Quick Prayer Requests

Just a quick update!! Thank you all so much for your prayers! School has started back up, and we are in the home stretch now! Which leads to some prayer requests!
1. Please pray for students and teachers to finish strong!
2. Please pray for the grade 7 students as they are taking their examinations to move on in school starting on Monday.
3. Please pray for Tonga, FCV's only grade 12 student this year, as she is in the middle of her grade 12 exams. Where she can go to university and what she can study are based off of these grades. Not sure that it gets any more high-stakes testing than this!
4. Please continue to pray for our new little addition to the FCV family, Benard, that he would continue to adjust well to a new place.
5. Please pray for our students who still do not know the Lord as their personal Savior, to recognize their need and call out to Him in faith!

Thank you all again!
In Christ,
Abbie

English, English, everywhere :D

In the past Terms of school I've had a little bit broader subject range with Geography and Science associated with the ocean, but this term my focus has been English and a lot of it!

I get to teach a small English group 3-4 days a week, work on vocabulary and reading comprehension with the whole 4-6 grade class almost daily, and then English for the grade 7 class 3 days a week with one day having an extra half hour.

I absolutely love it! I'm able to be much more intentional with the time that we do have to really focus on the basis of  English! Sometimes it's daunting being in front of seventh graders when I could stand up and teach on just about anything English and it would be a lesson that was much needed, but by taking small "bites" at a time with lots of review we're seeing progress!! Please pray for the students to be diligent in their studies... it's Term 3 and many of them are starting to check out mentally.

Another prayer would be for energy. You might be saying that I'm too young to be asking prayer for this :D yeah, you're probably right! But the hot season is called hot season for a reason, and it doesn't seem like you can keep enough water in you to stay hydrated. I'm thankful we are in a place where we don't worry about not having enough water. God is good!

Tomorrow is National Teacher's Day so we don't have classes. I'm hoping to get the art projects for Friday ready to go and just get some cleaning done in my "office" commonly known as the spare bed in my room :D

Many times I share prayer requests, but I wanted to share some blessings in this post!

#1 - The blessing of a church family here! Term one was very difficult dealing with culture shock and a consistent exposure to a language you can't understand, but since coming back in June God has granted a peace and has provided such dear friendships with the young adult group at church. Some of them are older FCV kids living in the FCV dorms and some of them live in the village, but they have welcomed me into their lives and I thank God for their friendships! Our time together on Saturday evenings at our young adult Bible study and on Sunday mornings during Sunday School are times that I will cherish forever!

#2 - Health! God has been gracious in keeping me healthy throughout the time I've been here!

#3 - I'm hit everyday with the reality of the blessing of growing up where I did. I'm not sure why I've been given so many opportunities other than that God has a plan to use them for His glory! I praise Him for all He has given and all He has done for me.

#4 - That God doesn't ever "give up" on us! Even though I sin daily, His forgiveness is ready and His desire is a renewed relationship with Him! I'm amazed!! I recently downloaded the new Coffey Team cd. One of my favorite songs on there is He Will Hold Me Fast. Here are the lyrics:

"When I fear my faith will fail

Christ will hold me fast

When the tempter would prevail

He will hold me fast

I could never keep my hold

Through life's fearful path

For my love is often cold

He must hold me fast

He will hold me fast

He will hold me fast

For my Savior loves me so

He will hold me fast

Those He saves are His delight

Christ will hold me fast

Precious in His holy sight

He will hold me fast

He'll not let my soul be lost

His promises shall last

Bought by Him at such a cost

He will hold me fast.

For my life He bled and died

Christ will hold me fast

Justice has been satisfied

He will hold me fast

Raised with Him to endless life

He will hold me fast

Till our faith is turned to sight

When he comes at last."

Thank you all for your continued prayers!!

Beginning of Term 3

Hello all and thank you for your prayers as Amano Academy begins Term 3 of our school year. It has been exciting to see improvement in our students throughout the year!

We've gotten into a schedule and I've been able to get a little more organized with a big picture English plan for my classes! I've been given full responsibility of the Grade 7 English class and am also teaching a small group of the 4-6 graders who are advancing quickly!! I'm so enjoying my time with both of these groups, and I am already encouraged by their growth after just 2 weeks!!

I'm also getting to help with reading, geography, and art. Many of you had asked me if we were going to have a theme like we had with the ocean for Term 1. The answer to that is sort of. Our unofficial theme is outer space but it's not as in depth (pun intended) as the ocean theme was. We'll incorporate some art into this theme, and we have a stack of books all about stars, planets, black holes, rockets, and more for the kids to read. Our focus has shifted a bit to reading classics and then pulling activities from them.

When I was back in the States for a week I was able to go to a Book Festival in Greenville, SC and pick up quite a few of the old Chick-fil-A happy meal classic books for our class to go through! We're currently reading Swiss Family Robinson, and the kids love it!!

It's been a blessing to get back into the routine of life at FCV as well! This past weekend we celebrated FCV's 13th year of being an orphanage as well as the kids with August birthdays. We heard a challenge from Mr. C, played some hilarious games as the different houses were split up into teams for 3-legged races and a football (soccer) penalty kick-off, and of course cake and biscuits (cookies)! It was a full and fun day for everyone!

Thank you for your prayers!! Please pray for continued good health and strength! It's becoming easier and easier to get dehydrated with summer quickly approaching. The morning cool gives way to the afternoon heat more quickly each day! Please pray for our students! Many of whom need God's Spirit to draw them to Himself, to show them their inability to save themselves!

Thank you for partnering with us both financially and prayerfully!! If you'd like to see more posts of the kids at FCV just follow our facebook page at Faith Children's Village with a nsaka (shelter) and a yellow background as the profile picture!!

In Christ,
Abbie Rysta

Holiday Month... Still Crazy Busy

Hello all!!

This post begins with a huge answer to prayer!! As many of you know, right before leaving Zambia for the school holiday my VISA was actually handed to me. To be honest I had kind of given up hope that I would actually ever receive it in paper and would have to continue making monthly treks to the immigration office for a new stamp (my passport is filling up quickly lol); but God had other plans!! On my way to the airport to leave the country Helen and I stopped by the immigration office in Ndola (same city as the airport and about an hour and a half drive from Kakolo) to see if we could pick up the visa. When we got there we had to look through a huge binder of names and visa applications looking for my name to prove that mine had been approved. After finding it we showed the lady at the entrance to the tiny room that housed three desks for three workers. One of the gentleme inside said, "Ah, why do you come so late? You must come back tomorrow. We have already knocked off. (clocked out)." He quickly pointed to a sign on the door stating the times of operation for picking up visas. Helen began to tell him that we came from a long distance and because of our jobs we couldn't get there any sooner. Again he said that he couldn't issue it to us. As kind of a last ditch effort I said that I was leaving for school holiday as soon a second we left the office and wouldn't be able to come back for awhile. That's when God did a work. He looked at me for a second and then hurried me through then paperwork and I left with my visa in hand. It may not seem like much if you've never negotiated in a third world county before, but there was no reason why he had to give me that visa except that God changed his mind! God is good!

Off I was to South Africa to spend some time with my aunt and uncle!! It's been great so far and I have one more week with them before heading back on the 2nd of September. 

Andrew was hoping to come for a visit during this break, but work responsibilities have grown with his brothers business growing quite a bit in the last two months. Since he couldn't come he bought a round trip ticket for me to fly back to the U. S. for a couple of days! It was a fun mini vacation to see him and my family and to get some much needed school supplies!

I've been back in South for about a week now and am having such fun with my family here! Cousins are fun when you're little, but I think they're more fun when you're older! We're having a blast!

Thank you for your prayers!

*if there are any typos I blame autocorrect on my iPad 😉

A Day in the Life

It’s been a little while since I’ve been able to post so I figured why not give a walk through of a day here so you can kinda get a glimpse of what it’s like! :)

My day usually starts around 5 am and I have a couple of minutes to chat with Andrew before he goes to bed the day before! (6 hr. time difference) I’ve been reading through, studying the book of Romans with Rand Hummel’s book Gratefully Yours and have been much encouraged! Then I usually twist up my mosquito net over my bed, get ready for school, eat breakfast (usually a fried egg or granola and yogurt). Helen has a gas stove and refrigerator which makes all this possible! I fill up a mug with coffee on my way out the door (either percolated coffee that Helen makes or I have a little single serve French press). One of the teachers at school called my hot mug a brazier in my hands which is very accurate during this cold season! I try to pull it off the burner last thing so it stays hot longer! The mornings are quite cold right now during cold season, but as the day progresses the sun does it’s job of warming up the world! I leave for school and walk from the back of Faith Children’s Village up to the front gate where the school is located,, greeting students and teachers and workers along the way!

School starts at 7! (Chapel on Mondays, parade on Fridays). Parade means the students stand in the school yard and sing before lining up in a queue to greet all the teachers. Tuesday through Wednesday begin with singing in the classroom and then Bible class. We have 1^st break from 9:15-9:30 which is announced by one of the students using a metal baton to strike the metal beams outside that hold up the veranda roof. The kids use break to eat a snack or play in the school yard or during cold season, stand along the chain link fence where trees don’t block the sun’s rays. We begin again at 9:30 until 11:30. Lunch break is from 11:30 to 12:00 and we provide some food for the students coming in from outside FCV but the kids here usually just play in the school yard and wait to eat lunch at 1:00 when we knock off or finish for the day. I teach English, Geography, Reading, Vocabulary, and Art as well as assisting with Math and Bible. Each subject isn’t taught every day with preference being given to the more important subjects. The students also study Bemba, RE (religious education), CTS (creative and technology studies), Science, and SDS (social and development studies). From the 11-12 hour, I get to teach English to the grade 7 students!

After school, I head back to Helen’s and try to do some sort of exercising before eating a small lunch and resting for about an hour. The afternoons are a tossup, sometimes laundry needs to be done or my room needs some sweeping or there’s dishes to do! Sometimes they’re quieter and I get a little bit of a chance to read! I’m currently reading The Next Story by Tim Challies! I highly recommend it so far! It was a graduating college gift from the church I attended during college and it discusses what it’s like to be a discerning Christian in a very digitalized world. Kiddos usually come over in the afternoons and read or work on their math facts or spellings for their quizzes on Fridays. Sometimes I walk up to the nsaka or cement floors that’s open aired with a grass roof and play with the littler kiddos playing hide and seek or singing silly songs.

Around 5ish I try to get the next day’s lessons prepped with whatever I need. Whether that’s gathering art supplies, making art examples, screenshotting pictures from google images to explain a vocab word, writing quizzes to be copied in the morning, or pulling books that will line up with the lesson of the day. Around this time the fire needs to be checked to make sure its still going. We use a showmaker (probably not spelling this right, but it’s what I hear when it’s talked about :D ) which is a big black kettle of sorts that is raised by three stacks of 2 bricks that are arranged in a sort of tripod. The pot is put on the bricks and the fire is started in the middle of the tripod of bricks. Long thicker branches stick out of each opening between bricks and after the fire has been initially started, you can easily stoke it but pushing the wood that has burned down in farther to the center and fanning the flame with the lid of the pot. We use this heated water for dishes and bathing in the evenings!

Dinner is usually more American but usually once a week Helen will fix a typical Zambian fare of nshima (think a sticky more solid than grits corn meal) and beans. After dinner we’ll wash the dishes, wash up ourselves, and then play a game (Helen and I both are suckers for word games whether it’s Scrabble, Boggle or Upwords :D ) and a time of prayer and devotions before bed. Usually bed time is around 8:30 – 9:00 pm which makes it easier to get up at 5! :)

Thank you all for your prayers! I hope this helped you get a little picture of how a “normal” day goes!

Term 2 is almost finished and I will be heading to South Africa next Thursday to spend the school holiday with my Aunt and Uncle there in Joburg!

Thanks again for your prayers!!

Better late than never... right!?

So sorry for the delays in posting! I’d like to blame it on spotty internet connections or lack of time but reality is procrastination is following me… even after college! Yikes! The short story is life here is busy, hectic, and always changing! 😊 kind of like life wherever you are! Life happens, and one of the things God has been teaching me is that there is so much to be gained by being present where you are. I think it was Jim Elliot who said wherever you are be all there, I could be quoting the wrong person. While there is no Bible verse I can think of that says this exact thing, but I find that if my mind and thoughts are constantly on the next thing I miss so many opportunities to serve or minister or I just miss the people around me and miss opportunities for building relationships.

I am so thankful for the ministry I get to be a small part of and the blessings that come from it! After flying to Zambia, I spent a couple of days in town getting phone and finances sorted before heading out to FCV. After getting there I was able to help out for a Friday before the weekend and then a full week the next week. We then had our midterm break so I really have had it easy coming back and having lots of time to transition!

We’ve also had a steady stream of visitors which keeps us on our toes and is a big encouragement! When I got here, Haley was here. She’s from NC and we soon found that we had a ton of mutual friends. It was a blessing to have her even though our time only overlapped for about a week! Right now, there are several visitors both to FCV and CABC since the college is just finishing up their July block class and guest speakers and other visitors from the States have come. Next week, Mr. C’s sister and a friend are coming and by then we’ll be to the end of Term 2. It’s been an exciting couple of weeks and I’m sure the next several won’t disappoint.

We’ve had several snake spottings, including Helen’s septic tank. Thankfully our gardener saw it and killed it. They think it was a cobra because of the extra folds of skin around its face. I had a little baby snake in my room which Helen graciously saved me from! I knew something was weird when the baseboard of my dresser was for some reason warped in a wavy fashion… lol There was also a big puff adder over by the kid’s playground. Like I said, always some excitement!

Thank you for those who have been praying for our teacher! This week has been her first week back! We are grateful and thankful to God for answering our prayers and that she has returned. I am back to helping the grade 4-6 class again! They’ve been working hard and I’ve enjoyed spending more time with them! Stay tuned on Facebook for more picture updates of our art project this Friday! We will be attempting to make baobab trees!!

Thank you for your prayers, please pray for Mr. C! Yesterday, a pot of boiling beans was spilled on his feet and he was burned. The nurse and doctor were on site and he’s been given meds to help, but prayers would be much appreciated! 

In Christ,

Abbie Rysta

Kakolo or Bust!

Lord willing, today I will finally get out to Kakolo!! Thank you all for your prayers for safe travels! I made it to Zambia 7 pm (so equivalent of 1 pm EST) on Tuesday! Rachel picked me up from the airport and I've been able to stay with her in town to finish getting the last minute supplies I need before heading out to the village. This also gave me the opportunity to go back to Kitwe Church's Bible study and see and worship with so many friends who have been praying for my VISA as well! God is good in His timing!

My trip was very eventful; most of this being my forgetfulness or blonde moments :D But God is good through it all, and I was allowed admission back into country even though I don't actually have the final VISA in hand. (I have the receipt that says that it's been approved).

Today I'm meeting up with Helen and BC after working on this post :) and we will head out to Faith Children's Village (FCV)! I am excited to meet Haley, a volunteer who has come out to help at the school, who is also staying at Helen's right now as well! Please pray for a smooth transition back into school life!

Please pray also for Amano Academy right now. Our staff is small and when teachers are out for sickness or other physical struggles we get stretched thin. I'm excited to be able to jump back in and help! To start out I will be teaching grade 3 for this Friday (tomorrow.... wow!) and next week. Then we have a midterm break which will be helpful to continue getting settled and figuring out teaching for the remainder of the term that finishes up sometime around August 4th!

Please continue to pray for opportunities to build relationships with the kiddos! Coming back it is much easier to see ways in which I can be more intentional in this endeavor of getting to know the kids and building friendships with them. I'm also very excited to point them back to God's timing in working out the VISA situation as many of them were praying for it as well! I want them to see that God is good in His allowance of situations we may not understand at first or may not understand at all!

Again, to all of you who pray, thank you so much!! It truly means so much!

If you have any questions about anything, FCV or Amano, please don't hesitate to ask! My email is:
byhisgrace555@gmail.com or you can contact me via Facebook! Thanks again!

In Christ,
Abbie Rysta

Philippians 1:6 - Being confident of this very thing, that He which hath begun a good work in you, will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.

Comfort Zones

God has done it! My visa has been approved, and I am headed back to Zambia tomorrow Lord willing! I am beyond excited to go back and continue working with my kiddos in our 4^th – 6^th grade classroom and the dear staff members I’ve grown to love! But I’m also so thankful for God’s allowance of a little extra time home. He has taught me much about Himself and just how much I still must learn.  Originally, I was so confused as to what God was doing as I had to learn to patiently wait for His timing, but I’m so thankful for the teaching time He has so graciously granted.

See, I would have told you that being in Zambia was way out of my comfort zone and really forced me to rely on God’s strength! I thought that this time at home would be comfortable… but God had other plans! His plans were far above my own! God taught me the importance of being out of my comfort zone, through working on houses (which I knew nothing about beforehand) and through substituting for classes that I barely remembered from high school. But God has shown me Himself through it all!

God is Creator.

God has made all things in the world around me from the smallest atom and element to the largest galaxy!!!!

God is in control.

God has forgiven me of so much.

God is a God of beauty and design.

God wants His church to be unified.

God delights in the passing of His faithful ones.

God gives strength and help!

God alone is supreme.

God is love, unconditional love.

Christ is sufficient.

God is the only One who deserves my desire to please!

He has taught me so much! Many of these truths I am rehearsing daily because I still struggle with slipping into beliefs that contradict these truths, but as Paul says in Philippians, Being confident of this very thing, that He who hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.

Tomorrow I go back to another uncomfortable zone, and I praise God for it! I don’t want to be complacent in my walk with Jesus! I want each day to rely on Him and lean on Him for every word, thought, and action!

Am I there yet? Nope! But again, God is faithful and will fulfill His promises toward me!

I claim these truths as I head back to Zambia, begging God to draw me closer to Himself through this next season in my life!

I covet your prayers for safety in travels and for open doors to talk about my Lord with those I connect with. Pray that I would be able to build relationships with my kiddos and point them to the One who can give their lives meaning and purpose!

Thank you also to all of you who have financially supported me! I could not be where God has led without your generous giving! Know that it is an investment in the Kingdom!

God Bless

Abbie Rysta

Psalm 72:18 – Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who only doeth wondrous things.

"just wait"

Hello all!!

Time is going by so so so quickly! I’m so thankful for all of the ways God has used this first term of school to help make me a better teacher, to stretch me to try new things in reaching out to my students, but most importantly I’m thankful for what He is teaching me about Himself. Many of you have been asking and praying about my current work visa situation. I was hoping to have all of the answers and some of you know how badly I wanted to just know what the outcome would be, yet God has seen fit to not give me all of the answers. He’s asking that I just wait. He’s asking me to trust

It’s funny, sometimes we feel as though we know what the answer should be or what the answer shouldn’t be and there are only two answers in our head. Then, God gives you an answer but it’s right in the middle of the two with a postscript of “just wait.” In my mind there were two answers to the visa situation: either they approve our amendment to my first application submission or they don’t. Simple. Then God showed me answer “just wait.” Today (Tuesday) I got a message from our Doctor’s wife Brandi saying their worker had checked with the office of immigration in Lusaka and that they said that I needed to completely resubmit everything. (This coming after they told us we merely needed to write an amendment to the original submission). Because of my tourist visa days expiring April 5^th, I most probably won’t have an answer about the work visa when I leave for the States for school holiday on April 1^st.

“just wait”

I might be able to come back. I might not. I might get to come back for term 2 or maybe just for term 3 or maybe not at all. I may be saying goodbye to all of my kiddos who don’t understand why I can’t come back. I might be saying hello again come mid-May.

“just wait”

But God! You might think that those words sound like a whiny child 😊 asking why God would ask her to wait. But let me explain. I’m so thankful for these two little words! Many times when they are used in Scripture it talks about how God has saved us even when we were the worst of sinners! My favorite is in Ephesians 2:1-7 (I know it’s long, but bear with me!)

And you were dead in trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience – among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ – by grace you have been saved – and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

But God! God has saved me!! Think back to the time when you came to the end of yourself. You were fed up with your sin, realized that you couldn’t do anything about it on your own, and that you needed someone to do something. You called out to Jesus that you were done running, that you wanted what He had to offer, salvation. His love had been pursuing you. The Holy Spirit had been working on your soul, and He now resides there.

We serve a God who cares about souls. We also serve a God who cares about the little details in our lives. The Spirit whispered this thought to my heart earlier today as I was thinking about and trying not to worry about the whole situation, “Abbie, I already know the outcome of this. I’m not bound by time.” What an assurance! His timetable is so different from mine. I could tell you what I want the outcome to be, but does that really matter? Is it more important that I know and understand everything about what God is trying to do in my life? Or is it more important that I beg for His will to be done, not my own? And plead that He would align my desires to fulfill that will?

I wonder how many of us are waiting on God’s timing. We feel like He’s forgotten because we haven’t gotten the answer we wanted. Instead we got the “just wait.” To any of you reading this who feel that, I understand. Maybe not your situation but the feeling and apprehension of having to wait. And I can tell you that it is possible to have peace in the midst of it.

A couple weeks back in Wed night Bible study we were talking about the significance of when God asked Abraham to sacrifice his only son. (have you ever studied the parallels to Christ in this chapter?!? Amazing!) Abraham could have questioned God’s timing, maybe he did, but he acted. He obeyed. BC summarized it perfectly this afternoon as we were talking about the situation when he said, “Now’s when the faith comes in.”

Do I say that I had faith to trust Him to save me from my sins? Then how is it that I don’t want to trust Him for an issue of timing? My God is in control! What an amazing God we serve. So do I know what the future holds? Nope. But my God does! And He has asked me to patiently wait.

Psalm 37:7a – Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for Him;

Psalm 72:18 – Blessed be the Lord God, the God of Israel, who only doeth wondrous things.

Thank you all for your continued prayers! I’m looking forward to seeing many of you when I’m home in April and sharing pictures and stories of the hard work and success of our students here at Amano Academy! 

It's March?!?

Seriously, where did the time go? It's not only March but also the 15th of March.... Also Happy Pi Day to all of you math people out there. I got to come into town a day early to get some computer work done and try to get some of the work visa/plane ticket thing sorted. When I come into town I stay with Rachel Johnson, the administrative secretary for CABC. I'm so thankful for her friendship! We went to the gym... yeah, there was a gym... just like any store front gym in the States and spent some time talking to some of the regulars that Rachel's been building relationships with... and we worked out some too ;) Then we grabbed a bite to eat and came home to make some pie for pi day!!

This morning I've been researching plane ticket prices and looking into visa requirements. What I didn't realize is for a tourist visa, you're only allowed to be in country on a tourist visa for 90 days in a year. Meaning once I leave in April, I've used up my tourist days and can only return once the work permit is for sure completed. Maybe this is no surprise to some of you, but I guess I was under the impression that it would be something like you just had to stay out of country for so many days before returning, but that's not the case.

So praying that God would grant the work permit in His timing.

The term is winding down and I'm thankful for the evident progress in many of the students. It's very different teaching a primarily second nature. Assignment grades in the States that I would freak out over and reteach everything, are fairly normal for term 1 of a new school year. It's taken some time to get used to, but it has been so rewarding to see the grades slowly improving as we are spiraling the content we've taught. I'll share one quick story. So some of you may remember my mentioning that one of our students battled cerebral malaria several years back and since then school and remembering has been very difficult where it once came naturally. It's discouraging when you can no longer keep up like you could and even when you try, you still struggle. One blessing of having so many teachers in and out of our classroom (BC, Mr. Kamfua, Pastor Royce, Pastor Edward, myself and Mumba even) is that we are able to pull kids out, almost like a resource teacher does in the public schools. Some of our kids that really struggle we've been able to spend extra time with and experiment with what works for them and how they learn. We've found with Medias that reading is the biggest struggle. So if you can read him the questions on the test, or have him point to all of the continents, seas, oceans, or give an oral quiz he can answer the questions and manage the material. Seeing a 90% at the top of his reading comprehension quiz was a moment of joy! He hasn't seen it yet, but I'm so thankful for the ability to make a difference simply by adding one more person to the staff so that there is more time to individualize instruction for those who need it. Please continue to pray for him!

Thank you again for all of your prayers! God is good and is working!!

I look forward to seeing many of you in April!

Adventures in Art

Today is a Monday, but here I am in town! It's a little after noon and I'm utilizing the internet at CABC after a trip to the immigration offices. Thankfully there was no hassle and I am legally allowed to be here until April 5th! Which is perfect timing with a buffer, because my plane flies out of Zambia on April 1st... no really, not a joke ;) Thank you to all who have prayed regarding the work VISA, I still haven't heard an answer back, but I will let you know as soon as I hear something.

These next two weeks will fly by, or at least I have a feeling they will. This week we have Wednesday off for Mother's Day and next week we have Monday off for Youth Day. Apparently they have quite a few one day holidays here in Zambia. This is actually a welcome break though since normally there's a midterm break for a week that we can't take because we started school late.

This past Saturday, I invited any of our class who wanted to come to help put up our "ocean"... basically what would be the mix of a bulletin board and a mural in the States. It turned out quite well. We had different stations for different art projects including making a pufferfish by painting the prongs of forks, stippling assorted sea creatures using acrylic paint, sponge painting assorted sea creatures using tempur paint, cutting and tracing sea shells out of sand paper, and helping put up the fish they had already completed in prior art lessons!! Needless to say it was an afternoon spent under the sea! :D

We had a great turnout including some of our village kiddos who had to come a little distance! I'm so thankful for the usefulness of art. That may seem odd, but it has given me a common ground with some of my students who are extremely gifted in art or in working with their hands but struggle a little bit on the academic side of things. Helping them see that they have a gift and an ability, even if it's not necessarily school has been fun. We have one student especially who his face just lights up whenever you ask him to draw or do anything with art. I almost couldn't get him to leave school on Saturday.

Please pray for wisdom for the FCV management as they have some decisions coming up. Pray that God would grant them the wisdom from above talked about in James and that they would be diligent in seeking His face for guidance!

Thank you for all your prayers! God is good!

Wanted: Help with Books

Helping with Books!

So before I came many were asking what they could send with me to help the school. Right now we have a shortage of books and much of that is due to the fact that there hasn’t been anywhere to keep them. However, extra classrooms and an office are in the process of being built and BC is starting to think of ways to build a library for students and teachers to utilize. He will be back in the States in April and is shipping a container over of books. And we could use some help.

If you’re willing to help there are two parts:

1.    Purchasing 25 copies of a Great American Classic book and shipping it (it would need to arrive at this address before April 17) to:

Brian Cameon

5309 Stoneybrook Dr.

Charleston, WV 25313

2.    Helping out with the shipping cost for books up to $200.

This might be helpful for a group to get together and do. Email me if you’re interested in helping! J byhisgrace555@gmail.com

Also, one big struggle to teach here is vocab. When I was writing lesson plans in college each one had to start with what we called APK (accessing prior knowledge) and we got docked points if we didn’t have one or if it was weak. The struggle here is exposure. In the States even if a child doesn’t have any idea of what you’re talking about experientially, they’ve probably seen it in a movie, or they’ve heard about it from a book…. Exposure. Many kids here haven’t been exposed to many things so when I come home in April I’ll be keeping my eyes open for any picture vocab cards. And while I know many of us teachers like cutsey things, I’m specifically looking for real life pictures i.e. for lion an actual picture of a real lion, not a cartoon. So if anyone comes across anything like that feel free to give me a heads up!! It’d be a big help!

If we think of anything else I’ll pass it along.

Life in Kakolo

Hey!! It’s been awhile!

Sorry for the delay in posting, but just like in the States, life happens and since I’m kinda new to this whole blog thing, it takes some getting used to. Much has been happening and it’s a joy to be a part of! Last week on Friday two girls and three guys moved from houses to the dorms. While coming of age is a big deal in African culture, the orphanage here wants to use this time to point the guys and girls in a path that follows Christ and what the Bible says about manhood and womenhood. So we had a ceremony for them, which went quite late J (I didn’t make it to the end and ended up going to bed before it was completely over). The next day was what we call birthdays. The last Saturday of each month is when any birthday from that month is celebrated! It’s always a good time of fellowship with all the houses and much of the staff! (see Facebook for some pictures!!)

I want to say a big thank you to all those who have been praying for my work permit! I still don’t know what will happen, but I am confident that God knows what He is doing! Whether I stay for Term 2 or have to return to the States for a time, I’m thankful that He is in control and the one making the decision!

School has been going well and this week especially is quite crazy! We have a little kiddo spending the week with us! Wilson is grade 1 and consequently doesn’t speak much English yet; however, he is one of the ones I had in Reception (k5) when I was here in September, so it’s nice to have that connection at least. Also, I have the opportunity to lead the dorm girls devotion time in the evenings this week!! It’s like cabin devos at camp all over again… only I get a little bit more time!! :D It’s such a blessing to read through God’s Word with them and share what we are learning. Some nights are a shy start, but I’m thankful for the friendships with these sisters in Christ. Many of them are close to my age and it’s been a joy to get to know them!

I know I’ve referred to Facebook for pictures, one of these days I might figure out how to add them on here J but until that day… I do post quite a bit about what’s going on here! You can also search the hashtag #teachingatAmano to find all of my posts about teaching or living here!

I’ve mentioned before that we’re doing an ocean theme for Term 1 and I’m excited to announce that this Saturday we will be putting up the beginning of our work on the walls of our classroom complete with blue trashbags as water and a long long long tan cleaning cloth as sand! I’m excited to see how it turns out. Stay tuned for pictures on Facebook… sorry, there I go again! ;)

Thanks again for all of your prayers! There are tough days when I think if I hear another Bemba word I’m going to cry, and some days where I have, but God gives grace and gives more each day to focus my wandring heart back on Him.

One song that has given me such encouragement recently is a rendition of Lord, I Need You. Here are the lyrics:

Lord, I come. I confess

Bowing here I find my rest

Without You I fall apart

You’re the One that guides my heart.

Lord, I need You

Oh, I need You

Every hour I need You

My one defense,

My righteousness,

O God, how I need You.

Where sin runs deep Your grace is more

Where grace is found is where You are.

And where You are, Lord, I am free

Holiness is Christ in me.

I am nothing without God! When I remember this and lean on Him both His Word and in prayer, He gives me the strength I need for each day! Thank you for your prayers!

Teaching Grade 3

This week has been pretty hectic! Our grade 3 teacher has been out due to health issues and so I've been filling in. Thankfully our kids in grade three are almost all FCV kids or kids who have been at Amano all the way through so at least they understand what I'm saying more than some of the others. We've had a ton of fun and they are supposed to present something in chapel next week. So since the teacher is out I've been able to teach them a camp song. They're learning the JBC theme song from a year or two ago called I Need God's Word. It's been so exciting to talk about the importance of the Bible with them and help them realize that even at their age they can read God's Word and know Him better! It's been a joy to teach them, but it has made this week quite tiring! The delay in posting comes from the car breaking down last week on Wednesday so I didn't make it into town and then this week since I had to be to school for the beginning of the day Thursday (today) I wasn't able to stay the night in town.

But God has been good! Recently a friend shared an encouraging verse from Psalm 119. It's verse 68 and it says, "You are good and You do good." What truth!! I then read it a day later in my devos and God has just been bringing it back to mind frequently. God has a way of changing our plans in a way that brings us to Him. Living in a third world country really brings this out. In America this doesn't happen quite as frequently. Our plans changing is like the traffic being worse than we expected; however, we probably have an app that will tell us where the best way around it is and we'll eventually get where we wanted to go. Maybe that's not a good example but it just seems like we are very in control of our schedules. Here, many variables that are most of the time out of our control like a car breaking down really turn everyone's plans on their heads. A car breaking down 30 min. out in the bush is quite different than a car breaking down in my front yard or even at Wal-Mart.

It's been a hard lesson to learn. God is in control and His plans are much better than mine. I may not understand but that's not what it's all about. Hopefully learning this lesson in a small thing will transfer over to applying it in a big thing! But meditating on His goodness is such a refreshment. I don't have to be in control!

Prayer Request:

So, back in December, unbeknownst to us, my work VISA was denied. We're not completely sure why and I'm currently on a temporary VISA that continues to be renewed every thirty days up to 90 days. So right now I should be able to stay through Term 1 of school without a work VISA. The immigration office said to resubmit the paperwork and be more specific with what my work was. Zambia is very against anyone coming in who is "taking a job away from a Zambian." I put that in quotes because it's kind of ironic that they have so many (NGOs - Non-Government Organizations) represented just about everywhere. All that to say, they didn't like my work description. So we've looked at it different ways and are trying to decide what would be the best way to try again. I'm working with another American who has teacher on their work visa so we're hopeful that it would go through. I hate to say it like this but sometimes it just depends on what mood the person signing off on the visa is in that day. Once again God is in control and I'm praying for His will to be worked out in this! Will keep you posted!

Culture Day

*warning, this is a long one… you might want to get a cup of coffee J*

You might be thinking, “What is a culture day?” I’m glad you asked!! J My definition might be different from some others but here goes: A culture day is a day in which a new culture is viewed up close and even entered into for a majority of the day, leaving a person quite tired. Last Monday was one such day J So before coming to Zambia I sent ahead all of the paperwork needed for my work visa, but processing takes awhile so Monday I had to go to the immigration office to get my temporary visa renewed, and you never know what awaits!

So we headed out around 9:00 Monday morning after I taught for the first hour or so after chapel. Getting into town around 30 minutes later, we went straight to the immigration office with a quick stop at a local printing shop next door to make copies of my passport and work visa receipt. When we went in to give the paperwork we were told that we also needed a copy of the page in my passport that the tourist visa was on as well as a letter from the orphanage saying that I had a purpose for staying longer and I wasn’t taking away any Zambian jobs, etc. Helen called up Rachel at CABC to see if they had the said letter we needed which they did. Before leaving that part of the city we set off to one of the pharmacies for Helen to pick up more malaria courses, cough medicine, and some eye drops. I’ve been in many African markets, but the smell of that street beat them all! The usual breathe through your mouth not your nose method wasn’t helping this time!! J Then off we went to CABC which is back towards the river (the river divides the villages from the city). When we got there Rachel had printed the letter and then copied my other page. We were all set except for a signature from Pastor Mukuka, the director of Faith Children’s Village. We What’sApped (it’s an app for calling and messaging used by many here in Zambia) him and he said he was heading to Kitwe around noon and would stop by CABC to sign the letter. Helen and I left the letter with Rachel and headed out to grab a bite to eat from a “fast food” restaurant called Nandos. It’s popular in South Africa and has been brought to Zambia. I say “fast food” because the fast food culture is different here… you probably guessed that lol. The food is still somewhat fast but most people don’t rush in and out, at least not at all like back home. I had a chicken and veggie filled pita with a Coke and Helen had a chicken sandwhich. We did some shopping in the mall (the mall here is mostly the two main grocery stores as well as phone companies, banks, and then some clothing stores) and then headed out to another pharmacy to purchase mosquito nets. We couldn’t rush back to immigration anyways because they closed at 1 for lunch and didn’t reopen until 2. At this point it was nearing 2 so we went back to CABC to pick up the letter. Pastor Mukuka had signed it and we were getting ready to leave when I realized that everything on the letter said FCV except for the first line of text which still said Central Africa Bible College and Seminary. I hopped out of the car and ran back in to ask Rachel if it needed to be changed. She groaned and said yes. Now our problem was the wrong document was signed… we tried a couple of quick things to transfer the signature to no avail when Ben (I think… still learning names at the college) another of the American teachers, came in to make copies. He asked what the problem was and then said… Oh just cut it out and then tape it on the new one. When we did and it came out with a distinct edge around the signature he quickly put it back on the copier, pushed down on the top of the copier, and hit print. Ta da!! Success. On our way back to immigration, we got pulled over because they claimed Helen didn’t come to a complete stop at an intersection. If any of  you have ever ridden/driven in a city in a third-world country you know that this is the least of your concerns… There’s no light at this intersection and when Helen went back later in the week she looked and there’s not even a stop sign. Welcome to traffic enforcement! So we picked up the police woman and headed for the police station to pay whatever fine they were going to give us. On our way Helen asked if she could drop me off at immigration before heading to the station to which the officer agreed. Thankfully. I was dropped off, given more paperwork to fill out, and then asked to wait, while the workers talked and played Solitaire on their phones J A little while later Helen pulled in and told me that they had dropped the fine after the first officer had tried to charge her 45 USD and then lowered it to 30 USD if Helen would just give it to her instead of going into the station. Thankfully the boss man at the station just gave her a warning instead. They finally got around to processing my paperwork (it’s kinda like the DMV here!!) and then proceeded to ask me all of the questions like: Where is this orphanage? How many kids are there? How many of them live with you? What do you do there? Are you married? What kids do you target? Only the vulnerable? Etc. Finally with extended visa in hand we left to go back to the mall and buy our groceries. We split up because I was on the hunt for some shampoo and conditioner that was a good price and then met back up at the little ice cream shop. This time they had pretty normal flavors. When Andrew and I were here in September some of the flavors included Olive Oil and Pistachio that looked really really green. But we got little cups and when we finished up finally hit the road. We picked up our pastor and his wife and baby who were just coming back from the hospital to give them a lift back to the village. That was Monday J By the time we got home we were ready for an early supper, bucket shower, and bed!

The Saturday before when we went into town we went to visit our Pastor’s wife and son in the hospital. Hessed had gotten malaria and hadn’t responded to the medication so he had been taken into the hospital (he’s about 1 or 2) and then while there with him Bana Jecholiah (Bana means mother of, so Bana Jecholiah is the mother of Jecholiah, it’s the typical way of referring to adults here; Ba means father of) had gotten malaria because they leave the windows open to let air flow which consequently lets mosquitoes in. We had also given Pastor Royce (grade 7 teacher whose sister in law had passed away the week we were supposed to begin school) a ride to the compound (think somewhat ghetto, like houses squished together made of mud brick and walls around the little yards yet with no doors and very little space) where Sam, the sister in laws son, who is now living with Pastor Royce and his family, still had some clothes and belongings that needed to be picked up. For coming out of a place like that and losing his mom not long ago, that kiddo has the biggest smile and is always cheerful!! After visiting the hospital we went to the store and then as we were pulling out there was a loud sound that was one of those what-is-that-noise-something-isn’t-right sounds coming from the car. Pastor Edward hopped out to see what it was and pulled out one of the left front tires brake pad calibers (from what they said, it’s the rod that holds the brake pads in place… and there are two of them). It was bent almost in a 90 degree angle. The road home to Kakolo is no place to not have brakes so we headed to Uncle Charles’ house. The mechanic for all of the college vehicles as well as the maintenance guy for FCV (even though he lives in Kitwe). We pulled in, thanking the Lord that he was home, and then all 7 of us (a lady from church who wanted to visit Bana Jecholiah, Pastor Edward, Pastor Royce, and two of the deacons at church Swennet and Emmanuel, Helen, and myself) were invited inside where his wife asked if she could get us anything, chatted for a minute, turned on the tv for us, and went back to her Saturday cleaning. I don’t know what channel she turned to, but it was the end of some movie or show about military families in the U.S. and it ended with the funeral of one of the families husbands and dads and the 21 gun salute. It was surprising to see it in Zambia! Then they all started asking questions about the army, the differences between the branches, if I knew anyone in the army, if I knew anyone who had died in the army, how the whole system worked, if they allowed females in the army, etc. And not long after Uncle Charles came in saying that the caliber was fixed and we could head home.

If I thought everyone was down with malaria during the last post, I was in for a surprise! We’ve had at least one person with malaria in each of the 8 houses for kids, not including dorm kids that have been sick, and then adults. People at church said that half the village has malaria.

I know this update is a bit late and that kinda goes with the title of last weeks post… semper gumby. I usually try to go in to English Bible Study at Kitwe Church on Wednesday nights and can use wifi to post updates while there; however, this week the car I usually ride in on (the one that goes to pick up the grade 10-12s from the city school) had broken down, and no one else was going in. It worked out though because another teacher from school was having some health problems and went into the hospital so I was able to cover for her Thursday and Friday which would have been much tougher to do if I had been in town Wednesday night. God is in control! Hopefully I’ll be able to post this next week!

So I got to sub for grade 3 the past two days and that has been a blast! As well as moving around to teach little bits of time in my normal class as well as the grade 7s. I’ve been excited to see the little bits of progress so far!

Thanks for your prayers! Pray for salvation of the kids, there are several who seem to have no desire at all for God or His Word as well as 4 new children welcomed to FCV who more than likely don’t know much about God. Please also pray for Helen right now, she has the flu. Please pray that those who are sick with malaria would recover quickly and that the medicine I’m taking to keep me from getting it would be effective! Thanks again!

Semper Gumby

So maybe you're wondering what this means :) It's not original... I can't take credit for it, but it was always Pastor Harry's motto for us in high school when we would go on missions trips and I've found that it's really a good motto for life. Semper Gumby - Always Flexible! (If you don't know who Gumby is... look him up :D ) When interacting with those from another culture or even your own culture, many times things happen that weren't expected, and we can both encourage and show kindness by being flexible and not allowing circumstances to steal our joy.

I'm thankful for this training when I was in high school because now it comes to mind often! Many things have not happened as planned and that's ok! First off, school schedules! So originally I was going to have Thursdays to go into town and get a little bit of internet time and go to the store for whatever was needed. A while ago, BC's mission board told him that he needed to have a day off of school to be able to keep doing everything he was doing: teaching, being the administrator, being a house dad, teaching English at the government school on occasion and being willing to tutor anyone in English whenever available. Since then, our pastor, Pastor Edward, has taught on Thursdays for him. However, Pastor Edward has been doing distance education classes and this is his year for their equivalent of student teaching. He came to BC last week and said that he didn't think he could handle teaching on Thursdays as well for this year. Well God is good, because he brought me here the year that BC needed someone to continue to teach for him on Thursdays. He has also shown His goodness in working it out so that I could still go into town Wednesday afternoons after school to get internet and charge up my battery (rainy season lends itself to a lack of solar power), hit up the store, and go to the English Bible Study at Kitwe Church. I was hoping to do this and then spend Thursday at the college, but the way it works out, one teacher will have my class for the first two periods on Thursday which means I don't have to get back to Amano at 6:30 am, but I can catch a ride in with Dr. Day and his family when they come out to FCV at 9:00 am for their clinic hours. I never would have planned it this way, but I am so excited for extra time with the kids in class as well as the ability to still get to an English Bible study.

My school schedule is also like this :) Many times lessons prepared for Monday get taught Thursday or the following week or not at all :) And we just go with it. There is so much the kids don't know; for instance, growing up in the states I had access to many many books; I had exposure. Many of these kids especially in the village don't see a book unless they come to FCV. Even the government school doesn't have textbooks or a library or much of anything. Books here are expensive. But also, many times growing up I had the opportunity to experience things simply because I was born in America. Like going to the aquarium and actually getting to hold a horseshoe crab... granted they terrified me as a child... but I still had the experience. Here there aren't too many opportunities like that especially for those living in the outlying villages. Our goal with our grade 4-6 students this year is to have some kind of thematic unit that is tied into English, reading, vocabulary, Bible, art, and even some music! We've planned to do an ocean theme for Term 1, an outer space theme for Term 2, and still toying around with what to do for Term 3, but thinking about a Medieval theme. I'm so excited to be a  part of this work. The kids love it!

I also have an opportunity to work with the grade 7s. I can't remember what I've already said about them, so I apologize if I'm repeating myself, but they are at the English level of many of our grade 3 or 4 students. There are 4 of them that have just come to our school for this year. They've actually already passed the government testing for grade 7 but they don't know much English at all. Almost everyday I play "catchphrase" with them... well, kind of. We have old Pictionary cards which I use to give clues about vocabulary words and they try to guess the word. If it's a word they have no reference for at all, I write it on the board, and we look it up in the dictionary. (They have big picture dictionaries). We look it up, talk about it with the interpreter, look at any pictures that are with it, talk about what part of speech it is, etc. and then later I'll ask that same clue again. For every word they get right, they get to hold on to the card. At the end of the game, whoever has the most cards gets a sticker!! :D Candy in a treasure box is to an American student what stickers are for an African student!! They love them!! I'm so thankful for the opportunity to work with these 4 kids! They're working hard and I'm excited to see how they progress in their English.

Thank you for your prayers!
Please continue to pray for those children who are unsaved.
For those coming down with malaria... it seems like at least 1 or 2 a day
For wisdom for BC with teacher observations and administrative tasks
For grace as I try to learn some Bemba :D
For our Bible study with the girls in the dorm. Helen is leading and we're going through John. It's been a blessing to connect with the girls on this level and get to know them better :)

Week 2 of School

Week 2 of School

I thought about entitling this post When Malaria Strikes. It seems like just about everyone is getting malaria. The mosquitoes are out in abundance due to the rain leaving large puddles that never really soak in. Every time it rains, it kills them off for about a day but any time there’s a couple of days between rains they’re out in full force. The other challenge here is screening, none of the windows have it and because of the heat, everyone’s windows are open. I asked Helen about this last night remembering that in Ghana we had screens on the windows that really helped. So I asked if it was the cost or something else. She said it was the way the windows here are built. It’s almost impossible to put screen up. There are two parts to windows here, the first is a set up metal rebars moving horizontally, usually with about half a foot between each one, the whole length of the window and then the second part is glass panes that open and close by a metal latch that latches to the metal rebars. So if you try to put screen on the inside you wouldn’t be able to get to the latch to open the windows and if you put it on the outside you would rip it when you opened the window. If you tried to put it in the middle it would rip when you tried to latch the window closed… so yeah… that’s why there’s no screen. That being said… I really don’t enjoy opening my windows for the awaiting world of bugs and insects to enter J Thankfully that’s why we have mosquito nets to sleep under, spray that we apply to the windows before we go to bed to keep them from coming through the places where the windows won’t close all the way, and little burners that give off a repellent as well. I also have been taking weekly preventative malaria pills so we’re hoping I don’t have to worry about that.

BC and some of his boys are battling it right now. This made school interesting yesterday (January 25^th). Teaching schedules here aren’t like teaching in the states. If someone is out for something someone else just covers for them. So I ended up teaching English to the grade 7s twice instead of only once and only had about 20 min with my class to give their Geography quiz and work on our English lesson. It’s amazing what you can do in 20 minutes!! And grade 7 can’t really get enough English so it was no trouble. This year Amano has brought in 9 new kids from the surrounding village of Kakolo. 5 of them are younger kids in grades 1 and 2, but 4 of them are in grade 7. They all passed their grade 7 examinations (which is a big deal, what we would call high-stakes testing doesn’t hold a candle to these high-stakes tests because they determine if the student is allowed to continue their education, and they have these tests at the end of grade 7, grade 9, and then finally in grade 12). So while they passed those tests they really can’t speak a bit of English and only 1 of them can read. We’re using our material for our low group in the other class for these grade 7s and it’s still a struggle for them. But we have fun while learning and their laughs are enough to put a smile on anyone’s face as they do their best to pronounce the new words correctly despite their difficulty with our many varied vowel sounds. To start class we basically play Catch Phrase only there’s only one team and I’m always the one giving the clues for them to guess the word. We use a stack of old Pictionary cards and if they get the word then they get the card. Whoever has the most cards at the end gets two stickers. (this is really all the motivation they need J) We show them pictures of things that they might not understand but try to use definitions and explanations for the words that come from their context. One of the biggest differences between teaching in America and teaching in any third world country is exposure. We’ve been exposed to so much and have so much information at our fingertips, while many of these children come from homes that maybe have one book. The village school doesn’t even have textbooks, hence these 4 students who passed their grade 7 exams but can’t read and don’t know English. I’m excited that they’ve made the choice to redo grade 7 here at Amano in hopes of learning English.

Along the lines of the testing, the students here at FCV that finished grade 12 last year just received their exam results yesterday. All of them passed except for two. One of the girls will only have to rewrite for one portion of the test (which means she passed the other 7 portions) and the other will only have to rewrite 2 portions, but she has already moved on from FCV and I’m not sure whether she will rewrite or not. So last night at devos with the older girls was a time of rejoicing with them on a job well done and multiple phones ringing with their friends calling to say that they had passed as well or to ask how the girls did. Helen baked them a cake and the excitement is contagious. In an education system that is pretty warped being able to pass without bribing anyone and being able to understand the English that the tests are written in (they’re written by non-native English speakers) is tough.

Prayer Requests:

• FCV is facing a lot of decisions right now; I don’t know the extent of that request but Helen has asked that we pray for wisdom
• For BC and his boys to recover quickly from malaria (Medias, one of his boys, had cerebral malaria a couple years ago and almost died from it, now when he gets malaria, instead of the typical symptoms, of fever and stomach ache, he has seizures. He’s one of the ones who is sick with it now and your prayers for a quick recovery for him would be much appreciated!)
• For me as I continue to figure out teaching in a new culture.
• CABC is starting classes next week so pray that they get off to a good start.
• Again, please continue to pray for many of the children who aren’t yet believers. They’ve heard the Gospel so much, pray that God would help them to realize that just because they act right most of the time doesn’t mean that they are good and without sin.

Thank you so much for your prayers and support!!

God is good all the time!

All in a Week

Sunday: Helen bikes out to a neighboring village every Sunday for a small time of Bible study with some of the ladies and then a morning service. The week before she had offered for me to go with because her other bike would be fixed by then. (I think it needed new brakes; for which I was very thankful for!!). So we set out around 8:30. I wasn’t quite sure what neighboring village meant, but I soon found out that it meant quite a distance for a biker. It was about a 7-8 mile roundtrip. Now before you think, “That’s not too bad.” Just remember that these are Zambian “roads/paths” we’re biking down and we’re both wearing trousers under our long skirts. ;) Needless to say, a week later I’m still recovering from that workout. Long gone are the days of church family picnics when my friends and I would ride our bikes all over James Island County Park for hours on end!! But the Lord was good! Despite the struggle it was, we made it to Chantente in plenty of time for the services. The way back was a little bit more tricky. The sun had come out, and earlier we had realized that we hadn’t brought as much water as we should have. Thankfully Helen had advised bringing a snack and I had packed some ground nuts (peanuts) in my bag. We made it home riding for half the time and walking for the really tough parts (I wish I could show you the paths… many times it was narrow on either side with a sort of ditch right down the middle because of the rainy season). I’ve never been more excited about a cold shower! We rested for the rest of the day, made some biscuits and tea and relaxed.

Monday was the beginning of the school year!! It has been such a joy and blessing to be here teaching! Learning styles are completely different, and many of my students while they are learning English still need help with directions. Thankfully we have a wonderful interpreter! Mumba interprets just about every direction we give as well as parts of lessons that aren’t specifically vocab or reading; I’m not sure how we’d manage without him. He is in his gap year. Because the school year here is year round, when students write for their senior year final exams in November, they don’t find out their results until February which is too late to enroll in university. So usually two of the older kids at FCV will come to Amano for a year and help 1 with the older and 1 with the younger. This year Mumba and his sister Nancy are both helping!

Teaching wise my week was very focused on vocabulary, small group reading lessons, geography, shapes, and art! It’s been a joy to see the differing ways the children learn as well as different ways to help those who are struggling. It’s also amazing to work with a team of teachers! Because our classes are combined (4-6) we have several teachers who come in at different times to teach. So one of the teachers works on specific math skills with them and then BC will also teach some kind of math lesson as well. The 7^th grade teacher comes down to teach science and social studies during last hour while BC and I go to the 7^th graders to work on English and vocab. It’s a healthy teaching atmosphere and I am so blessed to be working alongside of these people! I’m learning so many things, so many teaching strategies and I’m pumped!

I also was able to meet and work with Tori a dear friend to so many I'm working with now who used to teach at the Christian school in Riverside (Kitwe right across the bridge) and then was their administrator, from there she then taught at CABC for a little while and then due to sickness had to leave the field and return to the states. She is currently living up in New Hampshire... I think, with her husband and working as the assistant principle at their churches Christian school. Her advice and input about life in Zambia and teaching students of a different culture was so insightful! I felt as though I was in teacher-in-service for our several chats around Helen's kitchen table. What a blessing it was to hear and learn from her experiences :)

Teaching and Prayer Requests

Before leaving people would ask what I was teaching and I had some ideas about where they would use me, but this is also Africa and sometimes you can’t really plan things out J For this school year, I’ll be co-teaching grades 4-6. I will be teaching them Geography, Handwriting/Penmanship, Critical Thinking Skills, Art, as well as working through some short reading passages to introduce new vocabulary. I’ll also work with some of the grade 6 students on writing. My week will look a little odd because some days I will stay after school to help students who want or need additional help with homework or more practice with English and reading.

Due to an unforeseen circumstance, I will have a classroom that I can use when we split the grades up! It wouldn’t have been a big deal if it hadn’t been available, but I am thankful for the little things like some space for the grade 6 students to work on writing with less distraction!

Because I am co-teaching with the administrator, I will have Thursday off. This will give me prep time for Friday’s art project as well as the opportunity to go into town Wednesday evening for an English Bible study through Kitwe Church and get some internet time to post these updates!!

I am excited about the opportunities God has given so far and am pumped for Term 1 to begin. Please pray for the students. Most of the students are children living at Faith Children’s Village, others are children from church families, and several are children coming in from the village.

Please pray:

1. That the FCV children would grow in their relationship with God through Christian education if they are believers, and if they are not, that God would show them their need of His redeeming work in their lives. It is interesting to me the similarities of children in the states who have grown up knowing about God and children here who have grown up knowing about God. Both can act the Christian life without ever internalizing it. So pray that souls would be saved.
2. That the village children being brought in who are hearing the Gospel some maybe for the first time would recognize their need of a Savior!
3. The teachers, especially Gloria and her family as she is still grieving the loss of her sister and taking over the responsibilities of one of her nephews.
4. Rachel, the administrative assistant at CABC (Central Africa Baptist College), who returned to Zambia after being able to go home to the States for Christmas. She’s gotten sick with some throat related sickness, possibly strep. She’s on antibiotics and pain meds but teacher in-service at the college has begun and she feels like she needs to be at work. Pray that she would get over this sickness soon!
5. That I would get on a normal sleeping schedule. Right now, (Thursday Jan 12) I’ve only slept through the night twice. I’m hoping the routine of school will help.
6. With several children moving on from FCV, two new children have applied and are being brought in. Their names are Stephanie and Emmanuel Kafunga. Both are in need of full support (all children here at the village are supported through churches or families in the States).

Thank you all so much for your prayers and support!!

God is good all the time!

1

Getting Settled

Getting Settled

Saturday: God gave a smooth trip from South Africa for which I am so very thankful! My bags were a little heavier than the limit for the second airline I flew with, but the lady at the baggage desk was very helpful and when I told my aunt how much I had to pay in Rand (South African currency) she said that it was very reasonable. I was also a little concerned about the solar generator I was bringing along. In the U.S., they ran a check on it and then let it through, but I wasn’t sure how it would do getting through security in South Africa. I was prepared for my bag to be flagged and I opened it for the tsa officer. She asked me what it was, I told her a solar charger. I wasn’t prepared for her response! She replied with a, “Oh, nice!” and sent me right along like she’d seen one of those every day of work. When I told my aunt about it she replied, “Africa understands Africa.” J

When I landed in Ndola the administrator of the school (Mr. Cameon also known as BC) and Helen, the nurse I’m staying with, were there along with Paul, one of the grade 9 students. They helped me load up my bags, and we were off! We made a couple stops which allowed me to get to an ATM and pick up some things that I had not packed due to weight restrictions. We also stopped at the futbol stadium right outside of Ndola to meet a man selling a specific kind of chicken that BC wanted and was also picking up for another of the orphanage houses. Then we stopped at a little nursery and picked up some fruit trees. All in all, a profitable day! We got back to the house and I was able to get mostly unpacked.

Sunday: Church was a blessing! I am thankful for the Pastor’s use of English throughout his sermon! After church, I talked with BC more about what I would be teaching for the first week of school so I could get some things ready. For now, I’ll be teaching handwriting, geography, and vocabulary. As I was getting finished up with working on the Geography lesson, Helen made it home from the business meeting and informed me that one of the teachers at the school’s sister had passed away. The sister had been sick for some time now, but it was still somewhat unexpected. She had told some of the ladies she would drive them into town to the funeral home (a home of one of the deceased’s relatives) and was getting ready to leave. BC came over and told the two ladies (teachers) that were at the house and myself that because of all the uncertainty of when the funeral would be and those who were so close to the family being teachers, that we would postpone the start of school until the 16^th of January. This doesn’t put us behind because it is when the government school starts their term. Please pray for the families who are now taking on the responsibility of the children whose mother passed away. They are each going to an aunt or uncles home.

I am thankful for a longer time to adjust before school sets in! Had a fun time playing games with some of the girls yesterday and since school has been pushed back we’re planning to have quite a few kiddos over to the house this afternoon!

Thank you for your prayers.

Up Up and Away

And I'm off. I'm praising the Lord for safe travels so far. Left the U.S. Wednesday evening via Charleston to Atlanta to Johannesburg, and now I am chilling for a bit at my aunt and uncles.

The flights were both smooth. I had a window seat for both!! (two thumbs up) and was able to sleep most of the way there. I was also thankful that my plane landed early enough in the evening that the passport line was moving quickly (waited for about 3 hours in that line coming through on the survey trip). It was such a blessing to get through in about 10 minutes!!

The interesting part came when I picked up my baggage. One of my bags handles had been bent or somehow messed up so the pull handle wouldn't budge. This might not have been a big deal in many other scenarios, but with making the move for a year I had completely maxed out my weight for 2 checked bags and 2 carry-ons... it was over 100 lbs. :D

I quickly tied my jacket around the broken handle (makeshift handle for the win), put one of my carry-ons on top of the other checked bag and set off for the exit... Yeah, I didn't make it too far and was definitely a sight :) I stopped once to switch hands and then an older gentleman who was a passenger asked if I could use a hand. He knew where the exit was I needed to get to and said he wasn't in a rush. As we talked briefly he asked me where I was from and he said that his wife has family in South Carolina!! Small world! He helped me find the exit and stayed with me til I found my aunt so I wasn't at the mercy of the taxis or want-to-be luggage helpers!

God is good all the time :) I've been rearranging some of the luggage after giving Aunt Tammy the things she had asked me to bring over. Didn't lose too much weight so we'll see how the next flight goes :) Heading out from South Africa around 8:00 am (Eastern time would be 1:00 am) to reach Ndola, Zambia around 11:00.

Thank you for your continued prayer support!