Fires!

Instead of cutting the long grass with a lawn mower, here in Zambia poachers burn the grass in the dry season. They do this so that new green shoots will appear and draw wild game to the area.  It’s quite crazy how big some of the fires get! It’s a fast way to get rid of the old and ready for the new but can cause major problems for farmers who have not set up fire barriers. Just another unique aspect of living in Zambia!

Tonga Class

We are getting together with the Roberts kids here in our school room every Friday morning to learn Tonga. Our teacher is Cynthia, a local 20 year old Tonga girl who has graduated from high school and has no job! Cynthia has helped in previous translation projects with Brent so we thought she would be the perfect person to help us learn Tonga!! This is our fourth week. We have learned the local greetings, animal names, useful phrases and we each have our own Tonga names. The kids are really enjoying it!

Bikes for Babes!!

We have raised enough money to buy our workers kids (babes) bikes for their travels to and from school! They wake up very early every morning to make the one hour walk through the neighboring farm to school! We are so thrilled that many of you partnered with us to provide these bikes for them! We are purchasing the bikes in Lusaka from an organization called ZamBikes.  Their bright colored bikes are seen all throughout Lusaka!! Thanks for your involvement in blessing our workers kids!!!

Hope

Naming a baby is an honor in this culture!!! Today I was given the privilege of naming my first Zambian child! My new Tonga friend/neighbor Kathryn who I have visited and prayed with several times gave me the honor of naming her 5 day old little girl. I gave her the name HOPE with the promise of the scripture from Jeremiah 29:11 “For I know the thoughts I think towards you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.” I was able to give her that scripture and pray a blessing over this little girl. It will be so cool to watch her grow over the years!!

Our Crazy Field Trip!

 Luke, Brent and the oldest 6 kids were invited by our friend and local vet, Ian Parsons to join him on a game capture. Ian is the man that game reserves call when animals need to be captured or tagged. This time the capture involved 100 Lechwe.  They used a helicopter to herd the Lechwe into the nets. The nets were set up in a U shape and as the helicopter got close to the nets a few blasts of the siren would send the Lechwe into the mouth of the net. The nets would be pulled by the group (Luke and Brent and other locals). The captured animals were being transferred to another game farm.................Aunt Sharon don't worry no animals were hurt during this capture!

Give Freely As You Have Received

Today 75 families from the local village next to us came and filled a garbage bag full of clothes per family!  The clothes were sent from the states in our container that arrived in May. This salaula (grab what you can) is the first of the many times we will be distributing clothes to the poor around us. We are so blessed that we have the opportunity to give of what God has given us!! Thank you to our supporters who gave us the money to send the container here to Zambia! Our next distribution will be at the chieftenness’ house with a large group of vulnerable women and children.   

A School Of Possibilities

We are excited at the opportunity to teach the Foundations For Farming principals at the local school near us. Terranova Basic School has asked Luke and Brent to help them create an agricultural program that is scripturally based and can be taught to the students grades 2-12. This program is grounded in scripture and will show these students how God views nature and how they can pattern their own lives after these principles. The school currently has a plot of land with water access that will be used as a demonstration plot.  The guys are meeting every Thursday afternoon with a group of teachers/students who are a part of a committee who will be assisting them with the program.  In the next couple of weeks we hope to help them clear the land and begin teaching these students about honoring God through farming His way.