BecInNam

Epidemic AIDS

2010-07-02T20:19:00.003-04:00

Some facts and depictions of the AIDS epidemic in Africa narrowing down to the Caprivi Region of Namibia, where Children of Zion Village (COZV) was started. COZV now cares for 58 children physically, emotionally, medically, nutritionally, and most importantly, spiritually. All pictures were taken in the villages where the the COZV kids came from.

Planet Earth

2010-06-21T12:15:00.009-04:00

Soooo I was playing with google earth a little too much recently and discovered you could make videos...and then I discovered I could upload a link to it and share it with the world! So anyway, if you are interested in seeing a lil satellite fly-in view of Children of Zion Village, Merry Christmas! :-) You can get to it by either clicking on the following link or pasting the url at the bottom of this post. Once you get to the page, simply find the black "Attachments" title (near the center) and click the first link below it (it will just be a bunch of numbers.kmz). That is the google earth video file.

The main building in the middle is the actual children's home with the middle part being the large central area and the 2 wings off the side being separate living areas for the boys and girls. The rest of the little pins around it are just a couple of key spots around the compound.

Please Note: You must have google earth in order to view this...sorry :-/

And Random Sidenote: I will be speaking at my church (First Baptist Church of Perryville, MD) about my trip this coming Sunday, June 27th, at 6:30 PM if anyone is interested. Directions can be mapquested at 4800 Pulaski Highway, Perryville, MD

Video Url:

http://bbs.keyhole.com/ubb/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=1343543&#Post1343543

AfricaTube

2010-06-18T16:15:00.003-04:00

New videos from this past year have finally been posted. Videos include a wide range of things; everything from what hippos and elephants sound like, to traditional and Kwaito dancing, to acapelo African youth choirs, to what bushman "clicks" sound like (Khwedam), to just kids being kids. You can view them by clicking here or on the link to the right. Click on the titles on the right to see more in those categories.

If the link doesn't work, copy and paste the following http://www.youtube.com/user/BCM2Thousand5#p/p

Mufasa Picasa

2010-06-02T23:15:00.005-04:00

I have finally posted pictures for anyone interested. Sorry it has taken so long, but in my own defense I had to sort through a whole year's worth--for me meaning 10,000 of them. Things such as Christmas, sports, traditional festivals, an African wedding, animals, girls nights, village visits, the Mafuta feeding center, the flood, travels, and, of course, the kids! All this and more can be found at my Picasa site. Enjoy :-)

If the above link doesn't work, copy and paste the following: http://picasaweb.google.com/103673567852941394636

O Yea, That...

2010-05-25T22:28:00.010-04:00

I made it home safe'n'sound bright'n'early Sunday morning and am now working on adjusting back to life on the other side of the Atlantic. Strangely enough it kinda feels like I never left...but there are those few exceptions where I am strongly reminded, "O yea, that..."

-Coffee shops. Surprise, surprise...Starbucks was the first thing I saw upon landing.
-Bagels. Yum.
-Pre-sliced Bread. Well, you can get it sliced, but you have to ask them to open it and do it for you once you buy it.
-Stoplights. What does red mean again?
-No sand in my shoes!
-Drinking water straight from a spicket.
-Flipping the light switch up to go on, not down. Why is it suddenly darker in here?
-Dishwashers. The plug in, electric type.
-Driving on the right hand side of the road...this is really going to get me in trouble. Aaaaand i keep turning on the windshield wipers when i want to turn...
-Not having to count the seconds I'm online. I love unlimited FAST access.
-Having to write today's date as 5/25/10 instead of 25/5/10. That will be a perpetual state on confusion for quite a while.
-The roads are huge. And they curve.
-Dryers. I prefer a string and some great African sunshine on this one.
-The washing machine doesn't give you a nice little medley to start off the washing.
-The microwave isn't narcoleptic...
-There isn't 'fresh' meat being sold along the side of the road.
-TV shows in their original language, not crudely translated from Spanish by the same 4 people.
-There is no bleach water to dip my dishes in when I'm done washing them...no matter how much I keep trying...
-Driving to town in a car. Sure beats a boat.
-Church only lasts for an hour...not hourS.
-Amish Buggies...something that really should be in Africa. But I guess donkeys are close enough.
-Street Names. There is more than one in each town aaaand its not Hage Geingob St.
-Waking up to the sound of silence. Deafening actually...I'm a little too used to Petro? :-P

But on a more serious note, I don't even know where to begin in expressing my gratitude and thanks toward those who made this last year of my life possible; and I know there are alot of you. Whether it was the daily prayers, the notes of encouragement, keeping in touch, or supporting me financially (or d. all of the above); all played a cumulative role in making the last year of my life my biggest adventure yet. I miss the kids, the staff, and life there like craaazy! They were all my extended family and home away from home. But anything good that came of my time there was a team effort led by God, not anything I could have ever done on my own. So for that, thank you all for letting me be a part of what God is doing around the world!

Quintupled

2010-05-21T04:49:00.001-04:00

The constant decibel level in the children's home has quintupled overnight as the first lot of kids were brought back yesterday from their villages. With every one that Jenny and I picked up yesterday, the van got louder and louder with more and more stories and more and more laughter as they quickly picked out who had gotten chicken pox and who hadn't...yet. So with 14 more kids in the home, all with 14,000 stories to tell, its no wonder. They all had a very nice holiday and can't wait to go back in December for the next one. "Wonderful, excellent, & too amazing to describe" were responses I heard alot of. Since it was harvest time during the holiday, they brought home and learned to cook many different traditional vegetables, milks, and nuts, all of which I can't prounce (me and bushman !clicks are not friends...). Many got to see friends and family they had not seen in a long time and some even meeting parents and siblings for the first time. Overall a very memorable and valuable experience for them all.

Pictured here is Beerina & Djolo (in greens) with their siblings & cousins.

Bones'N'Eyeballs

2010-05-18T11:50:00.003-04:00

Mafuta is a nearby village in which there is a feeding center that we provide food for. There are local volunteers who do the preparing of food, serving, and teach the preschool. Since Jessica has been gone on furlough, I've been the delivery/firewood girl and yesterday was my last day there. Shortly after they had made me do the final stirrings of pap (corn meal) for the kids (exhausting...seriously), a guy rode by on a bike selling tiny little fish. The largest was maybe 1 inch long and were N$1/cup. So the makuwas threw in N$5 for the experience on how they are prepared and, of course, a taste test :-)

First you separate out all the large (1 inch) ones from the small ones then put them in water a bit at a time and start squeezing handfuls to remove their innards. Then you sort through them and pull out any grass or large pieces of dirt. To cook them, they are all put into a pot together over an open fire and fried with oil. They are stirred for a while before finally getting mashed up and adding salt to taste.
The final outcome included everything from bones to eyeballs, but all eaten mashed onto a handful of pap. I have to say, I had my doubts, but it was extremely delicious and definitely worth the experience. Pictured above is me with the Mafuta volunteers enjoying our meal of pap and (tiny) fish.

Retirement!

2010-05-18T11:46:00.003-04:00

The boat has finally reached its long-overdue retirement...until next year anyway; Gilligan has escaped Zion Island via road!!! For the first time in more than 9 weeks, we have reached the tar road by something other than a boat!! The road is still not completely dry, or fixed, but is at least now passable by 4 wheel drive vehicles.

The 2.5 mile road is now visible, not knee deep at the shallowest part, the ponds have been reduced to large puddles, the largest holes have been filed with sand, and the large gullies have been filled in with bricks (only wide enough to pass one car of course, as you can see by the photo). And last but not least, the bridge was fixed yesterday making the road now fully "passable" for us at Zion, the end of the road. We had kept our truck on the inside during the flood and it can now get in and out, but I was also able to get one of our other vehicles back here with very little problem. Now getting our low-riding 14-seatbelt (but up to 30-some passenger) van back in may be another story, but all-in-all an excellent start towards normal travel once again.

Fish Are Food, Not Friends...

2010-05-16T08:27:00.006-04:00

Over the past several months Dave has been teaching the kids how to fish, especially the boys. There are many that are now excellent fishermen thanks to Daves work and many have enjoyed private tigerfish dinners thanks to Margaret's cooking as they celebrate their catch. But perhaps the best fisherman of them all (or the most lucky), is Muny. He has been away at his school for the deaf in Windhoek until recently, but save the last learner to be the best learner.

He has trumped them all in the biggest tigerfish caught (pictured right) and the first and only to nab a bubble fish (pictured above & helped by Albert just this morning). Yesterday alone he caught 3 large tigerfish, also a record for the number caught in one day by one person. Since so few are left in the children's home these days, he has reeled in a scrumptious dinner for everyone on several occassions. This bubblefish might even be enough for a couple of nights.

Nsala

2010-05-14T11:56:00.004-04:00

Earlier this week, the local news showed a small clip about a newborn baby, only 1 day old, that had been found abandoned in the bush here in Katima. And of course, not but a couple days later, we got the call about our newest addition!! So off Jenny and I went this morning to meet the social worker, the magistrate, and to collect her from the hospital. Since she had been living there since discovered by the police, the nurses were very sad to see her go. But she is now the youngest of Zion's very large family, one week old today, and weighing in at 6.8 lb and adorable. When we told Josiah (no longer the 'baby') that she was coming to stay in this crib, he looked at me and yelled "Liar!" before screaming his head off for the next half hour. Though the extremity of his antics funny, they are also due to the fact that, though the smallest, he has the chicken pox the worst of all and is an overall very unhappy boy these days.

Since such a public story was made about her case, we were asked several times if she was the one from the news when we seen with her in town. In addition, the Minister himself granted a nice donation towards clothes/supplies for her at the hospital and was given the honor of naming her. He did so after his own mother, Nsala.

Pox De La Chicken

2010-05-14T11:54:00.002-04:00

That's right, chicken pox. Did you really think things could get quiet, calm, and normal around here with only a few kids left?? Ha! :-) Now there are only a few who don't have the chicken pox. Starting with 2 of the young boys at the beginning of the month that are now gone, only 2 kids are left here who don't have it (yet...) and a few staff members. And all who do have it are large lovers of Calamine Lotion...so much so that they look like makuwas (white folk) before they are done applying it. Moses (pictured left), one of our most energetic staff members, is also the most proud wearer if his Makuwa face and daily welcomes each new person to the chicken pox club with open arms. We have heard of at least a few of the kids not here that now have it and we're sure there are/will be many more. It may be easier to count the ones that don't have it by the time they reach back to Zion.

O Yea...The Flood Thing

2010-05-02T10:38:00.002-04:00

O yea, the water started going down this weekend!! It's not going down so very quickly this time, but has at least started. Please pray it goes down quickly!

Klepto

2010-05-02T10:27:00.003-04:00

This ridiculous dog has become a very good guardian, friend, and source of entertainment for me over the past year. Though it is really Jessica's dog, she has been on loan to me as protection since I've been living alone most of my time here.

In short, this dog is quirky with a loyal superiority complex. She follows me everywhere, except she "follows" from about 20 feet in front of me. She is always looking back to make sure she's predicting correctly where I'll go next and, if I'm sitting in a room, she will jump up and race to the door at the first remote sign that I'm even considering getting up. If she needs to stop and scratch or pee along the way, she will do so, but will immediately stop as soon as I catch up to her and race ahead before continuing her business, just so long as I am never in front of her.

Kleptomaniac--an all too fitting name. I was with Jessica when she got this nice little border collie mix from Windhoek in the summer of 2008. She had several nice names picked out to try, but upon getting to know her better, Klepto soon replaced them all. There were 3 of us living in the house at the time and suddenly our things kept disappearing only reappear where they didn't belong. It only took a few times of Jessica asking me why in the world my socks were in her bedroom before the new name was final.

Now I say she "follows" me everywhere, but there are a few exceptions. Namely Cleo, Ginger, and the chickens. (Cleo & Ginger are cats...) Now, she is the fastest dog I've ever seen (she can run from the children's home to my front door in 11 seconds, if you are familiar with the compound), but she has only ever managed to catch a cat once...and she came out of the fight limping and bleeding. But nevertheless she continues to try. She has become quite the avid tree climber, but so good that her newest trick is to climb up onto the children's home roof. She then proceeds to chase the cat all over the roof, but still to no avail. From the inside, it just sound like Santa's reindeer are practicing their crash landing...

She also loves to chase other things, especially small children. Now this may sound horrible, but hear me out (don't worry, noone gets hurt). Out of all of them there is only 1 that hasn't quickly figured out that if they just stop running and stand still, she will bring her full-out running charge to a screeching halt right at their feet, then both parties just walk off. But this sheep-herding quirk of hers has more practical uses indoors. If I am in any room of the children's home, she will lunge at anyone who comes running down the hallway so as to stop them dead in their tracks...its actually been a quite effective policing tactic; they come to a screeching halt and she comes back into the room to wait for the next one.

I will really miss the protection and daily entertainment I get from this quirky dog, but maybe she will finally have time to master catching a cat? I'd hate to know what tops learning to run around on a roof...

And Then There Was One...

2010-05-02T10:22:00.005-04:00

Okay, really 14. The children's home is almost completely empty now as, for the first time, arrangements have been made for many of the children to be on an extended home visitation. It is currently a one-month school holiday and 43 of them are busy visiting with family and friends in their home villages. Even though these kids live here in the children's home, most still have aunts, uncles, grandparents, and some even a parent, that they can go to to visit, but that can't financially support them full time. The kids were very much excited for this opportunity to be reunited with friends and family that many haven't seen in years and certainly not for this length of time. There are even some that are getting to meet family they have either never met before or never knew they had.

There are several that are welcoming this opportunity to take their relationship with Christ back to their villages. Most of these kids had never heard of Christ upon first coming here to Zion, but now many are on fire for Him. There is one young teenager who has had a particular heart for her two older sisters that remained in the village when she was brought here. In one of her past shorter visitations, she was able to lead one of her sisters to share her faith in Christ. It was only a while later that this sister then passed away, but now both find comfort knowing they will meet again someday. She expressed to me that she wants very much to lead her other sister to faith in Christ during this visitation. Please pray that this young girl finds both the courage and opportunity to do so and that the sister has an open heart to receive her words. Pray also for the others that wish to take this opportunity to share about their heavenly relationship with their friends and family.

Meanwhile, back on the Zambezi, things have never been so quiet--or empty. Several of the kids have their whole bedroom to themselves and there is a whole lot less fighting over who gets the leftovers :-) It will be hard to keep them 'un-bored' during the coming weeks, but Dave has been teaching the boys how to fix the boat and they are all now all the way up to season 3 (in only a week) of their newest television addiction--LOST. Today we had a modified church service surrounding a fellowship lunch with all the volunteers and staff that were working today. The staff cooked a chicken, pumpkin, and potato salad meal while Margaret & I made some desserts and we all fit around one large table setting for a nice Sunday meal. I spoke this morning about one-on-one fellowship with God. Pray that those left might be able to use this rare opportunity of a few quiet weeks to deepen their relationship with Him.

Figures...

2010-04-19T12:20:00.001-04:00

Just when Gilligan had sighted hopes of escaping Zion Island via road, more flooding hit the headlines; there is a second wave well on its way. Despite the water already flooding our walkways again, there are at least rumors that it won't hit the eastern Caprivi (our region) as bad as before or as bad as the western Caprivi. We barely got by with the height of the last flood in respects to not having to evacuate, but we have yet to see how high this new one will come. Please be praying that it doesn't rise so much and starts going back down quickly. Also continue praying that the boat remains in top functioning order since its much-needed vacation is not even in sight yet.

Please be in prayer for the entire Caprivi Region, particularly the western portion. We have actually been quite fortunate right where we are despite being an island. There have been at least 10,500 people relocated due to this last wave of flooding, but with the predictions of this next wave being record breaking for the western Caprivi, that number will soon spike. Pray for provision physically, emotionally, financially, and spiritually during this very wet time.

Pictured above is a relocated village living out of tents and tarps just outside Katima.

Last Holiday

2010-04-11T11:39:00.001-04:00

I was watching this movie the other night; it left me with a sharp conviction and I felt led to share it...

I believe there comes a time in everyone's life when they realize that it's length is dream; they are suddenly snapped into its brutal reality called 'short.' Everyone has varying thresholds to the onset of this stark reality. It could be the death of a family member--sibling, parent, grandparent--a close friend, a classmate. Or maybe a personal tradgedy, to either yourself or someone you love, a natural disaster, watching your kids grow up before your very eyes or so many others. It only really happens once before you are reminded an infinite number of times. But all leave you with the same question--what am I really living for??

In a twisted way I feel incredibly blessed to have stumbled upon this question at such a young age. For me it came with the personal tragedy of losing my leg, but not just that, the overwhelming report that I should not have lived. I was supposed to have bled to death except for an artery in that leg that I never knew I was born without. God had it all in his perfect plan, for many reasons of course, but the most important personally was to force me to come to peace with the fact that I could have died, right then and there, at age 16--no drivers license, no big senior year of high school, no college life with all of its own experiences. Nothing.

But there is something perplexing and magical about not dying when you are "supposed to" that is permanently engrained in your mind and screams "Live! Really Live!!" For me this is where God really took ahold of the steering wheel in my life. There was one night in the hospital I was feeling particularly discouraged and one of my doctors ended up sitting beside me on my hospital bed with two very clear messages. The first was this, "Blossom where you are planted." And she stressed that it started right there in that hospital room despite the fact I couldn't even get out of bed. God had planted me there as well as divinely planted every doctor and nurse that walked through that door, and I was to get going on blossoming for Him. But the second thing was that all pain that we as humans experience can be used to bless someone else, if we choose. Pain is something one only understands by experience, obviously, but it is also a specific tool that can be used by God to fuel compassion and understanding of others in similar pain.

Now its one thing to realize that the length of life is a dream, but it's another in what is done with it. I promised God that day that I would never take advantage of another step or breath or opportunity to share His name, but guess what? I have. I'm one of those crazy sinners He created, BUT, lucky for me, He is also a crazy awesome forgiver.

In the end, it doesn't matter what "livng everyday to it's fullest" means to you--that's up to God. But it is our responsibility to do it, whether its in a hospital bed, an office chair, on the moon, in a classroom, at the grocery store, etc. None is greater than another in God's eyes as long as it is to the fullest.

Baby's 1st Boat Ride

2010-04-06T14:07:00.002-04:00

Ok, and mine too...solo driving anyway. With the multitudinous trips that Dave has to take in the boat (seeing as it's the only means of transport for 80-some people) he decided it was time to gve himself a break and teach me to drive to town when I needed to...starting today. Well, what he failed to mention was that on my first solo boat run I'd be bringing back a 26 HOUR old infant! But don't worry, we made it back safe and sound. Fortune, the principal of our mission school, just had a new baby girl added to his family yesterday morning. Dave had to rush the wife into town yesterday at 6:30am, just a few hours before she gave birth (maybe that's what did him in :-P). Margaret and I have been fearfully reading up on how to deliver babies incase the wee one had bad timing (its danergous to take the boat out at night). Needless to say we're more than relieved we didn't have to! But all's well that ends well. Mother, baby, and family are all back home safe and sound.

And as for our other "baby's" first boat experience? Well...he's now almost 2, but Little Mr. Adventure loved it. He wasn't in the boat hardly minute before the exact words out of his mouth were, "Uncle David, I Want to Drive the Boat..."

Blessed

2010-04-04T11:38:00.003-04:00

I have been extremely blessed thus far in my African adventures. It has been clear to me many times that people are continuing to pray for me day in and day out even after I've been gone for so long. It is often at the most random times, especially when I'm not asking for it, that I feel God's presence with me and I know it is because someone is praying. This reminds me that I can't be over here on my own--I need that prayer support. Anything good that comes of me being here is thus a team effort led by God, not anything I could ever do on my own.

What I've also greatly appreciated is all the financial support that has been so generously given. Since I first raised support before I arrived, it has graciously carried me all the way up until now. But I am now lacking some to get me through these last 2 months. I would humbly ask you to pray if God is leading you to donate any additional financial support. I still feel very confident that He has led me here and aim to continue through my final weeks, but I can't do so alone.

If you feel God calling you to do so, you may send it to the following address with my name in the memo:

Children of Zion, Inc.

P.O. Box 413

Churchville, MD 21028

Thanks again for both your prayer and financial support. Even if you are not called to support further financially, I ask that you continue your prayer support as that is by far my most vital need. Although I could never repay all I've been given, be encouraged by God's short and simple promise--"I (God) will bless those who bless you," Genesis 12:3. Thank you for being both a blessing and a part of my ministry here in Namibia!

Just Like That

2010-03-29T14:30:00.007-04:00

I really should post more prayer requests on this blog because thus far almost every single one of them has been answered within a day or two of me finally posting them. God's just cool like that...just like this rainbow that just popped up over the river on our way home tonight...but much more so ;-) But anyway, I'll start this one with a couple of praises before I get to the irony and thus another prayer post. Sarah and I got out safely this morning (#1), and even in our own boat (#1.5) since it had to be taken to town to get fixed...and it did! The boat was fixed today (#2)! BUT the vehicle I didn't take (#3.7) to Zambia today broke (next prayer up to bat); right after the boat got fixed, of course. So that's next up on the list of prayers for whoever is the prayer warrior responsible for all these next-day air to Africa prayer answers ;-)

ok so I just spent a halfhour trying to upload this crazy (but beautiful) picture of the rainbow over the river that appeared today, but African internet has decided to take a vacation to Cuba...sorry.

this just in...the internet has returned from Cuba...

Party Animals

2010-03-28T11:30:00.006-04:00

Katima continued to celebrate its national birthday even this weekend. Yesterday there was a large festival in town commemorating their 20th birthday with traditional dances and such in the morning (so i hear, and so i saw being cleaned up) and then in the afternoon there was a soccer game by some of our boys. Sarah and I took Mona in for her own birthday festivities and we were even able to convince/conn an official to give the 2 white representatives free tshirts and super cool visors that were meant only for performers. Two of our boys, Goty and Petro, have been selected from among the regional club teams to represent the Caprivi region in the Coca-Cola Cup coming up next weekend in Windhoek and they played a pre-game against Zambia at the festival yesterday and won. This will be a nationally televised event and a great honor for our boys to be a part of--and of course they are both only a little more than stoked.

Speaking of competing, the Namibian national track and field event was held this weekend also. Unfortunately Goty found out at the last minute that he didn't actually qualify to compete and only by seconds, but at least this way he was around to qualify for the Coca-Cola Cup. But also at the last minute, literally 15 minutes before closing time the night before she was to leave, Lisedi got all the paperwork she needed and was able to go! But the biggest news lies with Djolo. He received the bronze medal in his national competition. He is officially the 3rd fastest runner of the 200 m race in all of Namibia (for the Under 15 age category)!! We are still waiting to hear if his time will qualify him to go any further, but this excitment is enough for now.

In other news, there is a big prayer need from Gilligan's Island. The boat broke this morning. It is running only on 1 cylinder and stalls whenever you go to put it in gear and thus is 92 % nonfunctional. Dave has spent all day trying to fix it, but to no avail thus far. He was able to arrange for some boat fixers to come tomorrow, but please pray that it can be fixed quickly. He was also able to arrange a ride to town in a neighbor's boat for Sarah and I since I have to take her to the airport early tomorrow, but we have had to cancel school since we can't get the teachers here. Even things like food can only get picked up by boat.
Pictured here is Margaret (Dave's wife), Lorna (newcoming director), and myself bailing out the boat after too much rain a few weeks ago. Dogbowls have many uses here along the Zambezi ;-)

Phone Outage

2010-03-26T09:23:00.001-04:00

This announcement is only a few days late, but better late than never. As of now, we will NOT be evacuating this year!!!! (knock on wood). And its all due to a phone outage...and answered prayers of course. Last Friday we were mandated by the regional counciler to evacuate, but Friday night the phones went out and were out until Saturday night. We thus didn't have a way to finalize our evacuation location. But also starting Friday night, the rising water levels slowed drastically to the point that by the end of the weekend it had even stopped rising! At this point we decided to use the phone outage as a nice excuse to delay the orders to evacuate. When he was talked to again on Tuesday, he agreed that we did not have to evacuate immediately. And since the waters have continued to not rise--and even went down just a little--I dont think we will be evacuating. We are of course still having to function as an island and go everywhere by boat, but at least we are still here...all thanks to a phone outage (and answered prayers!) :-)

Fish are Friends, Not Food...

2010-03-21T10:47:00.003-04:00

The waters have slowed (answered prayers!!), but have not yet stopped. Now it is rising maybe only an inch or 2 per day at most and the majority of the effects now are seen as the water is filling in the little valleys throughout the compound. There is not yet water in any of the buildings (except for the one staff house just outside the compound, pictured below), but it is less than 20 feet from my front door. The river/puddles/ponds/water (whichever you prefer) is currently knee-deep and full of fish in some of the common walking paths are there is no way around it. The garden is now full of water and creeping up from the back, non-river, side of the children's home, which is flooding our septic systems (another prayer request).

We have officially been mandated by the regional counciler to evacuate the property and weer going to do so today, but, due to an opportune phone outage from Friday night till Saturday night, we were unable to finalize an evacuation point and thus have not yet evacuated. We weren't mandated to leave beacuse of immediate danger, but rather so we don't get caught at that point. But now with the waters slowing, we are hoping to maybe reconvince him otherwise. Please keep praying for this. There are alot of logistics and extra expenses involved in evacuation and, as excited as the kids are and as much adventure as we dont already have, it wouldn't be ideal.

Until then, this compound continues to operate as an island. The only way to get anywhere is by boat. Even our neighboring villages are completely blocked by water.

Happy Birthday Namibia!

2010-03-21T10:38:00.001-04:00

Namibia is offically no longer a teenager; she turns 20 today! Long dwelled by its nautural inhabitants, it became a German colony in the late 1880's and then later came under South African rule during WWI and became known as South West Africa. After much German genocide and apartheid, SWAPO (South West Africa People's Organization) was formed in the 1960's and decided to organize independance. 22 years of war later, it sucessfully became an independant republic and is now a free, developing, sucessful nation.

The kids commemorated their independence day this past Friday with a big celebration in school. The older ones all took turns giving presentations on Namibia's history. Furthermore, there was lots of hip action as everyone from the young to the old performed several traditional dances. And, of course, no celebration is complete with out snacks :-)

Swallow First

2010-03-18T14:55:00.001-04:00

For the past 6 months, 2 of our kids have been on full TB treatment while another 20 have been on prophylactic TB meds for contact and high risk. That boosted the number of kids getting daily meds up drastically as for the last 6 months over 30 of our kids have been getting meds daily for everything from HIV to epilepsy to anemia to of course, TB. It got a little chaotic at times…especially when I forgot to tell the 4 year olds to swallow before telling them to open their mouths to show me they’d finished. But now all of our kids are officially TB free and no longer being treated. Giving meds has just gotten a whole lot easier (only twenty-some now) just in time for a possible evacuation sometime soon. We even had a little celebration with my new friends at the TB clinic today. The nurses will no longer cringe when I show up with huge stacks of medical books to collect medication!!

Runnin' Wild

2010-03-14T08:15:00.008-04:00

After many weeks of training and competing, 3 of our kids have done it…they have qualified for the Namibian national running competition in Swakopmund, Namibia. If they win there, they will move on to an internationally hosted competition!

About a month ago, many of our kids competed in a large junior and secondary school track and field competition for all of the Katima area. Being one of the smallest schools in the area, we did exceptionally well. We came home with seven 1st places, eight 3rd places, and four 3rd places. Goty (top photo) got first place in the 1500 m and the 100 m, Lisedi (middle photo, maroon jersey) got first place in the 400 m, the 200 m, and the 100 m, and Djolo (bottom photo, green jersey) got first in the 200 m. These were the 3 that qualified to move onto the regional competition, held yesterday.

At the regional competition both Goty and Djolo won 1st place again in their respective races. Lisedi competed only in the 200m and 400m, but also still won 1st place. They are all 3 very excited to be able to continue on to the national level in Swakopmund, but please pray for some lost paperwork issues with Lisedi. If they are not able to be obtained soon, it may keep her from competing. It has already kept her from competing at the national level in soccer this past June.

Speaking of which, I never got around to blogging about it, but there were similar regional to national level competitions held for both basketball and soccer this past June and July. Ten of our kids qualified for each at the national level and traveled to Windhoek to compete. There were a couple that even came very close to qualifying for the international level in soccer. Since it was only their first time in this type of competition, many have high hopes of doing much better this year since they know more of what to expect.

Opps

2010-03-14T08:04:00.005-04:00

So, what good is a blog about a flood with no pictures of water?? Sorry bout that. The first two pics were taken right outside my house. The top one was taken this afternoon while the second shows what the same place looked like just a month and a half ago.

This last picture is of the trees, or what’s left of them, on Hippo Island located just across from the children’s home.

Just Keep Swimming, Just Keep Swimming...

2010-03-13T16:18:00.008-05:00

I apologize for no real update on the flood yet, but it is most certainly upon us. You may remember me posting a few blogs this time last year about the flood. That was the first time the flooding was bad enough for evacuation of COZV. Well, this past year’s hot season needed to be very hot to get the water tables even close to where they needed to be and that didn’t happen. We also didn’t get anywhere near the rain we should have in the so called “rainy season,” but with the water tables not going down combined with continuous rain in Angola equals flood time yet again.

Last Saturday we began stage one of evacuation…all vehicles that couldn’t drive through wheel-deep water exited stage left. There is a 4 km dirt road back to the children’s home in which the puddles have now become ponds and the small rickety bridge is now under water. When I left to take Ray and the Curry’s to the airport on Thursday morning we had to take the pickup truck out to the other vehicles and got out just shortly before the bridge covered over. By the time I returned on Friday, I had to be brought back by boat.

Today has started stage 2.37…the packing and laying of sandbags. We went in this morning and bought 500 bags (we hope to not use them all) from the mill and everyone has been packing and laying all day. The water is quite close to my house now. There used to be a very large dry area between my house and the river, but the river is now just a few meters from my front door. The water has already crossed the fence in one spot and in another is rushing towards the staff housing just outside the compound.

The mighty Zambezi has been rising at a rate of at least 3 inches per day and sometimes up to 8 for a total of more than 8.5 feet in just 3 and a half weeks. (If) and when evacuation time comes, we will be camping in a plot of 6 ft high grass graciously lent to us by the Catholic priest unless we can find a better accommodations last minute. We will have to supply our own food, water, housing, septic, etc. Talk about a chaotic camping trip…never fear, adventure is near.

Please pray for wisdom in the evacuation timing (never would be fantastic) and procedures as well as safety for everyone in the area. It is of course not just us being flooded out, but many, many villages as well. Some in the western Caprivi have already been evacuated. Please pray for their health, safety, and for God’s provisions of the relief needs all along the Zambezi this year.

Changing of the Guard

2010-03-13T01:26:00.005-05:00

Ever since the Minks retired from COZV this past August, the stateside board of directors has been fervishly praying and seeking out new full-time directors. And as God’s perfect will and timing would have it, Travis and Lorna Curry magically crossed their radar screen. They had just recently finished their missionary training and were seeking out God’s placement for them when the two paths crossed. And now there are only a few minor steps (ok, really major—like quitting their jobs, selling everything they own, and raising support) to go before they will be here full-time in September.

But these past 2 weeks were extra special as they were both able to get time off work for a honeymoon preview of their new lives to come. It was really a privilege and honor to be able to meet them in person and see first hand the love and heart they already have for these kids, the staff, and the surrounding community here. They both have a great job ahead of them (who doesn’t raising 57 kids) but I can’t think of 2 more spiritually prepared and equipped people to tackle it. Plus they both have a great sense of humor…that, God, and patience are the magic keys to survival here. You can check out their blog at http://www.tlcinhisservice.blogspot.com/ to follow their own dialogue.

So that’s the long-term change of the guard, but there has been a short-term exchange as well. Ray Mastnjak, a member of the COZ Board, has been the interim director here for the last 6 months and has done a wonderful job at stabilizing a frenzied world, implementing a new management system, and building productive relationships with the community. Dave Walker is next in line to return to director duty, but until then Jenny and I are up to bat. For the next 6 weeks Jenny will be the director here and I will be the business manager. I’m already walking crooked by the weight of the extra keys on my belt and we are less of a few cows after my first ever payroll last month. Its fun learning to do new things, but please also pray we survive ; ) Things are already a little more than insane with the imminent flood.

Fly Away Home

2010-02-21T07:15:00.007-05:00

Ninety-one days till I'm home. Now that my return tickets have been set in stone, it has become very real that I will soon be leaving my home away from home. Living someplace for a length of time forces you to settle in and get comfortable. Never had I dreamed I would wake up every morning in Africa and consider it normal. Yet spending day in and day out with these kids and staff and this lovely African life here has become very much of a norm that I love. God has placed in me a love for these kids that can only come from Him; for their lives, their health, their well-being, their spirituality. I can’t love like Him on my own. In some respects I guess that’s what it will be like when I have my own kids someday (only more so of course), but for now I’m content with just the preview.

Don’t get me wrong, I miss my family and friends very much and can’t wait to spend a whole summer at home (for the first time since the 7th grade), but I could also never replace the experiences I have had while God has placed me here to live, learn, and grow in Namibia. Realistically I have no idea if God has plans for me to ever see these kids again. While praying about all these thoughts this morning, God’s ever-timeliness led me to John 13. Verse 1 reads, “Jesus knew it was time for him to leave this world and go back to the Father. He had always loved those who were his own in the world, and he loved them all the way to the end.” Though clearly I’m not Jesus in this verse, He always promises to understand us and from this I found great peace confirming He does. Whether these kids are in my life just for this time, or if we will meet again someday this side of heaven, I will always love them.

Q=R-S-T

2010-02-03T13:32:00.001-05:00

Ques = Really Silly Things. Africa really should be spelled with a Q somehow because everywhere you go, there is one, and 95% percent of the time, it’s a long one. Fortunately many places are kind enough to have benches, buuut you are still left waiting at…doctor’s offices, the pharmacy, the hospital, clinics, or any other government related place. There is no such thing as appointments here, its first come, first serve, and the rest wait.

For example, if you want to take a child to the doctor, you go to the hospital. First off, you show up at least an hour before opening time. Then you sit in a que to get their health card stamped and numbered, then you sit in a que to wait for the doors to open, then stand in a que to get weighed, then sit in que to get temperature and blood pressure taken, then sit in a que to see a general doctor who will then prescribe you to sit in yet another que of the appropriate “specialist” for whatever the problem might be, then last but not least you sit in que at either the bandage/injection room or the pharmacy, or both.

Today in particular was the worst ques I’ve ever been in. Jenny (the primary guardian) and I went to the Home Affairs office to try and iron out some birth certificate issues. It didn’t open till 8am, but we didn’t want to be sitting in the que all day (ha!), so we left at 6. We arrived to find at least a dozen people already waiting. And, as our luck would continue to have it, they called about 30 people with special cards to come first…the leftovers from the day before they never got to! Encouraging beginning, but at least a little entertainment was to come. With so many people waiting so long on sardinely-packed benches in the middle of the summer, things are bound to get ugly. When the workers announced going on a tea break at 10, it was just fortunate punches weren’t thrown. Before we knew it the police and NBC (Namibian Broadcasting Company) were brought in and interviews taken of the ever-maddening que issue. Well, needless to say we didn’t leave until 3:30, 9 hours later, and forget the fact that our mission is thus far unsuccessful. Next time we will attempt leaving at 5am?

Pictured here is NBC interviewing yet another disgruntled que-sitter at the Home Affairs office today.

Results of Bequeathment

2010-01-30T01:31:00.000-05:00

It has been 3 years ago today that my dad passed away. In more ways than one, he is the reason that I’m in Namibia, but I often wonder if he even knows I’m here. Either way, I can’t wait to tell him ALL about it when I get to heaven too ;-)

Growing up, I remember him spending a great deal of time leading the missions committee at our church. And with that came the lovely task he bequeathed to me of distributing missionary prayer letters to Sunday School classes. I really enjoyed reading about what God was doing in other countries, so I didn’t mind other than being shy about having to go into all the “adult” classes. But I especially enjoyed reading about the Minks (the previous directors of COZV), since they were old family friends--it gave a personal connection to these outside worlds I kept reading about. But at the time there was nothing more than the cool factor of actually knowing them in “real life” and the occasional fleeting thought of maybe I’d go to Africa someday…waaay in the future, when I was old. Well, I guess old is now…because here I am. My Dad spent a lot of time challenging me in a heart towards missions--missions at its heart—that all Christians are missionaries, no matter how near or far God takes them.

The fast track of my journey here though began just a few weeks after his death. Some people had raised money specifically for 10 of the oldest girls at COZV to come to America and sing and share their testimonies in different churches, and mine happened to be one of them. I hadn’t even given Africa a second thought from my prayer letter days until this night. Being still in the shock of what the past 6 months had been in my own life, hearing their stories of how much more they had been through, some even before the age of 5, snapped me quickly back into reality. I know I can never fully understand all they’ve been through (knock on wood), but I was now one small step closer as I dauntingly realized that night that I was now half an orphan. As the night went on, my heart for them grew deeper and deeper. I had a long, snowy, 5 ½ hour drive back to school that night and all these thoughts never stopped spinning in my head. I just remember God saying something like…’Your summer just became wide open, you know they always write in their prayer letters about needing volunteers, and this passion that you suddenly have for these kids is from Me…now GO!’ And, well, the rest is history. I have now spent just over a year with these wonderful kids.

I have no idea where the rest of my life will lead me…whether it will be back home, back here, or even farther around the world. But in the words of my father in a letter he wrote to me just a few months before his death, “I want to see Christ working in me, just an ordinary [girl] with an extraordinary God running [her] life and me genuinely praising Him for it.”

Thousand Mile Ride-Along

2010-01-24T07:19:00.002-05:00

Well, more like 1,600 miles and it was all driving and no riding (which led to a serious case of a truck driver’s tan…), but it was a very enjoyable road trip nonetheless. This past Monday Jenny (the primary guardian), 5 of the kids, and I left for the capital on a medical trip. We took our 2 kids with epilepsy to a neurologist for long overdue checkups/EEG and 3 others to a dermatologist. The medical portion was very successful as well as conclusive as we now have new directions to head in for the treatment of all 5. Although our main purpose of course was medical, we also got to have a lot of fun as we toured the street shops, strolled around the mall, took a dip in the pool, and ate enough meals at KFC to be on a first name basis.

The driving portion was also very successful. In addition to the normal cows, goats, chickens, and dogs in the road, we also saw many wild game along the way. Included was a cape buffalo, baboons, elephants, guinea fowl, wart hogs, a giraffe, springbok, meer cats, a chameleon, a turtle, peacocks, kudu, a wildebeest, hartebeests, and one antelope we have still yet to figure out. Our African road trip turned out to be more like a free safari ride although sadly there are a few birds and a few thousand bugs now less of a life because of it. With the biggest problem only being a waitress confusing margarita pizzas for Mexicana and nearly killing us all, I’d say it was all-in-all a very successful trip.

When It's Over...

2010-01-15T15:41:00.004-05:00

That’s exactly when you sleep at a sleepover…when it’s over. For winning the good deed chain competition, I promised all the girls a special night. Last Friday night I had a sleepover with all the oldest girls (12 and up), all 20 of them, and it was a BLAST. We cleaned out the bungalow and filled both levels with mattresses, sheets, pillows, and blankets and brought the TV over from the children’s home. They painted their nails, did makeup, played cards, ate ice cream sundaes, danced their butts off to High School Musical, made pizza from scratch, and then watched movies until lunch time the next day. They told me later that this was their first sleepover, which explains why they were shocked when I told them they could stay up and watch movies all night—and that’s exactly what most of them did, that and giggle of course.

Since it was all the girls that won the competition, I didn’t leave out the youngest 6 girls, but rather just had a separate non-sleepover night for them. In fact, it was even conveniently over by their 8 o’clock bedtime! But they partied hard up until then all donned up in their matching fairy dresses they’d gotten for Christmas. Nancy and I had them over to our house for their own movie night where they had ice cream sundaes, bananas (they weren’t too keen on the idea of healthy food in their ice cream for banana splits, so preferred them separately), jumped on the beds, then took their dresses off and snuggled up in blankets to watch Madagascar 2. Though I say ‘snuggled,’ it was a more of a mixture of snuggling, squirming, and squiggling; not a one of them sat still for more than 5 minutes of course. But all in all a wonderful night for both groups and well deserved.

In Stores Now...

2009-12-29T13:30:00.003-05:00

Ok, not quite yet…but let’s think positively here. Children of Zion Village has just released its very first full-length worship CD! One of the members of Mt. Zion church brought with him the equipment for a small recording studio this past October just for the makings of this CD and has done a spectacular job. It is complete with 12 songs and includes songs sung in 3 different Caprivian languages (Silozi, Khwedam, & Mbukushu). The title of the album is fittingly “Milumo Yaku Lumbeka,” meaning ‘Sounds of Worship’ in the local language of Silozi. The artwork featured on the covers is also all done by the kids here.

The album is currently only available from the Children of Zion, Inc office in Bel Air, Maryland, but hopes to soon also be available through their church’s website (http://www.mzprays.org/). To order your copy(s), please contact Lisa McLaughlin by phone (410-836-2121), email (lisa@childrenofzionvillage.org), or even a personal office visit (Mt. Zion Methodist Church in Bel Air, MD). The asking donation price is $10/CD plus a small donation for shipping if you are not able to pick them up. All proceeds will go towards Children of Zion Village. If you have any money left over from Christmas I hope you will consider this investment. They make great gifts ;-)

Also hot off the press is the 2010 Children of Zion Calendar full of new pictures of the kids. Use the same contact info above if you are interested in this as well.

Christmas in July-Like Weather

2009-12-28T13:46:00.004-05:00

Never had I imagined I would be spending Christmas in Africa, but these kids are now like my extended family and I loved every minute of the slightly organized chaos. It was hard to imagine that all the normal Christmas traditions I’m used to were going on at the same time at home. Everything was hot, bright, and green outside instead of dull, white, and cold so it made for a rather surreal Christmastime atmosphere, but a very unique and blessed one nonetheless.

Christmas Eve I showed them “Fred Clause” (really cute if you’ve never seen it) and then shipped the younger kids off to bed. Around 9:30 we took all the older kids out by the river to have their first Christmas Eve candlelight service. And well, it went as well as can be expected with 40 giggly teenagers with fire, haha. It was just a short little service filled with Christmas songs, a reviewing of Christ’s birth leading to a reminder of why He came. We ended with a time of personal reflection and communion before some final songs and the colossal job of getting all the candles back so we’d still have a children’s home in the morning. Afterwards I was walking down the girls hallway and heard the little girls singing in their beds, “He knows when you are sleeping, he knows when you’re awake…” I paused and countered with, “exactly, he knows that you’re awake, so go to bed!” then went in and kissed them all goodnight telling them it couldn’t be Christmas till they went to sleep. But like any anxious child on Christmas Eve, sleep was still a long ways off…

Christmas morning, Nancy (my housemate) and I were shocked we didn’t have 57 kids pounding at our door at 6 in the morning, but rather they waited patiently till it was “time.” And finally the “time’ came. Once we had the van loaded, we scurried the kids off to their rooms while their gifts were personally driven and delivered to the Christmas tree by Mr. & Mrs. Clause themselves. Then we called them out and they sat in a large circle as each person’s name was called out, hugged, and given their stocking. Each stocking had 2 new shirts, a journal, candy, coloring books/crayons for the little ones, jewelry for the older girls, etc, (all lovingly donated by sponsoring churches) and all had cards and pictures from sponsors. The little ones made a good attempt, but just couldn’t wait until everyone had gotten theirs to open them.

Then they got their other gifts. The little boys got little backpacks with stickers, a little water bottle, a big plastic car, and candy in it. The little girls all got pink handbags with matching angel/fairy dresses and all the needed little girl dress-up accessories (they had quite the little fairy pow-wow out on the basketball court that night). We decided to give the teenagers the typical easy teenage Christmas gift and they all got differing amounts of money based on their age. I think I saw every kid in about 15 different outfits throughout the day as they all tried out their new clothes, and then everyone else’s new clothes, looking for their new favorite style. That afternoon, I spent about 4 hours playing Connect 4 with about 40 different people…a game they had all gotten that morning and thus the only game with all the pieces.

Then today we had our Mafuta Christmas. Mafuta is a nearby village where we have a feeding center and preschool. For Christmas we have all the staff and a good number of the kids come over to play with our kids, have a big Christmas meal, and get some small gifts. 1 overfilled pickup truck, 1 stuffed van, and 2 crammed mini-bus loads of people later they were finally all here…and they sang the whole way! As soon as they arrived they all went sprinting in different directions—some to the playground, some to the basketball court, some to the netball court, some to the volleyball court, some to the soccer field, and still others just to random corners to play in the sand. But they were all having fun and that was the important part. Meanwhile, I went back to helping prepare a meal for 153 people. We had macaroni, potato/egg salad, mixed veggies, sausage, and meat bones. Then after lunch we handed out little gift bags of puppets, a beanie baby, and candy for each kid and larger gift bags of food for the staff. Then everyone crammed back in the vehicles--just a tad more overstuffed this time as all now had Christmas gifts and very full tummies.

Five Hundred Ninety-Eight

2009-12-21T12:55:00.003-05:00

It takes 598 construction paper links to make a chain all the way around the main hall in the children’s home, in case you were wondering, haha. In light of looking for fun Christmas decorating ideas for the kids, I came across this “good deed chain” idea. Basically you have to do a good deed before each link can go up in the chain. I found out later from my mom why I subconsciously thought it was a good idea; I had done one when I was little and loved it, only completely forgotten about it. Anyway, I came up with 56 different things for them to do including memorizing Christmas story verses, singing Christmas songs, doing something nice for someone older/younger than you, making someone’s bed, making an ornament for the tree, and drawing a picture of what Christmas means to you. Then I made it a competition between the boys and the girls to see who could get from the one side to the other going in opposite directions. I questioned if it would take off or if one side would quickly give up, but it took off like wildfire. The girls took a very strong lead in the beginning, but that only further motivated the boys to get their butts in gear. Sadly (for the boys), it was a little too much of a beginning lead and girls won it, but the boys definitely fought hard till the end and made up a lot of difference. The girls ended up with 300 exactly and the boys 220. Even after winning, many of them are saying they want to keep going because its fun and helping them to memorize scripture!

Pictured here are Muny, Milinga, and Likuwa with the chain for our Christmas tree…decorating themselves for a little while before finally handing it over to the tree.

Let it Snow, Let it Snow...

2009-12-18T15:32:00.006-05:00

Its Christmas time in Zion village…aka, winter coats, knit hats, scarves, sleigh rides, snow everywhere…well, not so much. But there is a lot of Christmas cheer as everything is now fully decorated and Christmas parties have commenced despite the ever-threatening sun and never-ending sweating in this 95 degree heat.

Earlier this week the kids spent an afternoon decorating the home. They decked out the tree with lights, christmas balls, home-made ornaments, paper chains, and mardi gras beads. After decorating the tree they spent the rest of the afternoon making more ornaments and decorating the walls with Christmas pictures. Towards the evening some of the girls and I squeezed out the last of our energy making Christmas cookies while the boys made their own Christmas tree…of the human sort.

Then today we had our staff Christmas party. Us girls spent the whole morning cooking and preparing different salads and desserts while the guys manned the braai outside steaming up tons of chicken and sausages. Once lunchtime came around we fed the kids then locked them in their rooms for a couple of minutes to ourselves for a grand feast of a party and the distributing of the staffs’ gifts. With traditional music in the background, one of the oldest staff women, Monica, danced her way to the table in excitement. Once everyone had finished eating, she got up and finished her dancing on top of the table!

A Fly On The Kuta Wall

2009-12-18T15:02:00.002-05:00

On Wednesday I was asked to drive the local indunas (village chiefs) to the regional chief’s royal establishment for a meeting (the place where ‘Movin’ Muchembelles’ was held). I thought it was just a meeting to discuss chiefly things, but I arrived to find they were being called to tribal court (kuta). Before I’d left that morning they had told me to bring a tshirt and shetenge (traditional cloth wrapped as a skirt), but they had forgotten the part about the head covering until we’d arrived. To avoid being fined by the regional chief, some quick thinking led to wrapping my tank top around my head. We waited and waited outside the court building until finally one of the chief’s summoners came out and “clapped” to signify that the court was ready to be in session.

Now this is not really clapping as you or I would normally think of it, but rather, in this culture, its where both hands are cupped and put together softly to make a light clapping sound as a sign of respect, greeting, and/or thanks. The more respect being given, the louder it is (lightly audible instead of silent) and the farther you kneel down to the ground while doing it. According to the tradition of the tribal court, all must kneel at the door and ‘clap’ 5-6 times before entering and then get down and do it again after being seated. This particular day it was the 2nd in command to the regional chief that led the court and the clapping and kneeling occurred again when he entered.

In the front of the court sat 4 officials with the 2nd in command sitting on a wooden throne ornately carved with a hippo just above his head. The rest of us, about 20 indunas and other respected elders of the region, sat on benches. It was a rather short court session (only 2.5 hours) because those that summoned the court did not even show up. But the session still continued, just in the favor of those present. Part of it actually concerned the land where our children’s home is and the surrounding riverbanks, which are locale to several tourist lodges. Whenever someone either wanted to speak or was summoned to speak, he had to go up to the front, kneel/clap, and then sit on a reed mat with his legs straight out, just like a child would sit playing in the sand.

The allowance for cell phone usage within the court was something unexpected. Whenever someone’s phone would ring, the person would get up, kneel/clap, go to the door, kneel/clap again, then carry on with the phone call outside. They did the same kneeling/clapping ritual upon returning to the courtroom once finished. But it didn’t matter who it was…those leading the court or those in the court, I lost track of the number of times they went in and out after having their cell phone ring in the middle, but they left and entered respectfully at least.

After the court was over I was called over and asked if I would bring them back again the following day for an address by the chief himself. I wasn’t really left much choice to say no to such an official, so off we went again the following day. This time, I brought all the proper garb, especially since I would be in the presence of the regional chief himself. The 8 o’clock meeting began promptly…at 11. As always, it was hurry up and wait.

Everything was the same when entering the courtroom, but this time there was also respect given when the chief’s throne was carried in and again when the chief actually entered; each instance was kneeling with now 2 rounds of 10-12 ‘claps.’ This meeting was an official Chief Address. He had just been in Windhoek (the capital) with his 47 other colleagues, all the Ministries of Namibia, and the newly re-elected President of Namibia for a week-long, year-end meeting. Now he was to share with all his local indunas what was discussed. For both times I had the great privilege of a personal translator so I could know what was going on, but to sum up a 5 ½ hour meeting will be tough.

They started by giving a synopsis from what was said from each Ministry. The biggest of which being that there must be a stop to electing chiefs with no ancestral heritage and no chief must rule in another chief’s territory. This was emphasized many times. Additionally, each chief is only permitted to give 20 hectares of land to each person and that they must each now have a certificate of ownership. Then if they wanted more they had to apply for it. The chief did a new thing of opening up the floor forum style and things got a little crazy for a couple of hours, with there having to be order brought several times. Another tense discussion topic was about compensation from wild animal damage. All the prices were reported depending on what animal it was and what the damage was. For example, if an elephant crushed this much of your corn, you would get this amount.

Lastly there was a discussion on the weight of the tribal courts. Namibia, recently (1990) established as a democracy, has a co-existence in its justice system between civil and tribal courts. Though there are elected officials in civil positions, there is power still remaining in both the tribal leaders and their court systems. The chief spent some time reassuring them of that and motivating them of their responsibilities within their people and to bring appropriate things before the tribal court. I really knew I was amongst tribal Africa when they read off all the tribal court punishments and fines in terms of number of cattle and whippings. In a rather conservative fashion, everything from insulting your parents to theft to adultery to rape each had a cow amount to it. He emphasized this by pointing to the jail cell out back where the offender will stay until the full number of cattle was paid off. The biggest thing I didn’t expect in a tribal chief address was a beginning and ending prayer and even a Bible reference in one of his explanations!!

Though a very long 2 days, what a more unique privilege and way to learn to local culture than to get to sit in on the dealings of the tribal court system with all the local indunas and the head regional chief!

Twins

2009-12-13T13:34:00.005-05:00

Many of our kids, though they don’t still have parents living, do still have grandparents, aunts, uncles, and siblings remaining in the villages where they came from. Since most of their family members barely had the means to provide for themselves, they weren’t able to then provide for additional children the way they wanted to and thus how the COZ family has come about. These kids come from all over the Caprivi Region, the 3-hour stretch of Namibia’s northeastern panhandle (see Caprivi Tiddlybits). We try to take them for visiting as often as possible but are not able to often enough. And since they have little way of contacting their families ahead of time, it’s always hit or miss who will actually be around for them to see when they arrive.

On the most recent trip, we took 10 of the kids to the farthest part of the Caprivi. It was overall a very successful trip. They didn’t all find everyone they had anticipated, but also found some people they hadn’t expected and hadn’t seen in years. The most touching to me personally is when they get to reconnect with siblings. Some of them have siblings who were not placed in COZ care with them for various reasons. Some because they were the youngest, some because they were separated at the time, and still others because their extended family could take care of some of them while not others.

My favorite story of this last trip was with one of our older boys, Nico, who had been disconnected with his younger brother until just last year. His brother was now staying with his grandmother along the way to where we were going and he wanted to pick him up for the day and take him to visit the rest of his family farther out. When we got to the his grandmothers village he went in and asked, but, since he didn’t know that language very well, the grandmother thought he wanted to take him for good and of course said no. He sullenly walked back to the van reporting the sad news when one of our staff members realized the grandmother had probably misunderstood and went to go talk to her. He quickly got things cleared up and got permission. So we went back to wait while the 2 of them got ready to go. He had brought a bag of some of his old clothes he wanted to give his brother…but we didn’t realize that the make-over was why we were suddenly waiting so long. But finally they came out and the cuteness of it was worth it. Nico had replaced his brother’s dirty and torn school uniform with a baggy tshirt and shorts down to the knees, just the way he would wear them. They came out looking like twins and he walked around the rest of the day with his arm around his new-found little brother.

All Six

2009-11-27T01:02:00.002-05:00

Thanksgiving has been the first major holiday I’ve spent African style…but what exactly is African style? Well, to start, we had to special order the turkeys a couple of months ago from the capital. I really wanted to deep fry one, but I could not find a cooking thermometer in all of Katima…nor did anyone even know what one was. We had cranberry sauce only because Jessica also bought it in the capital months ago. Seasonings were touch’n’go’n’guess…but luckily all the guesses turned out delicious.

The tablecloth consisted of 2 matching traditional cloths (shetenge) sewn together on top of a bed sheet that happened to match. The finest of all matching dinner glasses in the land were blue and plastic, but at least matched the tablecloth! The centerpiece was the best though…African pumpkin stuffed with African flowers.

I mistakenly decided to see how hot it really was outside, so I stuck a little alarm clock/thermometer gizmo outside for a little while. After only half an hour, it had completely wigged out and probably would have burnt up had I not rescued the little guy when I did. But anyway, after it finally calmed down, it read 102 degrees!!!! By far the hottest thanksgiving I’ve ever had. Once everything was finally ready, all the Americans in all of Katima sat down to enjoy a wonderfully scrumptious thanksgiving dinner—African style—all six of us.

Makua with a Camera

2009-11-23T14:02:00.003-05:00

This past Saturday afternoon was the baptism I had referred to in my post about the church crusade (Lightbulb). As usual, the church was full and the whites were limited…to me ( I love Africa) They carried out the majority of the service in Lozi, the local language, but I soon became an expert when all of the sudden the word “camera” came out in plain English. I quickly perked up as I glanced at the camera sitting in my lap, and I figured they were looking for someone to take pictures of the people getting baptized, but I wasn’t about to raise my hand in the middle and saying, “Ooo, ooo, I do!” Soon enough, someone came from behind and tapped me on the shoulder and called me outside and asked me to do just that. I was very happy to do it, and even happier that I didn’t have to go “Ooo, ooo, I do!” to be given the opportunity. Then came the dilemma of where would be an appropriate place do it culturally, but found that out soon enough too. They called me right up to the front once it was time to begin the actual baptisms…I don’t know why I ever ask questions.
But anyway, leave it to the makua (white person) with a camera to get called to the front of the church to take impromptu photos of 90 baptisms!! It was a wonderful service full of singing and, naturally, lots of dunking…all in the wonderful name of Jesus of course!! Almost the whole time the congregation was singing different hymns in Lozi that would become very soft every time the pastor raised his hand for the next baptism. I was grateful when he got to Beerina because I got to hear what he was saying in English. He did it in English for her because her native tongue, like many of our kids at COZ, is Kwedam, one of the hardest languages in the world to learn…I don’t blame him for doing it in English :-)
Everything went very smoothly…and rather quickly for the number of people…except for one thing. Near the end there was a large (and very loud) political parade that made its path right by the church. The national elections are coming up this weekend and everyone has been doing some last minute rallying and campaigning. It was kind of similar to the time I was in a church in Mexico and a catholic festival parade went by shooting off canons right outside the church doors. That time the canons just so to happened to fit in with the message…but the political parade…not so much. Please be praying for the elections this weekend. So far this young country has been rather peaceful, but pray it stays that way!

Decked Out

2009-11-13T07:18:00.002-05:00

Shoprite, the most recent grocer addition to the up-and-coming Katima area, is now in full swing for the Christmas season. Every aisle and checkout station is fully decked out, the overhead signs are decorated, all Christmas items are fully stocked and on the shelves, a Christmas tree with toys under it is displayed prominently in the front of the store, the staff has all donned their Santa hats, and there is even Christmas music playing!! I had to pinch myself to make sure I was still in Africa! Some things are the same no matter where you are…

When I Grow Up...

2009-11-09T13:27:00.002-05:00

A couple of weeks ago I had the privilege of updating the prayer cards for our child sponsorship program. This not only included getting updated pictures of all the kids, but also conducting mini-interviews. The questions included things like what they enjoyed doing, what they wanted to be when they grew up, their favorite verse or Bible story, and how they wanted their sponsors to pray for them. I say privilege because to really had a blast doing it. Below I have included 2 little top ten lists that highlight my experience. The first shows the extent of spiritual maturity in what God has been teaching them lately and the second shows the true uniqueness and hilarity of some of our kids, especially the younger ones.

“God has taught me…”

10. To take time to listen (Nawa, 13)
9. To be happy no matter what (Efa, 12)
8. To trust Him in all circumstances (Kado, 16)
7. To love people who hate me (Della, 15)
6. To accept things just as they come (Annia, 18)
5. To finish up my work, to listen, to be good, and to be kind to people (Joshua, 7)
4. To be kind to others no matter what the circumstances and to be available to Him and others. (Dorothy, 16)
3. That whatever the situation, God is always there for me (Nicky, 16)
2. To be strong in what I believe and work hard towards it (Nico, 16)
1. He died for me, He cares for me, & He’s always there for me (Albert, 15)

“When I Grow Up, I Want to Be…”

10. A store keeper (Marsela, 7)
9. A truck driver (Isaac, 4)
8. A cooker (Esther, 6)
7. A cowboy (Micah, 7)
6. A model (Elisa, 8)
5. A karate man (Joshua, 7)
4. An FBI agent (Matthias, 13)
3. Touch the ceiling (Jonathan, 4)
2. A man (Gideon, 6)
1. Old enough (Luka, 7)

If you are interested in sponsoring one of the children here, check out http://www.childrenofzionvillage.org/sponsorship.php!!

A Lightbulb

2009-11-04T07:05:00.003-05:00

So lately I’ve been goin to this local crusade at night with Jessica, Elton, and some of the kids. Jessica’s grandfather (by marriage) was the leader of this huge 3-week “Bringing Hope to Katima” crusade that ended this past weekend. It always started out with 1 or 2 local choirs singing a couple songs as the sun finally crept behind the lowest trees, but then, for about an hour and a half, her grandfather would preach into the night. In this lovely BYOC (bring your own chair) event, the topics ranged from Daniel, to the second coming of Christ, to Baptism, and all were solid, well-researched sermons. It was really neat to go to a huge open-air church meeting in another country, being 1 of 2 white people among hundreds (maybe even a thousand...it was dark), in the sand and the coolness of the African night air with the beautiful stars above you while learning about God’s word. Basically, I really loved it.

The most exciting part however was that on the night about Baptism, 2 of our older kids went forward wanting to publicly profess desire for Baptism. The funny part comes where the one girl wanted me to go up with her…of course I did, but somehow they placed me in the very front of a good-sized African crowd facing an even larger one…like a bright white lightbulb amidst the darkness…o the things I do for these kids, but well worth it for sure!! :-P

And So The Wind Blows

2009-10-30T17:01:00.000-04:00

Today was the first time I’d ever been to an African or a child’s funeral and I’d prefer if it would also be the last. There seems to be something rather disconcerting about over half of a funeral’s attendance being fellow children, but such was the case as many of her school mates, church companions, and village friends were there to pay their last respects as well as to sing many numbers throughout the funeral program. We footed (myself more literally than most) about half an hour out into the bush to the graveyard, our way being marked by the sounds of the youth choirs singing in the distance. With everyone gathered around the gravesite, messages of condolence, sympathy, and encouragement were read to the family followed by a small gospel sermon. Then the hardest part began as everyone formed a line to view the body one last time. All the while there was singing from the school choirs going on in the background so as to put as much of a damper on the sadness as possible. The choirs continued singing hymn after hymn for the majority of the 2 ½ hour program while the casket was then placed and buried and flowers were placed on the grave. As they placed flowers on the grave they started with the family, then moved to the various groups represented such as ourselves (COZV), followed by each grade level of her schoolmates and finally her teachers. As each group went forward, a flower was handed to each person, then they surrounded the gravesite and all-together knelt down and placed them on top. After concluding prayers, everyone met briefly at her village before solemnly dispersing in their separate ways

Sadly, sin, evil, and hardship will be ever-present in this life until the coming of our Savior. We will never understand the full depths of each one, like why He calls some of His children home so young, but luckily there is One who knows all and promises to “work together good for those who trust in Him and are called according to His purpose.”(Romans 8:28) His un-ending promises are what we are forced to rely on during such times and I ask you to continue to be praying for her family and friends to feel His surpassing peace and rest during this time.

“Human life is like the grass; we grow like a flower in the field. After the wind blows, the flower is gone…But the Lord’s love for those who respect him continues forever and ever.” -Psalm 103:15-17

In Need Indeed

2009-10-24T15:56:00.002-04:00

I have a bit of sad news/a prayer request to share. On Thursday night we got a call from one of our staff members asking for transport to the hospital; 2 girls had been in an accident and one of them was his daughter. They had been at an evening church crusade and then gone to get water when a pick-up truck (bakkie) hit them and then ran. When we got to the hospital his daughter, 14, was unconscious and not stable. The father, also the head elder of our village here and a respected elder in the community, did not stay with her for very long as he had to return to caring for his other 10 children he had left at home (some of them adopted from other family members). It wasn’t very long after we had returned him home that we got the call she had passed away. Although death around here is not all that uncommon, sadly, it is certainly struck even harder when it is a child and happens so suddenly and traumatically. I ask that you would please pray for him and his family and his other children. They are of very strong faith, but still need God’s mighty hand to uphold them during this time.

The other girl that was hit was coincidentally the stepdaughter of another one of our staff here, but sustained milder injuries and is thankfully doing much better.

Influx

2009-10-11T11:24:00.001-04:00

After having gone most of the summer with a constant influx and outflux of many short term volunteers, the past couple of months have seemed rather shorthanded. But these past 2 weeks was a nice refresher as we had a team of 10 from Mt. Zion, COZ’s home church, come to bless us with their time, love for the kids, and many talents. In addition to the sanity they brought of not being so shorthanded, they were able to build a floating platform for our water pump (so no one has to climb into croc-infested water every time the water pump has a malfunction) and professionally record many of our kids singing to make a CD for fundraising. (If you are interested in one, the link should be up on their church’s website, http://www.mzprays.org/, sometime in the next couple of months once it is professionally produced.)
Now that this team has sadly returned home, we return to being very shorthanded. Would you pray about whether God is calling you to serve here either short-term or long-term? If you are interested, check out my COZ website link or contact them directly at info@childrenofzionvillage.org for an application.

I post the above picture because as we were creating the cover for this CD, I was personally touched at the simplicity yet spiritual maturity and brutal truth that Dorothy’s quote brings. Living with these kids day in and day out as they now are receiving all their physical needs, I sometimes forget that the most important ministry of this home is found in the spiritual provision to these kids’ lives. These kids have the chance to know the gospel here and go out to become the future Christian leaders of Namibia!

Movin' Muchembelles

2009-10-02T16:32:00.009-04:00

For so many parts of my life over here I sometimes question, “Am I really in Africa?”…then there’s others where its just clearly unquestionable and almost surreal. Last weekend was one of those times. Sunday was the Lusata Cultural Festival where I joined Jessica, Elton, some of their family, and 13 of our kids to the Mafwe Royal Establishment in Chinchimani, along with hundreds of other Lozi people, to honor Chief George Simasiku Mamili VII and celebrate their traditional history, culture, and heritage. Throughout the day there was a continuous lineup of traditional singing and dancing as well as a briefing of their history. Hands down my favorite dancers were the old women (Muchembelles), haha. About midway through the morning performance stopped as all eyes turned toward the arrival of the chief. As mats paved the way to his throne, he was preceded by many women in traditional skins, accompanied by his nephews as bodyguards, and followed by a traditional female singing and dancing group. One guy told me that if anyone would remove the fly switch from his hand then he would no longer be chief…no wonder he needed the body guards. In the middle of the procession, they stopped for the raising of the traditional flag. Then once he reached his throne those before and after him, as well as everyone in the crowd, got down on their knees out of respect. The dancers behind him then continued their dance toward him while on their knees, a sign of respect. Those who were either senior indunas (lower chiefs) or part of his royal party also wore skirts. To me they looked like Lozi Scottish, but apparently that is traditional dress for men of high respect. The traditional entertainment continued for a while before the mats were again laid out and the same processional group lined up to do a lap around the crowd. This time it would be with the chief proudly holding and displaying this ivory scepter given to the Mafwe people by the Germans in 1909. In doing so with 2 hands signified he was not yet ready to give up his throne. When not being used for this occasion, it is kept in a box covered in a cheetah skin, which came before him in the initial procession.

I feel very blessed to have had this opportunity to experience the traditional culture here and watch things in person that I once thought I’d only ever see on postcards or National Geographic.

Scientific Discovery

2009-09-29T14:46:00.003-04:00

I have recently come to discover that when Namibia becomes overcrowded with Makua (white folk) it equals sudden freak thunderstorms in the middle of dry seasons. Now I also know that twice doesn’t equal any sort of scientific proof, but then consider it my hypothesis, as it were. This is now the second time that a team has arrived from America and as soon as they got here we’ve had a freak thunderstorm. So there…that is what I’ve learned today…in addition to the fact that a bottle of water costs about $3,000 in Zambia. Luckily there’s a 4000:1 exchange rate.

Adventures Thru Time

2009-09-17T15:40:00.006-04:00

Adventure and lack of time is basically the way of life over here. If its not one thing its always another…to varying extremes. And this past weekend was the kind of the epitomy of what African time is really like. On Sunday evening I left on a bus with Jessica and one of our small girls, Elisa, to go to Windhoek, the capital. Our two biggest goals were to go to the eye doctor to get new glasses for Elisa, but also to pick up Jessica’s truck…which is where the time issue really begins. Her bakkie (pickup truck) had some water damage during the flood that caused some electrical problems and she has now been 6 months without it! So now that it was finally fixed we hopped on one of the most reliable bus services in Namibia to take a lil road trip with my faithful travel buddy. Well the lil part soon became a very large understatement as what was supposed to be a 14-hour bus ride slowly turned into 23! After stopping and going multiple times through the night to try and fix whatever was wrong, the stops quickly became longer than the goes to the point where we would hardly go half a kilometer before pulling over again. Finally, when we were supposed to have arrived already, they announced that a rescue bus was on its way and we began the next stage of this lovely little waiting game. The next bus finally arrived…a bit of a tighter squeeze than the last, but at least it ran…for a while. The bus riders started getting more chatty as we began discussing everything from Starbucks to McDonalds (or lack there of) to toilet paper uses in Namibia (don’t ask) to how ridiculous our American Afrikaans accents were (basically like Americans making fun of British accents). Then as soon as we thought we might actually make it, we stood very corrected. We crawled to each robot (stoplight) hoping it would be green b/c everytime we had to stop, the whole bus would also. Fourteen stall-outs later, this now over-heated bus was also a complete goner. So 23 hours later and 2 blocks from our final destination enough protest finally arose that they let everyone offload in the middle of the street…trailer and all.

So then we were left with 5 minutes to both pick up Jessica’s truck and get Elisa to the eye doctor appointment in a taxi where the driver said he knew the road, but, after dropping Jessica, we drove all over the city only to find out it no longer exists!

In the end it was a successful trip and a good adventure…for me at least…but then again Jessica’s still convinced I also enjoy rain when camping, ha! We came home with a fixed truck, new glasses for Elisa, and none other than my first ever speeding ticket…and in Africa nonetheless! In my defense it’s a very silly idea to expect people to be able to slow down from 120 to 60 in what might as well be 10 feet…but there was my new friend standing next to the 60 km/h sign with the lovely ticket pictured above. I felt better knowing I was only clocked at 84 while the guy behind me was doing 116. And at least its a lot cheaper than it would be at home. N$150 is only about US$20…not bad for going almost 25 over.

Then, while off on my own adventures, I apparently missed some good opportunistic ones back at cozv. Since we have vehicles here, we are occasionally called upon to be the local ambulance. In this particular case, I missed getting to take in a guy that had been attacked by 2 hippos in the river while fishing and had had his whole hip basically crushed in the mouth of one of them. When they took him in they had him so wrapped up in a tarp and who knows what else that when the medics went to go and find him in the tarp the poor guy had fallen out onto the floor before they found him! O the things that happen here…

Yaabadabba-hoo!!

2009-09-08T14:26:00.000-04:00

So I’m not sure who to thank, but somebody has been prayin :-P Just 2 days after my last posting, the results for the first 30 kids have now come back (all negative), the lovely little green sputum collection cups are back in stock in Katima…for now…because we have another 20 lined up to be tested tomorrow, and we will hopefully have more put on the prophylactic treatment! And so far no one seems to even be symptomatic!!! All that is clearly answered prayer so thanks to whoever was prayin!! :-) God is clearly giving this situation a good kickin!! Please pray the good news keeps coming!!

To Be or Not To Be

2009-09-06T14:54:00.000-04:00

We have a bit of a situation on our hands that could use a bit of Godly intervention if you could spare a few prayers. Nearly a month ago, one of our girls was diagnosed with TB after having been sick for quite some time. Although glad to finally find out how to treat her, we then also had a huge situation on our hands…where did she get it from and how do we keep everyone else from getting it, especially those who are HIV positive and therefore much more susceptible. So then began the saga of testing all 57 kids, 26 staff, and the volunteers. Since we apparently didn’t have enough adventure in our lives, we began taking them in groups to the hospital and one of the nearby clinics and waiting for hours on end to be called to hack up loogies in little green cups. However, we very quickly ran every clinic in Katima out of sputum testing cups and, on top of that, the lab technician got called to Windhoek before the first group of 20 kids could even get their test results. They unfortunately don’t have that convenient under-the-skin, get-the-results-the-next-day test…instead its just a series of 3 spits and, three weeks later, we still have no results and there are still no cups. Meanwhile, we are only praying that it won’t spread while we sit here with our hands a bit tied. And on the prayerful note, latent TB can remain in the body for years before becoming active…and won’t test positive unless it’s active. If we don’t get this situation under control, we could have a bit of an ongoing epidemic on our hands. Please pray for Godly intervention for the health of these kids as well as some increased cooperation from the doctors…they don’t seem to realize the magnitude of our situation here. On a more positive note, we were able to finally get the 12 youngest kids on a prophylactic drug since they can’t cough up the sputum. But that also means an extra 10 kids getting meds for the next 4 months, in addition to the twenty some that get meds daily already. The biggest joy will be Josiah, the 1-year-old, ha!

Mr. Bones

2009-08-31T14:57:00.005-04:00

I was reading in the great OT book of Ezekiel this morning and found myself very encouraged by what would seemingly be a very simple concept. Although, with God, even the most simple concepts can be eternally complex to mere human understanding. In Ezekiel 37, God is giving Ezekiel yet another vision; this one being about dried out human bones. Starting in verse 4, the Lord asks him, “Can these bones live?” [He] answered, “Lord God, only you know.” [Then God] said to [him], “Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. This is what the Lord God says to the bones: I will cause breath to enter you so you will come to life. I will put muscles on you and flesh on you and cover you with skin. Then I will breath in you so you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord.’” And don’t you know…it actually happened (vs. 7 & 8). Verse 13 continues with God saying, “My people, you will know that I am the Lord when I open your graves and cause you to come up from them. And I will put my Spirit inside you, and you will come to life.” To be honest, I pictured all this taking place in the elephant graveyard from Lion King. Ezekiel was kind of like Zazu going along with Simba and Nala and then all of the sudden everything got dark and things started eerily moving around and morphing together. Simba and Nala, scared to death and not listening to a word of comfort coming from Zazu, would keep trying to hide behind the bones only to have them suddenly move out from in front of them. Finally all the elephants were in full form again and began chasing off all the hyenas, haha….but maybe that’s just me.
Anyway, back to the Bible… though God was superficially referring to the people of Israel here, I think He is also painting a beautiful picture of the salvation we find in Christ. The process of going from spiritual death to spiritual life is a miraculous one, much like imagining completely dry bones becoming a living, breathing, fighting army, and only God himself can make such a thing happen. He alone is the one who has chosen His people to come up out of the grave of spiritual darkness to become truly alive and filled with His Holy Spirit and to begin living the life He intended. The reference to calling His people up out of the grave reminds us that we are never even truly alive until we are alive in Christ, and the very breath of which comes solely from the Holy Spirit. No matter how alive we may think we are with living flesh on our bones and rushing blood through our bodies…it is all a mere deception to the true “aliveness” found only in Christ.
I was then reminded that once we are alive…truly alive, we are not done. It’s not a set out perfect road for the rest of life. I was reminded of something a lovely Beaver once told me about the concept of spiritual breathing ;-) In this concept of now being truly alive comes with it a different air and a new way of breathing. Just as often as I would breathe physically, I should breathe spiritually…inhaling the pure and exhaling the impure. When you inhale the pureness of Christ, you are surrendering control of your life to the Spirit’s power, according to the command found in Ephesians 5:18 and supported by the promise found in I John 5:14-15. Then when you exhale you are getting rid of the sin that is in disagreement with the Spirit you just inhaled, and with confidence knowing that it’s fully forgiven (I John 1:9).
Anyway, I just found that picture of dry bones becoming living flesh very encouraging personally. It is a beautiful thing that Christ did, but I am humbly reminded I must also do my part and breathe spiritually.

And speaking of encouraging things…yesterday we had an 8 year old deliver our church message. When Jessica jokingly asked the younger kids who was going to preach the next day, Elisa eagerly said she would…and she did! She picked out a Bible story about Abraham and courageously read it in front of all her brothers and sisters and then corralled some of her comrades together to sing “Father Abraham” as special music. That whole “Do not let anyone look down on you because you are young” verse…its true. As for next week…Luka…he’s 6! :-) What a nice little trend one brave little girl has started!!

Makua Invasion

2009-08-20T15:38:00.004-04:00

This summer we have been very blessed by several teams that have come for 2 weeks at a time to help out. One team in particular, from Calvary United Methodist in Mt. Airy, MD, held a sort of blanket drive before coming over. Many women from within the church and surrounding community pitched in to hand-make at least 40 blankets for orphans here in the Caprivi. When they were seeking out how to distribute them, Rebecca mentioned Chetto, a village community about 2 hours from here in the center of the Caprivi. There are several reasons this particular village came to mind. For one, the need is very great as several of our kids are from that area. This is actually where Rebecca hopes to facilitate the beginning of a small children’s home in the near future when she returns to the Caprivi part-time. In addition, Disco, the oldest boy here, has become a strong man of God over his time here at COZV and has many deep convictions. This past summer he felt called by God to build a church there among his people to seat 200. Upon a visit just a couple months ago to gather more information about beginning this smaller home, God used Disco to lead his cousin, Steven, and his wife, to Christ and another man rededicated his life to Christ. Then upon being there again just this past weekend I found out that this same cousin is now in the rotation of teachers that are leading the services of this future church that Disco plans to build. Praise God!!! They are currently meeting under a tree, but Disco has full confidence that with this new building more and more will come.

So anyway, back to the blankets. With the whole team (8), plus my mom and sister, plus Disco, Annia, and Kado as translators, we all piled into the Quantum and went for a long Sunday afternoon drive. When we arrived we met with the Induna (chief), who conveniently happens to be Annia’s uncle, and he was thrilled with the presented gifts. He agreed that the orphans should be the ones to get the blankets first. Although everyone had already gathered at the visiting mob of Makuas (white people) with gifts, he quickly brought peace and order and called each of the orphans up one by one to choose one. Then the remaining blankets were handed out to each family and himself also of course. Pictured above is Disco (with the hat) standing between his cousin Steven and his wife as they gathered some basic information for prayer cards.

Too Many

2009-08-16T14:53:00.003-04:00

Yesterday was a day for too many goodbyes for sure…9 to be exact. The most deeply felt personally was my family. Though I greatly enjoyed the extended time we got to spend together here, it could never be too long. I think my mom and Joanna spent 90 percent of their time in their newly-created sewing room. Not only did they expertly tackle an unending mountain of mending, but also found time to teach at least 20 of the kids a combination of how to make clothes, knit, and crochet (I now know the difference is the number of needles used, but now forget which is which, ha). Although mostly girls, more than a few boys took great interest in learning and are becoming quite good at it. Pictured above is the compilation of garments made by the kids here in the last month. Overall there were 10 dresses, 5 skirts, 5 girls’ tops, 2 boys’ top/pant set, 1 dress suit, 5 hoodies, and many hats (to the best of my calculations). I knew my mom was tired one day when she referred to me as “mom,” but she kept at it until the job was done, enjoying every minute of it. With all the patterns remaining behind and the sewing room now in functional order, they hope that some will be able to continue sewing on their own.
Wherever Sam was these past 2 months, there was also always laughter and fun being had. One of the older girls told me several times that if she had a brother like Sam, she “could just never be bored.” During the school day Sam mixed his time between keeping the little ones occupied and doing odd jobs around the compound. These odd jobs included everything from folding closets full of clothes, organizing crafts, and sorting shoes, to changing light bulbs, holding ladders, digging a fish pond, and grading tests to even chopping firewood deep in the bush. But most importantly, he loved these kids with his whole heart and spent quality time with every one of them, just being their friend, which is exactly what they need.
Jamie was a returning volunteer who stayed for the summer. There are several girls who have become expert singers thanks to her many voice lessons and all the oldest kids now have a beginning education in music theory. Jamie was always willing to help wherever it was needed and did so with a smile on her face.
A mixture of sad-goodbye and hello-to-new-beginnings is that one of our young girls was finally reunited with her mother and left yesterday to go and live with her permanently. As I helped her prepare her things to leave, I was nearly in tears as I listened to the other girls sharing in her excitement to be reunited with her mother even though they themselves were very sad to see their sister leave. One in particular was telling her how she hoped she would get to go to church and a Christian school and that she would grow up to be a missionary.
Although it was hard for all the kids to say goodbye to their sister, it was even harder for them to say goodbye to their Mama Rebecca and Papa Gary; for some the only “parents” they’ve ever known. Earlier this year the Mink family felt God’s calling to move on from full-time mission work to now do part-time mission work from the states. Rebecca still plans to raise support and return a few times a year to help facilitate the starting of several new, smaller children’s homes throughout the Caprivi (one of which I will be blogging about soon), but must do so only part time so as to receive more proper care for her physical health. They have been serving the Lord on the mission field for 17 -years now, 7 of which here in Namibia establishing and running COZV, and I pray they will be richly blessed for it.
So overall 9 people left yesterday, which leads me to a huge prayer request. This is and will continue to be a huge transition both for the kids and those working here. Please be praying for the kids as they are missing their surrogate parents very much. We currently have Dave, a short-term guy who also came to help out during the flood, here taking care of finances and overall management until another couple can arrive in September for the next 6 months. We know that God has a couple (or 2) in mind to continue with the ministry here, so please be praying that God will be laying it on their hearts quickly to be able to serve here full-time in the Minks’ stead. Please also be praying for Dave, Jessica, myself, and the rest of the staff that God would guide us in how to make this transition as smooth as possible for the kids as well as some extra energy to do so :-)

Caprivi Tiddlybits

2009-07-22T14:36:00.002-04:00

So I thought I’d let you know a little bit about the physical aspect of my new world over here. Namibia is one of the most scarcely populated countries in Africa with a population of only 2 million. The Caprivi Region is the small northeastern “panhandle” and, depending on the map you use, it is often even left off :-( It is a rather diverse little panhandle though as it borders Angola, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Botswana. The population of the Caprivi is about 80,000 and most live in traditional villages. Agriculture is the main livelihood in these parts and the main crops include Mahangu (millet), sorghum, and maize. The literacy rate is 78% (for those over 15). Life expectancy is 41 and 43 for males and females respectively. Though small, the AIDS/HIV pandemic runs very rampid and, as a result, the Caprivi is one of the most densely populated areas of orphans in the world. The Caprivi is the second highest HIV-stricken region in the world next to Botswana and there are roughly 12,000 orphans here in the Caprivi alone.
Katima, formerly (thank goodness) known as Schukmannsburg, is the main town in the Caprivi and is located on the eastern edge bordering Zambia. The mighty Zambezi, the forth longest river in Africa, runs 2700 km from northwest Zambia, along the border between Namibia and Zambia, right along the gates of our compound here at COZV, and then on to the vast Indian Ocean. COZV is located about 10 kilometres outside of Katima, 4 km being a dirt road back towards the riverside. Katima is a “fully functional” town that includes banks, countless china shops, a hospital, a post office, a few restaurants, 2 (going on 3) gas stations, 2 main grocery stores, a “Sam’s Club” warehouse (probably kept in business by the grocery shopping needed for 60 kids here), a craft market, many little convenient stores, and even a little airport. However, it is 1250 km from Windhoek, the capital of Namibia.
The climate here of rainy and dry seasons results in the river rising half the year and then receding the rest. It will rain about 21- 27 inches per year in this semi-arid tropical savannah with its peak wet months being January and February. During the winter (June-Sept) it will get rather cold at night, around 35-40 degrees Fahrenheit, but will become very nice through the day peaking at around 70 degrees and always (knock on wood) sunny and dry. Fall (Sept-Nov) has the hottest months and temperatures will reach the upper 90's or above 100 degrees Fahrenheit, though not as humid as back home. The summer (Dec-March) is the rainy season peaking, as I said before, in January and February.

Hairloss

2009-07-21T12:35:00.004-04:00

I’ve been told there are rumors back home and, yes, it’s true…Sam chopped off all his hair…well almost. And here is the proof to anyone who may not believe it. Much to the kids dismay, he did not get the potato head do, but it is much shorter than it has been in more than 3 years. We were originally going to get cornrows together and then he was going to shave it, but apparently that first step was skipped…and the shave part was modified to slightly longer than bald. Elton, Jessica’s husband, did the honors as the resident hair dresser here and did a fine job. He usually only does “black” hair, but is skilled enough to do mukua (white) hair as well :-)

Bulls & Boys at 4am

2009-07-20T13:32:00.002-04:00

Traditionally Friday night is pizza night in the Mink household. But lately we have been having a couple of staff over as well for this all-American meal. Jenny and Simushi, a married couple that both work here, were our honored guests for the evening. Around the dinner table, we shared our “most exciting moment,” the table topic for the evening. Jenny, originally from Umtata village in South Africa, shared about the night before her wedding. In that area it is customary for the future groom to undergo a customary obstacle course at 4 am the night before they are scheduled to be wed. In this custom, the woman is to be in her house waiting patiently while many of her male relatives gather together outside the house with a bull and a spear. When the man arrives, he is given the spear and must spear the bull. When he is finished, the male relatives line up and form a barricade into the house that the man must break through to get to his wife. If he succeeds, the wedding occurs later that day, but if not, the wedding must be moved until he does succeed.

Before this occurred, Simushi told us about how he was so worried he wouldn’t get through, so Jenny came up with a bright idea. She jokingly told him to put on a dress so that her male relatives will just think it is a girl and he will get right through easily. Well, later, while she was anxiously waiting for him to arrive, one of her girlfriends informed her he had finally arrived…only that he was seen off in the distance putting on a skirt! So whether it was the skirt or some fancy moves that got him past that night, who knows, but they have been happily married for 7 years now.

So the picture above is of course not Jenny and Simushi, but rather just a fitting picture to the topic of weddings. While my brother and I were handing out clothes, one of the boys stumbled upon a dress and tried it on…yadda yadda…eventually one of the girls put on the dress and he came up with a “tux” and they had a mock 2 minute wedding outside with my brother as the officiator.

Keep the Kin Comin'

2009-07-16T01:40:00.003-04:00

My mom and sister are on their way! They should arrive today to be welcomed by mounds and mounds of sewing…after some huge hugs and welcomes of course!! My mom plans to spend much of her time here teaching some of the older girls and boys how to sew clothes. They are all very excited and have already picked out their patterns and fabric designs. They have been asking constantly when they will arrive. She will also work with a couple on crocheting and knitting (or maybe just one or the other…I don’t really know the difference, haha). She may also help to teach some supplementary nutrition lessons in the school.

In addition to helping my mom, my sister will be expertly tackling the loads of mending…pretty much a whole year’s worth of 60 kids’ torn clothes. Tough job if you ask me, but if anyone can do it, she can.

Meanwhile, Sam has been here for nearly a month now and I have greatly enjoyed serving next to him, hanging out with the kids together, having a few slumber parties, more than a few good laughs, and having some good quality time together. I feel very blessed that God as called so many of my family to serve Him in one place halfway across the world!!

Kids

2009-07-16T01:34:00.002-04:00

Literally. The kids have been poppin’ out lately. Two of the three female goats that we got in South Africa gave birth this past weekend. Curly had one and Solo had two. Half-pint is still expecting any day now.

Pictured to the left is Curly and baby angel.

South of the Border

2009-07-04T15:04:00.003-04:00

Which border? Well, all the way through the flat lands of Namibia, past the Tropic of Capricorn, across the Namibian border and on into the twisty switchbacks and vineyards of the mountains of South Africa, then over a few rivers and through a few woods…we finally made it to the southern end of my African world as I know it. In short I haven’t blogged in a while because Rebecca, Jessica, and I have been in Cape Town for the past two weeks. The two main purposes were for Rebecca to have surgery and to get goats for our herd since so many of them died during the flood. There are plenty of goats here in the local area, but we use our goats mainly to produce milk for the kids and there are not very good milking goats in these parts. We were also picking up some extra goats for friends who run the Cheetah Foundation of Namibia (http://www.cheetah.org/). They have a goat farm to help train herders how goat herds and wild animals can safely interact. Jessica and I thought long and hard about the names for the four we brought all the way back to COZV. The Billy goat was the stinkiest and hairiest thing we’d ever seen so he became Stinky Pete. The 3 females were then named Curly, Solo, and Half-pint respectively for their curly horns, extremely low udder, and abnormally disproportioned udder. Because these goats were from South Africa, they looked very different from goats Namibians were used to seeing and so we got surrounded with ooo’s, ahh’s, and questions at every gas station along the way.
It was a long 6,000 km round trip journey, all with a trailor and goats. It was 3 days down and 3 days back but of course not without some perpetual car trouble, rolling into one gas station on only a liter of gas (although we shouldn’t have even made it there), and some “minor” delays in driving in which we didn’t get to our one destination until 4:30 in the morning.
Normally Cape Town is a lovely place for tourists like ourselves, but as our luck would have it, it rained most of the week, had storms with gale force winds, and even had threats of snow. I am quite disappointed that I did not actually see any snow in Africa, but could have sworn I did see some flurries one afternoon. But the weather did finally clear up for the last 2 days we were there. One day we drove down to Cape Point and stopped in Boulder along the way to see all the Penguins and the other day we went up Table Mountain.

Some things I learned on our adventures?
-African Penguins are very tiny and when they want to lay down they just kind of fall forward face first. You must also be sure to check under your car for penguins before you leave.
-New York is exactly 12, 541 km from the lighthouse at Cape Point.
-When you have a new leg and are walking long distances fast (to try and race friends on the tram car up the mountain), it has the tendency to blow up like a balloon and you are forced to take unfair stops to deflate along the way.
-When you set off hiking on the top of Table Mountain you should probably plan out which trails you are going to take. Otherwise you may end up on a 3-hour hike forging a couple new trails where the rains have flooded the old ones out.
-The statue marking Maclear’s Point, the highest point of Table Mountain, looks very much like a humongous Hershey kiss.

P.S.-Happy 4th of July! :-)

She Made It

2009-06-17T12:56:00.001-04:00

Beerina made it through the day without a broken ankle for the first time in 3 years. As many of you may know, Beerina, the oldest girl here, fell off a horse and severely hurt her ankle just a couple days before I arrived 2 summers ago. The local x-rays were basically worthless, so several days after I arrived we were headed to Windhoek, the capital (13 hours away), to get proper ones and to have it casted. But the pain and swelling only worsened over the next month and we were forced to cut the cast off with pruners (you make do with what you have when the only doctor on call is off fishing, haha). We then took her back to Windhoek for another opinion, which led to determining that she had a parasympathetic nerve problem in addition to the hurt ankle. This is very similar to phantom pain, where her brain was perceiving severe pain even though there wasn’t a physical ailment to necessarily warrant it. Once on proper meds for that, things were much better and she was soon back to walking. BUT last summer, on the same day, she fell off a horse again and hurt her ankle again pretty badly. But at least this time the healing process was not as long. Gary, the father here, jokingly told her she was not allowed out of her room this year on June 17th. Well, today has come and gone and though she was allowed out of her room she did not ride a horse and both her ankles are intact, haha.

Pictured above is Beerina and I having a crutch race 2 years ago on some baby crutches I found.

Most High

2009-06-16T13:31:00.001-04:00

A pile of magazines ended up in my classroom this week and among them was a South African Christian magazine with an article that caught my eye. The article was entitled “There Is No High Like the Most High” and began with, “When people in the world indulge in drugs and alcohol to get high, they don’t know it, but they are searching for something God has made available to His people. Why do you think He is called the Most High?” It made me laugh out loud as I had never thought of it quite that way before. But then I began actually thinking seriously about it and was reminded of all the answered prayers I’d been seeing lately…with the kids, with various problems that arise, and personal prayers as well, no matter how large or small. God is truly here in this place and it is absolutely amazing how intricately He is involved in even the smallest parts of His people’s lives. All this to say, I am feeling very “high” here thanks to my Most High and I love it! ;-)

Baby's Day Out

2009-06-12T14:03:00.002-04:00

Josiah is the youngest child here at just over a year old and has gotten sooo big since we first got him here at a mere one week old and only 5 pounds. He receives tons of love and attention from his 59 older brothers and sisters and started walking just before I arrived in May. He doesn’t talk a whole lot other than a few sounds for things (such as a ‘Ba’ sound when they tried to teach him to say Becca, haha). He is very enticed by food…last weekend I watched one of the boys get him across the room to one of the girls that wanted to hold him by hanging a chip in front of him like a carrot to Bugs Bunny, haha. And if asked what time it is, he will promptly direct you to figure it out yourself by turning around and pointing to the clock.
But anyway, I took him down to the barn for the first time today for chores to see the animals and such. He seemed to like the kittens…he let them know by trying to squeeze its whole head into his tiny little hand. Luckily the kittens are used to lots of little kids handling them so they were very patient. He also attempted to chase the small goats, but he needs to work on his speed a little.

Blue Moon

2009-06-11T15:04:00.002-04:00

Only once every blue moon does it rain in June. It will officially be winter here in just a week and a half. But not only are the seasons flopped from back home, there are also rainy and dry seasons. The rainy season goes from about December to March and the rest is dry. This year it was a little longer with the floods, but it has been over a month since it rained until now. The teachers I work with said there may occasionally be a couple of showers in June, but very rarely will it thunderstorm and carry on like it did the past 2 days. I hear it has been nearly 20 years since the last time it happened. But needless to say, it’s apparently a blue moon, because it has just rained in June :-)

17 Years & Counting...

2009-06-06T14:45:00.003-04:00

So here I thought that I would be getting a year off from school coming here, but as God’s good sense of humor has it, one of the main things I’m doing here is working in the school, haha. The children have their own school here at the home. They operate on the Accelerated Christian Education (ACE) program. I find it best described as being similar to the self-paced, individualized aspect of home schooling, but is set in classrooms with teachers and where certain subjects are pulled out and taught/supplemented class-room style. Each different subject has a long series of workbooks that will be worked through from preschool through high school with every 12 books indicating the next grade level. This program works well because so many of the kids have come here with differing educational levels and backgrounds and this way they can begin at an individualized level in each subject no matter what their age.
There are 6 different classrooms that are divided by grade level, but not necessarily actual age: preschool, kindergarten, 1st grade, lower elementary, upper elementary/lower middle, and upper middle school/high school. Preschool is taught by COZV’s own Beerina (19) who got her pre-school teaching certificate last April, but the rest of the classes are taught by local teachers.
Each classroom has a main supervisor and a monitor. Together they work to make sure the kids stay on task, make sure they understand concepts before moving on, tutor them in things they don’t understand, and monitor the scoring of their work. And of course there is also the paperwork of administering tests, grading, and entering grades. I am the monitor to the oldest classroom, which is also the largest with 19 kids.
School goes from 7:30 am to 2:45 pm Monday thru Friday with a break for lunch at 1. Whatever they don’t finish of their assigned “goals” for the day must be completed during homework time in the afternoon or some of the oldest kids are permitted to take their workbooks home at night to work on them. They go to school almost year round to try and help in catching them up with their schooling.
I worked in the same position the first time I came here so it was a relatively quick and easy adjustment since I had already been trained in the system. I have really enjoyed getting to spend more time with the kids since I am with them all day in school in addition to the time spent with them at the home.
Pictured above is the setup of the classrooms. Each child has an “office” where they do their work and then the slanted table on the left is where they score their work. To the right is Fortune Madzime, the supervisor of the classroom and the vice principal of the school, helping someone with their work.

Safe'n'Sound

2009-05-25T14:12:00.000-04:00

So we made it here all safe and sound. Things couldn’t have gone much smoother other than they somehow lost my crutches mid-flight (not for use now but in case I would need them at all while here) …but they were eventually found. Coming back was as if I had never left last summer. I just have an amazing peace about everything and I love it!!! Well, just wanted to let everyone (especially my mother) know I got here safely!! :-)Stay tuned…

Up, Up, And Away!!!

2009-05-23T19:59:00.005-04:00

The time has come!! I fly out of JFK at 11:30 tomorrow morning for the adventure of my life :-D And to add to the start of my adventure, I will be traveling back with the Minks' youngest son, Simeon (12). He had to delay a previous flight due to recent surgery on his leg so it will be a blast of an 18 hour flight with just a couple-a gimps tryin to make it to the other side of the world :-)

Above is a pic of my first trip to Africa...I took a lil detour to the upper deck (one occasionally needs some fresh air on an 18 hour flight) ;-)

Moving Home Soon

2009-04-27T18:46:00.008-04:00

Sunshine + Breeze + Answered Prayer = the kids get to move back into the children's home soon!! Praise God! The waters have been going down and the water mess has been cleaned up and everyone is just waiting for the official 'ok' from the government officials to move back home. Aaand they have even been kept safe thus far from the snakes, hippos, and crocs (even though there have been daily visits by some). God just continues to provide, so praise Him and thanks so much for the prayers!!

You can keep praying for the families of the hundreds that have lost their lives and homes in all this flooding.

Keep Praying!

2009-04-04T23:02:00.007-04:00

I just wanted to give an update on the flooding situation. To the right is a picture of the place in which they are currently staying (Hippo Lodge). There are some holes in the roof and it is right over the water (which is currently much higher than shown), but are blessed to have a place to stay. Pictured above is the flooding at the front gate to the children's home that they were evacuated from. Overall everyone has been very busy, but have been kept safe thus far. What an answer to prayer! The water has gone down to about 1/2 a meter, but another meter is expected to hit within the next couple weeks. This is the worst flooding the area has seen in 100 years. So far 97 people's lives have been claimed by crocodile attacks and many more from drowning. Hundreds have had their homes or tents washed away. Fortunately none of those statistics have involved any the kids of COZV, but one of the workers has seen a crocodile nearby. They clearly have been kept safe by God's protection, but they still need your prayers as well as prayers for those who have lost their homes, family, and/or friends in the area.

Floodwaters Rising!

2009-03-26T18:14:00.006-04:00

So if you happen to be following this a little early, I have a large prayer request. The Minks (the family that runs COZV) are being forced by the government to evacuate their compound (located on the Zambezi River) tomorrow due to dangerously high flooding. For now they will have to pay to stay at lodge nearby. The logistics of moving 60 children, as you can imagine, will be quite hairy. But in addition to that, please pray for the safety of the children and staff against moquitos (and thus malaria), poisonous snakes that will be trying to find dry ground, and the crocodiles that seem to be lurking around all the more often. Pray also for the safety of their belongings. The compound is fenced in with armed guards and large dogs and yet things are still somehow getting stolen. This has the potential to only increase once most of the kids and staff are gone. The waters are expected to continue to rise until the middle of April and possibly stay up until the middle of May. Pray that these predictions are wrong and that the children will be able to move back quickly. This is the highest flooding they have seen since they opened in 2003. And lastly please pray for the patience, wisdom, and sanity of those trying to keep 60 kids occupied, fed, clothed, bathed, schooled, and safe while out of their normal environment.

This picture was taken right outside the children's home overlooking the Zambezi River at its lowest point during the year.

2009-03-21T20:52:00.000-04:00

Welcome to my blog! Throughout the year I will be posting pictures and blogs about my time at Children of Zion Village, located in Katima Mulilo, Namibia, as a way for people to keep up with my ministry here. :-) Stay tuned...