LVI-JNB-DXB-IAD-DCA-DTW-SEA-HNL-SLC-DCA-IAD-DXB-JNB-LVI…

 

 

Departing Livingstone on December 2 was just the beginning of my frequenting more airports than I care to on my journey to the states.  God has bestowed many blessings on me this year, but the best was having the funds to go visit my family in the states.  For those of you who don’t know, the end of this year brought two new additions to our family…my niece, Aleah Jean, and my nephew, Oliver Lawrence.  Having been gone for about a year, I was ready to have a break from ministry in the villages of Zambia going to see my family and carry out all my Auntie duties!!

 

When I first arrived I spent a few days with my parents before they departed to Hawaii to see their third grandchild!!  After that, I headed out to Salisbury, MD to see my brother and his wonderful family.  Their oldest, Mason, is now three and how I have missed seeing him grow in these early years.  What a beautiful reunion getting to spend a whole week with him baking cakes, building gingerbread houses, going to parks and the zoo, cooking dinner, washing dishes, and so much more.  As if that wasn’t enough, I also got to meet his new little sister…Aleah, born in October.  Aleah isn’t quite as animated as her older brother, she was still a delight to spend time with and to love on. I enjoyed the mornings and evenings with my brother and sister-in-law, catching up about things that have happened this past year and looking forward to what the future might hold.  Praying for their continued adaption to having two children while building and growing their family. 

 

Shortly after I returned from Salisbury, I hopped on a plane to see my sister and brother-in-law in Hawaii!!  I know, how we suffer to visit our families :)  I haven’t seen them in nearly two years since they have been out here, so I was very anxious to get here and be reunited!!  Since being here, we have done many amazing things, as well as, just relaxing and hanging out.  My sisters firstborn, Oliver, is such a wonderful baby.  He is now about 5 weeks old and growing everyday.  It is amazing the change I have seen in just the couple weeks I have been here, I can’t imagine how big he will be next time I get to see him.  Christmas here is much different than the east coast…I have never been to the beach on Christmas Eve before!!  The weather is nice and warm, so a different experience, but fun nonetheless. 

 

In addition to all the wonderful family time I am getting in, I was reunited with my best friend from middle school, who happens to live on O’ahu.  She took me out for my first time surfing and got me up on a board catching a few small swells before the days end.  I have also experienced and Hawaiian Nativity Canoe ride at the Polynesian Culture Center, while meeting a local TV celebrity on Hawaii Five-O.  The family has been out boating, swimming, and fishing in the gorgeous waters of Kailua, embracing the beautiful creation all around us.

 

I will be here until the first week of January when I return to Maryland for a few more days before heading back to Zambia!!  Thank you all for your continued support through this past year and partnership spreading the gospel to the people of Mukamba.  Praying I get a chance to connect with everyone while I am here visiting!

B.Y.O.B.

 

Yesterday we had a wonderful celebration at Twana Little School.  The teachers thought it would be a great idea to gather all the children and parents together and have a party to recognize all that God has blessed us with this year.  We invited the families of each of the children and had over 200 people at the school for the event.  B.Y.O.B. will hopefully be an annual celebration for the school, where the children and families Bring Your Own Buns and we provided the tea in order to finish out the year with good community fellowship.

                        

The children and their families had free range to go inside the school or play outside.  It took some motivation and encouragement to get the parents up and moving around, but once they did, I couldn’t get them to sit back down. 

 

After some free time, we gathered the crowds to form lines and get their tea, then sit down with their families and eat their buns.  The children were so happy to be having tea and buns, some of the mother’s didn’t come prepared, but they quickly ran to a shop to buy some buns for their children to participate.  It was a beautiful site seeing the smiles on the children’s faces showing off their space to their siblings, moms and dads, having a special treat at their school.

After we cleaned up the tea party, the children got ready to show off their stuff.  The older classes prepared a few songs and then a play.  We sang two English songs and one Tonga song where we all got to dance and get loose.  We even had the parents join in helping us sing and encourage the children in the dancing moments!!  After the songs, the THF class wrote a story about going to the moon.  In the previous weeks, the children worked hard on making space suits, a moon, a rocket, and working out the parts in the story.  They had the most amazing glow in their faces as they were prancing around the outside space acting out their story of going to the moon.

 

The other class, MWF, wrote a story about going on a holiday to America.  They decided the cast of the family, the pilots of airplane, built an airplane, created a zoo, tall skyscrapers in a city, and an American treat of pizza for their lunch.  When they told their story, they were a little shy, but once they got on the airplane, their confidence soared and they finished the play with pride.  Unfortunately it was hard for all the parents to hear with the younger children getting restless and a lack of microphones, but the children had so much fun, which was really what counted!! 

At the very end of the night, we gave the children and their parents a folder with almost all of their artwork from the year.  It was a wonderful moment for a teacher to see the children pull out their drawings, paintings, and other creations, showing them off to their parents with a smile on their face.  To my surprise, the moms offered much praise to their children, returning their joyful glee!!

 

“Clap your hands, all peoples!

Shout to God with loud songs of joy!” 

Psalm 47:1

 

Leaps and Bounds

 

As we approach the final weeks of school, I am beginning to notice how much the children seemed to have learned and picked up this year.  I am certain the learning process has been going on the whole time, but recently it is just hitting me at how far so many of these children have come.  Looking back to the first weeks of school when so many of the children were shy, quiet, uncertain of myself and the other teachers, missing moms, only sticking to one area in the classroom, not sure what to make of all the things inside the classroom, and so much more…I would never guess these children we have running around the school are the same ones.  Every single child is walking tall to and from school, proud to be attending the Twana Little School.  They are very confident (some overly so…hehe) in themselves and their ability to make it through each day.  They are picking up English at a rapid rate, some more than others, but understanding the daily routine with ease and excitement.

When the children came to the school, very few had been exposed to letters, numbers, books, balls, writing, not to mention all the other areas of the school the children participated in throughout the year.  At the end of the year, most of the older children know ALL of their letters, all the children can look at a letter and read it in a book or on paper, the younger children are beginning to remember some letters and are doing a great job hearing the sound and relating it to words they already have in their vocabulary.  They are able to count up to 30 without much help and read numbers and letters left to right.  Hoping and praying that their grade 1 teachers will encourage them to pick up reading rather quickly, since these little ones have worked so hard at mastering the foundations!! 

In other areas, outside none of the children were able to jump rope properly, they had a hard time catching balls, they were very subtle in their play, and didn’t interact with one another much.  Now with the blessing of a playground, the children are crazy as ever.  I can’t get them to sit still for one moment when we are having outside play.  Children seem to reach out to other children they don’t usually play with outside of school, and they are just running around, playing in the slide, see saw, with balls, jump ropes, and anything else they can get their hands on.  So many of the children can jump rope now with great confidence and some even have mastered the hula hoop.  They run around with joy and laughter, not for one minute being shy or self conscience. 

Inside the classroom, the children have also taken large strides in their play.  When they first came to us, very few of them seem to do imaginative play, or really do much other than move things around from place to place.  Now, I can hardly keep them sitting at morning meeting as they are racing to choice time before they are even dismissed.  They are interacting with one another in dress up, with blocks, animals, and all sorts of other things around the room.  They will often wonder to math or science centers in pairs and work together to discover what is there for the to do.  I am so impressed with how they jump in and make believe with all the items in the classroom!  They are so much fun to watch…

 

I am just in awe of everything God blessed us with, the doors that He opened to make of this possible, and the strength and faith He gave us to make this year a success.  These children have benefited so much and I pray that they feel the love their Heavenly Father has for them, more than anything else they take away this year.  Thank you to everyone who was a part of this, who was used by God to make such a difference in each of these children's lives; a difference that cannot be measured! 

 

“But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it  and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings,which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.”

                                             2 Timothy 3:14-15

Outdoor Additions…

 

Sooooo as I have been keeping you all up to date on the progress of the playground, I want to announce that we are very close to finishing up the whole outdoor space for the preschool.  Here are pictures and descriptions of the old and the new items we have available for the children to utilize during “outside play”. 

 

 

Jungle Gym

(with Homemade Shade over the Slide)

 

Swing Set

 

Sand Pit

(At the end of this week we hope to have the bottom lined with plastic, the concrete walls formed, and sand filled up to the top for the children to play with at the beginning of next week.)

 

Monkey Bars

 

 

See Saw

 

Climbing Dome

 

Tether Ball

 

Wood Working Table

(Here the children are given the opportunity to work with wood, hammers, screw drivers measuring tapes, screws, nails, and glue.  They can construct things that they have thought about before coming to school or just hammer nails into the boards at random.)

 

Music Area

(We will be adding logs across these polls and then dangling pots, pans, a wash board, metal pipes, plastic pipes, wooden pieces, etc. from each of the logs so that the children can use different tools to explore and discover sounds of the various materials.)

 

Outdoor Easel

(With this wonderful addition to our outdoor space, the children are able to manipulate different textured materials on this surface, such as shaving cream, soap and water, paint, dry erase markers, etc.  They are able to draw pictures, write letters or numbers, or just get messy while being outside.)

 

 

Thank you to everyone who has generously given specifically for this project and also to me…a lot of the monthly support has been used for the many facets of the outdoor area!!  May the children enjoy this space for years to come and may it withstand weather, termites, and children…hehe!!

 

 

 

“Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly than all we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to Him be the glory…”

Ephesians 3:20

Church Improvements

 

“What good is it my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works?  Can that faith save him?  If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace and be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that?  So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.”

James 2:14-17

For years the benches at the Mukamba Church have been falling apart and it seems no one cares enough to come in and fix them.  For years there has been a Sunday school class and one lousy, termite infested plank passed around from brick to brick for the children to share (anywhere from 8-40 kids at one time.)  God put it on our hearts to ask the Sunday School class if they cared enough to do something about it…

 

To our surprise they were more enthusiastic at the idea of fixing the benches in the church and then building a nice area for them to worship on Sunday mornings.  So we all gathered for our service project on Saturday bringing axes, saws, nails, hammers, shovels, tape measure, and anything else we thought we would need to make this happen.

 

First the older boys took the initiative to drive 5 inch nails into the benches inside the church building to secure all the benches falling off, and they even found old planks they could attach to the poles that had no bench seat. 

 

 

 

As they were fixing the benches, the rest of us went outside to start working no the Sunday school area.  Travis and the older girls grabbed some axes and headed off into the bush to start cutting polls as legs for the benches.  Olivia and the younger girls decided where we wanted to put the benches, marked off where to dig holes, and then measured the length of each plank. 

Some started digging holes, while others measured and cut the planks to size.  When the older boys had finished the church, they came out to help cut the planks and to flatted to top of the legs so the bench seat would fit on nicely.  The boys and girls did an excellent job making sure the benches were level, securely putting two nails on each side so the benches won’t break and will hopefully last a long time. 

As the project went on, we had more and more children come to help.  Many of the small ones jumped in with digging holes and then filling them back in to pack the dirt around the legs to keep them firm in the ground.  Others enjoyed the new benches while watching their older siblings work or they played games in the shade!! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What a beautiful time we all had working together serving one another and bettering the learning environment for the young children who are coming to church.  We hope and pray that God will use this effort and act of love, to bring more children and adults to the church Sunday mornings to hear about His love and desire to have a relationship them.

 

“His Master said to him, ‘Well done good and faithful servant…Enter into the joy of your Master’.”

Matthew 25:21 

Only by the GRACE of God…

Being out here in the bush these past two years has exposed me to a lot of wonderful blessings, as well as, many deep heartaches.  We come in contact with so many babies and children who are in poor health and need, so many of those children are abandoned, left to starve, left unnoticed…even with the help of an orphanage, we can’t save them all.  So many babies have died lately from sickness, lack of nutrition, lack of knowledge, lack of care, and lack of value.  We can see God working to bring people out into the villages to give them basic healthcare knowledge to help lessen these situations, but it will still take time.  Just a couple weeks ago we got the privilege to witness God’s sovereignty and mercy at work. 

About a month ago, a grandmother came and told the story of her daughter who is mentally ill, unable to care for children, yet pregnant again.  The grandmother is very sick and is already caring for 4 other children.  Her husband has taken a new wife and no longer pays her any attention nor his daughter who is mentally ill.  The grandmother is on her own and cared enough to look for a place for her granddaughter.  Unfortunately at MOL, we have reached our max capacity and cannot take in any more babies…but God already knew that and has been making a plan for this little one for at least two years now.

 

Beverly, a missionary in Livingstone and good friend of mine, has been pressed to adopt a baby girl for the last two years, when God first placed the desire in her heart.  She has been waiting for things to fall into place so that she can adopt a baby in need.  God has been providing one thing at a time including a house for Beverly and a baby.  She finally went to Social Welfare to see if there were any babies needing to be adopted…well just after this she heard about this mother who is mentally ill and expecting a baby any time.  She prayed and prayed wondering if this was the baby God had for her…well sure enough, when the baby was born, it was a girl and just days before birth, the mother tested HIV negative.  Of all the options, the grandparents really wanted their granddaughter to be adopted and exposed to the opportunities of living in town.  Everything was now in place for Beverly to adopt this little girl…we just needed social welfare to confirm.  Social welfare made a trip out to the grandparents village this past weekend and confirmed everything, Beverly is officially fostering this little girl and Lord willing in the next 6 months will have full custody of baby 

Adyson GRACE.

 

I am so grateful that God allowed me to be part of this miracle, to know that this baby girl will not be abandoned or neglected, to know that God has amazing plans for her life and this was just the first step.  Please pray that Beverly adjusts to being a new mom as easily as Adyson Grace will adjust to her being her new mom.  This event reminds me of how powerful our God is and how much He cares about us…that He would make a way for Adyson Grace two years before she was even born…what a God of LOVE.

If He does this for a little girl out in the bush of Africa, you can be most certain He is doing to same for you…

PSALM 139

1 O Lord, you have examined my heart

and know everything about me.

² You know when I sit down or stand up.

You know my thoughts even when I’m far away.

³ You see me when I travel

and when I rest at home.

You know everything I do.

⁴ You know what I am going to say

even before I say it, Lord.

⁵ You go before me and follow me.

You place your hand of blessing on my head.

⁶ Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,

too great for me to understand!

I can never get away from your presence!

⁸ If I go up to heaven, you are there;

if I go down to the grave, you are there.

⁹ If I ride the wings of the morning,

if I dwell by the farthest oceans,

¹⁰ even there your hand will guide me,

and your strength will support me.

¹¹ I could ask the darkness to hide me

and the light around me to become night—

¹² but even in darkness I cannot hide from you.

To you the night shines as bright as day.

Darkness and light are the same to you.

and knit me together in my mother’s womb.

¹⁴ Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex!

Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it.

¹⁵ You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion,

as I was woven together in the dark of the womb.

¹⁶ You saw me before I was born.

Every day of my life was recorded in your book.

Every moment was laid out

before a single day had passed.

They cannot be numbered!

¹⁸ I can’t even count them;

they outnumber the grains of sand!

And when I wake up,

you are still with me!

¹⁷ I can never escape from your Spirit!

¹³ You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body

¹⁷ How precious are your thoughts about me, O God.