Life as we know it...

Today

2012-02-01T19:48:00.003-07:00

Me and my girl, just after bath, and before bed.

Seth doesn't smile for pictures anymore, it's the stick your tongue out thing now.....

Vinjelu and I had a really awesome date last night. Our favorite dates are at home....Vinj helped Andrew and Candice with some moving, and said I should have the kids in bed when he came home. So I dressed "up" , make-up hair and everything : ) I even painted my nails. And I put the kids to bed... BUT they could not get to sleep, so I finally let them get up again and run until vinj got home at 9... I lit candles all along the ledge in the basement, baked brownies, and vinj brought that yummy grape juice fermented stuff (heehee), it was good. We watched a movie and hung out, it was nice. And still got to bed by midnight, so not too bad! And it cost us about $12.00 in all!

I got the kids up this morning with the goal of having them fed and out the door by 10am to go to parent Link center, where it is free play from 9am-2pm. We got out the door at 11am instead :) It is a good work out pushing the stroller and carrying a 17 pound baby on me for a 30 minute walk there and a 30 minute walk back. So it's good all around. It was really nice sitting and chatting with moms and having all the great toys around for the kids to play, and the best part is it's FREE... Love that.

I found this on Pintrest... I want to do a family photo like this, as soon as we can get organized for it. I like it.

On Monday night I went out for coffee with my friend Angie, WITHOUT chawezi, first time going out without him for more then an hour, and it was really great! THANX vinj! : )

I have been watching a show I happened upon called "Drop Dead Diva", for the most part a decent show that encourages human and equal rights... and descent like I said. So has been nice to watch a few episodes here and there.

Sorry nothing to fabulous for today... I am reading a book called "Crazy Love"

And am missing my Zambian friends like crazy.....

I have been changing what I eat (like alot of women, I want to loose some of my fluff...) And to my surprise a plate full of veggies wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, I enjoyed them, it might not be as hard as I thought to stick to it. And peppers are SO YUMMY! One thing I do not want to give up is .... da da da....
COFFEE
not.going.to.happen.
At least not now... maybe when I am not sleep deprived anymore, and thats going to be in... hmmm... 3 years maybe, so we can come back to that later.

Love to all my readers, you da best!

A day in the life of a stay at home mom!

2012-01-26T11:10:00.001-07:00

I will one of these days make a YouTube video of this. But no time for now.

Ok so here is a day in our lives right now...

it starts at 4am or so when Chawezi most likely will wake up and cry, and I will eventually go get him form his room and feed him. Then I was try and get back to sleep for a few more hours.

Alarm goes off at 7am... this is for vinj, and he doesn't have a choice weather he should get up or not, he has too. But then there's me, the stay at home mom... it goes off - and my mind floods with options...
1. Get up, work out, have a fresh coffee while reading a good book, listen to MY MUSIC in peace, SHOWER, all before the kids wake up..... OR.... sleep... The first options are SO MUCH BETTER for me... and it's amazing what a difference an hour makes in ones morning. See I have the advantage of my kids sleeping in until 9am, or sometimes longer! And when I choose sleep, I always regret it, because having alone time in the morning is (lets face it) AMAZING! So I start my day with one of those options, almost never eating in the morning (not a good habit) I just drink my coffee....

Around 9-9:30 kids wake up. Depending on how stricked I feel, they eat breakfast. Eating some days is a battle in this home... seriously, it involves tears, time outs, more tears, gagging.... all to get one egg in each of their tummies! And then other days it's a breeze and they both just eat... so it's touch and go and I am THANKFUL for the good days! From 10-11:30 we do "School" ... I have lots of preschool work books and crafts, so we do work pages, cutting, pasting, tracing, folding, colouring, and we have story time where I read at least 5 books to the kids. (I am one of those moms that already worries about how soon my kids will read and if they will really "get it", lame I know... but take me as I am) So the main way I have been reading kids get the first skills for reading is by being read to. So thats my amazing strategy :) heehee. even though our days don't always go the same, we almost always do the hour and a half of creative time. the kids love it, and it's so good for them. AND if I am lucky, Chawezi will be down for his morning nap at this time. If not he sits in his car seat on the table while we craft away.

At this point the kids have asked if they can watch "Word World" (I HIGHLY recommend this show, it has a few seasons, and is SO creative, it's a spelling show with animals, and their stories.. very cute, and education, which all parents love) Or the usual DORA or DIEGO ... So until lunch they are allowed to go down and watch one of the approved shows. At this point I usually check kijiji if we have an add up, skim a few blogs, and facebook, then it's lunch time, I will normally clean something at this time too, and it ends up being sweep the floor, wash floor, put laundry in... etc. I am trying to do cheap but healthy lunches... it's actually not that easy when you are feeding kids that eat like mice.... and want chicken strips all the time. So I have started making SOUP, veggies mix together basically, and they like it. So that is a WIN, and a good suggestion from my sister Lana, who got the idea from a friend Vanessa- who we all know is an expert at saving money, (I mean the women knows how much it costs her to have a bath... seriously!)

After lunch (which can be an ordeal just like breakfast.....) I am being more stricted about eating though because seth for some reason has lost 3 kgs in the last 3 months? Plus we all know kids, right after not eacting their lunch they are asking for snacks 10 minutes later right! I start to asses Taliah.... is she tired enough for a nap.... and then the thoughts come into the mind... i taliah goes down (and hopefully chawezi too) it would be so quiet and I could get more cleaning done in peace, BUT if she goes down will she go to bed and fall asleep tonight.... big debate right! :) So lately she has been napping maybe 3 times a week. She is growing out of it. But since she doesn't always nap, this turns into about 4 to 5 "time outs" in the afternoon, from fighting with seth...

Vinj is either in a meeting, or studying most of this time...

Lately friends have been stopping by in the afternoon, which is great! But also usually means I don't make supper on time, and vinj complains : ) (not really.. but kind of) I gotta get better at the whole supper thing. Not to inspiring when no one in the house is big on eating.

the evening depends on the day, some times it's music practice and we all go over to the church, or it's small group and everyone comes to our house, or we just laze around, some times it's a spontanious dace party in the living room (especially after the kids bath and the are running around naked) or it's a family movie night.

Kids bed time every day is.....
Bath
Pajamas
Bed
Stories
Prayer
Sippy cups
and good night. they go to bed really well. We dont usually hear form them again, unless they have to go pee :)

The vinj goes and studies and I sometimes sit and wish I was studying, I do kinda what i feel like then, of corse I have chawezi totally awake at this time, so I play with him, watch something on netflicks, read, clean, bake, resently I have been listening to sermons on youtube alot, I don't know why but I don't go to bed, I don't like to without vinj, so most nights have been going to bed around 1am or 2 am.

And then the day starts again, and the whole debate when the alarm goes off the next morning... day in and day out.

Now that it is getting a little warmer out, we are going to start going for walks in the afternoon. And I look forward to getting the kids outside! And my self too!

30 day shred- I AM SORE!

2012-01-25T09:52:00.001-07:00

So, yesterday I started the 30 Day shred by Jillian Michaels. In my opinion she has been a super jerk to people, but has also helped alot of people too. AND she created a 30 minute work out, which works so much better for moms! Anyway, I woke up SO SORE I didn't think the work out was too hard, but my body hurts pretty bad! I was like how am I going to do it again today! But I did, and yes I am sore still! So anyone know when it stops hurting : ) haha. Also anytime we are out for food away from home (where there are healthy choices) I am just getting a regular salad... I am NOT a salad person, but surprisingly, I LIKE IT : ) while I watch vinj down a big bacon swiss burger.... oh well. I feel like this year is the year I get in the shape I have "wanted" to for a while. I will post a picture if I find any difference at the end of the 30 day shred.

Me and chawezi after the 30 day shred

Also, I love being in a city! We got three visitors yesterday just pretty much out of the blue. It's nice to be loved. (Josh we love it when you stop by!)

Random thought, I miss Toby, Vinjelus brother! Funny story just for Toby, Seth and Taliah were looking at a photo of you we have from our namibia holiday, Taliah said "uncle toby!" seth said "no thats daddy! Uncle toby has a black small truck car, with a tire on the back!" (since you were standing by a blue car, I guess it made you vinjelu) Anyway Taliah was insistent it was you, and Seth insisted you didn't have hair like that and you don't drive a blue car : )

Unbelievable provision.... and what's with the red necks geez!

2012-01-18T13:21:00.002-07:00

I have a list seriously 20 things long of people blessing us with different things, and our needs being met just in the nick of time... it is amazing, and strikes me every time.

If you have been reading my blog you will know my kids have been very sick for 10 days now. I mentioned to my mom when we went out for a tylenol run AGAIN, coming out costing $57 for infant and toddler medication... plus the puffers, and antibiotics... I told mom it has come to around $200 for all this medication! An expense we were not expecting, but took on as best we could. On Sunday a couple handed vinj an envelope, inside it said, God had spoken to them about giving us $200 to help with the inevitable cost of medication during sickness. I was so shocked, how could God be thinking about us to that extent, not all that, but we got the same amount we spent almost to the penny. Monday morning we got our government of alberta child health cards, so we are now covered for all those expenses, and God covered our butts before that : )

Also during our sickness we had three meals provided for us, which was a huge blessing, we used them each for two meals last week. Now for the weather to get a little less nippy so I can walk over and give all those dishes back.

Another majour development in our lives in a NEW VEHICLE! We have owned 5 vehicles in our marriage.

1. 1985 Mustang, rode awaesome, cost way too much in repares.
2. 1992 toyota Corolla, AWESOME car, sold it for $800! Made money on it!
3. Ford Windstar, first car ever given to us for FREE! Was an awesome ride for a year.Untill we left for Zambia.
4. 1994 Toyota Ipsum, GREAT car we have in Zamibia, sold it for $4000 when we left. Which made it possibl for us to buy our next car.
5. 2003, Saturn VUE, I LOVE this car, but it is too small for our family now, and especially- if and when we have another little one we would absolutely not fit. It is for sale right now.

And for our newsest addition. A Honda Pilot, 8 seater SUV, 2WD. It is the base model, but is enough luxery for us! Now here is another crazy God story.... vinj was talking to a friend about us selling our car and looking for something with more seats. And since they had more then three kids he was asking his advice about a car. He was asking vinj how we were going to finances it and things, we said we would only be buying something for how ever much we get for our car.

He encouraged vinj to get something with warranty, in his experience older, second hand, can crap out on you and cause alot more expense. ANWAY... long story short he called vinj and told him he and his wife wanted to be the bank for us, they would buy the car outright for us and we would just own them, with NO INTEREST. (ok so really, who does that! Family dosn't even do that!) we were very shocked and it took us a little while to think it over. They told us they really wanted to do it for us, now this is a family with kids of their own already.... We took their offer and started looking for a reliable car that will last us with all the kilometers we put on our vehicles.

We ended up really loving the Honda Pilot. Our pastor has one and so we have had opportunity to sit in it, and look inside with the space and things. It is an eight seater (which means, I can in theory have three more kids : ) heehee, we will see how many kids I can get out of vinj, who seems a little more reluctant for the big family we both wanted to start with :)

Now this is where RED NECKS come in, forgive me brothers.... BUT seriously. We got so much flack for buying our car from.... WAIT FOR IT... ANOTHER PROVINCE!!!! oooooooo scarey!

I mean it's not like we were ordering it from Japan to be shipped to vancouver! We could have done that too! We found a GREAT deal in vancouver, where we would save thousands buying from there. So vinj and our friend flew out there tuesday morning, bought the car, and started driving home, they will be home this afternoon. We got a car, and vinj and his buddy got a little adventure out of it too :)

Yes we accounted for the gas it would take to come back

Yes we know we need an out of province inspection

Yes we checked out if the warranty works out here at alberta Honda dealerships

Yes we added up all the expenses and car cost against a pilot here.

Thanx dad for all your advice and looking beyond alberta.

ANYWAY, just waiting for vinj to come with the addition to our family.

Also for all you pintrest addics, I checked it out since I had time with no husband home, it's pretty cool for sure! Have found some great ideas. I LOVE how people are started to get back into HOME MADE STUFF! It is awesome. Could be the death of wal-mart type stores : ) haha.

Fearless

2012-01-15T13:59:00.000-07:00

Couldn't have said it better. Vinj and I continue to try and live fearless... and walk this straight and narrow. Not easy by any means... but well worth it in the end.

Follow up and niceness....

2012-01-11T21:42:00.000-07:00

Today we all finally got out of bed at 9:30 after a not so long night. I got 2.5 hours of sleep in a row, which didnt end up being as horrible as I thought it would. The day went well considering. We got ready right away to go to the walk in clinic for everyone except me : ) I smiled when I went to register all my kids and husband to get in the walk in line : ) oh dear. Bottom line. Taliahs infection seems to be getting better, Seth needs an xray, his chest seems like it could be pnuemonia, chawezi has both ears infected, and vinj has a virus. Wezi and vinj are running fevers tonight, one thing I am thankful for is I can get chawezi temperature down fairly quick. THANK GOD!

Chawezi fell asleep on the couch playing with toys, what we didt realize is his fever was going up :S just when we thought peace came : )

So yesterday (Seths birthday) Krystal and Daniel brought over home made Birthday cake, flowers, oranges and grapes, toffy, and supper. BIG BLESSING. Today one of my friends Angie (who is a mother of three young children her self) Made us an amazing supper! And dropped it off WITH garlic bread. She came over and we didn't hear the bell, we were all in the office down stairs, so she came in and put the food in the fridge for us. Now of corse this had to happen on a day the house is a mess (of corse) no one ever comes over right after you have cleaned : ) haha. Oh well, thankfully I know of anyone she would understand. I guess you know now, we cant hear the bell from down stairs, or anyone yelling for us in the kitchen...

Taliah taking her temperture.... a common thing to do around here right now.

Me and Taliah chilling, trying to get better!

Here is vinj with the flowers from Dan and Krystal, and the supper from Angie!

YUMMY!

Taliah after her bath tonight

More faces

Desperate parent!

2012-01-11T00:37:00.000-07:00

I have always been of the mind set - have your kids close together and get the child bearing years over with asap (within reason).

This week I have seriously reconsidered this.... It started with Seths 4th birthday party, Taliah seemed a bit off, and by the evening had a fever. Vinj got up to monitor her through the night and give Tylenol. The next day was church and we were doing the music for it. We didnt check her in the morning because we didnt want to wake her up since our friend was going to be watching her until I was done with the music. I was a bit uneasy about it, but since I was the only one who could lead I couldn't let the people down. So I came home right after worship and found taliah VERY VERY SICK, with a VERY high fever. I stripped her down and got her in the tub and got ahold of vinj to come home right away to take her to the hospital. We took her in and while waiting to see the doctor she had a siezure! Scariest moment of my (our) life so far! She was so confused after I just wanted to cry! My poor baby girl.
After X-Ray, I.V, Blood work, Urine test, the young women south african doctor didnt find anything wrong with her. Frustrating for sure. That night Seth had fevers and chawezi, we ended up taking them all into emergency again Monday night to find throat and ear infections. Controlling three kids fevers through the night is exhausting! Emotionally especially, after seeing a seizure from the temperature I was so on edge. Bath, sponge, temperature, repeat..... and so this mom of three kids just under 4 is TIRED! and SPENT! So I guess when it's bad it's BAD!

Thank God tonight all the kids went to bed with temps under 101.1, I may just get 4 hours of sleep in a row tonight, of which I am truly thankful. I also need a bit of energy to baby vinj, since he is sick too : )

Oh the plus side, today was Seths 4th birthday! He was sick for it, but he was still really excited! We hung out in the day, he got to play Mario brothers which he loves, hang out with grandma, and the all time favorite opens gifts from mom and dad and grandma and papa. After that we had some supper (brought over by my sister Krystal! thank you again), and followed by playing with toys and watching the new Disney nature film about African cats. Which Seths loves).

Right before bed we had a bad red nail polish spill on the couch thanx to taliah and vinj : ) Thank goodness those couches are almost disposable! It happened somewhere between her asking vinj to paint her "feet" and him going to do it. Oh well- life.goes.on!

As of yesterday afternoon we have Internet again! And I will be posting on here again probably for a season, since I have never kept to it consistently.

here's to 2012. Cheers!

Taking ahold of life...

2011-03-11T07:38:00.001-07:00

1 Timothy 6:17-19

" Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. Command them to do good, top be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of life, that is truly life. "

After I read this today it makes our life style make so much more sense...

Why does the bible talk about riches like it is uncertain when the world says the exact opposite to us, education, money and jobs that bring money is what IS CERTAIN when nothing else is. This is the WHOLE goal of most people in this world, security. And yet the bible says even in riches there is none. Either way rich or poor we need to lean on Jesus.

We are in a really hard place financially right now and it really feels like it would be better to be working and getting rid of this
access" debt we cant pay off right now. God needs to speak and we need to obey.

Please pray for us and let us know if you are willing to help, our flights to canada are $1900.00 MORE then we expected. We thought we had saved enough up to now for them, but have got the last quote with the new fuel surcharges, and are almost 2000 short.

If you are willing please let my mom know, or us personally. We need to buy our flights home in the next two weeks.

When we are home in Canada Vinjelu will be working, because it looks like we wont have a choice, which is fine! If you know of any jobs please let us know, something making more then $15/hr.

Thanx guys, love you all!

Marvin Daka

2011-03-07T11:48:00.002-07:00

Marvin Daka

Marvin Daka finished his DTS with YWAM Lusaka last year in October. He left DTS with a heart for rural church planting. This is his heart, his big dream. He went to find a job immediately after DTS, and thank GOD found work, and worked right up until he came and joined us on staff here in YWAM Lusaka. He felt a good first step for him would be to be under a YWAM ministry for a few years before going out on the "frontiers" planting churches. He worked and saved enough to pay for his fees for 5 months.

Coming up this May 2011 he has nothing else, and has not found any support from his Zambian church who feel they dont have anything to give him, and his family and friends.

Marvin is in need of $60 a month to stay in missions.

This is a GREAT opportunity to support a LOCAL missionary here in Zambia, with a heart for his people.

Please would consider supporting him. If he was to have $60 a month, this would be absolute bare minimum. No spending money at all. So he could of corse use more like $200 a month.

THANK YOU
and I look forward to hearing from you

Kapampa people

2011-02-16T12:09:00.003-07:00

Every wednesday we start the day with worship together in the class room as staff, and soon our DTS students will be joining us. This morning I was leading worship, I got a few verses and wrote them on the white board, and put on selected songs on the computer... was really nice, and God was there, which is the best.

We then gathered our people and got in the car for what we thought we be a quick 5 minute drive to a government school near our place, out of the 100 kids that come to our program on Saturdays probably 75% of them come from that school. We started off by giving two women a ride down the road, which ended up being a 30minute drive on a road not too bad for "off road" but not so good for our LOW mini van! The ladies asked us to take them all the way home since they had a 50kg bag of mili meal to carry, I thanked God we were there to give them a ride all that way. they told us to turn onto their "road" which looked like a field of grass about 5 feet high to me, with cars having gone over it a few times recently : ) I was like "are you sure we should go down this road!" Surprisingly it was not bad, like joy riding in a wheat field I suppose. After getting the ladies to their house we got on with our journey to the school.

We are wanting to do assemblies with the kids from this school, getting involved where they are, instead of only here at YWAM. We found out it is a VERY LONG WALK for many of the kids to get to school. And they have 1000 kids! The thing is, most of the kids we have met from this school cannot read, and are in grade 8 or higher. The classes are WAY TOO BIG, and alot of kids are slipping "through the cracks". Anyway it looks like we will be able to be going there maybe twice a month on wednesday afternoons.

After this we got home and found tobi, which was nice to sit and visit for a while. I was feeling sick and tired by that time. We had baked "fries" and pork chops for lunch. BY about 3pm we had to say good by to Tobi and head on into the community called Kapampa. This is where you will see some photos from today, only because we have some relationship with these people did we ask to take some photos of them. I uploaded all of the photos from this visit on our facebook.

So we walked up past the mud church with doors that dont fit the front, this is where the DTS from last year held weekly bible studies, another ministry opportunity we may take up again soon.

We got there and greated everybody, they got out their two chairs and cleaned them off for us to sit on, and we sat asking how is so and so... They always ask about tallish because she is always home napping when we go into the community in the afternoon. (With rebecca at the house). Anyway, we got to asking about going to see Gertrudes house again, Gertrude is a widow, who is a tiny tiny women, who lives in a mud house she built with her daughter, 2 meters high, and 3 meters long, and 2 meters wide. SMALL, too small even for a bed. She sleeps on the ground with a small rag tag blanket. And has different things making up her roof, i.e. A sheet of metal that was a oil barrow... Etc. We measured her house for a new roof, we will be putting up for her.

After doing measurements we went back and found more people had gathered. A lady was just leaving telling a story about her little 2 year old girl, who was very sick, fever of 40C, that wouldn't come down with tylenol. The baby tested negative for malaria, and yet they treated her for malaria, not looking for anything else wrong... She was still sick after the first course of treatment, the mom took her back and they gave her the STRONGEST malaria meds there are here, and after those she is even more sick.... The mom did know what to do, we gave her tips on how to physically keep the fever down, and also prayed for the girl of course, she left right after. Going to her brothers place, because apparently right now her husband is threatening to kill her. She is a second wife of this man, and beaten regularly. It made me so sad to watch her walk away with so much pain, and trouble in her life, not to mention poverty.

After they left we talked for a while with the family, prayed for their concerns, and left for the day.

We stopped by a “shop” for a coke, we warned them on the way there we would want the cokes because they have to walk a ways to get them out of someones fridge down the road :) haha!
So we got there and we got our cokes within 8 minutes : ) We love stopping here, it is a little shop run by a young couple, with kids almost the same age as ours, and the girl is even 4 months prego like me : ) Although she gets embarrassed when I point out that she is pregnant :) oh well. I sat on the ground, vinj sat in the wheel barrow and seth wanted to sit in the wheel barrow : ) and talked with people who passed by, and with the two girls there.

A good day.

We ended the day by watching UP with the kids, vinj had never seen it, and it is SO GOOD!
Bathed the kids, put them to bed, and now am here.
Ready for bed.
Goodnight world.

Captin Bicard and his advantage & Extreme Home make over

2011-01-22T09:21:00.004-07:00

So... I have been wishing for a weekend on the starship enterprise lately. No not because of their "coulorful" tite spandex suites.... (except dianna whats her name... she always had great outfits, I think because she was the "pretty girl") Anyway, it's because fo their food ordering system especially in the captins room... "early grey tea, hot, no sugar".... and so on. How nice to beable to order exactly what you feel like when you want it... (well besides when you are fighting cyborgs of corse) My nausia and lack of food choice is starting to get to me... and why wouldn't it... at 12 weeks pregnant that makes exactly 90 days I have felt sick all day everyday. : ( ok, let me cry on your shoulder for a minute.... boohoo.

Anyway, food is powerful isn't it. I watched Food Inc. Again today (because we have exactly 6 movie from canada on our lap top, and 7 episodes of The Office, all of which I have watched MULTIPLE times!) so, I have been wanting good fresh corn chips with home made salsa (alicia Hoffarth form Lifegate makes AWESOME salsa people! I think she is also good at salsa dancing....) so been seriously craving that every single day! I dont know why food because so important when you feel sick, it's so weird, because mostly I just don't want it. Other thing I want so bad is, HONEY NUT CHEERIOS, they do not exist here, and I feel like having them every morning.

So everyone cry for kathryn.... such a sad story right... not really.... when people are hungry, cold, dirty, addicted to substances, and dont know love. So please dont feel sorry for me. But you can feel compassion for the people I am about to write about, my story will never compare, because I have JEsus, and a family that loves me completely.

Now listen I have an idea, a great idea I think!
So around us there are alot of poor people as most of you know. And even though vinj and I are often very tight money wise, there are people far worse!

So we would like to start a "Not so EXTREME home makeover" not so extreme because we are not that "good-looking" carpenter guy from that show with piles of sponsors.... BUT homemaker over it would be in a way.

We want to help put simple roofing sheets on huts with grass that is molding and lets in rain, rats, snakes.... etc. We also would like to buy blackets for the family we choose each time, and possibly a bag of millie meal, and cooking pots if needed. Some people cook their little bit of nshima in the ground with no pot and a plastic bag.

Anyway, we are estimating each house make over at $250.00 -- each mud hut/house.... PLEASE let people know and give! Lets see peoples lives be inspired and just loved! For a very small amount of money, we will take and post pictures of each project we do.

Next week is our first house project for a widowed old lady, who sleeps on the floor, with a small thin blanket, is extremely thin, and her roof is only half there with very old roofing sheets that leak. Thank you PAm and Terry for the donation!

WHO IS NEXT!

Our next candidate... a widow with her grandson, who is actually 8 years old suffering with ceribal palsy. They would be another family due for a Hut Makeover!

So many things to write about!

2011-01-14T15:49:00.003-07:00

I wish my brain had an auto blog, ya know, I would have two blogs a day, with 5 photos ya know! So I will list things I wish I would have wrote about....

Taliahs and Seths love for snails, they love finding them and yelling about it, seth picks them up and gathers them in a big family on our porch, I dont like this as much because they poo... and it's gross.

When I was in hospital the nurse poked my IV into my vein and then guess what OUT OF MY VEIN... and the water processed to pump into my arm un-benounced to me, asleep... I woke up with a HUGE ARM and hand, looked like an old fat ladys arm (sorry to all those old fat ladys out there, you know your beautiful!) This nurse didnt like me because for some reason I had an opinion about what meds I was given and how I was treated... HOW DARE I! in PRIVATE HIGH COST health care.... bad me! Ps- thank you to my grams and gramps hutch for paying for our hospital bill!

People in Zambia are really poor. Period. So sad, weird, and overwelming. Just to say.

(Remember all of these are blog posts all on their own)

After leaving the hospital we went to a place called Sandys creation with the kids got there at 12:30 in the afternoon, as soon as we got into the room I filled the bath with... wait for it folks HOT WATER... FROM THE TAP. And no joking here, you know that I actually sat and wondered... this is what I thought extactly to my self... "does Canada have running water when you turn the tap on?......... thinking..... thinking..... remembering.... and YES they do, it does exsists." you know the feeling of hot water available to wash your hands every time you finish in the bathroom. SO DANG NICE! OK!
SO after the bath..... I turned on the shower.... and found out the hot water had run out : ( oh POOP! so I waited an hour... and tunred it on again.... and had a 20 minute hot shower... OH THE GLORY people! was reeally ministering to my spirit, seriously. There was a pool, that was a little to cold, you know when ur just a little uncomfortable in it... anyway, the kids LOVED it! Thankfully we found cheap floaty things in for the kids!
The bed was AMAZING! King size, everything white, clean, puffy, clean, cozy, warm, beautiful, and we sat and watched world news... that is when we found out Australia is having horrible floods, and the same moment to scolded our selves for not reading up on BBC that week. Anyway, it was nice to be updated on the world.... Oh one of the TOP STORIES was: Eagles being hunted in MIssion BC! WOW! Canada was on the map because of one more our great first nations people wanting to kill a almost extinct bird... but also our great tree huggers, who don't want them too! woohoo, GO CANADA GO! The food was great, besides the cheese burger that came without the burger... very interesting... finally they believed us that infact a cheese burger is a beef patty WITH cheese. SO we got that sorted.

Was a great 24 hours off! Our only regret for that time is we really wanted to spend the day with tobi and chuma, we were going to meet there but it just didnt work out. Turns out that would have been the last day we would have had with Chuma, at 23 years old she died VERY suddenly in hospital. Most likely from Menegitis (dont knwo the strain) She was admitted for Malaria, and the very morning she died she phoned tobi to laugh about how the hospital was like a hotel room (they are on a scheme so it was "free") she had a menu for food, a tv with satelight... etc. So Tobi shoned us to sya the hospital is great and chuma is feeling much better, she should be out by the evening at the latest. So we thought we better check it out, and bring her some drinks for rehydration and things. So on our way, we got a call she was in bad condition, at that point we really tried to speed and were confused. Then we got a call she was dead, I literally did not believe it. So I phoned the dad to talk to the doctor and look for menegitis, because that was my first thought, malaria is often what they diagnos menegitis pations with at first, but this one killed her in just an hour. Such a shock for all of us. I went in to see her and was overwelmbed with shock I couldnt believe it, non of us could.

The Zambian funeral definately gets its own post... wow.

Thats all for now.

Also just like to say, I hate red ants... and would like it if someone could give me the reason why they exsist.

Thank you.

What would you do if you were poor... ?

2010-12-16T07:25:00.003-07:00

For the past 4 weeks we have had a thief coming to YWAM at night and stealing yards and yards of our black plastic covering our interlocking bricks. This is a little bit of a petty crime, but significant since every cent used for things with the clinic are totally donated, and the clinic is being built for the very community the guy is from...
To make it worse... one of the guys that was working with us on the clinic for a month was found to be stealing plastic the other day, hiding it in the trees. Vinj talked it through with him, on how the clinic is being built and sponsored by so many people for HIM and his family, people just like him, so how could he be stealing from something like that. To look at the moral of it, and the reproductions for him, since YWAM would not be able to trust him again for a long time, and if more were stolen he would be the prime suspect. AND we have been employing him on the building for a month now!

So why would he take it a step further and steal plastic.

Now put your self in his shoes.

It is rainy season and many people don’t even have roofs on their mud huts or walls... we assumed the people stealing were covering their roofs, BUT soon it became evident by the amount being stolen he was stealing and re-selling it.

What would you do if you were poor and had an alcohol addiction?
Or you had hungry babies to feed at home?
Or no roof, and rains coming with no relent on you and your family every day?

Of corse we would be desperate and almost do anything to make things right.

Second story...

The christmas party for the kids went well last Saturday. But we discovered something very sad.
One of the girls who have been coming for along time was wearing a belly kind of shirt, and I was shocked to see a little baby belly! Now that i think back I think she must have wanted us to see she was pregnant other wise why would she wear a shirt like that.
She is maybe 17 years old, and we JUST got money in to send her back to school to start at grade 8 and be sponsored for the next three years.
The biggest concern of corse is possible “date rape” , and the highest concern is obvious unprotected sex, which could quite possibly lead to HIV/ADIS for her.
We saw her walking down the road and talked to her yesterday, Vinj just came right out and asked how far along she was, she looked down and was embarrassed and said three months along. We tried to tell her it was going to be ok, we are going to talk with the family next week and see what their plans are for her and school, and for the baby. It is still very tabu to be having a baby as an unmarried girl, please pray for this situation, that we could be there in a real way for this baby, and this girl named Mary.

Projects & Life

2010-10-20T23:55:00.002-06:00

Muyaba update

Prayer Requests:
Continued prayer for health, Malaria season is coming up soon!
Wisdom while working with the poor, we just want to point them to Jesus.
For the upcoming training school, we would love some over seas students to mix with the Zambian students. Also for wisdom in walking along side these students.
Pray for the children that come on Saturdays, alot come from abusive homes, and very poor homes. We would love to start feeding them even one saturday a month as most of them probably come here hungry.
For Kathryn, she is starting to feel home sick especially as christmas season is coming up.

Projects going on right now and needs along with them.

Clinic Project: The foundation is finished! We are onto making bricks for the walls with our interlocking brick maker. We are hoping to have the walls and the roof up before rainy season. We are still in need of $10,000 to finish the clinic, and outfit it with furniture.

As we are making out own bricks we are making a big hole in the ground on base, normally this wouldn’t be a big deal any where, but since it rains for four months, and idle water breads mosquitos, e cannot have the hole just there. So we are taking that opportunity to do a....

Fish Pond: With a fish pond we can share our baby fish and see other people make their own little fish pond for their families, which would increase the nutrition by ALOT, as most people don’t eat meat unless it’s a very special occasion. We need about $400 to put plastic down in the hole, and buy a pump to keep the water circulating.

Food Project: As an example to the community around us we want to model small scale food production with lots of varieties for your diet. Along with water conservation. As a model we will need drip irregation pipes we have $100 of the $350 we need for this.
We also want to plant fruit tress all around the base for food for the kids that come to the base throughout the week, and a variety of foods for the base staff and students on the base. A fruit tree costs $8, we would love to plant 100 fruit trees on base. Thats $800.00 - 50 fruit trees would be $400.00

Our personal house projects
As the rainy season is coming in a month we had to build a blockade in front of our door to prevent flooding of our house, it is 3 cinder blocks high, we laid flat stone on the ground around this to make a porch about 10 feet by 6 feet, and put a tin roof over top. This is almost finished, and we praise God for that!

We have also got all the materials for screens and have hired one of our YWAM staff who is saving up for paying the bride price so he can marry his fiance! This cost us much more then we first thought it would. But in the end we will have screens over all our windows. Because of the way the windows work here in Zambia he had to make whole new frames and then the window doors with the screen on them. This will make the house safer in terms of mosquitos, snakes, and spiders coming in (among other things) We have been finding BIG poisonous spiders in the house, one tarantula in the bathroom, so we are praying these screens and Gods grace will keep us safe.

We still don’t have a ceiling, and although this is not something that will effect our health or safety, ceiling will grant some sanity as the rains pound down on our tin roof for 4 to 5 months. And will give the house a more finished feel. But since it is not effecting anything we have kept putting it to the back of the list. This will cost $450.00.

Something very common here is power outages, our power is actually turned off by the one electricity company in all of Zambia when ever they feel like “Load shedding”. This has been everyday now, being out in the farms this means the only light is the moon, and since the sun goes completely down by 6:30pm, it makes it hard to cook, bath the kids, or do much : ) We do live by candle light which does work, we put our candles in the top of our coke bottles. BUT there is a solution we would LOVE to have. Basically it’s a back up light powered by a battery, the battery charges when your electricity is on, and this battery powers 6 things in your house. If the power was to go out for a few days the battery produces electricity for you up to 3 days. This would costs us $450.00

Thats what is up for us here in Zambia, mostly preparation for the rains to that are coming, much like the prep that happens for winter in the great white North!

We have been meeting up with people hungry for change in their lives, and have had opportunities to challenge them and walk along side, I have to say besides the ids that come on Saturday this has been the most touching in our lives. To see people turn to Jesus is just something else!

Stories of real people.

2010-10-16T14:11:00.001-06:00

Blogging.... I haven’t done it in two weeks I think, and I am so out of the “groove” I have a million stories to tell even just from two weeks. First one is my came on MOnday! I cannot believe it is almost a week since she came.... in some ways I am counting the days, but at the same time trying to enjoy every minute. She just fits in so well in our house and always has. I had Malaria for the first few days she was here, so that kinda put a damper on it, but I loved seeing how my kids remember her, and not only that love her so much. I love it! and DANG can she blog! wow! read her blog for what happens here, cuz could never write that much!
So a couple fridays ago it was the DTS 2010 graduation here on the base, the day before I was getting my hair braided by a girl named Nancy from a small poor community a 2 and a half hour walk from us, but it is only about 45 minute walk if you catch a bus between walking. So anyway, she came to do my hair, and it took 9 and a half hours! SOOOOO LONG (to be honest by the end I was getting a little irritated by the braiding, and Taliah was pretty mad too).
Anyway, she was shy at first to talk to me, but after a few hours she loosened up and we talked, she told me her story. And I was really shocked how much death one girl could experience in her life. Her mom and dad had 12 children, she is one of three left of all 12. She is just 22. She has seen 4 of her niece and nephews die, one of those in her arms in the waiting room at the hospital. Her dad died the night before she took her grade 7 exams, of which she nearly failed most of them. (who wouldn’t). If you understand what exams mean to kids in Zambia... it is their lively hood at that age in so many ways, it;s what gives lots of them hope for the future. So it is more then devestating when you don’t pass. When she was writing her grade 11 exams again a few days before her sister (the one closest to her) died suddenly, she was pregnant with her second child 7 months. Both the mom and the baby died. She left a son. Nancy barely passed those exams. Went home and never went back to school, she has taken care of her nephew since then, clothed him, paid for his education (which she does mostly by braiding hair around our community), he is now 16, and will be done his high school in three years. She is looking forward to going back to school once she has put him through school. His school fees and food will probably come to $600 a year for her. She also supports her mom at home. Of corse there was more detail in her story, but through it all I was thinking this girl CANNOT be for real, seriously! She kept saying she would go back and read Job in the bible and see that she hadn’t even lost as much as he had, Job lost EVERYTHING, and she still has her mom and a brother and sister. She tells her mom who grieves all the loss she has had as a mother and wife, she tells her to look at what she does have, and to praise God that he hasn’t taken the rest of her children. ! In a way talking to her scared me and challenged me... I saw a real story of an incredible amount of loss in one story, and I though, so it can really happen.... people die, I could loose so much... it’s possible. And how would I respond? She has such a spirit of thankfulness, and desperation for Jesus. She told me how she cannot turn to men, because they will just use her and leave her, she only focuses on supporting her family, and honestly, you look in her eyes and you can see she has gone through everything she shared. It is so painful. I wish I could pay for both her and her nephew to finish school, of corse that is my first reaction. But on the other hand I see God is there, He has been there. And I was touched to the core. Maybe I will be able to help them with some money, but with or without, I know God knows.

On a purely happy and proud note: SETH IS OFFICIALLY POTTY TRAINED! I don’t even ask him anymore, he just goes on his own, I don’t even know half the time when he has gone to the toilet! Even in town, and if by chance he naps, NO WET PANTS! So SO SO happy about this one of corse, it makes life and laundry so much easier! I was no nervous about potty training because I was thinking we can have kids and then we are expected to just know how to do things!? I was so nervous I wouldn’t be able to do it. But it doesn’t take much brain power I found out : ) haha After my fair share of poo down his leg, pants, and other places.... poo now goes in the toilet. Thank God!

Two days ago there was an absolutely horrible accident down our road. A mini bus carrying from what he heard 9 people and the driver was hit by a semi truck full of rocks, the mini bus was peeled back, totally destroyed on the left side and back, all the seats were crushed... all 9 people died, a horrible death. The driver survived, but lost both his legs. All these people cold be anyone, could have been us, or our dts students who were coming back from town at the same time... or our friends wife who was coming back from town the same time. So far we think we did not know anyone on the bus. They have left the bus on the road and people have surrounded it now for two days, I think it was good to leave it for a reminder and warning. But it is terrible, and is a devastating week for alot of people in our area.

This morning some of us YWAM staff were having a meeting about todays kids ministry, planning the day... amoungst planning games and songs, HIV/AIDS comes into these conversations. We are concerned one of the younger girls in our group is positive, she comes with sores, and has for a while now, and has been orphaned, she is about 12 years old and lives with a relative close to us. A couple children that used to come every week right on time (who contracted HIV/AIDS from their parents) have moved away because their grandfather sold the farm they and their grandmother were living on. Both their parents have died from what zambians some times call “the dose”. Now we don’t know where they are, but are going to try and find out. Their HIV was advanced enough already they are on ARVs. These are things these kids deal with, so many of them positive because of the parents, at no fault of their own. God have mercy on the kids, and give us wisdom in these situations, and the little influence we have on their lives. I spent most of the program sitting with one of the cherish girls, she is now over 15, but was one of the teen moms who come to cherish, she is not married andlives with relatives, and is a child in so many ways still. She told me “lets go play the games! Come on!” About to leave her baby sitting alone, I said I would watch the kids while she went to play. We talked a little bit, she said my baby look like a good girl (they are a few months apart), but mine is a bad baby! I asked why she wasn’t good, and she said she cries at night, and I said oh ya, how many times does she get up? And she said once, so I told her that is normal, and her baby looks like a good health baby girl. I can see she gets frustrated with having to be responsible at times, although I am sure she is doing a good job, and loves her baby. But you can see she want to get up with the other kids and just be silly.
At the end of the program we walked the kids to the end of the YWAM road. (My mom had brought a bag of 100 pens for the kids, I was thinking after a few days of thinking about it, maybe they would be a lame gift, I mean a pen.... how cool could that be?! you know.) But I was SO WRONG. At the end of the road we asked them if they wanted pens, and vinj almost got trampled by them! So we tried to get them in a line, giving them one at a time, it worked for about 30 seconds, then they swarmed us again, I know they were worried they were’t going to be enough for all of them, so survival mode in a way comes into play, they were even lapping and pushing the little ones out of the way.... I stood back for a minute and thought... “for a pen..” wow. We had 100 pens, and we ran out before every one had one, but the last 4 were ok about it, (older girls). I know there were a few who lied that they hadn’t got one, and got two. But can you blame them? There faces are so sweet, and I am falling in love with each one more every week.

I am thinking about christmas coming up, and I hope we can do something special for them.

Any ideas?

I think thats all for now.

I love you all, and miss so many of you so much.

Plans for tomorrow... church, meet a few people in town to give forms to, take mom to the market, and visit our dear friends wightson and linda. AND if we are lucky Toby will make it to Lusaka tomorrow, and Seth will be SO HAPPY to see his uncle Toby. (And so will I )

A Post about life, death, adoption, and funnies.

2010-09-28T05:32:00.003-06:00

This morning there was no power all over our area, very frustrating if you let it be. Instead I just sat and read James from the message for a while, and guess what the power came back on after 2 hours! Thats awesome, it’s usually all day. And I don’t know how long it will last, so we filled the bath tub with water for usage for the next few days in case the water ran out. But thankfully I think it’s ok.
The book of James is so great for basic values and instruction on Christian living. It challenges about faith and works... “Do you think you will get anywhere in this if you learn all the right words but never do anything? Does merely talking about faith mean that someone has it?”
The last part I read in chapter 4 in james goes like this....
“So let God work His will in you. Yell a loud NO to the devil and watch him scamper. Say a quiet yes to God and He’ll be there in no time. Quit dabbling in sin. Purify your inner life. Quit playing the field. HIT THE BOTTOM, AND CRY YOUR EYES OUT. The fun and games are over. GET SERIOUS, REALLY SERIOUS. Get down on your knees before the master; it’s the only way you’ll get on your feet.”
Isn’t it amazing how we think there are so many better ways of getting on our feet, such as jobs, money, house, security, girl friends, so called happieness... we are so decieved. We know nothing about life, and we play as if there is ample time for repentance and purity. QUIT PLAYING GAMES! HIT THE BOTTOM, and cry your eyes out. Repent, and start taking life seriously, the way it should be. God is who should be feared, not AIDS, not LOSS, not hurt PRIDE. GOD NEEDS TO BE FEARED. Period. The fear of God is the beggining of wisdom. So throw away your junk, your pride, your anger, the right to be right, throw away your right for happieness, and kneel at the feet of Jesus. like James said, it’s only then you will really stand....

After that little preach.... Vinj and I have been going through some hard times, and have constantly been reminded to go back to Jesus for strength, and for answers. Thankfully when we are stupid He isn’t, and he always has an answer. Thank you jesus for that.
Saturday we had all those wonderful kids come to the base from around the community. We went on Friday to the community inviting kids for Saturday, saw where some of them lived, and met one of the dads of the kids, it was really great. So Saturday we had 65 kids this time, we invited 3 boys and 10 came, we can see there will be piles and piles more as the weeks go on. We did music and dancing to some Zambian songs, and some kids worship songs, then Vinjelu told the story about Jesus on the boat with His disciples, we even had sound effects with our music program, the rain, the thunder, the storm! It was really great! The point we were making with the kids was that Jesus is the only one who can truly calm the storms in our lives and bring true peace. He shares some from his own life, identifying with some of their home problems. It went really well. At the end we showed them some video footage from the other weeks, and they felt like celebrities seeing them selves on the “big scree” (our computer). ! : )
Sunday we went to church, on our way there Seth was concerned and leaned forward saying...
“mommy, I don’t want to go to the doctor!” I replied “Seth we aren’t going to the doctor we are going to Church!” When Seth is excited about something you say such as “ grandma is coming!” he says “WHY!!!” so he said “WHY!?” and I thought about it for a minute why do we go to church kathryn???.... and of corse the answer came quickly... “Seth it’s because we love Jesus, and we love people” he thought about for a few seconds then said.. “and....... chickens.... and GIRLS!” and I said “ ummmmm, yes, and chickens and girls : )” haha. So cute.
We got to church, and we already have a very small gathering of people usually about 10-15 people, a Vinyard church planted recently in our area. But on Sunday there were only 5 of us including vinj and I (excluding the 8 kids there). The pastor was not there that sunday so his wife got up and looked at Vinj directly and said “do you have something to share?” which we thought kind of forward and funny, because before church in the morning we had been reading from Matthew 10, and really felt touched and convicted by the word. So Vinjelu actually did have something to share, so he ended up sharing on Sunday with our small group of believers. Sunday afternoon we had naps, then off to see friends on the other side of town. Which was really nice.
Monday morning we got up and tried to get going to the Social welfare offices, but were bogged down a bit with clinic construction questions, and finishing our soak-away...
We did eventually get going, and got to the offices to no surprise we didn’t find the social worker there (who only two days earlier told us to meet her in the morning to get a letter to give to the director of the orphanage). So we waited for 3 hours when she finally came back, and we got the letter. We were stubborn, a few people had told us just to come back the next day, but we had planed for Monday and just felt to wait. We prayed and felt we should wait and low and behold we got the letter just after lunch time!!!!! On our way back to the car we met a man about vinjelus age who introduced him self, both of us had forgotten meeting him, until he reminded us he is in animal husbandry, and vinj had talked to him about cows and projects. Vinj had picked up his dad on the road quite a few times to give him a lift in our trips to the hard wear store. He share that only a week ago his oldest brother died very suddenly! After the shock of that and with the fathers heart ache for them, the father had a heart attack and died only two days ago! The very man Vinjelu had been sharing farming ideas and time with.... We were so shocked the family is experiencing such loss. The son we were talking to was at the courts trying to figure some of the legal stuff out for his mom. We were so heart broken for them, we could tell he was just in survival mode, almost like he wasnt totally there, if even a little part of his heart was shown he would break down. Please pray for this family in their loss... two fathers of more then 5 kids died last week, leaving wives as well.
After meeting that guys we went onto grab chicken to eat at a semi fast food place, where we met some of Wightsons sisters. The first we greeted then the second walked in and immediatly said “WOW! You’ve gotten really big!” (I was thinking quickly, ok, how do you respond to that..!) so I said, “um, yes I have : ) I have two babies, it does something to a body!” aysh! AND THATS ZAMBIA! Don’t get offended, just go with it, since it’s true. : ) Why deny it.
We finally got to the orphanage called the house of Moses. It is a baby orphanage, for kids I think 3 and under. We met the lady running the place, and gave her the much needed and waited for letter. And she sent us right up to the baby room. Where we were met with 15 little cribs lining the wall. And one big bed with railings, where I saw two tinny babies sleeping on their stomachs. There were 9 little baby boys 10 months and under. We immediately picked up one boy each who were waiting in their cribs aching to get out and play and be held. I was holding a chubby baby boy named Blessing, and vinj had a happy baby boy called Peter. And three other boys started to cry wanting to be picked up as well! How heart breaking! But the place is very clean and comfortable for them. We stayed there play and holding the boys for a while. Then the director came up again and said on thursday morning they were going to be haing a meeting with social welfare about which babies would be up for fostering on Friday. The process is who ever is up for fostering is elegable for adoption, meaning all the paper work is done and they are custody of the social welfare, and family has no say or right to the child (extended family for instence). If you take a child to be fostered that is the first steps in adoption, they stay in your home for three months, with a visit from the social worker every few weeks, and evaluation, questions, etc. If they see it fit for the child to be adopted by your family you proceed with the court dealings and the child is yours once the paper ares signed and approved. WE DONT KNOW TIMING ON THIS STUFF! you never know in Zambia with lawyers and court.
Both vinj and I although not able to hold the twins (since they were sleeping, and there were other babies awake and crying) we were drawn to them. What we know about them is the mother died after delivering them. : ( SO SAD! The father is not in the picture at all, but the extended family is somehow. So there is still review on them, and their extended family. The director didn’t seem very impressed with them, and the social worker said they could be possibly up for adoption, but they wont know now. So I hope we weren’t both drawn to them just not to be able to make a home for them. but we do know that God knows, and we trust him totally with this. Maybe were drawn to them because they were the youngest I don’t know. But God knows, and we will see on friday I guess what the social worker says. Kinda nervous for friday!
And this very day, we are going for a walk into the community the other way to meet more people, and later Wightson and Linda are coming for a visit! YEAH!
AND... we are cooking for the base tonight!

A Blog by vinjelu!

2010-09-24T05:28:00.001-06:00

A blog from Vinj! Wow!

Yesterday I had a bit of a break down. I felt as though life had become so busy and there seemed to be so many things vying for my attention and time. Then I shared with Kath and she helped me unravel what was really going on inside me. Thank God for her, every day...

I WANT to walk every second of everyday with Jesus, to commune with the Holy Spirit and to hold the hand of the Father. I found that I was walking more and more on my own strength and i felt as though my strength was waning . Ever felt like that? Feeling it is one thing but facing the fact that you are not where you ought to be is another. So Kath I and I decided to make some changes. We (mostly Kath to be honest) cleaned the house. That seems to always be a good start!

Today we woke up, made coffee and had some prayer time with Kath. Kath read out Ephisians 4. It talkes about getting off your butt ( bluntly speaking) and going to do what God has called you to do. So we did. We decided to take a ‘walk about’ around our community and get to know our neighbors. We met a man who’s name is Collins and had a chat at his home and prayed for him. It was amazing to see how openly we were recieved. Seth and Taliah just blended in like they always seem to do and Kath and I chatted to this man. Our kids were helping one of the girls there with lunch prep. This involved taking the heads off dried Kapenta (tiny little minnow like fish). Sitting there in the shade of a tree with little boys running around and other kids getting ready to go to school and talking to man who did not know us from a can of paint, I saw again why God called me back home ( zambia) and called my family here. It is not just to build building and grow food but it is to take the time to reach out into the souls of men and enourage their broken spirit that God loves them and cares about every minute detail of a person’s heart.

So we began our day by asking God what He wanted us to do with our day, and he did. May this be the pattern of our lives here in Zambia. Because without HIM we can do NOTHING.

Another blog...

2010-09-23T08:36:00.000-06:00

It is so weird to wake up every single day and pick out clothes to wear for HOT weather. How foreign to a Canadian! And how many outfits can a person have for such weather?! It definitely takes getting used to.
Today we woke up just before 7am, which is the BEST time to take a stroll outside in the cool morning. We open all the curtains and windows to enjoy the cool for almost 2 hours, then everything gets closed up, trying to avoid the very hot sun. Oh for an air conditioner! haha.
Last night vinj and I went out on a date, we have been SOOO BUSY with the clinic construction, budgets, DTS planning, and ywam in general. Which has brought vinj and I to a ummmm ... “testy” point, both of us having little patients for either. So we thought it’s time to just take some time off together.
So we went out into Lusaka to find something new. There is a chinese hotel, its called the “The golden bridge” I am sure you can google that. Anyway, we went in to see what it looked like, so we had a drink in the lounge area, it was soooo funny, seriously there were like 10 different colours used in the lounge in the painting! And they didn’t really match in alot of spots! : ) haha. It was quite pleasant and funny, so we decided to stay for supper (we were maybe going to go out to an Indian place) So we went to the restaurant, its a classic big open room full of tacky chairs and tables with gold everywhere, the main colours were baby yellow, and purple : ) ! Our waitress took us to a private room in the back with romantic light, it was nice, except the temperature was set at 31 C! AHHH, and we couldn’t change it! So it was a bit hot. We had different/ really good food, although the spring roles were not spring rolls! And we asked for soya sauce and she had no idea what we were talking about, so we told her there is no way the chinese came and built a hotel with chinese food and didn’t bother to import soya sauce, so we told her it’s brown/black sauce. So she went and found some! Even though her manager said they didn’t have any! What a good waitress!
Vinj went to wash his hands in a sink outside the bathrooms and the waitress came to him and explained how they work, since there is no where to turn them on, she said we don’t want you to be pulling things and brake something! GEESH talk about assuming someone has no clue! So Vinj was gracious and let her show him how to use the automatic touch-less taps. He came back to our table and told me it was so weird to be the one assumed to be “uneducated”.
Anyway, we finished and went to the open Shopping/cinima/restraunt center called Arcades. We looked for movies but all of them had started already, pretty bad planning! So we walked around looking at some of the new shops, all closed of corse. We found a new club that had been opened, and I wanted to see inside, since I haven’t ever seen inside a club! haha, yes laugh at me know, I was a “good girl”. It was SOOO COOL, mainly black and red interior, but very fancy. The bouncers at the door look us up and down and said ok, it’s fine you can go in... then we met the SECOND pair of bouncers who came really close to vinj and not going to lie kinda scared me! : ) But we said “sorry sir! We just wanted to see inside!” haha. But definitely not a place YWAMers are allowed to stay and play. So we left of corse after seeing the place. And we went to this arabic place where they have the best coffee in Zambia that we have found! It is SOOO GOOD people, better then anything we tried in Canada as well. So maybe I can the the best in the world! haha.
Anyway, the have opened a very cute stylish little ice cream shop, where they make their own ice cream! And you get small scoops (much smaller then you would get in canada) but you can get a different flavor for each scoop you get. So we got a mocca Chocca, and Vanilla of corse for vinjelu, and a mint chocolate one for me, which was totally amazing. And can I say AGAIN the ice cream was the best I have ever tasted! Better then that Marble slab place in Canada! So rich and creamy, and everything ice cream should be. And to top it off a very cool chocolate design frozen on top. Very cool, we love the place and will go back.
It was a nice date.

A new development, to give you some back ground. . . before we even came to Zambia we were told there was an older lady looking for work and the ywam people were thinking we could employ her to help with house work in our house. Right away we said NO! It would be so weird having someone older then us like our mother cleaning our floors and so on. When we got here that same lady was coming every other day asking if we would employ her. Kind of harder to say no, now that she is in our face, she wanted the job obviously for the money. She is a widow, and is 61 years old. So we finally agreed with reservation in the decision. It’s been since July she worked for us, Vinj and I have been uncomfortable with it the whole time, and feel it’s just not working for us, we can do all the work she does our selves in our home, and besides that we are missionaries, we should be an example to people as well! So we talked to her about it yesterday, and she will not be working for us anymore. Vinj told her we did it to help her, so we are going to be praying about how we should help her, so we will wait and hear from God about it. There are so many people to help though, it’s just endless, and we know we need to hear from God who we are to give to and so on. There are alot of girls 15 and up not going to school, who want to go, but don’t have the money, sick people needing health care... and so on, the stories run one after another after another. We just need Jesus, we need miracles! Please pray for these, and for wisdom, compassion and resources for Vinjelu and I!

I cannot post pictures from the aircard internet from home, sorry about that, there are pictures to post for you guys.

We might be going to visit an orphanage today. Wish us many blessings!

Love you all,
Kathryn

Stories from Zambia...

2010-09-20T10:22:00.001-06:00

Most names have been changed in these stories for the sake of the people.

We thought we should share some of our stories from Zambia so far, I know many of you have been asking for “God stories” from when we came.

We have seen alot of hopelessness, disease, death, and poverty around us in the last three months. As we have always said, we are thankful we carry Jesus, because He is the only one who can make a difference in those lives.

Friends of ours have been married for a year and a half now, and were expecting their first baby in October, Glen is a teacher at a high school, and Breanne is a social worker in Lusaka. She was 7 months pregnant -- 3 weeks ago, when she felt she was going into labour early. They went to the main hospital in Lusaka the University teaching Hospital, many people see that hospital as a place to go and die, because when you are there it’s the end of the rope, others traditionally always encourage there kids to go there because of familiarity. Anyway, most of the stories from this hospital we have hear end in trauma or death. This time it was death of their baby. Breanne went into labour too early, in the tradition of the hospital the husband is not aloud in with the wife, so she was in with the nurses. But as she was not going into active labour the nurses just left her, waiting.... for more then 12 hours, they checked the babies heart beat and even told her the babies heart beat was going down.... and yet they still left her. After being induced she gave birth to a dead beautiful baby boy. He could have easily lived with a C-Section, which they give in Zambia everyday... but she didn’t know, and the nurses were not offering any other alternative. When we heard the news after coming home from Malawi we were so devastated, and mad at this unfair, cruel circumstance, if they were in one of the private hospitals it probably would be different. Now they are left with no baby, and she is still healing from the birth of her baby boy. Our hearts break for this couple, and we are trying to be a support for them, sharing the little we know of loss, encouraging them to hold on to Jesus, and grieve now, not to put it aside and be tough. Please pray for healing in their hearts, especially Breanne (God knows her real name), pray that they will be blessed with a baby, pray for strength and inspiration.

Last week an older lady told us her grandbaby was very sick, the same age as Taliah, vomiting and diharea for the past two days. That concerned us right away knowing how many babies die of those symptoms everyday. So we took her and the baby to the local clinic closest to us. (the one that is OVER RUN with patients) She had been diagnosted with malaria without a blood slide, meaning a nurse looked at her and said she has malaria, they gave her tablets to be dissolved in water and given for the malaria, but she was just throwing them up. When we took her in vinjelu asked for a blood slide, and the nurse said no they couldn’t do one because the d already given her medication and it would not be visible anyway (which is true) SO WHY GIVE MEDICATION if you don’t know what it really is!!! Since meningitis has very similar symptoms as malaria, and babies can die of that in 48 hours. Vinjelu was also shocked to find out the grandmother thought every man in the clinic was a doctor! Down to the guy emptying the garbage. The implications of this are huge, since she would listen to any of them, believing they are all doctors! Not good.
Anyway, after a few days of treatment and trips to the clinic the baby is on the mend praise Jesus! This story is repeated hundreds of times a day in our area.

Another two reasons we want to get our clinic finished!

We would love to fill the clinic with staff who love the patients, who see them as people no matter the money in there pocket or clothes they wear. Please pray with us for a Doctor who is a Jesus follower, who believes in the healing touch of Jesus and is also a VERY GOOD DOCTOR! We need lab technitions, nurses, receptionist, people who love people!

From Prison to Jesus...
We had two guys come to the base to inquire about our discipleship school, both express their desire to follow Jesus and be in His ministry, we also found out through the sharing and conversation they have both spend more then ten years in jail! I will tell one story at a time ok. First guy who I will call Jeff, shared that he had been part of an armed robbery when he was a teenager, he shared the pressures of being poor and wanting to face up to pressures of looking good at school and having pocket money. He and his friend were interrogated and beat to the pulp asking where the gun was, eventually they lied that a different man had it, out of desperation to get out of the beatings-- that man was killed by the police, an innocent man. He will forever live with that guilt. After being pardoned 3 year ago Jeff became a christian and has been following Jesus ever since. He wants to fight for the rights of prisoners in Zambia, as the living conditions are well below human standards. He shared that the men could never sleep in their cells, they were too full with double the prisoners then the prison capacity. He said the guys would sit up squooshed in the cell waiting for morning when they were let outside where they would stretch out and sleep.
He wants to do DTS with us, please pray for the voice of the Holy Spirit to speak clearly to us during this time of walking with Jeff.

Now for the second guy who came asking about DTS, he wants to devote him self to missions, spreading the gospel of Jesus. I will call him Michael, he was also involved in an armed robbery but he was put on DEATH ROW, to be hanged! Now to put it into perspective, at that time armed robbery was getting totally out of control in Zambia, people were being killed in their homes, women were being raped, etc. So the government came down VERY HARD on armed robbers, even if they were stupid youth. He was a youth when he went into prison on death row, for 10 years he waited to die. He got a review from President Mwanawasa, and he told them he deserved to die, he was guilty of what he did, and he was not going to beg for his life. After his review he was pardoned and freed. He became a christian in the prison, and since his life had been spared he wants to do nothing else but serve God in missions. He also wants to do the DTS we are running in March. Please keep him in your prayers as well. We were talking to him about rehabilitation of prisoners who went into prison as youth and come out as men with no money, education or money. He advocates for education in prisons now, and wants to work with youth who are at risk already, before they end up in prison. Again please pray for wisdom with these two men with hearts to follow Jesus.

And for our last story. There is a man who back in 2001 told vinjelu how he does not feel like a man, he felt like a totally failure, with no job and business always failing for him. His wife had a job, but he couldn’t make anything work. Back then Vinjelu encourage him to hold on to Jesus and one of these days things would turn around, that Jesus hears his hearts cry. We met him yesterday and he gave testimony after testimony, they have been able to renovate their house into a four bedroom house instead for a one bedroom with room for kids and family. They own now a few businesses, and are enjoying blessing on blessing. And he kept reminding Vinjelu what he had said to him year sago, and that he held onto those words for years. It was encouraging to hear that, and it blessed Vinjelu.

Those are all for now, not all our stories but some of them.

Another few prayer points:
Please pray for total health for the Muyaba family.
Pray for the couple who lost their baby boy
For the clinic staff we will need for our clinic
For the rest of the money needed for the clinic
Pray for wisdom for vinjelu and kathryn as they prayerfully accept students for next years DTS.
Pray for those two men who are now out of prison, and are seeking after Jesus.
Pray for the anointing to fall around us, for people to be healed, and transformed!

Blessings to you all.

Vinjelu and Kathryn

Stories from Zambia...

2010-09-20T10:22:00.000-06:00

bad to good

2010-09-15T03:39:00.001-06:00

Blog September 14th evening.

Today I have been thinking of everything horrible, annoying and offensive... and so on. One of those terrible moods I need to snap out of. We have been sick so many times since coming and honestly I have had it today. We found out last night Vinjelu has malaria, and mine still hasn’t gone! I think it’s just the physical getting to me. I NEED JESUS. I NEED the HOLY SPIRIT.
On the bright side vinjelu and I got the thing we need for internet at home, although more expensive then going into town, we have the advantage having it at home now, it’s an air card, soon the 3G technology is coming into Zambia with our network and we will be going to that once it’s here. I also got a bunch of stamps and envelopes to post letters, I wish I could write one everyday, I am going to try and write more, because there are so many people to write to. So some of you special people will be getting letters, especially those who wrote me first! WOOHOO, I love letters.
Anyway, I am looking at December approaching and wishing so much I could be going home to my family for the season, it is deffinately one of my very favorite, I love the build up of Fall into the christmas season. I find my self making different plans to go “somewhere” for christmas. But I think we will stay, vinj and I want to record some of the songs we have been writing, and we would love to be doing that, and maybe we could get one air conditioner to escape to one cold room. Anyway, thats still a few months away, and again like I said, it’s not the best day today : )

Vinj and I picked up the interlocking brick machine today from the university of Zambia! A canadian team came here and paid for it, at the time we were hoping for the team to be making bricks while they were here, but lets face it -- this is Zambia, the only thing you get the straight forward is..... a tomato off the side of the road (over - exagerating...) anyway, so it took from mid july to mid september to get the machine. But WE HAVE IT, and we are using it for the building of the clinic! Which has started, the foundation has started. It is kind of stressful because we really want to do it quality, but also saving as much money as possible, of corse. Which is hard. And then watching every single cent being spent, recording it into the budget and expense reports... etc.

And, we have lights on the out side of our house finally! woohoo! it gets SO DARK here, so you would walk outside hoping your not stepping on a frog, or a lizzard... etc. Wightson our friend did it for us, and now we are all lit up like a street in new york, with power that is.

Tonight vinj and I are on cooking for the whole base, so we are doing chicken and rice and veggies, I was checking on the chicken and adding some sauce to it, as I was sliding it back into the oven something was sticking to the cloth I was using as an oven mit, and it was one of the chicken feet. And it made me smile, not an every day occurance in Canada, the chickens nail caught on the rag : ) haha. Yes we eat chicken, feet and they are good.

I lost 5kgs in 2 week with Malaria, which I am not going to complain about! But it isn’t the best way to loose weight, now Vinj is worried because he wants to keep all the kgs he has, as most of you know : )

I just got a call from my mom and SHE IS COMING IN LESS THEN A MONTH! AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!! Cant wait! I cant believe it!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I couldn’t be happier!

And so ends my grumpy day into a beautiful night, with only three and a half week till my mom comes!!!!!!!!!

WOOHOO!

Stories from kathryn

2010-09-11T08:35:00.001-06:00

What Graval does to vinjelu....
Vinjelu was feeling a bit sick to his stomach one morning when we were going to Sandys creation in lusaka East, a absolutely beautiful peaceful HUGE garden center/lodge, we go to the garden center side where there is a HUGE jumping castle and a very large play ground for kids. So we just sit enjoying the surroundings and watch our kids play and play for hours. Anyway, so vinjelu was complaning about his stomach (I have been sick alot and so have to really pry compassion out of my self for a small discomfort like that... heehee) so I gave him one graval, I contemplated giving him two and see the end of the nausia, but I thought of his body weight and thought better of it. So... I gave him one, he said he had to go the the bathroom, after 20 minutes I was thinking wow he really had to go, then it went to 30 minutes and after, then out he walks I was like wow what happened to you, “I fell asleep!” -- oh my gosh so FUNNY! He was like drunk I am telling you on one graval! It was hot so we went to sit under a big grass hut thing to cool off for a while there he fell asleep in his chair again, I just let him be (except for the time seth bit his toe, he woke up for a few seconds to yell at him) me and the kids left for the park again once a big cloud covered the intense sun for a while. 45 minutes later Vinj found that he was alone in the hut, he came walking up and I had a coffee waiting for him. It was pretty funny, and he felt better, and I am just thankful I didn’t give him two, we may have had to stay there all night : )

Some of the things I am thankful for this week ...

Herbal essence
My grandma J and cousin left Herbal essence behind for us to finish! And the smell just reminds me of something familiar, home, etc. I use to use it all the time since I was a young teenager. I love the smell, I have been grabbing the bottle and just smelling it.

My new phone
My phone goes onto facebook very easily and cheaply, and I can go on all day and see updates from all my friends, I just wish there was a chat function on it, but I am so thankful for this awesome gift! I miss home so much, sometimes so much contact with home makes me miss it more... but I love you all, and drop me lines on facebook I can see them so easily.

My husband
He is my constant some times too much where I should be leaning more on God... but even so vinjelu is there, and I am fine when he is there (I can see I need to lean more into Jesus, but thats where I am now). I love him so much, he’s worked his butt off since we got here, and gone on my little wims here and there. Thank you to all my family for accepting him into our family as yours, he is more amazing then I could have eve congured up some amazing guy. I love him.

Two new appliances in our house.
Coffee maker, and Fan. Need I say more... it is getting VERY hot, so the fan comes around the house where ever we are. We looking at air conditioners, they go from $400- $1000! Cant really bring our selves to spend that kind of money.

Opportunities to give
There are obviously millions of opportunities to give, and we take as many as we can when we are hearing, we try to hear what the Holy Spirit is saying of corse. But we meet some people just in the right time. Let me encourage you, give and don’t look back, God blessing is in our hearts being moved to compassion and love for other. Don’t hold onto your stuff, give freely. It’s actually REALLY fun!

Sandy Creation
I mentioned this place already, but its absolutly beautiful, maybe try to google it for some pictures,I am sure they have a web site. It’s in lusaka.

Ok onto the story about the Doctor who I almost slapped...
So we were going to just some random clinic because vinj just needed a quick physical for his Zambian drivers. So we stopped at this place and in the mean time I said I should check for malaria since my joints were hurting so much the night before (I just thought it was from being tired) So it ends up I did have malaria, which meant I had to see a doctor and all that. So we go in together since Vinj needed to the examination.
In short the doctor got both Vinj and I to take HIV tests for what reason I don’t know, and kept talking about STI’s and so on, when Vinj is just getting a physical, and me getting a prescription for the malaria.
Two days later I was in to get another injection, and I took taliah in with me, I though her symptoms were just teething, but I wanted to be sure she didn’t have malaria. So we had to see that doctor again, in that place he was just being so smirky and giving me thiese looks. I went in and sat down and he said who is tyhe father to that child, and right away I was annoyed because we had told him we ARE MARRIED! Since he was treating both of us like some loose hussies. So I said “YOU MET MY HUSBAND”, he said “no thats not your husbands baby, shes white, that baby isn’t mixed.” of corse I was a bit shocked at first then I said “excuse me?” he said again just incase I didn’t get it “she is white, that baby is white” , I said “you have met my husband, this is his daughter, and our son is HIS son... you are very close to offending me very deeply. WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO SAY!?” Then he just sat there smirking at me, and I said “KUMBA!” meaning speak. And he said it again, shes white. So I said am I done here, so he gave perscription for her runny nose, and chest... of which I have not gien her anything since I knew she was getting better. I left and as I was leaving he said “your not really upset are you?” and I said “Yes I am” he kept saying “no come back come back” so I turned around and said He could appologize tomorrow when I come again. I could see he wanted to just brush it off. I confess now I probably didn’t respond in love or humility... I can see that. I haven’t seen him since and today is my last injection, and I will not be going back there again as long as I can help it.

Stories from kathryn

2010-09-11T08:35:00.000-06:00

half a post

2010-09-10T07:32:00.001-06:00

Blog September 10th

This might be a bit random, I will start with a tip from Africa, as suggested by Lana.

Tip from Africa # 1: When showering in hot water always put a bucket under you because it might not happen again, not only that, but, the water might go all together, so conserve the water from the shower that went into the bucket. After all your kids need a bath too!

Seths new favorite movie: Madagascar! he tries to say Madagascar, but it comes out more like “mada-gs-crr” if I don’t know what he is saying he asks for Zebra. He LOVES zebras, I don’t know why thats the animal he loves, I want to get a painting or a toy for him of a zebra. We have a Zebra print blanket which he loves.

Seths Zambian accent: Seth says his words like this “they-rr” for there. “Way-rr” for where, “they-rr” for there... and so on. “Watta” for water. Very cute.

Taliah is the joker of the family so far, she bugs seth as much as possible, if they are in their seats in the car she flops her leg on him over and over until Seth is finally crying because “taliah buggin me mom!” Or she walks up to him and slaps his face... and then she laughs and seth cries. haha... we are working on the slapping part, not so good. But it’s her character, she laughs often, smiles as soon as she wakes up. She has been going to bed fine and sleeping really well since we got them in their own room again. She is still sleeping in our play pen, she will stay there until we get our baby.

There are days seth leaves for Joannas house and doesn’t come back for 6 hours (we live on the same ywam property)! I have to go over there to see if hes peed his pants, feed him, and so on... they play non stop those two, and taliah joins them some times, but thats when I am with them.
`TODAY they are waiting madagascar at our house because we have a RED ANT infestation up by the main area on the base, so we are hiding in our house this morning.

Malawi

2010-09-02T07:09:00.005-06:00

Almost four weeks without internet! Wow! That hasnt happened for some time!

Will start with the end of our trip. Yesterday morning (wednesday) I noticed Seths eye was puffy a little bit, and it looked like he had bite all on one side of his face. We were driving from Petauke, Zambia to Lusaka, 400 km. Seth feel asleep in the car and I though his eye was getting more and more swollen, but wasnt sure because his eye was closed. When he woke up close to Lusaka his eyes was SO SWOLLEN, all on one side of his face, his nose even is swollen, and all the things I thought were bug bites on his fore head are hive kind of things. So we went to drop off rebecca (our friend who helped with our kids at the conference) and Taliah at our friends place, and went straight to the hospital with Seth, (and I had been feeling sick for a few weeks as well and was getting worse everyday). So we both got checked out.
Unfortunately for Seth he had to have the dreaded Malaria test, Seth came out POSITIVE for Malaria : ( The doctor said the swelling/hives could be from many things, one of them being Malaria, or worms, a reaction to something.... so he is on Malaria treatment, and getting dewormed by medication for the next three days. We found the malaria really early with Seth, and he doesnt even seemed bothered by the swelling, he is just acting normal! Thank God. Really praise Jesus he got the swelling other wise we wouldn’t have gone to the doctor.
As for me I have an infection (urinary) I cant see why I would have all the symptoms I do have with this, but we will see after finishing my medications if I feel better.
So we are home!

Now back to what we have been doing in Malawi.

Our conference was AMAZING! It was a BLT : ) Base Leaders Training for YWAM.
LYNN GREEN was our speaker, a HUGE honor for us (mostly because he had to pay his way to come and speak at our conference and he went away with a bag of coffee : ) Other places would pay for his flight accomidation, and a large monitary gift : ) haha, not where we are. You can google him I am sure he is part of the Team Three in YWAM, the directors of the whole YWAM. Anyway, he is a humble man who love Jesus, and calls us to live by faith. It was really inspiring. One of the main things we came out with was his challenge not to us as YWAM in Africa not to make excuses for being poor, that living by faith doesnt work here and so on, which alot of people believe here, that we are different here because of the poverty. But He challenged us to remember we live in the kingdom of God no matter if we are in an afluent country or poor, Jesus said he would take care of us, and it’s no exception here in Africa. Staff are starting to want to do jobs here and there, or even start funds to be paid to be in YWAM, but one of the basic values in YWAM is to live by Faith and on relational support. Anyway Vinjelu will be writing more on this later.
The food at the conference.... so we had the SAME food everyday, prepared exactly the same!
Breakfast: sausage, fries, and hard boiled egg.
Lunch: Chicken or fish, rice, boiled spinach
Supper: Chicken or fish, rice, boiled spinach

Not a bad diet, only that it was the same, by the third day we were really wondering.... and there was no soya sauce or something, just ketchup! (Rob you wouldn’t have survived!) And it gets to you, but you know what’s funny by the last day we were starting to like the predictability of it, you get used to it and start to like it : ) haha.
We met people from our YWAM region from, Mozambique, Anglola, Malawi, Zambia. It was SO GOOD to meet up with some people we already know and to meet some new people who we grew to love in just one week. Some people had just amazing testimonies of the power of Jesus in their lives going out into their communities! It was really exciting!
After the confrence we were leaving to go to Vinjelus grandmas village. We left a bit late because we were giving two YWAMers a lift close to their base. The seed limits are SO BAD n malawi, you have to drive 50 kmh for 100 km at a time... you know how long that takes!!!!! It took us 6 hours to drive 300 kilometers!
So we got instruction to go to mzimba/boma to the bus depot and ask for vinjelu cousin... and we someone would know her and take us to her house. So we thought the town must be REALLY small. But when we got there we found hundreds of people milling around, the sun was down already, so we couldnt see much, vinjelu we nt and asked abotu his cousin but no one seemed to know her. So we went all the way to the YWAM another 100 kilometers, thankfully though it was mostly an 80 to 100 speed limit. So we got to see another YWAM base, and they had hot water in their showers! WOOHOO! It was SO NICE to shower in a shower! Not a bucket bath. Anyway thats a side note. So we left in the morning to go find vinjelus cousin again, we found out her house was only another 100 meters from where we were parked the night before! haha! Thats life. So we picked up the cousin from town and she came with us to show us where the village was.

We got there and were greeted by vinjelus grandma and relatives. No time to write anymore... later.

here are some photos.

Adoption

2010-08-19T05:43:00.002-06:00

September 7th we are going in for an interview with our social worker to begin the adoption process. After the interview we will be on a waiting list for a new born baby! Very exciting news, we feel like we are pregnant! haha

August 22nd we are leaving for Malawi and long drive, 10 hours if it goes well! We will be at a YWAM conference until the 28th, then off to visit vinjelus grandma which I mentioned earlier.

Here are some photos of the house in the last week or so.

A Long post from vinj and Kath

2010-08-17T05:27:00.000-06:00

From Vinj- I want to go finish making our cupboards right now, and drill holes for the pantry shelves, but I am resisting.... because kath wants to spend time. I find that I am so one track minded, there are so many things I would like to do, like blog for you guys, but I am just thinking about the house all the time. Building the house has given me alot of confidence and it feels good to be able to use my hands and actually be able to make something look good. Ok, I am off now to finish the kitchen cupbords. Sorry more later. Vinj

Everyone is in the livingroom watching Narnia on the “big screen” computer right now, Taliah just went to bed and Seth is snuggled up with great grandma. Everyone meaning, Logan my cousin from Canada and his girl friend Brittany, and my moms mom, my grandma Dorothy. I feel like I havent written in a long time and have thought of lots of stories to write about, and will try and remember some of them. Although Lana told me I could write any old thing and she would love it, so here I go... : )

Not a night goes by that I am not totaly awed by the night sky, it is SO CLEAR, I have always taken some pride in our beautiful clear air around New Norway area with so little polution after being exposed to Torontos discusting air, and Bankoks even worse air in Thailand. BUT- Zambia has skys I have never seen. They are so crystal clear, every single night, and it just lays out there with those brilliant stars, just beautiful, since there are only about 12 million people in a big mass of land, with little infurstructure I guess there is little polution, thats my theory anyway.
I cant really discribe the feelings that roll around in my heart and mind lately, the word I want to use is weird... BUT when ever I use that word I remeber my dad told me along time ago that weird actually means something far worse then what I was using it for, like back in my valley girl days of “What- everrrrr!” (shelby would remember those days, so would suzanne! haha : ) Anyway, I used to say weird alot and my dad told me the real meaning, which I forget, something about witch craft or something, and so since then whenever I say it I have this voice in my head (my dad) telling my not to use that word and to try and think of a better word. So right now a thesaurous would be wonderful, then I could maybe find a word. ANYWAY........... I walk through our house and it doesnt really feel like our hosue yet, but it kind of does... then it feels so much like home in Zambia sometimes it feels like I must be in Canada still only 30 minutes from my family, but I’m not. Hense the really “weird” feelings I am having lately. I am used to Zambia... I think because I have been here 4 times before none of the “Zambia” culture has really fazed me, it just is what it is, and I like it mostly. There is just a feelin that everything isnt whole, or right with my family so far, it feels like they should be very close. I know it doesnt make sense so I will move on.

I got to be in the room with my friend linda while she was in labour with their new baby girl Nchiwemi (chee-wem-ee... thats for Jessica who asked how to say it) Anyway, I was met with a totally different experience then the comfortable Canada labour experience. In Canada the nurses are all about the safety of the baby and the comfort of the mom in labour. With Linda the nurses gave no option of pain relief (which linda didnt ask about either!) When she was saying the contractions where really painful the nurse just said “Good, let them come even harder so your baby can come!” now if you ahve had a baby in Canada you know by then they would be asking if you want morphone, or epidural, laughing gas.. etc, right?! HARD CORE. Anyway, when linda was in the worst peak of labour the nurses were even laughing telling linda to be tough and stop complaining or screaming! I am so appauled! Totally! She was being tough as far as I was consurned NOT having anything for the worst pain in the world. Anyway, in the ned me and lindas mom got kicked out of the room for the pushing and I didnt get to SEE her born which I would have loved. But Linda was a champion, the active labour was only about 3.5 hours (doing it natural really pays off in labour time!) In the end I was scared to have a baby here just because they expect you to be more then super women! AHHH! Nchiwemi was adorable with her squooshy face and dark lips. I havent seen her for a few days and will be paying her a visit today. I still want to see a baby really born, maybe I will have to be a mid wife to really see a miracle like that happen, I guess we will see.
Seth has potty trained himself! He is still having half acidents in his pants then runs and pees in the toilet once he realises. We were only going to train him once we were in the house but he start for the past week and a half, of which I am thankful. Although he is not so good when we are out in town, and there are SO FEW public toilets in town so it is hard.
Taliah is walking confidently now all the time, with a little unsteadieness once and a while, but she catches herself. She is also sayin words like “yes” “dis (this)” “daddy” “mama” and the infatic NO she communicates with the shaking of her head. She find dirt where ever she can and plays in it. I came in from getting diapers to hang in the house tonight and found seth and taliah had got into the last bag of cement in the house while grandma was cleaning up dishes, after I had bathed BOTH of them, taliahs left side was covered in cement! The hair that I had just wshed so nicely was grey... boohoo. Tonight I cut all seths long curls off... reason being ---- it is a HUGE fight to wash his hair even once a week, he cries like I am beating him, when I haven’t even got the shampoo in his hair. SO... today when bathing he said no wash hair mommy! No wash hair! So I said fine then I am cutting it off Seth, and he agreed. If you know Seth you know anything having to do with his hair he HATES, don’t touch his hair, wash it, and above all NEVER try and comb it out. So I cut it, and he cried as if I was beating him... but at least thats it for a month or so. he looks so different I loved his little afro, but it’s gone again.... and will return at a later time.
I’ve been getting used to the little friends we have everywhere here, such as spiders that live behind the toilet, salamanders that live in the vents in the wall, or just live on your wall, and beatles that just show up on the inside of our windows... and I have also gained courage to KILL the ones I dont like, like the grasshopper/spider I saw the other day with bright red in it, that was a instant take-shoe-off-and-kill moment, and those happen alot, especially with little cockroaches and little black spiders hate those things. Anyway, I don’t call vinj anymore and hide on the bed, I just “get er done” my self these days.
I watched the older version of PRIDE AND PREDJUDICE on wednesday all day, it is a 6 hour movie, and I totally LOVE IT! If you liked the new movie and haven’t seen the older one, the older one is WAY BETTER! Believe me --- and watch it as soon as possible ok. I was sucked into that world for a day, having to take breaks to help in the house or with the kids of corse, but I loved it, was a beautiful day with elizabeth bennet and her family. Can you believe Logan and Brittany don’t even know Jane austin, or pride and predjudice! AHHHH! What is the school system coming to! haha... anyway. I want to watch it again with Vinjelu, since he hasnt seen it since high school, and he loved it then too.
If anyone wants to I would love a copy of the book... mine is in a container, and don’t know when it will be here. I am reading another english classic called “Tess of Durbavilles” I am only reading it because 9this is lame guys get ready for it) Vinjelu read the book in high school and fell in love with this character Tess that Thomas Hardy made up, and always hoped he would find a wife with the name Tess... and so I was like WELL THEN, I want to see who this girl is... (lame right) anyway, so I am reading it and have nearly cried twice at the horible things that happen to her, I am like asking vinj what is it you liked about this story! If you havent read it, Tess goes to a rich estate to work like a servant, there the bosses son kind of falls in love with tess in a sick way I would say because she is young, he eventually rapes her, she leaves and finds she is pregnant at like 14 or something, then is discrased in her coomunity, she has the baby,k but then the baby dies and that the part I am at... so really depressing, anf I really feel Tess has nothing on me in terms of character and all that, so I am no longer jelous of Tess, I love her like Vinj did... and I cant wait to read the rest of the story. And I have just tonight realised that Kate my english neighbour here on the YWAM base has the movie that was made from the book! So I will be watching that soon. All to say, WHY DONT they give these books to kids anymore! Thats why they are called classics!
Anyway... I think I’ve been rambling. IN two weeks we are suppose to be going out to Vinjelus dads moms village, so that makes her his grandma also known as GOGO, you say it just like that “go go”. She lives in a village outside lilongwe malawi. So we will see how that visit goes. She is excited to meet me and the kids, and has welcomed us to visit her there.

Will write more another time and will be posting some updated pictures of the progress of the house.

From my bed in lusaka west...

An un-complete post, but it's something right!

2010-08-04T05:34:00.002-06:00

Update from Muyaba Monkeys in Zambia!
We have been in Zambia for a month and a half now, in ways it seems longer I guess, going through two bouts of malaria, building a house, hosting an outreach team, road trip to Livingstone, in and out of town getting supplies, and lots of laughter around the hot coals at the days end!
Over the weekend we heard there was a new grocery store opened and it’s prices were sometimes half the price of all the other stores in Zambia, as a promotion they were having these sales. So on Monday I dragged vinj out of bed on the national holiday in Zambia for who knows what... we went to see Pik N Pay. And it was a mass of people and carts, soon we found out the line out the door lead to the back of the store to the milly meal (corn meal) at the back, costing about $3.50 less at Pik N Pay then anywhere else. Some people came only to buy a bag of this, with a limit of 2 per customer. I could see some people where having their kids get a cart and put some in! : ) Smart parents! We fortunately didnt have the kids with us, so right away we saw we should get in line before we had got groceries even, so vinj went in line and I gathered stuff went back to him when my hand where full and dummped it into the cart. It was a good strategy with people rubbing sholders down the aisles trying to find this or that. it was fun I thought, although we found some very frustrated people who left half filled carts for the parking lot in frustration. Anyway we were able to find deals there and we were thankful, since we had to buy cleaning supplies for our house, buckets for laundry, spices, sugar, tea, coffee... all that stuff that can break the budget when bought at the same time! The base is letting us borrow some things like a table, pots, cups... untill the container comes with some of our stuff, or untill the base needs it again.

12 school children squooshed in the back, baby am-in-als as seth would say....

2010-07-30T06:57:00.002-06:00

so many stories to write when I am away from this lovely mac laptop.... so will try and pry them all out of my memory, or corse the freshest is today... But I wont start at the end, I will try the beginning of our week.

The week started with projects, we had an amazing calgary team at our base, they prepared the land for the clinic project we are heading up, they worked like slaves, serisouly clearing the land with machetes and rakes and shovels. There are alot of teams that come through YWAM bases mostly focused on evangelism, this team was very different and willing to be so relational in base, and with the community closest to us. Some girls school fees where paid for, they got the sewing ladies to make all their gifts to bring home because of that also gave each women projects and income! They also helped out alot at our house, which seems like a never ending project, but really is so close ot being livable. And lastly, the team had some money left, and had prayed and asked God where they should put the money, they left it for the DTS, and you know what!? It covered ALL the fees due for these zambian students! CAN YOU IMAGINE the gift this was to those students! Just amazing! So blessed by them!

We left Lusaka for Livingstone on Saturday, from thursday to friday our car was being fixed and tuned up for the long trip, so we were confident our trip would be safe and good. . . BUT only an hour or so down the road our left weel was cluncking so much we just had to stop. And what we found was....... NO BOLTS ON THE BREAK PADS! Of which we had just replaced and paid for them to be put in! So THANK JESUS we stopped by a BIG truck who was also broke down, one of the guys ran across the highway to who knows where and found two bolts that fit our car! WOOHOO, so we were off to linvinstone again. But all the things delaying us really took a long time, and about 3 hours away from livingstone the kids really started to FREAK OUT, and I am talking about FREAK OUT, I have never seen my kids like that. But.... I can understand they were so tired of being in the car. 500 KM took us 12 hours in the end! It was maddness.

The next day was Safari day, vinj stayed back with Taliah and Seth and I went with the team, I was really excited to see Lions... but, guess what Livingstone doesnt have lions! ALL of us were disapointed. But we saw an elephant family, Giraffe, Impala, wart Hog, and Zebras, Seths all time favorite, "ZEEBA! MOMMY ZEEBA! BABY ZEEBA MOMMY!" He LOVES them, no question there! When we saw the elephants we would tell him "shhhhhhh, ok seth shhhhhhh" and by the end of the trip he was SHHHSHing everyone. it was so cute. He was Such a good boy though!

We took the team to the falls but didnt go in, they wouldnt let me and the kids in for the zambian price, which I have always been able to get being married to vinjelu, but the lady just would not budge! So I was partly offended, but also noticed everyone coming out soaked, and any time we have come to the falls in the season we come out dry... so... we were not prepared for it with the kids especially. So we sat at a beautiful hotel resort place right at the falls, we had drinks and lunch there. AND guess what. the place owns 8 Zebras! Just walking around, so seth was SO happy to see Zeebas again!
That evening we went on a boat ride down the zambezi, and I was praying we would see hippos! And we did, a whle lot of them on the land, and they were amazing, I actually shed a tear cuz it was just beautiful, I dont know why, maybe because they are a wondering and it's so few people who do get to see them. I LOVED it.
That night we went out for dinner with Andreas I was feeling a bit off, but we still went out and I had a steak, the restraunt was beautiful designed! We had a great chat with Andreas and said goodbye to him that night : ( boohoo

At 2:30am that night I got really sick, I mean I felt so horibble, worse then I have ever felt I think, so I jumped to the comclusion I had ecoli from the beef! (I've seen Food inc, recently... so that can scare anyone) And it was the only sickness I could see having with the symptoms. I was in the bathroom almost constantly that night. We went into the clinic that morning and found I had malaria, stage 2, stage four is ceribal malaria, which is REALLY BAD. So it was that strain of malaria. I was ok with it though, I got my first injection of the medication since I was throwing up I needed to get an injection. They also gave me something to sop vomitting, and then hooked me up to the good old IV, an old friend of mine ! : )

Let me tell you right now. If my baby girl can live through malaria, ANYONE can! Ok, so don't freak out if you get it while visiting. I am feeling so much better it's only the 4th day of treatment. So please still visit, don't let these stories scare you away!

On Thursday we came home in a much better time, I think it took us from 5:30am to 12:00pm to get home! Much better right, so I laid down bathed and relaxed. then vinj came into to say we were going. I was skeptical for sure because I was not feeling well at all. BUt I went, and it took about 1 hour to get to this beautiful lodge we are in right now. Just gorgeous here. We are sitting under a thatch roof looking out at some big animal that looks something like a deer, but much bigger. It's a beautiful afternoon on our Anniversary. Vinj is playing soccer, for those who know him, know what I am talking about : )

This morning we had to go find a clinic where I could get my last injection, we drove down the road praying out gas would last, because we were miss lead how far this lodge really was, it was much further, so we were literally running on fumes, way past E! But we found a place in time filled up, then headed back towards the lodge. We were told there was a clinic down the road, so we drove into a farm, and there was so much there even a clinic! A very nice doctor gave me my injection and chatted a bit with us. We also found out there would be a cattle auction on September 3rd, which we may be interested in! So it was a good stop all in all.

Vinj turned off the highway to the road leading to the lodge and let me drive the rest of the way (yeah!) haha an old man asked for a ride down the road to his village, so we said sure! He said it was only 3 km, but we went way further then that and still werent there, and we are trying to watch our fuel since we only had enough money for a quarter of a tank! So after about 10 kms, we left him off ( I know we are suck jerks right!) But before you agree, our left wheel is also giving us trouble again the the road was turning more and more into a foot path... so... needless to say we turned around for the lodge again. We started off and two school kids asked for a ride, so we said sure. The down the road another three asked and we said yes but then another 6 came as well, with a total of 12 grade fives in our 5 seats in the back! haha! It was great. Vinj was giving them a hard time because they are suppose to know english, but he would ask, "how was school?" and one would say "grade five" no "how was school?" " at the gate?" they just didnt know what he was aksing. They were cute and I loved it. We took a photo of it as well so you will see.

Early morning

2010-07-18T08:35:00.001-06:00

6:30am in Zambia Sunday - 10:30pm Saturday
I woke up hearing taliahs rattle she got yesterday, but then really woke up because no one was a awake to play with it. And because I am semi afraid and HATE mice and rats, I can’t sleep anymore, and it just urcks me they get into the room and eat taliahs toys. So I am awake earlier then usual.
There are a few things to write about, some great, funny, scarey, and Hard things happened this week. I will start with the great.
GREAT: Taliah started walking on July 11th! She still crawls too, but is taking more and more steps, her most steps taken at once has been 5 now! Right now her favorite place to walk is between seths bed our bed, about four steps.
FUNNY: We still haven’t started potty training Seth, because of so much change in his life, we wanted to start when our house is a home. So he comes to me with a poopy diaper and asked for me to change him, and we are now 100% cloth diapers, which sux sometimes... and we are OUT OF LINERS! SOME ONE PLEASE SEND SOME WITH MY GRANDMA! SO needless to say, the diaper was very yucky or “sick, discusting” as Seth would say. I had to use a clothe to clean him because we have also been out of baby wipes for three weeks. So I go to the bathroom to get the cloth wet, and sternley tell seth “DO NOT MOVE, OK SETH!” “o-tay mom” As I am turning on the tap and hoping poop doesn’t get all over the bed the water pressure triples and I was like hmmmm, what is this, suddenly the tap flies off and water is spraying everywhere! And alot of it! I knew vinj was kind of around the area of our room, so I yelled as loud as I could for him, then reminded seth DO NOT MOVE SETH! While trying to keep the water mostly going into the sink, I was soaked by the way. Vinj came in and grabbed a bucket to place over the tap, then got someone who knew where it was to turn off the water. and so I got Seths daiper changed finally, and the tap was fixed, but I am a little scared to turn it on now : )
Scarey: Yesterday, vinj and I and two guys from the calgary team were walking down the road to go try and ind our plumber, because we didnt have his number. while walking on the road I was thinking “as a pedestrian you are so exposed to the drivers, anyone coudl just vear off and kill you just like that. only seconds later a Rav4 came speeding down the road and turned to aim right at us walking, I was so scared I jumped into the ditch! The guys vered away just before hitting us. I was so scared! I was shacking for a while after. We found him on our way back and vinj gave him a tune out, he was obviously drunk or high.
Hard: Starting on the day Taliah walked she had a fever, but Seth just had a fever for three days last week and he got batter each day, so I wasnt very worried about it, I just gave her tylenol and watched her, but on her third morning she had a bad fever and was not eating, it was definatley getting worse. So we took her in that morning to a clinic and found out she has malaria. Now the clinic experience was terrible! You go to the front desk say you want to be seen, then you go to the cashier and pay the fee, hen you go sit and wait for the doctor, and then see the doctor, then you go sit and wait for the lab, then the lab will tell you they dont take blood from babys so go to room 3, then you will go to room three and be met by an arrogant rough nurse who makes your kids cry before she even touches them. It took her three tries to get blood from Seth and he just looked at me like why arent you doing anything about this mommy. Then it was Taliahs turn and on her third try into her arm and moving to needly around I told her to take it out and forget about taking her blood... I was pretty upset at her roughness and lack of care for the kids in there. so she sent us back to the lab to get just her thumb pocked for the malaria test. Seth wouldnt com down so I put him on my back and walked around until he settled down, but him arm was brused and cut a little by the needle! oh right I forgot, we had to go to the cashier two time in between all this and pay for the tests. Then you sit and wait, the doctor saw us and told us she had malaria, which I was shocked, I jut didnt think it was... and I tried not to freak out. So, then we go to the pharmacy they tell us what we need give us a bill then we had to go pay for it, then go back and get the meds. And then we could leave. And in order to get the parking spot we did we had to give the parking attendant 5000kw for a drink : ) Different way of paying for parking.
The next few days were hard to see her in pain, and were also exausting. She stopped having a fever on Friday morning, then she was really badley constipated and almost cried straight for 15 hours, we got a stool softener and finally friday night she pood! Sorry lots of information! Now she seems to be getting alot better.

a post by kath

2010-07-07T02:43:00.001-06:00

I just came from going to the washroom, which although is the same thing you do everywhere- is very different from waltzing into a comfortable and relaxing room to “do your buisness” in. When I push open the door slowly into the guest bathroom I quickly look around for a rat first, and if that is clear, I look for the huge spider (about 2.5 inches from one end to the other) living somewhere in the bathroom, then the lizzard who also lives in the bathroom... once it’s clear I try and wee as fast as possible, as I squat over the toilet (because there is no toilet seat to be comfortable on, probably because there wasn’t the $15 needed for the seat at the time) I remember and am thankful for all the times I could sit with ease in warmth, with a toilet seat and no creatures in sight, because who wants to be watched while in that private place right! Now the bathroom is not dirty, these creatures just stay around here I guess.
Anyway, I have had a very grumpy day today, I guess I have been feeling sick too so that probably contributes, I think it is also because it’s cold and I cant find my hoody without ripping open all our bags again that I nicely put away last night, so I just opted to be cold then mess up the whole room again to find “that thing I cant find anywhere, but swear we packed!”. That happens about three times a day, goes something like this... “VINJ! WHERES THE TYLENOL!?” “I dont know.... look in the black bag”... “ITS NOT THERE!”... “try the grey bag then” , “ITS NOT THRE!”- and so it goes until we have looked in all 7 bags and come out with NO TYLENOL! But I know it’s there somewhere. So all those precious little things I cant find I surely hope they show up when we unpack into our house. Another thing making me grumpy was the holiday happening in Zambia on monday and Tuesday this week... we are in a crunch time to get out of the guest room and into our house, and TWO DAYS OF NO SHOPS OPEN is setting us back ALOT! It’s a city of 2 MILLION PLUS, but everyone STILL SHUTS DOWN! AYSH! Anyway, so... I am getting over that, because tomorrow we are off early in the morning to get some things we are needing for the house, and lets hope they are opening bright and early.
One more thing I will complain about - but no more on the list I promise after this, I was feeling sick like I said and after a fairly unproductive morning in town I came home wanting to crawl into a hole away from everything, so I laid on the bed, and low and behold everyone on the base gathered where we always do, on the stairs in front of the guest room door... and chatted and laughed, really where I could have been enjoying with them, but I wanted to just lay down and escape I guess... so I laid there grumpy and wishing I could escape into comfort. Eventually I fell asleep for a while which was nice. Now as I write this I am ALONE, I didn’t have a kid in my arms, mine or someone else! WOW! I am not sure what Seth is doing now, but he is finally not clinging to me, and I had a moment to come and write, and am listening to some of my favorite songs. The one that is on now is called “Small enough” By Nicole Nordeman, talking about God seeing me, the first line is “oh GREAT God be small enough to hear me now”, and dont we often think of God like this... in some ways I have been feeling like this, another line is “ tonight I do not need a firey pillar in the sky, I just want to know you’re going to hold me when I start to cry, oh Great God be small enough to hear me now”.
And I know He is, and that is the truth. I know He sees me, and I also know HE is more then enough of everything I need. And how amazing it is to live out the gospel here in Zambia, no big fancy story as of yet, but loving people is great isn’t it. I wish I could just instantly speak Nyanja, there are so many women I would LOVE to just sit and have tea with, but I know they don’t understand half of my nyanja because I am probably getting all the grammer wrong in my sentence, and then they only understand %40 of my english... so makes for alot of misunderstanding, or no understanding : ) haha. I am learning new things everyday though, but I cant wait to actually know what people are totally saying and be able to talk back.
I think I am some how looking into some of their eyes looking for my best friend... I so want a close friend like that here, makes being away from all my great friends so much easier. I haven’t found that kindred spirit yet, but I know I will. The funny thing was in Canada I started hanging out with Andrea from wetaskiwin I found such a kindred spirit in her and we left only 2 months later! SO SAD! But I know that can happened anywhere, so I will keep on the lookout for such a friend. I think supper is very soon, so I will need to go now, I think it should be good, most nights it is good... oh there goes the bell. Talk to you all another time.

Kath

The last Week

2010-07-04T07:28:00.003-06:00

Last Saturday we packed up the kids and met Tobi and Chuma to go to baby Vinjs grave sight. It was so sad... not only his grave but hundreds of fresh abby graves spreading over the land. There wasnt much to say, there really is no hope in it, He died and the hope born with his life is gone, and sometimes that is just life. It was so sad thinking of all the dreams we had for him and the moments we couldn’t wait to share with him, are gone forever, which is so hard to except. The hardest part was when Seth put his little toy story book on the grave and I lost it thinking of all the things Seth and baby vinj were going to have share. After putting flowers and having some moments to think and cry we went to the bak of our car and had a picnic. It was a good day, and I was glad we shared it with Tobi.
Sunday we brought Tobi and chuma to arcades were tobi was meeting his new boss and would be off to Samfia a wapping 800 km from lusaka, very far from us. So we spent the morning together, then said goodbye, I was sad for Seth because he had bonded very quickly with uncle tobi and was yet again saying goodbye to an uncle (selfish I know).
Monday to Friday we were in class with the Students doing a school on the YWAm base facilitating the teaching on relationships. It was a good week in that sense. After class everyday we either went into the hardare shops to pick up supplies or were working on the house. I hope to post video and pictures of the development.
Saturday, which was yesterday we worked all day, and almost got one of the doors in, but will probably go in today, the metal door frame was a little bent... Andreas our friend from Switzerland and I started laying the red brick for the counter tops to sit on.
Today is Sunday, and we are actually at church right now, it’s been almost 2 hours and the service is still going, Seth was finding it hard to be still and quiet anymore so I am in the car with him until church is done, writing this! : )
Church here is so hard sometimes, today the pastor is preaching about God giving you what ever you ask for because he loves you, and it just doesnt go with the gospel I have experience and know. I know the Jesus that said LOVE you enemies, BLESS those who persecute you, When you gain your life you loose it, when you LOOSE your life you will find it. That our plans are not Gods plans, and our thoughts are not Gods thoughs... it just doesnt go with what he has been preahcing for 1.5 hours, the people are into it, it’a all a prosparity gospel, like christianity is 1 +1... you become a christian and you get anything you want.... nice car, pregnancy.... so what about people who dont get pregnant or don’t have a BMW! I honestly was glad for the break with Seth, I was tired of hearing Gods word twisted.
Vinj and I are still hoping to find a church home, but so far not really feeling it. Maybe we will plant a church... (anyone interested?)

We will probably be moving into the house by July 12 I would think, this is hoping!
So far it is just still settling on the base and getting the house done. Look on facebook for photos and videos, hoping to get them on there today!

I always try to remember the funny stories from the week, but I always end up forgetting! There is one the other day, vinj and I were at a big hardware store outfront, vinj went inside to buy our doors and try and get some cement, and there were three “loiterers” standing infront looking at me and the kids openly and saying quietly in Nyanja, “is it her husband, or her driver?” “no he’s her driver” ... and so one, I turned and looked at them and said “he’s my husband” also in nyanja and I told them to look at my kids! ... and they were like Oh.... pretty embarrassed, they asked if I speak Nyanja and I said yes (which isn’t really true... but they stopped talking about me and vinj)
This is unfortunately one of the things vinj was not looking forward to people not respecting him because they think he is my worker or something, but it is alot better this time with our obviously mixed kids.

Thats all for now.

Vinj will write here soon, he has been so busy working on the house though! You will hear from him at some point.

Play, eat, sleep, work, laundry... and again

2010-06-24T11:37:00.000-06:00

Between 6am and 6:45am we wake up, get the kids dressed in warmer clothes because the morning is chilly, then release them to play for a while. at 7am breakfast is served usually consists of bread, peanut butter and tea and some times oats as well. I love the tea in the morning! The kids dont eat much of that breakfast so I usually get some of our yogurt out and have them eat some of that. After breakfast Seth PLAYS and PLAYS and PLAYS, right now he has his Mcqueen and king cars in the charcoal which was a fire last night. I just take his pants off because he gets VERY DIRTY by 11am he is ready for a bath, but he only gets that after supper. Taliah does her fair share of playing in the dirt, although for the last few days she has been having a nap at about 10am.
There are many young people around here doing outreach and a training school, all of them adore the kids, and they are started to like the young people as well.

Vinj and I are doing two majour things, as a base we are applying for a grant from the Japan embassy for the clinic to be built here. So I have been doing administrative things for this, and vinjelu is getting quotes for everything from three different places, this is not a small job AT ALL!
Also our house, there have been guys here since tuesday laying tiles on our floor, hoping they will finish up tomorrow. Wightson vinjelus best friend will also be finishing up the elctrical by Saturday. Vinjelu and I have been working on the plumbing, digging out a ditch for the pluming pipes to go from the bathroom and the kitchen, also filling in the walls for the septic tank, the DTS did a WHOLE lots of work before we came as well digging out the septic tank etc. After work like that I was in bed by 7pm last night! haha!

So the rest of the week looks like that for us. The kids seem to b good health wise yesterday and today, Taliah is cutting a tooth today though and is not too happy. She has now cut three teeth all together one bottom one and both top ones. I will get a picture if I can.

On top of the clinic and house we have an outreach team coming from Canada we are hosting, and need to get on top of that!

Vinj and I got to lead worship and share the word on Tuesday night at the base community meeting, and it went really well. Only I had to leave when vinj was sharing because both kids cant really make it past 8:30pm without melting down, getting up so early!

Am going to edit some pictures and hope to post some today on facebook.

Monday

2010-06-21T02:55:00.002-06:00

Vinj and I are in town ordering things for the house. Tiles, and guess what! We got tiles for the price we didnt think would be possible, we prayed and asked God and we got them for about $22 per 2 square meters! WOOHOO! Also got a toilet, basic and sink also basic! : )

Vinjelu and I are going to be laying red brick for our counters, and just lay wood over top for the counter top. So we will be looking for some red Brick for this as well! Should be kinda fun, although I've never done anything like it.

We are doing ok, there are challenges Vinjelu is obviously better then me this is his home, and it's so different for me. Most of all I miss my mom and dad, I wish they could come here half the year and just be with us.... That is next on my list of prayers! So how am I mom...?
Well it depends dont he moment... sometimes I look around and am so overwhelmbed by it all... and others I am happy and excited. I miss my family and am sad every time Seth asks for his mama or papa or aunty and uncles. When the kids were throwing up I was so distressed, I hate that it has to happen, but we met another fmaily the wife is American and they have two kids coloured like ours, both around our kids ages, they said all four of them puked for 2 weeks in the beggining of being in Zambia, they have been here for 4 months now and said they are all very good now. So I look forward to that. And I also look forward to getting to know this couple. Once our house is livable I think things will settle and we will feel much better.

Mom come visit soon...

Settling

2010-06-20T03:06:00.002-06:00

We been here in Lusak for three days now. We have been quite tired, but have managed to stay up everyday and go to bed at night, we only had one night the kids woke up at 3am laughing, and seth went to the door asking to go play outside, asking if we would "please open door!"

Friday we went into town to check out flooring and were met with kids throwing up in the car! So we tried to as quickly as possible to go back home but pick up some food in the mean time, but in a city of 2 million plus... it takes some time to get from one place to the other.

We mostly stayed at home on Saturday, it was a beautuful day, the kids played outside all day. Both seemed to be fine, no more throwing up.

It's so different here, I think a flight is to fast (even though it takes 2 days to get here) you fly and come into such a different place... seeing poverty all around, we saw a little boy wondering the streets with no arms, trying to manage holding an orange with the stumps... old women sitting all day on the side of the road chipping away at a huge rock to sell gravel in small bags. There are of corse thousands of these pictures we pass everyday, makes coming here hard, but also meaningful. Seth says hi to everyone we pass bye, he brings joy into their faces, I knew having kids would break the ice and bring a common ground.

Today we got to pick up tobi and drop him at the bus station, he will be going to work until tuesday. We came into town with a DTS student called claire, she is from Virgina, usa. We are here at the market and doing internet. We were going to go to church, but all of us woke up feeling sick and didnt quite know if we would make it through, but I think after eating we are feeling a bit better,

Go to face book for more pictures!

First Day in Zambia

2010-06-20T02:53:00.004-06:00

After a long flight from London to Zambia including 4 straight hours of crying from your delightful daughter we made it.

We were met with very friendly immigration officers, all of got to go through the Zambian line, the kids were let in the country with no problem and no visa! I had to get a visa though, and only one month... so we have to try and sort out my immigration, but may need to get another visa for a month, since these next two weeks will be devoted to getting our house livable.
On our first day we went straight from the airport to buy car seats for the kids, our first Zambia experience very different from our consumer society in Canada there are only 2 or 3 to choose from quiet low quality but they cost $200! AHHHH! So we didnt buy one, Taliah has been sitting on my lap in the back in my seat belt. We did finally find one for Taliah later in the day, although it’s more Seths size, so we will be going out again today for a second look.
After looking for a car seat we came to the YWAM base, and what a beautiful site! Our house is there although plumbing and electrical is still not done, our septic tank has been dug out by the students here! so it’s all ready for plumbing. Vinjelu and I will be working on getting a floor in, today and tomorrow we are looking into the best and most cost effective option for this.
Seth got to play in the pile of dirt from our septic tank, and loved it. He also got to see chickens get caught, killed, and de-feathered! He was very fasinated and walked after the ladies asking questions. After it was all don he looked up at me and said “mom, chicken hurty?” haha, yes just a little bit.

He had fun though, at the same time Taliah was chilling with her aunty Chuma eating raw sugar Cane on the step. They both bonded with Tobi and Chuma quite fast! We didnt really get to see wightson and linda much yet, vinjelus best friend, but we will today I think.
There are lots of people on the base right now, so am trying to figure out who is visiting, who is a student, and all that.

It’s so alive here, people everywhere ! Lusaka is developing so much shocking! I am so glad we are living out i the country, so quiet and beautiful!

We are up today at 6am, Seth has a cough, it’s quite cold at night but hot in the day, he never does really well with that. We are also going to look for a heater today so we can regulate the room temperature for the kids.

Seth doesnt understand we are in a different country of course, he was asking for his papa to drive instead of daddy, and for his cousin sophia, and of corse wanted know why mama wasnt here with us. Makes for some sad moments. But he is very happy, he just keeps asking to play, and yells out out hello to everyone we drive by, we drive by alot of people slow with some of the roads being very rough. Everybody thinks the kids are wonderful, of corse : ) haha

Anyway, it’s back to bucket baths for now, thankfully we got some hot water this morning, so I am going to go and bath since it’s been 4 days since my last one!

Traveling

2010-06-16T07:51:00.002-06:00

A photo of us with mom and dad before leaving for Zambia

Well it feels like it's already been forever since I slept, but I guess we haven't been in a bed since Tuesday 7:30am... really cant wait for it, and probably wont be in a bed until Thursday evening!

Anyway, we are having a good time, currently need some coffee!

Untill next time!

family

2010-06-15T00:40:00.002-06:00

I knew leaving my family for a longer time would be hard... but the reality is just very painful.
Not much more I can say about it right now.
The nights meet me with many tears, and the days with impossible goodbyes.

I love you Daddy
I love you Mom
I love you Rob
I love you Lana
I love you Emma
I love you Elizabeth
I love you Sophia
I love you Titus
I love you Michael
I love you Victoira
I love you Kaden
I love you Ava
I love you Andrew
I love you Daniel

And I will hold onto the advice dad gave me tonight...
"Turn your eyes upon Jesus, and the things of this world grow strangely dim..."

Off to Zambia in 4 days

2010-06-11T10:33:00.002-06:00

Back to blogging again!
This will be the place to find our funny, sad, and quirky stories while we're in Zambia!

This week has been a weird one, I know I am tired and a little stressed because I am sick every night and morning, which is apparently how my body responds these days to such things. Visiting lots of people in a short time, saying goodbye, and seeing family as much as possible. Last night I packed two of our bags, I am as so many travelers often are worried about how much overweight we may be paying at the airport! We are thinking of taking the bags that are packed to Grey Hound and weigh them there, and since my very own friends own it in wetaskiwin I don't think that will be hard! So we will see by tonight what our two packed bags weigh.......

I still need to finish packing Seth and Taliahs bags, but before I can finish I need to finish the laundry, which seems like a never ending job, (like most moms say I guess), I dont think theirs will be very heavy though.

Count down of four days untill we fly out...

Friday- Today
Early this morning vinjelu woke up to watch the first two games of the world cup at uncle Kens who lives down the road from my parents house. He was disappointed with the commentary guys, who I guess were obviously rooting for Mexico and not South Africa. The match was a draw at SA 1 MX 1. He may be going back for another game, but right now our kids are dissolving in tears, and I don not feel well today. So he may need to for go that one.
So on with the day, weighing the bags, and we were suppose to go see my dad today, but he may be too busy for this. so part of the day is up in the air. But we will finish packing two more bags, and almost be done for leaving, although there are a few things we need to buy, like converters to plug our computers into! So dont want to forget that!

Saturday
Our family is probably coming out for the day to say goodbyes, if we can I would like to make it to my friends baby dedication in wetaskiwin, we will see if thats possible! So it's a family day.

Sunday
Sunday is the day we will probably see my dad for a few hours... so the day is dedicated to this.

Monday
We need to go into Edmonton to pick up Seths new passport! It is coming in the day before we leave! AHHHHH! It better be there. They aid it would be barring Seth having any criminal record... so I am thinking he is going to pass that scrutiny, although I guess you never know since moms never really know what their boys are up to... thats what they say anyway... : ) joking.
We will be packing the vehicle for the airport, and buying last minutes things, like a new battery for our laptop... it only lasts 45 minutes or so and it's suppose to last 4 hours! So we need a new battery.

Tuesday
I am not sure what we're doing the morning, I dont really want to be waiting at home I think though.... we will probably have a nice breakfast hopefully stress free in the morning, and take off for calgary, have a stop in Red Deer (my favorite city besides Camrose) and onto the airport. Our flight leaves at 9:30pm, we want to be there 4 and a half hours early for getting our bags on and our computers on, and want to time to be able to move things around if needed. and since we have to leave 3 hours earlier then that to get to calgary we will be gone around Lunch time!

We leave at 9:30pm from calgary to London, and arrive 8 hours later, at about 1:00pm London time, we have a 6 hour lay over in London, which should be fun actually! I like airports and so does vinj, so it should be fun.

Wednesday
We fly out of London at 7:00pm directly to Lusaka, Zambia.

Thursday
After a 10 hour flight from London we arrive in Zambia at 6:10am! A nice early start to the day, hoping for the kids to sleep through that flight and come ready for the day in Lusaka!
We are not sure who is picking us up, since it is a work day and quite early pick up time, but I am sure it will be someone we love and can't wait to see.

So thats it for now...
May blog again before we leave.

Please pray for good travels, safe travels, health for all of us, transition for our family and extended family, and for our luggae to make it safe with NO COMPLICATIONS!

Thanx all, love to you
muyabas

Lately ...

2010-03-09T10:49:00.003-07:00

One very exciting development in my life is my new camera and lenses!
I got a Canon 50D, and a 24-70 F/2.8 Sigma lens. And a portrait Canon 50mm F/1.8, I LOVE both of them. I bought these for the EPOH Photography business I am starting up in Zambia.
Here are some photos from the new camera!

I was staying with old friends in BC last week in the beautiful mountains, although I didn't notice he mountains much because there were TOO MANY adorable little babies and kids to adore the whole time! One of the days we went to go see my friends parens new house and buisness, there were five moms all friends there and we had 13 kids under 5 there! Haha, right in the middle of a house under construction! It was awesome : ) I had an amazing time, we just sat a talked and talked and talked, it has always been natural with these friends, you dont run out of things to say, and I don't think I ever will.

Fridays Favorite Five

2010-02-26T12:48:00.008-07:00

NuMba One: Music
I love how there is a song for almost every moment, there are times silence is the most beautiful sound of corse. But I love Music, vinjelu put some Hip-hop and ragge albums on our computer last week (from DJing at a local radio station that plays way up in northern Canada) I LOVE this guy called "PAPA SAN", he's from Jamaica!
Anyway, awesome music to get you going while cleaning, waking up, or just a good fun evening.

Also love those relaxing albums like Nora Jones, just soothes the moments, makes cooking supper seem romantic with her music in the back ground.

NuMba Two: Friends
This week we have had someone over every night, just stopping by, we LOVE it! How precious it is to love and be loved! Our kids always love the company and other "aunties and uncles" to play and cuddle with. The company is amazing, and the times will always be remembered.

NuMba ThrEE: My Kids.... this might always be one my list
Seth is 2 years and almost 2 months old. Taliah is 7 months old. They are my daily joy. Seth is gaining so much more independence in everything, he is saying more then 4 new words a day, I can't even keep up with all his new words! Taliah is the most curious baby I've ever known, once she starts crawling I am going to be on majour baby watch, as shes putting absolutely everything in her mouth, and wants to touch everything. Seth was not like this. They both have loads of character, and everyday is a new adventure with them, even if all I get done is a few e-mails written, and laundry done!

NuMba Four: Rice
I am thankful for rice, because it is one of the only things my son will eat everyday. And it takes away some stress I have for my sons eating habits!

NumBa Five: I always feel like number five should be this amazing thing, you know the last one, go out with a bang....
I am exremely thankful for my marriage!
Vinjelu and I have been going back in our memories to our young love back before we even dated and remembered all those sparks flying, it has been so beautiful and precious to go back in our memories and share those moments again, mostly late at night once our kids are fast asleep..
I love this, and brings back those beautiful feelings from the beginning. I am making a little book writing down these memories, because details do seem to fade.

The daily grind

2010-02-23T09:43:00.004-07:00

Recently I've been forgetting appointments, e-mails, things I am suppose to do, and it is so frustrating! I don't know where my mind is. I have been feeling sick since October 2009, mostly every day, and recently all day, nausia, shaking, and dizzy. I can be sitting on the couch and feel like I am in the air sideways... very strange feeling, which I think is affecting my daily grind kind of things! So weird, anyway, no news on what it is yet, I have more testing to be done.

I have been writing music, which I haven't done in along time by my self, it's refreshing. I think the song coming out could be a love song for vinjelu, which would be nice, love songs are so hard to write I think because you want them to be so perfect...

Anyway, also been struggling with some people not knowing who I really am, being judged and put into a box, it's surprising how much that can hurt. But it's also make me appreciate my friends and family that do know me and vinj and love us through it all. Thank you to YOU for that!

If you think about us please pray for us.

On a bright side I am going to BC to visit my great friends Nici, Shelby, and Marrissa, and meeting other great people for 5 days. Shelby has 3 boys and Nici has 2 boys, so Seth will have a blast while we are there. I haven't seen them since my wedding basically besides a short meeting in red deer before seth was born. We got to go for free actually with a west jet credit we got back in July last year! I am a bit nervous to fly with both kids alone... but I know will survive, with sanity is in question.
Vinjelu will be alone obviously for these days : ) That hasn't happened in a long time, but I think he is looking forward to it in some ways, he gets to do music for hours in a row, which is really the way it needs to be done! If you think of him, drop off some supper : ) haha.

Just a quick post, will be back another day,

Lately ...

2010-02-16T15:59:00.011-07:00

We cut Seths afro off, we loved it, but alot of people would come and touch his hair and he did not like that, and my brothers dog would come and bite his hair, even the dogs couldnt resist touch those locks! He would also cry the entire time I combed it out... So we cut it all off, and probably will keep doing that until he's a bit older to understand.

Heres our little girl, almost 7 months old now, sitting up, and trying to crawl, but not quite getting it. She says dada, and mama, and tata and baba : ) The second picture is of her asleep in her excersaucer, shes the sweetest thing!

Here is Elizabeth holding Taliah, they have a special bond, as did Seth and Liz too. Taliah always falls asleep on elizabeths little lap. We were spending the night with my nieces and nephew while Rob and Lana went to Red Deer for their anniversary. We had lots of fun!

Taliah has discovered music in her soul! She responds as soon as you pay the guitar in particular, she LOVES the sound, and as soon as you bring it close to her, she pats the guitar, and strums the strings. Although Seth really liked the guitar too, you can see she really has a love for the sound. Seth is more into drums.

I finally convinced Vinjelu to shave all his facial hair off, after 5 years of asking! haha! And he looks so different, but still my hansom man! I personally love it. More photos to come, we took these last night at 1:30am ! I guess I could convince him so late, we have decided to do more random fun things, just because it's fun!

We got Seth a Lighting McQueen Thermos Sippy cup (it keeps the milk cold for up to 12 hours!) on valentines day, and HE LOVES IT! This has been a success, getting seth off the bottle during the day, he still gets one before bed, but yet another mile stone passed, and our boy growing up...

I recently got a new journal, I hadn't quite finished my last one, but I felt this year has SO many changes, that I just wanted a brand new one to start afresh. I love journaling, and since I stopped studying I have had time to jot some thoughts and prayers down early in the morning before the kids are up, and I cherish those moments with jesus and the pages in front of me.

Here is a BIG, Beautiful mug vinjelu bought me a couple weeks ago... I know it's lame to like a particular mug, because lets face it, what you drink it what you drink no matter what you drink it out of right... but notheless I love it. Especially since it was from my sweetie.

Fridays Favorite Five

2010-02-05T14:34:00.006-07:00

My mom does this on her blog every week, and I think it's a great way to remember what you LOVE about life.

Top five favorite things this week...

NuMba OnE! My Husband

Vinjelu. There are so many things that come to mind when I write his name, he is an amazing catch, and I am not the only one who thinks so : ) Some girls missed out, of which I am THANKFUL! haha!
Vinj is serious, quiet, loud, funny, SLOW, thoughtful, wise, HUMBLE, gentle, direct... there are alot of things he has like gentleness but at the same time he is direct, which makes it so much more easier to hear the truth from him.
Vinj is amazingly talented, last week we preached at church again, and challenged our friends to run after God with all their hearts, he is always writing music/lyrics, he is also becoming an amazing singer, he has this sweet tone to his voice that I LOVE! I see him everyday loving on his kids.
And you know what I love most about vinjelu, it's the same thing that drives me crazy sometimes... He is not here to impress anyone, to be this super productive successful man, yesterday I was in a rush and questioning how productive the day had been (as always... Lord help me with that!) and I was trying to rush vinj, and he said "why do you always have to compare us to others, we are not about that stuff.?" And that brought me back to earth, or should I say the kingdom of God. I am glad he has this treasure in him, he often pulls me out of the worlds eye and into the kingdom of God, where things of the world just don't make sense, and where we don't make sense in the world... Anyway, i love that.

NuMba TwO Inspirtation

This Family has devoted their lives to Jesus totally, and to mozambique. I have been listening to testimonies from them over the last few days, and it's just incredible, as you may have read in my last post. Recently Rolland was dying he doctors told them to bring their kids back home to say goodbye to him, I know the seriousness of his condition is true because my friend sherilyn just got back from mozambique and saw him like this. You can find on you Tube a video of his testimony, where ROLLAND is sharing how he was HEALED totally...
go here... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5NbSb9EmsIo
Just so inspiring.

NuMba ThReE How Life is so crazy funny

So as vinj and I have really given God total control, and have chosen to TRUST HE IS OUR PROVIDER. We have two people who support our missions, one gives $50 a month, the other gives $250 a month. We got a call a few days later from the $250 and said he wouldnt be able to support us anymore. And vinj and I just laughed, vinj said he expected it, kind of like Jesus is going to be wiping the slate clean, then writing a whole new story... at the same time we found out to finsh our house we need $7000 more then what we have any means of saving. SO, life is crazy and throws curve balls all the time, BUT God is good, and life is an adventure with him... so, come what may!
: )

NuMba FoUr my Bed
I love our bed, most nights I fall into bed thinking, there is no place like this... I guess anyones place of rest is wonderful, I also know most of the people in world don't have beds, and I count it a huge blessing while I have one, and am thankful for every night spent in it. I was thinking last night I should really phone Markus and Lenora and tell them thank you again for that wonderful mattress. And thank you to mom and dad for the memory foam. We've had it for 4 years... but I still love it all the same.

NuMbA FiVe Quiet moments
I love those moments at night when everything is winding down, and it's just vinj and and I laying on the couch talking about the day, or probably how cute Seth is. haha. Life is so good laying in your mans arms just chillin, and in those moments there is real rest. And with a mind like mine that is a HUGE accomplishment. Vinj helps me slow down, and I need it.

Also would like to say I love my parents more and more, they are amazing parents, but even more amazing friends...

Living Crazy Lives = following Jesus....

2010-02-03T09:19:00.006-07:00

Yesterday I looked up some youtube videos of Heidi Baker, I guess I was looking for some encouragement and challenge, while I had a quiet moment with Seth napping.
It's so easy to be cynical about these ministries and brush them off because the people doing them are so crazy. I mean crazy! I have never seen a ministry that doesn't say no to orphans coming into their home because they BELIEVE that GOD IS MORE THEN ENOUGH for all of them. And guess what... HE IS! Instead of paying for medical bills, you pray and see total healing, instead of people going hungry and everyone eating a little, God MULTIPLIES the food, and feeds everyone till they're full.
When they go to minister to a village of muslims, they don't preach the gospel first, THEY LIVE IT. They ask for the sick to come up and be healed, and when they are, the people believe and hear the good news with open hearts... now that's a new strategy for church!
My husband's heart was drawn to Jesus after he saw a miracle... because you SEE God move, you KNOW He is for real.
In South Africa Vinjelu and I prayed for alot of people. We saw a man healed of AIDS and a boy healed of an absessed tooth. We prayed for a boy who was being sexually abused and physically abused by an uncle, and the abuse stopped just like that. We prayed for a guy who was unemployed and very poor, and he got a job.
All these people couldn't deny that GOD IS REAL.

So why do we beat people with words, and music here... is there so little relationship and faith for miracles? God is hungry for our faith, and our prayers.

The way they do ministry at Iris ministries with Heidi and Rolland Baker is BY FAITH, and it works. It's a crazy life for sure. But if you read the scriptures, isn't that what it is? Just read Matthew chapters 5 to 7... so many challenges, and life styles that are SO contrary to our culture, that we don't often talk about.

Vinj and I want to live like this, when we say God is our provider it doesn't mean that when we have no money coming in and we scramble desperately for any means. We are children God. Maybe if we don't have enough food He will just give us more. (Sorry to our family who will worry about us, and feel free to call us crazy) But there is SO MUCH MORE to life, and loving Jesus. And we want it, and we want it for our kids as well.

I can't express this to the max, but I say this.... when we do seem to be doing something crazy, please support and continue to love us - either in spite of it, or in support of it.

For example, with or without our house finished we are going to Zambia, God has soken this very clearly to us. With or without beds, a car, or money, we are going to Zambia. And we believe we WILL see God change lives, and have an AMAZING adventure with Jesus and our kids!

Also if you need prayer, or healing, give us a call and we would love to come over and pray for you. When we ask, God moves, the Bible says it like this... Ask and you will receive, seek and you will find, knock and the door will be opened.

I'm not 20 any more... right?

2010-01-29T23:17:00.010-07:00

One of my most favorite things about life right now is having my AMAZING friend Margot around.
She is from Cape Town, South Africa and we have been waiting for her to come for nine months, she finally got the work permit through. It' SO FUN to have her around every week!
We are the same age, she is actually older then me by a few months. Anyway, Margot is single, and VERYU FUN, full of life. which everyone loves including me!

Being around her has made me think and evaluate my self more, I think because we had so many good times in South Africa back in 2004, when I was single with no children, and the wold world ahead of me... you know the feeling right?

This is a photo of me and vinjelus brother in spring of 2005 having the time of my life!
Anyway, so I have been evaluating things because here Margot and I are the same age, but it seems like she is still 19 and I am... well I'm not. Margot stays out late, wears funky shoes : ) haha Works the crowd... which I used to do. It took a few weeks for margot to realize things weren't the same... now with a toddler who desperately needs consistency, and a baby girl who is nursing ALOT I can't really be care free anymore... and I haven't really noticed it until she came, and I kinda wanted to be.

Here is a photo of Vinjelu and I the night we got engaged, I was 19, he was 24. An amazing night, he asked me to marry him at dinner, after we went out walking, stopped and kissed as traffic wizzed by on the dark road in windhoek, Namibia. We were so happy and care free, it was an amazing night.
So... I guess I went through a moment of wanting that again... BUT and this is a BIG BUT!

I LOVE MY LIFE
I LOVE MY HUSBAND
I LOVE MY SON
I LOVE MY DAUGHTER
I LOVE WHAT WE DO
I WOULDN"T CHANGE A THING!
I love being a mom, YES it means I cant just go waltzing off to the movie everyone elese is going to see, or to the pub for a random fun night, but I LOVE putting my kids to bed, giving the bath, reading the stories, singing songs while they fall asleep. Those moments are amazing. And how Incredible is it that they are mine... I get to watch them grow up.
And I have a husband who is incredibly loving, and we keep it fresh! Not just in bed, but yes in bed if you must know. We right music together, thats so much more deep then the flirting we used to do when we were single, right?!
We have children together, we cook together, we discuss all kinds of things, I love having him here, he's my best friend ever.

I guess I say all that to say, being single and wild was fun and I am happy Margot is still in that phaze, but I LOVE my life, and vinj and I keep it real, fun, and exciting even with the responsibility of our children (and we still want more! haha) , bills, etc.
I am excited to live each day out.
Although there will be a few wild nights once our kids are old enough to sleep over at grandma and grandpas house together!
Haha, life is good.
Isn't it!

Seth The little Cook

2010-01-27T10:55:00.003-07:00

Seth LOVES cooking, probably like alot of kids I am thinking, but my kids are special RIGHT! haha
He comes at supper every time saying, "mommy cook!, PLEASE"

This day I gave in and let him pretend to cook with a pan, spice and potatoes....

What do you do when your kid wants to cook around a hot stove? Do you just say no and let him cry while you cook? Any suggestions?

The good things about moving....

2010-01-26T10:25:00.007-07:00

Every time I thought of my mom and dad and not being near them, I would start to get a tight chest, and would panic thinking "I can't do this!"
This would be followed by tears thinking of how much I will miss them, and how deep inside I feel so guilty for leaving them, and taking their grandchildren nontheless! (Not to mention AWESOME son in law Vinjelu!)
I've though of several idealistic plans to see them or for the whole family just move with us. But I pray they are not so idealistic.
We are moving to Zambia in about four months, on one way tickets to Vinjelu's home, and to my childrens other culture. This, as I said has caused literal panic attacks, and has brought many tears in my room alone, I love my family as many people do, and I count my mom as my best friend, we talk everyday, and my dad couldn't be more precious, and like most daughters I hang on his words and approval... we have an amazing circle of friends around us who love and care for us on a regular!

SO WHY MOVE!? Thats the big question right, and I am suppose to have this great answer that makes alot of sense, and has merit and all that. But usually when you are following God you look like a fool (right dad). This is very unfortunate for folks like me who are prideful and like to be organized and appear very sane...

We get alot of questions like
"Will you have toilets?" - Yes we will, at least on the ywam base we do !
"Running water?" - As long as we have electricity the well brings us water into our taps, granted the water is only cold, if you want hot water you have to boil the water...If there is not electricity, then we have a pump, you pump it out and you run with it, so either way, you have running water!
How will you live?! What if your kids get sick?! All good questions, and we will answer them if you have any questions like these.

Anyway, in the last 4 weeks I have had an unexplainable peace take over, physically I don't feel panic attacks (so far) and just generally feel ok about it all.
I would like to NOTE that vinjelu is not MAKING us go to Zambia or anything of the sort, I WANT to go, if you can believe it from the beginning of this post, missions brings many emotions and often separates families. You are always torn as a missionary I think. At least I am, and so is Vinjelu.

So I would like to point out a few things we are SO looking forward to in Zambia...

#1 LIving off the Land

Back when I was 8 turning 9 my parents made a cray move to New Norway, and for a spring and summer we lived on a farm roughing it quite alot, and I always loved that. We lived from our garden (mom still got groceries...) but in my 8 year old mind we were living off the land, fending or our selves. Vinj and I both look forward to gardening, walking out to pick oranges off the tree to make juice, veggies for soup, or salad... tomatoes for a sandwich, picking eggs from the chickens, and milking the cow for some milk.... Our kids will have some serious chance to work for their food, and appreciate the way food is produced.
Can't wait for this, you can grow all year round in Zambia if you have water for it, so we will be!!!

#2 Wendy

Wendy is a best friend, who we have missed ALOT many times, especially as we have had children and she still hasn't met them. Wendy is coming to visit in July and help us with finishing our house. She lives in Namibia, and has to take a bus to Zambia, it is a LONG ride to Lusaka from Windhoek!

#3 Room to Play free

On the base there is a little girl Seths Age who will be a GREAT play mate everyday with the kids. But one thing we look forward to is the open space for the kids to play! No more apartment and cold weather to keep us inside, they can play in the dirt, and I know they will have a blast, much like I did for that summer on the farm in New Norway, memories I will never forget. I am happy my kids will have this!

#4 Tobi-Chuma- Vinjelu & Wightson and Linda & Baby coming!

Wightson has been Vinjelus best friend for years, and his wife Linda is my friend as well, they are expecting a baby right around the time we are arriving! Vinj has missed wightson ALOT over these past years being in Canada, and I look forward to him having that friendship more tangible!

Vinjelus Brother Tobias lives in Zambia with his girl friend and our nephew Vinjelu Jr, we are SO looking forward to Seth havign a boy cousin to play with there as well, He has LOVed spending time with Titus here in Canada, and we know he would miss that. It will be so great having family in Zambia as well.

I will post more another time, but for now, I am at peace, I will miss my family tremendously, but I am also excited to experiance Zambia with my husband, it is HIS home, and our kids are also Zambian. . .

Thats all for now....

Back to it

2010-01-19T10:54:00.002-07:00

Hello all!

I have tried to get into our blog account over and over, and it has finally worked, so will be at it again! look forward to sharing from our lives.

Kathryn

Here is Seth Last week on his 2nd birthday!

New things in our lives....

2009-03-15T17:00:00.002-06:00

A little update for all our friends and family!!!

Kathryn: I will be starting full time studies with Athabasca University april 1st. I am doing a 3 year Health Administration Degree! I will be studying while we're in Zambia as well.
I also had a huge hair change:) I am blond with brown streaks... it's fun. And I guess I only live once, so gotta be blond once in my life time:)

Vinjelu:Has quit his job, where he has been working with Youth. He enjoys his work there with the youth, but the shift work has just gotten too much for our family. Vinjelu is almost constantly tired when we can spend time together. So he will be working on a Dairy far one of our friends owns for April, or untill we find something else.

Seth: Is growing of course! He is now 22 pounds, sitting at 50% for his hight, and 25% for his weight. So he is a little on the small side... but who didn't expect that :) He has been walking confidently since Mid January, now he does not even want to ride in a stroller, or be carried, he feels he should be allowed ot walk everywhere, even from the house to the car! He is a busy boy! Seth LOVES other kids no matter the age, where ever we go he walks to other kids and try to play, talk, or get their attention, this sometimes scares the other kids. I am excited for when our second baby will be able to play with him! HE has 7 teeth, they are not coming in very fast, but he is eating what ever we eat.
He does not mimic what we do very much, he has his own words and uses them ALL the time, he is very vocal about everything, sad, happy and board emotions! He does say "mom" for me, "dad" for vinj, and "mama" for my mom (grandma Hutch) and "Ya" when you ask him a question. But nothing else english comes out of his mouth. we think he might take longer to actually use words too because he is learning Nyanja and English at the same time.

Baby:Is doing good as far as we can tell, the only thing the doctors have said i the baby is a little small for it's age. I am not worrying about this though. He or She moves around alot, although it's rare Vinj can feel the movements, I am thinking the baby is just further back this time. I did see the baby kick physically saw the belly move up and then down! We will be going to find out what we are having on March 23rd, and having a 3D ultra sound with pictures too. So we are excited about this! OUr baby is Due either on the 18th or 19th of July.

The mission Side of us....As most of you know we are getting ready to leave for Zambia this fall. We are doing fund raiser to raise money to build staff housing on the Lusaka base for our family, and any guests that come to volunteer as well. This budget is between $15,000- $20,000. We are aiming to raise $25,000 for the house, furniture/ appliances and a vehicle. Obveously we are working and saving towards this as well.
We should be moving to Zambia between October and December, which ever works the best for flights, and the staff housing being built.

Music:OUr band name is anotherway Mission, you can find our web site at www.anotherway.ca You can hear weeping on our web site as well.
We have been playing about 2 times a month for big fun raising events. We played in Calgary last weekend, it was a benefit concert for Hope for Streets building project in India. We are playing on March 20th at CLBI in Camrose which is also a benifit concert for the homeless. We have fund raiser for Zambia coming up one in Regina on May 8th, and will be having another one in Wetaskiwin, and hoping to have one in BC as well. We should also be having one in Edmonton as well. We are playing at a Baptist church on highway 13 just past wetasiwin on April 3rd for a youth.
We have flights booked for Nashville leaving on July 28th, and returning on August 4th. We will be competing for best song, and best performance while we are there. If you did the calculations our departure date is only 10 days after our baby is due... please keep this in your prayers!!!

I think thats it for updates... for now!

Oh one more thing exciting. One of our friends bought me (kathryn) a new acustic/electric guitar! It is beautiful, and a HUGE blessing for our music ministry as well!
The same friend has increased his missions support for us to $250 a month, which is also an answer to prayer, we know God will take care if us!!!

Scalliwags

2009-02-12T12:22:00.002-07:00

Vinj and I were invited out to play at the open mic at Scalliwags in Camrose last night. The party was starting at 10:30, we only made it there by 11, so we could put Seth to bed and make sure he would be sleeping while we were gone.
It was one of vinjelus friends birthday party, Tammy from work, shes an awesome girl, and for some reason loves our music.

So we got up at around 12:40 and did a set, and everyone loved it:) We got lots of cheers, after we were done, Tammy got up and demanded everyones attention (a little inebriated at the time...) she told everyone how amazing vinj and I were, and that our music amazing and it's going to go far, she started crying, and apologized for swearing so much since we are christians and all :) it was really touching, and we are so happy to be there for Tammy, and sing for her on her birthday. Lots of people asked us to come and again and play on a Wednesday night, and I think we might just do that.

update on life :)

2009-02-11T21:35:00.002-07:00

Here are some random photos of vinj and I.
Two of my favorite pictures!

We still dont know where we are moving to on the 28th.... but have two options, one is still at the girls house, it might work out... and so we will see. It's been really stressful week, which has contributed to me feeling very sick this week as well. But we are packing! And I am glad of that. We are packing lots of bins to store stuff while we're in Zambia, so we are actually getting things done for the ned of the year as well. Which makes me feel a little accomplished.

on an exciting note, we will be finding out what we are having on Feb 25th! Thats going to be awesome!

Seths First time Swimming!

2009-02-03T13:39:00.003-07:00

This was just a perfect moment!

I loved swimming with Seth, he LOVED it, we were there for 2.5 hours! He had a good sleep that night!

I went down this slide, it was fun and fast, I would not have even imagined going down with Seth. But then our friend took her 15 month old down and he loved it... so we thought why not I guess. So vinj went down with seth... but then when vinj put seth in the air so not to go under, he fell... hence his leg in the air and his head under water.

Seth Went down this slide over and over again. He is getting much better with water in his face, he was so brave, and had so much fun!

Moving on....

2009-02-03T12:32:00.003-07:00

New things are happening, as always in the life of Vinj & Kath!
We gave our notice to our land lords on the 1st... and so we will be moving on February 28th!

We are doing this because we are no longer able to save with me (kathryn) not working, so we need to move in order for us to be able to save.

Right now we are waiting to hear from a girl who is living in a big house and was willing to share the house with us a couple months ago, and it may just work out. But thats not for sure yet.

I am actually excited to move, (although I didnt really want to at first) I have been feeling really overwhelmed with the amount of house work that is needed to keep our big house in order, and have still been trying to find ways that I can make money. But the best thing for our babies health and my health is for me not to work and rest alot in the day. So the idea of moving in with people who share the cleaning and cooking responsibility is really appealing to me. Also only really having to focus on keeping our rooms and bathroom clean. So we will see. This is also alot more manageable for vinj to do if I am too sick.

So thats that, if you can come help out near the end of the month, we would sure appreciate it!

Vinjelu & Kathryn Muyaba

2009-01-26T15:58:00.003-07:00

Click on this link and find info on our upcoming shows! This is also on our facebook page. YOu can become our fan on here as well:)

Anotherway Mission Album Cover

2009-01-26T14:07:00.004-07:00

Heres a few of our choices for our Album Cover.... give a vote for your favorite.

Our little Holiday

2008-12-22T09:42:00.006-07:00

Here is our family photo for 2008, on the top of Salfur mountain! The girl who took the picture for us was literally frozen, she had just come from a hike and her hair was white. I felt bad for asking her after that. BUt am glad we got one all together.

Seth was tired and hungry once we were at the top of the mountain (after riding the gondala in Banff) We got food at the top which was not good and was expensive! But Seth seemed to like the sandwich, and we thought it was hilarious him eating such a huge sandwich!

Heres me on the Gondala, I was a little freaked out by it, it goes so high... and it's freazing inside the thing! But it was an expeiance I am glad we had. I would recommend going in the summer!

Heres our hotel. It was beautiful! And we had just the cheapest hotel room, and it was great! Only that Seth had to sleep in the bathtub so we didn't wake each other up, there was no other room to sick him in. It was kinda fun cuz we had TV in our room, and we dont have it at home, so it was fun to watch a few shows. And the bed was amazing, i was a feather bed and blanket.

Vinjelu in front of one of the MANY gift shops on Banff Ave. We didn't go many places, but had alot of fun on Banff Ave, eating and shopping. I love this picture of Vinj! It was below -29 every day we were there! So we had to bundle up all the time.

Seth and mommy!

2008-12-08T18:38:00.000-07:00

PLaying with the mac

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-08T11:11:00.003-07:00

Well I know this is an old christmas picture. But we haven't got one done yet this christmas, we'll have to get on that since we have a baby now:)
So we broke down and bought a christmas tree, and were pleasantly surprised that we found one for $30.00 from Super store. That was nice, so we have one now. And it is beautiful! Seth seems to be a little scared of the tree though, which is good actually, so he wont be pulling it on him self. Almost done shopping for my peeps, funny I have my mom left, which is not usual. BUt that means it wont be hard.

Anyway, Merry Christmas!

11 inches shorter!!!!

2008-12-08T10:57:00.002-07:00

Heres my new look for the winter! Less time in the shower, less time blow drying, less time doing my hair! So it's easier in this sick, tired time in my life. And I can look good with a little less effort! :)

I took this on our Mac Photo booth thing. Kinad cool. I can do my make up with it, like on on the TV Adverts,

Anyway, I did have a new nose piercing to go along with my new look, but it fell out in the night and it grew in, I tried to no avail piercing it with a safety pin again, but I was a wuss about it:)

How Seth is Growing to be a Big Boy!

2008-11-27T20:42:00.003-07:00

Seth LOVES drinking from a straw, and unfortunatly people that usually have a drink with a straw it's pop:) and I obveously do not like that! So I asked Daniel my borther to go out and buy Seth a cup with a Straw, and here it is, he seems to really like it, and it works for him. I think he feels really acomplished actually!

He also goes up the stairs, he doesnt know how to get down the stairs yet, and we are a little nervous of him going up so far with the possibilty of him falling. But he thinks it's a game, us going after him and him climbing the stairs as fast as he came while he giggles away, and looks back to see if you're following him:0 It's so cute! You'd have to see it.

Seth is SO BIG he is now graduated to the big boy car seat. I was squeezing him into his infant seat, and now Lana my sister in law traded with me since her and robter will be having their baby in the next 4 weeks! So it's another little celebration for them as well. Seth was very happy to sit forward and see us, and dangle his feet. It's amazing how he has grown, he is now almost 11 mothns old, I guess you're never ready parenting, it just comes and you just go with it :) (Well thats how I feel anyway)

Here's Seth all dressed up for our first gig in Camrose. He looks SOOOO cute in his full suite, (besides the jacket:) He LOVES music like any baby does, but actually has good rythem, and also LOVES to hear his daddy rap!

Anyway, Second baby is grpowing and I can feel it, I have to say I am so thankful for being sick because I know my baby is growing and growing, it's reassuring to me actually. even though in the mean time I am feeling SICK and so tired.. but I am thankful because of it. Kinda funny mixed feelings.
So thats our boy seth growing and growing!

Sleepy Days

2008-11-19T16:30:00.000-07:00

Well since finding out I am pregnant again I have a new found sleepy-ness all the time. I feel Like I could sleep all day if I was aloud to... Seth is also sleeping alot more these days, he's having 3 naps a day now, plus sleep 10 hours a night! He must be growing I figure. No new teeth as of yet, just has four teeth.

Iam running the day home still, I have a 3 year old boy, and a 5 months old baby coming next month, and also have a 2 year old little girl who comes one week a month. So it's busy but not too bad, the only thing is being so tired lately.

Anyway, our band "Another Way" is playing in Edmonton on Friday this week, then Calgary on the 30th, and also in Wetaskiwin on December 12 with a few other Artists. It's great, getting our music out there and we're also getting some more experiance... it's fun, for both vinj and I. We will strat working on our Album as soon as we understand the recording program we have... cant wait for that.

Thats all for now

baby #2!

2008-11-14T11:42:00.001-07:00

Music competion October 23rd!

2008-10-22T10:51:00.002-06:00

Another Way

Another Way, is the name of our band....
We are in the Cross Canada Talent Search this weekend. Vinj and I will be Performing on Thursday Oct 23rd at First Assembly Church in Calgary at 12:00pm (noon).
We are entered into the performance and the song writing competions!
So we will see what happens!
Hope to see some of you there!

4th picture Folder 4th picture

2008-10-22T10:23:00.000-06:00

This is a picture out of the fourth picture folder, and the fourth picture from that.
Seth at about 4 months old.

Hey mom this if for you!
Untill others start reading:)

Africa Funnies!!!!!

2008-10-05T20:07:00.000-06:00

Ok for all of you who dont know this is only some of africa, please note this fact before you look at the photos! :)
But- some Africans have to do with very little and this is what they come up with! They are true Jackie Chans, very resourceful!(that or Jackie Chan is a true African!)

African pick up!

wow. Just wow.

Villagers iPod

Ambulance

And I think this is the best. A Hot water system jimmy rigged to the MAX!

The Jesus Way...

2008-10-03T10:03:00.000-06:00

As of late I have been inspired to blog again. Hoping vinj will write some of his thoughts too. So to you mom mostly here ya go:) lets see if we can get people interested again! Because the elections are coming up in Canada I have been looking into all the parties and who I want to support. In the past it has been Conservative... since learning more about God's heart and intentions, what His Kingdom on Earth means, I have found I dont agree with the Conservatives on a few fronts. One being THE WAR, thats going on right now, since the conservatives dont have any plans to retreat and do more peace keeping, I dont plan on supporting them. Then, there are NDP, Green,and so on... I guess I am at a loss, which I think many poeple have come to (since alot of canadians dont even vote) who do you vote for... I wisd I could vote for
"The Jesus way" If we followed just this one commandment, "Love your enemies" our world would be turned upside down. Which, I guess, is why many poeple call the Kingdom of God an upside down kingdom... totaly contrairy to human nature, and self gain. Shane Claibourn said in his book "The irresistable Revolution"
WE HAVE LOST OUR IMAGINATION! If all we can do is kill eachother, constantly trying to be one top of the other. We have lost our imaginations. We are capable of so much more... "Another world is possible!" Vinj and I have been eading "Jesus For president", below is a description of the book.. please read on. and if you can get the book, or borrow it from us when we're finished.
Watch the viodeo attached, shane talks about the new book, and whats it's all about. It's a very challenging book, full of scripture!
I believe a new world is possible, even if it is just for a small group of people, I know living the Jesus way works... and I am on that journey now.

Life

2008-03-12T15:09:00.000-06:00

Update on Kathryn's life.....

Well, right now it's me and seth most of the time, and when vinj gets time off we are SOOO excited and love every minute spent with him. Right after giving birth to Seth I couldnt imagine doing that agin for AWHILE! haha! But am already excited for when we have another baby. It's just so amazing being a mom to an individual, to someone so precious. I have basically recovered fully from the birth, and am now trying to get some sleep! Everyday I try to get a few things done in and the house, go for a walk and the rest is nappies, rocking seth, feeding, playing, singing and when we ca sleeping!:)

Vinjelu

Vinj is working at a transition home for teens, it's the last stage of social services wih young people. He works in the home and also has two young guys he is working with that have already moved out of the home, he is helping them ajust to indipendant living. He's great with the kids of course, they all have some kind of trust in him, and he has alot of possitive prospective for all of them. It's a little bit hard not to be involved in what vinj is doing because we have been working like that since before we were even dating. So it's an ajustment, because everything vinj does is confidential, and the kids names and stories and stuff. So we are learning to ajust. He works shift work, but it's good because he can trade a shift if he needs to or pick up an extra one if we need the extra money. So basically its working for us, and we are thankful for the job. Vinj LOVES being home with Seth, when he's home he's a bit of a hog with Seth, but I really appreciate the break! We still go down to calgary once a month, it's a long drive but we love to see our friends. Thats it for now i guess...

look below for new pitures of Seth

Seths pictures and updates

2008-03-12T10:05:00.000-06:00

Two months old with his tedyy from Uncle MIke and Aunty Victoria

Two month old, he's so precious!

Two month old, and look at those eyes!!!!

This is a picture of seth that we love, he is one month old in this picture.

Here is seth the other day at 2 months old, about to cry, and giving me his beautiful bottom lip:)

This was the other day too, vinj and I were playing with seth, and he was laughing and smiling. It was an awesome moment.

Seth has been doing really well, after having a cold only 2 weeks into his life, he's been a trooper. He started only waking up once in the night to be fed beggining of february... but thathas changed only in the past two nights, he has been waking up every two hours again... and I thought I was going to be lucky:) He may just be having a growth spurt. He is a happy baby, smiles and "talks" alot. He loves to be held, right now it can be anyone holding him and he is happy, although eventually he does want his mom (and I am happy about that:) During the day he still eats about every 2 hours. I am njot sure how much he weighs right now, we will be finding that out on friday. Thats all for now.

Seth 7 weeks old

2008-03-02T21:39:00.000-07:00

Seth is 7 weeks in these photos. We visit my brother and his wife lana about once a week, so seth gets to see his cousins once a week, you can see how much he grows everyweek!!! We have LOTS more photos on face book, you can search us under "vinjelu muyaba".

Seth Vinjelu Muyaba

2008-01-31T17:07:00.001-07:00

Seth was born at 11:26am on Januray 10th 2008.
He is three weeks old today on January 31st.
We will post more pictures later, but wanted to get a few on right away.

kath and vinj

Baby news... or no news:)

2008-01-08T15:18:00.001-07:00

Baby is still not here.

If the baby is not born by thirsday, I already have an induction appointment. We will be going in to the hospital Thursday at 8am in wetaskiwin to be induced.

We are poraying the baby wil come naturally before that.

Will try and keep you all updated.

Kath and Vinj and Baby

And we are due!!!!!!

2008-01-02T14:25:00.000-07:00

Today is our Due date. I have been having contractions since december 29th... now am 1cm dialated... and so on. So hoping the baby wi9ll come soon. At the latest the babay will be bron by January 9th. So either way we are having a baby very soon!
Here are some pictures

38 weeks and counting!!!!

2007-12-22T16:30:00.000-07:00

Baby should be coming soon, due january 2nd! Will kepp ya'lll updated.

Good News!

2007-12-01T07:59:00.000-07:00

Hey guys.

We got a phone call from vinjelus future boss telling us we got a POSSITIVE LABOUR MARKET OPINION FROM UHUMAN RESOURCE CANADA !!!! So it is leagal for the organisation to hire vinjelu!

We were told we would be waiting for this approval for months more, because they were only processing applications from June! (and our application was sent in october)

So this is a huge praise report, it happened one day and a half after e-mailing all of you. We feel your faith was so strong for us when we felt so discouraged. Thank you!

Now we are applying for the WORK PERMIT to Canadian Immegration. This is suppose to toake 46 days to process. Again we have seen God do amazing things, so we want to believe for the process to be:

-Approved by Immegration, and vinjelu given a work permit
-to take less then or only the 46 days they say it takes.
Thank you for believing with us this far, and please continue to keep us in your prayers over the next month and a half as we wait to hear from immegration.
As soon as we have that work permit vinjelu will be employed full time, and we will be recieving health and dentile benifits, which will help us out alot!

Some of you have asked about sending us money- because you are all either in Africa or England, it's probably best you use MONEY GRAM it is cheaper to send money through them then through Western Union. But we have both here as an option.

We feel very supported and loved by you guys. Thank you.

Vinjelu and Kathryn Muyaba

P.S we will keep you all posted on the work permit process.

Need support and Prayer big time!

2007-11-26T23:37:00.001-07:00

Hey guys, you are receiving this because we call you friends and we need prayer and support right now very much.

This is the situation.
We are having a baby! Which is not the problem at all! we are excited to be parents and having this new chapter in our lives (a long chapter we've heard!)
Because Kathryn is 8 months and 3 weeks along now, and has been in bad health since the beginning of the pregnancy, she has not been able to work, and cannot work at the moment.

I vinjelu am not legally allowed to work in Canada on my present visa.
I have applied for permanent residency in Canada, we will hear back about this in April/May 2008. Once we found out we would STILL be waiting many months before being approved for permanent residency, we had to make a new plan.

So I made up my C.V. (resume) and applied for jobs, which is the first step in applying for a work permit in Canada. I had one response (and really believe that was from God) from a organization that works with youth at Risk in the Camrose, Alberta area. They want to hire me and so have applied to HUMAN RESOURCE CANADA. Now we are waiting on HRC approval. This is one of the Major prayer requests, we want to pray for this approval to come out in the next few weeks. If not days!

After this approval comes through I then have to submit my application for a work permit to IMMIGRATION CANADA. That could take from 2-12 weeks to be processed.
Again this is a prayer request, we want to believe for this work permit to be issued by the end of January!

Because of this situation we have no income, we've just got back form Zambia in September. Unfortunately while we were in Zambia we accumulated debt. We are doing the best as we can to make this process go as fast as possible, but recognize that we need God to do something big. Please pray with us and believe with us for break through with HUMAN RESOURCE CANADA, and with IMMIGRATION CANADA.

Thank you for your support,
Vinjelu and Kathryn Muyaba

34 weeks pregnant

2007-11-24T15:38:00.001-07:00

33 weeks pregnant (8 months one week)

2007-11-21T21:46:00.000-07:00

This was taken a week and a bit ago... so we have grown some since.

Gods provision

2007-11-07T20:08:00.000-07:00

We just wanted to share some little mericles that have been happening in our lives.

Becuase vinj is not able to recieve money for his work yet, and I am not and have not been healthy enough to work, we have no income at the moment. Very hard, and interesting...

We have had people give us money five times in the past month and a half- each time is when we ran out of the last amount. Just enough to pay our bills, and even save for our future rent and damage deposit costs in december!

God is good, and he does speak to people, people we don't even know AT ALL have come and said God told them we needed it, and they come and give.

Amazing, God is good, and he does take care of us, so much better then we do!

Our baby is happy and healthy! (update from doctors appointment)

2007-11-05T14:00:00.000-07:00

We are just back from the Royal Alex Hospital in edmonton.

I had an ultra sound done for about 45 minutes, they were taking picture and videos of the baby.

The doctor came in after reviewing with the nurses. He said....

"There is no cleft in the lip or palat. There is nothing wrong with your baby."
He told us to forget about it, they showed us the nose, it looks perfect! And the mouth, there is nothing, and we saw such a clear picture of it all. They checked everything else as well just to be sure. We were so tempted to find out what the baby is (boy ro girl) but decided not to in the end. So we will still be surprised.

We are SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO HAPPY, and sort of in shock, it's amazing, and totaly unexpected! Praise God!

We also found out the baby weighs 3.ll pounds already! A big little baby! We are 8 months along now, won't be to long before we can meet our baby face to face, hold him/her in our arms! We can't wait!

Our Baby

2007-10-31T22:02:00.000-06:00

We were called into the doctors this week because our doctor had to go over our last ultra sound with us. We had to wait two days to find out what the problem was, and why he was calling us in. These two days were very hard to get through without thinking the worst.

We went in today and found out that our baby has a 90% chance it has a cleft lip. Inicially when he told us it was a celf lip I was SO THANKFUL it had nothing to do with the heart or the brain or any other life threating problem.

BUt I also didn't know anything about clef lips or what it meant for us. The doctor went to explain this.

They don't know how bad our babies clef lip is, if it's the lip and the palat or not. If it's in one place or two places. He is sending us to a specialist at the Royal Alexander Hospital, we will have an appointment there in two weeks, there the doctor will be doing the ultra sound him self, it's a special machine that gives very clear pictures. So we will see if the clft is up to the nose, if it's a cleft palat and lip or just lip... and so on. So basically right now we don't know how bad it is.

Babies with this condition struggle with eating. Our baby may have to be fed through a tube. Usually the first surgery happens at 10 weeks old, where they will mend the upper lip togther. Depending on how bad the cleft is the baby can go through 4-12 surgeries.
Babies with this condition also struggle with ear infctions, some babies even lose their hearing because of this.
The jaw usually needs to have a surgery done to re-aline it, information says to expect many visits to the dentists with some surgery involved with that to. Again, depending on how bad it actually is.

Children often take much more time to talk, and some times struggle alot with certain sounds.

Physically our baby can look "normal" very quicky even before it is two, it just depends on how bad it is.

We are obveously very upset about this. I can't keep my mind from thiking about how much pain and trama our little bundle of joy may have to go through. I just keep thinking about the pain, surgery, trama... But also in the midst of it have faith. We are going to pray and believe. Please seriously join us, I would love to go to the doctors in edmonton and fin out there is no problem, or a very minor cleft. Anything that will ease the pain for our baby.

If you have questions please post them here,on face book, or e-mails. We can't afford phone calls at this time (not enough minutes on our cell phone plan).

We will up date this as soon as we know more.

Kathryn

Child Intervention Worker- Vinjelu Muyaba!

2007-10-04T19:03:00.000-06:00

Hello people, A little update on Vinjelu, immegration, and apartment search!

Vinjelu is employed by Comrose Community Connections.
They are now applying to human resource department in Canada, if they are aproved vinjelu wll get a letter of employment and a letter from human resources. Once we have those two documents, he will be applying for a work permit, which will be running us $1000.00 bucks. It usually takes 24 days for that work permit to be processed. Once he is approved and given a work permit, he will get a social insurance number, and will be leagal to recieve pay, by this organisation.
In the mean time vinjelu is volunteering to get used to the house he is working in, and get to know the youth he will be working with. He will be working full time, over 48 hours a week.

Permanent Residency will be take another 6 months at least to be approved.

We may have found an apartment in camrose, alberta. We will be finding out about this in the next few weeks, if we get it we can only move in december. It is a large aparement with two bedrooms and lots of storage.

Anyway, the greatest news is vinj got a job and the employers are willing to go through the whole immegration process with him. PRAISE GOD! And I am not kidding!

6 months 2 weeks

2007-10-01T09:39:00.000-06:00

6 Months and one week old!

2007-09-17T18:51:00.000-06:00

Kath at 20 weeks-

2007-09-12T22:57:00.001-06:00

Hey guys, this is me at 20 weeks prego, only now I am 24 weeks along, but will post on that in the next few days!

August 16th and beyond....

2007-08-16T06:05:00.000-06:00

Hey everyone

we are now back from Malawi. The conference was really amazing, a huge blessing, and we are so thankful we could make it to the meetings. We met people from our region and really felt at home with them.

We are now back with YWAM, still douing the projects we mentioned in the last posting.

We are also going to visit a foster care center, where they place foster children in homes around Zambia. And an orphanage where we will possibly adopt one of our children from. So we are excited to meet the staff and ask alot of questions.

The baby is kicking and has been for a week and a but now. iot's noit like butterflys its like KICKING! Vinj feels it kick his hand... so it's a strong one this one:)

Please pray for my health (kathryn) - my stomoch has not been able to adapt to food this time and I and the toilet are suffuring for it:)

We will be home in three weeks to Canada.

Thats about it for now.

vinj and Kath

August stuff and YWAM

2007-08-02T02:58:00.000-06:00

Sorry no pictures this time, wich is a shame, because now you can see that I am actually pregnant. It's getting really exciting.

How Kath is feeling
As of yesterday I have been feeling really good compared to the last few months. Wasable to work for a few hours in the gardens cook and wash clothes and clean. So it was a really good day. It is actaully a VERY hot cold season this year, definatly not missing summer. I got a little burnt being in the sun all day. So actually have to wear sunblock this year.
Only feel tierd afte a time, and if I don't eat on time I start feeling sick, but it's really much better, thank you all for your prayers!

Vinj
VInj is doing well and is VERY excited about the gardening and starting some new meat projects up for the base. We are also looking at costs of building a house on the base for moving next year-ish. He's also more and more excited about the baby, especially now he can see it some how. The first thing he says to anyone we meet is "We going to be having a baby!" . He's healthy and happy, and very exicted about YWAM.

Our Schedule

YWAM- fist week of August
South Central Afircan Staff conference- August 7-16- Lilongwe, Malawi
We will be traveling by bus with two other Lusaka YWAM staff. It will really be a great week, meeting MANY YWAM leaders from our region, I really believ this will be a key week of vision and refreshing!

We are looking into changing our flights to be back in canada by the end of August. This means will will only be around for another 4 weeks. If we can't it will be another 8 weeks.

YWAM Stuff we are doing....
Yesterday and today we are MULCHIng in the garden, covering the soil with dry grass form the field, this helsp the plant retain their water 96% more then when they are left bare. They have a BIG GARDEN, which is GREAT! But also the mulching is taking a bit of time as well.

We will be starting a compost system at the YWAM base as well. Good for organic fertilizer! Some of the staff and the staffs kids are helping with this.

We are also looking into investing in some rabbts and good cage for them, so the base can have more meat available to them. We are attending an Agricultural Show this weekend, will ba asking some farmers who do rabbits questions of what cages or fences they use, we cant wo make the most secure and comfortable for them.

Thats it for this week. As you've read the next week we are off to Malawi to the staff conference.

Here are some ideas for Birthdays, Anniversaries, Christmas, and for new babies!

2007-07-24T05:50:00.000-06:00

Dr. Martin Luther King
“We are called to play the Good Samaritan on life’s road side… but one day we must come to see that the whole Jericho road must be transformed so that men and women will not be constantly beaten and robbed. True compassion is more then flinging a coin to a beggar. It comes to see that a system that produces beggars needs to be repaved. We are called to be the Good Samaritan, but after you lift so many people out of the ditch you start to ask, maybe the whole road to Jericho needs to be repaved.”

I have been trying to find out where shops get their merchandise from- like when it says “MADE IN CHINA” what does that mean, or “MADE IN INDIA”, who made it? How much are they making off of the producers? Are they getting treated fairly with basic human rights? Was it made by a child who should be in school? ETC….

I really think these are questions we need to be asking before buying all these gifts every year. Every time we make a purchase we make a statement weather we want to or not, we show who we support and what we support. I really want to challenge you all to find out before you buy, and also look into some of the FAIR TRADE options out there.

The United Nations reported in 1992 that income disparities between the world’s richest and poorest have doubled since 1960. TODAY, the wealthiest 20 percent of the words population receives 83% of the worlds income, while the poorest 20% receives less then 2%! In 1965, the average US worker make $7.52 an hour, while the person running the company made $330.38 an hour. TODAY the average worker makes $7.39 an hour, the average C.E.O makes $1566.68 per hour. 212 times more.

Coca-Cola has been accused of arming it’s factories in Columbia with paramilitary thugs.
Nestle had been accused of mass-marketing an infant formula as a breast-milk substitute to third-world women.
Disney has been accused of maintaining sweatshops in Bangladesh and Haiti.
Gap has been accused of having similar factories in Cambodia and china. These are a few of the companies who continually appear as human rights violators documented by corporate watch groups across the globe. Some, like Gap, have made significant improvements, but usually only after public outcry brought attention to their abuses and they lost lawsuits.

Here are a couple good groups working for corporate accountability and who suggest health alternatives…

www.gxonlinestore.org - this is an online store with gifts for any age, party or event. Even stuff to decorate your home with. Check it out. All of it is FAIR TRADE.

www.puravidacoffee.com - FAIR TRADE coffee, buy it online and be sure the farmers are getting enough to live and continue producing!

www.globalexchange.org - this site gives lots of information for those of you who would like to find out about products, companies and policies.

www.Hrw.org -This is a Human Right Watch sight. There is information, employment opportunities, country profiles, tons of info on this site.

Hospitals- YWAM- and ultra sound....

2007-07-24T05:23:00.000-06:00

Ok one of these pictures is my bely almost two weeks ago now.

The other oen is Wightson vinjelus best friend holding two of his sisters kids.

How we are doing
For those of you that haven’t heard. I (Kathryn) was feeling sick Friday night but didn’t think much of it since that has become apart of my life in the resent months 
But I started throwing-up around 1am that night and continued every hour up to the morning. I also had a bad case of the “runs”. So by morning vinj and I were concerned I was getting dehydrated. So we went to a little hospital/Clinic, they admitted me right away. I was on a I.V within an hour I think, something like that. I wasn’t really with it at the time. Was still throwing up every 30 minutes by then.
The first Doctor kept saying it was normal for pregnant women to be throwing up, “morning sickness” type of thing. I wanted to yell at him for such a stupid statement, but I was not in a state to start arguing with Him. I knew I was not experiencing morning sickness. Anyway, it was a long process of finding out what exactly was wrong. It went from morning sickness to cholera, to infection of the intestines, to a urinary infection… really frustrating for Vinj especially I think. So I basically threw up for 24 hours straight. Lost A LOT of water in my system. Dad said I sounded delirious on the phone, mom and dad called a lot to make sure I was fine. (THANK YOU!)
So in the end I was told I did have an infection in my digestive system and that’s what the problem was. In basic terms I got food poisoning.
One of the problems with the medical system in Zambia is if you don’t have money you won’t be treated, you just cant do anything. We were short about $300.00 for my medical care, it was the weekend so we couldn’t get any money out of the banks, and no money could e sent to us. So I didn’t get to go to a real room, I was in an examination room all day and night, which meant I had to run down the hall with my I.V in to get to the toilet in time. This was just as exhausting for vinj as it was for me. It was frustrating we couldn’t get into a self contained room, but it was just the way the cards were dealt that day. I woke up Sunday morning feeling a little more stable and managed not to throw up since midnight (Sunday morning). The bill for the hospital was getting WAY TO HIGH because of the bank situation. So we asked for me to be discharged. I felt stable enough to go home with oral medication. So we went home, I just layed in bed all day, I felt literally like I had been hit by a truck! My whole body ached, it hurt to move. My chest hurt so bad, it hurt to breat actually, and the arm the I.V was the worst part (I would really love it if I never had to have another I.V in my life!
We wondering what all of that did to our baby. We had an appointment for the next day to have an ultra sound to make sure the baby was fine. That was yesterday (Monday)
I woke up feeling aa bit sick still but much more energy. So we got to town had an ultra sound (the doctor was TERIBLE! I can’t wait to get back to my family doctor!)
The baby is fine, still very active, and getting bigger and bigger, this week it measured at 4 months and 5 days. Which is exactly what I am suppose to be.
I had been craving a sub from this delicious place in town, they make the worlds BEST fresh bread subs! So we went, and I suffered for eating that all last night and this morning. But I did manage to digest it! So I think my body is getting stronger and stronger by the minute. I will be really fine.

I am on Antibiotics, and re-hydration drinks.

This has shaken both vinj and I a lot. Initially we were thinking we are just going back to Canada. That we have had enough scares with this pregnancy and it’s just too much for now. We are taking a few days to think and pray about it. We don’t want to rush out. It looks like we are debating on staying to closer to the end of August, depending on flight changes, if they are possible or not.

We will e going to live at the Lusaka YWAM base at the end of this week. They have a international team there now that is taking up all the rooms. So we need to wait till they are gone. The YWAM Directors, who have become our friends are in the hospital as we speak having a baby! I am excited to e able to help Mrs. Banda with her family, cooking and such. We will keep you posted on this.

Update from doctors- new post below

2007-07-19T05:15:00.000-06:00

OK again my malaria test came out negative! We are very happy about that. And will be following up with one more in a week. To make sure.

I have also been feeling like I've lost alot of weight and have been really worried about it. And found out today I have lost 26 lbs since leaving a month ago.... I was really upset when I found out.. never thought I would be upset bout that loosing wieght. But just hoping this hasn't harmed the baby, not being able to eat enough and all. I am carrying food with us all the time now so I am trying to eat just constantly snacking kinda thing.

OUr baby will be doubling in size in the next three weeks and so this seems to be a crucial time to really get enough food for the growth of our little one and for me.

PLEASE PRAY for me, I am getting kinda worried about my appetite it's actually a real constant stress in my life right now, and often find it almost imposible to hold down what I eat.

Thanx you guys, will be going for a prenatal appointment in two weeks probably.

Zambia- other freaky events....

2007-07-19T02:20:00.000-06:00

Freaky events....
while we were still in Kenya, Tanzania was haveing earth quakes, which no one though would effect anyone in Kenya. But we felt a tremor one night, I flipped out cua we were on the 5 floor of a hotel... and we really felt it. So I phoned dad in canda to ask him to look on the internet for updates... there wasn't really anything so I finally fell asleep eventually. The next day we were sitting outside eating and saw the whole hotel shake the windows looked like they were all going to brake. Scarey!

And that night it was just as bad while we were in our room! Aysh! Anyway we were leaving early the next morning. That morning they were saying on the news that people were being evacuated from hotels and apartments in the area! So I was SOOOOOO thankful to be leaving Kenya.

Now for Zambia

What a lovely counry! I feel like I didn't even leav from last time, really feels like home here. I am glad becuase it has been hard in the past month since coming.
There is ALOT of development now here in Zambia! New buisnesses that look great! the streets have been totaly cleaned of vendors and they have given those same people that were selling all there stuff on the side walk now they gave them their own little shops along one road! And the streets look CLEAN! It is sooo encouraging. Also new buildins coming up for new things happening.

Some serious stuff...
Vinjelu has always dreamed of farming the land his dad left them in norther western zambia. He loves the land and has had big plas for it. Now we have found out there are taxes owing on it which come to: $ 1985.00
This is ompossible to pay at this point. And basically has to be paid within 3 motnhs. The governement is going to take the land and sell it to someone with money and ability to start farming it now. So we aren't nreally sure what to do. There is alot of land in zambia and we can buy new land... but ya please pray for us.

Kathryn's Health
I have been feeling pretty well. Just have been having aching joints... and that is a first sign of malaria... but also goes with having flue and things like that. So I am getting tested for mallaria today. We will see what happenens. Some times when I am tired I get like this so might not be anything to worry about.
But please pray fopr me to get back to normal (as normal as possible).

We will be starting to wrok with YWAM next week. will update on that soon.

ON the way to Uganda

2007-07-13T02:14:00.000-06:00

on the bus to Uganda- eating the roasted Maize- tastes just like pop corn

Teaching in Athi River

2007-07-13T02:11:00.000-06:00

Kathryn teaching in Athi River- Helping the base prioritise their visions and goals into realistic strategies that are do-able.

beautiful African sun

2007-07-13T02:07:00.000-06:00

Wilderness

2007-07-13T02:03:00.000-06:00

wilderness in Kenya

flower

2007-07-13T01:57:00.000-06:00

A beautiful flower tree in Athi River Kenya

Doctors appointment- also new post below

2007-07-10T06:47:00.000-06:00

Well, we went to the doctor they did not detec any malaria in my blood, although we will check in another few days just to be sure.

We have tickets to leave Uganda back to Kenya leaving tomarow morning.

We saw our baby in an ultra sound! It was amazing, soooooooo cute, we have a picture of it sort of:) The doctor said it is moving alot and everything is going really well inside. So we were of course so happy to hear that and see our little one!

thats it for now.

Uganda- and leaving Uganda.....

2007-07-10T01:16:00.000-06:00

Sorry guys, our old lap top won't detect our camera hooked up to it... so couldn't put up photos... maybe later we can. We will keep trying.

Lots of changes in our plans.

I kathryn have been going through alot, had a little bit of a break down yesterday, was just tired and coulnd't go out. So desided I woulnd't be going with the team for the next two weeks. THEN I spoke to the YWAM doctor on the base, he told me that there is a VERY HIGH RISK of malaria right here at the base. basically if I am not taking anything to prevent it- that I WILL get malaria. So we were not aware of this at all. There is not preventative malara medicine that I can take that is totaly safe for the baby. So we are leaving Uganda tomarrow.

I am going to a doctor today to check if I have it already, also for a normal pre natal appointment.

So we will be on a bus to Kenya tomarrow. Kenya is still in cold seson and very dry where were at, so there is little if NO risk of malaria there. The doctor was very concerned and gave us all those facts. so we will be finishing our outreach in zambia, possibly changing our flights to go to Zambia earlier.

Thats it for now. Will post more after the doctors appointment.

Athi River Part Two

2007-06-30T01:34:00.000-06:00

OK- to answer Dad, they are buying water, they are not dyiny of no water, it's very impracticle to be buying water and so are trying to solve that problem with as little costs as possible. They do not have a garden or trees for the same reason of not enough water. And no local water source.

We have been teaching full time all day since Tuesday to Friday. We have two classes with the YWAm staff, a morning class and afternoon, the classes are 3 hours each. We teach the same thing in the morning as we do in the afternoon because we have different people. It is going very well! Very excited and think vinj and I will be teaching the same material in Zambia on this trip for a week or two. We will be staying in Athi River for another five days, leaving for Uganda early in the morning on Friday.

Last night we had a scrabble tournament, I also taught basic piano and believe or not I rembered chourds on the bass guitar and taught what I know! So that was fun. We had alot of fun, two boards of Scrabble going at the same time.

Today is Saturday and we've come into Nairobi, which is a LONG trip and exausting, but we had to make it to pick up some flight tickets... and do some shopping for protein supplimental kinda food/snacks.

We've been having a great time!

Kathryn and Baby

The baby is as of Today 13 weeks and 4 days old.
Kathryn has been feeling very faint latley... so we are trying to find some nutritious snacks for her. Not sure what she's lacking, but not to concerned at this point, the doctor said the baby will take what it needs. Shes been mostly feeling well, and when she doesn't she lays down and takes it easy, really no pressure, it's working well.

Anyway, will wrtie later, our schedule now is.

Friday July 6th we are busing to Jinja, Uganda. and will be staying there for three weeks.

July 26th or 28th we will be busing back to Nairobi.

July 31st we will be flying from Nairobi to Lusaka,Zambia.

We will be in Zambia untill October 2nd.

More later.

Muyabas

Athi River

2007-06-23T05:50:00.000-06:00

Hello people,

Here again on internet, not sure when the next time we will be on again.

So will tell all now.

We now have flights from Nairobi to Lusaka, both vinjelu and I will be flying togther.

PRAY REQUEST: Our travel agent told us our flights were changable back to Cananda, and have just foud out for a hefty amout of USD that they are not changable and we need to upgrade for an aditional cost of $900.00 USD each. This is impossible for us of course, BUT IO kathryn need to be back in Canada for my 28th week. So please pray our travel agent makes it right and that we will have the money to cover such things.

Athi River: weare now 45 miutes out of Nairobi in a very rural, BUSH BUSH area. Actaully the base has geraffs out in the field, although you need to go a bit far inot the fild to see them. we havet done that yet. And One of the guys thinks he saw a Hyena pass byu yesterday.

Basically we are training the staff on the base in bsics of Community Development, they have said they really have no clue and are at the end of the roap for dealing with the community aroudn them. The base it self has a MAJOUR water problem, it's actually not easily fixed with appropriate techology we come with... so will be praying and thinking through this probmlem, hoping we can help in this eara before we leave. vinj and I will be teaching on Community Assesment and ministering to the community in all areas ie: physical, Spiritual, Intelectualy, and Social. We will be taching on some other things but are pretty clear on that.

We will be here untill July 5th, on that day we are leaving for Uganda, and will be there for three weeks.

Baby and Kathryn: Kathryn is doing a bit better, not so sick now that she has rested, and this leg of the trip is alot easier as we are just staying on the base and teaching on the base.

Later,
Vinj and Kath