Chikondi Baptist Church Dedication

About 12 years ago Chikondi Baptist Church started out as a little group of believers meeting in one room of a school building. Then a few years later they built their own small church and continued to grow. Today we went to a dedication at their newest church building that was started about 5 years ago and is now finished enough to where they are going to start worshiping in there each week. Most of the churches in our area are small but this one along with one other are our biggest churches. Today there were about 200 people in attendance to celebrate this opening. Many pastors and previous members from all over the association came to be a part of this special day. We weren't around when the church first got started but we did go to some of the meetings in that very first school room. It is exicting for us to see how God has grown this church over the years. Pray for Chikondi(means love) Baptist Church as they continue to reach out to their community and tell people about Jesus. Pray that they will continue to grow in numbers and in their relationship with Christ.

Cutting the ribbon to the new church.

It was a big celebration!

I just happened to get this picture of Hannah across the way from us during the choir special. She was really paying attention as you can see. She had quite a group surrounding her playing Miss Mary Mack Mack Mack.


This is just one of the choirs that sang today.

When church is over everyone comes out and goes through the line and shakes hands with everyone else. The choir sings and the people fellowship.

Before a choir sings in front of the church they come in singing from the back of the church until they get up to the front.

Sudden Deaths

Death is a part of every day life here in Zambia, most often from AIDS or malaria but today I want to write about something tragic that happened this past Friday that has changed the life of one man forever. Delix Saluyele along with his wife Vivian, daughter Joanna(12), his niece Opha, and a friend were traveling to a far away spot in Zambia called Lundazi to pay their respects at a funeral and bring back a boy to live with them so he could get a good education. About 4-5 hours into the trip a young child ran across the road and Delix swerved to keep from hitting the child. He then hit a pothole and the vehicle overturned several times. Delix and his neice were not wearing seatbelts and were thrown from the vehicle. The other 3 all had on seatbelts and died-his wife, his friend, and his daughter. His daughter was still living for about 30 min. and Delix was able to be with her. He kiept trying to get someone to stop but no one would. Imagine…..
Delix and his neice were transported back to Lusaka to a military hospital. Delix is a military chaplain here in Zambia now but has been a pastor in our area and an evangelist. He has two broken arms, lots of cuts, bruises and some internal damage as well. Opha has some head injuries, cuts and bruises as well. They will both physically recover but mentally and emotionally it will take a long time. Please pray for them as they replay that day in their mind that they will take every thought captive. Pray that Delix will not blame himself for this accident. Pray for physical healing for their bodies. Pray for comfort and peace for the other family members as they deal with this sudden loss of loved ones in their lives. All 3 who died were very strong and committed Christians so we can rest assured that they are all in the very presence of Jesus even now. Praise God!
On Monday we went to the biggest funeral that we have ever been to. There were well over 1000 people in attendance. It was held in the Baptist Seminary chapel and it was packed with people on all the pews and even some were sitting on the floor. There were also several hundred people just standing up outside the chapel because there was no more room inside. Vivian was a high school teacher. It was a real tear jerker to see about 4 bus loads of girls pull up to the chapel. These girls sang the most beautiful songs before the funeral started. Even though it was a sad occasion the music that filled that chapel was very uplifting and a beautiful frangrance to the Lord. What a testimony to have all those girls come. Her daughter, Joanna, was in 7th grade at the same school. One of her classmates even got up to speak during the service. . Delix arrived after the service had all ready started from ICU in a wheelchair with splints on both his arms and looking pretty battered. The whole place began wailing--what a tear jerker!! Delix said there was no way he was going to miss this if possible. His tears kept falling along with the thousands around him. It was so sad because someone had to stand right beside him and wipe his tears for him. So as you think of this story and these people please keep them in your prayers.

Going Fishing

Saturday we went down to the river near our house and took the kids fishing. They never caught anything but it was a nice relaxing afternoon. We were amazed when we got to the river because the water was unusually high. We have had so much rain this year. In fact, yesterday was the first day that it had not rained at all in over 3 weeks. We like to go down to the river from time to time and play on the rocks or eat a picnic lunch but today it was just fishing and relaxing.

She enjoyed fishing at first but it didn't take her long to realize you had to have patience and be still for a while. When I asked her if she had a good time fishing she said, "It was fun but then it got boring."

Hannah's first time to go fishing.

For most of the year this area is not this full of water. Usually, there are rocks down at the bottom of the waterfall that the kids play on. Sometimes they are able to walk across the top of the waterfall because there is so little water, but now.

This is my idea of a nice afternoon fishing.

Luangwa Bridge Baptist Church

Today we traveled two hours (one way) to go to a church at the Luangwa Bridge. It rained all the way there so we were not expecting a big crowd. After hitting a gong outside the church, within just a few minutes people began to come. There were probably about 40 of us all together. This area is known for 3 things: a place to buy fish, beer drinking, and prostitution. Kevin encouraged the church to start reaching out to others and sharing Christ, so the town would change and be a light house for God instead. After the service, they gave us gifts of 3 baskets and two straw hats for Hannah and Justin. We ate lunch with them, and then when we walked back up to the truck we found one of the members washing our truck in the sprinkling rain. It never fails that as we go out to encourage others, we instead are blessed by the people.
We saw something else interesting today that I would like to share with you. During the church service the rain poured down all around us, and even on us a bit. As you can tell from the picture there was just a grass roof, and it had a gap at the top where the rain just came into the church. They had placed a reed mat on the ground for the children to sit on, and the rain was dripping on about 5 of the kids. The kids just sat there and didn't move or complain, but were just happy to be there in the church. It was really kind of sad to me because it seemed no one cared that the children were getting wet. After about 10 min. of this going on, someone finally said that they should move the mat to a dry spot, so they did. What was amazing to me is that those Zambian children didn't even try to move out of the way. It was almost like they didn't think they had another option. I tried to imagine if my kids had been sitting there, or any other American kid for that matter. What would they have done in that situation? You all know they would have complained, made a scene, or at least gotten up and moved. Zambians grow up thinking that personal comfort is a privilege and not a right, whereas Americans are brought up to believe the opposite. Unfortunately, we teach this to our children when they are very young by giving them everything they want to make sure they are comfortable (plus more). I'm not saying we should not make sure our children are well taken care of and comfortable. I guess I am saying that we as Americans should be thankful for the things that we have, and not complain so much when our comforts are taken away... (like electricity, water, phone, good health care, and internet). Maybe you don't have to deal with those things being taken away from you in the USA, but here in Zambia it is something that we as missionaries have to deal with quite often. Pray for us that we would always be thankful for what God allows us to have, and that we would realize that the things we do have are a privilege and not a right.

Zach back to school

Zach traveled on the 18th to Joburg. and then on the 19th he flew to Nairobi, Kenya. We have heard from him and he made it there safely. This is a picture that was taken the morning that he left for Kenya. It is Zach with his roommate for this term, Nathan Dickard. He and Nathan have been friends since they were 6 years old. Nathan and his family use to be missionaries in Zambia with us but a few years ago took another assignment in South Africa. Pray the boys will have a good term together as roommates and in their studies.

Botswana

While traveling home from South Africa we went through the country of Botswana. These are just a few of the pictures I took while we were there. We made a couple of stops along the way. The boys(all 3 of them) saw some rocks over on the side of the road so we decided to stop so they could climb and play for a few minuits. We also stopped at Chobe Safari Lodge right before the border to spend the night. We had never been on a river cruise so we decided to do that since we got there just in time. We enjoyed it but didn't get to see many animals because of the rainy season. Usually, there are many animals coming to drink the water but since there is so much water these days they don't have to come to where we were. We mainly saw hippos, crocodiles, many different types of antelope, and lots of birds. We especially liked staying at the lodge because it was very nice.

This is on the boat we took for the cruise.

Lechwe

This is the place we stayed the first night. I thought it was neat because the house was raised up on poles.

Happy New Year!

These are the people we celebrated New Year's Eve with; from left to right are: Daren, Shawna, Peyton Davis, our family in the back, Dee Ann, Wade, and Michelle Coker, and Kay and Mike Norfleet. We had gumbo for dinner and then had lots of wonderful snacks throughout the evening. We had a time of reflecting on this past year and of looking forward to 2008 and then we prayed for one another. We played games, talked, and ate a lot! We even were able to enjoy some fireworks outside.

Peyton and Hannah making Princess hats.

This was a really fun game to play, however, I was getting quite frustrated with myself trying to figure out how the pieces fit together.

MK Camp

This past week Zach and Justin, along with about 50 other missionary kids from all over Southern Africa went to camp right outside of Joburg. South Africa. A team from the US came to help at the camp and did a great job. The kids had a great time being around the other mk's and being challenged in their relationship with God. One night Zach and some of his friends(pictured below) had the opportunity to play a mini concert for their friends.

Zach, Colson, and Micah getting on the bus. They are so excited!