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.