Finishing up the Muzha Seminar

We have completed our third out of four weeks of our annual “Muzha wa Yesu” (slave of Christ) seminar!  It has been our best yet.  This group of forty men have overcome significant challenges to make this school happen.  They’ve sacrifice time, money, and even food to come and be feed spiritually by the Word.  After this last week, the men will return to their congregations (who also paid money to help send each student) and teach all that they have learned for the rest of the year.  We are seeing great maturity with these leaders.  They have really grown in their knowledge of the Word and in their commitment to Christ.  I had an especially great time teaching a part of Hebrews.  These men relate to the Hebrews in many ways.  They face persecutions that could lead to things such as cursing from others, which is a scary thing for these people.  Many of our young churches have struggled with people falling back to their old belief system.  However, these men are learning to have faith and hope in the better promises of God.  I had them list the promises of their past belief system with the promises of God and see which are better.  It was a telling class, but they all agreed that God’s promises are better.  Of course, it’s easy to say that, but as the writer of Hebrews urges—we must live it.  I’m constantly challenged by the faith of these men.  They have to make very big decisions to give up the false security of their traditional practices.  It certainly challenges me to think on the promises offered in my home culture.  Things like putting faith in money, insurances, and comforts of life often times become a temptation.  Together with these Zambian men let us all consider the better, lasting promises of God to be better than that which is temporary.  Please pray for this final week for these men to have the strength carry on in learning and the courage to take the messages back to their homes.   

Blessings  - Jeremy

Picture Post!

More pictures from the past couple of weeks...

Cuties Gail and Kathryn

Pizza (from scratch of course) with the Mellors!!

Church leaders studying in Ron Roger's class

Do you spy our pink house?

Sweet faces in the Kimplumba village

Brothers (for you Debbie & Meemaw)

Sweet friend's new baby

Week 1

The first week of the Muzha wa Yesu (Slave for Jesus) seminar is complete. We have about 40 church leaders here for the month to study more about the Kingdom of God. Our prayers are they take back what they have learned to their congregations. It is going very well so far. There is an excitement for learning in the air!

Ron and Gail Rogers and Dave and Susan Mellor from our supporting congregation came to be a part of the seminar. It has been a wonderful week with them being here. Dave is teaching through Hebrews and Ron is teaching on the Heart of an Elder. Susan and Gail have been spoiling Erin and I and have been joining us in our ministry to the teens and women. Plus, we are doing some cooking lessons with Gail and Susan (we’ve made some amazing bread, doughnuts, chicken and dumplings…all yummy things!)We are just loving having both couples here!

 Of course, Dave had to mention that he is not sure he believes that the snakes are really out here. That very night, a gaboon viper was killed on their path to Jason and Erin’s house. Then, the next morning we were all worshiping at Kamponde church, and a snake went crawling up their wall. We all panicked in the middle of the Bible study as we watched it scale the crooked wall. But luckily the Congolese students were with us that morning. They quietly exited the building and the next thing we hear is a loud bang on the roof. The snake was killed, and we could all continue on.

Here are a few pictures of the first week. These are just of the seminar, I know I need to take some of us with the ladies as well!

Thank you for your prayers for these courageous leaders as they seek to leave what is “normal” in their culture and follow the ways of Christ. 

Jeremy and Mr. Jikata, who is now able to walk after our truck accident. He has been able to attend the seminar.

April goodness

So many wonderful things to be a part of this month!

Jeremy and I were able to head out to worship with our dear church family at Mushingashi this past Sunday. We hadn’t been to worship with them since early February so we were very excited and anxious to be with them again. This was the church body that walked three hours to greet us after our truck accident, stayed for 15 minutes to hug, kiss and pray over us, and then walked the three hours back. What a blessing to see this church reaching out to others, and we got to be on the other end of that blessing! We were so touched.

The grass has grown just a bit since we had last been out to the area, as you can see not much to see but grass at this point.

Erin and I had a great study with our sweet young friends this week. It is neat because Erin and I have been doing this study for over a year now, and Jeremy and I are now working with the youth at Konkwa church. Most of the girls involved in Erin and I’s Bible study are also part of the new youth program. It’s neat to see their maturity and desire for Jesus. Some of the youth actually came to set up for the church leader’s month long seminar coming up this next week. This was inspiring to see, and we hope by the youth continuing to reach out to their community, it will light the fire for the whole village!

Mr. Jikata, who was with us in the vehicle during the accident, has been released from the hospital!! After 3 weeks, he was able to come home and is walking. Jeremy and I went to welcome him home last night, it was very surreal. He is in great spirits, and I will be taking a picture of him this week, so everyone can see his happy face.

Lastly, we are very excited for the Muzha wa Yesu (Slave for Jesus) seminar beginning on Monday. We have visiting teachers coming in from the states—four people of which are from our supporting congregation East Brainerd—and we are just so excited! We are anxiously awaiting their Saturday arrival.

Please keep the church leaders in your prayers during this next month as they strive to learn and soak up as much as they can. We want this to be a time of spiritual nourishment for them so they can take it back to their congregations all throughout the bush.

Team "Not so Restful" Retreat

Our team is back from a retreat we took with Sonny and Eunice Guild, who were visiting from Abilene. Sonny and Eunice trained Jason, Erin, Jeremy and I for a year before we came to Zambia. They came for a two week visit, and it was so wonderful to have them here. We were fortunate to keep them in our home, and they spoiled us with pancakes and chai tea!

Our team packed up last week for a few days away for our team retreat. We were going to be staying in safari tents about five hours from where we live. It was a great few days away from our bushy homes, and we were able to enjoy a lake, wild game and restaurant while we were there. We were also able to reevaluate our work together and how we can encourage each other and be unified in Mumena.

The most hilarious part of the week (not so hilarious at the time) was when half of our team got stuck out in the middle of the game park. Jeremy and I had decided to ride around with the Love family (who also had their four small children with us) to go look for animals around our campsite. We were about three miles from camp when it happened. From this point on, I’ll let Jeremy pick up the story. 

I pulled around the dirt road having just seen giraffe, water buck, and a host of other animals when I faced two obstacles that hindered me from returning safely back to camp.  The road looked passable, and I was confident I could navigate around the dark, dense mud.  As I picked up speed to cross through, I here Whitney yell from the back seat, “Wait I need to role my window up!”  Fearing to carry a soggy wife back to my tent, I slowed down to all of our despair.  My lack of speed caused my front right wheel to sink into the sodden earth. All 9 of us filed out of the vehicle as Rick and I brainstormed how to get out of this mess.  Regretting the choice to wear Chacos, I was ankle deep in mud that was certainly mixed with all sorts of African droppings trying to shove branches under the tires to gain some traction.  After many failed attempts, we were rescued by our other teammates who drove up behind us.  With ease, their four wheeled  savior pulled us from our predicament.  Little did the men know as complaints welled up in our minds of our muddiness, the women and children were fighting off a hoard of fire ants running down the dirt path shredding any article of clothing possible to release the stinging buggers.  We all recovered from the trauma, piled back in the trucks and made it past our first obstacle.  Little did we know that the worst was yet to come.  On the other side of the first mud pit stood a large puddle of water hiding unknown depths.  I only had one choice.  Pass to the right where there was enough visible ground to cross.  Rolling up all the windows, I picked up speed and rushed through the mud pit to no avail.  We were stuck.  Instead of one tire it was all four with jelloy mud up to the axle.  Our teammates behind us in the other truck found a clear route and got out in front of us.  Safely evacuating our crew, we hooked the truck up and with several tries were unsuccessful. However, we were successful in getting our other vehicle stuck.  The African bush is not known for its reliable cell service, and the sun was setting over the landscape, though breathtaking, promised a bit of danger.  The only option was for me to run the three miles back to camp to inform our other team members.  Leaving 15 people piled in the back of a pick up, I headed out with my little dinky flashlight through the jungle.  Well aware of the dangers in the jungle, especially at night, I ran pretty fast.  Huffing and puffing through the jungle with rubbed-raw feet, one hand holding my heavy with mud pants up and  yelling every 10 yards to scare off any wild animals in my path, I’m knew I looked like easy prey to be devoured.  Sure I was going to die from exhaustion, I kept thinking of my wife and the women and children depending on me for their survival.  I trekked on. Wadding through a knee high crocodile inhabited river, stepping in various types of poo, and wrapped in spider webs I finally saw a light in the distance that pushed me the last mile of my 3.5 mile run, which I was ill prepared for to say the least.  I arrived back at camp, arranged transport for my team, a tractor for the trucks, and was relieved to see my wife had survived the event.  We returned with a good story, then I crashed in bed only to wake up with Malaria!

This is a true story written from my brave husband’s perspective! We are safe now back in Kaondeland and are preparing for our month long church leader seminar.

Thanks for keeping up!
 

With our family and teammates, Jason & Erin, at the team retreat.

Clueless for a title name?

Dear Friends,

I’ve been a bit out of touch with our blog recently, but with all that is going on the last thing I want to do is stop writing about our journey.

We have been so blessed with encouragement and prayers this past month, and I want to say thank you for it. This year has started off a bit unexpectedly for Jeremy and I, but we are very thankful for our lives this year.

In February, we made the decision to fly to South Africa for a few weeks of doctor visits. I had been having some trouble with a certain bacteria that had been stubbornly living in my body. After lots of antibiotics we were able to get rid of it and the pain has cleared up completely. We also were told this bacteria cannot do any damage to me physically if I were to get it again. It was a great time of reassurance and peace of mind.

However, two days after we had arrived back to Zambia, Jeremy and I were in a severe car accident that totaled the truck we were driving. The vehicle had flipped over and in the process, our dear Zambian friend who was in the backseat flew out the window. God was with us because we were able to get out of the truck with only scratches and bruises and quickly assist our friend who was on the side of the road. We are both extremely soar, but very thankful to be ok. Our friend, Mr. Jikata, is in the hospital. He does not have any broken bones, which we are so thankful for. However, he is still having intense back pain and his head was hit hard. Jeremy was able to go see him yesterday and the first words he said, as he was laying in his hospital bed were, “God was with us.”

We have been surrounded by our teammates, Zambians and special guests who just so happened to be arriving from the states the same day. Thank you for your prayers. We are very thankful.

We know this will be a process to heal from our pain and shock, but we feel very supported, and more than anything relieved that our friend will be ok.

Thank you for keeping us in your prayers. We love you all.

Whitney and Jeremy

JW & JE Newsletter

I was just taught by Erin how to upload our newsletters to our blog. So I'll make sure I start uploading these each month. Thanks Erin :)  This is a newsletter created by Jason, Erin, Jeremy and I for our supporting congregation, friends and family to know what's going on in Zambia. Just click on each page and then use the magnifying glass to zoom in and read. 

Since we passed up our one year mark in January, we wanted to review our first year in Zambia and give our direction for the second year. Hope you enjoy!