40/40 continues

Well, our Urban time of 40/40 is about to finish and we will head to the rural part of the orientation program. We have been in Lusaka for 12 days and learned a lot about Urban Africa. Tomorrow morning we will all be traveling to Petauke. We will sleep in tents for about 11 days and then the participants will be living in a Zambian's home for 3 nights. Please keep them in your prayers as they will be out of their comfort zones and stretched like never before.

Our Strategy Associate, David Hooten, helped to debrief the participants after they had been out learning about the medical care that is available to Zambians.

Scott taking a little nap up in a tree. Doesn't look to comfortable to me...

Becky playing an African game with her son Deke.

Vocal Collection, a Zambian Accapella group, came to sing for us one afternoon.

Fun with the kids at the Crocodile Farm

Teagan taking a dip in the pool.

Justin and Coby holding a python.


Leah caught a Bream.

Nothing better than a few boys sitting on a bank fishing.



Emily, Micah, and Hannah taking turns holding a harmless brown house snake.


Will taking a turn with the snake too.

More 40/40 pictures

Kids doing a funny pose.

Surprise party for Teagan. She is 7 now!

Matilda baking a lot of scones(muffins) for our trip out to Petauke.

Grant and Micah

Justin and Tucker


Will

Zach

Debbie Stephens packing for Petauke.

Janet Buchanan reading African Folk tales.


Reading time is a special time each day, not only for the kids, but for the teachers too!

Lindy and Emily

40/40-Adventure City

Even though the weather was a little cool the kids enjoyed the water park, Adventure City. The preschoolers came along too and went into Jungle Monkeys which is a big indoor playground.

Leah

Micah, Tucker, and Deke

Emily

Justin taking Hannah down the big slide for the first time.

Brothers, Zach and Will taking time out from the slides for a snap.

Children visiting Urban Areas

When I mentioned that we had 41 participants here at 40/40 I failed to mention that 14 of those are children ranging from 1-13. While their parents are out learning about culture the children are in school. They study their own Math and English that they have brought with them. We have a time to study Science, which this time is a study on Insects and Butterflies. Then we also have a time of cultural learning for them also. Yesterday we took the older mk's to a local market and had them bargain to buy something that they wanted. They also bought some fruit, frita's, and one ear of roasted corn. This was a new experience for most of them but they all did great and got some good deals. They got to watch women braiding hair, learned how to knit, and saw women cooking nshima(their staple food). They experienced all the smells of a market too. Today, we all walked over to one of the seminary students house so that they could see how they lived. They had a tour of their house, we played games, sang a song, and tried some Zambian food. They ate Zambian sweet potatoes and then some chunks of sweet potatoes with pounded groundnuts(peanuts) which was kind of like peanut butter. I think this was their favorite. It is exciting to see these children experience a new culture and embrace it. Please pray for these children as they continue to learn and adjust.
This is all the older kids that went. The preschoolers stayed as long as their attention spans could handle it. Janet Buchanan is pictured in this picture. She came from the states as a volunteer to help teach the children. This is Musuka's family with them also.

This game is called nsholo. They dig little holes in the ground and use stones to play.

40/40

40/40 is the semi-annual orientation program for new missionaries that we are now leading. A group of 41 arrived on Wednesday and have hit the ground running. They will be learning a lot, and we ask that you would pray for each one of them that the Lord would use this time in their lives to prepare them for the ministry to which he has called them. Also pray for us as we lead them and care for them over these next few weeks. Pray also for Jack and Judy Sprayberry and Mark and Janice Keeton who are our logistics coordinators for this program. They have the mammoth task of feeding, housing, and caring for each of our 41 participants in a variety of situations and locations. We will try to keep you updated, when we have access to email, and let you know how things are going. Right now one of our big requests is for Ebby Musika. Ebby is my assistant and also our resident cultural expert. He is the one who does most of the cultural orientation and helps me on a day to day basis as we run the program. Ebby contacted me right before we started on Wed. to let me know he was having some health problems. It seems that he has developed high blood pressure and has had a minor stroke. He feels fine, but has paralysis on one side of his face and will probably not be recovered in time to do much of the things he needs to do. Pray for him that he would fully recover and that the Lord would sustain him during this time of healing and recovery. Pray for me as I try to flex and cover his responsibilities as well. We are grateful for all of you and the ministry you have in our lives.
I'll try to update you on how things are going and add some pictures later.

Zach left for Kenya today

Saying Bye is never easy, especially when it is to your 15 year old son going off to boarding school in Kenya. This will be Zach's third and last term for this year. His next break will be mid-July. We had a great time with him while he was home this last month but it is still sad to see him go. Please pray for us as we are seperated from one another. Also, pray he will have a good term and do well with his school work. We just got a text from him and he is on the bus now at the airport waiting to go to school. Thank you to all who have all ready been praying.

Playing when he is supposed to be packing....

Finishing up packing...did you get your toothbrush???

Loading up.

Zach with his roommate for this term, Caleb Bolthouse. Caleb's family lives in Lusaka and works with Flying Mission.

Zach waiting in line to check in.

This is it, he is about to go through....

He's Off!

MK's sure can be innovative!

Adventure City is a small waterpark in the capitol city of Lusaka. We went there this weekend to celebrate Justin's 13th birthday a little early. When we arrived someone told us the power was out but it should only take about 10 min. to fix. So, we proceeded to go ahead in and wait. As you can imagine, if there is no power then the water pumps can not work. Well, we were there for almost 5 hours and the power never came back on. At first, the kids were disappointed because the water was just a little too cool for swimming so they ran up and down the slides. Then one of them had a very bright idea. They decided to take water bottles, fill them with water, and pour them out as they went down the slide. They were having so much fun that soon others caught on as well and then everyone at the water park was having fun.

Justin and Anna filling up their water bottles.

Happy 13th Birthday Justin! That is one big choc. chip cookie!