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. :)

Rain!

No picture this time, just a few words of thanksgiving to the Lord....we are so grateful for the first rain of the season, which He sent Monday night, Oct. 25th. It cooled things off a bit, to 81 degrees! Thank You Father!

We are right back to HOT again, but sure enjoyed last night. However with the rains and hot season come power outages, so be patient if it takes us a little longer to reply to emails...the electricity goes off about 2-3 times a day sometimes, and can be out anywhere from 10 minutes to 24 hours. Again we are so grateful for how the Lord provides, though...we have a water tank, which allows us to still have access to water even when the power goes out and the city pumps quit working, we have water here in our house. And because we have a gas oven, we can still cook without power, so we are well taken care of by our Father. I am getting used to cooking by headlamp light! HA! And as Madylanne says, "JESUS has the power, not the electricity!"

We celebrated Zambian Independence Day Sunday, Oct. 25th, by attending a big gathering of folks here in Sesheke. We all enjoyed watching dance performances by local school kids. We are trying to get a video clip up on the blog but it's not cooperating. Anyway, it was fun! And the kids did great.

We love all of you and thank God for you and your prayers!!! Remember we are praying for you too...
love the Wints

Keeping Cool

This is how we keep cool around here during the day time when it's 101 outside and 97 inside. And then at night we all go hang out in Madylanne's room with the newly installed a/c (see next blog entry). ha ha ha just kidding :)

Air conditioning ahhhh.....

This is Madylanne's new air conditioned room. Mark had the pleasure of knocking out a hole in her cement wall and then putting in a frame, and then installing the a/c, and praise God it worked! Thanks David and Sarah for helping Madylanne have cooler nights of sleep! 80 on full blast is much better than 90!!! I must admit I have slept in there once or twice myself! Mark is busy working on seminary papers now, and then when he catches his breath he'll install our a/c too.

a belly full of Baby

Here I am at 22 weeks and 2 days along...getting bigger! :)

Thanks for making my dress, Mom!

Hard to believe that in a little over 10 weeks we will be making preparations to travel to Joberg to wait for Baby's arrival!!

Happy First Year!

Today marks two special events: our one year anniversary to be in Zambia and our neighbor, Choweta, turned one. Madylanne had a ball at her very first Zambian birthday party this afternoon. Happy Birthday Choweta!!!

In the picture with Choweta are her parents, brother Mapesho, sister Limpo, and other neighborhood kids that Madylanne plays with pretty regularly.

E Team

This is a picture of Mark, Given, and Romeo. They are two guys that have been coming to the Wednesday Bible studies under the tree out front. Today they arrived at our house to go sharing Jesus with Mark at 7:45 am, nice shirts on and Bibles in hand. wow! Thank You God! They got to share Jesus with 5 families these young men had chosen. yeah Jesus!!!

The other picture is a shot of the village where all the reeds have been bought for our fence. It takes an hour and a half to walk there from our place, or about 10-15 minutes to drive. This is where people seem open to having a Bible study. Please pray for God to direct us how and when to get started. And for people's hearts to be ready to follow Jesus!

Veggie Tales

Here are some shots of our growing veggies...some growing, some picked, some cut up (thanks for your help Tereser!) and one lettuce tree. Yup, a lettuce tree. Madylanne is standing next to it. Ever seen one? Well, if you haven't, come on down to Sesheke and we'll give you a tour of our garden! Madylanne is pointing to a mango that is growing, they won't be ripe till December, but we're anticipating their yumminess already!

laughing with Limpo

Madylanne's friend Limpo came over yesterday for the first time in a long time, she has decided she is not scared of the dogs anymore. Madylanne was thrilled to have her friend inside the yard to play with her. They had so much fun getting each wet with the water guns.

Madylanne's Gallery

Here are some pictures of Madylanne, doing lots of different things...reading, sleeping, being a princess as she colors, trying on her new jacket and wearing her favorite Texas hat, and putting together shape man.

My Handy Hubbie

Here is Mark, hard at work to move the washer and dryer out to the screened in patio so we can begin getting the room they were in ready for Baby. This project involved installing electrical outlets, drilling holes in the wall for water drainage and the dryer vent, filling in the old holes, taking the washer and dryer apart to move them, and then putting them back together once on the patio. Thank You God for my handy hubbie!!!

Fencing...

Here are the shots of the new fence vs. the old...can you tell the difference??? We sure can!!! It is still being worked on, the reeds take a long time to tie and secure. But the finished product will be well worth the time and effort.

Look at Me!

Madylanne is QUITE the big girl these days. She has figured out how to wash her hands in the bathroom all by herself and is very proud of this accomplishment!! Way to go, Madylanne. :)

Night time visitor

The dogs went crazy barking the other night and so Mark went outside with his flashlight to investigate...and what to his wondering eyes should appear in the tree outside the back fence but two shining eyes and a long ringed tail...what is this??? He had to come inside the house and get the Field Guide to look it up...a GENET.

Pretty!! We haven't seen him again...guess he doesn't like barking dogs. :)

Ta-Da!

This is the finished hut, new roof complete! Nice job, Dominic!!! Looks great!!!

Dog Days

Here are our growing pooches, with a mostly adoring Madylanne. She loves to play with them and they love to chase her! She's not so crazy about them when they lick her. can't blame her for that, I feel the same way!!
Nala has the red collar and more brown on her face, Abbi has a blue collar.