31 March 2011

“The only way God hurries holiness is by turning up the heat.” Anon

It is amazing how so many of us desire to be holier each passing day, week, month and year. I mean that is what our desire is as believers. There needs to be this transformation taking place. I know a part of us wishes we could just wake up and be holy and then we would not have to go through the refining process.

But God’s ways are certainly not our ways! He takes His time in refining and honing us into the person He wants us to be. And it seems that when He wants us to learn a lesson quickly He certainly does turn up the heat. The refining process is always the difficult part but the finish product is well worth the pain. So let us continue to desire to be holy but realise that it is going to take a while. There is certainly no quick fix process. If it were I think we would all perish in the heat of the refining process.

Well the rains are almost at an end. Probably a couple of weeks and we say good bye to them until November. They have been good this year in our district. Other parts of the country have not had as much rain. It has taken a toll on our new driveway to the house. It has become a 4x4 only drive way. Numerous vehicles have got stuck that have come to visit or repair our electricity. In the dry season we are going to have our work cut out for us rebuilding the road.

The move is nearing completion. We still have our 20’ container to move and a big generator. A company that has been erecting some new power lines have offered to help us with their crane, but it has been a month wait. Boy does this place teach you patience!!!! earlier this month we lost our best dairy cow to common disease in the area. Even though we gave her all the medicines she never recovered. It is so frustrating when you try all you can and they just die!!!!

A few weeks later another of our young cows starting getting sick. Well I thought time to experiment. I have been using a zapper machine on myself for some time and have found that it seems to help me. So onto the cow it went. I did follow up with some medicine as well but only the next day as I was going to be out. Well amazingly she recovered!!! So mad Grant may be onto something. We then had a sheep get sick and so out came the zapper. However her situation was a lot more difficult. We killed the bacteria and parasite, but these have already effected her nervous system and so we have a very spastic sheep. She eats very well, but we are hoping that she will recover.

As a family we have also had our rounds of sore tummies, but that seems to have gone now. So we praise the Lord for good health and protection! I am still meeting on a Wednesday night with some folks and we have come to the end of the Period of History in the Old Testament Survey. We all learnt a lot as this shows us so much about God, His character and what He desires of His people. I also received an invitation to visit and teach another village higher up on the Lake. It is still in Zambia , but in an area I have never been to before. And so we pray that some how God will make this possible.

Well it is saying goodbye to March and hello to April!! God bless!

11 March 2011

“Heaven’s delights will far outweigh earth’s difficulties.” Anon.

Someone once said to me, “ for the Believer in Christ this earth is the worst hell we are ever going to  experience, but for the Unbeliever this earth is the best heaven they are ever going to experience.” These last few months have sure helped me to cast my eyes Heavenward. I wonder if we will ever have to move houses in heaven?

It is amazing how fast time has flown by this year. The 1st of January we started the big move, knowing that it was going to be a task. Our first step was that we had to move the owner of the new place we were renting, to her place in town. But before she wanted to move she wanted to fix that place up. And so in an attempt to get things rolling we spent a lot of time and resources helping her to get her place ready. It took a month!!!. The 4th of February we were able to start on our new place. Firstly, we gave it a quick coat of paint on the interior and it was wonderful having friends around to help us. During the painting stage it dawned on us how big the house actually was. What a transformation and we thank Hilton Baptist so much for organising the paint for us. It was meant for the old place and we had started to paint that, but it was more than sufficient to paint the new place as well.

It was then onto getting water into the house. There are two beautiful wells on the property, but water sitting at the bottom of a well is of no use unless you can get it out of there and into the plumbing system. A few days working at it and we had water in pipes, except it was very brown from the dirt in the pipes. But a couple of weeks later and it has cleaned up quite nicely. Still need a bit more pressure so when next in Lusaka will be getting a pressure pump.

Next task was to start the task of moving our animals across. Fortunately the farms are not too far apart. The pigs, rabbits, chickens, ducks were all loaded into a truck and moved. Talk about Old MacDonald!! The cattle we walked across and they arrived safely. Sadly, just before we moved the cattle one of our best milking cows became sick and aborted a very premature calf. We lost the mother, but the calf is growing well.

In the moving process it is amazing how some days things can go so right and then other days things can go so wrong. But one thing I have learnt and in fact am still learning is that you just have to take every thing just a step at a time. If you stop and look at the whole picture life can be quite dawn ting at times, but taken in bite size bits, manageable.

Well by next week we should have completed the move and then will take a few weeks to try and get life and animals sorted out at our new farm. In the long term it is going to be wonderful and when the going gets tough, I just have to keep reminding myself this.

It has been a challenging few months, but it has also been wonderful to see how the community has rallied around to help or offer words of encouragement.

The family has settled down well and Lynne has started school with them again. The Math teacher, that’s me) is still busy and will hopefully be back in full swing in a few weeks.

Looking so forward to sharing our lives with you again!!

God bless you!