Ibis Gardens Resort stay...our end of 40/40 in Zambia

PHASE IV

After our homestay, we traveled 7 hours to a resort called Ibis Gardens. Back to electricity, nice beds, air-conditioning, china, silverware and a shower and indoor toilet! Ibis had a beautiful swimming pool, where Luke spent most of his time! For three days here, we practiced language learning techniques and got ready to go back to our own countries and said our good-byes. It was great to reconnect with our friends we had gone to training with in Virginia and to meet new friends too. this was the largest group to go through the Safari 40/40 training.

Homestay at 40/40

PHASE III
Jazen, Patience, Chikondi and George live in their home that they are building. It really is just a shell right now...with dirt floors, brick walls, a tin roof and bricked up windows. Soon they will save enough money to have electricity. It will take them three years to pay for the floor, windows, doors, bathroom and kitchen cabinents/appliances. They will get these things done as they can pay for them. Their bathroom right now is a small brick structure about 30 feet from the house with an outdoor toilet (squattie pottie) and bathing area. We would bathe each day in this behind a curtain when Patience would heat some water over the fire. The bath was splashing water on us to clean off. This is how they bathe everyday.
Our stay with the family also included 3 hens and 1 rooster. They stayed in the room in the house across from ours. Every morning at 3 a.m., the rooster would start crowing and didn't stop until about 6 a.m. I think if we had stayed any longer...we would have had fried chicken for supper! We all slept on 2 inch mattresses on the dirt floor under a mosquito net. This was called our "Happy Place" because if we kept it all tucked in tight...under the mattress...then bugs, lizards and whatever were kept out!
Patience would cook all the meals over a fire. We ate traditional African foods like Nshema (which is the mealie (corn) meal stirred in hot water until it gets thick like grits). The Nshema is used for the utensils since you pinch off a bit, work it into a ball, flatten out a place in the middle with your thumb, and then use it to scoop up your other food like pumpkin leaves, okra, kapenta (small fish like minnows) and goat meat. Luke played games with the boys. Kim helped Patience wash their clothes in a bucket. I worked in their garden and went to a futball game. This was such a sweet family and they were very generous in everything they had.

More 40/40 our Rural Phase

PHASE II
We left Lusaka and started our rural phase of Safari by traveling 5 hours by chartered bus to the village of Petauke. Here we stayed for two more weeks in our Bush Camp...living in tents,using outhouses for toilets, and buckets for make-shift showers. We had to get our own water from the pump, heat the water on a campfire and use our buckets and rope system for our showers. During this phase, we went out into the rural villages and did DFAs with new Zambian helpers...to get the feel for rural Africa. We rode on the back of a huge truck into the village on some days and on others we just walked and walked and walked! This time, Kim and I were on a team. We enjoyed sitting with people and talking to them about their lives. Kim and I talked to one lady who was a traditional healer (witch doctor). We got to pray for her as well. The last 3 days and 3 nights of Bush Camp were spent living with a Zambian family...Kb flew back to Francistown to start school. So it was just Kim, Luke and I who went to live with the Phiri family.

Our 40/40 Adventure in Zambia

Yes, we have arrived back in our home in Francistown...unpacking, doing laundry, starting school and language study. We wanted to share a little of our time at 40/40. This program is designed for all new missionaries who come to serve in the Central, Eastern and Southern portions of Africa. It is meant to prepare us to live like the Africans do so that we can better relate and understand their culture and mindset. It was a GREAT experience. It was hard, fun and exhausting as well! We are very thankful for the time we had ...also very thankful to be back 'home'. Here are some thoughts from Randy's journal he kept while we were gone:

PHASE I
The first two weeks we stayed at the Baptist Seminary in Lusaka, Zambia. Kelland and Luke had teachers there who organized their school times and lots of fun field trips (like a Croc farm and a water park!) during the day. Kb and Luke loved being with the other MKs and made many dear friends as well. The adults were divided into teams with Zambian helpers as our guides and went out each day on a Daily Field Assignment (DFA). I was on a team with Abusa (Pastor) Alfred Tembo as my helper. We had to walk down a long dusty dirt road to catch a minibus to ride to our assigned site everyday. I went into the area called Kalikiliki (means hurry, hurry). It looked like it was far beyond poverty stricken. The roads were pretty much humps, potholes and a few rocks. The ride to the compound cost 2,000 kwacha a person! Sounds expensive, but here 5,000 kwacha is equal to 1 U.S. dollar.
As we walked around each day, we heard several young children call out, "Mzungu!"
which means "white person". In the market area there were several kinds of shops. Many had food like tomatoes, fish called kapinta, goat intestines, mealie meal. Each day we visited various people to talk to them about their families, customs, and culture. On one visit, we went out to share the gospel using Creation to Christ. It takes about 20 minutes to share, a presentation that explains the reason Jesus came to be the sacrifice for our sins. Four adults prayed to trust Christ as their Savior. Kim shared C2C and 9 children prayed to trust Christ. Our Zambian helpers were to follow up on these decisions. We will never know the outcome until we get to heaven.
One of the DFAs was to visit people who were sick or who had a death in the family. I visited two people who had had strokes. Kim visited a family going through a funeral. She and her partner, Marci, got to help make NShema for the dinner they were preparing.

I talked at length with one of the Zambian helpers. He had questions about weddings/marriage. I asked him about the same topic for Zambians. He said a man would pay a 'bride price' for the woman he wanted to marry. Men will pay the bride's father one or more cows. If they have no cattle, then men can work cultivating the fields of his future father-in-law. One man worked for three years for the bride price! Why is this price paid? Because it shows respect to the family and shows her family that he is committed to the woman. Look at the great Bride Price that Jesus paid for us: His death on the cross.

Our Trip to Victoria Falls

We are thankful for some time away...just to enjoy God's beautiful world and be with friends. We were just gone two days and one night...but we saw lots of animals and the Falls were spectacular. We got to see a giraffe, zebras, monkeys, baboons, cudu, and lots of elephants. Enjoy the pictures. You can marvel with us over Victoria Falls.

Listen closely to the video and you can hear the charging elephant trumpeting at us...he decided to just run away down the road instead of charging our truck! Exciting stuff!

Video of baby elephants playing in the road!

Our time in Zimbabwe

It is not really easy to get into Zimbabwe. The border crossing is complicated sometimes, but the Lord blessed this day with a fairly easy time. Plumtree Baptist Church was friendly and on fire for the Lord. It was a joy to worship and fellowship with our new friends. This is the church with 'Happy Feet' worship! They were dancing and praising God. We had a great time in the Lord. (kim)