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.

Just dropped in to say hello....

These wonderful visitors FLEW in to see us Saturday...Daren Davis, our cluster leader, and the pilot, Joel, from Flying Mission, and his son, Caleb. We had the pleasure of spending the day with all of them and then watching them fly over our house TWICE...you should have seen Madylanne's face, she was so thrilled! Thank You God for this special gift of their company!!

Thanksgiving

Here is a shot of our Thanksgiving meal...ok, so no turkeys out here, we had to get a little creative. Roasted herb chicken breast, broccoli, coleslaw (Mark's favorite), cucumbers, and butternut squash, with sugar cookies for dessert. We did have a yummy pumpkin smelling candle too! Out here guess we can create our own traditions, right?? In our hearts we were all thankful for the many blessings God has given us...

Madylanne's Gallery

Here are some shots of Madylanne having fun... a soaked smile while playing in the rain, a grin after playing in the dirt, making herself a tail out of a plant and then doing the chicken dance, and playing in the dog food bowls (oh yum!)

Introducing River Belle

This is the newest member of our team....River Belle Scott, with her parents Daniel and Sky. They came by with Sky's parents yesterday on their way home from South Africa. Welcome to Zambia, River Belle! She is just a doll. We are thankful to God for her safe delivery, and to those of you who prayed for her and Sky.

Dung Beetle

This dung beetle was on our front porch yesterday. Can you tell he's been in the rain? Pretty muddy little guy! This is the kind of critter we are happy to see. He's about 2 inches long and nearly 2 inches wide, I would estimate.

Children's Day at Bread of Life Church

Today was Children's Day at Bread of Life Church here in Sesheke. Sepo is the children's Sunday School teacher at this church and worked very hard preparing the children to lead the service. We participated in the worship service here today to support her and were so blessed. Madylanne loved getting to worship with her buddies and also dancing on stage to some praise music!!

Happy Birthday Given!

Here is our dear friend and follower of Jesus, Given, on his 19th birthday, which was Friday Nov. 5th. He is an orphan, and right now he is taking care of his nieces and nephews just for the weekend while his brother in law and sister are away at a family funeral. We really wanted this to be a special birthday for Given. He loves the Lord so much and His love has really changed his life. No one is too old for birthday cupcakes, right?? :)

Please pray for Given, his living arrangements are uncertain and he has two more years of high school left. He is a good student and wants to be able to graduate. He loves to tell people about how Jesus has changed his life. Pray the Lord would encourage him and show him in a real way how He cares for him, because He is the Father to the fatherless.

What on earth is this thing??

Ok all you bug people out there, here's a new one for you...is this a giant cricket or what??? He managed to find his way into our kitchen. And then Mark helped him find his way out. :)

Hard to see from the pic, but this thing is about three quarters the size of Melynda's shoe.

A Whale of a Tale

Here is Madylanne, happy as can be, to be reunited with her long lost whale. We ran out of room when we were packing and her tub buddy just didn't make the cut. But she just kept talking about her whale, so we asked her Grandma about it and low and behold it arrived in a care package this week. See, Madylanne is even taking her nap with this thing! Thanks, Grandma!!! We love you!

Happy Harmony

Sepo, a dear friend and follower of Jesus who loves to share her faith in Jesus with others, blessed us this week by visiting us with her niece Chi-Chi and also some of her friends from school. They are all followers of Jesus and blessed us tremendously by showering us with praise songs. Their church was having "Evangelism Week." It looked like it was going to rain, so their team stopped in to seek shelter and blessed us so much! We pray for these young people, who are the future of Zambia! May God bless them as they follow Him!

Swinging!

Here is Madylanne's new big girl swing. The ropes have been chewed up TWICE by our loving puppies, so Mark put up chains instead of ropes, and then covered them with blue plastic so Madylanne won't hurt herself. What a Dad! Madylanne loves that she can get on the swing herself, propel herself, and it's big enough to swing with Mama or friends! You can see the progression...the picture on the bottom shows the first attempt with yellow rope, then the middle pics show the red and yellow rope, and the top pic is the latest try. Hopefully this one lasts! The friends are Sepo, who is standing, and Chi-Chi, on the swing with Madylanne.

Talk Time Friend

This is Dorika with her 7 month old twins, a girl named Mainza and a boy named Tupel. They come to work with her everyday. She is one of the women who sell talk time, which are little cards you purchase and scratch off the back to uncover numbers to put into your cell phone to give you more minutes, at a stand at an intersection about 5 minutes from our house. Two other ladies also sell bananas, peanuts, fried bread called fritas, guava juice, soda, and water. Madylanne and Melynda visit these ladies once a week to share Bible verses and sit and talk. Madylanne loves to play with the babies and eat fritas. Melynda enjoys being able to listen to Silozi and try to absorb some, spending time with ladies, and being able to share the love of Jesus. Please pray for these women to open their hearts to following Jesus sincerely!!!

Super Madylanne to the rescue!

Introducing Super Madylanne! Madylanne got all dressed up today and ran around the house saying, "I'll rescue you!" It's fun to be 3. :)