Another Zambian First

When my dad visited, one of the things that stuck out to him was that Zambia didn't have any drive-thru fast food restaurants. Well, Zambia is a changing! Kentucky Fried Chicken has just built a new restaurant in the southern section of the city known as Makeni. It probably will not open before we head down to Chik, but I had to snap a picture and share it with everyone else.

Think about that, a country of 12 million people getting their first escillator and first fast food restaurant all in one year. Kind of gets me excited about the "Firsts" we will see down in Chikankata. Maybe a village hearing for the first time in this generation about Jesus or a church being planted where there never has been one. Won't that be awesome!

A Maddie Post

This post is for all the parents out there who wonder about the things that affect missionary parents as they serve overseas. It's never fun to see your children sick, even when it's minor.

Case in point, our 3rd child, Maddie, has recently developed some kind of rash. If we were in the States, we probably could have it diagnosed very quickly and apply the appropriate medicine. But here in Zambia, we're left kind of wondering and experimenting with what treatments we can find.

Maddie is doing okay, but she is itching a bit. We're giving her some Benadryl cream tonight to see if that works, but if you remember, say a prayer for her. Pray that whatever is causing the rash would just go away! Pray for the parents too! Pray for our peace and sanity during this time of transition.

Thank you.

How Much Can You Carry in a Wheelbarrow?

Things you don't see back in the States! I saw this guy while I was out today running errands. Quite amazing! I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes.

Moving to Move

So, we're still in the city, but hoping to complete our move very soon. Part of that process includes moving our workers (Dailes & Pauline) and their families with us to Chikankata. This past weekend, we successfully moved Dailes's possessions to a central location here in Lusaka. And Today, it was Pauline's turn.

Our goal is to get all of our remaining stuff and their stuff in one place so we can have a truck come and pick it all up. As you can see from the pictures, the move was a community affair. The family and a whole bunch of neighbors came to see and help us get the vehicles loaded. By the end of the day, we had taken three car loads (inside and on top) across town.

Please continue to pray for us. We are trying to arrange a truck to come and move us either Tuesday or Wednesday. In the States, this might not be such a big ordeal, but in Zambia, it is not the same story. Once this truck comes, we should be in Chikankata full-time, yay!

A Different Kind of Start

Yesterday afternoon, I met with Gilbert Masonde, a pastor and friend here in Zambia. A church in the States is trying to help him fix his vehicle so they asked if I could assist in the process. When he showed up, I was quite surprised at how he started his car. I don't know if you can see it in the picture above, but he is actually using a screwdriver to start his car. I told him that if he got into his car in the States and started it this way, the police would definitely think that he stole it.

It was good reconnecting with Pastor Masonde. The laughs I got from seeing him start his car was a welcome break to a somewhat stressful day of trying to get things done in Lusaka. Hopefully, by next week, he'll be starting his car in a slightly more normal way!

At What Temperature Does...

Water Boil??? Living in Zambia, you find that things don't quite work the way they do in the States. Take a spaghetti dinner for instance. The other night, Kerri was trying to make some spaghetti and started boiling water to cook the noodles. After 20 - 30 minutes, she looked a bit perplexed. The spaghetti sauce was bubbling, the burner was on high and was working, but still no boiling.

She thought: "maybe it's the water." So, she replaced the water that she had poured from the tap with bottled drinking water. Another 20 minutes and it still wasn't working. So, in came the problem solver (me).

I decided that if it wasn't the type of water and it wasn't going to boil on the stove top, then we would just put the pot in the oven and turn the oven all the way up. Another 20 - 30 minutes and voila, still no boiling. Now we were both really confused.

Since the water was steaming, we thought it was hot enough to cook the spaghetti noodles. At least this effort was successful even though it took a little bit longer than if the water were boiling. On a side note, the next morning when Kerri was heating some water for our coffee, she put a top on the pot (the same pot we used for the spaghetti noodles). And guess what? The water boiled. Had we known that the night before, we would have been able to eat our spaghetti dinner before 10:30 pm!

Sorry for such a descriptive story on cooking spaghetti, but we just wanted to give you some insight into the small things that make living in Zambia different than living in the States.

Sweet Reunion

A few days ago we had the opportunity to visit Dailes. For those of you who didn't know or remember, Dailes has been working for us since we arrived in Zambia in Feb 2008. She has become very much a part of our family since then. While we were back in the States, there were many times that Maddie would ask, "When are we going to go back to our home in Zambia and see Auntie Dailes?"

Well, they finally got that opportunity! Both of them ran to Dailes and gave her big hugs. I honestly didn't know if Ellie would remember her, but she definitely did. While it was hard to leave the States, it has helped ease the pain by getting to see our friends here.

Video Tour of Our Home in Chik

Here it is, a video tour of our home in Chik. Starts in the kitchen, then to the dining room, then to our bedroom and bathroom, then to the living room, then to the school room, then to the second bathroom and finally to the boys room. The girls room is still being renovated. So, it was not captured in this video.

Enjoy!

If you are receiving this post via email, click the following link to view the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMYhGeKB8y0

Still Settling!

Yesterday, we left the girls in Lusaka and Kerri, Caleb, Thomas and I went down to our new home in Chikankata. We really didn't know what to expect, but were pleasently surprised when we walked in the home. The Reeves did a wonderful job getting the house ready, including the addition of a bed and bathroom for Kerri and me.

We hope to upload a video tour of our home very soon, but need to figure out better internet options before we can do this.

Please continue to pray for us as we settle in. We are still staying in Lusaka until we can move our workers and the last of our things down. We hope to be fully moved in by this weekend!

We're Back!!!

It started with our departure from Columbia. We arrived at the airport on Wednesday Morning to find out that our flight to Washington, D.C. was no longer offered by United. Luckily they had space on a 10 am flight and were able to get us to D.C. on time.

In D.C., the antics ramped up some more. Apparently, 3 weeks ago, South African Airways made a policy that anyone flying through S. Africa needed Yellow Fever vaccinations. The only problem was that 3 of our kids vaccinations had expired and the other 2 had never received them. After going back and forth and praying a lot, we were able to convince them to let us on the flight. There was no guarantee that we would be able to board the next flight to Lusaka, but at least we would be closer.

Then, as we were finishing getting the tickets printed, Kerri realized something that we hadn't noticed the 8 months prior: our flight from S. Africa to Zambia was scheduled to fly out on the 2nd, not the 1st like we thought. Probably wouldn't be a big deal except we had no hotel reservations and we didn't know of any places to stay. But we boarded the plane and just figured that if the Lord wanted us to land in Lusaka, He would work out the details.

In S. Africa, we found a hotel after about 2 hours of searching. It was a pretty little lodge located just 15 minutes from the airport, but it was a sleeping adventure this time. The room we were given had a bunk bed and two single beds. You try to figure out how to sleep 7 with bed space for 4! Needless to say, Kerri and I snuggled all night and 4 of our children slept 2 to a bed.

The next morning and all today was pretty uneventful. When we went to the ticket counter to ask for our boarding passes, we were not even asked for our vaccination records again. We boarded the flight and landed in Lusaka at 9:00 pm.

So, itt was an adventure, but we've finally made it! What we thought was to be a 33 hour trip (including layovers) turned out to be closer to 52 hours. Had this been 4 years ago, we probably wouldn't have known how to react, but after living in Zambia for so long, we've learned to be flexible and pray a lot!

Brain Flagilation

So, when a missionary is nearing the end of a year long furlough, you should never ask him to perform a complex task. Because of all of the different things running through his head (i.e. dealing with the stress of packing, leaving behind loved ones, coordinating a shipping container, etc.) he might just not have the mental aptitude to handle such a task.

Take this afternoon for instance. Kerri asked me to do something very simple, order pizza. We were throwing a small going away party for the kids. We wanted to let them have one last time to play with their closest friends this side of the ocean before heading back to Zambia and the guest list included 41 children.

So, Kerri asked me to buy enough pizza for these children. That's where the fun began. Somehow, in my mind, she wasn't asking me to purchase enough pizza for 41 kids, but, for some reason, she was asking me to purchase 41 pizzas. I don't know why it didn't register in my mind when I knew the bill was going to be close to $200, but it didn't. So, when the pizza showed up, the mistake was quite obvious! The kids were happy and full, but I felt just a wee bit dumb!

Please be praying for us over the next 2 weeks. We fly out in 10 days and things are getting more and more hectic. Pray for patience, wisdom in packing, a sweet goodbye with family and friends and a sweet reunion with our friends in Zambia.

3 Generations

If you are receiving this post via email, CLICK HERE to view the video.

As part of our presentation this evening in Charleston, Mimi, Kerri and Gracyn (3 Generations) sang a song to end our time of sharing. It was rather tear jerking trying to watch this performance, knowing that we will be officially saying goodbye in 16 days. If you get a chance, check out Gracyn's first performance. She was AWESOME!!!

We also wanted to share the good news that we received this past week. We are now at 100% of our monthly budget, both one-time and monthly! Thank you to all of you who have joined our team and are partnering with us in this work in Chikankata.

Just a reminder though, that we are still trying to raise the startup budget for the ministry. This is what we received the $50,000 matching gift. So, think of us for those year-end giving opportunities.

Blessings!

Amazing Opportunity

As we have ventured out in faith in this move to Chikankata, we have continually been amazed at the Lord's provisions along the way. Very recently He provided again. On Monday, a week ago, we had a couple from Texas pledge to match any and all donations we can raise up to $50,000. They requested these donations be used to cover the development costs of our ministry centre in Zambia, not for missionary support. And they have given us a timeline to raise these matching funds (until the end of 2011).

As you can imagine we are overwhelmed at the opportunity this presents. If realized, these funds we will be used to accomplish some of our goals for development sooner than later. Can you help us? Would you consider making a one-time donation of any size toward this need and take advantage of this unique opportunity to see your gift doubled?

If you would like to help us in this way, please give online at the following link: https://www.denarionline.com/DonorServices/TEMPLATEPAGE.ASPX?COMP_REF=_CTEN&CONTENT=MISSIONARY&MISSION_REF=FC1339ADC5

or send checks to:

Commission To Every Nation
PO Box 291307
Kerrville, TX 78029-1307

*Please inclued Eleeo Project in a separate note or the memo field of the check.

P.S.

It's also a great time to be thinking about those year-end donations!

Great News!!!

We are receiving donations and have begun filling the container. We're trying to have it filled and ready for shipping by our Nov 30th departure date. Would you consider helping?

Below are some of the items we are looking to include in this container, but for which we still need donations. Maybe you know someone who is trying to get rid of one of these items for a tax deductable receipt:

If so, have them give us a call or send us an email!

Brent Roberts

803-447-1919

RobertsinZambia@gmail.com

Personal Items such as: Bike Helmets for the kids and parents

Fishing Rods & Reels as well as tackle

Ministry Items like this Hand Drill System for Drilling Water Wells

And Larger Farm Equipment like this Gator XUV

Our First Goodbye : (

As time passes, we are getting closer and closer to our return to Zambia. This weekend was a reminder that our departure is just around the corner. We were in Knoxville visiting Kerri's brother Matt and his family. Being that we don't make it up to Knoxville on a very regular basis and they don't have any planned trips to Columbia, this was the last time that we would get to spend with the Grimsley's before we fly out November 30th. While we had a wonderful visit, it was hard to say goodbye.

Returning to Zambia is kind of a "Catch 22" in a sense. We look forward to, with much anticipation, reuniting with our Zambian & other missionary friends, starting this new ministry in Chikankata and settling down in our new home. But at the same time, we don't look forward to saying goodbye to all of our family and friends. I know I've said it many times before, but it's worth repeating. The hardest part of missions is leaving behind those you love.

So, if you think of us over these next 30 days, say a prayer. Pray for us. Pray for our friends and family. Pray that the Lord would grant us his comfort and peace as we say goodbye again.

Hitting the Ground Running

CLICK HERE to view the Zambia Container Project Flyer

Do you want to help us hit the ground running when we get back to Zambia? We have just started filling a 40ft shipping container that will be sent to assist us in our ministry in Chikankata. Take a look at the flyer and see if there are any items you might be willing to donate.

These items will be used in the:

• Development of a Ministry Centre
• Starting Clean Water and Agricultural Projects
• Outreach and Leadership Training
• Caring for Widows and Orphans; and
• Missionary Living Setup

Also, if you would like to make a financial donation, we are trying to raise money for the shipping costs. Information for making financial donations is also included in the flyer.

Above all, please pray for this effort. We are trying to have this container filled and ready for shipping by our departure date of November 30th. Pray that the Lord would provide the donated items, the finances for shipping & clearance in Zambia to import this container!

Thank you

Story Runners

So, how do you train leaders in a culture where 80% of the people cannot read or write? You tell stories! There are various groups that have put together chronological stories which help communicate the story of Jesus (beginning in the book of Genesis and working through to the Gospels). And this week, I (Brent) am in training in Orlando, Florida doing such training.

I arrived this evening just in time for the first session. Before the end of the session, we broke into small groups and practiced telling the story of the demon possessed man in the Gospel of Mark, chapter 5. It was really interesting listening to people from different cultures trying to tell this story in a way that was contextualized for their own people.

Tonight, I met two guys from Africa (Benin and Cameroon), a family from Laos, another couple now living in the states who used to work in Botswana, and many more. There are 24 people from 9 different countries here at the Wycliffe Training Center going through this training.

Would you please pray for us this week as we seek to learn effective ways to communicate the Gospel message to semi-illiterate and illiterate cultures? Would you also be in prayer for Luke Whitfield, who is in well-drilling training in North Carolina? Also pray for us next week. I will be joining Luke at Equip Ministries to learn how to install and repair water pumps. These are the last bits of training we will receive before our return to Zambia in November.

The Calm Before the Storm

We are getting ready to head off to vacation with some of our friends for all of next week, but we wanted to ask you to pray for us as we gear up for these last two months in the States.

Currently, we are at 100% of our one-time funding, 89% of our monthly funding and, along with the Whitfields, are about to begin raising additional funds to ship a 40ft shipping container with much needed supplies for our ministry in Zambia.

We are now only 67 days away from leaving our family and friends and returning to our home in Zambia. Please pray for our sanity : ).

Pray also for the remainder of our monthly support, pray for the $13,000 we will need to ship the container to Zambia and pray for our family (emotionally, spiritually, physically, etc...). Pray for our families and friends here whom we are leaving behind - specifically pray for the grandparents. Leaving definitely is the hardest part of missions.

Thank you so much for standing behind us. You are such a blessing to our family and ministry.

Zambia's 5th President

In Zambia, if you ever want to carry a conversation, just talk politics. Most Zambians follow their politics religiously and love discussing many different aspects of their governing body. Well, I bet there is a lot more to talk about these days. On Tuesday, October 20th, Zambia held their presidential elections. The results were released today showing that challenger Michael Sata, won the election.

As I was asked by my Zambian friend Alex, please pray for a peaceful transition in leadership and pray for the people of Zambia.

Thank you

Guest Blog

A friend of ours, Danielle Cevallos, recently asked Kerri to write a guest post on her blog about adoption. If you get a chance, check it out! Just click on the picture above to be directed to her blog.