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.)