Family Seminar

Friday evening through Sunday afternoon we got to witness a new priority for many of our Kaonde brothers and sisters, family. Over 100 church members trekked to Mumena Christian Outreach for a weekend of encouragement for their families. Many of the youth walked 6 six hours to get here, talk about inspiring.

Our theme verse for the weekend was Ephesians 5:1, "Be imitators of God, therefore as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us a and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God." Jason and I helped with the youth classes which was a hoot. At first it was hard to get them talking but when they had the opportunity to make up a skit or song about what it means to be a child of God they just came alive. Two groups made up very elaborate skits, with great acting of course, and one group of girls wrote a song (in 30 min!). Their creativity was astounding. We hope their churches will continue to build them up because they can be such lights!

Probably my favorite part of the weekend happened this morning before our church service. Everyone broke up into their individual families to have family devotionals which promoted them pray, read, discuss, and memorize scripture together. It warmed my heart to see families making such an effort to grow together. Our hope is for them to now have the confidence to regularly have family devotionals at home.

Here are few more pictures:

Please be praying for the families in the Mumena chiefdom!

July-August Update

We recently sent out a new newsletter and below is our "Notes from Jason and Erin" portion that gives a quick update on our life the past couple of months in Mumena.

It has been very odd to me that life in Mumena is much slower than our American lifestyles were used to yet time has been flying by. We can't believe we are now in our 8th month in Zambia.

Jason has been very busy with the school production project this month. While the kids are on break from school he has been offering Ag in-services for the production teachers. With the possibility of growing their own feed and encouraging local farmers to grow the crops needed for the animals, Jason's goal of sustainability could really be within arms length.

July was a wonderful month that included the Allison's visiting for the marriage seminar and our Sunday school teacher's seminar at the refugee camp. Janet and Fielden Allison travel several months out of the year from their home base, African Christian College in Swaziland, to teach marriage workshops. The material they present is contextualized in a way that Africans participating can take the material back to their churches and teach other couples. It was such a joy and inspiration to sit in on their classes. I would love someday to be able to follow in their footsteps of teaching about the Christian marriage and family in cultures that readily struggle with this specific area in their faith. It was my first visit to the refugee camp the Saturday the missionary ladies from Mumena taught about the importance of teaching children Bible lessons as well as easy techniques to do so. It was a very neat experience to visit our lively Congolese sisters and we hope and pray they will continue to be excited about teaching their little ones about the Lord. Sondra, Whitney, and I are looking forward to starting back up with our lady teacher's Bible study in September and are hoping for a good number of teachers who will be committed and excited about studying together each week.

Thank you for your prayers and support!

Pictures!

We have been waiting for a good enough internet signal to post these pictures for a while. Yay, internet in town is great today! The first few are from the lion and cheetah walk we went on in Livingstone at the end of the June campaigns. It was an amazing experience. We still cannot believe we got to pet and walk with such beautiful animals. Also in the mix are a couple pictures of the US Ambassador to Zambia's visit to Mumena Christian Outreach Center. He visited to tour the Ag projects happening at the center involving partnership with the Zambian people.

Talking to Suzie about how to behave

Mumean B school's production class with their teacher, Mr. Mutale, showing off their chickens

Layer chicken coop

Jason, the Ambassador, and Chief Mumena discussing the
pig production section of the school project

 The Ambassador viewing the layers pen

Termite Mound Time

In our backyard we have a termite mound taller than our house that used to really annoy me. But my husband talked me into having a kinsanza (thatch gazebo) built on top of it. That probably sounds a little yucky if you haven't seen it. In fact, when I told my Mom of this her only response was "Erin, I am not really sure what to say about that." But to my dismay, our little kinsanza is the most peaceful place I could imagine having here. We have a wonderful view and the breeze is always present. Many afternoons Jason and I sit up here and relax together, sometimes we eat meals here, and today I have realized this is the only place in our house area we can get internet connection so now I am perfectly smitten with our once annoying termite mound! This explanation/description leads up to the point that I am in the perfect setting for a litte blog post....

The past two weeks have been a whirlwind of excitement. We have just finished our spiritual, medical, educational, and construction campaigns with the participation on 21 visitors from the States. I am not quite sure how to summarize it all but to say, much work was done in the above areas with one goal in mind...to further God's kingdom through short term church and development mission work. I can attest to seeing results of Christ's love shared through our visitors and am confident we will continue seeing these results as time goes by. Thank you to all those who participated in and prayed for this time!

Photo Preview

Many eventful things have happened since the last blog post. In the next week or so I will write a good update on it all but for now here is a little photo preview!

A more descriptive update will be coming soon....Happy Thursday!

Zebra, Giraffe, and Monkeys, Oh my!

Jason and I have been traveling for the past week to pick up a flat bed trailer and medical supplies for the Mumena medical mission this summer. Here a few pictures of the friends we have run into on our travels!

The Zambezi River gorge

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