Finishing up the Muzha

Today is the last day of the month long Muzha wa Yesu (slave of Jesus) seminar. Church leaders from the churches in the Mumena chieftaincy have sacrificed their time and money to spend 4 weeks sharpening each other and studying the Bible together. In the next week or so we will be sending out a new newsletter with a detailed summary of the Muzha this year for everyone to read about. Until then we wanted to give you a photo preview (above) of the men diligently studying. This was taken at chapel this morning while our teammate Sam Rodriguez gave a wonderful lesson. Thank you to those who have prayed for the seminar this year and to our visiting teachers from the States!

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!

Nsobe Game Camp Team Retreat

Last week our team of 3 apprentice families and 2 full time missionary families, along with Sonny and Eunice Guild from the Halbert Institute of Missions at ACU traveled to the Nsobe Game Camp in Ndola for a team retreat. The retreat focused on team dynamics and missionary care. The Halbert Institute works with many mission teams all around the world and we were so blessed by our time with Sonny and Eunice. Jeremy, Whitney, Jason, and I trained with Halbert before we moved to Zambia so to be reunited with our Abilene mentors was so encouraging. While at Nsobe we had a little free time to explore the wildlife around. We ran into several little vervet monkeys, a few antelope species, and a pied kingfisher bird. Above are just a few pics I snapped along the way!

A little here and there

I got to sit behind this precious little one during worship yesterday. Often children from the Kampande church meet us at the door ready for their handshakes. Mrs. Kasono brings the great majority of them with her each week. Some are her own children but many of them are orphans she has taken in. I remember one week seeing her hand each of them (around 10 children) kwacha to tithe, such a sweet scene. Jason and I both love seeing their happy smiling faces each week. They like to sit extremely close to me during the service which sometimes makes me feel squished but I always get a kick out of their natural rythum during chorus songs being so much better than mine!

In the past I have been given a jokingly hard time by teammates about adding random pictures of flowers from our garden to my blog posts. It kind of made me think about if they were necessary but then I concluded...I like flowers/gardening, taking pictures, and taking pictures of flowers/garden scenery, so I will continue on. : ) Our rainy season will be coming to end in in May so I won't have near as many blooms to admire in a couple months anyway. Below is an amethyst plant ( I have been patiently waiting for it to bloom for what seems like FOREVER) and one of the blooms on one of our rose plants.

 Our entire team leaves tomorrow morning for a team retreat at Nsobe Game Park in Ndola (about 4 hours away) for a few days. We will get to stay in little safari tents, go on fun game drives, canoe, and spend lots of good quality fun time together. I think we will all appreciate the relaxing time away and hopefully come back to Mumena refreshed and ready for the coming months!

Thankful

Today I write with a thankful heart for Jeremy and Whitney. They have had an abnormally rough week dealing with the results of a traumatic car accident. We are so thankful the Lord was watching over them and that they are okay. In order to give some reassurance to others that love them I awkwardly made them let me take a couple pictures of them today. : )

Jeremy and Whitney, we love you and are so blessed to be able to share our first years in Africa with you!

Gemnogene Stalking

Since living in Africa Jason has become quite the bird identifier. Today we saw a huge bird circling around the pine forest, well actually we first heard the chickens in a huge uproar, then we spotted it. Jason ran to get his binoculars as I ran for the camera then we went off stalking it for a good look. As I type this story I realize just how limited our entertainment is here.  Turns out, it was a gymnogene bird. It took a lot of creeping to finally get a picture of it, and even then it was from really far away so the pictures are really blurry. But, without furthur ado, here it is...

 They have a great hair-do! We love getting to see animals we wouldn't get to see at home in States. It always feels so adventurous. : )

Happy Wednesday from us and Mr. Gemnognene!

Davis Newsletter

Here is our newest newsletter. It has a time line of events from our first year then our goals for our second year in Mumena. Just click on each page then use the magnifying glass to zoom in and read. Or, if you would like to be on our email list just comment and let us know. : )