Tennis Lessons have begun

Did I mention that we are members of a gym? It's called "Barclays" which is the name of our bank here in Zambia. They offer membership to their gym for non-employees of Barclays, so we joined the first of the year. Since our company, IMB, requires that we maintain our BMI, we thought it well worth our time and money to try to stay in shape.

One day while playing tennis with the kids, we met Sydney. He was teaching a lesson and offered to teach the kids anytime. They had their first tennis lesson last week, and so this week I brought the camera to get some action shots. I have been talking with Sydney about what we are here in Zambia for, and I'm praying that we can be a witness to him each week as we meet for tennis.

Life in Zambia is different, but the same. Let me explain... A lot of things in Lusaka are "westernized" mainly because of all the Americans moving here, but yet it is still different in that things don't go exactly as planned. For instance, when I called Sydney to ask if he could teach a lesson, he agreed and we set a time (that's normal, right?) But when I arrived at the gym, he was not there. I sent him a text message to see if he was coming. He replied that he needed a ride to the gym and wondered if I could pick him up. Because I was already at the gym, I told him that we would just wait until he got a ride himself. About 45 minutes later, we began our lesson. So, things are different here. This week, Sydney arrived only 15 minutes late, so he suggested that next week we meet 15 minutes later than usual so that he would be on time next week.

Last Week of After-School Activities

Diving in...

Back Stroke...

Funky Movers...

Can you dance & stay on the paper with your partner?

Snack time!

Mrs. Lib's Peanut Brittle Arrives

YUMMY! Thank you Mrs. Lib for sending us peanut brittle all the way from Denmark, South Carolina. And, it looked like it was made in the shape of Africa. As I'm writing this blog, there's only half of Africa left - thanks to Ricky!

Man Captured Swimming in Mall Fountain

That could have been the headline on yesterday's paper. We were eating 'out' again due to the power outages every night, and we were sitting at the mall enjoying our meal when we noticed a commotion at the water fountain. A man decided to take a dip in the water and have a go at swimming in 2 foot of water. The security guards began telling him to get out, but he didn't want to. The guards began walking into the water to try to catch the 'swimmer' and he began swimming away from them. The crowds were growing and people were taking pictures with their cell phones. The people were cheering this guy on to keep swimming from the guards. Ricky and the kids went over to see what was happening, but I stayed at the table. Finally, when I got up to see exactly what was going on, the guards had caught the guy and began dragging him out of the water. He resisted, of course, but they were able to drag him away from the crowds and into a secured area. After all this happened, I realized I had the camera in my purse the whole time. I guess I was so in shock that I didn't get a picture until after the guards had taken him away. Here are some pics of the aftermath:
The puddles after being pulled out.
Coby, an eye witness to the event.
Would you swim in this??

Helping those in Need

Zambia has been hit by extremely heavy rains this year. The rainy season lasts from 1st Dec through March or April. Average rainfall for Lusaka is 800mm per year – since Dec 1st we have received already 1100mm to date. There are certain areas of Zambia that have received even more. This has caused a very bad situation for the Zambians who live in the bush. All their crops have been destroyed by flooding and root rot. There are many people groups who are running out of food, and it will only get worse. On Friday we received a load of mealie meal which will be taken to the bush east of Lusaka. This is 200 bags (each weighing about 66 lbs. per bag) which will be delivered to the river on March 10th, then we will put 10 bags at a time in the boat and carry them upriver to the villages. Here are some pictures of the unloading of the mealie meal at the Baptist Mission office located within our compound. The Zambian helpers that were unloading thought it was funny that the “mzungu” (white person) was helping them unload the bags. They didn’t know I have prior experience working in a feed-n-seed store in the US. Please pray for the people who are going to receive the food in a few weeks. Mealie Meal is the staple food of Zambia. They make nshima from the ground corn meal. It resembles mashed potatoes, but with the consistency of play-dough, very sticky, and very bland tasting, but filling nevertheless.

3 months of Guest House Ministry

We have been very busy since we began our work here in Zambia. Before we got here we didn’t know what we would find with the guest house. As it stood, it was in fine operating condition. The guest house is its on entity though. It is not connected to funding from the International Mission Board. So it is like its own little business. It is also a non-profit organization so we should not be making a large amount of money. Over the past several years it has built up some extra money so we started looking at what improvements we could do. First, we talked to the leadership in the country and they gave us some of their ideas, and then we wrote all the Southern Baptist Missionaries that use the facilities to see what they would like to see improved. That made our list that we would tackle. We have been able to make some drastic improvements over the first three months. It’s hard to believe it has only been three months since we started our work in Lusaka. We have done everything from ceramic tile to paint, replace a few ceilings, new water filters, landscape, new mosquito nets, new curtains, new bedding, and new mattresses. On top of all that we have had more business than the guest house has seen in a few years. So because of the volume of business we have seen we have replenished the money we have spent. We believed God was preparing us for this work the last couple of years. In the year and a half before we became missionaries we remodeled a hundred year old house with Niki’s dad and then went on to remodel five Subway stores.

Now, what we trained for in Virginia and in Africa for nearly four months is spreading God's Word. With all the work around the guest house it has been hard to have an intentional ministry. It is our ministry to support our missionaries on the front lines out in the bush by having a comfortable and fun place for them to relax when they come in to get supplies. But we also can do ministry when we have time. Now that we have a lot of the construction out of the way we look forward to doing more in the community. Niki has already started going to the orphanages, and I will be going out in the bush to help deliver food to the hungry and witness to these people in the next few weeks. Please pray for us as we start this process. We will tell you more about these ministries as we go through them.

Women's Missionary Union provided all new water filters for our 8 guest rooms. Thanks WMU!

Landscaping the entrance to the compound really made a beautiful difference.

13 Ways to Bless Missionaries without paying Postage

I was talking with my mom today on the phone and we were discussing the next package she would be shipping to us in Zambia. It usually takes about 3-4 weeks for boxes to arrive, but over the holidays the postage has gone crazy. We are still waiting on Christmas packages! So, then I was surfing the net and found this idea of sending things to missionaries without paying for postage (no offense my post office friends). What a grand idea! Now, the IMB has over 5000 missionaries serving around the world, so I know that if you are reading this, you know at least one missionary family who wouldn't mind receiving some of these blessings! I'm sure there are more ideas you can think of to bless and encourage the missionaries who are serving our Lord overseas, so please send other suggestions and ideas to the comments section. Thanks for supporting us missionaries. Thanks family and friends who send care packages our way. Thank you, thank you!

Here are 13 post-office-free ideas to get you started, most of which you could do right now from your desk:

• Pray specific Scripture for them and their ministry, and then email it to them.
• Call or email their parents—holidays might be just as lonely for the ones at home as the ones away.
• Purchase phone minutes for an international calling card through an online service like OneSuite and email them the account number.
• Donate frequent flier miles to them.
• Purchase an iTunes gift card for them. Have it sent to you and email them the account number.
• Commit to pray for them on a specific day of the week for a year.
• Write a song or poem or story for them. Email them the text and a recording of you reading or singing it.
• Get friends and family together to create a video greeting for them using Google Video or YouTube. Include lots of people you know they miss.
• Make a gift through their missions board or agency.
• Western Union—the fastest way to send money.
• Call their local florist (not everyone is in the jungle these days) and have flowers delivered, or their local Pizza Hut and have pizza delivered—with corn and shrimp as toppings!
• Donate to a charity that means a lot to them.
• Make a monthly commitment to support them financially.

(Remember to use discernment in written or video communication if your missionaries work in security-sensitive locations.)

Field Trip to Adventure City

Yesterday, we decided we needed a break from home school, so we met another missionary family at Adventure City. Some of you may recall a previous blog from our 40/40 experience when the kids got to go to Adventure City, well, this is the same place. And now mom gets to experience this water park hidden in the hills of Lusaka. It is really big with lots of pools and slides. The kids and I (Niki) enjoyed being in the hot sun and cooling off on the slides. Here are some pics from our day off.

Donating Blood

As part of the Zambia Braai missionary group, we get frequent emails with requests, items for sale, etc. One email we received last week was requesting a donor for a missionary having a C-section this week. She needed type A- blood, and that is exactly what Ricky and I are. Since Ricky is still sick with this yucky cold, I volunteered to donate blood for her. So, this morning a friend, Robyn, picked me up and we headed for the hospital. It was very interesting giving blood in another country, but I kept my eyes on the nurse and what she was doing, and it was safely accomplished. It only took about 2 hours, which is great for Africa! Please pray with me for the safe delivery of Luke & Elise's 4th child being born this Wednesday, February 20th. I haven't even met this couple yet, but we will probably meet very soon.

Orphanage Visit

This past Saturday, we were invited to have lunch with some missionaries at the House of Moses, an orphange in Lusaka. Since Ricky was not feeling well, just Coby, Kelsey and I (Niki) attended. We got to meet a lot of new friends and were able to hold the babies and play with the toddlers. I'm guessing this home has about 30 children. I counted the babies from 0-6 months and there were 12. The toddlers are between 6 months and 24 months, and I didn't count them. Some of these children have a parent at home, maybe a father since the mother died in childbirth or from something else. Since they are still nursing from the bottle, and the father is too poor to take care of the baby, he/she remains at the House of Moses until the baby is older and the father is able to take care of him/her. Some of the children do not have any parents, and so they are either adopted or taken in as foster children to a loving home. I was able to talk a good bit with the lady in charge and she explained some to me on how their organization works. Kelsey and I were able to hold a couple of babies that were only weeks old. One of them was sick with a fever and thought to have malaria. In the toddler room, I picked up a little girl who was crying, and immediately she stopped, but she clang to me and would not let go. It was hard leaving her, but we have decided to return as often as we can. The kids are looking forward to going to the orphanage once a week to love on these babies. This organization, Alliance for Children Everywhere, has 3 separate homes in Lusaka for children. You can read about them on their website:
http://www.childreneverywhere.org/
I had my camera, but there were strict rules about picture taking. Maybe later they will allow me to take some pictures. Their website has a good many pictures and links to other sites as well. We are hoping to visit some other orphanges in the near future. This is definitely something that we can do while in Zambia.

Happy Valentine's Day

This morning Ricky was up at 5am to take one of our guests to the airport. After that he had to go downtown to buy more tile for the workers. He came back to the guest house to drop off the tile, and made a grocery list. Then, he went to "Spar" to buy groceries and to "Mica Hardware" to buy paint. During all of this he purchased flowers for me & Kelsey. When he got back to the guest house, he surprised us with our roses. WOW! Finally, I get roses when in Africa! Do you want to know the reason why he got us roses? They were CHEAP! We each got 20 roses for $6 USD. And that's double price because it's Valentine's Day. Usually they are cheaper than that.

Milkshakes and Good Times

We have found a new restaurant "The Buzz Cafe" and it is very "American". I (Niki) had the cheeseburger and it was one of the best I have ever had. We ate outside since it was such a beautiful day. The rains have slacked off some and the sun is beginning to reappear. It is in the high 70 degrees these days.

Kelsey enjoying her milkshake at "The Buzz Cafe"

Coby enjoying his milkshake also.

"I Love Zambia!" This picture was taken to resemble one of our MK's here in Zambia, Anna. We think Anna & Kelsey look alike with their Zambian hats on.

And here's the bestest friends ever - Kelsey & Hannah! Never a dull moment when they get together.

Braai with the Davis Family

Kelsey, Hannah & Peyton (3 Blondies)

On Monday, February 4th we had a celebration braai for the Davis Family. We had hamburgers and all the fixin's. The Davis' have served in the Western Province of Zambia for 10 years and now they will be moving to Botswana. We will miss our dear friends, but hope to see them often as they are only a country away.Shawna sees something interesting!

Who me? (Yes, Micah, it was you!)

Interesting animals

This little frog was hiding behind my back on the park bench. When Austin noticed it and told me, I sprang from the bench and we tried to remove the frog from the seat. He could really jump. We eventually moved to another seat and let him be. Does anyone know what kind of frog this is?

Coby found this chameleon on a bush at the guest house. He wanted to keep it as a pet, but we felt it better for the chameleon to be set free. The kids were trying to find something to keep it in, and in the meantime, they let him climb on the door of our neighbors, the Greenwoods. It stayed on the door overnight and Ricky was able to catch him the following morning to let him go free. Maybe we will see him again around the guest house. He was a very interesting color and he liked to hiss at us when we got too close.

Kids Activities

The kids are enjoying going to LICS after-school activities. I got a few pictures of Austin & Coby during their karate class, and some of Kelsey during swim lessons. It began to rain near the end of swim lessons, so the class was cut short. Also, every Saturday morning the boys have been invited to play flag football at the American International School. Last week while Coby was in South Africa, Austin went to flag football and came home a complete mess. It had rained the night before and was off and on raining during the morning. This week, Coby was able to attend for the first time. On the first play, Coby ran to grab the flag off someone, and Austin was right behind him, they both ended up on the ground... Coby being underneath Austin... Ouch! Coby is such a good sport, he just got right up and went on playing. They both had a terrific time.