“Halleluiah! God has spared your life another year! He has a plan.” –Lawrence, Service Centre Coordinator

How did you start your year?

I spent New Years Day traveling north with some friends to Mulanga, a heavily populated compound fraught with poverty, HIV/AIDS, violence, and alcoholism. It is also home to scores of vulnerable children and orphans. We went there to visit James, one of our CBO managers who started a feeding program for 20 orphans as well as a home based care with volunteers visiting the sick in their homes. After they started home based care at the beginning of 2008, there was such a spiritual response in the community that one of the volunteers, Pastor Blessings, started a church in Mulanga that has grown to over 40 members.

While we were there we visited the little house that James rented in Mulanga for a widow to live in and feed the childen a meal each day. James and Ma Junior told us some of the individual stories, how there was a little girl who lived far on the other side of town but had walked all the way to the house and spent the previous 3 nights there with Ma Junior without anyone caring enough to come looking for her. They told us about another young girl whose father had just been killed on the nearby path a couple weeks earlier and they were trying to figure out how to include her in the already maxed out feeding program.

We had previously asked James to dream big. If he could do anything, money aside, what would it be? He was a bit hesitant, almost as if he was afraid saying it allowed would crush the dream. A school. He mentioned one of the girls in the feeding program who was 12 years old and had never been to school. He wants more for her future just as he does for his 18 month old daughter and the other children he cares for. He even found a plot of land near the feeding point that the town is willing to give him for free, but he had no way of taking the dream further.

In the 2 weeks since that visit, Hands at Work has secured sponsorship from a church in the US to support the work James is doing as well as for building a community school in Mulanga. He came to Kabwe on the 9th (my birthday :P) with George (Hands CEO) and he was still trying to process that it was actually going to happen! Stories like these are what make me excited, I don’t know about you…

Now another fun (aka frustrating) Zambian story about visas! The work visa that Alisha and I have expires on Tuesday the 20th and when we went to the immigration office on Wednesday to get temporary permits we were told that we needed to apply for those at the headquarters in Lusaka. Luckily Alisha was heading there on Thursday anyway with her parents, so she took my paperwork and all but when she got there in the afternoon they told her they only take payment in the mornings. So she went the next morning. Then they told her no, they don’t take cash, they need a check. Problem: we’re not allowed to open bank accounts with work visas! Figure that one out. Anyways, a few hours later she somehow managed to get a bank check (still waiting to hear that story) and they told her that they can’t do anything now until Tuesday! Being that it’s the last day of our visa, it had better go through or we could be facing fines for overstaying our visa… oh yes, and it is left up to the discretion of the officer how long the permit lasts, he could say 10 days and then we’d have to pay again or he could give us the full 6 months. And these permits are not cheap…

Another challenge Alisha and I are facing is that Zambian Airways recently went under and that’s who our return flight is with. Some friends of ours were trying to get back here from Tanzania when it happened and are now out $1400 after having to purchase new tickets with another airline. Zambian Airways has taken their phones off the hook and locked their doors, no chance of working with them to get reimbursed. We are still trying to see if we can get anything back through MasterCard, but your prayer and support would be greatly appreciated!

I Bring You Tidings of Great Joy...

Givemore’s family was finally able to get all the necessary paperwork to leave Zimbabwe and they are due to arrive in Kabwe on the 1st of January! Thank you so much for your prayers, just another reminder that God has given the gift of life, in more ways than one!

Another dismal situation that God used to show me His sovereignty was with a house that Alisha and I thought we had found to live in at the end of November. We had put down 5 months of rent before we found out that the area we were planning to move to was the reason for Kabwe’s claim to fame as the 4th Most Polluted City in the World. Downwind from the mines, high levels of lead contaminate the dust and water and make the simple act of bathing or walking barefoot harmful.

The biggest issue with not moving was the significant portion of my support that I had put into the rent that was already spent on improvements. With little chance of recovering that money, it was easy to feel discouraged at first but Alisha and I decided to let go of it and trust that it was all in God’s hands and chose to be optimistic about where the money went.

From my experience, it’s when you let go and give it to God that cool things happen. We went away for Christmas in Livingstone and Lusaka for a week, and when I got back I found that I had received the same amount in support in that week as I had lost in the house. God is good – so glad He doesn’t let me forget it!

We had Chinese for Christmas dinner, if you're ever in Lusaka we highly recommend this place!

Breaking Hearts and Crackers

Happy Belated Thanksgiving! I hope you all enjoyed time with your family and friends this last Thursday. Mine was special even though I was in workshops all day and didn’t officially celebrate it with relatives and a turkey dinner. Instead my family was from DRC, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Zambia, South Africa, Germany and Canada, and instead of cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie we shared communion together and one of my Zimbabwean brothers shared from I Corinthians 10:16&17,

“Is not the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks a participation in the blood of Christ? And is not the bread we break a participation in the body of Christ? Because there is one loaf, we who are many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf.”

He had no idea what day it was in America or how especially significant his words were to me because of it. But as I looked around at the people, my family in Christ, and remembered what made it possible for all of us to be together that day, I was full of more thanksgiving for the simple grape juice and crackers than I could have been for any extravagant feast anywhere else.

I have one prayer request that I beg you to remember as you go on from here, and that is for my Zimbabwean friend, Givemore. He has been here in Zambia for the last few months trying to get documentation for his wife and new baby girl to get out of Zimbabwe but permission to leave has not been granted. The news that he has received from the village is that they are starving and there has been a wave of cholera throughout the country, including his village. This week Givemore is returning to try to get them out but there are rumors that all borders to Zimbabwe are being closed soon to keep the cholera outbreak from spreading to neighboring countries like Zambia. Please pray for the situation in Zimbabwe and that Givemore will be able to get his family out before it gets worse. And remember to thank God for the life He has given you.

“God is very big, he is on our side. Even when things are bad in the world, nothing can limit God. Can we pray?” - Conversation with Carlos from Mozambique

His eyes haunt me. I can justify myself to the ends of the earth, I know. He could have used it to buy cigarettes or given it to his alcoholic father. I would have been encouraging the harassment of all white people in the Kabwe area as well as the 'culture of dependence' that is becoming so prevalent in many parts of Africa. and even if he did use it for food, he would soon be hungry again and asking for more next time. and what about all the other boys with him, i can't feed all of them! so i guiltily drank my cool coca-cola and walked away. His eyes haunt me.

"I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me." Matt 25:45

Hunting for Scorpio-Spiders

I’m in Africa. I don’t know how else to say it. I have been in Zambia for nearly 3 weeks and I’ve experienced 10 power-outages, killed more ridiculously large and hideous bugs than I can count, listened to rats going through my luggage, driven in a taxi with a maniac driver 2 hours north and on a crowded bus squished between 2 men with body odor on the way back, mopped up a flood at 4 am, learned to not expect anyone within an hour of the scheduled time, and my fellow volunteer Alisha has caught some exotic African illness (she’s recovering, thank God). Did I mention the black mamba that was killed at the orphanage I’ve been staying at after it got 3 chickens?

While most of the time has been spent waiting (not for anything in particular, just everything in general), much of our time so far has been familiarizing ourselves with the many CBO’s and projects going on here in Kabwe and up north in Luanshya. We’ve been part of a couple of workshops on proposal writing, startup and management of IGA’s (income generating activities), and computer training for the guys at the Kabwe Service Center where Alisha and I will be working.

Lack of transportation has been one of our biggest challenges here so far. Since our vehicle broke down, we have had to hitchhike into town and back every day from the orphanage 10 km outside of Kabwe and have been unable to visit many of the CBOs and community schools in the surrounding area. It has also slowed our search for finding a place to live, although as of Saturday we were able to find a room in town to live in temporarily.

Prayer requests:
- For Alisha to be completely well and get her health and strength back quickly
- To find a donor for a service center vehicle
- For Alisha and I to find a decent place to live that is within our price range and close to town
- Health and protection for family and friends at home

"Welcome to Kabwe, City of Salvation"

I am sitting here on a Dora the Explorer blanketed bed after my breakfast of 4 penne pasta noodles and instant coffee (which, as an avid coffee junkie, I swore I would never drink). The smell of sweat lingers in the air despite my chilling cold bath last night, and a little brown cockroach just crawled down the wall next to me. I have been in Zambia for 38 hours and I already find it difficult to think of how life was before I came here. Why is that, I wonder? Is it culture shock? Is it a coping mechanism to make adapting easier? Don’t think of how it was before, then what it’s like now will seem normal. And maybe it is normal.

Would you like to hear about how I got here? It’s quite a good story, actually. Or maybe it’s one of those ‘you had to be there’ experiences… either way, I’ll try to relate it as best I can.

Getting through the Lusaka airport couldn’t have been easier. All they took at the customs desk was my passport and customs form, no letter of invitation or proof of finances or return ticket required, and when we got to baggage claim our 4 bags were sitting together on the floor next to the conveyor belt, all ready to go. We were asked to show our bag tags as we exited, and one of the guards asked if I had brought him anything from Johannesburg, that he expected I brought him something. “Of course I did!” I exclaimed as I reached into my bag and pulled out a chocolate bar. He thanked me and wished me a pleasant visit in Zambia. On the other side of the doors were Brooke and Jed, the Peace Corps/Hands at Work couple meeting us to drive north to Kabwe. I couldn’t help thinking, wow, I love God, I prayed for ease getting through customs, but this was incredibly smooth! All that was left was the 2 hour drive to the orphanage, and how hard could that be?

Don’t ever ask that. It’s just better not to I think, it gets you into trouble. A little more than an hour into the middle of nowhere there was a loud pop from the front of the truck, and a little after that we pulled over in a little town with smoke/steam rising from the hood. A belt had snapped and popped the radiator hose.

As it turn out, we had pulled over just a little way down from a bar, and this friendly fellow ambled over to provide his 2 cents about what should be done before wondering on. While Jed called Lawrence in Kabwe to find a car to come pick us up, another man came out from the building next to us to take a look and came to the same conclusion as us. He proceeded to go back inside and blast some African reggae out of his impressively loud speakers to make our wait more comfortable. A little while later he reappeared with his brother-in-law who had a friend with a land rover who they said they’d ask if he had a spare radiator hose – which of course he didn’t.

The next couple of hours held very little. It hadn’t taken us long to notice the little shack beside us catering to people’s drug needs, and our friend with a land rover came by a couple times to check us out as he guzzled a beer. At about midnight we heard from Lawrence that he had found a car and was on his way but it would be another hour before he would arrive. I took a sigh of relief.

Don’t ever take a sigh of relief. It’s better not to I think, it gets you into trouble. As we waited for Lawrence and his friend Sydney the rainy season decided to begin. It hadn’t rained since May and on our first night in Zambia, as we sat broken down in the middle of nowhere, the heavens opened in all their glory. I was just opening my mouth to comment how God has a sense of humor when the electricity went out and the little light we had from a street light and the drug dealer’s lair vanished, leaving us in complete and utter darkness. I broke out into laughter.

Fast forward to our rescue… we fit what luggage we could into the trunk and 4 of us squished into the back of Sydney’s little car. Sydney pumped up the stereo, which was not unlike an African Savage Garden with a Spanish guitar, and with a little laugh Lawrence translated the words of the song. They went something like this:

“All your problems seem bad, but turn to God and He will bring you through.”

- and then there were two -

Me and Alisha, my fellow Zambia Volunteer

the date is set, on october 21 alisha and i are leaving for zambia. i have been enjoying my training in south africa but i am excited to finally be let go for this new adventure. we'll arrive in lusaka late at night on the 21st so we'll have to stay the night at a hotel before driving 3 hours north to kabwe in the morning, where we will be living and working for the next 9 months.

here are a couple of short videos made by my amazing journalist housemate and friend, Heather, that show what Hands at Work is about. the girl in the second video is the same Gertrude I visited in my august 25 post...

* http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vp9pdebZddU

* http://vimeo.com/1920449



some prayer requests:

- safety while traveling and no complications (boarder control has been known to stamp visas with already passed expiration dates so you receive rediculous fines when you leave)

- decent housing to be found for us in kabwe

- ease in transitioning into a new home and culture

- financial support, zambia has been hit hard by the global food crisis and rise in prices, especially as a landlocked country relying on imports

- to recognize and fit easily into our personal roles for the year