Every Easter, I grew up putting out my shoes for the Easter bunny to fill, with the rest of my family. The night before Easter Sunday, my brother and I would pick our largest pair of shoes to lie out for the Easter bunny to fill. Until I was a teenager, I thought everyone put out shoes for the Easter bunny, not baskets. I actually don’t know why it is that my family had this tradition, but I like it. Anyways, once I got married, I let Jeremy in on our tradition and informed him that we too will be putting out our shoes each Easter. So the past two Easters in the States, that we have been married, our shoes were filled up with goodies. Now this could be a little embarrassing to say, but since I live so far away from you guys I don’t really mind saying it, but Jeremy and I lived in Abilene where my mom and grandmother both lived. So each Easter, they would come by our apartment early in the morning and fill up our shoes. Each year I would think we were probably grown up enough not to put out our shoes, and then I would receive a call from my mom late the night before reminding us to put out our shoes.
Now here we are in Zambia on another Easter morning. Jeremy and I have big plans to celebrate in the evening with Jason and Erin. We are making hamburgers, homemade buns, sweet potato chips and an apple pie. It is going to be GREAT! So the morning of Easter Sunday, I woke up and went out to sit on the couch for a few minutes before I made breakfast. I always leave my pair of tennis shoes out on the porch because they are too dirty to bring inside. Jeremy called for me to come see something outside so I go look out the screen door, and this is what I find.
Culture shock can be overwhelming in certain moments, and our first holiday away from family, friends and our church home hit me a bit. Of course, I was not expecting to have my shoes filled (and really that is not the point), but my awesome husband brought a little bit of home to me this morning. Happy Easter from Zambia!
-Whitney
With a theologically rich curriculum and a highly qualified line-up of teachers, probably the greatest lesson that was learned during this year’s Muzha wa Yesu Seminar (Slave of Jesus) was from a turtle. We have about 40 men representing 12 churches and about 4 different Zambian tribes here all month for the leadership seminar. Living in a culture much like the culture of the Bible, there are several food taboos present. For the Kaonde tribe, eating a turtle and other reptiles is considered unclean. However, one of the men at the seminar from the Lunda tribe, which has no food taboos, brought with him a turtle to eat. It was a big deal that none of the Kaonde would eat it, but no one minded him eating it. It came time for the Lunda man to cook it, but he had no pot. So one of his Kaonde friends brought him a pot from his village and the Lunda man cooked and ate the turtle. The next morning another Kaonde man approached me who was not part of the seminar or a Christian. This man was from the same village that the pot was taken, and he insisted that I introduce him to the man that cooked the turtle. Not knowing his intent and honestly thinking he was just interested in meeting the man, I introduced them. Quickly I realized as the Kaonde man spoke in a loud and angry voice that he had a serious problem with the Lunda man eating the turtle. The problem was that the turtle was cooked in that Kaonde man’s pot, making it unclean, and prohibiting the Kaonde man to never use the pot again. So the Lunda man and the man that brought him the pot discussed the issue with me. After discerning how to respond, the two men (Christian leaders I might add) went and apologized to the wronged man promising to replace the pot. However, they needed 2 days to get enough money to buy a new pot. The wronged man was not happy with the solution stating that there would be no forgiveness unless the pot was replaced that day. The two men came back to me and asked if they could borrow some money to buy the pot and told me what the wronged man had insisted. The wronged man is not a Christian, but I had been studying with him for a few weeks; and I had also given him a loan for which I had forgiven a good portion of it because I knew it would take him a long time to pay it back. At this point, I saw a teaching opportunity and confronted the man with the story of the unmerciful servant. The conclusion was that he would give the men the 2 days they needed to repay the pot. Thinking this is all solved, the next afternoon the wronged man waited 2 hours for me to finish class so he could speak to me. He said he wanted to talk with me and the men that owed him the pot. He sat down with us and told us that he had been thinking a lot about the issue and decided that his relationship with the men and I was more important than the pot. From there he told the men that they were forgiven, and there was no need to replace the pot. It almost put me in tears.
I reflected with the two Christian leaders helping them see how their Christ-like response had opened the door for this unbeliever to learn a lesson that will certainly give inroads to his knowing Christ. So it’s clear that God works through all things…even a turtle!
-Jeremy
The Muzha wa Yesu seminar has begun, and the opening chapel was lead by the chief. It has been a great two days so far. I just wanted to share some pictures from the past couple days.
Jeremy and Maffet, our grass slasher, having a English session and Bible study.
Brian Davis presenting new Kaonde Bible's to the muzha wa yesu students.
This was right after I taught these girls how to play "spoons" on my front porch. They continued to play that game for two hours after this.
A Muzha student working on his "homework" by the dorms.
The rainy season is coming to an end here in the next couple weeks, and I have been sad knowing it is about to be over. Everything is so green, and you can see all kinds of plants and flowers. In just a few weeks it will all turn brown, and we will not see a drop of rain for 6 months. But yesterday God reminded me that every season has its own beauty—even in Zambia with only two seasons. I woke up yesterday to a very cool, crisp morning, almost feeling like fall in the states. It was beautiful weather and during the dry season that is the case every morning. Not too cold, but cool. It was nice. Then last night, my breath was taken away as Jeremy and I were walking home at night. It was about 9:30 p.m. and usually you are trying to get home before the rain hits. We were walking with our flashlights and all of a sudden we look up and there are huge, bright stars everywhere, looking like they are just barely hanging above our heads. There was not a cloud in the sky. We both stopped and just stared. The stars in Zambia (during the dry season) are just amazing, and I had forgotten how wonderful it was since being here last time. How could I have forgotten? I felt that was a patient, gentle reminder to me that God will provide, in every season.
Many church leaders from around the area will be arriving on Sunday for the Muzha wa Yesu seminar. Please keep these men in your prayers for the month of April. We are praying these leaders will go home with a greater understanding of what it means to be a servant for God and a yearning to teach in their communities.
We now share a mailbag with Brian and Sondra in Solwezi. I have been monitoring about how long it takes for mail to arrive, and it looks like it only takes about 2 weeks, sometimes less! Here is our mailing address, for those of you that have been waiting on it:
Private Bag S-42
Solwezi, Zambia
I cannot believe that we are almost to April. It is crazy to me to think that we arrived here in January. Time is flying by, and April will pass by quickly as well. It will be a very busy month for our entire team. The whole month of April is taken up by the Muzha wa Yesu (Servant of Jesus) seminar. This is an annual seminar where leaders from each of the church plants are invited to stay in the dorms at the center and go to class each day to learn about how to teach and lead their churches. Each missionary is responsible for handing out the registration forms to the church plants they communicate with. The church then picks its own leaders to go, but we cannot take more than four per church. Sunday, April 3 we will have between 40-50 Zambian church leaders arriving. There are all kinds of tasks we will be doing in order to make this month work with all of these people here. Jeremy will be teaching a series on the Kingdom of God for two weeks of the seminar.
Jeremy and I have been continuing to get to know the church plants we are working with. We are enjoying the Bible studies and the fellowship with the churches. We are also working hard at language learning. Ahhh, learning a language—sometimes it’s so rewarding, other times I want to pull my hair out! Jeremy is learning faster than me, but I am beginning to feel things connecting more and more with kikaonde. Cosmas is now coming everyday for 1 hour to help teach us.
The young girls Bible study is going well. It is a highlight of my week. This week we studied on gifts and talents. I have been reading the book “When Helping Hurts” and a huge part of mental poverty is just the lack of belief in yourself and believing you are worth less than everyone else. The author encourages the reader to help those struggling with mental poverty to focus on God’s love for them and how they can be used, the gifts they have. It was so rewarding to do this lesson, because we had each of them go around the circle and say what gift their friend next to them had. It was great because they all took it very seriously. The gifts were of singing, taking care of a mother, praying with friends, etc. I was proud of them for opening up and really thinking about the question. Love these girls!
Saturday was Mumena B schools “sports day.” They played net ball and soccer against a team from another area. Jeremy and I spent part of the morning out watching the kids play. It becomes quite the event out in the field. Each team has tons of their friends/classmates cheering them on. They have drums, and they do not stop singing or yelling. Jeremy chanted with them in a circle around the drums during one of the games. It was hilarious. Our school won the net ball game and as soon as the game was over, about 150 kids take off running up the termite mound and screaming “twa winnas”, we winners! Here are some pictures of sports day.
These are the morning glories that are finally blooming in our yard!
Some
of the closest relationships that Jeremy and I have formed since we first
started coming to Zambia over the years have been made in Konkwa village. We
are now spreading our wings and are not able to visit Konkwa as much, but every
Thursday we try to make it out to visit around. Konkwa is about a 40-minute
walk and a 15-minute bike ride away. Jeremy’s great friend here, Cosmas
Lilamono, (who named his son Jeremy) and now my good friend, his wife,
Josephine live in Konkwa. Then you have Reagan, Rescue, Jeremy, Leaonde and
Neva--five boys. I absolutely love this family. I also love riding bikes with
Jeremy out to this village. Even though the bike ride is not too long, it is
quite the adventure as you are forced to choose which mud puddle you will ride
through or which set of rocks will do the least damage to your bike. During the
dry season, this will not be a problem, but the trail to Konkwa floods up
during the rainy season. Today, Jeremy and I were headed out on our bikes and
the young children (all under 6) who were walking home from school waited for
us to zoom by and then immediately started chasing our bikes. Well, they are
fast, and our bikes are slow trying to avoid mud puddles, so we usually have 10
kids each chasing our bikes. It makes me laugh the entire time we ride out to
Konkwa with all of these kids right on my tail. They think it is the most
amusing game.
Once
Jeremy and I make it to the Lilamono hut, without running over any children, we
are greeted by our friends, and all of the boys start yelling our names as we
pull in. Cosmas is fluent in English and is probably the best English speaker I
have met here. He is helping Jeremy and I learn kikaonde, but his wife
Josephine is just starting the process of learning English. She gets a bit sad
when she cannot communicate with the three of us in English, so we try to talk
in Kaonde as much as possible. Today, her and I practiced language learning together.
She would say the English word, and I would say the Kaonde word. I spent most
of the afternoon enjoying their company while Jeremy went with one of the other
villagers to gather bamboo. We went out in her cornfield to gather the corn
that was ready to eat. We took them back to her fire, and she immediately put
all of the cornhusks in a plastic bag and hands it to me. I was trying to avoid
getting choked up, but it was almost impossible. Here is a family, who eats the
same thing (nshema and relish) everyday, every meal, so corn is a treat, and
she wanted to give me all of her corn. Well, I wanted to be respectful and honor
our relationship, so I took four of her cornhusks but kindly told her I did not
need more than that. I love this woman; she inspires me. We are all poor in
different ways around the world, but this family is not poor in spirit. I could
learn a few things from them! As I told her I had to leave, she stomped her
foot and said “No, I want to keep play with Whitney.” Haha, she is learning
English remember. I was blessed today and reminded of the scripture that
commands us not to worry because surely our Lord knows what we need when we
need it. Josephine and Cosmas were obviously not worried about how much food
they had, but more concerned about developing relationships and giving to
others.
Here is a small glimpse that Jeremy captured of our race with the kids through Konkwa
I wanted update everyone on the response of the seed-sowing! We had 30 people come to the first Bible study, which was held in the local school classroom. The next week we had 15 and it was raining hard that day so it would explain the smaller numbers. However, we are told that not everyone will accept the message. Continue to pray for these new seekers of God as we continue to teach the good news in Mitukutuku. For those of you coming for the campaign in June, we will be traveling to this village to hold a medical clinic. Usually, when a medical clinic is held in an area a church tends to form and be planted. So we are planting the seed, and you that are coming will have a chance to water, then we’ll get to see God bring the increase!
I also wanted to update everyone of other things going on. We are studying hard the language and are coming along pacheeche pacheeche (bit by bit). Learning language and using it with the people really brings joy to their hearts. It tells them that they are important enough to work hard to get to know them and use their language. Now we are far from fluent, but the effort is appreciated and often builds up relationships here, which is the #1 cultural value.
I have also been teaching a study of the Kingdom of God in the village of Mushingashi. This village is about an hour bike ride into the bush. I frequently return very sore and muddy as the paths during the rainy season are often saturated with mud. I pass through grass over my head and ride through a swamp to get there. But every week is worth the effort as each time I have a mud-bricked building full of interested learners. It is a blessing to be in a place where people really seek understanding of the spirit realm. Everything is spiritual to these people. Sickness, relationships, crop yield, death, birth, and pretty much everything else that has to do with everyday life have a spiritual connection. So people are intensely interested in learning more.
I have also been building relationships with the male teachers (Whitney with the females) to inspire God’s high calling of teaching children. We’ve been discussing what each feels their calling is as well as helping them identify the gifts and talents God has given them to be used in this environment. As we live in a place consumed by mental poverty, helping them believe in themselves and view themselves as God views them is imperative in raising them up from the beggar position that handouts can cause to the Sonship, heir position of being a Child of God. This is our challenge above all else—trying to help them learn to help themselves and reinforcing the capabilities that they possess.
On another note, we had a wonderful baseball game with our mission team. There are some pictures below of the team playing. We were split in the two teams The Fisheagles (national bird of Zambia) and the Mpongos (bush babies-google them!). We had a great afternoon of team bonding through a great American past time surrounded by an audience that had no idea what we were doing surrounded us!
