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!!