Happy New Year!

As this year comes to an end and another one begins, I would like you all to meet Lucy. Lucy is a chicken with much personality. She brings us many smiles - something we could use a bit of these days. On Christmas morning we went out to find our beloved Plumpy, the matriarch of our flock - the oldest, the boss and the friendliest - had died at the hands, er, claws of a very large bird (probably a hawk or osprey or ...) We were devastated and Riley and I spent the first few hours of the morning digging her grave. How wonderful it was to be able to bring to mind our Christmas verse - Habakkuk 3:17-18 - no matter what loss we suffer we will rejoice in the Lord and we will joy in the God of our salvation. What a comfort God's word is! And, as we bring to mind all of our fun Plumpy memories, we realize that joy does come in the morning. What a joy Plumpy was - she was part of our family. And now Lucy has stepped up into the role of boss of the flock. But she, too, is friendly - eating out of our hands, allowing us to pet her and getting awfully close to coming inside when we are not fast enough with the front door! Just so you know: not all chickens are created equal - they all have their own personality.

As you say good-bye to 2010 and hello to 2011, may you show love to those you care about, be them human or chicken, while you have them in your lives. My mom had a poem on her fridge while I was growing up and although I do not remember it to quote it I do remember the jist of it. I would rather have one flower now than bouquets at my funeral - I would rather have a kind word said to me now rather than a lengthy tribute when I am gone - etc.. You get the idea. So here is me wishing you much joy and a ....

Happy New Year! Philippians 1: 9-11!

SIM Zambia

Our purpose of staying in Lusaka a few extra days was not simply to hang out and explore - however, we are so thankful for our afternoon to get refreshed! We stayed to meet the SIM Zambia team. And although one family was about to leave for home assignment and a huge church celebration was going on the same weekend, the team so graciously took time to meet with us. We were able to go over to the SIM property and have dinner with the team one night, attended church together and then we were able to spend the day we left with them. The team leadership is in transition but we are so thankful for the time we had to ask them questions. We were able to ask them anything about Africa, SIM, ministry - anything. We learned a great deal during our time with them.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Merry Christmas!! from our family to yours!

(Yikes, if I would have waited one day to take the tree photo it would have had lots of snow on it! Oh well!)

As you celebrate the birth of the King let everything point you to Him. He is the Light of the world - so all the Christmas lights you see point to Him - He is the Star of Christmas - so all the star decorations point to Him - (you get the idea).

Some people think it is odd that we have never had a Christmas tree. We try to decorate a tree outside for the birds but our tradition is to celebrate advent - the coming of Christ. We have an advent wreath that we decorate differently each year. In addition to the candles we also have our children pull strings. Ok, let me explain. We don't do stockings - instead we do stings. Each child has a bucket and we put little things tied to curling ribbon strings in the buckets. The items range from pencils, band aids, toys, etc.. Starting the day after Riley's birthday the children are allowed to pull one string each night - ending on Christmas Eve. My parents started this when I was young (and they still do a bag for me). I'm not sure how, when or why they did it but it is a very creative tradition that our children love. Another thing we do is to memorize a Christmas verse. We all memorize a verse or chapter - we did Psalm 23 one year. This year we are memorizing -

Habakkuk 3:17 & 18 - "Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will be joyful in God my Savior." NIV

Please feel free to memorize it with us - and may we all be joyful in God our Savior - no matter what!

Merry Christmas!

Baptist Mission House

This is a photo of an add painted on a wall in downtown Lusaka. It caught our attention and caused many smiles - we still giggle when we see the photo. But back to the mission house....

The Baptist Mission House is located in downtown Lusaka next to an international school and behind the fairgrounds. It consists of a fenced, guarded and gated property with several places to stay. There is, what looks like, an apartment building and a large building with several 'homes' connected by halls with a common sitting area and a large meeting room or two. We were able to rent one of the homes - three bedrooms, a bathroom and kitchen. Outside there is a large children's playground, large gravel parking area and places to walk. The parking lot was right outside our place. I'm sure I already mentioned this but since I am writing about the mission house I will go ahead and mention it again - so please bear with me - and thank God again for keeping us safe.

One of the nights we stayed there we were woke up by an extremely loud alarm around 3 A.M.. The alarm lasted about 20 minutes - long enough for us to get up, make sure the door was locked, look out the windows into pitch blackness and wonder what was happening. When the alarm went off we went back to bed. In the morning Rob went to the office and found out what had happened. One of the guards had noticed something by a car in the parking lot (right outside our window) and had approached. The car was in the process of being stolen. One person pulled out a gun, threw a bag over the guards face and threw him into the back of the car while another person got the car going and drove the car out into the night. The other guard must have sounded the alarm. We are so thankful to be able to let you know that the kidnapped guard was released across the city and was returned via police escort. We saw the man and he was very shook up - but safe.

Not only does the Baptist Mission House provide temporary housing to missionaries, it also is the meeting place for a Chinese church and on Sunday nights it is home to a Bible study that is attended by missionaries to Zambia (all different sending agencies are represented - it is a time for them to connect with each other) and their families - there is an adult study and time of fellowship as well as a youth group complete with games and study.

We were thankful to have time as a family to simply be in and experience Zambia together. And we were thankful to have been referred to the mission house by SIM Zambia.

A couple extra days

After saying good-bye to the rest of our team, we had the opportunity to stay in Lusaka, Zambia, a couple of extra days. We stayed downtown at the Baptist Mission House and had several adventures. We experienced first hand the whole run-across-the-super-busy-road-because-no-one-stops-at-crosswalks thing. And we did it more than once! We did actual grocery shopping, explored an area of town on our own and experienced Zambia taxi rides. After attending a Chinese church on Sunday morning we were able to spend Sunday afternoon as a family. We walked (and walked and walked) to the big Sunday craft market and did some shopping, had lunch out and were simply able to be together. It was absolutely wonderful! (except by the end of the day my feet were really hurting!) One of the vendors remembered Riley, had a long talk with him and gave him a gift. Hayley found a vendor she really liked and bought several carvings from her. And Rob and I enjoyed being able to relax and enjoy - and I got to eat some ice cream!

Back to the Chinese church - yes, there is a large Chinese population in Lusaka. We were surprised to learn that there are many Chinese investors investing in property, mines, hotels, and more. There is also a growing Indian population there.

We were invited to attend a new Chinese church plant that meets at the Baptist Mission House. It was a completely different experience than we had at the Zambian church led by Pastor Bruce. But worshipping God in any language is a wonderful thing!

HAPPY 16th BIRTHDAY RILEY!!

Today (December 16) is Riley's 16th birthday. Yikes! Where has the time gone? And what can I say? I could write about the way he never really put things in his mouth as a baby but he was always putting things on his head - soda boxes, plastic peanut butter containers, lunch sacks, etc.. Or how as a young tike (4 or 5 years old) he decked the biggest bully around (he was at least twice as big as Riley) because the bully was not being nice to Riley's friend. Or how he would bring a cardboard guitar he made to church, stand in the aisle and play and sing during worship time. How about the times he got stitches, broke his arm, spent the night in an oxygen tent in the hospital, or had cream cheese type stuff all over his head keeping testing wires in place. I could share how as a three year old he got a cut in Sunday School but told the teacher it was ok because his platelets would come and make a wall and his white blood cells would fight off anything that tried to get in and when I went to get him he ran over to show me how his platelets were working. I could tell you about his amazing gift of words - he is a brilliant writer. Riley has written numerous short stories, has a novel or two in progress and has a huge vocabulary - but not just that, God has given him the ability to put words together, to weave a story together making a beautiful tapestry of words. Ok, maybe beautiful isn't the right word as he has been known to add graphic descriptions to his stories - bones crunching and blood dripping. If I mention his writing I had better tell you he is also a great artist. He has been drawing for so long and he just seems to get better and better. Riley is a fast runner and an amazing soccer player - he played for nine years and has what is called 'true soccer sense.' And did you know he also makes a mean gluten free chocolate cake? What about his heart for others? Riley has always wanted to make people smile. He volunteers his time helping others, writes and performs in skits and lightens the mood wherever he is. I could write about all those things - and much more. But I am most proud of Riley because of who he is becoming - a man of God with Christlike character. We are all fighting against our sinful nature and we do stumble but the desire of Riley's heart is to honor God and be a true Christ follower. What else could I ask for? Nothing - because nothing else matters.

Happy Birthday, Riley! I am so thankful God has allowed me to be a part of your life - may you continue to grow in Him and may you continue to build your future on Christ alone. I love you, Bubba!

(And you can thank me later for not posting any really embarrassing photos!)

more random photos by Riley

And believe me, there are plenty more!! Thanks for bringing so much fun into our lives, Riley!

random photos by Riley

For most of the trip Riley had one of the cameras to use. And, let's just say, he can have a unique photographic eye at times. But what fun it was to see his photos.

Abigail

We had the privilege of meeting and spending time with lots of children. But one little girl named Abigail captured my heart. She lives at the farm because her father is one of the caretakers. She has a loving family and a gentle spirit. Although she could not speak English (except Hello and How are you - which were spoken often) we seemed to connect. I spent my free time pushing her on the swing, listening to her sing, walking around the property, and hopping on one foot with her - not as easy an accomplishment as it used to be. During the campfire on our last night at the farm while the other children were singing and laughing she got off her chair and came over to sit on my lap. My heart soared. Thank you, Abigail, for bringing a smile to my face and love to my heart.

Zebra Crossing

On our way to the airport to send part of the team home, we were able to spend one last meal together with Steve and Stephanie Allen. They took us to a wonderful little restaurant that was off the beaten path, so to speak. It was down a dirt road and next to homes - not in downtown Lusaka. It was an internet cafe with the seating outside - but covered. Local artists furnished the decor and the stocked the gift shop. The atmosphere was very relaxing and fun and the food was great. If we lived there I'm sure I would become 'a regular.'