Baptisms!!

Oh Glorious Day...today the Lord gave Mark the tremendous honor of baptizing two men, Hesky and Given, in the Zambezi River. Mark has been teaching them from the Bible all about what it means to be baptized....it is NOT salvation, but rather a public sign of what the Lord has done in their hearts. They were so excited about it today! We are just thrilled and thank the Lord for them and are excited too about what He has in store next. They want to meet for worship on Sunday mornings, so this Sunday will be our first time to do this, another blessing from God! Is this the beginning of a church plant?? Only God knows....we sure pray so!!!

Christmas 2010

Here are some shots of our Christmas celebration....what a marvelous day we had celebrating the birth of our Savior!!!

In the first shot you can see Given eating Christmas dinner with us, it was so nice to have company! And we enjoyed our Christmas roast!

The next picture is of Madylanne, grinning as she shows you her flower garden of cousins.

Then there is Mark, helping Madylanne put her Legos together, a Christmas present we saved for her for a long time...we were so glad to find Legos in Joberg way back in April! She and Daddy played with Legos for over an hour! They had so much together.

Last is Madylanne smiling behind her very own camera, thanks Nana!

Chameleon

This is Given and Madylanne, with Given holding a chameleon. You might not know it, but chameleons are considered BAD LUCK and harborors of death here. Not a joke....most people won't even touch them and run away from them when they see them. So the fact that Given is not running and indeed HOLDING one shows that he is not afraid...he is truly trusting Jesus for his future. Yeah!!!!

Stormy weather

Mark got to drive us all through this lovely storm Friday when heading back to Sesheke. Blinding rain hit us head on...quite a storm! But we are back home safe and sound in Sesheke now, and it's hot and dry as usual. ha!!! :)

40 years of faithfulness

These wonderful folks are Franklin and Paula Kilpatrick, missionaries here in Zambia for 40 years. Over Thanksgiving they celebrated their retirement from imb....40 years of faithfulness to the Lord. What an example to us of committment!!! They are such Godly people! The quilt on the bottom was signed by everyone in the Zambian Baptist Mission. We love you and will miss you Franklin and Paula! We are praying for what God has ahead for you!!

Welcome Ellen!

Welcome to Ellen, a recent addition to our Zambian mission family. We got to meet her at last while in Lusaka. She is the guesthouse coordinator and we just love her!!

More of Mongu Bible school

Here are Mark, Madylanne, and Jeff. Jeff is a teammate who also helped teach the Bible school.

Underneath are the ladies who helped cook all week long. One of the men is a husband of one of the women, and the other man is a brother of one of the women. The ladies are Mary, Charity, Precious, and Carol, from left to right, and I think the men's names are Joseph and Mwinda. Melissa, Gerri and I got to have Bible study with these ladies and were so blessed by our time together in the Word!

Bible school in Mongu

Here are some pics of the Bible school Mark helped teach in Mongu. Mark taught the book of Deuteronomy and our teammate Jeff Lowe taught Doctrine and How to Teach God's Word.
18 men participated, coming from lots of different places in the Western Province. What a great week!

Happy Birthday Mark!!!

We made it to Mongu and celebrated Mark's birthday on the 5th with our teammates, Melissa and Gerri. Melissa made Mark a yummy cake, thanks Melissa!!! I made him one too, so we had bday cake all week long. mmmmmm!

On the pontoon

Here we are again, still traveling to Mongu...we are on the pontoon (ferry) that crosses over the river. This shot of me (Melynda) is NOT flattering in the least but at least you can see how big Baby is getting!

The young man with us is Boyd, our brother in Christ who accepted Jesus in May and then moved to Lusaka...he came to Sesheke to visit family and we brought him to Mongu to participate in the Bible school.

On the road to Mongu

Here are some pics of the trip to Mongu...hippos in the water! A typical store, a village home, and cows in the road. Honk honk!

Decorating for Christmas

Here is Madylanne, putting the cross on top of our Christmas tree! She had so much fun helping decorate. We may string some popcorn soon, too.