Wednesday News

Last weekend the missionary ladies put on a workshop in Mumena for women interested in learning how to teach Bible classes for children. Our aim was teaching methods that could be easily used in the village. So, we used basic materials like notebook paper, crayons, scissors, and a little tape. All of these items can be bought in Solwezi, the nearest town. It was so exciting to see the women (over 40 attended) fellowship and create lessons together. Also, I think they enjoyed having time away from their laborious responsibilities at home. Art is such a therapy and that was evident in their enthusiasm for just coloring with crayola crayons. Most of the women had babies on their backs throughout the seminar and few brought along their young ones to play outside while they were in class. Sondra, Whitney, Ellie, and I were very pleased with the outcome of the weekend. Please be praying with us for the women who attended to have the confidence and calling to start sharing the Lord with their youngsters.

In other news:

4 baby goats were born this last week. They are just about the most precious baby animals. Even when they are only a couple days old they are start running around trying to jump and buck. Many times they end up landing on their bellies because they aren't quite coordinated enough yet. Jason and I spend a little time almost every evening just watching and laughing at them. For those of you who do not live in the African bush this might sound like an odd type of entertainment. But take my word for it...it's adorable.

Special Delivery:

Our rains came early, YES! This means I get to start working on this seasons flowers! I already have a new layout for the backyard drawn up, Jason is helping get the plans rolling by getting our fence re-built. We have grass fences here and our backyard fence was in very shabby shape. Since our truck is out of commission for the time being we have resorted to using alternative means for transporting the grass for the new fence. Meet the ox cart crew!

Happy Wednesday!

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever.

Psalm 118:1

Jacaranda trees and preparing for piglets

After our weekly apprentice class this morning I thought it might be a good time for a picture of the beautiful Jacaranda trees that are blooming right now. We are tredging through our dry season (no rain since early May), everything is brown, dusty, or burned except for the one tree that blooms during this otherwise not so pretty time of year. We have one in front of our house and there are a whole line of them on the other side of the school campus. Here a couple pictures for you see:

 

Jason with his friend Pertheus. They are working on building pig pens for the piglets that will be born soon.

That's all for today's short update. Our ladies seminar starts on Thursday. We are so excited about the women wanting to learn easy techniques for teaching Sunday school at their churches. Hopefully we will have a good post for that next week. Happy Tuesday!

Latest Newsletter

Below is our latest apprentice team newsletter. To view larger click on the image then use the magnifying glass tool to zoom in on the text. Some of the information is repetitive from the family seminar but Jason wrote a good update on the Ag program in our "Notes from Jason and Erin" section. Enjoy!

South Luangwa National Park

We are back in Mumena after an amazing trip to South Luangwa National Park. We left Mumena last Thursday, drove 9 hours to Lusaka, then 10 hours on Saturday driving from Lusaka to the park. We camped for 3 nights at Track and Trail lodge which was only a few km from the park entrance. Each night we had elephant and hippo come through the camp which made for interesting nightly music. We saw so many animals we couldn't believe it. I wish I could upload all of our pictures but it has taken a couple hours to upload this many so maybe another time I will add more. Hope these pictures make you want to visit us in Zambia!

Sun setting over the Luangwa River

Gray Hornbill

Water Buffalo

Puku mother and fawn

Lion and elephant herd drinking from a stream

Impala's sparing

Carmine Bee-eater

Lioness resting on our night drive. Her pride had eaten a small elephant that day. I imagine they were pretty full and ready for a good nap!

favorite African animal

Male lion resting in the sun very early in the morning

Impala buck

Puku buck

Hippo

Crocodile

young Zebra

female Kudu

A beautiful herd of giraffe came right in front of the jeep. They always move as if in slow motion.

Hyena eating a zebra on our night drive... yucky but Jason likes this picture

Bush Buck herd

Mommy and baby elephant

I love the impala's lanky awkwardness

Lilacbreasted Roller

We were hoping to see leopard but were beginning to think we wouldn't be able to because they are quite elusive. On our last morning drive we just happened to run into this little lady resting by the road. She stayed for a couple seconds then slowly got up and walked off.

Africa is a playground for animal lovers. We have been blessed to have the opportunity to see the Master's beautiful creations in their natural habitats. Each animal being uniquely different and all made for specific purposes, what a creative God we serve!

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!