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 :)