Award Winning Students

Patricia Machalele and Sylvia Siachalinga won awards at a recent JETS (Junior Engineers, Technicians, and Scientists) competition.

Four area schools sent students to present projects and compete in quizzes. For the second year in a row, Patricia won first place for her Village Development project. Patricia produced a natural medicine to ease coughs and throat pain, especially in cases of tuberculosis. Patricia used her grandmother’s recipe to create tablets from cassava powder, mweeye leaves, and red wild spinach.

Sylvia Siachalinga (left) won second place in the Math and Science Quiz division. Students had to answer questions orally in spelling bee format. Subject matter included all areas of math and science.

A Little Nostalgia

My new job as a second grade teacher in Carthage keeps me busy grading papers every night. My usual work station is the couch where I wrap an afghan around me and often watch TV as I grade. It's a long way from the days at Namwianga when I graded by the light of my headlamp during power outages and listened to the crickets and bats outside the window.

Update on Jason and George

James Mwale, the new "dad" at Eric's House orphanage, wrote us a note this week to tell us that Jason and George have now graduated from preschool and will start first grade in January. The photo above was taken when I was at Namwianga in June. Jason loves all things school-related: coloring, writing letters, counting, and he's even beginning to read. George is the social one and not quite as academically oriented. Jason is determined to make a student out of him, however, and loved to tell me, "Nana! He's not coloring it right!" as he frowned in disapproval.

I'm Back!

I apologize to any faithful blog readers who are still checking for updates. I have started a new teaching job that is consuming most of my waking hours. I love the work, and I love my sweet second grade students, but right now I have very little time or energy left to blog. I hope to get back into blogging about Namwianga eventually, but for the next few months you can expect only occasional postings.

Here are a few updates:

Meagan Hawley and Louisa Duke spent last weekend here with us. Long-time readers know that Meagan and Louisa worked with us at Namwianga from 2006 on. They became like family to us, and we shared experiences with them that bonded us in ways only other missionaries can probably understand! Meagan is now teaching middle school in Edmond, Oklahoma, and Louisa is a physician's assistant at a clinic for low-income children in Fort Worth. We had a fabulous weekend with them, laughing and crying our way through years of memories and sharing the struggles of re-adjusting to life in the US. It was a blessing that I will treasure.

Jason and George are having their own adjustments at Eric's House. Roy and Kathi Merritt are retiring from full-time parenting in the orphanages. They have built a house next to Eric's House and will still be very involved in the work, but they will no longer be the mom and dad for Eric's House. James and Leah Mwale have moved in and are now in charge. I haven't heard how things are going for them, but I'm sure Jason is giving them lots of advice about how to run things and George is smiling his way into their hearts just like he does with everyone else.

George Benson Christian College held its graduation ceremony in late September. One of our sponsored students, Muyano Siabalumbi, was honored with a Distinction, the highest academic honor a student can receive. She is shown in the top photo. Muyano is now teaching at Sinde Mission. You may remember her as one of the teachers of whom the headmistress said, "They have transformed our school!"

Hanna Boyd, pictured in the lower photo with Jason and George, grew up at the Brentwood Oaks Church in Austin, our sponsoring congregation. Hanna is now spending a semester at Namwianga with the Harding in Zambia program. It has been a thrill to read her blog posts about her experiences and to see Zambia and Namwianga through her eyes. I hope to put some of her posts on the blog in the future.

Thanks for your patience as I learn how to manage this next challenge of dividing my time and my heart between ministries on two different continents!

Great Articles About Zambia Medical Mission

David Ramsey, 2011 Zambia Medical Mission team member, is a columnist for the Colorado Springs Gazette. After this year's trip, he wrote a feature article on Zambia Medical Mission which highlighted the 12 ZMM team members from Colorado Springs. This article was featured on the front page of this morning's Sunday paper. There are actually two articles, and you can click on the links below to read them. http://www.gazette.com/articles/stands-124387-day-miles.html http://www.gazette.com/articles/zambia-124389-colorado-springs.html Thanks David for the excellent articles.

Informative Article on Zambia

Here is an interesting article about Zambia's political and economic situation.

Two Heartbreakers

Meagan sent me this photo of George and Jason in the new outfits that my daughter Sara sent for them. These two really are Best Friends Forever as well as the source of much mischief and laughter wherever they go!

HIZ Group Arrives at Namwianga

Another excited and enthusiastic group of Harding University students arrived at Namwianga this week. One of them is Hanna Boyd, a sweet young woman who grew up in our Brentwood Oaks congregation in Austin. I have known her since she was born, and I am thrilled that she is now experiencing Zambia through the HIZ program.

Hanna wrote a blog entry about her first days at Namwianga, and it is easy to tell that she is quickly falling in love with Africa. She has met George and Jason, held babies at the Havens, toured the campus, and met Mrs. Moono. David and I love hearing her excitement. Here are some excerpts:

We flew into a little airport in Livingstone, Zambia, and from there went to Victoria Falls. That was a BEAUTIFUL place. I had been there before but I didn’t remember a lot of it. We spent a few hours there walking around and taking tons of pictures at all the different sight spots! Rainbows were everywhere and seeing the power of the falls was incredible. The Hippo Song has always been a funny little camp song but we kept singing “God’s fingerprints are everywhere just to show how much He cares” and it wasn’t just a funny song anymore. I don’t know how you can see Victoria Falls and not think about how much God cares about you. . .

We went to visit Mrs. Moono. She lives on the mission and she sews anything we want out of chitanges! That was the first time we met her and she was so sweet! Gregersens and Broadways-she was so happy to hear that I know y'all…she asked all about how y'all are doing and she gave me big hugs for each of you!

. . . The very little time that we have spent at Namwianga has already been incredible! It truly is home. I love it already…I love Namwianga, I love the people and the children, and I love my HIZ family that I’m here with!

Africa has claimed another student. Hanna will never be the same.

Back to School

Some personal news: I started a new job last week. I am teaching second grade in Carthage, a town about 30 miles west of Mount Vernon. So far I've had six days of in-service training and spent many hours getting my classroom ready for the first day of school on August 18.

I have thought many times about the contrast between back-to-school preparations here in the US and those in Zambia, so I thought I would re-post a blog from 2007 about Brian Siakuba's student teaching experience.

Today we made another grueling drive to Chiili to pick up Brian Siakuba, a GBCC student teacher who had been there since May. The community came to say goodbye and gathered for this final photo. Brian is on the left side in the front row wearing a white shirt.


The community leaders were sad to see him go. He had proven himself to be an excellent teacher and a great worker in the local congregation. The woman who serves as head of the village begged us to send more teachers from GBCC. We hope to do just that!


On the way home, I asked Brian to describe the greatest challenge he encountered. He told us about facing the start of the term alone. We had taken him to Chiili on the first Saturday in May before the term was to begin on Monday. No other teachers were there, but we assumed they would be arriving on Sunday. As it turns out, Brian was the only teacher at the school for the first two weeks of the term. One teacher arrived after two weeks, and the head teacher arrived three weeks after the term began. Poor Brian had to figure out what to teach without any guidance! He seemed to have taken it all in stride and recommended that we send more student teachers there next year.


We are proud of students like Brian and look forward to hearing more of their stories as they return from their first experiences in the field.

Update on Brian: Brian graduated in 2008 and spent two years working with a newly planted church in northern Zambia. Currently he is back in the Namwianga area and teaches in a rural school. His wife is also a graduate of GBCC and teaches at the same school.

The Left Behind Group

Zambia Medical Mission 2011 ended with a transportation nightmare when 18 of the team members missed their flight got left behind in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe. Read Ellie Hamby's description of it here:

Overall the Zambia Medical Mission 2011 went exceptionally well. We had two major is sues (one at the beginning and one at the end) but other than that it was great. We saw thousands of people, our group stayed basically healthy, we had plenty of medicine, and the kitchen crew did a suburb job of feeding everyone. A big thanks to Josh Judkins and his kitchen crew for stepping up when Nadara could not come. They did an excellent job and Leonard Sichimwa, head cook, said it was 100%.

Carole Buchholz, who suffered the broken wrist at the beginning of the medical mission, was sent to Nashville for medical treatment after she spent about a week in the hospital in Johannesburg. We understand she had surgery in Nashville and is doing much better.

Of course, many of you have heard about the “Stranded 18” in Zimbabwe. We had to send 33 people to Victoria Falls to fly out as there were not enough seats for the whole team on the flight out of Livingstone. Normally, it is not a problem to cross the border, but that day it took 3 ½ hours at immigration at the border and this caused 18 of our people to miss their flight. I went on the bus to the airport with the first group and even though the gate was closed for the flight I managed to get them to open it back up for our group. The ground crew agreed to delay the flight as long as possible to wait for the remaining 18 to come and did so until the captain said he was waiting no more and closed the door. The plane took off just as the group arrived at the airport. The 18 had to spend the night in V/Falls and we were able to find them accommodations at Russell Caldecott’s (Ultimate Africa) and they did get to go to the Boma for their evening meal.

The problem we were facing is that a group ticket cannot be changed without huge penalties. The agent at V/Falls agreed to send the group on to South Africa at absolutely no charge and even upgraded the group to Business Class. I decided to fly with the group as we were facing monumental problems upon arrival in South Africa. I had awaken our travel agent at 1:00 am in the morning and also I called KB and told him the worse case scenario was that we were facing a cost of at least $3000 for each person to reissue a ticket. Our travel agent worked on the issue but told me all I could do was plead our case to the international ticket agency in J/Burg airport. On the flight there I spent all my time in prayer and rehearsing the speech I was going to give. I planned to tell them that we were loyal customers of South African Airways and that our group was all volunteers doing humanitarian work in Zambia. When I arrived at the counter and started my speech to the supervisor, he quickly stopped me and said, “If you are with the 18 coming from V/Falls do not worry as all has been taken care of and all they need to do is go check in.” I asked him to repeat it twice to make certain that is what he said. The group quickly went to check in and got boarding passes for their trip back to the USA. All this was done with no cost to Zambia Medical Mission. I do not know who intervened (but I know prayers were answered). KB said in his email, “Those who are with us are greater than those who are against us.” The stranded 18 were real troopers and made the job of sorting things out much easier.

Special thanks to all who helped make ZMM 2011 a huge success. Many of you donated money to help individual team members and also for medicine, clean delivery kits, cataract surgery, containers, and wheelchairs. Your participation with us is greatly appreciated.

My notes: Ellie does an amazing job of coordinating this huge medical mission, handling crises like this with courageous grace. What a hero!

Zambia Medical Mission 2011

This is a photo of the Zambia Medical Mission team for 2011. Ellie Hamby describes their efforts:

We have just completed our 17th annual medical mission trip to Zambia. This year we had a team of around 240 (this includes the 120 Zambian medical, spiritual and support staff volunteers). Our group worked very hard as the lines of patients coming for treatment were often quite long. We were able to treat all that came and that is always our goal. This year we saw over 16,000 patients in 6 days of clinics. On our 5th day of clinics we saw 3700 in one day and you can imagine everyone was very tired. Our team stayed healthy and we are thankful for that. The first few days we experienced very cold weather, but the last few days it was quite warm.

We sent over 150 cataract patients to Namwianga where Dr. Moonze and Dr. Teague performed the surgeries. They made many people extremely happy to have their sight restored. As the A-Team (Advance team) was traveling to Kasukwe for our 3 clinic they saw a man at a junction wearing cataract glasses. When the man saw the Namwianga vehicles he started shouting “Namwianga, Namwianga, I can see now that I had eye surgery at Namwianga”. It was a blessing for all to experience his dancing for joy on having his eyesight restored.

We made 3 emergency runs where we had patients that would not have survived if we had not been there. One was an old man that was critically ill with stomach issues and was being brought in an ox-cart. A truck was driving by and saw the man was very sick so they moved him to the back of the truck and he was brought to our clinic at Njabalombe. Dr. Tate attended to him and said he had to be transported immediately as his condition was grave. We hooked up IV’s in the back of the Land Cruiser and lifted the old man into the back. He was transported to the nearest hospital which was over 2 ½ hrs away. All indications were he was going to make it.

On our 4th clinic day we were at Kasukwe and a young man was carried in with a horrible foot injury caused by a maize threshing machine. He had traveled 6 miles in the back of an ox cart and had lost a considerable amount of blood on the way. He was bleeding profusely as he was being carried into our wound care clinic. Dr. McKenzie quickly attended to him to get the bleeding under control and IV’s were started. The young man had gone into shock as his condition was also grave. Within 10 minutes of his arriving at the clinic we had him in the back of a vehicle with IV’s connected on the way to Macha Hospital. They rushed him there in record time (about 1 ½ hrs.) and by the time they got to Macha he was becoming alert. Our medical personnel are confident he would have bled to death if we had not had our clinic at Kasukwe.

On the 5th day of clinics at Kasukwe we had a 15 year old girl come in with lesions on her face. It was determined that she did have leprosy and we gave her mother funds to take her daughter to Chikinkata (the leper hospital in Zambia). It is felt if she can get started on treatment they will be able to save the loss of her limbs and the advancement of the leprosy.

We had over 50 people brought in that needed wheelchairs. Some of them crawled, some were carried, and some came on bicycles or oxcarts. These were given wheelchairs and therefore the gift of mobility.

The expression of joy of the faces of the thousands of people is indescribable. The following statement was often expressed, “Why did these people cross the waters to help someone they did not know?” The answer was simple “They did it to show the love of Jesus”.

Lives were saved both physically and spiritually, eyesight was restored, dignity was given to each patient and all in the name of Jesus. There were around 80 people baptized and we praise God for that.

Zambia Medical Mission

Zambia Medical Mission is at work in Southern Province this week. Shown above is Kel Hamby giving instructions to some of the Americans who arrived last weekend to join the team. The lower photo shows the new bus that is part of the convoy that took over 200 Zambians and Americans and all their gear out into the bush to begin the clinics.

July Lectureship

Namwianga hosts an annual lectureship the first weekend in July. People from all over the country attend. Roy Merritt sent this photo of this year's Sunday morning lectureship gathering in Johnson Auditorium. There were 951 squeezed into the building. I can only imagine how wonderful the singing sounded!

Update

I left Namwianga last Monday morning at 8:30. I was supposed to take an Air France flight out of Johannesburg, South Africa, that afternoon, but the flight was delayed 12 hours. That meant I couldn't make my connecting flights, so Air France booked me on a Delta flight for Tuesday night and put me up in a nice hotel across from the airport. Tuesday afternoon I arrived at the Delta counter and found out I was not even in the Delta computer system and was not going anywhere. After another night in Johannesburg, I finally flew out on Wednesday night and got home Thursday night. My luggage didn't make it here until Saturday. Oh well, I'm finally home and unpacked. It was a great trip and I brought home great memories to treasure.

Student Outreach at Kanyaya

Outreaches are an important part of the training that sponsored students receive at Namwianga. By visiting and ministering in other congregations, the students develop their leadership and preaching skills. Most outreaches from Namwianga are on Sundays. Students get up early to load onto vehicles, jump on bicycles, or just head out on foot to village congregations. But now and then there is a weekend outreach like the recent area-wide meeting at Kanyaya.

Loading for this weekend outreach began on Friday afternoon. And what a load it was! Students brought their mattresses from the dorms and stacked them in the open backs of pickups. Luggage and blankets were tied on top or wedged in on the sides. Vegetables and other food items found a place. And then the riders squeezed in wherever they could. Somehow there was room.

The students were driven to the village of Kanyaya where an area-wide meeting was held. Almost 150 people from seven congregations gathered in and around the tiny mud brick and thatch church building. Grass-fenced shelter areas had been built underneath shade trees to provide a larger gathering area, and another grass-fenced area was designated as the kitchen where meals were cooked over open fires. For this weekend outreach, the students brought mealie-meal, vegetables, and cooking oil from the college’s kitchen. The village congregation provided water, firewood, and grass shelters.

Rodgers Namuswa is the coordinator for student outreaches. He says the students did most of the teaching, preaching, and song leading for the weekend. On Friday night there were some lessons, but the singing went on until well after midnight. Finally the men settled into their sleeping spots inside the grass fence and the women slept inside the building.

On Saturday the sessions resumed with more preaching and teaching. The college women taught Bible classes to the children and the college men did most of the lessons for the adults. By Saturday night the weather had turned very cold, so three big fires were built to ensure that everyone could be close to a source of heat. At 11:00 the GBCC Heavenly Echoes choir began singing to those gathered around the fires, and the singing continued until 6:00 the next morning.

Rodgers Namuswa describes the warm welcome that college students receive on outreaches like this one: “People like the college students so much! Many village churches are really encouraged a lot by visits from the students. The students are able to do the work of the outreaches because they like to go out and share God’s word.”

Late Scholars

The government of Zambia lifted the age restrictions for schools. Anyone who wants to go to school can do so. Gilbert, shown above, is in his forties (we think) and is in tenth grade. He started grade seven in 2008 and has been a full-time student ever since.
Webster is around 30 years old, married, and has three kids. He worked as our security guard when we lived at Namwianga. He often studied while he was at his post at night, and I had given him several reading comprehension workbooks to help him. During my recent visit Namwianga, Webster proudly told me that he is now doing grade nine at a school in Kalomo. He does his security job at night, goes home to sleep for a few hours, and then goes to school. He tells me that he looks quite "smart" in his school uniform and that the head teacher has appointed him as a monitor.

Way to go, Gilbert and Webster!

Workshop at Kanyaya

Last Saturday I did a teacher training workshop at Kanyaya. Four congregations sent representatives to learn how to use the Beginner’s Bible to teach children in Sunday School classes. I have taught many of these workshops through the years, but I think this was the best one yet.

For one thing, it was a small group—only about 20. I have had over 100 in some of the workshops, and it is difficult to involve the participants when there are so many. And these women were active! We acted out the story of the good Samaritan, and they really got into it. Then I had them create some skits to demonstrate kindness, and once again they gave it their all.


One thing I always do is teach them how to use the “Thumbs Up, Thumbs Down” as a review game with kids to make sure they are getting the point. These participants loved that, and even after our workshop was over, they were giving me the “Thumbs Up!” sign when they were happy about something.

And the grand finish was a delicious lunch of village chicken and nshima that we ate outside under the trees.


I met this lady at the workshop. Four of her children have attended or are now at Namwianga.

Frost Bites!

It FROZE at Namwianga on Saturday night! Roy Merritt writes this report:


Zambia usually enjoys chilly, but sunny winters. We never have snow, and frost once every three years or so. A couple days ago we had the hardest frost we’ve experienced since 1980. It wiped out our tomato patch! Quite a blow for us, but overwhelming damage to small farmers who depend on vegetable sales for their livelihood.


Frost got the leaves but not the stems. We hope the plants will recover, but meanwhile we’ll have fried green tomatoes by the bushel.



The rest of our garden is okay—cabbages, onions and canola greens.

Steps to Heaven

Steps to Heaven is the group that sang in chapel on Friday. Amazing harmony from these guys! They love to sing and teach and preach as they share their talents on outreaches.

Three Friends

These three precious friends came to see me today--and to invite me to pray with them.

Mildred (left) is 37 and looks 20. She has five children of her own and is raising a grandchild and her husband's siblings. She works long, hard days, but there is always a smile on her beautiful face and laughter on her lips.

Esther (center) is a widow. Two years ago her only son, a teenager, was killed in a car accident on the Namwianga road. I found her sitting in a ditch near the accident site just after she had heard about her son. I remember collapsing in the ditch with her to mourn and weep. Esther is a retired teacher. When she was still employed, she came to a workshop that I did on teaching from a Christian perspective. Now that she is retired, she is going to schools and sharing that workshop material with other teachers.

Jennifer invited Mildred and me to form a prayer team when Meagan Hawley was so desperately ill in 2010. We met weekly during Jennifer's lunch hour to pray for Meagan. Often I would pray in English and Jennifer and Mildred would pray in Tonga. What a blessed experience.

I love these women dearly and treasured this chance to reconnect today as we knelt together and lifted our prayers to the Father.