more catching up

Let’s see-lots of random notes… And sorry if I repeat things, I don’t always remember what I have said, and am too lazy to read back.

I talked to Bri on Friday, then briefly today on the way home from a quick trip. I didn’t talk much because I was driving, so couldn’t take notes, and I didn’t have my list of things to talk about anyway. I just thought I’d give a quick call and let the kids talk to him about their week at camp.

Today he said they poured the flour of the septic tank and the footings. YEAH!! Tomorrow they will work on laying the block around the rest of the foundation, then Brian will back fill it with the back hoe, they will pack it, and hopefully lay the floor by the end of the week. Then they should start walls next week!

A few prayer things-Brian hasn’t been able to be back in to check on his work permit. He is on the last week or so of his tourist visa, but it’s not the end of the world since he has a receipt for the permit, but it would just be nice to have that taken care of. He will go in on Thursday/Friday with the teams probably to see his parents off, so hopefully he can get in to check on it. Also, the container is out on the sea somewhere in the Mediterranean. The tracking link hasn’t been updated recently, so it should have already been in Spain and gone further in, but I can’t confirm that yet. Also, our house is “still in the running” I believe with a couple that looked at it Friday, so please keep praying!

Okay, Brian’s folks decided to come back and spend this week at the college with Brian. They were already getting tired (they have been going up and down small Kaziemba quite a bit helping Brian with the water line last week, so they were up and down a lot!)

and the time in the city is pretty intense, and they are having a great time and wanted to be more help with Brian directly, so it all works in the long run. It would have been great for them to do some evangelism in the city, but this is good too. Paul found them some extra sleeping bags as it is pretty cool at night. They are in a cabin next to Brian (with electricity!) so they spend time with him out by the fire having coffee and cookies at night. I guess they’ve seen some pretty big spiders on their walls though. FUN! They went to Victoria Falls on Saturday. Unfortunately the bus broke down on the way there. They finally got there late Saturday night and went up to the Falls Sunday AM and had church up top. They made it back to Lusaka at 2 AM, then rode back out to the school and took a nap this afternoon!

The head office guy from Gospelink was at the bible college last week, so Brian had some good talks with him about all that is going on there. His parents also spent some time talking with them. Brian is thinking that his parents are a lot more at ease with our moving after this trip, so that is very good. Either Brian heard it, or someone else, but Wendell said if he was 20 years younger, he’d probably come back and stay! Carole is having a good time helping Lucy and the ladies, and watching all the kids running around. His folks were also the “honored guests” one night at worship, and Wendell had to say something (Brian doesn’t know what though as he wasn’t there) There also met a villager named Alfred one day (Brian already knew him). He asked if Brian was Wendell’s son in the states; well, when Wendell is in the states and Brian is in Zambia, he will be his son.

Brian’s folks have had the star treatment. Everyone is asking Brian if his parents are doing well, do they need anything, etc. The culture there really honors their elders, and Brian told everyone all about his parents. Whenever they are out walking, people come up and say “Introduction, introduction!” So Brian introduces his dad, but he can’t introduce the Zambians as he doesn’t know everyone’s name-but they sure know him! They are really getting to see how respectful everyone is.
One thing Wendell will miss is the music-it’s always in harmony, and they are always singing! It’s so unfortunate that our culture is so, I don’t know, judgmental? High-falootin (don’t even know if that is a word!)? Professional? People just don’t go walking around singing-they are too afraid of what others will say. I am sad to say I have fallen into this as well, and don’t like to sing in front of people anymore.

Brian has been getting some gifts from people too. One guy from Iowa gave him a brand new (toolman, tool belt, something, I can’t remember!), another guy last week gave him a new Nelson study bible as he figured Brian was going to be doing quite a bit of preaching! It is very neat for Brian to get to know so many people, invest with them, and then be humbled by their generous to him.

Apparently Brian is also one of the resident doctors now too! I remember at MTI they asked us, what do you THINK you will be doing? I don’t remember doctoring coming up! A group of Malawi pastors arrived yesterday. They were in an accident on the way. One of the pastors got his leg cut open, bad. Brian said you could see a lot of the muscle; this was no mere cut. Henry was going to take him to the local clinic, but first Brian cleaned it up/ wrapped it up so it wasn’t exposed as they drove down the dirty road. Lucy also had a thorn or something caught in her foot that was infected, so Henry asked him to look at that too.

A guy gave us a possible lead on somewhere to look for vehicles when we get there. We may import it from Japan and it would be cheaper, and it would be used, and so wouldn’t stand out too much, but not be driven to pieces either. We’ll see what happens once we get there.

A gentleman from Iowa took a bunch of our support brochures to put out for his church. It’s great that Brian is meeting people from all over and being able to share what we are going to do, and they have seen it, and seen the need. Pray that we would be able to find some more supporters through this time too. Speaking of which, we are close to 50% now! We have 2 big commitments we are waiting for final approval on and another church as well. Please keep praying for our monthly support and the funds we need for the tax on the container, airfare, and vehicle. We are getting closer!

The ladies are also excited to teach me how to do things there. I said to tell them they may have to just do it for me for the first week or two until we are a little settled! One of the workers offered one of his daughters to help in the house too. I don’t think we will have any trouble finding any help! The ladies out there are working hard! When teams are there during the week, they are up at 4:30 getting breakfast ready; they all sing at the services in the evenings, but then need to go back up and clean the dishes. Gladys didn’t get to the cabin until 10 pm the other night!

I thought Lucy knew we were having a Henry-but I guess not. Carole was there and I think she is the one who told her-she was ecstatic! I guess Lucy runs a pretty tight ship, Brian figures she and I will get a long pretty well! Both Lucy and Brian’s parents have been a little amazed at how Brian fits it-half the time he forgets to take silverware to eat with as he “eats like the Zambians”. Today some of the villagers boiled sweet potatoes for dinner, so he ate with them. After boiling, you just pull back the skin and eat it.

Brian “borrowed” a few guys some money last weekend as Lewis wasn’t able to be there to pay them on Saturday. He was sure to make the point that it was a loan he expected paid back, but still, you never know. It could have been paid back with a chicken, or sweet potatoes, or whatever. But, both of the guys paid him back! Very cool-it’s a start. The other night Brian left his gloves at the work site, and two of the guys actually brought them down to the banana house to get locked up so they wouldn’t’ be lost. That too is very neat to see, as you may remember from previous posts that that isn’t normal. But these guys really do want to work, and they know that if they screw up, they steal, whatever, they aren’t coming back.

Lewis’ wife and two of his kids have been at the school for the past week too, along with the office guy I mentioned. There is/has been/will be a guy doing some video there. I think the one guy was recording testimonies from the pastors. One group of 15 goes out to do crusades. Between the 15 of them, they speak all 73 languages in Zambia. For three days they preach all night, teach all day, take an hour off to rest here or there, but otherwise sleep and eat very little. They just preach, teach, and worship. Amazing.

Not too coherent, but it’s an update. I will talk to Brian tomorrow and update either Wednesday or Thursday. Someone is coming to help me to do weeding tomorrow and another gal on Thursday too-yeah! The one gal also offered to make me some curtains!