Luapula Province-on the way home

On our way home from Kaputa we drove through Luapula Province.  The first day we drove 12 hours until we got to a lodge to stay in for the night.  The first 4 1/2 hours were on a dirt road and there were people everywhere.  We passed village after village on this road.  We were amazed at how many Jehovah Witness churches there were.  I'm not lying, I bet we saw one every 5-10 kms.and no evangelical churches in sight until we got to Nchelenge and then there were just a handful.  Please pray for this province to come to know Jesus!  It is a very dark area of Zambia and someone needs to go and be a witness among these people.
The second day we traveled 4 hours back to Lusaka.  It was a great trip but it sure is nice to be home!

Here is some info. on this province:
Luapula Province is one of Zambia's nine provinces, and is located in the north of the country. The provincial capital is Mansa. Luapula Province was named after the Luapula River. It extends along the northern and eastern banks of the river from Lake Bangweulu to Lake Mweru, including waters and islands of those lakes, and is inhabited by Bemba-speaking peoples. The major economic activity is fishing.
In the 19th century the valley was dominated by the Lunda kingdom.The province is bordered along the Luapula River, through Lake Mweru and to its north by DR Congo which at times has led to disputes and conflict.

 Kevin and I said we would love to have a home right here where we stood to take this pic.  This was on the left side of the road and to the right was huge lake Mweru.  It was very picturesque. I just think this is a beautiful view!  

 After many hours we came to an area where there was a very long bridge and miles and miles of flood plain. We crossed over the huge bridge and saw some interesting things on the other side of it.

 These raised up areas are where there is a giant ant hill underneath the grass.

 These are termite hills!  We have seen many termite hills throughout Zambia but never like this.  Usually, the ones we see are spread out and bigger than these.  As far as we could see on both sides of the road there were termite hills, like tiny rows of daggers or dragon's teeth.  I took a close up below so you could see better what they look like.

 This was taken just on the side of the road.

 We stopped to buy two bags of charcoal because it is much cheaper out in the bush than in town.

I love this pic. of these kids.  As we were waiting for Kevin to get the charcoal these children asked me, "How are you?" at least 15 times.

This is the Luapula province which we traveled through to get from Kaputa to Lusaka.

This is the Northern Province where Kaputa and Mbala are.  Right now we just have those two missionary families that we just visited and one other family in Isoka which is also in the Northern province.  3 families for this whole province!  

Northern Province, with a total area of 147,286 square kilometers, is the largest of Zambia's 9 provinces. It shares borders not only with three other provinces - Central, Eastern, and Luapula, but also with three countries as well - the Democratic Republic of Congo in the north, Tanzania in the north-east, and Malawi in the east.According to the 2000 Census of population, Northern Province has a population of 1,407,088. This represents an increase of 481,233 from 925,865 in 1990. The annual population growth rate is 4.3%, which is the highest of all the 9 provinces. 50.5% of the total population is female and 49.5% is male. Children below the age of 15 make up 49.5% of the population in the province.

Pray for God to do an amazing work in this province through our 3 missionary families-The Adairs, the Schwarz, and the Kimbroughs.