Stateside Reunions

To view this video, CLICK HERE

We're very fortunate to have a strong support structure of churches who love God and love people.  While Kerri was back, she was able to catch up with our friends from some of these churches.  The above video is of her singing "Bless the Lord" at Northeast Presbyterian Church.

This particular Sunday was her last in the States and turned out to be a really special time.  Many of you don't know, but Kerri was struggling with some wierd health issues while she was home.  She had high blood pressure, high platelette counts, diziness and fatigue.  She had multiple tests, but no conclusive diagnosis was made.  So, Pastor Crow and some of the other leaders from Northeast Presbyterian gathered and had a time of prayer for Kerri.

As a husband, who was on the other side of the planet, I am extremely thankful for them encouraging her and me in this way.  And I'm so thankful that their prayers on our behalf were answered.  From this past Sunday, until now, all of the symptoms that had been there for the previous 2+ weeks are gone.  Thank you Pastor Crow, Manny and the many others who loved on my wife this past Sunday through your prayers!  And thank you for your partnership in our lives and ministry in Zambia!

Stuck

I'm on my way up to Lusaka to pick Kerri up from the airport and thought I would give you a view of road work Zambian Style. Most of the major roads here are only 2 lanes. So, when they decide to make improvements, it means that someone has to cut a path through the bush.

For some reason, I'm at a standstill. Well let me modify that statement. I just had a friend pass going the other way who told me it's going to be a long wait, because up ahead on my side of the road, there's a car broken down.

It sure is hot today. I guess I should have stopped for a coke or something before taking this detour.

It's Not About Me

Being home for a bit is always nice. Wonderful time spent catching up with family and friends, sharing great food, and enjoying all the conveniences that home offers for just a little while. It’s refreshing! One of the most special times is being at home with our church family. We are blessed to have a sending church that feels like family – that truly loves us and cares for us. Here is where our spiritual roots grew deep, where we learned the value of community, where our hearts learned to be transparent. Here is where we were when God began to pull away the scales from our eyes, to teach us who we are in Him, and where He showed us that our “yes, Lord” would take us to Zambia. Here are those who prayed for us, prepared us, walked with us, sent us.

Last Sunday I was able to be at our home church, to help lead in worship, to give a ministry update, to be honored and held and prayed over by those who send and pray and hold the ropes for us every day. It was a soothing balm to my soul. And I appreciate it deeply. AND I really struggle with being “honored”. I always feel like it’s wrong for me to be standing up in front of a crowd being honored for my “yes, Lord”. There’s nothing special about me. It’s not about me. I know that my church is not really honoring me but glorifying God in me. They know we are still broken, still struggling, still learning, still growing, still reaching. Still and always.

But there are those that have said to me over the years, “I could never do what you have done.” My heart’s cry is yes you could. Because it’s not you. It’s not me. Even the willingness to say yes comes from Him. (That’s another blog for another day) Living overseas doesn’t equal spiritual superiority. I know people all over the world, in all walks of life, who are saying “yes, Lord” everyday, and they are doing things that are much more difficult than working in Africa.

I got passionately stirred up in my heart about all those people I know. That THEY should be standing up being honored before the church. They should be the ones being held and wept over and prayed for. Is the church holding the ropes for these people like they do for us?

Then came Monday and I ran into a friend. A friend who told me the story of a guy he works with - a guy who is brand new to this faith, and he had attended my home church for the first time on Sunday. And as he watched this family love me, rejoice with me, weep and pray over me, God revealed Himself to this guy. And he saw for the first time how God loves His children and how He wants His people to love each other. He saw a community he wanted to be a part of. And God whispered, “See, Kerri, you’re right, it isn’t about you.” Thank you Lord.

We're Connected

One month to go and we're almost ready for our first full team! This past week, we connected the water supply to the shower house. As you can see from the picture, we had to "make a plan" to get it done, but it was a success.

Now to install the hot water heater, toilets, roofing and lighting and we'll almost be done. I just hope we can finish before our friends from Empower Dreams arrive!

Community Fun

Once a year here in Mazabuka the commercial farming community does motorbike ride from one of the local farms through the bush down to Lake Kariba. The ride is about 120 miles through mountains, jungle and rivers. It definitely is a fun way to meet your neighbors and spend a few days.

The big three kids and I are making a mini vacation out of it. Too bad my bum doesn't feel like it will be ready for the ride back Monday.

See For Yourself

Do you want to see what's happening with our ministry here in Zambia and hear firsthand from some of our Zambian friends about what God is doing?  Here's a quick 5 minute video catching you up with all that is Eleeo Project:  CLICK HERE

Intro to Zambian Shopping

This afternoon I had the opportunity to show dad a little bit of Mazabuka. Here he is in the local market watching out for the supplies we bought for the store on the farm.

It's so nice getting to show him a little piece of our life here. Just wish they could stay longer.

The Murphy's

Please pray for this dear family.  They are a missionary family living and working in a small town about 3 hours south of us.  They are friends with many of our friends here in Zambia.  A little over a week ago, they lost their 10 year old daughter Christianna.

Remembering Christianna Murphy: 10 year-old missionary dies suddenly

A Morning at the DMV

Kerri and I decided to have a date this morning at RTSA (Zambia's version of the DMV). Our licenses expire next month and since Kerri is heading back to the States in two weeks, we decided to renew early.

Surprisingly, it turned out to be an easy process. Now onto the rest of date!

Every Spiritual Blessing

Click Here for a copy of the Sermon

This morning, I had the opportunity to preach at our home church away from home.  I've never done this before, but I'm publishing the sermon here on the site.  If you get a chance, read it.  It's about our spiritual blessings in Christ from Ephesians 1.

Cheers!

Missing Out?

Are missionary kids missing out?  Take a minute to read this blog from a 16 year old girl who's parents are serving in Guatemala.  Great insight into how kids experience life in missions.

http://lifeasamissionarykid.blogspot.com/2013/04/am-i-missing-out.html

April 2013 Ministry Update

Click Here To view our Newsletter

Do you want an indepth look at what we've been doing in Zambia over the past several months.  Well, you're in luck ; )  Here is our April 2013 Newsletter.  Please take a few minutes just to get caught up with our lives and ministry.

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.

City Trip

Kerri's mom wanted to do some shopping before heading back to the States. So, we headed to Lusaka this morning. Whenever we're here, we try to do a laundry list of chores.

On the top of today's list: car maintenance. I try to do as much as I can myself. But I just don't have the equipment for tire alignment. When your home is 45 minutes off the paved roads, it pays to have them aligned every so often.

Hopefully this will last us a while.

A Bit of Nourishment

Below is information on a nutritional program that our ministry is starting at a nearby clinic.  Take a few minutes to read.  Awesome stuff!

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I want to introduce you to Syvolas Musonda, Chilala Habeena and Iness Kabwata respectively. These three young children are all under the age of two and will be the test group for a nutrition program we launched this morning. All three are extremely malnourished.  To give you some perspective Syvolas (first picture) is five months old and weighs 9.2 pounds.  That is just almost one pound more than our daughter Avery who is just two weeks old. Syvolas is HIV postive and his mother, who has AIDS, is too frail to care for him. 


The program will consist of distribution of a daily nutritional supplement called Phytomatrix which is manufactured by MannaRelief out of Texas. We are highly expectant that all three of these children will show immediate signs of improvement during the course of this study. 

To follow their progress please visit our blog at: www.whitfieldwateringhole.blogspot.com. For more information on Phytomatrix you can visit MannaRelief's website at: www.mannarelief.org.

Some More Visitors

Mimi and Papa are visiting us for the first time in Chikankata.  It's been a great visit so far.  Their arrival was like Christmas in March because of all the stuff they brought.  Tomorrow morning they will get to be a part of our field day where we are teaching composting to local farmers.  And then on Wednesday night, they will go with us into the village for a Jesus Film outreach.

It's so nice having family here!

Want to Help?

Meet Cynthia.  Cynthia has been working for us for about a year now.  In addition to teaching the kids Tonga lessons every Friday, she has been running a small shop on the back of the property as well as doing translation work for the women's outreach events.  We're so thankful for her honesty and hard work, but it's time for bigger and better things.

This past week, Cynthia was accepted into an Early Childhood Teachers diploma program.  And this program isn't easy to get into.  Not only did Cynthia complete grade 12, which only about 20% of all Zambians do, but she did so with high marks.  The only problem is that Cynthia doesn't have the money to attend this university.  Her father is a cook for one of the local farmers and only makes enough to support his family with the essentials (food, shelter, etc.)  So, that is why we are asking for your help.

The program is a 2-year program and when completed it will give Cynthia a diploma and a much needed advantage in finding work as a school teacher.  Considering that only a very small percentage of Zambians complete a university degree, it's easy to understand the value of such an education.  A degree like this can literally change her life and the life of her family.

The basic cost of this degree program is $1,500 per year for two years, which includes boarding and education.  So, we are basically trying to raise $3,000 to send Cynthia to school.  Would you be willing to help?

Donations can be made online by going to:  http://www.cten.org/brentroberts.  When making your donation, please comment, where appropriate, that the donation is for Education Assistance.

Thank you for your consideration!