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!

Waiting

I've been reading Mike Cope's book, Megan's Secrets. Mike Cope was the preacher for my church growing up and his wife was a mentor of mine. The book is about the life and death of their mentally disabled daughter and what she taught Mike about life. I have enjoyed remembering Megan, who was just a couple years older than me. I remember one time when my mom wanted me, as a 7 year old at the time, to understand God better, so she took me to stop by and visit Megan. I didn't understand it at the time, I thought perhaps I was suppose to be “doing a good deed” for Megan. What I later realized was I was the one who was being taught by Megan and by my mother. I had been the recipient of the good deed.

Mike refers to the idea of "waiting" in his book. I have been thinking about this idea of waiting this morning. Waiting is something that our American culture struggles with—we’ve got to learn how to wait, to practice waiting. As I look to see the fingerprints of God here in Zambia, in the Kaonde tribe, I notice that waiting is a God-given trait that they have accomplished. These people could wait all day long...and more.  I have lived here for over a year now and am still shocked every day by how they can wait. They don’t have vehicles so they don’t mind waiting all day long for a taxi or for a truck to drive by that may or may not give them a ride. They don’t mind waiting to start church for an hour or two if they know their family members are still on the way. They don’t mind waiting on food to be prepared- every meal they eat takes about 1 ½ hours to prepare. So why is it that they can have the patience to wait and I can’t? I think of the verse in Romans, “Who hopes for what they already have? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.” This is a gift that can go unseen, but it speaks to those who may have little possessions but have much to hope for. In Mumena, Zambia there is a lot of waiting going on. I tell Jeremy over and over, I think what I have learned most (out of a very long list of things) has been the baby steps of learning patience and the art of waiting. Nothing happens fast here. We have had a broken truck for the past 6 months and guess what...it is still broken. It is a minor problem that could be fixed in the states within one visit to Toyota, but not here. Even when Jeremy and I went to the capital city which is suppose to be modern, the power went off on us in a movie theater, our first chance to see a movie in a long, long time. It didn’t come back on for several hours. I leaned over and told Jeremy, “if we were in the states, people would be extremely mad right now.”

I am thankful that God has me practicing patience, has me stopping to wait. After 4 pm here each day, everyone goes home to their huts in the bush. All of the lights go off, and there is nothing left to do. Sometimes you are just waiting for the night to be over and for day to begin again. So drastically different from my life at home. But wow, the blessings that have come from that nothingness at night. I have spent more time with my husband than I ever had. I believe God has something to teach me through the Kaonde people, just as he had something to teach me through the life of Megan Cope. These people that I live in community with hold the secret to waiting. They are waiting for something better. If they do know the Lord, I’ll tell you they are minute-by-minute waiting on Him. What else is there for them here? This world is not their home. There is the anticipation for something better.

“I wait for the Lord, my whole being waits, and in his word I put my hope. I wait for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning.” Psalm 130:5-6

A few pictures of my flowers, planted back in November. You have to find a hobby here. This has been one of mine, and oh the joy that came in waiting! They are finally here and blooming!

Growing in the Bush

       As I am feeling a bit sentimental about passing up our one year mark in Zambia, I thought today I would share a bit about our experience with the Mushingashi church. It's hard to believe we have already lived here throughout a full year. When we arrived in Zambia last January, our team divided out church plants that we would all work with. One of the churches Jeremy and I were assigned was Mushingashi. They were struggling and needed encouragement- strung out in the bush and isolated, poor leadership within the congregation and struggling with extreme mental poverty. In the coming months, the seed that had been planted within the church was growing. Two of the leaders were able to come to our month long seminar for all church leaders. At the seminar last April, the oldest church leader present and one of the Mushingashi leaders, Ezron, stood up and said he was convicted. He looked around at his 40 other Kaonde brothers and said, "We have got to start relying on God. We cannot rely on the mzungu (white person) anymore. We are not beggars." From there, things changed at Mushingashi. They felt a sense of ownership and excitement. We have been joining them in weekly Bible studies for one year now, and there are about 4 men and 4 women who are there every time. Now, one year later, they have their church built, with their own sweat and tears. Yesterday at our Bible study we finally felt ready to go down the road, even more into the bush, to a new place which is hoping to hear the gospel. In two weeks, Jeremy and I will go with the Mushingashi church on a journey to preach the good news to a new people. What joy it is to see a church ready to take the word to a new place and start up a Bible study in a village that could eventually turn in to its own church. I was feeling overwhelmed yesterday, as I sat surrounded by my brothers and sisters. Thinking back over the year, I looked around the room at the beautiful, dedicated sons and daughters of a King. One year ago, we were unsure if the church in Mushingashi would last, and now they are going out to help form new churches. The Lord is faithful.

Mushingashi's church hut

Ezron sweeping the floor, preparing for Bible study

the faithful women

Guest Post!

 I haven't been the best blogger since the new year, but there are reasons for that. Jeremy and I were stuck in Lusaka, Zambia's capital city, last week with some truck problems with Toyota. So, I will be catching up this week. However, I wanted to share Brian Davis' post he wrote for our team blog last week. Brian is my husband's uncle and our mentor since we have arrived on the field. He has been a missionary in Africa for many, many years. This blog post is just too good not to share. Enjoy!

Team Work, by Brian Davis

“… neither shall ye defile yourselves with any manner of creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.”  Leviticus 11:44  KJV

Our apprenticeship team work skills were put to the test recently when Whitney came from our boys room and mentioned that she had just seen the largest wall spider in her life.  As the old missionary, I condescendingly told her that “wall spiders are our friends”.  That is missionary speak for “Whitney, get a grip.”  However, when Noah & Bryson began “ooing and ahing”, I thought that I had better check it out.  To my surprise a King Baboon Tarantula was perched high up on the boys’ bathroom wall.  Now we had a problem.

Surrounded by able bodied apprentices, I felt a bit put upon when they looked to me, the mentor, for the proper response.  Theologically believing that all arachnids are a direct result of the fall of man, I was none too happy about having to demonstrate my superior missionary skills in this particular situation.  Add to this that our “Ag apprentice” (Jason) is also a firm believer in the un-holiness of all spiders, and my back-up troops were thinning.  Taking my favorite fly swatter (steel reinforced with leather covering), Jason helped me up on to the bath room counter top… after which he promptly left the room.  As Sondra mentored Erin on how to give lots of advice from the adjoining room, I approached within striking distance of the tarantula.  Striking it with all of my force, I managed to send the thing flying across the room towards Sondra and Erin.  (Enter Jeremy with his high school football ethic kicking-in.)  Grabbing a 5 gallon bucket, Jeremy managed to catch the beast on the fly – and in one fluid movement, dumped it into the commode.

I don’t remember who flushed – God bless them – as I was struggling with a series of shiver spasms.  Whitney, bless her heart, was desperately trying to suppress her gag reflex.  And as Sondra and Erin struggled with their feelings of “If he had done it correctly, it would NOT have come flying towards us!”, I thought to myself, “What a team!”