they are about 150-200 sq ft. That is one room that is 10'X20' and there could easily be 7-10 people living in one of them and sleeping on the dirt floor. The homes are constructed from bricks made from clay right there in the village, and the mortar is also mixed right there as well. The roof is either thatched or made from corrugated steel. The cost of building one of these is less than $75 for materials. Once built, one of these homes should last about 20 years before the bricks break down. Few of the homes have electricity and almost none have their own plumbing. Bush toilets are pretty standard and are made by digging a hole and surrounding it with a wall made by tying bunches of reeds together. (Our girls are not real big fans of the bush toilet...and for that matter, neither are our guys.) There is a good public water supply, but there is a small charge (literally pennies) for that water, so many of the locals get water from shallow wells that are tainted from all of the aforementioned bush toilets.

Murundu is home to about 20,000 people. 50 people in the village have formal employment. Yes, that is correct. The remaining 19,950 survive through subsistence farming and selling charcoal. They make the charcoal by cutting down trees and burning them partially, then putting the fire out, cutting it up and carrying bundles of it in to town on their backs or on a bicycle. There is pretty serious deforestation in populated areas as a result of this. Whatever approach they take to earning a little money, all of them are just barely getting by. Many cannot afford to send their kids to school. The public school fees for elementary school for a year are about $17 and the school uniforms cost $9-$15. There is a school in Murundu that is not government sponsored that was started by the community about 9 years ago. I visited there today. There are 514 students and 5 teachers. None of the teachers is paid a salary. Two of the teachers live in Mufulira (about 5 miles away) and they pay their own transportation to and from Murundu each day to work for free. The school was started by the community so that they could eliminate the requirement of uniforms and reduce the costs to parents. Many of the kids attending there are barefoot and their clothes are really torn up. The up side is that just recently they administered the Zambian 7th grade standardized exam and 100% of their students passed it. Today, there were only three teachers for the 514 students because the two in Mufulira did not have the $1 to pay for transportation.

The guy we have been working with here, Pastor Joseph has 56 orphans that he is currently feeding. Today, I went with him and paid the school fees for 21 orphans. Thanks to all of you who made it possible for that to happen. I was also able to give some money to the community school to help with supplies and transportation costs for the teachers. Tomorrow we will be purchasing material for Joseph's wife to uniforms for the kids. We should be able to cover school expenses for all of Pastor Joseph's kids through December. One of the things that has surprised me is that almost all of these kids has somewhere to stay at night. (By the way, in Murundu, population 20,000 there are between 3000 and 4000 orphans.) I asked Joseph on our first day there how many of the kids were sleeping on the streets and he said there were 3 that he knew of and had taken in. They were all teenagers. One of the really cool things about African culture is that there is a sharing mentality and most of the kids are at least given a roof to sleep under. Now, I should tell you that they may be sleeping on a dirt floor with no blanket, but so are most of the people living in Murundu.

While I was running around and doing that stuff, the team had their hands full with the kids playing games and sharing the gospel with them. When I got back, we went and had lunch and after lunch had hygiene 101 with a bunch of the orphans. The first lesson was bathing and the use of soap. The second lesson was first aid for cuts. Basically that consisted of telling the kids not to shove a handful of dirt in a wound to make it stop bleeding (a common practice). Last, how to make a toothbrush from the branch of a type of tree that grows in the area. Pastor Joseph did the last bit, because I have no idea how to do that. Following the lessons, we had bath time for anyone who wanted one. Sarah and Kelly took the girls into the house and helped them and us guys stayed outside and had quite a wild time. We had a 10 gallon bucket, a washcloth, four bars of soap, and suddenly a bunch of naked Africans. The kids were overjoyed at the whole procedure and made the most of it. Our intention was to kind of just facilitate the thing, but their intention was for us to fully administer the bath...which we did, with the exception of insisting that certain areas were not going to be washed by us. They were really dirty and I have no idea how long it had been since their last contact with water, let alone soap. Washing their feet was really sad. Their skin was so dry and cracked that the only thing I can compare it to is an elephant's skin. It is the product of walking around in clay and dirt with no shoes on and never bathing. They were thrilled at the attention and being clean. I can't imagine being 3 or 4 and not having someone to do that stuff for me. One of the boys came back for a second bath right after he dried off from the first one. Another little one, after his bath, took his clothes and put his socks and shoes on and that was it. After a little while he surrendered and added the pants and shirt. Tomorrow we are going to give them their very own soap.

That is all for now. It is late and I should get to bed. Keep us in your prayers. It is hard to know where to start sometimes when the problems are so big and overwhelming, but just about that time, one of the little guys grabs your hand and motions for you to pick him up and you have to realize that whatever it is you were trying to do, it isn't nearly as important as you thought. So, you grab his hands and spin him around until you both fall down and then five others jump in the mix and for just a few minutes, no one is thinking about whose parents are dead or which one of the kids might have HIV or where dinner will come from and the laughter is pure and sincere and begins to grow real good things in everyone's soul.

Sendemenipo (goodnight),

dave

Posted by Dave Lashbrook at 5:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Monday, July 16, 2007

Today was a very good day. It went perfect in fact, flawless. I love so much to spend time with those kids. They just play and play and they’re all smiles. Today it was my turn to teach the little ones. I had to teach them about Jesus today. Now I went into this thinking “ oh man this will be a cinch” but oh how I was wrong. Imagine trying to teach a bunch little kids who don’t speak English. Now imagine teaching something as complicated as Jesus in 15 to 20 sentences with no big words. It proved to be a little harder than I thought. But it turned
The thing I’ve focused the most on this trip is being love to those kids. I want to embody the gospel and be what love should be for these kids. The lord has blessed me so much and has filled me love and joy and now I pour that out on these children.
I doubt that these kids will remember what we talked about this week but what they will remember is how a bunch of crazy white people came and loved the heck out of them. That is my mission.
I think I should tell you about a little boy named John. John is about 6 and he is one of the most beautiful little boys I have ever seen. His smile is infectious and those little eyes just warm my soul. John clings to me, he like a little monkey and he even climbs me like a tree. This kid John makes me so happy but at the same time very sad. You see he and his brother live with their aunt, their parents have both died. John deserves everything; he is innocent yet he is trapped in absolute poverty. Its times like these that I ask God, why. I’ll never understand why such a beautiful person must suffer like John does. All I can do is trust God and carry on doing what I’m here to do. So I’m going to love the snot out of that little boy and trust him to God.

Posted by Michael Bell at 3:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Hi to everyone! The kids today were very good- it is always good when we see them. Today we got a chicken from Pastor Joseph. Tomorrow afternoon we are going to kill and cook the chicken. We named her Henrietta. We walked around the market today while we were waiting for Dave and Dr. T to finish up the STS leadership training for the day. While we were at the market, we saw the group of Americans we planned to have dinner with the night before. It did not work out last night, so we had them over for dinner tonight. We had steak (from a butcher where they sawed the meat off of the leg!), sausage, salad with bannanas, and mashed potatoes.
Friday afternoon, Dave and I helped out a kid who is about 3 years old who had a nasty cut on his hand and a few on his face. We cleaned the cuts and bandaged the one on his hand. He cried from the sting of the alcohol. I felt heart broken because no one had did anything for his cuts. 3 hours later another kid was playing football and he cut his foot about 3 times and blood was going down his feet. Sam and I cleaned it up with alcohol and water and put a bandage on it. We cuts a pinky from the glove and put it on his toe over the bandage. When I think about what God thinks of this, I know he is happy we are spending time with His children and saying yes to what he wants us to do and not saying no.
Please pray for us...for all seven of us to have a nice experience in Africa for the last 2 weeks and for the children to have food, water, and new clothes, new shoes, and a relationship with Jesus.
Thank you for supporting us while we are in Africa.
love, Joseph

Posted by Joseph McIlroy at 2:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Dave just informed me that today was Friday the 13th, so it should go without saying that today was an interesting day.

To kick off the day, we were without running water; vaguely familar to our present situation. We spent the morning in Murundu with the orphans and village children, which once again was exhausting and wonderful. These kids are simply beautiful and each time one of them comes and holds my hand, I swear my heart sinks deeper and deeper into this land. At 1:00 PM we were to be in Kitwe to meet with the STS club at Chibote girls high school (where Dave, Chris, and I spent the majority of our time last year), but a lovely immigration officer at a police checkpoint just outside of Mufulira delayed us with demand after demand for documentation. After turning over our passports, visas, invitation letters and sitting in the sun for a frustrating two hours, we were finally released to go to Kitwe. It was awesome to see some familiar faces at Chibote. Then we were off to the Ndola airport to pick up the elusive missing luggage. We spent about 3 hours sitting in the parking lot (maybe more), while Dave and Dr. T searched for luggage that had arrived, had not yet arrived, was lost, was misplaced, went missing, and then finally was found all within an airport the size of a jumbo jet. In the end we recovered two of the missing bags but we are still missing Dave's guitar. But happily Michael finally has some clean clothes of his own to wear(and there was much rejoicing).

I'm truly blessed to be back in Zambia. In the run-up to this trip, I had my doubts about what exactly we would be doing and what we might be able to accomplish here. I've heard the whispers of these questions here, but I know better from my past experiences in India. I know that more than anything we are able to tell these kids, more than how cool our program might be, the most important thing is simply loving on these beautiful kids. We get to vessels of God's love and there’s nothing better or more important than that. Please pray that day after day we might be re-energized, re-focused, and re-motivated; so we can continue to be poured out for these kids, physically, emotionally, and spiritually.

Once again its past midnight here and we get to sleep in to 6:30 before starting all over again, so good night.

Lesa Alumbwe (Praise the Lord)

~ Sam

Posted by Sam Stafford at 6:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Hello Friends and family! Thank you again SO much for all of your prayers, encouragement & support. I hope and pray you all are doing well. We are doing very well here. Thank You, God!! When we arrived only 3 of our bags did not come in, which is less than what could have happened, considering all of our flight changes, etc. It looks like we will have those 3 back tomorrow (Dave's guitar, Michael's personal bag, & a team bag)...but we still have to collect it, so we'll let you know when it gets here! =)
Well, it is 11:09 pm here and I'm quite tired and we have a busy day ahead of us for tomorrow, so I'm sorry to say, but I will have to make this short. (For those of you who know me, know that this is a good thing as I am quite detailed and could types and talk forever once i get started!) So..today - we officially started our VBS program with the the orphans we are here to love on. The lesson today was on how God created everything and that we are made in God's image/likeness. We had mirrors for the kids to see themselves as made in God's image and to draw self portraits. Some of the drawings were really good! They all wanted to show us "muzungus" (white people - originally meant to be amazed, or amazement thing) their picture and wanted to hear us say, "Bweeno" (good, vbery nice). 2 things really stood out to me. 1.) This one really pulled on Sarah's heart as well - a little girl today was really sad. The older girls were pushing her out of the way a lot and she would just start crying. At one point I noticed her crying and holding up a broken flip flop. So I fixed it and didn't think too much about it. Sarah also noticed her crying at another point and it was because of the shoe. She pointed out that these were her only pair of shoes and were even too big for her. This shoe had been fixed before with wire. Most of the other kids do not even have shoes.
2.) During the three-legged race, there was a girl who came to me and wanted me to tie the rope around she and another girl. They were about 6-8 years old. She had a baby tied with cloth to her back, so I offered to take the baby so she could play, but the baby started crying, probably b/c i'm white...another baby did that earlier to all of us. This just got to me. This YOUNG child was missing out on being a kid herself because of her responsibilities to hold her baby sister (I'm assuming).
These both go along with what I was thinking about yesterday as I held a 5/6 year-old in my lap for a long time, praying protection and other things over her. I came back and started thinking alot about how the Lord is a God of justice (Isaiah 30:18) and how what I'm seeing and can only imagine about the other moments of these children's lives does not quite compare to what I understand God's justice to be. I found a verse that intrigued me: Proverbs 28:5: Evil men do not understand justice, but those who seek the Lord understand it fully." Then what is going on? Are people not seeking the Lord enough, or are we not responding to the understanding He is giving us? These are just a few things I am thinking and praying about. I could go on, but it is late and i've already gone on long enough! So much for making it short! But overall, the past few days have been really good. God is so good and loves these kids and each one of us so much. It sounds trite, but it is SO true! I'm feeling at home with all of the farting and the farting jokes that is going on due to 5 guys and only 2 girls on the team....a little too at home in those regards! We've had quite a bit of laughter, which is an answer to prayers! I love Dr. T., too! He's quite entertaining and I love listening to his stories and wisdom. Well, we love and appreciate all of you so much. I feel like I can feel your prayers all through out the day! Thank you!
-Kelly

Posted by Kelly Curtler at 6:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Hello Mates. The times in Africa are very good. We have yet to catch Malaria so what is there to complain about. Jesus is working already. A young man who is in a state of financial depression has been rewarded with a year’s worth of tuition. He is a good man, and a travelling actor, or once was when he was back in school. Now he spends his days washing cars in order to raise enough money to go back to school. His prayers have been answered. Thank the LORD. God is awesome. I’ve said that so much, but rarely do I ever believe it in America. Perhaps it is because we are here to serve the LORD, maybe it is the land itself, I don’t know. However, I do know that you can see God here. See him at work in such a way that you wish, you pray, that life, your life, in America would be like this. You can feel his presence when you breathe in the air. It is quite mystical. I am very glad for it.

Tomorrow we “officially” begin the program. It has been a bit bumpy for our schedule, but this is Africa and schedules are more like guidelines here, :) Praise God for that. Here you must let God work, or no work will get done. You depend on Him, He shows up. Lives get changed and everyone praises God. A good way to live. I wonder if out stay was more permanent basis if things would change, as far as us depending on God. I would hope not. It is hard to say though. I have not lived here for a long time. In America we say this but, for me, it is really more of an idea than a reality. Here, you must!, or just nothing will happen. In America ‘things’ happen, but not much of lasting value is done. Only in the hands of God do people change., Oh yes, the escape of material possessions and cares is just freeing!! Completely wonderful. You should try it some time. Bloody well good for your soul. Ah, I guess this is what I’m trying to get at. Being in Africa is good for my soul. Wonderfully freeing, absolutely astonishing. Why? Why? might you ask. I presume it is because we are in the presence of the LORD, which is so rarely lived in America. We wake to be with God. We spend our days literally serving God. We come home and we worship God. Our day is spent being edified and comforted by the LORD Almighty. Wow. That is a good Life. For me, in Africa, intentions become a reality and my heart comes alive. I Love God, He is very cool. Everyone is well. Morale seems to be high. All are eager to see God work. I can’t wait for tomorrow. And Sam won’t stop tickling me! But I forgive him. It makes me smile.

Posted by Chris Reeves at 6:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Hey Everyone,

I am writing this from Dr. Thinus's house in Mufulira, Zambia. It is now 6:10 local time, which is about six hours ahead of Jacksonville time. Our travel to Zambia went fairly smoothly. We arrived at the Jax airport at about 4:30am on Sunday and our flight took off at 6:20. After that, time lost all relevance. By the time that we reached Dr. Thinus's house, I had stopped even wondering what time it was. Today, our first day here, is no different. I think it's interesting how, when one is taken from one's daily life, abstract concepts like time suddenly lose importance. I've been in this position before -- not caring about time. I like it. It's refreshing to measure the day with events rather than hours.

We were planning to get started in Murundu right away. Today was to be the first day of our Gospel presentation. However, after our long trip and getting home very late last night, we modified the plan a bit. We decided to catch up on our rest today and begin tomorrow instead. This turned out to be a good thing because it gave us a chance to see the village this afternoon, find out where we'd be holding our two weeks of ministry, meet some of the kids, and also find out what some of their immediate material needs are.

Seeing the village for the first time was a little difficult. I've been to third world nations before, and you sort of get used to the kinds of things that you see there. I spent most of the day comparing this small village in Africa to another small village I've been to in the Dominican Republic. There were a lot of similarities...children running around...the lack of shoes or clean clothing...adults sitting outside, preparing food, washing...amazingly small homes...makeshift fences...animals, especially chickens, wandering all over. There were a lot of similarities, but the differences are what struck me more. The main difference that caught my attention was the way in which the village was set up. Here in Murundu, the village is a very tight-nit group of huts, set up in a sort of maze. And by huts, I mean huts. The walls were clayish, the roofs were thatch. There were windows...I saw some panes, but they were mostly open. Most of the huts were surrounded by some kind of homemade fence. The doorways were covered with blankets rather than doors. Children were everywhere. Most of them had clothes, though they were very old and very tattered. Few of them had shoes. Their feet were caked with mud. I remember thinking at one point that they must have very tough feet, because the ground was a little rocky in some places. The other defining feature of the Murundu village was the startling lack of roads between the huts. There were roads leading into the village, but they quickly narrowed once you were in the thick of things. They were paths obviously beat out by feet, not vehicles. This alone gave me the impression that I was definitely in a village, not just a small town.

The people. One thing that I rediscovered today was that children are universal. They are the same wherever you go. If a child in America thinks that something is fun, like jumping rope, then a child in Zambia would think it's pretty fun, too. If a child in America likes it when you give him attention, or even just a smile, then a child in Zambia would also love that attention. You'll see some of the same behaviours between older children and younger children. The older ones are protective, carrying the younger ones around. The younger children still hide behind their older brothers, sisters, parents. It doesn't matter where in the world you come from. Children are children.

Describing the differences would take way too long. They are what you'd imagine they would be. The differences are what made walking through the village difficult for me. Pastor Joseph took us through the village today, and he is going to be helping us tremendously in the next couple of weeks. He feeds about 60 orphans a day. Today he told us that it is not uncommon for 10 kids to sleep on a dirt floor in a hut the size of a van without blankets or pillows. You sort of expect to hear things like that, but when you are confronted with the reality here, it brings it home. I thought of my own bed, which would easily fit three or four small children. I thought of my numerous blankets and pillows. I thought of all the children I've worked with in the states. That, though some of them come from desperate circumstances, it doesn't really even compare. These kids...these people...they have hard lives.

I am looking forward to the coming weeks. I can't wait to see what God is planning for us and for this village, and I feel so lucky that I can be a part of it. Thank you to everyone who helped us to get here...either through your prayers or support. We'll definitely keep you updated on the events of the coming days.

Sarah

Posted by Sarah Cope at 4:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)