Photo Post from February

We have had a mostly good month of February. Here are some of the photos from our time here in Wetaskiwin this week. We have had a few comments about posting things that have been going well for us, lots of blessings, and people caring for us. We just want to make it clear this has NEVRE been to brag or flaunt our lives.... pretty opposite actually, it's to shout out our praise to a Loving God, and a GREAT community of people around us that CARE for us, even down to very small details. Despite a very tite budget while vinj studies, we are coming out ok every month, nothing due to our genius... but rather to peoples love for each other. Below are a few of seth and taliahs new friends, they love these girls. And Seth has already asked if he is going to be marrying Naomi :)

Naomi and Grace, two of the kids great friends. Doing crafts as usual. 

The Phil and Teds Lobster high chair. I did not want one of the HUGE plastic high chairs that take up so much room, so I found this online and bought it for chawezi. It fits a two year old too actually, and fold down to very small to take around with you. Really am loving this. 

Our cutie Pie!

Taliah practicing with her scissors. 

This was Family Day, a provicial holiday in Alberta, a day to take time to be with your family. We took the kids swimming, vinj stayed out with chawezi, he says swimming if for when it's really hot outside, not when its freezing :) 

One of those mornings Taliah comes into our room straight from bed. 

Taliah was cold! :) This was the day we got 2 feet of snow.  And were out shoveling our walk, and the churches walk. 

Cold and snowy!

Seth was a trooper! HE shoveled the walk with vinj the whole time, such a good boy!

We are at Parent Link here, love our play group here, Monday nights and Wednesday mornings. 

Parent Link is a great place, funded by the government and local businesses, a play you go for FREE to meet other parents and let your kids PLAY. We go for 3 hours at a time. I'ts great to meet other moms from all walks of life, and have hear alot of great stories already. Lots of dads go monday evening with their kids, so vinj is going to start going MOndays... I think he is really going to enjoy that as well.

Play Group 

Play group 

Play group

Play group 

This is chawezi bed, we had to leave our play pen in Zambia, so had no bed for chawezi, he has been sleeping in the swing. AND we got this for an awesome deal, $80! 

This is an awesome product that works wonders on Taliah and Seths hair, so happy to have found something, it's an oil and works great. If you have curly hair check it out! 

Here is our "under the sea" picture!

We do crafts like I said most days, and here is two days of it, we made different animal habitats, with LOTS of help from Elizabeth. I had fun too : )

Here is our "Africa" Picture, I especially like the crocodile trying to get the bird. 

New decoration, less than $10 for everything. 

Vinj and I Found these mugs which are truly NO SPILL. finally something SAFE for having around kids, AND we SAVE on coffee because it keeps the drinks warm for 4 to 5 hours.

I am not a huge make up girl, but I do like it. I have had this brown stuff for years... same with the lipstick. Taliah has now figured it out, and sneaks into our bathroom and gets into the makeup :S So here is my stuff mostly gone from falling on the floor, and the lip stick is.... um... well you can see : ) 

HELLO! haha

These past 10 days have been kinda crazy in different ways. I went back and saw every single night we have had people over... people people people! We LOVE EM! One of my Favorite moments of the week was JOSH, one of our awesome young friends came over SUPER excited to show us his first car. a TOYOTA YARIS, he has worked HARD, and saved with amazing discipline for this car, and we are so proud of him, he took me around the church parking lot doing donuts : ) 

Today

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!

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!

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!

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.