All Zambian

Over the last 15 months, we've held quite a few Jesus Film outreaches, but they've all been led by either us or the Whitfields.  Well, this past Friday, 10 guys that we've been discipling for the past several months took over.  And it was Awesome!  The only thing that we did was provide the equipment and they did the rest.  Two of our guys, Amune and Oscar introduced the film and prayed for its showing. The others assisted with setting up the screen and then afterwards, they were all available to pray.

We've always believed that Zambians can best reach Zambians because they know the culture, the language and understand the many struggles that their brothers and sisters face.  Friday night was our first step in helping equip Zambians to do just this.  Hopefully there will be many more nights like this in our ministry!

A Nightmare for a Process Analyst

Before my life as a missionary, I was a business process analyst with one of the biggest employers in the state of South Carolina.  My job basically was to go into different departments, analyze how they were doing things, identify bottlenecks and waste and recommend how to improve processes and save money.

So, to say that Zambia has sometimes been a shock to my analytical brain would be an understatement. Case in point, today!  We are going to have to replace the transmission on our car soon and it's just too expensive to do it here in Zambia.  So, our plan is to drive to Johannesburg to get the work done.  But in order to drive across the border, you have to get INTERPOL clearance.  This basically shows authorities of different countries that the car isn't stolen and the owner has given permission for its travel across the border.

You would think it would be easy to get such paperwork, but not in Zambia.  After gathering the required copies (vehicle registration, driver's license, etc.) I headed to the Road Traffic department in Lusaka.  Here, they verified that my VIN and engine number's matched the registration certificate.  No complaints here.  It was pretty straight forward.  But that's where logic ended.  Instead of going inside to pay, I was sent across town to a different road traffic department.  There, I paid at one counter and was handed another form.

Instead of this person being able to give me the necessary stamp, he sent me across the building to another desk where this person was supposed to stamp the paperwork.  After waiting for what seemed like an hour, the guy finally took my paperwork and stamped it.  I was done right?  I would just turn my paperwork in to this guy and leave wouldn't I?  Nope.  Instead, I was told that I needed to drive back across town to a police post that was near the original Road Traffic department.  And here was the clincher:  They only accept INTERPOL forms on Monday, Wednesday and Friday!

Considering that our home is a 2 hour drive away, it will now take me roughly 13 hours and 2 tanks of diesel to complete this process.  I wonder if they will let me offer my consulting skills in the future?

Birthday Getaway

My birthday isn't for another 9 days, but Kerri and I decided to celebrate early, mostly because our schedule is too busy around my birthday.

We're staying at Lake Kariba Inn, about a 3 hour drive south from our home. This afternoon we will head out on a boat to see the Kariba Dam. Many years ago, they decided to dam up the lower Zambezi river to create a hydraulic power station for Zambia and Zimbabwe. Lake Kariba formed as a result. It's truly a stunning place.

Well one more day of rest and relaxation before we get back to the grind.

Weight Gain

We just wanted to give you a quick update on how the nutrition program is doing after the 10 Days.  Two of our participants, Syvaless and Iness both gained 2.2 pounds.  For Syvaless, that is 20% of his total weight (She weighed in at 10 pounds when the program started).  Yay God!!!

Please continue to pray for these three children.  We're hoping that this can be a way to impact many more in the future.