Saturday Fun

Today Jason and I took a stroll about 2 miles down the road to the Kimpalumba village. Two men in this village are working with Jason doing a pig production project. They were required to build their own pig pens then have been gifted with a bred pig in return. The men and their families will feed and care for the baby piglets, along with the sow, for 6 months then be able to keep their profits from selling the piglets to invest in the next years production. Our hope is for this project to help two qualified farmers have a better means of supporting their families through pig farming. Here are a few photos of the new piggies!

Our reason for visiting the Kimpalumba village today was to check on the new babies but as an added surprise we got to observe some of the fun these families have on an average Saturday. The kids invented their own slide to ride down one of the termite hills. We were very tempted to want to take a ride as well but it was pretty steep! Looks pretty fun huh?

The women were mostly sitting under their kinsanza's preparing their relish for this evening's meal (pumpkin leaves). But Edward's wife was "polishing their house." She mixed red dirt with water, making a paint, then she painted a stripe around the bottom of their house. Next to her on the right is a little one who made herself a pouch to carry around her roasted ground nuts to snack on while she waited for her turn to slide down the termite hill.

We loved getting to spend part of our Saturday with a village full of people we have grown to love over the last year. Although the weekend activities of the Kaonde people may look a bit different than we experienced growing up it is neat to see them have family time, fun time, and relax time in their own special way!

One Blessing after Another

It has been a great April so far! The Muzha Wa Yesu (Slave of Jesus) Seminar is almost half way through. The church leaders have been working very hard sitting through classes from 8am-5pm everyday for the past two weeks as they seek to grow in their knowledge of the Word so that they can go back and teach their congregations. We have had three visiting teachers this session from the US. Two of those visiting teachers are from our sending congregation in Chattanooga, TN, Dave and Susan Mellor, and Ron and Gail Rogers. Dave is teaching the Hebrews class while Ron has been teaching on "The heart of an elder." While the seminar has been going on during the day Susan and Gail have been spoiling Whitney and I with many cooking lessons, sewing lessons, and lots of love and attention. It has been such a blessing to see familiar and comforting faces. Today we ladies ventured out to visit the wife of a church leader who is attending the seminar because she has a new addition to her family! Susan brought a handy little picture printer to Zambia so we wanted to take some snap shots of the new baby to gift his Mama with. He is so precious and tiny, and slept through the majority of our visit.

 More updates on the Muzha seminar to come!

Village Music

Yesterday Jason and I went to Konkwa village and while we were there we visited this very talented blind gentleman. Jeremy and Whitney are good friends with his family so I had heard about how inspiring he is before but getting to see him in action...playing hymns on his hand crafted instrument while softly singing was such a sweet experience. I wish I could have videoed him and shared that but unfortunately it would have taken a really really long time with the speed of our internet 

to upload a video plus I am not too handy with video 

recording : ). Instead here are few pictures....

 

Thought this might be encouraging for some to see today!

"This is the work of the Eternal One, 

and it is marvelous in our eyes.

This is the day the Eternal God has made;

let us celebrate and be happy today."

Psalm 118:23-24

Happy Sunday!

Happy Independance Day Zambia!

47 years ago today Zambia became the 9th African state to gain it's independence from the British crown. Today we had the privilege of celebrating this event with the students, teachers, parents, and head men of all of the surrounding villages. The festivities started last night and will carry on through late this evening. Mumena B Basic School (the campus of which we live on) is hosting all of the events. It is so neat to see Zambians coming together to commemorate their country's independence. Here a few pictures from today so far...

Dressed up for a "cultural dance"

The "witch doctor" dance. Somewhat creepy of a costume if you ask me but it was helpful for our cultural learning : )

Sweet Aggie  posing for me

More dancing

Emily Love (Emily is one of the daughters of team members Rick and Karen Love). She was not too happy about me taking pictures of her.

Quick Happy Monday post

The other day I looked out the back door and saw these boys climbing one of our trees. I thought they were looking for fruit so I went out to investigate. It turned out they were hunting for caterpillars! They had several in their bucket already and were planning on filling it up to have a yummy snack. This time of the year there are caterpillars everywhere so Zambians collect them, dry them in the sun, then fry them in oil. It doesn't sound too tasty to me but to each his own right?

Jason and I have been working hard on landscaping as a way to make our house a little more homey. We are blessed to have the perfect location and soil in Mumena for growing pretty much anything. Last week many of our flowers started blooming, Yay! Here are few pictures:

Just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must continue to follow him. Let your roots grow down into him, and let you lives be built in him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness. 
-Colossians 2:6-7