Visiting You and Your Friends

 We want to increase the number of churches and individuals who are partnering with us.  In May and June, Benedict and Kathleen will be in the United States.  The plans call for one or both of them to be in Maryland, Minnesota, Washington state, and Colorado.  If you know of a church that has a call to be involved in missions, and you think we might be able to speak to them, please let us know so that we can include a visit in our schedule.  

Sickness in our Village

A couple weeks back we have had a large number of children from our Village sick with coughs and upper respiratory illnesses.  If you have a large family, you know how sickness can go from one child to another or to an adult so easily.  So with 54 children, this is expected. 

One night I got a very sweet note from Tereshina.  One of the things she wrote was suggesting that we all have a time when everyone would get together to pray that the sickness would all go away.  She said that then we wouldn’t have to keep taking kids to the “hospital.”  

From the voice of children:  A call to prayer, and faith to believe.

Our New Children

I’m sure that those of you who follow this blog or news from our Village are wondering how the 12 new children who arrived a couple of weeks ago are doing.  It has been such a joy to see them quickly assimilated into the Village life.  The children who live here already have welcomed them with open arms.  All of them attend the School of Hope except for little Oscar who is too young.  But he seems fine as well.  

We now have a 4^th Gift in the Village.  First there was Gift big and Gift small (the second part of the name added to differentiate between the two)-both boys; Mama Gift now in House #2, and now Gift – a girl.  She is so friendly.  She stops by the office at school a couple of times each day to say “hi” to me.  At the end of the day she says “goodbye” before going home.  

This afternoon Benedict and were sitting on our verandah and I could see some of the little ones playing at House #1.  I just finished reading Andy Stanley’s book Deep and Wide.  At the end he says that as people are baptized at his church and their stories shared, his wife will often look at him and say, “What if we hadn’t taken the risk to build this church where un-churched people are welcomed and meet the Lord?”  So on our verandah, watching happy children play, I said to Benedict, “What if we hadn’t taken the risk to move to Zambia and help God make a home for these children?”  It is very humbling to see our Mighty God rescuing and saving children.

Praying from the News

Some of you may have heard or read the news of a very tragic accident here in Zambia last week.  Several miles north of us on the Great North Road there was a terrible accident.  A big bus collided with a very large semi-truck.  Looking at the pictures of the crash, it is a huge mangled mess of metal.  At the last count, 53 people died.  

We have no question that the bus and truck were going at excessive speeds.  We see the buses speeding by our market all the time, as well as when we are driving on the road to Lusaka.  Some of the children who go to our school have to cross the Great North Road as they walk to and from school to go home.  

So as you pray for us, please include safety for everyone as they either travel on that road or as the children cross the road.  We have even had a couple of accidents near our market.  Very recently two high school students were killed across the road.  Just as the children at school pray about things happening in current events, please use this tragedy to remind you of one way you can pray for us.

Lent

As many of you know, for years I was a church musician working in Episcopal, Presbyterian, Lutheran, and Methodist churches.  The seasons of the church year are in my blood and part of the yearly calendar for me.  So Wednesday February 13 is the start of Lent, the days leading up to Easter.

Lent has been known as a time when people give things up.  In high school it was chocolate or things like that.  Now I read of people giving up Facebook or other media. At my church in Maryland this year there is a focus on prayer and fasting during this season of Lent.

From my perspective here in Zambia, as I look at my world in the US, I wish that a big part of the focus for Lent could be: “What should I be doing or giving that I haven’t been?” 

So I challenge you:  if you are giving up something, replace it with something that will help to build the Kingdom or show God’s overwhelming mercy, grace, and love to someone.  Money saved from not eating chocolate, or buying Starbucks coffee, or not eating out so much can be given to an organization serving people in need.  Time saved from being on Facebook, etc.,  can be used in time spent loving members of your family, or members of the community in need.  Those of you who have visited here, invite friends over and share your pictures and memories of your trip and encourage others to partner with us.

There is nothing like joining God in His Kingdom work wherever you may be.  We’d love to hear from you about how God leads you this Lent to be part of what He is doing.