Happy Birthday Mark! We tried to make sure Mark enjoyed his birthday all day on the 5th...from early in the morning with his present from his parents to after dinner, when he got his cheesecake. I love you!

Oscar is baptized!

Here are some shots from Oscar's baptism on Sunday. Not only are we thrilled for Oscar to take this step of obedience in following the Lord, we are also thrilled to see Pastor Given performing his first baptism service. WOW God is good!!

Now that Matthew is ON the MOVE all the time crawling everywhere I have to be creative about helping him entertain himself so I can make meals. Here he is making some music. Don't ya like his outfit...too hot for clothes these days. ha ha :)

anything else in here?

We really dig into our packages, literally!! Thanks for sending love through the mail!!!

Madylanne had so much fun playing with some new friends this week. Our dear friend Sepo brought some of her neighborhood friends to play with Madylanne. They are Carol, Grace, Charles, and Ijo. A rainbow appeared in the sky while we were all playing and I had the blessing of being able to share the story from the Bible of Noah and the ark, and God's promise that He will never flood the whole earth again- the rainbow. One of them had never heard it before.

Gobble gobble

Here is Madylanne holding one of our two new turkey chicks. They are cute! But we are NOT naming them....we may just be eating them next Thanksgiving!! :)

Giving thanks with our mission family

We always seem to miss our families back in the States even more on holidays. So we felt extra blessed to be able to spend Thanksgiving with our mission family in Lusaka. Madylanne and Matthew had so much fun with their missionary kid cousins! And Mark and I were blessed beyond measure by our share time after the big yummy meal of turkey by getting to hear what God is doing all over Zambia and then being able to pray for one another.
The top photo is Madylanne with Amos and Hutch, who are 3 and 4. They just ate chocolate cupcakes, can't you tell? :)
Next is Zoe holding her buddy Matthew.
Next is a shot of most of the mk's in front of the bounce house Ellen rented for the day. WOW, you are the best Ellen!! The bottom two shots are of the missionaries who were able to gather for prayer time. Thank You Lord for our mission family! Thank You Lord for what you are doing in people's hearts all over Zambia!!

Praising God for the plots!

Here are some shots of the two adjacent plots the ndunas (chiefs) gave the church body on which to construct a church building!!! We are SO thankful to the Lord and also to you all for praying! The top photo shows everyone saying thank You Lord for the plot as they take a break from clearing the land. The bottom picture just kind of shows what the land looks like. It is a large piece of land- plenty of room for a church. Thank You Father! May Your church grow and grow in Seshseke!

Wordless Bibles

These are the kids coming to Sunday School nowadays! Maurina, in the background with the headwrap, is bringing two of them, who are her neighbors. The Sunday I took the picture we learned about how to ask Jesus to be your Savior using the Wordless Bibles that the kids at Metroeast Baptist Church in Wichita, Kansas made for us!! Thank you mission kids!!!! Each child took one home to share with their family how they too could know Jesus as Savior. Madylanne is holding hers up. Notice not many of the Lozi children are smiling...guess I need to add some humor to our lessons! No, really the reason is that here children are taught not to smile in photos because taking a picture is a serious thing. Isn't that interesting! Anyway, we are so grateful to the kids at Metroeast for making these Wordless Bibles for us to be able to share Jesus with the kids here in Sesheke!!!

Cockle Doodle Doo!

This is McQueen the rooster in all his glory (Madylanne named him, can you tell). :) He was given to us as a gift last week by the assistant DC (like the assistant mayor). We were going to eat him because we didn't think he would make it long in our yard with our two German Shepherds, but since Madylanne said she wanted to keep him "forever" we decided he could stay. He starts cockle doodle dooing at 4 am! Now he has two hens to keep him company in what used to be the dog pen. It's the chicken hutch now!

loving life

Love this shot of Madylanne and Matthew! I just took it last week. Madylanne is proudly wearing her new Jayhawk shirt from Grandma and Grandpa. Matthew loves to be anywhere close to her!
Madylanne is holding a tiger fish that Dominik caught in the next picture. Under that are the 22 cucumbers we picked from the garden! Thanks Betty, for your recipe for refrigerator pickles, yummy! And last of all are photos of our banana tree, which has bananas on it. We have been eating them all week. They are short and stumpy and SO SWEET.

Having fun with Taylor

Ok, we ALL had a great time in Gaborone with our dear friends, the Turners. However, just looking at these photos gives you a glimpse of who may have enjoyed it the most.... :) Madylanne just loves Taylor SO much. Even now that we are back at home Taylor is a part of her daily topic of conversation. These two are buddies for life. We love you Taylor!
And we love you, Brent, Amanda, and Bradyn. Thank you for making our week of vacation so special! The next few blog entries show all the fun things we got to do together over the week.

the boys

Look at these handsome boys! Matthew and Bradyn got along famously. And Matthew loved the soft grass as well as Bradyn's swing. Thanks for sharing, Bradyn!

Poor little Pumba

Just kidding! This warthog was NOT little. And he was quite tasty! Nice job, Mark! He and Brent had fun hunting one day while we were in Gabs.

More fun with our friends

Here we are having a bonfire with another missionary family, the Warners, at the Turner's place on Friday night. Look at all these kids! fun was had, lemme tell ya. They loved roasting marshmallows on the bonfire!
Madylanne and Taylor had so much fun climbing the tree out front at the Turner's house. And Aunt Amanda gave them both a pedicure. ooh la la

African wildlife

On our trip to Botswana, we got to see some African animals...we saw this older giraffe (we learned that they get darker spots when they are older!) in an animal reserve close to the Turners and the elephants we saw in Chobe Animal Reserve as we drove through. It's always so fun to see elephants as you drive!

Dominik is baptized!

Dominik did not want to wait to be baptized...he finished his three sessions on baptism and said, "Let's do it in the river!" So here he is, supported by his family and friends, following Jesus in the waters of baptism. Praising God for this glorious day!
After the baptism we went to Dominik's house to fellowship.

Kids Sunday School

We had the best day ever Sunday under the tree...look at all the kids we had for Sunday School! I shared the story from Luke about the Good Samaritan and then they did a skit, or a 'sketch' as they call it here. I was so proud of them!
The young woman in the yellow shirt is named Lillianne. She accepted Christ Tuesday at the Ladies Bible study and wants to be baptized! She will be a part of the baptism classes that Given is teaching to make sure she understands everything...we are just so thrilled for her!!!!
I got to visit her at her home today and meet her family. Lord please bless Lillianne and help her grow in her relationship with You. Bless her as she mothers her sweet baby, help her to raise baby Mary to follow You, too, Father, and fill them with Your love and hope.

going to be baptized soon

These men are Oscar, in the black shirt, and Dominik, in the white shirt, who is seated next to his children Rita and Jr.
Oscar and Dominik said they wanted to be baptized as a public sign that they are following Jesus. When Mark talked to Oscar about it more in depth Oscar realized he had never actually been born again. So that very day Oscar asked Jesus to be his Lord and is attending baptism classes taught by Mark and Given. Dominik has already finished his baptism classes and will be baptized soon, probably in the next few weeks.
Yeah, thank You Lord for these men wanting to follow in Your footsteps!! Please help them grow in their relationships with You....