Jeremy and Whitney

JW & JE Newsletter

2012-02-23T23:56:00.000-08:00

I was just taught by Erin how to upload our newsletters to our blog. So I'll make sure I start uploading these each month. Thanks Erin :) This is a newsletter created by Jason, Erin, Jeremy and I for our supporting congregation, friends and family to know what's going on in Zambia. Just click on each page and then use the magnifying glass to zoom in and read.

Since we passed up our one year mark in January, we wanted to review our first year in Zambia and give our direction for the second year. Hope you enjoy!

Waiting

2012-01-30T09:42:00.000-08:00

I've been reading Mike Cope's book, Megan's Secrets. Mike Cope was the preacher for my church growingup and his wife was a mentor of mine. The book is about the life and death oftheir mentally disabled daughter and what she taught Mike about life. I haveenjoyed remembering Megan, who was just a couple years older than me. Iremember one time when my mom wanted me, as a 7 year old at the time, tounderstand God better, so she took me to stop by and visit Megan. I didn'tunderstand it at the time, I thought perhaps I was suppose to be “doing a gooddeed” for Megan. What I later realized was I was the one who was being taughtby Megan and by my mother. I had been the recipient of the good deed.

Mike refers to the idea of "waiting" in his book.I have been thinking about this idea of waiting this morning. Waiting issomething that our American culture struggles with—we’ve got to learn how towait, to practice waiting. As I look to see the fingerprints of God here in Zambia,in the Kaonde tribe, I notice that waiting is a God-given trait that they have accomplished.These people could wait all day long...and more. I have lived here for over a year now and am still shockedevery day by how they can wait. They don’t have vehicles so they don’t mindwaiting all day long for a taxi or for a truck to drive by that may or may not givethem a ride. They don’t mind waiting to start church for an hour or two if theyknow their family members are still on the way. They don’t mind waiting on foodto be prepared- every meal they eat takes about 1 ½ hours to prepare. So why isit that they can have the patience to wait and I can’t? I think of the verse inRomans, “Who hopes for what they already have? But if we hope for what we donot yet have, we wait for it patiently.” This is a gift that can go unseen, butit speaks to those who may have little possessions but have much to hope for. InMumena, Zambia there is a lot of waiting going on. I tell Jeremy over and over,I think what I have learned most (out of a very long list of things) has beenthe baby steps of learning patience and the art of waiting. Nothing happensfast here. We have had a broken truck for the past 6 months and guess what...itis still broken. It is a minor problem that could be fixed in the states withinone visit to Toyota, but not here. Even when Jeremy and I went to the capitalcity which is suppose to be modern, the power went off on us in a movie theater, our first chance to see a movie in a long, long time. It didn’t comeback on for several hours. I leaned over and told Jeremy, “if we were in the states,people would be extremely mad right now.”

I am thankful that God has me practicing patience, has mestopping to wait. After 4 pm here each day, everyone goes home to their huts inthe bush. All of the lights go off, and there is nothing left to do. Sometimesyou are just waiting for the night to be over and for day to begin again. Sodrastically different from my life at home. But wow, the blessings that havecome from that nothingness at night. I have spent more time with my husbandthan I ever had. I believe God has something to teach me through the Kaondepeople, just as he had something to teach me through the life of Megan Cope.These people that I live in community with hold the secret to waiting. They arewaiting for something better. If they do know the Lord, I’ll tell you they areminute-by-minute waiting on Him. What else is there for them here? This worldis not their home. There is the anticipation for something better.

“I wait for the Lord, my whole being waits, and in his wordI put my hope. I wait for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning.”Psalm 130:5-6

A few pictures of my flowers, planted back in November. Youhave to find a hobby here. This has been one of mine, and oh the joy that camein waiting! They are finally here and blooming!

Growing in the Bush

2012-01-18T23:14:00.000-08:00

As I am feeling a bit sentimental about passing up our one year mark in Zambia, I thought today I would share a bit about our experience with the Mushingashi church. It's hard to believe we have already lived here throughout a full year. When we arrived in Zambia last January, our team divided out church plants that we would all work with. One of the churches Jeremy and I were assigned was Mushingashi. They were struggling and needed encouragement- strung out in the bush and isolated, poor leadership within the congregation and struggling with extreme mental poverty. In the coming months, the seed that had been planted within the church was growing. Two of the leaders were able to come to our month long seminar for all church leaders. At the seminar last April, the oldest church leader present and one of the Mushingashi leaders, Ezron, stood up and said he was convicted. He looked around at his 40 other Kaonde brothers and said, "We have got to start relying on God. We cannot rely on the mzungu (white person) anymore. We are not beggars." From there, things changed at Mushingashi. They felt a sense of ownership and excitement. We have been joining them in weekly Bible studies for one year now, and there are about 4 men and 4 women who are there every time. Now, one year later, they have their church built, with their own sweat and tears. Yesterday at our Bible study we finally felt ready to go down the road, even more into the bush, to a new place which is hoping to hear the gospel. In two weeks, Jeremy and I will go with the Mushingashi church on a journey to preach the good news to a new people. What joy it is to see a church ready to take the word to a new place and start up a Bible study in a village that could eventually turn in to its own church. I was feeling overwhelmed yesterday, as I sat surrounded by my brothers and sisters. Thinking back over the year, I looked around the room at the beautiful, dedicated sons and daughters of a King. One year ago, we were unsure if the church in Mushingashi would last, and now they are going out to help form new churches. The Lord is faithful.

Mushingashi's church hut

Ezron sweeping the floor, preparing for Bible study

the faithful women

Guest Post!

2012-01-14T22:08:00.000-08:00

I haven't been the best blogger since the new year, but there are reasons for that. Jeremy and I were stuck in Lusaka, Zambia's capital city, last week with some truck problems with Toyota. So, I will be catching up this week. However, I wanted to share Brian Davis' post he wrote for our team blog last week. Brian is my husband's uncle and our mentor since we have arrived on the field. He has been a missionary in Africa for many, many years. This blog post is just too good not to share. Enjoy!

Team Work, by Brian Davis

“… neither shall ye defile yourselves with any manner of creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.” Leviticus 11:44 KJV

Our apprenticeship team work skills were put to the test recently when Whitney came from our boys room and mentioned that she had just seen the largest wall spider in her life. As the old missionary, I condescendingly told her that “wall spiders are our friends”. That is missionary speak for “Whitney, get a grip.” However, when Noah & Bryson began “ooing and ahing”, I thought that I had better check it out. To my surprise a King Baboon Tarantula was perched high up on the boys’ bathroom wall. Now we had a problem.

Surrounded by able bodied apprentices, I felt a bit put upon when they looked to me, the mentor, for the proper response. Theologically believing that all arachnids are a direct result of the fall of man, I was none too happy about having to demonstrate my superior missionary skills in this particular situation. Add to this that our “Ag apprentice” (Jason) is also a firm believer in the un-holiness of all spiders, and my back-up troops were thinning. Taking my favorite fly swatter (steel reinforced with leather covering), Jason helped me up on to the bath room counter top… after which he promptly left the room. As Sondra mentored Erin on how to give lots of advice from the adjoining room, I approached within striking distance of the tarantula. Striking it with all of my force, I managed to send the thing flying across the room towards Sondra and Erin. (Enter Jeremy with his high school football ethic kicking-in.) Grabbing a 5 gallon bucket, Jeremy managed to catch the beast on the fly – and in one fluid movement, dumped it into the commode.

I don’t remember who flushed – God bless them – as I was struggling with a series of shiver spasms. Whitney, bless her heart, was desperately trying to suppress her gag reflex. And as Sondra and Erin struggled with their feelings of “If he had done it correctly, it would NOT have come flying towards us!”, I thought to myself, “What a team!”

Zambian New Years

2012-01-03T04:26:00.000-08:00

New Years is the Kaonde tribe's most important holiday of the year. Jeremy and I spent New Years day celebrating with Konkwa church. We woke up early to begin our bicycle ride to Konkwa to join them in their worship service. The church service was encouraging for Jeremy and I. At the end of the four hour service, everyone was still very attentive. My favorite part, besides my sweet friend's baby that fell asleep in my arms for two hours and who's snore was the loudest part of the service, was when it came time for the church to reflect on what they are thankful for. They each take a moment to stand up from the small log they are using for a seat to share how God has blessed them in the past year. It is humbling when you watch the oldest mama in the church quietly stand in her place and speak to the group about her blessings. She is well in to her 80s, walks two miles to church every morning and has outlived most of her children. Yet she is thankful for family and for a God that she is faithful to every Sunday. It was a pretty amazing moment.
After service, it was time to eat. The pictures can tell the rest of the story. There are thankful, happy people all over the world. God is working, even in places where we might feel a bit uncomfortable with the living conditions or where poverty strikes hard. Thank you for praying for our Zambian brothers and sisters. Happy New Year!

Here's my sweet snoring boy, Neva.

Nshema and beans!!

Washing hands for lunch.

Good friends

Christmas or “Kimishish” in KiKaonde

2011-12-28T08:26:00.000-08:00

We are two weeks shy of having lived in Zambia for one year.That is so hard to believe. Part of me feels like we just got here and anotherpart of me feels like I can’t even remember what carpet looks like or what DietCoke tastes like. Anyways, this post is not about our one year mark, that willcome later.

Jeremy and I have been married for three years now, and wehave only been home for one Christmas so far in our marriage. Our Jamaican honeymoonfell on Christmas and now our third Christmas together has been spent inAfrica. It’s hard to get into the Christmas spirit when you are constantlysweating from the heat and you are outside planting flowers. It did not feelreal to me until Christmas Eve, when our team shared in a Christmas dinner anda game of charades together. Every year the Davis family plays a game ofcharades in Ooltewah, TN, so, since three out of the five families on our teamhere are Davis’s we decided to carry on the tradition. It was a fun night, andErin’s parents were our special guests as they are here visiting.

Christmas day was bittersweet. It finally hitme that Christmas was here, and we weren’t home for it. However, I am SOthankful for technology. We were able to talk to our parents and did someskyping. I was able to chat with my sweet grandmother, who sang me Christmascarols over the phone for about 15 minutes. Jeremy and I had presents to open(we received amazing care packages from our parents). We went to Konkwa churchthat morning which is about a 30 minute walk from here. We walked to church,and Jeremy preached on the meaning of Christmas. Which looks a lot different inZambia, than it probably did at our churches back home. In Zambia, New Years isthe big holiday and the churches will come together to celebrate and cook a bigmeal. Christmas is not celebrated as much in the villages.

Jeremy and I then came home and rested before we startedcooking for our meal we were having that night with Jason, Erin and herparents. We concluded the night with some fireworks with the kids on our team.

We missed home very much. But, we definitely appreciate all that we have so much more being here. I hope everyone back home had a Merry Christmas! Thank you forkeeping us in your prayers.

Here are a couple of pictures from Erin's camera, I forgot to use mine over the holidays.

Having a Christmas ladies tea, hosted by Mrs. Ellie.

Christmas Eve with the whole team

Three Years

2011-12-19T20:51:00.000-08:00

Three years ago today, I became Mrs. Jeremy Davis! It has been an incredible three years. I am blessed and so thankful. How do you put in to words what your marriage means to you? I don't know, but these three years have been the years I've loved the most and grown the most. We are blessed.

Fields and Christmas

2011-12-13T05:53:00.000-08:00

After the day I had yesterday I am so grateful for a God that is so much bigger than me. I am thankful for his hand which is stretched out over those I cannot reach and over things I simply do not and will not understand. I am thankful that he is with my 91 year old grandmother as she fights back pains in Rome, GA and is having to take an unexpected 30 day stint in a live-in rehab to heal. I miss her and wish I could sit with and listen to her stories to pass the time, but God is there. On the opposite end of the world, I am thankful for how God is working in Mumena. He has been here, and he always will be.

Yesterday after a few morning chores, I went to visit a family in their village. One quick, 15 minute bike ride away. When I arrived, only the grandmother was still sitting under the kensanza, and I figured the parents and kids were in their field. The grandmother sent me out with her niece to get to my friend's field. After a long, sketchy walk through the bush, we arrived in an open field where I saw the family all out working. I was happy to be alive at that point, because we walked through grass that was as high as my waist. As I began walking through the field to meet up with the parents, all the little boys starting yelling "WHIT-I-NEY, WHIT-I-NEY!!" We turn my name into 3 syllables here because it is a lot easier to say for everyone. I LOVE hearing those boys call my name so loudly, nothing can make your heart melt more. My friends, Cosmas and Josephine handed me a hoe, and I joined them in their planting. They had arrived at the field that morning at 7 am. When I had found them it was 2 pm, and they had no plans to leave anytime soon. They had not eaten and just planned to make a meal once they finished for the day. About two hours later, it began to rain pretty hard, and I knew it would be getting dark in a couple of hours, and I should begin the path back to find my bike and then ride on home before it flooded. The kids were tired and ready to head home too, so they escorted me back to their house where my bike was. We then began the "high grass"walk back to the village. It started raining even harder, and the boys couldn't stop laughing because we were all soaked. I was laughing but also a bit terrified that between the 2, 5 and 6 year olds traveling with me--one of them was going to get bit by a snake, I was just sure of it. Of course, they make these journeys every single day. We all made it back to the village safe and wet.

Once I finally made it home and got in bed I couldn't help thinking about all of the decisions I get to make in life and the choices I have. My sweet friends would be up at 6 am the next morning to spend the day in the field all over again. There is so much to be thankful for. Although this is the way I perceive my life and theirs, God is right there in the middle of their lives as well making things happen. We are blessed.

In other news...just in case, you were curious what our house looks like at Christmas time, here are the pictures to document Jeremy and I's Christmas in Zambia.

There's our Christmas open house. Quite cozy :)

Sunday Blessings

2011-12-05T02:21:00.000-08:00

Yesterday we had a full and rewarding day. Jason, Erin,Jeremy and I all set off for the refugee camp for church. We were going toworship at Rd. 68 church because one of Jeremy and Jason’s close friends hadjust lost his baby. Very tragic situation, but all too common in Zambia.

The service was great as usual. Rd. 68 church of Christ isone of the oldest churches we have worked with, and they are all Congolese.They get VERY involved in worship: loud clapping like you’ve never heard beforeand singing until they sweat. After church, two of the young men who had comefor the Congolese seminar last month asked to be baptized by their mentor John,who is also Congolese. We were excited to tag along.

After worship, Jeremy and I were dropped off at Kayongechurch to help them complete their building. They had been saving money andresources for almost a year now and the day had finally come. The men spent theafternoon putting on the roof, and I was able to spend some down time with thewomen that attend Kayonge. It was an important step in our ongoing relationshipwith the church, and I was humbled to see the time and effort they put in totheir meeting place. The ladies had even planted flowers on either sides of thefront door.

It was a full day out. In Zambian time that may only be 10hours, but for a non-Zambian who is immersed in a different culture, it feelsas if you’ve been without sleep for two days straight. We came home veryfulfilled but very tired and went straight to bed.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2011-11-28T07:19:00.000-08:00

We had a great Thanksgiving in Mumena with our team and our special guest, Chief Mumena! All of the ladies had previously met to divide up who cooks what, and we ended up with a very, VERY good meal. I was feeling especially thankful that day for our Chief who is so supportive of our team. I was so glad he came to share in our tradition. I was also so thankful for our families many, many miles away and our amazing supporters back home. We are so blessed!

We had the honor of being responsible for cooking one of the three turkeys. You can see who that responsibility fell to.

No football or TV is available here-so we settled for cards.

Lydia Love, seriously too cute.

Hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving!

Rainy Season Adventures

2011-11-22T22:03:00.000-08:00

Last week, we had a seminar for 6 young Congolese mentraining them how to be preachers. I won’t write much about that experience, but you can see Jason andErin’s blog as they tell more. However, one thing that happened proved to be very memorable. The last day they were here, we tookthem out to a Bible study in Mushingashi that go to every week. They were going to get a chance topractice preaching for this small congregation. So we all loaded up in the truck and headed off for the 40minute journey. As we turned offthe tarmac onto the dirt road, winds started picking up and lightning wasstreaking across the sky. Ourdestination was 8 km away through the forest. As the storm got bigger, the rain became heavy, the trees wereswaying back and forth, and limbs were flying everywhere as I was driving onthis now very slick mud road. Wefinally made it to the church and the storm had passed. We had a great Bible study and theyoung men did well.

However, it was the return trip that proved memorable. We made our way back down the muddyroad with debris on either side of us. Half way out of the woods, we came upon a tree fallen across theroad. So me and the six guysjumped out of the truck and were able to move this tree to the side for us topass. About a minute later, wecame upon another tree blocking our path that was a bit larger. However, with some effort we were ableto relocate the obstacle. Withonly about a quart of kilometer left to the exit, we were stopped yet again byanother tree. This time there wasa truck loaded with people coming the other direction that had begun to chopaway at the tree as it was quite large, about three feet in diameter. So after about 30 minutes the tree wasfinally chopped in half and it took 15 of us to push the huge trunk to the sidegiving just enough room for our truck to pass. We decided to let the other truck go first. As the truck maneuvered its way towardsthe opening it veered to the side of the road just a bit and both tires on theleft side of the truck just sunk straight down in the mud.

So the next 30 minutes we spent putting tree bark under thetires and all 20 of us pushing on the left side of the truck as it slung mudall over us to get unstuck. Afterseveral attempts it finally made its way out, and then I received one of thebiggest compliments I’ve ever had here. They called me a “muntu”, which when translated means “man”. This is a compliment because usually Iget called “mzungu” meaning “rich white man”. However, all the Kaonde people call themselves “muntu” andmake a clear distinction between the whites and the blacks. I guess since I was in there gettingjust as muddy as the rest of them, they for just a moment viewed me as one ofthem. Truly a memorablemoment. Thankful though forfour-wheel drive as I did not get stuck when passing!
-Jeremy

Quick Update

2011-11-15T23:37:00.000-08:00

Just wanted to show a few pictures today. I am so proud of my husband and how he handles his work and passion in Zambia. I am a blessed woman.
Here he is teaching some Congolese "youth" about serving and teaching the church. There are seven men who came early this week from the Maheba Refugee Camp, just 45 minutes away from us. They have been working with Brian, Jason and Jeremy (the 3 Davis men) on preparing lessons and learning how to use their Bibles to teach. These men are still considered "youth". You can have five children and a wife, but if you are 40 years or younger, then you are still youth. These young men will soon be filling the shoes of their elders as they get older, so our team is trying to help prepare them for the transition into church leadership.

On another note, it is still very hot in Zambia. Everyday, people anxiously await a rainfall so we can get some fresh, cool air. As I was passing the school building, I noticed they were having class outside, under the kensanza to try and get a break from the heat. You can see a storm rolling in behind them. How exciting!

New Season

2011-11-10T21:21:00.000-08:00

The rains are definitely here. The past few days it hasrained constantly, especially at night, which I love. It always makes me thinkof my momma and grandmother, hearing the rain hit so hard on our roof—theyalways enjoyed listening to rainstorms under a tin sheet porch. Who knew thatone day that would be what my roof is made of.

Here are some pictures showing some of the perks of therainy season. Since the ground is still really tough, we will wait until theend of the month to plant and garden, so I don’t have pictures of flowers justyet. These will have to do.

Growing mangos in our yard

Language learning has been a constant struggle for me. Ilove and hate it all at the same time. Regardless of how I feel, the key to theheart is language. The people out here light up when they hear you speak theirlanguage. It is also much easier to understand their culture and ideas when youare hearing it straight from their mouth without interpretation. Much gets lostin translation. I can understand a lot more than I can say at this point, butit is so exciting when you can understand the main idea of a conversation inkikaonde. I have approached numerous methods to learning the Kaonde languageout here, but by far my favorite is learning from my friend out in her village,at her home. She is in the process of learning English. This makes it much morefun to learn from her because she is experiencing the same frustrations andjoys that I am at the same time. We are learning from each other, sentence bysentence. Today, I sat out in her village for about two hours. She would writedown a sentence in kikaonde, and I would write it in English. We both knowenough of each other’s language to get by working together and helping eachother. Her English is really progressing so she is able to put together simplesentences and verbs for me to practice. We laugh at each other a lot andcontinue to repeat the word “shupa” every couple of minutes. “Shupa” is a funnyKaonde word meaning stubborn or really difficult.

I was able to start back with Erin doing our usual Tuesdayafternoon girls Bible study, after being gone for two weeks. In the beginningwe had six girls, ages 12-16, coming, and occasionally we will have a weekwhere all of them show up, but more than half of the time there are only twogirls-but every week it is the same two. They never miss a Bible study, and weare seeing them grow and develop into beautiful young women. I pray that theirfaith continues to grow, and I hope they don’t give up the fire they have to learn.I love these sweet girls- Katherine and Rwidness. Even though our study issmall right now, one of the other village girls who is about 17, really wantsto be a part of it, but she has a baby and chores to do everyday so she can’tmanage to meet in the middle of the day. She always has to decline theinvitation to come, and I thought she just wasn’t interested. However, sheshowed up at my house a couple of days ago explaining why she can never comeand asking for a different time to meet. We will start meeting with her once aweek around 4 pm after she is done with her chores. Since a baby came in to herlife, she can no longer attend school. I am excited about this new opportunity!

Whitney

Mumena in November

2011-11-03T23:50:00.000-07:00

I am happy to inform you that we are back in Kaondeland, Mumena. We had a huge thunderstorm to welcome us back as we were going to sleep Wednesday night. Jeremy and I have a tin roof, so when the rain gets hard enough we literally have to yell at each other to communicate. It is pretty funny.

I loved getting back and seeing the sweet faces that we have been working with. I have a friend, Mesa, who is 17 or 18 years old and has an 18 month old baby. She spends each day hauling water for her family since she can no longer attend school, being a single mother. If she is not hauling water, she is cleaning or doing laundry by hand. Yesterday, she had two huge buckets of water she was carrying and dropped them when she saw me and came running to welcome me back. Her face was lit up, and she was excited to see "Mrs. Jeremy" again. I was humbled as I compared the past two weeks in Cape Town I had to what hers must have been like. Today, I will go to visit her as she sits and washes clothes- she is one determined teenager.

This month the Kaonde tribe of Mumena will begin working in their fields again to prepare for the rainy season. This is a busy month for them. The holiday season, I have heard, gets a bit slow due to people working and staying out in their fields.

Last night, Jason, Erin and I had a surprise birthday dinner and cake for Jeremy. His birthday was the 1st of November, but since we were traveling, I felt like we still lacked a celebration. It was a good night for the four of us to catch up and eat a cake mix and icing kit that came from South Africa!

Home Sweet Home

2011-10-31T02:29:00.000-07:00

Well, I write "Home Sweet Home", but we aren't quite there yet. We chose the cheapest and possibly worst airline ever for our trip to and from Cape Town, and we are paying for it now. We arrived this morning at the airport at 5 am to hop on our 7 am flight, only to find out our airline had been grounded due to not paying their taxes. It is kind of funny because on the way to Cape Town, they were grounded because they couldn't find anyone to pay for the fuel on the plane. So we are now spending the day at the airport waiting on a new flight with a new airline scheduled for the evening. Hopefully, we will be home tomorrow night after the drive back from Lusaka.

Cape Town was perfect! We had an amazing trip, ate some amazing food, saw some great movies and met some great people. We did a lot of fun touristy things, but our trip was also long enough for me to meet some of the people Jeremy has worked with in the past during his summers in Cape Town. We stayed with a wonderful couple that Jeremy met last time he was in Cape Town. They were so hospitable and sweet; we felt like we were staying with our grandparents. Cape Town is a beautiful city that is surrounded by mountains and beaches-the best of both worlds. We ate A LOT. We hiked and rode bikes through the mountains, took walks on the beach (the water is freezing), saw lots of whales, toured the wine lands and much more. It was such a wonderful break and vacation for us.

We are ready to get back home to Zambia now. It is an exciting time as the rains are beginning in Zambia. It is time to plant some flowers and get our garden ready! Jeremy and I are anxious to get back in to our routine of living in the bush and working with the people there. It is hard to believe that we are approaching the one year mark of living in Africa. We are blessed to be where we are and to be learning so much.

Cape Town, here we come!

2011-10-15T04:34:00.000-07:00

Jeremy and I are headed for Lusaka, Zambia's capital tomorrow, and then we fly out for Cape Town, South Africa on Tuesday. We will be in this lovely city for two weeks for a vacation! So if you need us, here is where we will be :)

So excited!!! We'll be back in Mumena on November 1, my husband's 26th birthday! See you then.

Not your normal weekend in Mumena...

2011-10-12T02:07:00.000-07:00

This past weekend we had a group of about 25 students fromHarding University come up to Mumena. They are studying abroad this semesterand staying at Namwianga Mission in southern Zambia. The group came up on aThursday and left on Monday. It was a short but sweet visit—very busy!

The group came to learn more about rural missions, and so wewere able to provide a few classes dealing with our team’s strategy and goals.We dug in to the culture and all that comes with it. It was a sharp group ofstudents, and they asked some great questions.

I, personally, loved the singing that came with the group.Every Wednesday night our team gets together for a small devotional, but thereare only 10 of us that are adults. I loved sitting around the campfire withthis huge group singing English songs that I grew up singing at church.

Erin and I both got to take groups of girls out tosurrounding villages and let them see what a typical village looks like. It wasfun to watch their reactions to things and remember what I felt like when Ifirst got here. We spent Saturday out at the Rd. 68 church in the refugee camp.The youth at the church put on a great program for all of us. The Congoleserefugees LOVE to sing and clap, so we did A LOT of that.

Now, something I have been hearing about from the kids onour mission team ever since I got here, is the annual trick or treat night.Every October, the team takes advantage of so many Americans being here, andthey take that opportunity to let their kids go around and trick or treat. Allof the Harding students stay at the dorms, which are just right outside ourdoors past the school. The missionary children go around to each of thestudent’s dorm rooms to collect their Halloween candy. The students all dressup in costumes. Then the missionary kids come around to each of our teammember’s houses to trick or treat. Jeremy and I participated in this grandevent. Jeremy, being the good cousin that he is, dressed up as the Wolverinefrom XMen for his cousins Bryson and Noah—they loved it. And I was asked byNoah to be his slave…his costume was some kind of scientific character from someshow like Star Trek that I really don’t know anything about. However, theseimportant characters all have slaves, so Noah asked if I would be his. It was avery interesting Halloween we had on Sunday, October 8. The kids really lovedit, and I see now why their parents make sure to keep up this Americantradition for them.

Disclaimer: we don't have much entertainment here, do NOT judge (please)!

Great weekend with the women!

2011-10-03T22:19:00.000-07:00

This past weekend we had our first womens seminar. This wasa special weekend for the 45 women that came, because this was for most, theirfirst break from normal life in a very long time. The Zambian women are alwaysbusy. They are responsible for all of their children, the cooking, thecleaning, the clothes washing, and on top of all of that they are usuallyworking out in their field.

It was a great weekend of fellowship, singing, languagelearning (for me), and teaching techniques for how to teach children at homeand at church. We taught on a very SIMPLE, basic level. Ellie taught the grouphow to draw stick figures and how to come up with pictures on your own. Sondraand Erin taught how to use shapes and objects to get childrens attention(sticks, trees, cut outs). I taught how to teach stories by creating motionsand sounds to go with the story that the children can mimic. We had a lot offun working with the ladies on how this can all be done in their culture.

The last day the ladieswere split in to four groups all working to produce a Bible story lesson usingone of the techniques that were taught. They worked so hard and theirpresentations were great!

This momma above, was left by her husband right before this baby boy was born, she now raises six kids alone, but is so faithful to her church. I was so happy she got to take a break and come to the seminar.

My group of women practicing their presentation--creating motions for your story

Their presentation of Jesus' baptism

New President, Yellow Fever Shots, Women's Seminar

2011-09-27T00:23:00.000-07:00

We have a new president here in Zambia. You may have seen iton the news. His name is Michael Sata, also known as the “King Cobra”. Zambiahas handled the transition in government relatively peacefully. This transitionwas even recognized by President Obama and applauded for the peace Zambia ispromoting through the change. Please keep President Sata in your prayers as heleads Zambia.

Jeremy and I along with Brian, Sondra and their boys are allgoing to Cape Town, South Africa next month. We will be staying in separateplaces, about an hour away from each other, but we are quite excited! I am sureI will have tons of pictures from our trip, but that will be next month. Brianand Sondra previously worked in Cape Town for years doing missions before theycame to Zambia. Since they are retiring from the field next year, this will betheir last trip to Cape Town. Jeremy and I are going more for a good get awayand vacation in a first world country, but I will get to meet some of thepeople I have been hearing about for years. Jeremy spent his first Africaninternship in Cape Town years ago. I say all of this to explain why we were atan urban health clinic in Solwezi getting yellow fever shots…yikes!

Before Jeremy and I came to Zambia, we received all of theshots necessary to live here. However, yellow fever was no longer required forZambia. Well, the law has changed in Zambia and now it IS required in order toleave the country and go to South Africa. Panic set in for me as I realized ourtime crunch AND realized that this would mean getting my shot here…in Solwezi.It made me feel a lot better that Brian and Sondra also had to get them withus. We all headed out to town, which is about 45 minutes away. We picked up ourviles, needles and such (all neatly packaged and unused) and headed to theurban clinic to get our business taken care of. I was nervous. Well, all thingswent well and the shot was actually really easy and harmless. All well and safe. The doctor was kindto us. We are now officially set to go to Cape Town. And let me tell you, if Ican get a shot in Solwezi, I can get a shot anywhere.

The women’s seminar is this weekend, and I am anxious for itto begin. This is our first time to spend this much time with the women alone.It will be great for language learning since most women do not speak anyEnglish. All of our women on the missionary team will be teaching a different,simple technique to help these church women learn how to teach children’s bibleclasses. Pray for the 30 or so women this weekend that come for fellowship andtraining to be women of the Lord. There are lots and lots of children runningaround the churches every Sunday, and of course, these women all have manychildren of their own. However, I think they are nervous and may feel a bitinadequate to teach. Pray for understanding, excitement and a sense ofresponsibility to set in with these very qualified women. They are a wonderfulgroup of ladies!

An Anniversary Party!

2011-09-19T03:23:00.000-07:00

Last week, I was sitting in our living room when CosmasLilamono came to our door to greet Jeremy. Cosmas and Jeremy have been friendsfor six years. As they were talking on the front porch I heard the words“party” and “19 years”. I immediately ran out to ask why in the world I heardthe word party? I have lived in Zambia for over eight months now, and there hasnever been talk about parties in the Kaonde culture. Of course, I am sure theyhave them, but usually it involves large amounts of alcohol and witchcraft.But, Cosmas began to explain to me that he and his wife, Josephine, would liketo celebrate their upcoming 19 years of marriage! I was blown away by this. Icannot tell you enough how uncommon it is here to do anything with your wife.Most couples do not even eat together. They do not share money, they do notthink of each other’s needs. For Cosmas and Josephine (our dear friends andsome of the first Christians in Mumena) to want to honor each other with acelebration was just amazing to me. Jeremy and I were pumped!

Well, yesterday was the day. Cosmas was very excited, and hehad been updating us on things he was preparing. He was making a peanut cake.It calls for affordable ingredients he can manage, plus he can make it in a potover the fire. We arrived and Josephine was wearing a new bright shatangi(material used as a skirt) and her best wig! I personally think she looks morebeautiful without the wig, but a wig signifies a big deal here. All of their boyswere jumping around with excitement. We sat with them at a small table they hadborrowed from their church and ate chicken and nshema. Eating meat is a bigdeal and only happens on special occasions. When the cake was brought out afterthe meal, Josephine and Cosmas cut it together with one knife and then fed thefirst bite to each other. Again, I was shocked and so happy. It was funnybecause after they did it, they wanted Jeremy and I to do it as well. Iexplained to them that it wasn’t our anniversary, but we did it anyways forthem.After a wonderful meal and good fellowship, the big boom boxcame out and all the boys started dancing.

It was a great celebration and all I could keep thinkingwithout tears pouring down my face, was how these sweet boys would be impactedby their parents marriage. Would these five boys lead the next generation in acompletely new idea of what a good marriage looks like? What it means to reallybecome one and love each other unconditionally under God’s headship? For peopleliving in a constant state of mental poverty, what happened yesterday wouldhave never suggested these people thought they were poor. I am thankful for aGod that gives you new insight and a new worldview once you decide to let him. Ipray that church leaders like Cosmas and wives like Josephine will continue toimpact and change their villages by their example.

Cutting the cake, with all their kids watching

Jeremy and his namesake (this one is for you, Meemaw)

Jeremy dancing with a Lilamono cousin

The whole family

Learning some moves from Josephine

"Blessed are the poor in spirit..."

2011-09-13T01:37:00.000-07:00

Ezron. A 72 year old village head man living in a village called Mushingashi. Living most of his life without God, he is now a church leader. Always the first one to worship on Sundays and Bible studies on Wednesdays, he’s always the last to sit down. He walks around making sure everyone has a chair, though culturally he should be the one with the best seat. When it comes time for him to pray he bows to his overworked and worn-out knees praying with all of his heart. When presiding over the Lord’s Supper, he is overwhelmed with emotion as he thanks his Savior in tears—a cultural sign of weakness. Every time I encounter this man all I can think about is “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

A village headman, elder in the community, and formally lost man was not born with this character trait. It is not something that he strives for as an achievement that will increase his blessing. No. This is a man who understands who he is in relationship to his King. Because of his self-awareness, he doesn’t mope around feeling helpless, but he lives as an empowered adopted child of the King. So he molds bricks to build a church building, mostly on his own, he visits village to village to encourage the members, and he hosts devotionals around the fire at night for the surrounding community. This man is not weak, but humble. This is a man that lives with the knowledge that he is constantly in the presence of God.

“For this is what the high and exalted One says— he who lives forever, whose name is holy: “I live in a high and holy place, but also with the one who is contrite and lowly in spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite.” -Isaiah 57:15

Ezron (the one standing) teaching at the Family Seminar last month.

As you approach the Beatitudes, remember that this is not a code of ethics or morals. They are not personality traits that you are just born with. It’s not a law for which you can attain righteousness. It is an emptying of self. This is a description of how a Christian, every Christian, ought to live in an environment of grace. This is what Christ came to die for.

“ …while we wait for the blessed hope—the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.” -Titus 2:13-14

“Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” -Matt. 5:3

There is no one who is in God’s kingdom that is not poor in spirit.

Here are some verses to reflect on as you empty yourself and allow God to fill you up, becoming poor in spirit: Philippians 2:5-11, Luke 5:1-11.

Blessings as you go through the orientation of the life in the Kingdom of God.

Suggested reading for more study on the Sermon on the Mount: Studies on the Sermon on the Mount. D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones.

Do you know Him?

2011-09-08T00:45:00.001-07:00

I spoke to a drunk man yesterday as I was leaving a Bible study in Mushingashi. He, of course, approached me blubbering many things. I asked him to come to the Bible study next week and he said he needs to as he is a "backslider". Then I asked him if he knew Jesus. He responded, "Yes, he is my redeemer". I responded if you really knew Jesus you wouldn't be drunk like this and "backslidding". After I said that I continued home on my hour bike ride through the bush. As I was riding, I could not help but reflect on my statement to him regarding my own life. I spend many hours studying the Bible and learning about Jesus, but do I really know him? You could ask me almost anything about who Jesus is and I can tell you. However, in that same day I could criticize someone, or speak harshly to my wife, or neglect to show love to someone in a conversation. If I really know Jesus, how could I still be battling sin? How could I have a selfish bone in my body? It was easy for me to see that drunk man and many others here in Zambia who know stuff about Jesus, but recognize that they don’t really know him. However, do I really know him or do I just know about him? Jesus says, “if you love me, you’ll keep my commandments.” What are those commandments? Where is the law written down so we can follow them(a common question among the Kaonde people)? How can I know and come to love Jesus and how will that be shown through my life?
Whitney and I are beginning a study through the Beattitudes and would encourage anyone who would like to study that along with us to do so. I believe there are some key principles that will help me actually know Jesus and not just know about him in these teachings. Hopefully, our journey through getting to know Jesus through the Beattitudes will encourage you as well. -Jeremy

Mumena's Family Seminar

2011-09-04T00:48:00.000-07:00

This past weekend was the first family seminar for the Mumena area churches of Christ. The best part of the family seminar was it was planned and decided on by the church leaders. They are beginning to see the value and importance of guiding your family in the ways of the Lord.
We had been planning this seminar for a couple of months now. The church leaders and missionaries felt it was important for every family to pay for the portion of their food they would eat during the weekend, so that this could be a sustainable, annual seminar if they preferred it. Also, the missionaries did not provide transport to get to the seminar, so we were pretty nervous about how everything would play out and if anyone would even show up! It was a leap of faith on our part and theirs.
We ended up having around 140 people come, made up of husbands, wives, grandparents, youth and children. It was very humbling as we witnessed groups of families walk here and pay for their own food. It helps, bit by bit, to overcome the mental poverty that is so prevalent here. Some churches are located within just a 20-30 minute walk of our area, while others are a 6-8 hour walk. A few families and church members left their villages at 6 am just to be here! Quite humbling. They have my upmost respect.
The seminar kicked off Friday night with a meal and devotional thought by Jeremy. It was so nice sitting around the fire that evening with 140 of our brothers and sisters in Christ. I shared a seat with my good friend, Josephine, and held her baby in my arms. I felt the unification that comes with living in Christ, and blessed to be in the presence of people who sacrificed a lot to come to the seminar. What a blessing to be in the family of God!
Saturday we had split classes for children, youth, married couples and single mothers. It was a great day of classes—both Zambians and Americans taught. The first session I helped Ellie Rodriguez (one of the missionaries here from TX) with the childrens class. Ellie is a grandmother who loves children, so I benefited as much as the children did just watching her interact with them and teach. The kids were so cute and excited to be doing something so new. All of the families who attended were either sleeping in the dorms or in the school building. Both lodging options have electricity, so the kids had a lot to be excited about with that!
The second session I spent with the youth. The youth sessions were amazing. During the first session, Erin, Jason and Jeremy taught on what it means to be a son or a daughter of God. Then, during the second session Erin and I worked with the girls. We then had them use their creativity to create something for God-either a song or a skit. We split them in to three groups—two groups came up with skits, and the other group a song. They did such an amazing job. We were completely blown away when they performed for the whole group around the campfire that night.
Overall, the seminar went really well. I hope the church leaders are inspired to do this again next year and many more years to come.

Seminar Preview

2011-08-28T07:19:00.000-07:00

The Family Seminar was great! Something totally new and different here for the churches in Mumena. I will write all about it this week. For now, here are a couple of pictures from the children's class. These kids are working on drawing their hands after teacher Ellie's lesson.

This and That

2011-08-22T02:03:00.000-07:00

This is just an update to let you know we are still here! We are past the middle mark of the dry season, and it is starting to get hotter. But we are pressing forward and getting ready for the family seminar this weekend! We are really excited about this because the church leaders came up with the idea of a family seminar all on their own. They met with us months ago about the possibility, set the food prices and here we are just a few days away from Mumena's first family seminar. We are expecting about 100 people to show up. We are hoping for this weekend to give a specific Godly direction to a father/husband, a mother/wife, a single mother doing it all on her own, and the children and youth of the family. We are hopeful for a new direction within the Kaonde minds of what a family can be and what it means to God. Please be in prayer for this weekend, as it is a first, and things will be interesting. We are thankful for the church leaders diligence in wanting to learn more and spread the work of the Kingdom.
I will leave you with a couple of pictures. This one is of Jeremy at the Congolese youth rally. It went very well, and Jeremy got to connect back with refugees he had worked with 5 years ago.

This next picture is of sweet cousin time! Noah and Bryson usually try to go to church with us about once a month. Usually they stay over at our house for lunch and until their parents come back home from their church. On this day, we had a game afternoon. Bryson was not feeling the game so much but was still sweet enough to give me a wave. Noah and Jeremy are too distracted by the strategy of the game.

Chief's ceremony pictures

2011-08-15T00:16:00.000-07:00

Here are the pictures from the Chief's Lubinda Ceremony that is described in the previous blog post. Enjoy!

I found my friends! Josephine and Linyondi.

The Chief and Mrs. Chief watching the presentations from their throne.

Mushingashi Church and Lubenda Ceremony

2011-08-11T00:52:00.001-07:00

Jeremy and I have a weekly Bible study out at Mushingashi church. It is about a 35 minute drive from our village, and an hour bike ride. Jeremy occasionally will ride his bike out there, but for church or Bible study we usually drive. I have heard A LOT about the "bike trail" to Mushingashi. It is straight through the heart of the bush, on a tiny little, rigorous trail. I finally decided it was time for me to be the wife I've always wanted to be and take on this trail by bike with my husband. He was impressed and excited that I was going. I was pretty nervous, but actually ended up enjoying it so much. It was tough--really tough in some places. It is a really rough trail with lots of pot holes and brush. It was an amazing bushy sight. We crossed over a little stream that dips down in between two hills. There were a couple of women at the stream doing their laundry, and they greeted us, as their naked babies waved to us on the side of the trail, waiting for their clothes to be finished. We were in the middle of the forest the whole time, and I loved that. It was a successful ride, and we made it in an hour to Mushingashi. We were then greeted by our sweet, old friend, Ezron, one of the oldest church leaders. I have not met many that could hold more faith than he does. It was a great day!
On Monday, Jeremy and I will be going in to town to grocery shop and run our errands. We will post pictures then of our experience at the Lubenda Ceremony this past week. The Lubenda Ceremony is an annual celebration of the Chief, also a time where the Kaonde pay their taxes. Chief Mumena and his wife sit up on an elevated throne, and the villagers come forward with gifts and dancing to present to him. Most ceremonies in Zambia can get out of control quickly. There is usually a lot of drunkenness and inappropriate behavior. However, Cheif Mumena is a Christian and is trying to change all of that to good things with keeping up tradition. It was a strange experience. It wasn't bad, just different. It reminded me of a county fair, but African style. People were selling food and crafts. Most of the people were huddled around watching those who were celebrating Chief Mumena through dance, speeches or a stunt where a man climbed up two tall trees. That is hard to describe, but we will show pictures on Monday! Needless to say, it was another avenue to get to know this culture better and to support our Chief.

August!

2011-08-01T00:11:00.000-07:00

It’s hard to believe it is August 1, 2011 today. We left home in early January, and we are now two weeks away from having lived here for 7 months. It is strange to think that it is summertime, almost fall in the U.S. I feel like it should still be January and winter-just as we left it.
August in Zambia will bring warmer weather. It has been winter here for the past 2 ½ months, but here in about two weeks things will be warming up. Then September and October, the hottest months of the year will be here, and then the rainy season comes with November! I am counting down the days-only three months until rainy season, and I can’t wait. Everything will be so green and tropical, no more dust and of course it will rain almost everyday for five months straight! So there’s the weather update.
Jeremy and I are doing well. Jeremy did about half of his lesson at church in kikaonde yesterday, and I was so proud. He also made bread pudding last night that was to die for! So proud! We are still working on language. I am working on past and future tense in kikaonde lang., and I will begin working with one of the teachers at school. I am excited about a new relationship with her as we work on language together.
The churches here are working through some tough things, but as they do it they are growing. We have a family seminar for all of the churches at the end of August that we are really excited about. They are hosting it themselves by providing the food for their family, and we are providing the program. It is exciting that they are taking ownership and willing to contribute for it.
I am so thankful for all of the support we have back home. I appreciate all of the comments and emails from sweet friends and church family. We are approaching what we have heard to be the “culture shock stint” of our time here. It usually hits hardest between 8 months to 1 year. So today, I am just thankful for all of the people who pray for us.
Happy August, Whitney

2011 Family Album

2011-07-29T01:32:00.000-07:00

Just a small glimpse into the summer campaign and my family being here. It was an amazing campaign group and extra special for me because my Mom, Scott and my brother-in-law Caleb were here! Here are some fun photos of family in Zambia!

Congo Refugees in Motion!

2011-07-18T02:31:00.000-07:00

Saturday was spent with the Congolese at Road 68 church in the refugee camp. Sondra, Ellie, Erin and I spent the day with about 15 women helping them work through how to teach their children. For these women, it is difficult being new Christians to plan and teach lessons for Sunday school. We showed them four different ways you can teach your children at home and the children at church and then had them practice with us. It was so much fun, and they had great attitudes. Sondra spent some time going over the theology behind why we teach our children. Then I spent some time showing the women how they could teach using their hands and facial expressions to get their point across. We practiced all together with the story of the wise man and the foolish man. I would say a line of the story, and then they were to create a motion with their hands and face to go with the story. The point is to create motions that the teacher has the children do as well as she teaches the story. Below are pictures of the women creating motions and working together to tell the story in a way that will hold their children's interest. Erin and Ellie also showed techniques in teaching. Hopefully, this was an encouraging, refreshing day for these women who work hard to keep their families and church body running. While the ladies learned, the men of the church kept the kids and cooked lunch for the women! It was a very rare act of kindness that shows much maturity on their part. Great day with the Congolese!

This lady came up to volunteer to lead the group in new motions.

One of the women who gave us an example of a new story being acted out. She did so great! Brave woman.

The whole group! -Whitney

Mumena News

2011-07-15T01:01:00.000-07:00

Lots of exciting things will be happening here in Kaondeland in the next couple of weeks. This Saturday, Sondra, Erin, Ellie and I are headed out to Maheba refugee camp to work with the women from one of the church plants there. We will be focusing on the why and how to teach your children the Bible. The women have been asking for advice on teaching Bible stories and how to do this with the limited resources that they have. Most of the refugees at Maheba are from the Congo or Angola. Both of these people groups have very large, outgoing personalities. They are great to be around! It will be a great day spent with them.<br />

This coming Monday, we have the U.S. Ambassador for Zambia coming to see what kind of agricultural work we are doing here. We were quite stunned to receive the email asking for this day to be set up. Ambassador Storella was appointed to come here by President Obama and previously served as the Ambassador for Iraq. We are excited to meet him. Jason and Rick have some new ag projects developing with the teachers here that we are excited to show off.<br />

Also, this Monday through Thursday, we have an American missionary couple, who serve in Swaziland, coming to conduct a marriage seminar. We have about 10 Kaonde couples who will be coming to the classes, and we also get to sit in on this and learn more about teaching Zambians about marriage and family. This couple is traveling all through Africa to conduct these seminars, and we are blessed to have them come to our area. The topic of marriage and family needs to be studied and worked through immensely in Zambia. <br />

We’ll let you know how all of this goes. Thank you for your prayers!

Volleyball, July 4th and Kayonge

2011-07-06T02:15:00.001-07:00

The beginning of this week was a 2-day school holiday, so the Mumena B school hosted a sports tournament. This means the school building is a huge slumber party for 250+ kids. Yesterday, the tournament ended early, and the school teachers wanted Jason, Erin, Jeremy, the interns and I to play them in a game of volleyball. I was originally really excited about this idea, until I found out we were going to have to play with a soccer ball in place of an actual volleyball. We all suffered through the pain of using a soccer ball and played for two hours out on the school field. I really loved it, and we are scheduled for our next match this Saturday.

On Monday, our team celebrated the holiday by having an evening cook out. The 4th of July, being all about America, can make everyone a bit homesick so we ate lots of food, sang the national anthem and then lit corn cobs on fire that created the words "Happy Fourth!" Two girls that are working here in the peace core a few miles from us even came to celebrate. It was a great evening, even without hot dogs, fireworks and apple pie!

This past Sunday, Jeremy and I went to visit one of the main churches we work with named Kayonge. It was the best Sunday we have had there yet. Normally, Kayonge has been meeting in a school building. Their church building has been built of bricks for some years now, but still lacks a roof. This particular Sunday, the school where we meet was also having a sports day, so it forced us to use the roofless, lonely church building. As we sat on small stools, all huddled together, one of the church leaders began sharing some of the history of the Kayonge church and the hurt and abandonment the church members had been feeling. The two Zambian men who had started Kayonge church ended up leaving the church, giving out a terrible message, and therefore left only a small group of people remaining faithful to the Kayonge church. Most of this story we already knew, but this man couldn't help but get emotional because we were faced with once again meeting in this building that remained vacant and unfinished. Kayonge has been working to save money for iron sheets to build the roof, and they are so close to being ready. They will probably finish their church building next month-a huge victory!! Now, Kayonge consists of about five church leading men, four women and lots of children. One of the women is the wife to one of the church leaders who abandoned the church and his family. She was sitting in this church with us on Sunday, not knowing where her husband now lives. She is left with five children, one of which is not even one year old yet, but she remains faithful to the church. Jeremy and I were so touched and blessed by this small group of struggling Christians working to not give up their faith. Jeremy couldn't help but think of the story in Nehemiah of rebuilding the walls in Jerusalem and gave that message. He spoke of coming out of exile, not giving up and making the goal to rebuild. We left that morning feeling humbled and thankful for what the Lord had shown us through the Kayonge church that day.
-Whitney

A Ten-Minute Bike Ride on Zamtime!

2011-07-01T07:47:00.000-07:00

For those of you that have ever been to a place where time is only a theory and not for practical life, you may relate to this story. For those that have been to Mumena and have walked the trails through the bush, you will also find this to be a bit funny. I was out in a village the other day visiting a friend. From there, I was due at a Bible study in a neighboring village. I was on bike and knew my way on the main path to get to the next village. It would have been an easy 30-minute ride. However, my friend informed me that there was a short cut through the bush that would cut my ride time by 20 minutes. Giving me more time to visit. As a good American, I was excited to know of a way to reduce my travel time and decided I would take this 10-minute trail. After hearing the directions, and feeling like it would be a very easy ride, I broke my rule of never traveling through the bush without a Zambian and ventured off to my next appointment. Needless to say, I shouldn’t have. Bush trails are extremely confusing and sometimes even hard to find. There may have been a trail that only took ten-minutes to travel on, but I certainly wasn’t on that one. I was riding full speed through the thick bush trail for thirty minutes when all of the sudden my trail ended and I had no idea where I was. On top of that, it was close to sun down and I had no flashlight, only half a bottle of water, and a vivid imagination of what goes on in the African bush after dark. Not a winning combination. So I immediately turned around and found the closest trail that looked the best and started riding hard thinking that eventually this trail will lead to civilization. After another 45 minutes of riding, I was blessed with a token of hope—an Officer packet (a small pouch sold locally containing a shot of alcohol). No this was not for consummation, but it was a sign that I was close to the village I needed to be at. As I followed the trail of liqueur packets, I finally got to my destination an hour and a half later. I missed the Bible study and barely made it out of the bush before dark. Lessons learned: 10 minutes = 1 ½ hours; never navigate the bush trails alone! -Jeremy

Where have all the white people gone?

2011-06-29T04:53:00.000-07:00

The campaign group of 21 sweet visitors from the U.S. has come and gone. It was such a fantastic campaign, and I feel so blessed to have been a part of it. During the past 3 weeks we had lots of village visits, medical clinics, Bible studies and time in the Mumena B school. While Jason was busy leading a team of engineers to build a pavilion for our teaching facilities and Jeremy was taking a group out to work with church leaders in the bush, Erin and I had the pleasure of working with education here on site. My mom, Susan Mellor and Gail Rogers were working with the teachers and students of the school, which is just right outside our house. We had a blast with these ladies and were very encouraged by their words and actions. We had a great few weeks spending time with our elders and representatives from EB. We feel so blessed to be a part of East Brainerd, and it meant SO much to have some members here with us. Hillcrest members were also here, and I loved getting to see old and new faces from my home in Abilene, TX--such a great group of people representing Abilene!! We will miss everyone a lot. Here are some pictures of my family that were here as part of the group.

I'm back!!

2011-06-06T23:14:00.000-07:00

It has been a couple of weeks since my last blog post. But as I had left it, I was headed to South Africa for the Come Before Winter womens conference. It was an amazing, indescribable week with 40 other women in ministry on the continent of Africa. Our theme, prayers and study for the week revolved around Psalm 103. We must have read that Psalm fifty times or more through the week. I developed some sweet relationships with South African women, women from the states that came to encourage us and a couple missionary women that are working in Rwanda. I was ready to return home by the end of the week to Jeremy, but it was such a blessing to experience what I did this past week. I have already received over 15 emails just in the past two days since we've been home from the women we attended the conference with- encouraging the whole group as we go back to the challenges of the mission field.
The campaign arrives this Thursday, June 9. For the next two weeks after that, we will be busy, and then I am sure at the end of June I will have a large post about the campaign. I am BEYOND excited to receive all the hugs that people in the states give out :). I am BEYOND excited to see my family. I am BEYOND excited to receive my precious cookbook that my grandmother has been putting together for me for over a year now.
Please keep us in your prayers as we work hard this month to spread the love of Christ with all of the extra help that will be here.

Chilly Weather

2011-05-22T22:15:00.000-07:00

It has been a busy month as we prepare for the campaign to arrive (25 Americans are coming!!!). We are really excited about the month of June. We have been testing out air mattresses, hanging mosquito nets, preparing our Zambian friends and getting the schedule ready for the group that is coming in on June 9th. We will have 12 people coming from East Brainerd church of Christ in Chattanooga, TN (our supporting congregation), and the rest will be coming from Hillcrest in Abilene, TX. We are pumped!
Jeremy and I have an anthill back behind our house, and it was Jeremy’s dream to have a kensanza built on top of it so we could see out and watch part of the sunset. Of course, we cannot see all of it because a big termite mound is in the way. It is relaxing sitting under our open hut, and it’s best in the early mornings and at sunset.
On June 29, Erin, Sondra and I have an exciting trip to Port Elizabeth, South Africa. We were invited to a Come Before Winter retreat/women’s conference. I actually remember hearing about Come Before Winter in college. It is a retreat set up by Americans for women missionaries. They go to different locations all over the world to encourage them. I feel so blessed to be going. I was telling Erin today that it may be overwhelming to be around that many white people again. Haha, that sounds silly, but seriously--it has been awhile. I am so thankful we are going. It will be refreshing and such a gift. Jeremy will be left all by his lonesome in the bush. Except his Uncle Brian had pity on him and has invited Jeremy and Jason to eat at his house every night for the week. We will get back in to Mumena on June 5, a few days before the campaign begins.
As the U.S. is gearing up for the summer season we are beginning to feel the Zambian chill of winter. The coldest months will be June and July. This past week, I began meeting with the younger girls again for our Bible study. We had to take a break during April because they were on school holiday. We have a new girl who has joined our study. She is about 16 or 17 years old and has an 8-month old baby. She is not in school. I wondered how the younger school girls were going to take to this new change, but they welcomed her so sweetly. In March, I had taught them the card game “spoons”, and they have now asked if they can come early, play spoons for half an hour, and then begin the Bible study. How could I refuse? It is so fun watching them play.

Field Day

2011-05-09T04:09:00.000-07:00

Last week Jeremy and I decided to ride out to a village and work with a family in their field. Most Zambians who choose to farm are working in their fields every morning. It is not the best time to go out and visit villages in the mornings, because you will usually not find people at home. Jeremy and I rode our bikes out to the village and left them at the family’s hut. The family had already been out for two hours working, so we began the walk through the bush to meet up with them in their field.

As soon as we came to the clearing, the family came running to greet us—they made us feel welcome. They had been out in the hot sun working for two hours already. Cosmas and Josephine were digging up their peanuts (in Zambia they are called ground nuts). Then, all of the children were collecting them and putting in a pile. Jeremy and I really appreciated the fact that the whole family was working together and enjoying each other’s company. This past week was a school holiday so even the older children got to help. Jeremy and I both tried out pulling up the ground nuts, but I mostly helped collect the crops. It was such a neat time to spend with this family, and I know we developed a deeper friendship that day. Jeremy and I had great respect for them to see how hard they were working and all of them spending together. They were very happy out in the field and couldn’t stop laughing the whole time we were out there. Most Zambians think white people are very fragile with our fair skin.

After we finished in the field, we all headed back to the hut, and Josephine fixed everyone lunch—nshema and greens. We visited for a couple more hours and then Jeremy and I went home. It was a fulfilling day, even though we were dead tired. I’m thankful for the time and days that go like this.

Spring in Mumena

2011-05-02T01:20:00.000-07:00

The month of April went by fast, but we are ready to get back to our usual schedule in the bush. The Muzha wa Yesu seminar went very well. Jeremy spent two weeks teaching on the Kingdom of God and going through all of the important Bible stories that prepared the way for Jesus. We were blessed to be a part of the seminar this year. Three years ago when it was started, Brian Davis and others were planting seeds and battling with a culture that was twisted and confused. This year has been a break through on many levels, and we are starting to see the fruits of the labor from the past three years. We began to see church leaders tearing up because they are realizing the sadness in the world, and the need for Jesus. We saw men pleading with their fellow brothers in Christ to start digging deeper in their studies and teachings. It was a great month, and we are thankful for all of the prayers for the seminar.

Today is the first day of May, and we are excited! First of all, because May means June is right around the corner, when we will see 30 campaigners coming over from Tennessee and Texas. We are also ready to dive back in to language learning. Language learning had to take a back seat to the seminar, so Jeremy and I will begin working again with Cosmas for an hour each day. Yesterday, Jeremy and I went out to the soccer field to watch a game. Jeremy, of course, was asked to play and felt he was surely up for the task. He twisted his ankle after a few minutes into the game and had to watch from the sidelines the rest of the time. If you know Jeremy and sports, then you know I have been to the ER three times due to church league softball accidents. Well, we don’t have an “ER” in Mumena, so I was a bit nervous about my husband breaking his leg. While Jeremy watched with the team, I sat with my sweetest little friend, Linyondi. Linyondi is Cosmas’s son, and he and I just have a connection. He is only five years old but told his Dad this morning that he has really got to start learning English better, so he and I can spend time talking together.

The weather has completely changed! The rainy season is over, and we will not see another drop until November. The air is cool in the evenings and mornings, and the stars are bright at night.

This is Jeremy's group of first year students who he had in class for two weeks. Thank you for the continued prayers!

African Easter

2011-04-24T23:39:00.000-07:00

Every Easter, I grew up putting out my shoes for the Easter bunny to fill, with the rest of my family. The night before Easter Sunday, my brother and I would pick our largest pair of shoes to lie out for the Easter bunny to fill. Until I was a teenager, I thought everyone put out shoes for the Easter bunny, not baskets. I actually don’t know why it is that my family had this tradition, but I like it. Anyways, once I got married, I let Jeremy in on our tradition and informed him that we too will be putting out our shoes each Easter. So the past two Easters in the States, that we have been married, our shoes were filled up with goodies. Now this could be a little embarrassing to say, but since I live so far away from you guys I don’t really mind saying it, but Jeremy and I lived in Abilene where my mom and grandmother both lived. So each Easter, they would come by our apartment early in the morning and fill up our shoes. Each year I would think we were probably grown up enough not to put out our shoes, and then I would receive a call from my mom late the night before reminding us to put out our shoes.
Now here we are in Zambia on another Easter morning. Jeremy and I have big plans to celebrate in the evening with Jason and Erin. We are making hamburgers, homemade buns, sweet potato chips and an apple pie. It is going to be GREAT! So the morning of Easter Sunday, I woke up and went out to sit on the couch for a few minutes before I made breakfast. I always leave my pair of tennis shoes out on the porch because they are too dirty to bring inside. Jeremy called for me to come see something outside so I go look out the screen door, and this is what I find.

Culture shock can be overwhelming in certain moments, and our first holiday away from family, friends and our church home hit me a bit. Of course, I was not expecting to have my shoes filled (and really that is not the point), but my awesome husband brought a little bit of home to me this morning. Happy Easter from Zambia! -Whitney

Turtle Power

2011-04-15T08:43:00.000-07:00

With a theologically rich curriculum and a highly qualified line-up of teachers, probably the greatest lesson that was learned during this year’s Muzha wa Yesu Seminar (Slave of Jesus) was from a turtle. We have about 40 men representing 12 churches and about 4 different Zambian tribes here all month for the leadership seminar. Living in a culture much like the culture of the Bible, there are several food taboos present. For the Kaonde tribe, eating a turtle and other reptiles is considered unclean. However, one of the men at the seminar from the Lunda tribe, which has no food taboos, brought with him a turtle to eat. It was a big deal that none of the Kaonde would eat it, but no one minded him eating it. It came time for the Lunda man to cook it, but he had no pot. So one of his Kaonde friends brought him a pot from his village and the Lunda man cooked and ate the turtle. The next morning another Kaonde man approached me who was not part of the seminar or a Christian. This man was from the same village that the pot was taken, and he insisted that I introduce him to the man that cooked the turtle. Not knowing his intent and honestly thinking he was just interested in meeting the man, I introduced them. Quickly I realized as the Kaonde man spoke in a loud and angry voice that he had a serious problem with the Lunda man eating the turtle. The problem was that the turtle was cooked in that Kaonde man’s pot, making it unclean, and prohibiting the Kaonde man to never use the pot again. So the Lunda man and the man that brought him the pot discussed the issue with me. After discerning how to respond, the two men (Christian leaders I might add) went and apologized to the wronged man promising to replace the pot. However, they needed 2 days to get enough money to buy a new pot. The wronged man was not happy with the solution stating that there would be no forgiveness unless the pot was replaced that day. The two men came back to me and asked if they could borrow some money to buy the pot and told me what the wronged man had insisted. The wronged man is not a Christian, but I had been studying with him for a few weeks; and I had also given him a loan for which I had forgiven a good portion of it because I knew it would take him a long time to pay it back. At this point, I saw a teaching opportunity and confronted the man with the story of the unmerciful servant. The conclusion was that he would give the men the 2 days they needed to repay the pot. Thinking this is all solved, the next afternoon the wronged man waited 2 hours for me to finish class so he could speak to me. He said he wanted to talk with me and the men that owed him the pot. He sat down with us and told us that he had been thinking a lot about the issue and decided that his relationship with the men and I was more important than the pot. From there he told the men that they were forgiven, and there was no need to replace the pot. It almost put me in tears.
I reflected with the two Christian leaders helping them see how their Christ-like response had opened the door for this unbeliever to learn a lesson that will certainly give inroads to his knowing Christ. So it’s clear that God works through all things…even a turtle!
-Jeremy

Pictures

2011-04-05T07:51:00.000-07:00

The Muzha wa Yesu seminar has begun, and the opening chapel was lead by the chief. It has been a great two days so far. I just wanted to share some pictures from the past couple days.

Jeremy and Maffet, our grass slasher, having a English session and Bible study.

Brian Davis presenting new Kaonde Bible's to the muzha wa yesu students.

This was right after I taught these girls how to play "spoons" on my front porch. They continued to play that game for two hours after this.

A Muzha student working on his "homework" by the dorms.

Muzha students having their lunch break.

Change of Seasons

2011-03-30T01:45:00.000-07:00

The rainy season is coming to an end here in the next couple weeks, and I have been sad knowing it is about to be over. Everything is so green, and you can see all kinds of plants and flowers. In just a few weeks it will all turn brown, and we will not see a drop of rain for 6 months. But yesterday God reminded me that every season has its own beauty—even in Zambia with only two seasons. I woke up yesterday to a very cool, crisp morning, almost feeling like fall in the states. It was beautiful weather and during the dry season that is the case every morning. Not too cold, but cool. It was nice. Then last night, my breath was taken away as Jeremy and I were walking home at night. It was about 9:30 p.m. and usually you are trying to get home before the rain hits. We were walking with our flashlights and all of a sudden we look up and there are huge, bright stars everywhere, looking like they are just barely hanging above our heads. There was not a cloud in the sky. We both stopped and just stared. The stars in Zambia (during the dry season) are just amazing, and I had forgotten how wonderful it was since being here last time. How could I have forgotten? I felt that was a patient, gentle reminder to me that God will provide, in every season.
Many church leaders from around the area will be arriving on Sunday for the Muzha wa Yesu seminar. Please keep these men in your prayers for the month of April. We are praying these leaders will go home with a greater understanding of what it means to be a servant for God and a yearning to teach in their communities.
We now share a mailbag with Brian and Sondra in Solwezi. I have been monitoring about how long it takes for mail to arrive, and it looks like it only takes about 2 weeks, sometimes less! Here is our mailing address, for those of you that have been waiting on it:
Private Bag S-42
Solwezi, Zambia

Almost April?!

2011-03-21T02:43:00.000-07:00

I cannot believe that we are almost to April. It is crazy to me to think that we arrived here in January. Time is flying by, and April will pass by quickly as well. It will be a very busy month for our entire team. The whole month of April is taken up by the Muzha wa Yesu (Servant of Jesus) seminar. This is an annual seminar where leaders from each of the church plants are invited to stay in the dorms at the center and go to class each day to learn about how to teach and lead their churches. Each missionary is responsible for handing out the registration forms to the church plants they communicate with. The church then picks its own leaders to go, but we cannot take more than four per church. Sunday, April 3 we will have between 40-50 Zambian church leaders arriving. There are all kinds of tasks we will be doing in order to make this month work with all of these people here. Jeremy will be teaching a series on the Kingdom of God for two weeks of the seminar. Jeremy and I have been continuing to get to know the church plants we are working with. We are enjoying the Bible studies and the fellowship with the churches. We are also working hard at language learning. Ahhh, learning a language—sometimes it’s so rewarding, other times I want to pull my hair out! Jeremy is learning faster than me, but I am beginning to feel things connecting more and more with kikaonde. Cosmas is now coming everyday for 1 hour to help teach us. The young girls Bible study is going well. It is a highlight of my week. This week we studied on gifts and talents. I have been reading the book “When Helping Hurts” and a huge part of mental poverty is just the lack of belief in yourself and believing you are worth less than everyone else. The author encourages the reader to help those struggling with mental poverty to focus on God’s love for them and how they can be used, the gifts they have. It was so rewarding to do this lesson, because we had each of them go around the circle and say what gift their friend next to them had. It was great because they all took it very seriously. The gifts were of singing, taking care of a mother, praying with friends, etc. I was proud of them for opening up and really thinking about the question. Love these girls! Saturday was Mumena B schools “sports day.” They played net ball and soccer against a team from another area. Jeremy and I spent part of the morning out watching the kids play. It becomes quite the event out in the field. Each team has tons of their friends/classmates cheering them on. They have drums, and they do not stop singing or yelling. Jeremy chanted with them in a circle around the drums during one of the games. It was hilarious. Our school won the net ball game and as soon as the game was over, about 150 kids take off running up the termite mound and screaming “twa winnas”, we winners! Here are some pictures of sports day.

These are the morning glories that are finally blooming in our yard!

Konkwa Visit

2011-03-10T23:06:00.000-08:00

Some of the closest relationships that Jeremy and I have formed since we first started coming to Zambia over the years have been made in Konkwa village. We are now spreading our wings and are not able to visit Konkwa as much, but every Thursday we try to make it out to visit around. Konkwa is about a 40-minute walk and a 15-minute bike ride away. Jeremy’s great friend here, Cosmas Lilamono, (who named his son Jeremy) and now my good friend, his wife, Josephine live in Konkwa. Then you have Reagan, Rescue, Jeremy, Leaonde and Neva--five boys. I absolutely love this family. I also love riding bikes with Jeremy out to this village. Even though the bike ride is not too long, it is quite the adventure as you are forced to choose which mud puddle you will ride through or which set of rocks will do the least damage to your bike. During the dry season, this will not be a problem, but the trail to Konkwa floods up during the rainy season. Today, Jeremy and I were headed out on our bikes and the young children (all under 6) who were walking home from school waited for us to zoom by and then immediately started chasing our bikes. Well, they are fast, and our bikes are slow trying to avoid mud puddles, so we usually have 10 kids each chasing our bikes. It makes me laugh the entire time we ride out to Konkwa with all of these kids right on my tail. They think it is the most amusing game.

Once Jeremy and I make it to the Lilamono hut, without running over any children, we are greeted by our friends, and all of the boys start yelling our names as we pull in. Cosmas is fluent in English and is probably the best English speaker I have met here. He is helping Jeremy and I learn kikaonde, but his wife Josephine is just starting the process of learning English. She gets a bit sad when she cannot communicate with the three of us in English, so we try to talk in Kaonde as much as possible. Today, her and I practiced language learning together. She would say the English word, and I would say the Kaonde word. I spent most of the afternoon enjoying their company while Jeremy went with one of the other villagers to gather bamboo. We went out in her cornfield to gather the corn that was ready to eat. We took them back to her fire, and she immediately put all of the cornhusks in a plastic bag and hands it to me. I was trying to avoid getting choked up, but it was almost impossible. Here is a family, who eats the same thing (nshema and relish) everyday, every meal, so corn is a treat, and she wanted to give me all of her corn. Well, I wanted to be respectful and honor our relationship, so I took four of her cornhusks but kindly told her I did not need more than that. I love this woman; she inspires me. We are all poor in different ways around the world, but this family is not poor in spirit. I could learn a few things from them! As I told her I had to leave, she stomped her foot and said “No, I want to keep play with Whitney.” Haha, she is learning English remember. I was blessed today and reminded of the scripture that commands us not to worry because surely our Lord knows what we need when we need it. Josephine and Cosmas were obviously not worried about how much food they had, but more concerned about developing relationships and giving to others.

Here is a small glimpse that Jeremy captured of our race with the kids through Konkwa

Updates

2011-03-08T00:54:00.000-08:00

I wanted update everyone on the response of the seed-sowing! We had 30 people come to the first Bible study, which was held in the local school classroom. The next week we had 15 and it was raining hard that day so it would explain the smaller numbers. However, we are told that not everyone will accept the message. Continue to pray for these new seekers of God as we continue to teach the good news in Mitukutuku. For those of you coming for the campaign in June, we will be traveling to this village to hold a medical clinic. Usually, when a medical clinic is held in an area a church tends to form and be planted. So we are planting the seed, and you that are coming will have a chance to water, then we’ll get to see God bring the increase! I also wanted to update everyone of other things going on. We are studying hard the language and are coming along pacheeche pacheeche (bit by bit). Learning language and using it with the people really brings joy to their hearts. It tells them that they are important enough to work hard to get to know them and use their language. Now we are far from fluent, but the effort is appreciated and often builds up relationships here, which is the #1 cultural value. I have also been teaching a study of the Kingdom of God in the village of Mushingashi. This village is about an hour bike ride into the bush. I frequently return very sore and muddy as the paths during the rainy season are often saturated with mud. I pass through grass over my head and ride through a swamp to get there. But every week is worth the effort as each time I have a mud-bricked building full of interested learners. It is a blessing to be in a place where people really seek understanding of the spirit realm. Everything is spiritual to these people. Sickness, relationships, crop yield, death, birth, and pretty much everything else that has to do with everyday life have a spiritual connection. So people are intensely interested in learning more. I have also been building relationships with the male teachers (Whitney with the females) to inspire God’s high calling of teaching children. We’ve been discussing what each feels their calling is as well as helping them identify the gifts and talents God has given them to be used in this environment. As we live in a place consumed by mental poverty, helping them believe in themselves and view themselves as God views them is imperative in raising them up from the beggar position that handouts can cause to the Sonship, heir position of being a Child of God. This is our challenge above all else—trying to help them learn to help themselves and reinforcing the capabilities that they possess.On another note, we had a wonderful baseball game with our mission team. There are some pictures below of the team playing. We were split in the two teams The Fisheagles (national bird of Zambia) and the Mpongos (bush babies-google them!). We had a great afternoon of team bonding through a great American past time surrounded by an audience that had no idea what we were doing surrounded us!

Young hearts

2011-03-01T05:34:00.000-08:00

Last week, Erin and I had our first actual Bible study with six young teen girls that attend the local school. We had been planning this for a few weeks but getting anything set up at an official time each week takes time in Zambia. Erin had thought up the idea of a Bible study with this age range because one of the girl’s fathers helps Jason with ag projects. He is a church leader and had told Erin his hopes for faith in his children. The ages of these girls range from 12-16 years old. I was nervous that they would be extremely shy and would not want to talk very much, but I was pleasantly surprised. We want this Bible study to be an open time for them to share what is on their hearts in a safe community. Erin and I began with introductions. We talked about who we are, our families and why we were in Zambia. Then, was the big step to ask each of them to tell us their name, age, favorite food, favorite animal and if they were from a Christian home or if this was all new to them. Of course, their favorite foods went something like “apple, orange, lemon, cow…” I thought about how drastically different their answers to that question were from an average child in the states. They giggled their way through all of the questions we asked them, but they were surprisingly vocal. None of them have been baptized yet, but each one knows a little bit about God because of their parents or through their schooling. We sang songs in both kikaonde and English, and then Erin and I introduced what we would like our theme to be “God’s love for YOU” over the next few months. The focus will be on Jesus’ life. I could not be more excited about this sweet little group of girls that we will have the opportunity to love on. We asked for these girls to keep this group small for now so we can focus on those who really want to learn, continue getting to know their culture, and then we can build up from there. Here is the list of girls who are studying with us, if you could be in prayer for them by name: Cathreen, Joyce, Mariam, Rwidiness, Mercy and Leah. As we closed out our time together explaining what a prayer request was and how we can pray for each other each week, one of the 12 yr. olds said, “please just pray for us because we want to know more about God during this time.” It was inspiring to hear this good news. These girls know English fairly well, because they have studied it in school for years. Below is a picture of our second study together with all of girls, minus one who was out that day. Thank you for your prayers for the Kaonde people. This study was encouraging to me, and I pray it was for them as well. -Whitney

Scattering the Seed

2011-02-23T10:34:00.001-08:00

“A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell…” -Luke 8:4-15On Monday, I had the privilege to be there farmer in this parable. I went with one of my teammates and 5 Zambians to the village of Mitukutuku. A few weeks ago, the missionaries were sent a letter from a group leader in this village desiring for us to come and teach the word of God to him and his surrounding community (providing a great example of how God works on peoples’ hearts and those who seek will find). After traveling several kilometers into the bush, we came upon this man’s house. From there we packed up our bag of seeds and started sowing. The group leader took us from village to village introducing us to the people and giving us an opportunity to throw out the hope of Jesus (I used John 10 as people here fear greatly and hearing there is a great Shepherd that will protect them is a good draw for them to get to know him). Once I finished sharing the Word, we invited them to a regular Bible study that will be held at the school, which is the village center. This is very exciting to think that there is a potential preaching point here, which could lead to a congregation. As I was walking along the dirt paths surrounded by tall grass and thick foliage scattering the seed from village to village, I couldn’t help but think about the four different places it could land. I would like to invite everyone to pray that seed sown found it’s way to the good soil and not the rocks, paths, or weeds. We will find out on Monday as we see who all will show up for the study. Also pray that as we study with this new village that the Word will grow up in their hearts and that they will come to know Jesus and the hope of his Kingdom.Pray for all of our young churches here that the seeds of the Kingdom will continue to grow and mature bearing much fruit as God transforms the hearts and lives of the Mumena people.-Jeremy

Bush Life

2011-02-10T02:58:00.000-08:00

We have been in Mumena for one month now. The first month had its rollercoaster moments, but we lived through them and feel stronger and more prepared now. Our houses are set up, and I am quickly learning how to make everything from scratch. (Jeremy is quickly learning that he is going to have to sweep out little termite mounds from our house as soon as I see them popping up every day)

Last week, our entire team was sent by our supporting congregations on a team retreat to Lake Kariba, located between Zambia and Zimbabwe. It was a great week of relaxation and discussing team strategies and policies. We were able to spend time catching up on what has been going on in Mumena and what we are preparing for.

This week, Jeremy and I found out the names of the three church plants we will be working with while we are here. They need some developing, mentoring and love, so we are going to begin visiting each church and developing relationships. One church is fairly close to our house, but the others will be a bumpy ride to get out to. We are very excited about these opportunities. This is definitely something Jeremy has been dreaming to do now since the first summer he visited here.

We are really working to learn the language- kikaonde. Jeremy and I try to learn a few phrases each day and then walk around and try to use them with the villagers. It can be quite humorous sometimes, but it is so fulfilling when you actually use a word correctly.

There is plenty to work on in Mumena, and we are working to pace ourselves. Thank you so much for your continued prayers!

Below is a picture of Jeremy giving a Bible lesson during a church service at one of the church palnts. Also, a picture of a sunset over Lake Kariba, the land you see in the back is in Zimbabwe.

More house pictures.

2011-01-25T22:17:00.000-08:00

These pictures are our living room, kitchen and bedroom. As well as our kensansa in our yard. Enjoy!

Pictures!

2011-01-25T22:05:00.000-08:00

I have many more I want to post but with our internet we will have to start off small. This is Jeremy and I's house and the view from part of our porch.

Mumena Highlights

2011-01-25T21:48:00.000-08:00

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Mumena week 1 is over. It was an exciting, exhausting and busy week, and we are happy to feel like we are almost all settled in. Our mud house is running great. I have not seen any snakes, and not too many bugs.

Life here is simple in the African bush. Simple, but not easy. For the Kaonde tribe, where we are, they wake up with the sun, go out in the field and gather their food and then are usually finished with their duties by mid-afternoon. Then it is time to make dinner under their kensansa and stay by the fire until it is time for bed.

Jeremy and I have gone out in to one of the villages a few times this week and watched this process and enjoyed time talking with friends.

Here are a few things that went on this week:

We got in to our container 1 YEAR after packing it up and shipping it here. It was really neat to pull out all of the items that we had packed away. Our East Brainerd church family really took care of us, and we are very thankful for the things that were sent over. All of the rugs, dressers, book shelves, kitchen utensils, pots/pans, blankets, etc. are being used!

I really want to put up pictures of our house and area, but our internet plan is still being figured out—they will come eventually, but everything with our house is great!

I realized after our visit to town, which Jeremy told you about, that I prefer bush life over city life by a lot.

We have now been to two church plants out of the 13 that have been planted here in Mumena. This morning, Jeremy and I arrived to our assigned church plant, and Jeremy was asked to give the Bible study to the church 10 minutes before it began. I just laughed to myself, but of course he did a great job!

Jeremy met “baby Jeremy” for the first time! Although, Jeremy is not much of a baby anymore; he is 3 years old. Jeremy’s closest Kaonde friend in Zambia that he met on his first campaign here ended up naming one of his children after Jeremy. Now baby Jeremy runs around saying our names, and we love spending time with his family.

We had our first meeting with our entire team—it lasted from 8am-1:30pm. We had a lot to cover, and we will be leaving this Sunday for a team retreat for 5 days to cover even more ground on our mission and spend quality time with our team. Our team now consists of 5 families, and 3 of those families all arrived January 13th, so we have a lot of learning to do.

Thank you for your prayers. We have needed them and have felt them. We have much to learn and much to pray for, but we feel blessed, called and thankful to be here.

First Week in Mumena

2011-01-17T23:50:00.000-08:00

Well, it’s been almost a week since we left the US and we have had little communication since. The internet is very slow here and emails, pictures, facebook, etc. are going to be more difficult than we expected so please be patient with us as we try to work a good system out. We will hopefully be updating at least once a week. After a nervous and stressful departure with all the weather issues in Atlanta, 8 hours later we landed in London. Then an 8 hour layover in London prepared us for the 10 hour flight to Lusaka, Zambia, the capital city. Miraculously we made it through immigration and were joyously greeted by all of our luggage! Once we exited the airport we were greeted with jumping and excited cousins, Noah and Bryson, along with our Uncle Brian and Aunt Sondra. We loaded up the trucks and after another 9 hour drive we finally arrived in Mumena.

The last several days have been dedicated to nest building. We are settling into our mud hut with a tin roof, which is amazing a night as we are serenaded by the rainfall. The rainy season is gorgeous. Everything is so lush and green. There are wild flowers everywhere. The trees are tall and expand widely at the top. Birds fly around and chirp all day long.

Living is different here. The electricity has gone out three times in the few days that we’ve been here. It is very muddy everywhere we walk as it rains almost everyday. The real blessing has been having family and other teammates here that have helped us get set up. We’ve already been to the market to get all our foods and necessities for a while. Let me just say, it is not like BILO. The road in town is full of people on either side. Driving can be difficult and dangerous. The market is dusty and crowded, but is a great cultural experience. We do have a Shoprite that works as a supermarket, but you never know what they will and will not have. For instance, there were no eggs in the entire store. It is also somewhat scary when you check out and the cash register reads 1.5 million kwacha(Zambian currency). The exchange rate is 4500 to 1 US dollar.

So far the highlight of us being here is reuniting with old friends and seeing the church that I originally worked with 4 years ago doing very well. I wanted to show you a short clip of the singing inside of the mud-bricked church. However, video uploading is not going to work at the moment. I will post something soon though. There were 89 members there that morning. It was completely lead by the Zambians, but of course I was informed that I would be leading the communion thoughts shortly before we had communion. But a phrase that you will learn in living here is TIA- “This is Africa” Well that’s all for now. Hopefully we will be writing again soon.

Blessings and thank you all for all your prayers, we have truly felt God’s presence this week.

Jeremy and Whitney

Next stop: Zambia!

2011-01-09T13:25:00.000-08:00

The past four weeks have been some of the sweetest, hardest, most stressful, emotional and wonderful weeks of my life! Jeremy and I flew to Abilene at the beginning of December to say our good byes to family, friends and mentors that we love. It was a wonderful trip, and it was good to see Texas one more time before our two year African stay.

Something memorable that happened on my last visit to Abilene was sitting next to my best friend (that I have had since I was 14 years old) in the hospital watching her sweet grandfather and the greatest man she ever knew pass away. We had known this was coming for the past few years, and it ended up happening during the week I was there.

The rest of the month of December was filled with lots of great times with my family. I said good bye to my mom, my step dad and my brother on Christmas Day, which I probably would not recommend to do, but I was thankful for the time. My mom and step dad will be coming to see us this summer!

This week has been very strange for us as we pack up our lives in the U.S. and prepare ourselves for a different way of life. I felt so taken care of this morning and loved as we spent our last Sunday at East Brainerd, our supporting congregation. It was the best decision we made to move here in July and spend time with our supporters and family.

We leave for Zambia this Tuesday, Jan. 11th. I guess our next blog will come from Africa! Please keep us in your prayers and know we feel so blessed to be in the position we are in and are anxious to walk by faith more than ever.

December

2010-12-06T13:44:00.000-08:00

I am really beginning to feel overwhelmed with all kinds of emotions as we are getting so close to the day...January 11.

I am nervous. I am leaning on the power of prayer a lot these days as I notice there are quite a few things I am going to have to completely place in God's hands...I am not in control...nurturing my family, protecting my 90-year-old grandmother and keeping my balance between two very different cultures.

I am excited! Here are a few faces that may help you figure out why...these sweet faces will become my family, those that I think of and hope for a life of love and hope in God. These pictures are from my trip to Zambia during the summer months of 2008.

Jeremy and I will leave for our last visit to Texas on Wednesday. We will be in my hometown of Abilene for one week, and then we will head to Ft. Worth for a few days for our last Zambia training weekend. This will be a special weekend for us to conclude what we have learned in the states about missions, with our families present. We will get back into Chattanooga right in time for Christmas.

Happy December!
Whitney

Forty Days

2010-12-04T07:41:00.000-08:00

We are forty days away from leaving for Zambia. In recognizing that, I couldn’t help but think of the forty days Jesus spent in the desert fasting before he set out for his ministry. Matthew, Mark, and Luke all write about the account and each record different detail; however, all state that the Spirit led him out there. Why would the Spirit lead him out to fast for forty days then be tempted by Satan? Jesus fasted. For forty days he fasted before setting out in his ministry. Why fast? Jesus was about to begin a journey where he would have to sacrifice much. Every day, he would have to make the decision to deny his own desires and choose God’s will. In preparation, he spent time practicing a denial of self and filling himself with the presence of God. I often hear people argue that we are not perfect, and the reason that Jesus was perfect on earth was because he was God. While I do believe Christ contained the fullness of God, I also believe he disciplined himself to take on the person of God by practicing self-sacrifice. It makes sense that Jesus would deny himself the very basic physical necessity of food for forty days in preparation for a life of self-denial. It makes me think about what I am doing to prepare for ministry by practicing the discipline of self-denial. Then I think even more that Christ called us everyday to deny ourselves, so what can we do daily to practice the denying of our own needs so that we can fully submit to God’s will. I emphasize needs and not wants here. Jesus denied himself the inherent need of food to prepare his being to take on the will of God. Certainly we can understand sacrificing wants; however, needs—things that we were created with—should also be denied if they interfere with the will of God. Fasting from food can be a great practice for us to deny ourselves of our basic needs for preparation for a life in Christ—a life of self-denial. When Jesus was tempted by Satan to turn the stones into bread, it was not the bread or desire to eat that was wrong with this situation. What was wrong was the way in which Satan tempted Jesus to fulfill this inherent need. Jesus was extremely hungry, but he had spent so much time in denying himself and practicing the presence of God that even when he was presented the false fulfillment of that need by the bread that he recognized that eating that bread as presented by Satan would have been less fulfilling than the God that he had just relied on for fulfillment the past forty days. It would also be God that sustained him throughout his ministry especially in the times that he had to deny his inherent needs. We may have inherent needs such as food, companionship, drive for achievement, etc. that we will have to deny ourselves everyday in order to live a life in Christ because of the fallen world we live in. Satan has twisted the very nature of our beings in this world and for some it is unfair to think about having to give up certain needs for the rest of their lives because Satan has confused how to fully satisfy that need. The hope is, what Jesus understood when he stood in the face of the temptation of Satan, only God can fully satisfy the needs we have in this life or the next. Let us all practice denying ourselves of needs so that when faced with temptation it will not seem as appealing as the love of God.

Jeremy

Tennesse Favorites

2010-11-25T08:28:00.000-08:00

I have thoroughly enjoyed living in the volunteer state since we moved here in July. Don't get me wrong, Texas will always be my home, but Tennessee has been a huge part of my life since my first trip to Chattanooga with Jeremy in college. I love so much about it! Here are my top ten favorite things about Chattanooga and the surrounding areas.

1. FALL: the weather, the leaves, fall festivals, pumpkin patches -love it all. TN is very festive!

2. All of the rivers around here- The Ocoee and Hiwasee in particular. We have spent many weekends at both of these rivers rafting, tubing and fishing.

Here's Jeremy fly fishing.

3. East Brainerd C of C- We have felt so included, supported and blessed by this congregation. They have blessed us much more than they realize, I think. Not to mention, we are so thankful for their support while we are in Zambia.

4. Boyd-Buchanan school- Jeremy attended BBS from kindergarten through his senior year of high school. Of course, I had always heard great things about this school, but I have now been able to witness them myself. This is where both Jeremy and I have been working/teaching this semester.

5. Countryside Cafe in Ooltewah, TN. There is NO country cooking better than that of countryside.

6. The LOFT- Ann Taylor's LOFT to be exact. Love this place and loooove the sales! Basically, if they had a LOFT in Zambia I would be set. :)

7. Downtown Chattanooga-it is a great place to hang out and has so many unique and pretty things to explore.

8. Hanging out with the Davis family- It has been so much fun to be around Jeremy's family, my in laws, for 6 months straight. Jeremy was able to help coach Caleb's football team this year, and Caleb was named defensive player of the season!

9. Heritage Park- I love this park so much! It is beautiful, and it has a plantation house right in the middle of the park. Jeremy and I like to take Merit (our dog) here to walk, and recently we were able to go inside the plantation house for a Christmas exhibit--it was great!
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10. Lookout Mountain- of course I have to give a shout out to Lookout since that is where we were engaged 3 years ago at Rock City. I love Lookout Mountain!

The Beginning

2010-11-18T18:08:00.000-08:00

I have enjoyed reading blogs for years now but always just figured I would be a reader, not the writer. However...

Jeremy and I are about to face a huge change in our lives. We are moving to Mumena, Zambia with Jeremy's brother Jason and his wife Erin. We will be joining a team of three missionary families that have been doing ministry in Mumena for five years now. We are eager to learn from them and begin a new way of life and ministry.

We covet your prayers as we begin this new journey. We will be leaving for Zambia on January 11, 2011. Only 7 more weeks! Our team has been incredibly blessed and supported by family, friends and the support and prayers of East Brainerd Church of Christ in Chattanooga, TN and the Hillcrest Church of Christ in Abilene, TX.

I am so excited to be able to have this outlet of communication so we can update you on our lives from the African bush, the funny and unusual things that go on there and most of all the kingdom work God is doing in Zambia! We are blessed.

Whitney