Waterworld

This is a beautiful and oh so refreshing waterfall about an hours drive away. We hiked 2.5 km down to the falls and then played and got soaked, which was awesome because then we hiked 2.5 km back up to the top. God is so imaginative with His creation! We felt like we had stepped into The Jungle Book. 

 
 

 

Christmas Party time!

 We had a lovely Christmas party yesterday at a local restaurant with a kids play area. 23 children came! Praise the Lord for the opportunity to share the Christmas story from the Bible and explain why Jesus came...because God loves us and wants to save us from our sins. We had a lot of fun playing games, singing songs, eating chocolate birthday cake, and coloring stars and angels. We are thankful for the church that partnered with us to host this party.

May many of these children and their families follow Jesus! 

African fun

Our neighbor Soham (I spelled his name incorrectly in my earlier posts, sorry about that!) had his 6th birthday last week and it was a lot of fun having an evening picnic with both our families! He's a dear blessing. He and Micah are such good friends. We pray he comes to know Jesus as his Savior. 

A tiny hedgehog is rolled up into a ball on this leaf. 

The leaf is 3x bigger than the hedgehog! 

It's fun to find them in the yard. 

 

Art Week

The boys had the honor of having their school's artwork displayed at a local restaurant. It was a lot of fun looking at everyone's masterpieces! A veritable art museum. 

 

Yikes!

We've been experiencing some close calls lately. Thank the Lord no one was IN the water tank storage when it collapsed. There was a loud boom and then, this...

A few days after the water issues occurred, our power went off.  Termites ate through the bottom of the pole. There's been a lot of drama getting the power back on. But it's on for now. 

Thankful for another day with electricity! 

 This is the new water storage tank being built. 

It's been pretty stressful for Mark. However,

We've seen God providing for us in amazing ways. 

Thank you for praying for us! 

Happy Birthday Mark!

 We had a lovely day celebrating Mark's birthday on December 5th. Thank you all who prayed for him! We are so grateful for your prayers! And we are so thankful God created Mark. He's our fearless leader and we love him! 

Praying for Micah

This is Micah, asleep in a pile of stuffed animals on Madylanne's bed. He just wanted to be close to her. He has been sick with a tummy bug and fever the last few days. 

Yes, I did unearth him so he wouldn't be too hot. :)  

We are grateful for your prayers for our family. Micah is feeling a lot better today. Praising God!

 Micah helped me make cinnamon rolls for breakfast on Saturday a few weeks back. He liked helping me roll them out and sprinkle on the cinnamon/sugar. He even volunteered to wash up the dishes!! 

Thanks, Micah! 

Lorian

This is Lorian, Mark's new language teacher. Lorian is awesome! He loves Jesus and he is a fantastic teacher and he has a great sense of humor. We are so thankful to God for Lorian! 

 

Happy Thanksgiving!

 Happy Thanksgiving! We are so blessed to have such sweet neighbors. We really loved sharing butternut squash pie together. Thank You Lord, for your goodness.

She's Back! And happy birthday Ednah!

We are overjoyed to welcome Madylanne home for the holidays!

 From the airport we went straight to Ednah's birthday party. 

Yeah Ednah! We are so glad God made you! 

We are so thankful for how God uses you to point people to Jesus 

and encourage them to go deeper in the Word.

Her first play

 Madylanne got a part in her school play and their performances were last weekend. We are so proud of her for trying out and learning new things about herself! We got to watch a recording of the performance for our family fun pizza night last night. Way to go, Madylanne! 

wet n wild

The boys are really loving being able to play on the trampoline again, thanks to a number of people who helped mail and then pack a trampoline mat in a suitcase that came this direction with trustees. Thank you all who had a part in getting this here! You can see it's extra fun with a water hose! Our neighbor's son Sirham loves it too! 

Tsuma

Tsuma is the name of this man. He is a new believer and doing a fabulous job driving this tuk tuk. This income helps his family and also goes to help support the drug rehab center. Please pray for Tsuma and also for the rehab center to help many who need to be free of addiction. 

Beautification

Our neighbor Wendy does a great job styling hair. She and her husband Kevin opened up a hair salon this week and we had the privilege of praying with them over their new business. We're excited for them in this new endeavor! The name of their salon is Ventures. 

 

Parent's Weekend

We had a really super weekend visiting Madylanne at her school. We all enjoyed every minute! Lots of running and hiking and some soccer and volleyball and lots o hugs!!! 

She's doing great and we are really proud of her. 

Riding the train

 

We took the train to see Madylanne and it was pretty neat, let me tell ya! We got to eat our snacks and also every so often we would look out the window and see elephants, giraffes, an ostrich, zebras...pretty cool! 

Micah is 7

We had a lot of fun helping Micah celebrate his 7th birthday on September 29th. He got the tiger he's been wanting and he got all his favorite meals...cereal for breakfast and waffles for dinner, and it looks like a fire cake for dessert! I guess 7 candles really lights up a cake!  :)

 

A blessing

 

Mark had the blessing of being able to preach at a local established church this month. Thankful to God for the opportunity to proclaim the Word of God. Thankful to God for this church family that is preaching and teaching truth. 

late night visitor

 

This little hedgehog decided to help himself to the kitten's leftovers! We wisened up and don't leave leftovers hanging around anymore. 

2Mbili

We had the honor of being able to participate in our first training at the end of September. (Our team leaders do lots of these trainings. It was just the first time Mark and I got to help a little. We wrote what we were going to say in Kiswahili and gave it a go.) 

This is a rural area about an hour from where we live. In the morning we led an evangelism training session and in the afternoon we walked from house to house sharing Jesus. There were many teams who went out to share that day. Over 40 people heard Good News and 2 said yes to Jesus!

One very memorable occasion was a father of a large family who welcomed us onto his family plot and invited all his children and extended family that was present to come and listen to what we had to share....we shared Jesus is the only way to heaven, and that good works can never be enough to get us to heaven because even one sin separates us from God. The father of the house said that even though he believed differently that they had head Good News that day. WOW. Please pray for this family and many others to hear and believe in Jesus Christ. 

First day back to school

Matthew's face says it all...time to go to SCHOOL?? Ha ha 

The boys said they had a really great first day of the new school year. Here Kindergarten is called grade 1, so everything is ahead a year. This means Matthew is in grade 6 and Micah is in grade 2. Have a great year, boys! 

This picture is in the front yard at our new place. 

Birthday surprise

 This is a strawberry birthday cake...my very favorite! This was a surprise arranged by Mark and our Team Leader's wife, Melissa. Thank you both! You made my day extra special! 

Kittens are growing

The kittens are growing...they are getting close to 4 weeks old we think. They are SWEET. Even Micah likes holding them now that they are a little bigger. 

They are named Rumble (because he has a big purr in a little body) and Stripe. 

 

Thank you from Baptist Mission of Sesheke Church

These are barrels full of awesome goodies from First Baptist Church in Burden, Kansas. You guys are the best! Baptist Mission of Sesheke Church in Zambia is so thankful for all the love and useful things you sent them- and hand held devices that can be cranked to charge them and have the Bible in Silozi. 

WOW thank you!!

May God use these things to bring people to Himself and glory to His Name! 

 

Madylanne goes to school

This is Madylanne's new school. We spent a wonderful day together during orientation.

 Her dorm room---she does have a roommate but she hadn't arrived yet in this photo. They get along beautifully. :) We text daily and talk a few times a week..so far she loves choir, computers, and auditioned for a play (she got a part!). She has new friends that make her laugh when she talks to us. Thankful for her dorm parents and such an amazing, nurturing, supportive Christian environment. She said she is doing well in algebra, too, and whenever she or other students need help, the teacher makes himself available for a study hall after class. Thank You Lord, for all of this. 

Safari

On our way to take Madylanne to school we had the opportunity to spend one night in a national game park. We took a game drive- the kids really loved sticking their heads out of the top of the rover! And we had the best views from our back porch...elephants, zebras, giraffes, cape buffalo...mountains...

The creativity and majesty of God displayed in His creation is incredible!