Home Sweet Home

Well, I write "Home Sweet Home", but we aren't quite there yet. We chose the cheapest and possibly worst airline ever for our trip to and from Cape Town, and we are paying for it now. We arrived this morning at the airport at 5 am to hop on our 7 am flight, only to find out our airline had been grounded due to not paying their taxes. It is kind of funny because on the way to Cape Town, they were grounded because they couldn't find anyone to pay for the fuel on the plane. So we are now spending the day at the airport waiting on a new flight with a new airline scheduled for the evening. Hopefully, we will be home tomorrow night after the drive back from Lusaka.

Cape Town was perfect! We had an amazing trip, ate some amazing food, saw some great movies and met some great people. We did a lot of fun touristy things, but our trip was also long enough for me to meet some of the people Jeremy has worked with in the past during his summers in Cape Town. We stayed with a wonderful couple that Jeremy met last time he was in Cape Town. They were so hospitable and sweet; we felt like we were staying with our grandparents. Cape Town is a beautiful city that is surrounded by mountains and beaches-the best of both worlds. We ate A LOT. We hiked and rode bikes through the mountains, took walks on the beach (the water is freezing), saw lots of whales, toured the wine lands and much more.  It was such a wonderful break and vacation for us.

We are ready to get back home to Zambia now. It is an exciting time as the rains are beginning in Zambia. It is time to plant some flowers and get our garden ready! Jeremy and I are anxious to get back in to our routine of living in the bush and working with the people there. It is hard to believe that we are approaching the one year mark of living in Africa. We are blessed to be where we are and to be learning so much.

Cape Town, here we come!

Jeremy and I are headed for Lusaka, Zambia's capital tomorrow, and then we fly out for Cape Town, South Africa on Tuesday. We will be in this lovely city for two weeks for a vacation! So if you need us, here is where we will be :)

 So excited!!! We'll be back in Mumena on November 1, my husband's 26th birthday! See you then.

Not your normal weekend in Mumena...

This past weekend we had a group of about 25 students from Harding University come up to Mumena. They are studying abroad this semester and staying at Namwianga Mission in southern Zambia. The group came up on a Thursday and left on Monday. It was a short but sweet visit—very busy!

The group came to learn more about rural missions, and so we were able to provide a few classes dealing with our team’s strategy and goals. We dug in to the culture and all that comes with it. It was a sharp group of students, and they asked some great questions.

I, personally, loved the singing that came with the group. Every Wednesday night our team gets together for a small devotional, but there are only 10 of us that are adults. I loved sitting around the campfire with this huge group singing English songs that I grew up singing at church.

Erin and I both got to take groups of girls out to surrounding villages and let them see what a typical village looks like. It was fun to watch their reactions to things and remember what I felt like when I first got here. We spent Saturday out at the Rd. 68 church in the refugee camp. The youth at the church put on a great program for all of us. The Congolese refugees LOVE to sing and clap, so we did A LOT of that. 

Now, something I have been hearing about from the kids on our mission team ever since I got here, is the annual trick or treat night. Every October, the team takes advantage of so many Americans being here, and they take that opportunity to let their kids go around and trick or treat. All of the Harding students stay at the dorms, which are just right outside our doors past the school. The missionary children go around to each of the student’s dorm rooms to collect their Halloween candy. The students all dress up in costumes. Then the missionary kids come around to each of our team member’s houses to trick or treat. Jeremy and I participated in this grand event. Jeremy, being the good cousin that he is, dressed up as the Wolverine from XMen for his cousins Bryson and Noah—they loved it. And I was asked by Noah to be his slave…his costume was some kind of scientific character from some show like Star Trek that I really don’t know anything about. However, these important characters all have slaves, so Noah asked if I would be his. It was a very interesting Halloween we had on Sunday, October 8. The kids really loved it, and I see now why their parents make sure to keep up this American tradition for them.

Disclaimer: we don't have much entertainment here, do NOT judge (please)!

Great weekend with the women!

This past weekend we had our first womens seminar. This was a special weekend for the 45 women that came, because this was for most, their first break from normal life in a very long time. The Zambian women are always busy. They are responsible for all of their children, the cooking, the cleaning, the clothes washing, and on top of all of that they are usually working out in their field.

It was a great weekend of fellowship, singing, language learning (for me), and teaching techniques for how to teach children at home and at church. We taught on a very SIMPLE, basic level. Ellie taught the group how to draw stick figures and how to come up with pictures on your own. Sondra and Erin taught how to use shapes and objects to get childrens attention (sticks, trees, cut outs). I taught how to teach stories by creating motions and sounds to go with the story that the children can mimic. We had a lot of fun working with the ladies on how this can all be done in their culture.

The last day the ladies were split in to four groups all working to produce a Bible story lesson using one of the techniques that were taught. They worked so hard and their presentations were great! 

This momma above, was left by her husband right before this baby boy was born, she now raises six kids alone, but is so faithful to her church. I was so happy she got to take a break and come to the seminar.

My group of women practicing their presentation--creating motions for your story

Their presentation of Jesus' baptism