Home again

This is our fourth day back home in Kelowna. It is amazing how quickly I have gotten caught up in the business of my life - going back to work the day after arriving home may have had something to do with that.

It was heartwarming to hear how many people at work had followed our blog and were truly interested in our experiences in Zambia.

Thank you all who were praying for us - we travelled with relatively few problems. Please continue to pray for some who came home not well - I hope you are all healing.

At Roberta's suggestion I thought I would do one final entry on how this trip to Zambia has influenced me.

We went to show God's love to the children of Buseko and Grace through our actions and our prayers. What the children, and adults we met showed me was a spiritual reliance that is difficult for us to grasp with all the worldly resources we have readily at hand. I am greatly humbled and at the same time encouraged by these people to continue to develop spiritually.

I  learned more about what it means to be truly generous, to be willing to share whatever you have with others if their need is greater than yours - so many families struggling already, but willingly caring for the children of  family members who have died of AIDs . Although I have always valued generosity, I  know I need to work on giving with a more generous heart.

It was an amazing trip - a combination of accomplishing some tasks, but experiencing a great deal more.

John and Susan Chalkias are partnering with the people of Zambia to change and improve things rather than just providing for them. We witnessed how much they care and how much they are respected in return.

I am looking forward to sharing more with everyone through pictures and stories.

 

Carol

 

Leaving Zambia

Roberta sent a note about the power outages we experienced the last few nights in Ndola so we were not able to let you know how we were doing.  We enjoyed many candlelight dinners and cooking our food on a brazier outside. I am sitting at the airport in Lusaka and thought I would e-mail some thoughts as I leave Zambia.
I will always remember the friendliness of the people of Zambia, whether walking along the side of the road, smiling and waving when they see the  muzungoos (white people) passing in our minibus, or when they greet you with Mulishani ( How are you?) The reply is bwino (fine). As a sign of respect, they curtsy and hold their forearm with their left hand when they shake. Another common greeting as they get to know you is to hug, once on each side.
Zambians greet each person in a group individually,no matter how large the group. After the church service we attended, we filed out row by row, greeted everyone who left before us and then stood at the end of the line to greet those who followed us.  I would say there were around 150 people that we greeted and greeted us.  I thought this would be a good thing to do at  Sunridge, a  great way to get to know people!
The younger children at Buseko were so cute and very rambunctious - we would just have to enter the room and we would have 3 or 4 climbing over  us.
We were very impressed with the politeness of the older children.  They look out for and help with the younger ones quite willingly.
There are always a few who touch you in a special way. Carl is a 2 year old boy that I sponsor.  He is not able to crawl or walk yet and when we arrived he was not well, just recovering from a bout of TB with some secondary infections. I was able to hold him and he quieted when I sang to him  - Jesus Loves You.  It was heartwarming to see him feeling better by the time we left and be able to coax a little smile from him.
Susan is 7 , although she looks about 4. One day she sat on my lap as we watched a soccer game  and we sang songs.  To hear her singing, There's No One, There's No One like Jesus with such passion - I will never forget. Natalie was able to get her singing this on a short video later.
Aggie is a 12 year old - she helped us with our Bemba words, very patiently and then wrote out several for us. She wants to be a missionary to tell people about God so they will be saved.  She doesn't have any idea about where she will go, but knows God will lead her.
We are homeward bound with a couple of days in Cairo.
Bye for now and God Bless,
Carol

Friday

Hello Kelowna!  It is balmy and nice here.  But before you get too envious, it is also pouring rain and we have intermitant power.  (Which is why we haven't been able to blog for a few days.)  There was a huge power outage last weekend which effected Zambia (the whole country), Zimbabwe and Congo.  Could you imagine our whole country being out of power?  Since then, we've been out of power on and off (mostly off), so we've been utilizing our camping skills, cooking over charcoal fires, boiling water for coffee, drying our clothes inside on clotheslines, eating and showering by candlelight (cold showers of course) etc.  It is all part of the adventure!
 
This past week has been great.  We did some more work at Grace Academy and on Wednesday we took 7 of the kids to Ndola Game Park.  It was a lot of fun to get to know these precious kids better.  We got to sleep in safari tents and there were monkeys right in the area where we were 'camping', very cool!
 
Tomorrow we leave Zambia and head for Egypt.  The past 2 weeks have gone so fast and we have experienced so much.  We are looking forward to sharing our experiences with you!
 
Thank you again for all your prayers.  We have really seen God at work here in this country.  We have also experienced His protection and safekeeping.  Please continue to pray for our team as we finish up our journey and process all God wants to teach us.  Also please pray for health, we have 2 members experiencing colds right now and flying with a cold can be very uncomfortable.
 
See you soon!
 
Roberta

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This is an attachment to Kathie Houston's blog  After church we witnessed a river baptisim of 14 adults After church we walked approx 2 kms to the river through the compound, through corn and vegetable fields  TIA-This is Africa!!!  Baptism was very moving  We are truly blessed!   Joan Cote

Kitwe

I got about two thirds through a message last evening when the power suddenly went out, so all was lost.  Thank goodness, Bob had brought a flashlight with him, but it didn't take long before the candles were out in the internet cafe - I think they are somewhat used to this. It was actually a particularly long power outage, not coming back until about 1:30 today.

So here goes my second attempt to tell you aboutour trip to Kitwe on Thursday afternoon.

Kitwe is the second largest city in Zambia about 60 km northwest of Ndola.  We visited the Carewell Oasis Medical Centre, a primary health centre operated by a Christian physician team, Dr's Phiri.  Thier philosophy is based on Jeremiah 30:17 " For I will restore health to you and heal you of your wounds says the Lord." This is the first way they are bringing the love of God to the people of Zambia through health care.

Secondly they are building a church next to the medical clinic. Dr Antoinette shared her thoughts very eloquently, but I will do my best to summarize what she said. She believes that first and foremost the people must have an identity with Christ . Through God their hearts and minds will be renewed and they will realize that they are not a downtrodden people. Only then will the education be effective and result in some behaviour changes to stop the HIVpandemic. Dr. Phiri was saying that although the rate of AIDs has gone down with antiretroviral medication, the HIV rate is still quite high  one in four households are affected.

God's Blessings,

Carol

Saturday - not sure of the date!

Hard to believe in some ways that we've been gone for a week but because we have seen so much and have done so much, it seems much more than one week!

 

Today, we returned to Grace Academy (it's about 36 km away) to complete some painting and making 15 bookshelves and to assist with the Village children Outreach program.  Each of us does something a bit different and it is amazing what gets accomplished!  It doesn't get accomplished as quickly as it might at home because timing of things in Africa are different.  We have become quite accoustomed to using the phrase TIA (This is Africa).  Today we got pulled over by the road vehicle inspection police and had to pay a fine.  It was $145,000 kwtchas ($36 Can) for something or other.  Apparrently, it is a way to make some tax revenue monies from people who they feel can afford to pay additional taxes.  They don't fine the trucks carrying 20 people in the back of the truck because they know that they cannot afford to pay and if they didn't get to the market to sell their good, they wouldn't have food to eat for their families.  So, in a Zambian way, it kind of makes sense!

 

We had a great time with assisting in the outreach program, singing, playing games and then providing them with a full meal of M'sheemah, sausages and vegetables.  We later met some of these children in their homes because Carley, the Canadian Dorm mom, has made friends with many of the women in the nearby fields.  Grace academy is way out of the city and is in a rural setting.  So she took us on a long walk in the tall grasses following a narrow path that led us to a few small brick huts that had families with young women with many children.  Carely calls them her aunties (common term of respect for adult women who become friends) and so we met 6 different aunties.  We did a bit of a health check on one young mom who recently had a baby who is still jaundiced.  The mom is a bit jaundiced as well and had been loosing a lot of blood shortly after she delivered.  But she and baby appear to be recuperating.  She has very little food to eat and she has 3 other children to feed so is not getting much rest either (she is 22 years old). 

 

These women were charming and welcomed us into their home settings.  Only one could speak English (she had grade 7) but we had taken some of the older Grace girls with us and they interpreted the Bemba into English.  Carley has agreed to teach these women and some of their childrren school starting next week (they cannot afford to send their children to school!). They so look forward to Carely coming and talking to them and playing with the children!  She is an amazing young women who has embraced the Zambian culture and goes beyond the expectation of what a dorm parent would do.

 

The Grace girls love going into the village areas and helping their people as well.  It is such a loving and friendly culture!   We are truly learning more of what it means to show God's love through the Zambian people's actions  than we ever anticipated that we would learn!

 

Till later!

 

Love Kathie

17th of January

Wow, yesterday was an intensionally emotional day following a visit to the children's hospital, visiting a very poor housing compound and giving tickets out for large pieces of plastic for leaking roofs (we returned today to give out the plastic to those who had tickets - 50 only), and then a visit to a hospice.  But it was the final visit of the day that put it all together for me.  Our last visit was taking Mary, the Buseko Home nurse, home to her place on another compound.  (Being a nurse does not provide for the same privileges that I have at home.  Wages only pay for rent and family costs...no cars or owning even a small brick home!)

 

Mary provided us with a tour of her home.  Although she is a single lady, she has become mother to a few of her brother's children (5 in total). 5/8 of her sibblings have died and so she has taken on much of the responsibility of her immediate family.  Her younger brother also lives with her so her home that seemed large for a single person suddenly became small for the numbers of people living inside it. 

 

Mary told us more about her life and how she came to be at Buseko home.  She had initially been a practical nurse but knew that God wanted her to do more with her life.  She went on to became a diploma RN and also took additional courses on HIV AIDS.  After working in the N'dola Childrens Hospital (largest in Zambia) for 2 years she had a yearning to do more ministry work and to combine it with her career.  She found out about Buseko home in 2004 and felt that God was calling her to be there.  She interviewed and was accepted.  John and Susan, directors of Seeds of Hope, then brought her to BC for a full years course on further HIV training.  She now looks after the medical needs of all the children at the Orhpanage and the Grace Academy.  Right now there are 39/54 children who have AIDS and receiving treatment. 

 

Mary also told us that looking after these children now is her Ministry and she has accepted her position with Buseko Home as a partnership with John and Susan.  She has become a mother to all of the children at Buseko and Grace and loves these children as her own.  She cannot have children of her own and feels that God has now blessed her with the care of these 5 children of her sibblings as well as 54 children of the home and school.  For many years, she has had a similar vision as John and Susan have for Zambia and feels that with her Zambian heritage and understanding of the culture combined with Seeds of Hope resources, they together will make a difference in the future of Zambia . Her ability to show the love of Jesus to all of these children, and her extended work she does in many of the homes where these children have come from is a true testimony of how God can use her. She uses every opportunity to tell the children, people in her community about the love of God and that there is hope for them to make a difference in their and their children's lives .  I wish I could have retold her testimony as powefully as she had but I'm afraid I can't do it justice.  But for me, this was the "icing on the cake".  I could see in action exactly what the written vision is for the Seeds of Hope.  It truly is making a difference.  We have seen these healthy looking, vibrant, respectful, God loving children, have confidence in themselves and their futures.  They truly live out the mission statement of Life, Love and Laughter!   What a wonderful testimony Mary has been to use to see how one life can impact so many!

 

Love Kathie