On Monday Jim went off to immigration (again) to try and sort out study permits.  This was to be a daily occurrence, teaching patience and endurance. Each day they said come back tomorrow. On Friday morning Jim was told our applications had been turned down, he appealed and was told to bring the team back at 1400 hours. We all spent the whole afternoon at immigration and at one point they wanted to serve us with a notice to leave the country in seven days! After putting everything into practice on what we have been learning with Lene to praise in ALL circumstances, we began singing praises to God- Fortunately we made a contact while in Lusaka who works high up in Immigration who has influence and eventually the whole thing was resolved! AMEN. We were told to go back again on Monday as it was now too late to process.  We will finish off the story in the next blog!

Other highlights or incidents in the week:

 Jan and Jo tried to bike from Baluba Farm to Kamfinsa but Jan's bike had a flat tyre- they drove the vehicle into the village which allowed Pastor Albert to collect some charcoal- thankyou God! We went to visit a church member who was having marital problems. They were able to encourage them both and speak God's word into their situation. He also shared with us he had received a generous gift which will help him buy the plot of land to build a house. This is a real answer to prayer as we know he has been wanting this for a long time. Tim and Natalie were able to drop the various wheelchairs, crutches and walkers that were donated by Lifeline to ST Anthony’s cerebral palsy unit. The workers were very grateful and the children put them to use straight away!

At Farm Fresh we were back to heavy labour - hoeing the ground like true Zambians again.  Our lunch was chalaka (Zambian delicacy), caterpillars and nshima!  In the afternoon at Isubilo we once again met up with Danish students from Euroclass.  They entertained with dance and drama and the young people at Isubilo loved it.

Thursday afternoon we had a lecture from Andy Patching on Body, Soul and Spirit. He was a great teacher who really got our minds thinking and we look forward to learning from him again next Thursday.

Friday morning was spent with Lifeline at the playgroup in Chipulusuku. We enjoyed spending time with the children playing ball games, skipping, building Jenga towers and dancing. This time Jo and Natalie also did some face painting so when it was time for lunch there were lots of pretty butterflies eating butter sandwiches! When we got back from Immigration in the afternoon we found that Zenia our neighbour (lady who cooks for us at Farm Fresh) with severe chest pain and suspected heart problems. God was really testing us today! Jim and Jo quickly took her and her husband to the local clinic while the rest of us fed, watered and entertained their 2 beautiful children. Thankfully after having an ECG test done, she was sent back home the same night with nothing worrying found on the test results and just told to get some well needed rest. She is going back to the hospital for further tests in the coming week so watch this space for more news.

Prayer points

Zenia -  For correct diagnosis and return to full health

Pastor Albert - to get the right plot in Ndola

The Team - for continuing good health and continued unity.

Fidis' foot

Vision of Hope Girls (Lusaka)

Vincent and Elevin to get a plot in Lusaka

A less stressful week

                                       

Local Projects Week

The last three weeks has seen a break from the usual programme. Our trip to Lusaka was postponed for a week (we are in Africa, you have to be flexible). Before the week of our local projects began, we visited Kamfinsa on Sunday for another invigorating church service. Monday led straight into Tim, Jo and Natalie accompanying members of the Lifeline team for a Health Check day. Jim and Jan went to Immigration, to apply for the study permits, only to find out we needed to fill in yet more forms.  This was to be the first of many visits! The rest of the week we worked on refurbishing a slide and swings at a local Blind School to supplement their new playground ably assisted by Fred (builder at MFA) who we adopted into SoapBox for a day to help with welding.  We also helped out in Kamfinsa with purchasing the necessary materials, together with digging, collecting and transporting sand to help redo the floors, walls and veranda for the new teacher’s house. We also cleaned and painted the walls. The house is now more or less finished and should be ready for her to move in as the new school term begins. While this was going on Jim spent time on 4 different days in Immigration trying to sort out our study permits, as our temporary visas ran out on May 15th. (Read our next blog to find out what happened!)

On Friday we set off for Lusaka, staying at Kabwe overnight at what is known in Zambia as the 'Jim Ford plot' (Jim’s Dad). Jim enjoyed showing the team around his parent’s old house.  We had a lovely time meeting and sharing a meal with the pastors and elders from the rural churches who had been mentored by Jim's dad.  They have a vision for starting a Bible and Training school at the plot to help local Christians with Bible knowledge and skills training. 

Lusaka Expedition Part 1

The first half of our time in Lusaka was spent with Chitaulu.  She started Vision of Hope, a shelter that takes young women off the streets and gives them a home, education and security. The girls, all aged between 11-18, were initially very quiet, but as they taught Natalie and Jo how to dance, (true Zambian style) they started to open up and allow us to help them make door mats out of old pieces of material. The following day we met the girls at a very loud and lively church service and took them out for lunch of chicken and chips. The girls all said they wanted to go swimming, so the following day we took all of the girls and volunteers

to ‘Dream Valley’ a beautiful deserted Water Park. A lot of the girls couldn’t swim, so we had lots of fun teaching them and playing ball games in the shallow end. In the afternoon the boys tackled a stubborn door that had come off its hinges while Natalie and Jo shared ‘the wordless book’ with the girls and painted their nails in the representing colours. This soon led into singing and before long dancing. All praises to God! It was beautiful to see and listen to and of course attempt to join in on the songs we knew. The boys sneaked off to by “water”, but secretly surprised the girls with take-away pizza. As they walked in with the boxes the girls went crazy, screaming and literally dancing and singing with joy. It was a humbling experience to see. Over something to us which is so small, these girls were praising God for it! After a good munch on the food by candlelight as there was a power cut, some of the girls started to tell us their stories. Some of the things the girls were faced with no-one should ever go through, let alone girls of 13! It was hard to listen to and our hearts just went out to them, but was also amazing to see the work of God in their lives and how God is using Vision of Hope to bring the well needed love of Jesus to these girls. It was a short, difficult, but rewarding time spent with these girls and I think the impact they made on each of us will stay with us for a long time.

South Luangwa

We spent 4 nights camping at Croc Valley, right along the river’s edge where we could observe the hippos socialising all day long. During our time on safari, we saw many elephants, zebras and giraffes, lapped up impala in abundance and witnessed a rare leopard/hyena stand off for a kill! We were also able to gaze upon some beautiful sunrises and sunsets that really made us appreciate and admire God’s amazing creation- talk about a visual feast! All in all, we had an AWESOME time.

Lusaka Expedition Part 2

The second part of our stay in Lusaka we spent with Pastor Vincent and Pastor Elevin- an inspirational couple who gladly opened their home up to us and allowed us to accompany them on a weeks programme. In a nutshell we taught at Sunday school, evangelised in the local community, shared the gospel with college students, brought people to know God, shared our testimonies with 2 church groups, ate LOTS of good food, met many new people, acted out a drama piece, went Shatengi shopping until our eyes hurt, bartered hard at the market, settled in 400 new chicks, visited Vincent and Elevin’s recently granted church plot and spent 2 fun filled mornings with the YMCA boys. WOW, what a week! We all LOVED our time with the YMCA boys and made sure- like the VOH girls- that we could make them feel like teenagers again and for a few hours they could forget the difficult situations that they are faced with from day to day. As the sun was shining bright, we had lots of water games lined up which they all got stuck into and we took great joy in hearing them laugh and chant on their friends. It was such an encouragement and privilege to work alongside the limited members of staff there and to get a glimpse into how they are working with the children to get them off the streets and into loving, secure homes.

It is also safe to say that God really reignited passion in all of us while staying with Vincent and Elevin. Through the work we were doing, sharing our various testimonies, praying and receiving spiritual guidance from them, we were all really reminded of HOW we came to being in Africa and WHY we were here. It was so humbling but very powerful. It especially shone through while sharing our stories with the church groups and we could tangibly see how much we have grown these past 4 months- we were speaking with the kind of confidence, attitude and faith that would make David Padbury a very proud man! Each one of us comes from a different background and is at a different stage of life but God brought each one of us to this place and has a plan for us all. We all stepped out of our boat with the faith that God would catch us and He did. While we were able to bless many people during our visit in Lusaka, we feel that honestly we were the ones who were truly blessed- through wise teaching, refreshing fellowship and boundless generosity.   

Today we went to our neighbour's (Emmanuel & Zenia) church. It was a small congregation meeting in a school hall but it was a powerful service that we all enjoyed. After church Tim, Jim and Jan went to Ndola Motor sports club to watch our friend Dale (Lene's husband) compete in a motocross competition.

Monday 15th

Our usual day of rest was anything but! Tim, Natalie and Jo went with Lifeline to run an AID’s awareness and testing day for teenagers in a rural village. We did a short talk on what the Bible says about sex and then helped with the testing. Jo and Natalie took blood samples while Tim wrote down the results. It was an amazingly successful day where only 2 of the 47 people tested positive, compared to the last time when 50 of 76 did. Jan did her usual Monday morning teaching at the college while Jim had a relatively painless experience extending the visas at immigration, before working on team admin and getting gas refills for our forthcoming camping trip.

Tuesday 16th

In the morning Jim, Tim, Natalie and Jo went to Kamfinsa. The girls held a prayer meeting with Pastor Albert, praying with three ladies. Praying specifically that they would be protected from evil spirits and be healed from joint pains. A friend of ours had suggested that Pastor Albert’s poor health may be due to worms which are apparently rife in unwashed fruit and veg here. So we provided his whole family with worm tablets. The boys did several runs to a local sandpit in order that they could start cementing the floor of the teacher’s house. This wasn’t helped by running over two nails and having a slow puncture! Jan visited St Anthony's playing with cerebral palsy children and the toddlers before picking up Fred (SoapBox Trustee) from the airport. We all met back at home to meet Fred and have lunch together. In the afternoon we had another incredible lecture from Lene.

Wednesday 17th

Tim and Jim set off early on their bikes to go out with Lifeline installing pumps in rural villages. They covered three wells that were previously uncovered and open to contamination and installed manual pumps. The girls and Fred spent the morning raking grass at Farmfresh, then after another typically Zambian lunch, headed to Isubilo for the afternoon. At Isubilo they gave Fred a whirlwind tour and then joined in with the choir.

Thursday 18th

Today we all travelled to Kamfinsa together. Jim and Tim continued cementing the floors while Jan washed the walls of the teacher’s houses. Meanwhile Natalie, Jo and Fred were running a taxi service into Ndola, picking up iron roof panels and buying more bags of cement. They then fed us all with sweet potatoes in a tomato sauce. In the afternoon we had our final lecture from Laurie on what we are passionate about. In the evening we had our final Bible study on Ephesians.

 Friday 19th

Tim, Natalie and Jo enjoyed Fred’s company on their day off. Jan and Jim did the weekly shop in the morning before going to St Anthony's in the afternoon. 

Saturday 20th

In the morning we went to Isubilo for the first time without Hettie. We played volleyball, football, painted nails, did puzzles, held a photo shoot, played jenga and helped with reading and writing. The afternoon study on Acts was led by Natalie and then Fred treated us to an ice cream.

Prayer points:

·       Pastor Albert- that he will respond well to the tablets.

·       Our involvement in renovating the slide at the Blind School and building work at Kamfinsa.

·       Preparation for our trip to Lusaka at the end of the week.