25 June 2011

“Focusing on the character of God helps us to take our eyes off our circumstances.” RBC

How easy it is to get caught up in life’s circumstances that we lose sight of the trees for the forest. I must say that these last two weeks have been quite a hectic time and things have not always gone as planned.

It has also been quite an emotional time as we have had to say goodbye to some very dear missionary friends who are returning to Germany for good. They have been living in Kasama for about 9 years. It was always good to pop in and say hi over a cup of coffee. But life must move on and we pray every blessing for them as they make the big move. I keep having to remind myself, and I have been doing this a lot lately, that God is in control.

Well, last time I showed you a picture of our hot water cylinder. I just had to make a plan. Firstly, it was to patch up as many holes as I could with epoxy glue and bolts. Yes, the holes were so big I had to use bolts as a plug. Then the idea came to me that I could encase the whole cylinder in a metal drum of cement with just the top of the cylinder with the element and pipes sticking out. So too work we went. Four days later was the test. Blast, two more leaks in the area not covered by cement. More bolts and more epoxy. Is this thing trying my patience or what!!! Finally just a dribble of a leak, hang I can live with that.

These last two weeks Lynne and the children have been looking after a Lodge on Lake Tanganyika. The managers, good friends of ours needed a well deserved holiday. So it is luggage and food and school books all over to the Lodge by boat. I have the use of this old inflatable boat that I have been gluing together with special glue. The first try out on the lake and I get a bad leak and so it is back to shore for some repairs. Two hours later I can start off again. Safely across only to have to do some more gluing before I return. The beauty of this boat is that it is so light on fuel with just me. Well, I am due to cross tomorrow afternoon and I am still gluing the boat!! Now I get a brain wave. Fibreglass the pontoons to the rigid hull. Great! I get some cloth and resin from a friend in Mpulungu and half way through the procedure the resin goes jelly. I call up Mike and he says best not use it. Not sure what I am going to do tomorrow. Perhaps the Lord will return tonight so I don’t have to worry about it.

These last two days I was invited to attend a Zonal Conference of about 5 Baptist Churches. The meeting place is about 80Km from Mbala on some very challenging roads. Well, you saw the tyre in the last post. Repaired with a piece of wire and a gaiter. I manage to purchase a fairly good second hand tyre and so I use my patch job as a spare. Off to the village we go. We get to the area and we have to ask some young guys to direct us to the Church where the meeting is held. No problem and into the car they jump. Well we missed the road back somewhere and ended up on what looked like a path Livingstone used a couple hundred years ago. All of a sudden, yes you guessed it! My good or fairly good second hand has its sidewall totally ripped apart by some hidden stump. A sense of panic goes through me as now my patch job is up for the test. Oh, by the way I lost cell phone reception about 40Km back. There is only network for another company and I forgot that sim at home. Well, the tyre is quickly changed and we find the Church.

What a great time! I was able to teach on the Holy Spirit for about 4 hours in total. By the way they only informed me when I arrived that I was on the program and must teach on the Holy Spirit and preach a Salvation message in the evening. It must have been God’s prompting because before I left the house I decided to take a discipleship course with me. Boy did it come in handy. Somehow you always have to be ready for anything. The evening message was great as we all sat around a big fire and I was able to preach on real faith! It was amazing just looking up at the sky with all those stars while you are preaching the Word of God. Nothing quite like it!

I was prepared for camping with my tent and sleeping bag and so at about 10pm I called it a night. I am not sure when the rest went to sleep! I was so tired that I was able to sleep through their singing and dancing until all hours of the wee morning. At precisely 4am I thought the end had come. The Lord has returned. The choirs at the conference in unison decided to practise for that said Day of the Lord. It was beautiful but my at 4am! At about 6 am I was offered a bath and in the village it is a bucket of hot water. Over the years it has taken a bit of getting use too, but I manage ok now. Quite refreshing actually.

It was then off to my daily toilet ablutions and they have a pit latrine , which is really just a hole in the ground. Well, just before I go in some well meaning brother decides that a bit of ash from the fire the night before needs to be sprinkled around the said hole. Well, there was a challenge to face and a possibility of one mighty explosion. The challenge was that the ash still had live hot coals amongst it. Imagine squatting over a fire trying to do you know what! A pretty hot experience in more ways than one. The second was that you generally find a lot of methane gas in pit latrines. Now methane and fire do not go together unless you want an almighty explosion! Was it the quickest sitting I have ever done! Praise God no Kaboom.

Just before lunch it was time to head back to Mbala. I had to get back as I had so much to do!!!! I looked at my patched spare with some doubt. Goodbyes were said and I was off. I thought I just have to stay as light as possible. About 10Km into the journey two elderly women waved me down and wanted a lift. I thought the spare was ok up to now, why not help these damsels in distress. Well, they had all of 5 min in the pastors vehicle, because the spare thought, weight too heavy!!! SHHHHHHH! Oh my! Only 70Km from home with no cell signal and two flat tyres and three good ones. The maths says I am going nowhere fast. The dear old ladies are most disheartened and remove themselves from the pastors car and head off into the sunset.

Now, my Mambwe is not very good and so with very broken words I stop an unsuspecting cyclist riding by and very cordially ask if I can use his cell phone. He would have the right network out here as there is only one, the one I do not have. Well, low and behold he whips out this phone and believe it or not actually has talk time in it. My only hope at this stage is my close buddy Steve. We have been through a lot together, like running 56Km, and I am sure that he will come to the rescue. Sure enough he answers on the third ring and he says he will be there in a flash. Firstly, he has to go by my house and take off the tyres that are on our trailer. Fortunately the rims are the same size. He then has to drive out 2 hours to where I am, going nowhere fast. It is not a pleasant drive I can assure you.

While he is bouncing along, coming to my rescue, I decide to whip out a my gel stove and a packet of two minute noodles. Well, no rush here! Just sit back and enjoy. After lunch I sit, and then I sit some more. I bow my head feeling a little down and look at the earth. Bang goes my afternoon and all my plans. After moping for a while I realise there is absolutely nothing I can do until Steve arrives, which is in about another 2 hours. I then decide to glance up and I see how beautiful the sky and the clouds are. When last have you had absolutely nothing to do except sit and look at the clouds. An amazing experience! Well, Steve arrived and soon we were back in action. Two hours later I was back home tired and shaken to bits from the road. Thanks Steve!!! I am sure I would still be sitting there if it were not for your kindness.

I guess they say all in a days work. Who said missions was boring? God bless!

Ok now to try and post this!

7 June 2011

“By the sunshine of His love, God paints on our clouds the rainbow of His grace.” RBC

This last month has been quite a month of administration, which is not one of my strong points I might add. For me administration is a dark cloud that rolls in and seems to consume everything else and can become quite overwhelming. But God has been faithful giving me the grace to chip away at this cloud little by little.

Earlier this year I was appointed by the High Court in Kasama and the Local Court within Mbala to be the executor of an estate of the late Christiaan Kleynhans who passed away in September last year. Well the last two years before he died he was in the process of sub-dividing his farm and so now it has been left to me to complete this administration hurdle. And so for a number of days I have been walking through bush with surveyors trying to determine beacons and boundaries in order to get a site plan drafted in order to make application for the sub-division.

This year is also the year that we can apply for our permanent residence here in Zambia. It does not mean we become citizens but does give us the right to live here indefinitely, without having to reapply every two years for a permit to stay. Unfortunately this can only be done in Lusaka and so off to Lusaka I went deciding to ride down on my bike to save on fuel costs as well as clear my head a bit. Lots of time to think when you are on a bike!!! No fancy mp3s, just the bike, myself, the Lord and the open road. We  now await the result of our submission. Please keep praying!

Some time back Lynne accidently rode over a stump and damaged the sidewall of the tyre on our vehicle. It was so sad as the tread is still so good. Our spare was unfortunately like a very worn slick tyre on a racing car. I managed to buy a used tyres but felt that I had to have a go at repairing the damaged one. Well with a bit of sowing with some wire and a big patch on the inside we have a good spare tyre now.

This last week I decided to hook our pressure pump up to our house. I had had a leaking bath tap with I had to replace first, which I was able to buy in Lusaka. Well the big turn on came and boy were there leaks!!! Nothing a bit of legan (tyre tube cut into strips) could not fix. But then the leaks of all leaks, our pressure hot water cylinder! As they say, “ It was an old geyser and a new pump, boom”. After years of repairing it with epoxy glue it could not stand the pressure and the result, a blown hot water cylinder!!. The house came with a hot water cylinder but it is a gravity fed one. Unfortunately the hot water pipes are so narrow that the hot water does not quite make it to the taps and so is unfortunately useless.  But having said all this we have great pressure on the cold water. And so now we are just bucketing hot water directly from the hot water cylinder to the bathroom.

Last Saturday I was invited to a local ceremony held by one of the Chiefs in the area. I went along as a learner just wanting to soak up some of the traditions in order to be more effective in the ministry. I was exposed to traditional dancing and drama’s of which went way over my head in trying to find the meaning. But then he took a group of us to some of their traditional blessing sites. The one is on a large piece of land where nobody is allowed to cut any trees. On this land is a stone shrine where a white chicken is sacrificed to the spirits for blessings. He then showed us a stream that is said to never dry. Again sacrifices are made at this spring and then the water is said to have certain blessing powers. When talking to him he will tell you that he is a strong Christian! However, with his continued practice with divination I can hardly conclude the same. Pray for Chief Zombe that the Lord may truly open his eyes.

And so who ever said the life of a missionary was boring. I am always amazed at what each day brings and how the Lord gives us the grace to endure and also to shine for Him in the most strangest of ways. All glory be to God!!