Family Visits!

Dear Family and Friends

What a wonderful month of June we had with our Whitfield family visitors. It went by so fast but we enjoyed every minute of it. I updated you a couple weeks ago on our trip to Malawi with Luke’s father and what a great time it was to do some ministry with him and our friends the Burns. These past two weeks with Luke’s mom Chris and Aunt Karen were also a great time of ministry but it looked quite different than our time in Malawi. Chris and Karen brought many items to bless the different orphanages we visit here in Lusaka. So the day after they arrived we went to Kanyama (EFH) the orphanage that we visit weekly as a family. The five children there have become like our own. Chris and Karen brought t-shirts and fabric markers to decorate the shirts, candy, beanie babies, other toys, balls, books, markers, coloring books, and buckets to fill with these items. It was so fun to bless the kids with these gifts that they have never received before. They had so much fun decorating the shirts and we have tons of pictures of all the fun. We went to another orphanage the following day and read books, played ball and loved on the kids. The toys and candy was a hit again and we felt so blessed to be able to bless these orphans. We are so thankful for Chris and Karen and all the fun stuff they brought that blessed so many little hearts here in Lusaka. We will include some pictures of our time at the orphanages. The ladies were also able to come to the weekly Bible study out at the farm and they both shared their testimonies and things God has recently taught them. It was so neat for the ladies at my Bible study to meet our family and for mom and Karen to meet the ladies.

The following week we visited an orphanage called House of Moses. This house cares for 0-2year olds. It breaks my heart every time we visit. One room down stairs holds about 15 cribs situated along the walls of the large room. The room is filled with crying, laughing and crawling little ones and they flock to you as you enter. The babies are in a room upstairs that is warm, quite and very clean. There is a 24-hour nursing staff equipped to take care of these little ones. Most of these babies come straight off the street or directly from the hospital. Some of the babies were abandoned at birth in trashcans and some were orphaned at birth due to the mother dying during labor. There are 17 little babies upstairs and only one of them was a little girl. A three-week-old pair of twins about 4lbs each lay wrapped in many blankets sleeping quietly. The nurses said they have great hopes for these little ones and that they are “sucking” eating well and doing great. In May a 2lb little girl passed away after a good fight but she was just too little to fight any more. These house mothers/nurses are quite aware and conscious of how the littlest ones are so it was good to hear their positive comments. It is always a blessing to go visit House of Moses and love on these little ones. They are doing so much to help these little Zambians get a good start. But it does break my heart to think of the one on one love and care they are missing out on. Please pray for homes for these little ones and for them to hear about how much their heavenly Father loves them.

To finish off the two-week trip with Chris, Karen and Noah we headed off to Livingstone to see the falls and go on safari. We had a great time hiking the falls and seeing God’s creation. There were many baboons along the trails and the kids, Karen, Chris and Luke took a long hike down to the bottom of the falls, while Tazi and I took a break at the top! We got drenched from the mist off of the falls and had a great time viewing the rainbows, and beautiful tropical landscape. We are so thankful that we could experience this wonder of the world with our family. We went on the safari the next day and were again amazed at all the animals. We took a boat ride in the morning and saw alligators, hippos, many birds, 4 lions, several elephants, water buffalo, impala, and baboons. By vehicle we saw zebra, giraffe, more impala, warthogs, many more birds and mongoose. It was another great day in God’s creation and we will share with you some of the pictures of our time.

We were sad to see Chris, Karen and Noah leave this week but these two weeks were filled with so much joy. We look forward to our furlough and more time with our family and friends. Thanks again for all your love and prayers for us. This week has been a little trying health wise for us. I discovered on Sunday night after going to the hospital that I had malaria. The doc took a blood test and thought that I had contracted it in Malawi. Today Thursday I am feeling much better and have finished all my medication. Thankfully I am able to breastfeed while on the meds. Luke has had an upset stomach and throwing up on Tuesday and Macie has been dealing with some soar body parts and swollen eyes. Weird stuff going on with us!! Please pray, as we are always aware of Satan’s attacks in many different forms. Tazi is doing great and trying cereal and a few bananas and pears this week. She is growing like a weed and definitely has the biggest cheeks out of all the kids!!! See what you think!!!! Thank you for all your love, prayers and support. Please keep in touch. We have missed hearing from many of you. I know the summer brings many busy weeks and family trips, but we love knowing what each of you are up too!!!! We love and miss you all. HAPPY 4^TH OF JULY TO ALL OF YOU!!!!