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

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

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....

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!

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...

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

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

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

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!

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... ?

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

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.

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.

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!

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...

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...

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...

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

bad to good

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!