Let it Rain!

One problem at the hospital, I have been trying solve, has been the leaking roofs on the out patient department building and on the laundry building. In the rainy season the roofs leak terribly. The ceilings inside the buildings get soaked and fall down. Not a good situation. Medical supplies are kept in one of these buildings. When it rains these get very wet. Not a good situation either. When my family was here visiting, I showed the problem to my dad to see if he had any ideas for fixing this. After some discussion, my dad, my two maintenance coworkers and I came up with a plan. The fix was, adding a short piece of tin under the ridge cap to extend the tin sheeting. We also bent the upper end of the tin so that it turned up and would act as a barrier under the ridge cap to prevent the rainwater from pouring in. Up until now, the wind has blown the rainwater under the ridge cap and into the building. My coworker and I finally finished both buildings just last week. There has been one big rain, so far, to test the fix. After the rain was over I stuck my head up into the attic of the out patient building to see how much water was there. All was dry. I think the fix worked. That is great news. Now let the rains come.

November Update

Greetings from Zimba. Wow! Thanksgiving is here and Christmas is just around the corner. It is amazing how fast time flies. I hope this update finds you all well. Happy Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas. Thanks you so much for your continued support. I do appreciate it very much.

November has been a month of projects started and answered prayers. There are several big projects in the works. These include putting up new water tanks at the hospital, the new out patient department building, and Zesco doing some electrical upgrades. I have been trying to get these moving the past several months; but nothing was happening. I would talk to the contractors; they would all say they would come and do the work but nothing would happen. I was growing very tired and a little frustrated by the responses I kept getting. Over these last months I have heard a lot of excuses and reasons why things could not begin.

We spend time in prayer each morning for the needs here and our concerns. So that is what we did. Instead of getting all worked up, some time ago we just committed these projects to prayer and let God take them. My efforts were going nowhere. Then in the beginning of November everything began to happen all at once. The guys putting the tanks up came and started; now the tower has been built. The guys who are building the out patient department building came and started laying bricks. Even Zesco, who I have been working with for about a year, has come and started digging the holes for the poles that are needed at the hospital.

There is still a lot of work to be done, but this month has shown significant progress. Thank you for praying as well.

I am just reminded of Philippians 4:6-7 "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving present your requests to God. And the peace of God which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus."

Thanks again for your support.

October Update

Greetings from Zambia. I hope this update finds you all well. October was a big month for me. I have made history here in Zimba. Selinda, another missionary here, and I were the first Mukuwas (whites) to be in the line up of a Zambian wedding in Zimba. They were some friends of ours. The husband works at the hospital and the wife goes to our church. They have been wanting to get married for a long time, and finally it happened. We were asked if we would dance in the wedding because we were friends, so we agreed. I don’t know what ever possessed me but I said yes. There were 8 of us in the procession. We all had to learn the dance steps. We practiced here at the mission for a couple of hours three times a week. At the beginning, I could not follow what everyone else was doing. I felt very awkward and everyone would laugh. But I finally got the hang of it just in time for the wedding. Praise God! Who said Wesleyans can’t dance. I never thought I would be doing that as a missionary. I was the best man. Selinda was the maid of honor. So I walked in with the groom and she walked in with the bride. The wedding took about 4 hours to complete. It was very hot and I was in a dark suit with a jacket on all afternoon. It was long, hot, and uncomfortable, but I would not have traded it for the world. It was neat to be let into their lives and take part in this event. We also danced as the bride and groom exited the church. While doing that, there were so many people crowding the aisles we could barely do our moves. We managed and the people here in Zimba are still talking about the wedding. They were so happy.

Otherwise, October brought the heat. Many days of 100+F; so I sweat a lot. Also my parents came to visit. It was really great to see them and spend some time with them. I am also happy they could come and see what I am doing here, my new friends, and where I stay.

Thanks again for your continued support. I do appreciate it very much.



P.S. Speaking of weddings, I am also getting married. Selinda and I are planning to be married late next spring.

Night in the Bush

Last weekend I spent a night in the bush at a friend's house. He had invited me to stay at his house with his family. I enjoyed it very much. He has a solar panel that powers a battery so we listened to music and watched the kids dance for a while. They all love to dance and sing. I also helped him get the bricks we made earlier this summer ready to be burned. We piled firewood in the ovens. It was big work because it takes a lot of wood to fill those ovens.
That same weekend the local church was dedicating their new church building so as it was getting dark we walked to the church to see how preparations were going. The church is on a little hill and it was a beautiful view to watch the sun set. The ladies were all busy cooking that night in order to be ready for all the people the next day. Also the church was decorated beautifully.
His house is a little three- roomed house. It has a no lights, no running water, no plumbing, yet it was very comfortable. If one has to use the toilet, just wander off in the bush a little ways and take care of business. I stayed in the room with the plow, pig feed, and the mealie meal, but the bed itself was very nice and I slept nicely. I was served nshima, bread, eggs with tomatoes, and beef intestines. It was all pretty good; yet a little chewy.
Sunday morning we all woke up around 6 am. It was a little cool so we all sat around the fire that had been started by his wife, to try to warm up. We just sat and talked, played with the kids, and I even got to help feed the baby some “baby food.”
It was a great experience and I think I will try it again some time. One thing that really surprised me was the number of visitors that came by the house. They all would be invited in and treated very kindly. Even at 6 in the morning visitors were there and treated very warmly. It is different than what I am used to, and I enjoyed every second of it.

September Update

September 6th was the 50th anniversary of the Zimba Mission Hospital . Boy do Zambians know how to throw a party. The party was held on the vacant land that is across from the hospital. There was a huge tent and enough chairs to seat several hundred people. With every official function in Zambia , the important people have to be invited. The bosses, the chiefs, the headmen of different villages, the administration of the hospital, some old retired missionaries, and the Church leaders were all in attendance. There was even a member of the Zambian parliament present.

My job was just helping try to get everything ready. That morning I was helping blow up balloons till I almost hyperventilated. I helped drive the lorie to pick up some benches that had been borrowed, and also helped set up a generator when the power went off. It was a busy day.

The program started around 12 pm, but really it was supposed to start at 9 am. Very typical for how important things happen around here. They had some traditional instruments as entertainment, some plays or short skits to break up the speeches and lots of speeches. Everyone who was anyone gave a speech. At the end of the time, food was served. We ate mutton, beef, and nshima. It was very tasty food. I even got a chance to help cook the nshima. For a big crowd like that; it is cooked in half a 55-gallon drum. So as it thickens it gets very heavy and the ladies ask the men for help. So my Zambian friend and I stirred. It was hard; a lot like work. It reminded me of canoeing down the Namekagon River when facing a head wind. I was very sweaty after that.

All in all the celebration was a big success. We just pray that the hospital continues, makes improvements, and is around for another 50 years helping people in this area.

We are almost finished working on the mortuary and the bore hole building. The ferrying of sand and bricks continues for the out patient building. All is in place for Zesco, the power company, to come and do some upgrades. The contractor working on the water system is coming soon to put up new water tanks at the hospital. So things are happening and are very busy.

Thank you for your continued support. Your prayers are very much appreciated and needed.

Green Mamba Dance

Have you ever had a green mamba try to go up your pants leg? A couple of days ago I had a close encounter with two green mamba snakes. We were doing some routine maintenance on a little portable generator the hospital has. It is stored in a little three-sided room with a gate for a door. So from time to time we have to sweep out all the leaves and things that get blown in there. We pulled the generator out and I started to wipe all the dust and cobwebs off while my coworker was sweeping out the leaves. After finishing he told me to start the generator to make sure it would start. I bent down, turned it on, closed the choke and pulled. It fired right up. But before I could open the choke my coworker was jumping up and down and pointing towards my feet. I looked down and saw a 2 foot green mamba headed between my legs. It had come out of the generator. I started jumping and moving fast trying to get away. I was dancing like I had never danced before. As soon as I got out of the way, my coworker started hitting it with a broom and I got a couple of rocks and finished it off. But that was not the end. Shortly after, another one about the same size came out of the generator as well. We were both ready for that one and quickly killed it. After it was all over and the generator was put back, we laughed pretty hard. All in a days work. Thanks for praying.

Marathon

I know I wrote a long time ago and said I was running a marathon and I would keep you posted. Sorry, I have not updated since. I trained for about 10 weeks total. I started in April but was interrupted by a month of language school and about 2 weeks because I was sick and did not run. Otherwise, I ran 6 days a week between 5 and 6 miles with longer runs on the weekends. It was a lot of work and a hurting body, but I enjoyed it. The race was August 29 in Victoria Falls Town, Zimbabwe. I was nervous. Could I finish? YES I DID! I ran it in 4 hours and 39 minutes. For my first marathon, I thought it was great. I did not stop during the race and I ran the whole thing. It was good. I could even walk the next day. I was happy. By the way Victoria Falls is a beautiful sight as the sun is rising over it.

August Update

Muli Buyumu sunnu. (You are strong today.) I hope this update finds you all well. Thank you for your continued support. It is greatly appreciated. To know that people are praying for me and for the hospital is a comforting thought.
Have you ever been overwhelmed? Have you ever had that feeling there is so much to do and you don't know how to do it all? I am sure we have all felt that way at one point or another. This month has been that way for me. There is just so much to try and get done, and there are a lot of obstacles in the way. For example, we are trying to extend the mortuary to allow the new fridge to fit nicely. A church gave a very generous donation in order to buy a new updated fridge. We need bricks. Where do we get them? How do we transport them? We need sand to mix with the cement? Where do we find that? Who will do the work? When will they be able to start? Well you get the idea.
That is just one project. Right now we have at least 4 other projects all screaming for attention, besides the usual everyday things that are breaking.
There are a lot of improvements that are happening at the hospital. It is exciting. It is a lot of work. Everything is just harder than back home. Getting the sand is one example. The nearest place to get the sand is about 3 kilometers away. After negotiating with the headman for 2 hours, he agreed to let us get the sand and not charge the hospital. Otherwise it would have been K100,000 per load. Very expensive! Upon arriving to get the sand, I realized this was not going to be easy. I drove the truck alongside of a 4-foot hole in the ground; that is where the sand is being dug. But to get the sand in the truck is all work; we shovel. The hole is about 4 feet deep and the truck bed is about 3 feet above the ground. So that means we have to shovel and throw the sand higher than 7 feet or so up into the truck. Needless to say it was difficult; backbreaking. We managed though by taking turns and resting. It took a couple of hours to shovel a truck full. The good news is that we only need 20 more loads.
My prayer is that the work will be done well and finished; also that God would be glorified in the midst of all this chaos.
Thanks again for your continued support.

July Update

Summer is in full swing back in the US, with warm weather, summer vacations, and picnics. In Zambia, it is just the opposite. We are going through our winter. The weather is real windy, and cool compared to what it has been throughout the rest of the year. The lows have been in the 40's with 42 F the lowest I have seen. It is surprising that it gets that cold here. I never knew until I lived here. With winter, comes the sick season as well. Most everyone I know around Zimba is coughing, has a cold, or has missed work because of being sick including me.
In early July, we had a team from Hyde Wesleyan Church in Pennsylvania come and do some work at the hospital. They worked painting and putting up a fence. With their hard work the hospital is dressed up a lot. We thank them for being willing and able to come and serve.
Otherwise, at the hospital, the projects continue. The new OPD building project is progressing with the foundation and cement slab almost finished. The next step for the water project is in the planning stages and will soon begin. I am also talking with Zesco, the power company here, to come and so some work at the hospital. It is a long process to get them to come, but we have started the process. They will be putting in a couple of new lines so that I-TEC, the electrical group from the US, can come back and finish with the electrical upgrades at the hospital.
Please continuing praying for these projects; that God would knock down the barriers and that things would happen in His timing.
July also marks the end of my first year Zambia. Wow does time fly! It seems just like yesterday I arrived. There have been some struggles, good days, and bad ones; but I think that the hospital is a little better than before I came. My continued prayer is that God would use me in whatever way He needs to fulfill His will here in Zimba.
Thank you very much for your continuing support. I do appreciate it greatly. God Bless.

Making Bricks

I got the opportunity to help the assistant pastor of our Church make bricks yesterday. He is hoping to build a house so he can rent it out and make some Kwachas. Boy it was a lot of work; I am a little sore, but I would not have missed it for anything. To see how the family related with one another and with me; to work side by side with him was worth all the soreness. The process of making bricks includes wetting the soil and then stomping on it to get a good mix, putting the mud in the molds and then carrying the molds to a place so the sun shines on them to dry them. It is very labor intensive and dirty to say the least. We made almost 1000 bricks. The whole family helped by carrying water and sand for the molds, and cooking breakfast and lunch.
At breakfast, the assistant pastor and I sat and were served nshima mixed with sour milk. It was two huge helpings. As we ate, his wife and kids just sat in another spot and waited. They were not eating anything; we could not finish our portions so the rest was given to all the other family members. Here the men get first choice and everyone else gets the rest. It is definitely different than in the US where the women and children are first.
The children are just typical kids; they want to be where the action is. They kept coming up to me and rubbing my arm and laughing. They helped a little; played a little; sang and danced a little; and also cried a little. Over all it was a good day, really neat.

June Update

Mwapona buti? (How are you) Tuli kabotu. (I am fine.) The
months fly by. It is already the middle of June. I hope you are all
well. Thank you for your continued support. It is greatly appreciated.

Tonga school is finished finally. The second part of the
class was at the end of May thru mid of June. School was good, but it was
very difficult. The words are getting longer. Did you know that the
Chitonga language has 108 ways to say 'that' and 108 ways to say 'this' depending
on what you are talking about? It gets complicated fast. Now I just need
to use what little I know and to speak. Most days I feel like a three or
four year old just learning how to speak and put sentences together. Small
three word sentences are my specialty, but I am trying and it will come
slowly. School has kept me quite busy.

Also the seasons are changing. It is getting cold. My
blood has thinned out and I feel cold. A few days ago it was in the upper
40's for lows and 70's for highs. The rains have stopped so everything is
getting dry and dusty.

Next week I start again at the hospital. There are many
projects started and hopefully, Lord willing, I will be able to get them
finished. The Out Patient Department(OPD) Building is coming along. The
foundation and slab are almost finished. The water project is ready for it's next phase, which is
digging in new water lines to all the existing staff houses. The new doctor's
house is almost done as well. Now that the rains have stopped hopefully
progress will be seen.

An interesting story: There are a lot of cattle in this
part of Zambia. How many cows one has determines how wealthy one is. That is
just the way the culture is and how wealth is viewed. The Batonga people
keep them and very rarely if ever will they sell them or kill them eat. With
that in mind, there are no fences here. The cattle for the most part
just run free with a couple of boys watching them. Along the roadside, a lot
of cattle can be seen. They eat right alongside the road; they cross the
road; they walk right down the road. Coming back from Tonga school, we saw a
semi truck that had just hit a cow. The cow was dead on the side of the road
like a deer would be in Wisconsin. The truck was also on the side of
the road with a smashed front end. It is always an adventure driving here.

Moon-bow at Victoria Falls

Here are some pictures of a "moon-bow." These pictures were taken at night. The light from the moon and the mist from Victoria Falls were the right ingredients for this moon-bow.

April and May Update

Things are very busy here nowadays. The teams are coming very regularly now. We have had people here almost without a break since February. Lots of different groups have been here; from medical students, to residents, to a missions work team from North Carolina, a missions pastor from Memphis, TN, and some national Church officials. It has been an interesting time meeting and interacting with all these different people.
The beginning of April we had our annual African missionary retreat. It was held in Livingstone, our back yard. The retreat was a good refreshing time. It was good to meet and get to know my fellow missionaries from all over Africa. They were from Sierra Leone, Mozambique, South Africa, and Zambia.
The team from North Carolina came and worked on one of the theatre rooms. It needed to be redone. They put up new ceiling boards, painted and fixed some windows. They did a nice job.
Right now we have eight nursing students from IWU. They will be here for the rest of May. The students will be learning and working at the hospital.
As far as projects at the hospital go, a new bore hole has been dug and the water tank and stand have been installed. A company out of Lusaka came and did it. Also the out patient building project has been started. They are clearing the location and digging the foundations right now. Materials have been brought to the site. There are a few piles of stones and sand just waiting to be used.
Here is one crazy story for you. The fridge in the mortuary broke down a couple of weeks ago. We needed to look at it to see if we could get it running because there were four bodies in there that needed to stay cold. Us three maintenance guys were called in. Before we could start the bodies needed to be removed. They were placed right outside of the fridge, right next to where we were working. We had to work around them. It was interesting to say the least. The fan inside the fridge was burned out; we found that out after crawling into the fridge to do some testing. I have never had to climb into a mortuary fridge before.
Thank you for your continued support. I do appreciate it very much. Also I do appreciate your prayers. So much here can only be accomplished through prayer.

Training to run

In August there is a marathon in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe. Dr. Jones and I have decided to try and run it. He has run a couple if marathons in the states so he knows how to train. I have never run one and a few days ago we started training. So far we are running 3 miles a day and feeling a lot of pain. We have three months to prepare; I will keep you posted.

Missionary Retreat

The missionary retreat is coming up next weekend. The retreat is for all the Global Partners missionaries in Africa, and this year it is held in Livingstone, Zambia. Right now the mission house is full of people coming in for next week's retreat. I think all together there is about 25 or 30 people coming. It will be a good time for me to meet everyone. I have not met most of the other missionaries in Africa. There will be services held each day with a special speaker; some down time to mingle and relax, and some business time. We are supposed to go to the game park in Livingstone and also a boat ride on the Zambezi River. The retreat is a yearly thing held for missionaries to relax and get away from the stresses of their work for a while, but also to be fed spiritually. It is much needed. I will let you know how it goes.

Robbed

A couple of weeks ago, a number of people robbed a store down in Livingstone, and they killed a police officer before getting away. So, the police have been hunting them down. They captured one and shot two others, but a few more are still at large. The last Sunday that the other missionary and I traveled to Tonga school, the bus was stopped, boarded and searched. The police had many check points set up to see if they could catch the criminals and every car was stopped, including our bus. Outside the bus there were two men with assault rifles. Two others boarded the bus and walked up and down the aisle looking. After a few minutes, they left the bus and let us go. But a few miles down the road there was another checkpoint. This time we were not boarded, but outside there were three men with assault rifles. All together I think we got pulled over three times. It was interesting to say the least.

Zambian Food

I have recently completed 4 weeks of Chitonga language school. It was in Monze, Zambia. Since we stayed there for a week at a time, we had some interesting foods to eat. They served us the main, staple dish that Zambians eat, nshima. Nshima, cabbage, and some kind of meat is a usual meal. Most Zambians don't eat meat very often but nshima and some kind of vegetable are staple foods. We had nshima three times a day. It was served in a porridge form for breakfast, but for the other 2 meals it was a thicker consistency and was served as a rolled up ball. It tasted pretty good. The breakfast stuff was just like cream of wheat in the US. Along with nshima; they served either rape, a leafy green, pumpkin leaves, or cabbage. The rape tasted like spinach except a little more bitter. Pumpkin leaves had no special taste, and cabbage was cabbage. The meat is the exciting thing to tell you about. We had fish cooked in cornhusks. We had kidney; it was very tough. We had capenta, small minnows. We had chicken, sausage; and other beef pieces. We were also served termites, which tasted like popcorn. All the food we got to eat was very salty and also pretty good.

March Update

Mwapona Buti? (Hi. How are you?) Ndili Kabotu. (I am fine.)
March has just flown by. For the first weeks in March, I attended Chitonga School. It is a school for those who are interested in learning the Chitonga language. Chitonga is the heart language of the people in the southern province in Zambia, where I am working. The school itself was held in Monze. Monze is a village a couple of hours north of Zimba. The course I just finished was 4 weeks long. The days were crammed full. It was challenging, and difficult, but very good. School consisted of lots of memorization, study, and writing. It was pretty intense.
Learning the heart language of the people is one of the most important things to do as a missionary. Although some people know English, there is still a barrier between the Zambians and me because I do not know the heart language. In order to break down those barriers and build relationships there is a need for me to learn Chitonga.
Now that I am back to work at the hospital, I have been practicing Chitonag with the employees. Dennis, the Zambian maintenance man that I work with, has been a very good tutor for me. He speaks to me all day long in Chitonga until I can’t understand, then he will speak in English. I feel like a little child who is just learning how to speak and to put sentences together. The other people in the hospital also are very patient and helpful. I try to say something in Chitonga and everyone just laughs. I am learning patience and humility.
Now that the rainy season is past, teams are beginning to come again. Right now there are two medical residents working at the hospital and a man from Battle Creek, MI, who is here working on the water system. He is working on putting in a new borehole in order to separate the staff housing and the hospital. This will help the hospital from running out of water all the time.
Thank you for your continued support. I do appreciate your prayers. The team here in Zimba needs to be lifted up in prayer often.

Jesse

February Update

Thank you for your continued, faithful support. I do appreciate it very much.
February has bought the rains. During this month it has rained a lot. Almost everyday it rains. Some rains are very heavy and short, and everything floods for a short time. Others are lighter and last for two or three days. Now everything is green and the maize is growing tall. The harvest will start soon.
The days in which it rains are pretty slow at the hospital. The number of patients is greatly reduced and no one else goes outside. Yes, even the maintenance department is pretty slow. Myself, along with the other two maintenance workers, sit around and talk. We try to figure out what we are going to do next. We also tend to tell a lot of stories to one another. Dennis and Elisha tell me about Zambian culture, history, and even the latest on what is happening in Zimba. I have mentioned a few of these stories on the blog. Then they ask me questions about snow, bears, ice fishing, and sharks, among other things. Some of our conversations get pretty interesting.
Zambians, I have noticed, have a great sense of humor. The ones I work with at the hospital laugh lot. Their humor is not quite the same as the west, but once one catches on, it is funny. I also laugh a lot. Elisha had a cold last week and his nose was stuffed up and then it would run. He said that his “used brain” was coming out. He had been thinking too much. We all laughed a lot.
February has also brought Tonga school. It is a four week course to teach us the basics of the Chitonga language so we can come back and continue to practice with the people around Zimba. The first week was pretty good. We learned a lot of culture and basic information. This included education, past history, politics, and how the Tonga's culture is transitioning from what is was to what it is now. It was all very interesting. Toward the end of the week the actual language part started. I hope I catch on. It is going to be a lot of studying.

A New Experience

A week or so ago I had an unique experience. I became a grave digger and a hearse driver. There was a very sick man some people found at the railroad station. Nobody knew him, where he came from, how he got there, and no one was taking care of him. So the hospital driver got him and brought him to the hospital. Within a short time, a day or so, the man died. His body was placed in the mortuary. But being he had no known family his body was left there. For 2 weeks his body sat, while the police investigated to see if they could find family. Nobody was found. The thing was that the smell of the body was getting pretty strong because power had been off and on a number of times and also our refrigerator was not made for long term storage. Finally the police let the hospital bury the body.
Grave diggers were needed; so I volunteered. Talk about hot. There was seven of us each taking turns digging and picking. The ground at the graveyard was terribly hard and rocky, but eventually we dug a hole 2 feet across and over 5 feet down. It took probably four hours to dig. The sun was strong and I got sunburned bad; also I am not in very good grave digging shape.
After we returned to the hospital we found out I was the only driver around. The rest all had programs to do. SO I was asked to drive the Lorie to transport the body to the grave we dug. The Lories batteries are not good these days so I had to have many people help me start the thing. They pushed and I popped the clutch and the thing fired up. We drove to the hospital where the others we all gowned up and ready to prepare the body for transport. The smell was quite strong as they opened the frig. The body was then wrapped in a blanket and then in a piece of plastic. The body was then loaded on to the truck and everyone piled in the back. I proceeded down the road till I had to stop and make a turn. That is where things went bad. I accidentally stalled the truck and being the batteries were dead; it would not start. The guys had to push me again. The thing was the truck would not start right away. I don't know why, but they ended up pushing me a quarter of a mile. All the time the body in the back. Finally the truck started, and we headed to the graveyard. I did apologize many times for that one unexpected happening. When we arrived, I left the truck running and the guys started peeling the bark off of the trees to use as ropes to lower the body in the hole. Finally everything was ready and he was lowered in. The Chaplain went along with us; he said a prayer and then we took turns filling the hole back in. After doing that we all went back to the hospital. I have never done anything like that before. The man is buried in an unmarked grave and no one even knows what his name is.

January Update

Hello. I hope this update finds you all well. Thank you for your continued support. I do appreciate it very much.
It is 2010. The New Year. How have you met it? Here at the hospital there is an anticipation of what is to come. There is thankfulness to God for letting us see another year but also an anticipation of what God is going to do. It is time to reflect a little on the past and look forward and plan for the future. What is God planning for me this year? What is God planning for the hospital this year? What is God planning for you this year?
There are a number of projects planned for the hospital this year. There is an exciting new out patient department building that is soon to be started. There is a gentleman coming from the states to begin work on a new septic system. The continued work on the upgrade of hospital electrical system is another. Also securing the maintenance area, fixing a number of ceilings and roofs, addressing the water needs, and building an outside incinerator are all on the horizon.
But as we make plans what does God have planned? That is what I am trying to seek as I begin the New Year. It is not easy to sit and pray for guidance and wisdom but as this New Year begins I can not help but think that is the most important. It is easy to get so busy doing and planning and skip the praying and asking God what does He want.
Stop and reflect; what are God's plans for this year? I know I have had to do that. Just some thoughts on the New Year.

Zambian Flag

I learned about the Zambian flag today. The Zambian flag is green with a gold eagle and three bars halfway across the flag. One is red, black, and orange. The eagle represents freedom. The mighty eagle soars above and is free and although there are problems below the eagle, it is able to rise above and stay free. The green background represents all the lush vegetation when the rains come. The orange bar represents all the natural mineral resources in Zambia; the copper and cobalt that is mined here in the north. The red represents all the blood that has been shed of people around Africa. And finally, the black bar represents the dark skin of the African people. I found this lesson on Zambia very interesting.

The Cost of a Chicken

Last week I had to drive with another missionary here up to Jembo for some mission business. It is supposed to be a couple of hours away. Well it did not work out that way. Getting directions from people here is quite interesting. They say something like-go for a while then you will come to an intersection; go that side; then go till the road forks and go this side. Needless to say we missed a couple of turns. There is three different ways to Jembo and now I know all three, but it took a lot of driving around in circles to get there. It only took about 3 and a half hours instead. Even more exciting though is in all that driving around I accidently ran over a chicken. It was on the side of the road and as I drove by it turned and ran under the tire. There was just a puff of feathers. It cost me 15,000 Kwacha. The ride home was much less entertaining.

Here's what happening

So what did you do today? Jan 13 I spent the morning along with one of my coworkers playing engineer. We looked around, measured things, and figured out what all was needed to fix some things here. Getting parts is hard so we need to try to look ahead. You know trying to get organized. One of the maintenance guys has been out sick all week so it has just been the two of us. Anyway, it took close to the whole morning just to do that after stopping to talk to everyone. It was good though; things were accomplished. In the afternoon, we slashed. Slashing is taking a machete that looks like a golf club and is sharp on the end and cutting the grass with it. It is hard work; after the rains have come the grass grows amazingly fast. I was trying to cut stuff that was taller than I. There was probably two of us working and we did for an hour and a half. We were all soaked with sweat and tired. A never ending job in rainy season. Oh yea a little 2 week old baby died this morning. They think the baby had meningitis. Just a little of what is happening at the hospital.

Love and Forgiveness

I got into an interesting conversation before Christmas with a couple of workers that were hired to do a special project at the hospital. I knew these guys from other dealings with them but they really never wanted to talk much. This day was different. One wanted to talk deep. I was just making small talk asking about why Zambians are afraid of chameleons and that began a conversation that took many different directions, went pretty deep spiritually and lasted for an hour and a half. His questions ranged from why do people do bad things? Why doesn't God make people love Him and do good things? Why is there evil? I tried to answer these in that best way I knew how, telling him that God gives us free choice to choose to love Him and do right. He was thinking; He kept asking questions. Then the conversation went to forgiveness. How does that work? Some people get forgiven and then continue doing bad things? I told him Jesus forgives and then says to us come on I will help you live better. We talked about forgiveness a lot. He basically told me all the bad things he ever did. The list was extensive, but I kept telling him how much God loved him and would forgive him and help him to do right. My prayer for him is that God would wrap His arms around him and never let him go. That this man would surrender his life to God who loves and forgives. I have not seen this man since but, I have been praying.