simply grateful

We are grateful to have such a great team of prayer partners and connecting churches.  One of the churches that is helping us with our work with the Tumbuka people is First Baptist Church of Rock Hill, SC.  This church is just up the road from the church that I served at in Rock Hill before we came to the mission field.  The brought a team of 5 out recently and did a great job in Egichikeni. Each morning the team did their individual devotions and then we got together for a quick team meeting and short devotion. After that we would stop by the market to pick up some things for lunch that day.  I would coach the team member who was buying so they could ask for the items in the language: Each day they would travel an hour and fifteen minutes from Lundazi to Egichikeni over a very rough road.  Although I know it was hard on them, they never complained once... in fact one of the team members even took the opportunity to take a nap each ...

Feast or famine... We admit it.  We acknowledge it.  We own it.  We are feast or famine on our blog.  Life between January and the end of May has been extremely busy for us and blogging has not ranked above our need to sleep.  But we have the best of intentions to post more regularly on our blog in the coming days and months.  So check back often, we hope to serve a feast!

Excuses are so unbecoming, so I will not even try to explain why this blog entry has been so neglected, but I have been wanting to share about this precious one for a long time and I am finally taking the ten minutes to sit down and share. In October, we received word that Kayla, a fellow worker with our organization, would be extending her 2 year commitment and had volunteered to spend that time coming out to our corner of Zambia to help teach our munchkins! She is doing a great job teaching the kids and she is a continuous encouragement to us all. I am sure that I will get REALLY sappy when it is time for this precious one to return to her true Mama in Tennessee.  She has been such a delight! She has not only filled a need to really help me be able to focus on language for some months, but she has fit in beautifully with our family.  The kids have really bonded with her and Makayla calls her "big sister".   She is a servant-hearted breath of fresh air who face...

Watch this short video by IMB President David Platt on the importance of giving so people can go and share the Gospel message.

Four times a year we load up the family and head to the capital city for a resupply trip.  This always includes grocery shopping, shopping for other items needed around the house that we can't get in Lundazi, and a trip to the mechanic for an oil change and preventative maintenance.  It also may include medical appointments, trips to the immigration office, trips to the embassy and catching the latest movie!  We typically have four days to get everything done and then head back to Lundazi. Because the trip is 735 KM (456 miles), which takes between 10 - 12 hours, we try to get an early start on the day.  I typically get up at 4:30 a.m. to finish loading the car and trailer and grab a shower before waking the kids up.  Our goal is to be on the road by 6 a.m., but it is usually more like 6:45 before we say our prayers and start our journey.  (Ulendo patali is how you say long journey in Chitumbuka) So what does our journey look like?  Well it depends...

We love living in Africa.  One of the many things we enjoy here is the opportunity to go on safari.  In September we joined some friends and took a little vacation to the South Luangwa Game Reserve.  We had a great time with them and also had a great safari.  We thought we would share a few pics from our time.  (Click on a picture to enlarge) Less than an hour after we arrived we saw some elephants coming down to the water hole in the front of the house.  We later found out they came about this time daily to get a drink and take a mud bath.  We were only about 40 feet away from them, but up an incline so we felt pretty safe. Elijah pretending he is petting a small elephant.   Our kids favorite part of the vacation was the swimming pool at the house we rented.  They loved their afternoon dips in the pool. We split responsibilities for dinners with our friends so we enjoyed some nice home-cooked meals ...