Waiting in Line for a Body

Some of our future teammates in Zambia, the Roberts, just posted this blog about the death and funeral of their guard's sister. It speaks powerfully and plainly about the "everyday" in Zambia and what Derek and I feel so strongly about returning to do - bring hope to the hopeless...

--------------------------------

This past weekend was a tough one, but one that is all too common in Zambia. Our guard Charles's sister Barbara Kangwa lost her brief struggle with meningitis. Her husband had previously passed away, meaning that all 5 of her children are now double-orphaned. As I was talking to Charles the morning of the funeral, he said something that really shook me. It was very non-chalaunt in delivery, but the implications were significant!

He said that they had to get to the mortuary that morning very early, before it opened, because if they didn't, they would have had to wait in line for Barbara's body for a better part of the day. Did you catch that? Wait in line for a body? The impact that poverty, malnutrition, poor healthcare, and disease has had on this country is hard to fully convey. But even after his saying this, I didn't fully grasp its implications until we arrived at the graveyard. As you can see in the picture above, when we arrived there were a bunch of people. Probably close to 500. Barbara's funeral was one of several that were to take place that day.

At the grave site, the pastor preached a small message and then they lowered the coffin into the newly dug hole. After about another half hour of shoveling dirt, the hole along with the coffin were covered and family members were invited forward to place flowers on the grave. This was the toughest part emotionally, because the first to place flowers where the orphaned children.

As I thought about this situation, I was struck with the reality that this is life in Zambia. We live in a culture where people face hopeless situations on a daily basis, where people can't find work because of 70% unemployment and where children die from treatable diseases. Where almost a quarter of the population is HIV positive, where there over 500,000 orphans, and where life expectancy peaks at 38 years, a culture where you have to wait in line for a body because there are too many deaths!

And because of this, I am convinced even more about the need of the gospel for Zambians. Jesus Christ is their only hope! Without Him, there's suffering and then there's eternal suffering. Without Him, people here die and all they have to look forward to is hell. But with Him, there is so much more. With Him, there is Joy in the midst of suffering. With him there might be some suffering, but it will be far outweighed by the eternal reward that is awaiting in heaven for those who trust Him with their lives.

Please continue to pray for the family as they mourn the loss of Barbara. They are stuck with some tough decisions that they have to make concerning who will get the children. Most likely they will be split up amongst family members. Pray that they would have wisdom in knowing who to send them with. And pray for the family members that will be accepting these children into their homes. Pray that they will be treated with love.

Thank you

Addicted to a Feeling

As Derek and I have been preparing to return to Zambia, we have been assessing our motives for going. One of the things that I was recently convicted about was the feeling of fulfillment.

When I was in Zambia before and was working with street kids, I often had the opportunity to do basic first aid. I loved it, and that was actually what precipitated the desire to pursue becoming a nurse.

As I related to people why I loved bandaging the feet of street kids, the word I almost always used was "fulfilled." It was fulfilling to help them, because they were so appreciative. There was no charting or policies or HIPAA forms or worries about getting sued. I did what I could, and they were thankful. It was that simple.

It is always nice to feel appreciated and useful. But that is not the reason we want to go to Zambia. We are going to bring the hope of the Gospel to people dying of HIV or enslaved to cultural misconceptions or living in fear of an abusive spouse/family. And just like when Jesus brought the hope of the New Covenant to his generation and they didn't like it, so Zambians won't always like it when we bring it. And yet we go...finding our own hope in Jesus - not in a feeling.

Off To Michigan This Weekend

This weekend, we are heading out to Michigan to speak at Kristin's home church (First Baptist Church of Mt. Pleasant) about Zambia and the C.R.O.S.S. Project!

Please pray for us as we speak and travel. We will not be arriving until early in the morning Sunday and will have a pretty full day. But we are very much looking forward to spending some time with all of the folks at Kristin's home church as well as with her parents. It is such a blessing to be able to share with people that meant so much to you growing up and that God used to mold and shape you.

Thanks for all your prayers and support as we prepare to go to Zambia!!

David Livingstone's Birthday

Taken from: "I Never Made a Sacrifice"

"Today is David Livingstone’s birthday. He was born March 19, 1813. He gave his life to serve Christ in the exploration of Africa for the sake of the access of the gospel.

On December 4, 1857, he spoke the sentence that has made the greatest impact on me. It is one of the clearest applications I have seen of Jesus’ words in Mark 10:29-30. Jesus said,

Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life.

Here is what Livingstone said to the Cambridge students about his “leaving” the benefits of England:

For my own part, I have never ceased to rejoice that God has appointed me to such an office. People talk of the sacrifice I have made in spending so much of my life in Africa. . . . Is that a sacrifice which brings its own blest reward in healthful activity, the consciousness of doing good, peace of mind, and a bright hope of a glorious destiny hereafter? Away with the word in such a view, and with such a thought! It is emphatically no sacrifice. Say rather it is a privilege. Anxiety, sickness, suffering, or danger, now and then, with a foregoing of the common conveniences and charities of this life, may make us pause, and cause the spirit to waver, and the soul to sink; but let this only be for a moment. All these are nothing when compared with the glory which shall be revealed in and for us. I never made a sacrifice."

(Cited in Samuel Zwemer, "The Glory of the Impossible" in Perspectives on the World Christian Movement, Ralph Winter and Stephen Hawthorne, eds. [Pasadena: William Carey Library, 1981], p. 259. Emphasis added.)

I Will [Not] Miss...

As we have been preparing to return to Zambia, I have sort of been creating a mental list of things that I will miss or not miss about living here and things that I am either looking forward to or not looking forward to about living in Zambia.

Here is my Top Ten list:

10. I most definitely will miss having a Caribou nearby. (One of the reasons I love Caribou is that it's local...for the most part. But also, their coffee just tastes better than Starbucks - sorry, Starbucks fans!) After having a South African version of a latte, I would even settle for a Starbucks, but the closest one is in either Brazil, Turkey, or Greece (it's a toss up).

9. I am really looking forward to living in a tropical place.

8. I am NOT looking forward to checking under toilet seats for spiders or cockroaches before sitting down or getting surprised by the 4-inch long grasshopper hiding under the shower head...after already starting my shower!

7. I am going to miss being at all my nieces and nephews' birthday parties.

6. I am looking forward to my Bible reading coming alive from living in a culture more similar to the Bible's.

5. I was going to say that I am going to miss driving on American roads, but after this winter and the ginormous potholes it left every few feet, I don't know. But I will say that it is nice driving down the road without the possibility of hitting a goat, chicken, or stray cow.

4. I am looking forward to living amongst Zambians and learning from them. One thing (of many) I love about Zambians is their definition of "on time." Let's just say that it coincides very nicely with the Carlson definition of it, but even more so.

3. I will miss not going to Bethlehem every weekend for church.

2. I am looking forward to living in a place where it's impossible to not think about eternity on a moment-by-moment basis.

1. I will NOT miss the bitterness of living in the path of an Arctic jet stream for 5 or 6 months out of the year and all the snow that comes with it.

Happiness Depends On...

The following is an incredible blog post from our team leader in Zambia, Tim Hilty. Please take the time to read about how our brothers and sisters in Zambia are fighting the fight of faith in the midst of difficult times.
Last week a pastor in our mission’s pastors training classes passed through what most American’s would consider a tragedy. His wife gave birth to a baby boy via an emergency C-section operation. During the operation doctors and nurses told him to go home and wait for the outcome. They told him that the procedure was 50/50 survival for wife and child.

The next morning he returned to the hospital and found wonderful news waiting. His wife and child were okay… His boy was born with birth defects but the prognosis for future procedures seemed good. A week passed and all seemed well… He and his wife were exhausted from taking care of a newborn and recovering from the invasive surgery. Friday night they went to sleep and in the morning they found the baby struggling to breath.

They rushed to the government hospital but their son died on the way. The doctors pronounced the child BID (Brought In Dead). What started out as just another morning turned into a visit to the police, mortuary and hasty funeral service. In Zambia, children who are days / weeks old are not given the typical funeral. The pastor and his wife had not yet given the boy a name so the government documents indicated “son of…” Within hours, the death had been processed by the authorities and burial plot was given to the family in crisis. By 13 hrs. that afternoon, everything was finalized. The pastor and his wife returned to their home, stunned and exhausted.

I visited them the following day and sat with them in their home, me being mostly quiet. Lots of family members were packed into every room of the small house. Mothers, sisters, nieces, uncles sat on the floor and we all sat in silence. Communication was evident, soul to soul, spirit to spirit. Being surrounded by community like that would have been uncomfortable to me if I were the one loosing a child. I would probably want to be left alone. Not so in Zambia, the community shows profound solidarity and draws close to the grieving.

Looking around the room I saw the faces… and wondered how the happenings of the day before could possibly be true. The pastor was warm and appreciative of me passing through his place. He shared with me his deep conviction of the “supremacy of Christ” even in the midst of loss. He shared how he felt the tangible comfort of his Savior. As he talked I glanced over at his front door… A paper had been posted there at eye-level – no doubt put there deliberately. I’ll never forget what it read:

“Happiness depends on happenings, joy depends on Jesus.”

Already, the pastor had begun his fight for joy… in the midst of everything he had decided to soldier on.

Sneak Peek

We are giving you the chance of a lifetime - the chance to check out our first newsletter before you get it in the mail! If you are reading this by email, you can just go right to our blog and find it on the left side under "Newsletters."

This is also our support-raising kickoff, so you also get a head start at thinking about how God might want to use you in supporting us either prayerfully or financially.

We are excited to be at this point and look forward to seeing God work! This would not be complete if we did not publicly thank God for each of you who have helped get us here - your support over the years in various ways is undeserved yet immeasurably appreciated.

Bethlehem's Response to Haiti's Needs

Our Response to the Earthquake in Haiti | hopeingod.org

Charities Collecting Donations for Haiti

1. Compassion International
2. Feed My Starving Children
3. Food for the Hungry
4. World Vision
5. World Relief
6. Samaritan's Purse
7. Love a Child
8. Northwest Haiti Christian Mission
9. Compassion Weavers
10. Mennonite Central Committee
11. Water Missions International

Need More Joy?

January 1, 1995
By John Piper

1. Realize that authentic joy in God is a gift.

2. Realize that joy must be fought for relentlessly.

3. Resolve to attack all known sin in your life.

4. Learn the secret of gutsy guilt - how to fight like a justified sinner.

5. Realize that the battle is primarily a fight to see God for who he is.

6. Meditate on the Word of God day and night.

7. Pray earnestly and continually for open heart-eyes and an inclination for God.

8. Learn to preach to yourself rather than listen to yourself.

9. Spend time with God-saturated people who help you see God and fight the fight.

10. Be patient in the night of God's seeming absence.

11. Get the rest and exercise proper diet that your body was designed by God to have.

12. Make a proper use of God's revelation in nature.

13. Read great books about God and biographies of great saints.

14. Do the hard and loving thing for the sake of others (witness and mercy).

15. Get a global vision for the cause of Christ and pour yourself out for the unreached.

"Welcome to ACTION!"

We made it! After 5 packed, yet abundantly delightful, days at Action International Ministries' orientation, we were excited to hear the words, "Welcome to ACTION!" Now, we are officially ACTION missionaries and just need final approval from the missions committee at Bethlehem Baptist Church before we can begin raising support here.

A few highlights from the week were...

• Meeting Kelly and Tricia Huckaby - future teammates in Zambia! They went through the spring orientation and have been working to raise support. Now, we have met everyone on the current and future ACTION Zambia team and are excited to work alongside such great people.
• Spending several lunches, dinners, and miscellaneous times with Doug and Margi Nichols (Doug is the former International Director for ACTION). Not only are they meek, Spirit-filled people, but Doug is a great story-teller. Endless stories of God's grace in sharing the gospel with anyone and everyone roll off Doug's tongue with captivating power.
• Meeting Nelson Reed - the new International Director. He and his wife, Linda, have spent over 20 years in the Philippines with ACTION. What a wealth of information, experience, and care that Action International is blessed to have at its helm!
  
• And reconnecting with the amazing ACTION staff. We have never met such a passionate, selfless, eager group of people all in one place before and are so thankful to have those prayer-warriors fighting for us.

Thank all of you for praying for us last week! God gave us abounding peace and confirmation the entire week, and our hearts are full with gratitude to Him and you.

Heading Out...Again

It seems like we just unpacked our bags from the last trip, but, nonetheless, we're heading out again! This time, we're going to the Seattle, WA area for Action International Ministries orientation.

Orientation is only 1 week long, but we hope that by the end of these days we will be official ACTION missionaries. At some point this week, we will be interviewed by ACTION's Board of Directors, and they will make the final decision. Thankfully, Derek and I have already been through this before several years ago when we were first appointed by ACTION as single missionaries, so we know several people out there.

Yet, we would appreciate your prayers...

• For safety in travel
• For an encouraging and confirming time
  
• For sweet times in the Word and prayer

We arrive a day before orientation begins, so we hope to have lunch with my (Kristin's) aunt and uncle, who live in the area, and also to tour Seattle a little. Hopefully, we'll make time to stop by the ocean for Derek to actually walk into, also!

See you in a week!

Knits for Needs

Instead of "locks of love" or "toys for tots," I am doing "knits for needs." You are probably wondering...What are knits? and What are the needs?

Well, I'm glad you asked! On October 9th and 10th, my talented, funny, witty, outgoing, thoughtful cousin and her friend are debuting Miss Mona's Whimsy. Basically, it is a boutique that provides creative vendors a place to share their flare.

The flare that I want to share is my knitting. I have recently taken up knitting, as so many of you know, and I want to make lots of little, distinctive baby hats to sell. So, that is what the "knits" piece is.

Whatever money earned from this little project will go toward the CROSS project in Zambia. As many of you also know, Derek and I are pursuing going back to Zambia full-time with Action International Ministries to work with the CROSS project. It is a ministry focused on helping Churches Ready to Overcome Silence and Stigma in areas such as HIV/AIDS, domestic abuse, and broken marriages. Currently, there are two Zambians running the project, and they have had to go to part-time due to the lack of funding this year. So, the "needs" piece is funding for the CROSS project.

If you know of anyone who needs (or wants!) a cute baby hat, send them to Miss Mona's Whimsy and know that proceeds will go toward a good cause!

Or, if you just want to donate toward the CROSS project, follow the link and know that I won't be offended that you didn't want one of my adorable baby hats. :)

More pictures from our ZamTrip

The pastor's class at Komena in Sinazongwe that completed the CROSS project training.












The pastors waiting in line to receive lunch.

















Driving in Zambia offers many road obstacles to keep you on your toes! Cows, goats, chickens, and donkeys were just a few things we encountered.











Certain groups in Zambia are trying to combat issues like sexual abuse and HIV with billboards like this.











Derek and his reading buddies - Ian and Irene Hilty.












Tracy and Karen Singleton on the left (Tracy heads up the Action Bible Institute for training pastors and is an ACTION Zambia Deputy Director).
Tim and Andrea Hilty on the right (Tim is the ACTION Zambia Field Leader).

ZamVision Trip '09

We made it back to Minnesota and are filled with stories of God’s grace and provision. God mercifully provided almost the exact amount that we needed for both of us to travel to Zambia! Thank you so much for praying for and supporting us in that way.

Going back to this very familiar place after four years brought a variety of emotions and thoughts with it. At the end of our first day, we said to each other, “This feels like a dream.” We still could hardly believe that we were both able to go. Driving down the left side of the road, trying out a few rusty Nyanja words and greetings in conversation with some Zambians, drinking milk out of a box from the pantry shelf, smelling the burning trash mingled with diesel fumes, having lunch with some dear Zambian friends, being surrounded by an eclectic mix of traditional women carrying huge loads on their heads and the increase in westernized Zambian women wearing trendy jeans and tops – it all felt so surreal…and so wonderful (well, not the box milk or burning trash or diesel).

The next day, a series of events happened that made us think, “Oh yeah…this is what it’s like.” A few of the events that arose that day included a newly-purchased team vehicle with significant newly-found defects that could not be fixed; a new football pitch (soccer field) that was supposed to be completed but needed some more improvements, which meant more Kwacha/Dollars; and
wondering how to handle the situation of a severely, domestically abused Zambian staff woman of ACTION Zambia. Wherever we live, there will always be days where things just don’t seem to go “right.” When things don’t go right in a place like Zambia, it takes extra discernment, time, and grace, because we are not used to dealing with things in another culture or timetable. Also, many issues that are commonplace in Zambia are issues that most Americans will never have to deal with – e.g. malaria, babies dying from diarrhea, rampant domestic abuse, HIV, and incredible poverty, to name a few. Missionaries need to not only develop a biblical framework for these issues but also incorporate culturally sensitivity. This is humbling, refining, and draining,
as you can imagine.

After day two, when reality reminded us that we were not dreaming, we said for the rest of our trip, “It feels really normal to be here.” It did not take long for us to slip back into the life we had known. Language came back surprisingly well. Friendships with the ACTION Zambia team and Zambians were made or rekindled with incredible sweetness. Driving came back to Derek with ease, and he was able to put these skills to good use on our trip six hours outside of Lusaka into “the bush” and back. (His passengers even felt comfortable with him driving and got some good
laughs whenever he turned the windshield wipers on instead of the turning signal).

During this 4-day trip to Sinazongwe (“the bush”), we were able to see and help with the CROSS (Churches Ready to Overcome Silence and Stigma) curriculum being implemented to a class of 22 pastors-intraining. Since we are hoping to return to ACTION Zambia to work primarily with the CROSS project, it was a great experience to see it in action (no pun intended). We also got to spend quality time with John Chitambo and Eta Imasiku (pictured left), who comprise the CROSS team right now, and also with Michelle Widman (pictured as well), who is interning with the CROSS team for one year until Derek and I return, Lord willing. John and Eta are a privilege to know and work with, and we are excited to return and be able to work alongside these warriors and glean from them all that we can about Zambia, culture, language, HIV, etc.

Well, all in all, this trip was amazing. We loved being back in Zambia and are praying that God will continue to prepare the way for us to return in the next year. Thank you for your support – we do not take you for granted and will keep you posted in the upcoming weeks and months.

Along those lines, we will be going out to Seattle for Action International orientation the third week in September. Since the ACTION Zambia field council approved us, the next step is to go through orientation and get approved by the international office. Please pray for an encouraging, fruitful, and smooth time.