Parent's Day 3 - Shopping

Tuesday, our day started out by shopping at Game. We were buying another refrigerator for the guest house, and so we gave Mom and Dad the opportunity to visit our "Walmart" for the experience. Game is located at one of the shopping malls - Manda Hill. They were very busy this day, so we decided to get the refrigerator delivered so we wouldn't have to wait on it.

After going to the shopping mall, we went to the "real" shopping of Zambia - in the open market. First, we passed the vegetable section, then it was on passed the lady getting her hair done (under the hair dryer), then through some mud puddles in the "aisle" (actually we had to jump a few). We arrived at Albert's wood working shop to purchase a few goodies. We made our way down the aisles to where the ladies were cooking all sorts of things, but we had to pass by the ladies cleaning fish (which Mom did not fair well smelling that), and across the way, a lady was cleaning and chopping up a chicken - fast food! We showed them the many different types of food you can buy ready to eat at the market, like caterpillars, inswa (termites), kapenta (dried baby minnows), all with a side of chips (french fries). YUM! Mom and Dadloved the experience of the market - with all its sights, sounds, and even the SMELLS!

After the open market, we had to make a trip downtown Lusaka, which was very busy. Here is the main round-about leading into the downtown area.
We ended the night with a Subway sandwich and a movie rental (from Blockbuster, of course). These Subway employees thought we were really weird taking pictures of the menus and the food. They thought they were celebrities. Mom & Dad said it wasn't the same taste as Subway of Williston. We couldn't get Wyman to leave the mall because he was videoing the Christmas music sung by a church group outside the mall.

During the movie, Mom kept the mosquitos away with our handy tennis racket/bug zapper. She was very entertained the whole night!!!

Parent's Day 2 - Protea Lodge

Protea Hotel Safari Lodge is located about one hour outside of Lusaka. This is the rooftop of the main reception area where we ate lunch.
This is an orphan elephant from South Luangwa Park. Her name is Mkumvu (I think this is the spelling), and she is 17 years old. Mom was a little scared of her when she came up to the truck and sniffed everyone out!
Coby is trying to feed her.

A couple of zebra running away from our oncoming safari vehicle.

This bushbuck decided to eat from the foliage around the reception area. Pop Pop was a little brave and petted it, but he advised Kelsey not to get too close since he bit Dad on the hand.

Everyone is looking on as the bushbuck eats.

The lions were hard to see today. This is the son... the daddy was locked up.

This is the momma lion.

The kids talked the guide into climbing on the elephant like before. He was kind of dusty, but the kids didn't care about getting dirty. Mom and Dad refrained from climbing on!

Goodbye, Mkumvu!!!

Hartebeest

We saw lots of baby animals today, as this is the season for babies being born.

Sable

Eland

Parent's Day 1

The parents slept well the first night. We even had to wake them for breakfast! We attended Twin Palms Baptist for worship, and were surprised to find the children leading the service this morning. They had a Christmas play and the children led the music.

Dirt road leading to the church

Twin Palms Baptist Church

Children's Christmas Play

Leaving the church, we took the parents through Kalingalinga area which is where you can buy almost anything - on the side of the road. This was a good picture of a part of Zambia and how people work and live. They saw people breaking rocks, pushing charcoal, and selling all kinds of things.

These buckets are made for washing your hands, like a sink!

These people are crushing rocks one by one with either another big rock or sometimes a hammer. You can see by the mud puddle that we are in the rainy season now.

This guy going across the road is carrying charcoal. You can see the metal gates for sale in the background. The blue van coming down the road is what we call "mini buses."

After church, we went to one of our favorite restaurants, Rhapsody's, and enjoyed a delicious meal. Dad took my advice on the Chicken Espatada!Then we ventured through the market to find some souveniors. Dad and Mom even found their way to the Subway to check it out. We went back to the house to give the parents a nap, and then we ended our night at our International Bible Study. After bible study, we watched a live interpretive movement from College Street Baptist Church via Skype. (Thanks CSBC for including us in your worship service!)

They are here...in Zambia!

Well, my(Niki's) parents, Wyman and Jan Abstance, have arrived in Zambia. It has been 17 months since we have seen any family, and we are so excited they are here to visit us. They had a good flight - on Ethiopian Airways - and everything arrived safely. They were only delayed about 40 minutes, but other than that it seems all was good. We have kept them up all afternoon so that they can get their time clocks adjusted to Zambian time. We will keep the blog posted about all our adventures while they are here for 21 days. They are fighting sleep as I'm blogging this, and it's just after 9pm. They should get some rest tonight, unless they wake up in the middle of the night from our neighbor's (see previous blog).

Sorry for the man's head in the way... the airport was so busy with people everywhere. You see their luggage behing Mom made it to Zambia without any problems! Yeah!

Up On the Rooftop...

Click, Click, Click...

No, it wasn't old Saint Nick!

At 5:45am Ricky and I awoke to this clicking sound on the roof. When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,I sprang from the bed to see what was the matter. Away to the window I flew like a flash,Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash. Ricky actually didn't open the shutters since the windows are already open, but he arose and rushed to find the school field next door covered in white birds. There must have been several hundred. When he returned with the camera, most of them had flown away. We tried going back to sleep, but kept hearing the clicking noise on the roof. Finally, Ricky went outside to find these crows on top of our roof. I guess they were angry at the white birds, and were showing their frustrations by banging on our rooftop. Needless to say, we were wide awake and could not go back to sleep. And this happened to be the night that we were kept awake until 3am with our neighbors partying, and then to be awakened by these early birds!

With Great Sadness

Psalm 107: 6-9 "Lord, help!" they cried in their trouble, and he rescued them from their distress. He led them straight to safety, to a city where they could live. Let them praise the Lord for his great love and for the wonderful things he has done for them. For he satisfies the thirsty and fills the hungry with good things.

We are resigning our term with the IMB as guest house managers in Lusaka, Zambia, and plan to back in Walhalla, South Carolina, in January 2009. We have truly enjoyed our 15 months serving in Zambia, and this decision has been one of the hardest decisions we have ever had to make. You have been our prayer partners for this mission endeavor, and we are encouraged by your continual prayers and your commitment to partner with us in the work.


Why are we returning home?!!!

Ever since we arrived on the field, we have struggled with home schooling. All three of the kids had attended public school in the states, and as much as we tried to home school, it just did not fit our family. The fact that we were running the guest house out of our home and trying to home school three children (ages 12, 10, and 7) amongst the chaos was not cohesive.
Also, shortly after arrival to Zambia, our son, Austin, was diagnosed with severe anxiety. He was then diagnosed with asthma. Our two youngest, Coby and Kelsey, were hit with allergic reactions which caused them to go on allergy medicine every day to prevent breaking out in rashes. Still, after Satan’s attacks, we were still obedient. It seemed that we were traveling for medical purposes every couple of months. We were encouraged to try some different methods of home schooling, and it was recommended that we get the kids into a school system. This year has really been tough on the whole family, and we began to “cry out” for help.

We began the process of searching for better options for our children, but in the end it was determined that the best decision for us at this time would be to return to the states. After much counsel and many, many tears the Lord has drawn near to us in this time, and He has given us a peace about our decision and a grace to not only be okay with our situation, but even be excited about what He has planned for our family.

We still covet your prayers as we seek what the Lord has in our next chapter. Nothing has changed in our hearts. Our desire is still to serve our Lord and be obedient to Him. All that has changed is our geography. We love you all and look forward to keeping you posted. Thanks to all of those who have already responded in prayer to God and encouragement to us.

We have known throughout all of the change of our plans and throughout this time of struggle that God has not left us. He is ever-faithful. He always has been and always will be. We see this as another chapter in our lives. As stewards of our children, we simply desire to aid in the molding and shaping and forming of Austin, Coby, and Kelsey’s hearts and lives in a way that is most pleasing and honoring to the Lord. Please pray that God will grant us grace and mercy and wisdom and discernment to be the parents that we need to be for our children.

Friends

Today was our last day of home school as we get ready for the holidays. We spent the afternoon and early evening in Chongwe with our good friends, the Rodgers. When we arrived, Hannah had to give Kelsey a present - the apron you see her wearing in the picture. Hannah has a matching one, so they wanted to cook something. Here they are after making chocolate pudding. They licked the bowl and spoon afterwards.

I wish we would have gotten pictures of them after dinner, when they went outside to play in the mud! They were so dirty! Coby and Kelsey had to have baths when we got back home. We had wanted to leave before dark so we would not travel in the night, but we left a little late and the sun had already gone down. On the way back to Lusaka, which is only 31km, we passed 4 cars without brake lights, and we came up on one big truck broken down on the partial side of the road. We were lucky that we saw the branches in the road marking the signal that a truck was in the road broken down. Added to this, there are no street lights and no lines on the road, so you have to guess where your lane is. That is why it is so dangerous to travel at night in Zambia!

We praise God we arrived home safely!