One Zambia, One Nation!

Mwabuka buti my brothers and sisters! Ndime Kara and ndime Natalie theRIOT bringing the latest and greatest Zambian news to you since… the last post.

First things first, let’s get to know the authors. Who would have thought that a Colts fan and a Steelers fan could ever get along? One of us loves queso, the other one can’t digest dairy. One of us stresses about nursing school, the other one likes to nap (apparently it helps long-term memory so it’s actually a studying technique). At the end of the day, we bring out the best in each other and have been roommates for two years now.

The name’s Wise. Kara Wise. My hobbies include:  interpretive dancing, tripping on anything and everything, avoiding dairy/gluten like the plague, sleep talking, sleep walking, and most recently, falling out of the top bunk in my sleep.

Someone please get Kara a helmet…anyway, my name is Natalie Theriot, and I’m the other half of this dynamic duo (Kara stop correcting my grammar). So I’ve already told you about my love of queso in a previous blog post, and I’m here to tell you that yes, that will be my first meal when I land in America.

We know you love hearing about our weird quirks, but I guess we’ll also tell you a little bit about Africa.

On Tuesday this week, our good friend, Marilyn Simons, arrived on the scene, and we could not be more excited! She brings such a positive perspective, a joyful presence, and also, a suitcase full of snacks. We started our leadership and management class on Wednesday and brainstormed ideas for our projects. On Thursday, we ran a World Café where we presented our assigned chapters to each other with a partner in creative ways. After 5 hours of class, the best stress reliever is playing volleyball with the Zambians until it’s time for dinner.

On Friday, we had our second day of clinical in Macha. Students were assigned to the female wards, male wards, outpatient department, pediatrics, mother/child health, anti-retroviral therapy, maternity, and the Malaria Research Trust. This program is run by John Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, and we are able to shadow in the lab where we have the opportunity to extract DNA from mosquitoes and also visit the insectery where we studied the life of a mosquito. Malaria has essentially been eradicated in Macha because of the success of the institute (that is not to say that we don’t get bug bites every night). Speaking of bugs…

We have found some new friends here in Macha. Their hobbies include: hiding in our laundry bags, suitcases, closets, shoes, and sneaking their way into our mosquito nets. These hairy, eight-legged, “hamster” spiders enjoy running at 10 mph and finding their way into our nightmares.

After clinical on Friday, Ashley and Kara planned to have a special night of communion and worship as a team. We have not had the opportunity to do this since being in Zambia, and it was refreshing to have the time to remember the cross and share our hearts with one another as sisters in Christ.

This morning, we woke up bright and early to head to Choma, the capital of the Southern Province, to celebrate Zambia’s 51^st year of independence. We started the day by watching a parade with a marching band, freedom fighters, cheerleaders, and secondary school students. We attended the ceremony in a stadium full of proud Zambians where we watched traditional tribal dances and songs from local choirs. We also got to hear the Prime Minister speak about his vision for the country. It was cool to hear leaders give recognition to God for how He has brought them out of hardship, as they are a Christian nation.

Afterwards, we enjoyed a nice Zambian meal as a team and went to Wonderbake for some sweet treats. We also hit up the market one last time because we can’t stop buying chitenges! All day, our team was complemented on our attire because we were decked out in Zambian flags. They told us we were true Zambians! One Zambia, One Nation!

 

It’s hard to believe that we will be heading home in three short weeks. Many of us are excited to reunite with family and loved ones, but we are all sad to leave, as Zambia has become our temporary home. Please be praying for our last few weeks and our transition home. God is continually working, and we praise Him for all He has done for us on this trip. We can’t wait to share with you when we get back. Thank you for your continued support! We love you all!

xoxo

Nat T and Karol Kat

Continued Flow of God's Blessings!

Hello from Macha! :)

            This past week has been busy- filled with Jesus, excitement, and change.  Some highlights of our week were VBS and Health Fair round 2, Ebeneazer Orphanage, visiting Victoria Falls, and traveling to Macha.

            Monday and Wednesday were homework days this week.

            We woke up Tuesday morning, ready to head out to Kabuyu (the bush) for a Health Fair and Vacation Bible School. We were supposed to be there by 9, and we were leaving at 8. We ate breakfast, loaded up and when we started the truck that holds most of the girls, it would not start! We know that God works everything out in His perfect timing, so that happened for a reason. Why? We do not know, but we trust Him. We ended up sending out a group of 9 nursing students crammed in a small vehicle to begin the health fair. We did not arrive until 10:15, but everyone was forgiving and welcoming when we got there. We taught in their small community church about dehydration, nutrition, burns, wounds, periods, menopause, high blood pressure, and salt intake. The community was so involved, asking great questions and really wanting to know the information. After each teaching session, Pastor Todd (a new Zambian missionary from Alabama) would speak about how the health topic related to the Bible. It was so powerful, and he was able to pray with many individuals after we finished. After a few hours, the other bus full of our team showed up! We put on Vacation Bible School for the kids of the community. We had parachute games, water games, futbol (soccer), face painting, coloring and a Bible lesson.

            Thursday, we all woke up at 5 am, ready to be at Ebeneazer Orphanage by 6 am. This is the most beautiful and peaceful orphanage I have ever been to. There are multiple houses on the compound that house children of certain ages. This particular morning, we had the privilege of working alongside the "house moms" of the babies and toddler houses.  We were able to be a part of their daily routine, bathe kids, dress them, feed them, play with them, teach the toddlers lessons, and play with them. We also had a futbol game at the end, which some of the older kids participated in. We learned so much from the house mothers. They had such incredible hearts for God, and for the children they call their own. The kids were so happy, and really made an impact on all of our lives- we enjoyed it very much!

            Friday, we had Victoria Falls day and swimming! We woke up, and it had just rained, which was huge blessing because the weather was cooler (90°F). We walked all around the top of the falls, saw incredible views of the bridge from Zimbabwe to Zambia, the Falls themself (which were very dry due to the drought), and incredible gorge that God created. It was breathtaking. We also had face to face time with baboons. They were not shy at all, and even grabbed Emmy's skirt and pulled it pretty hard. It was a fun, interesting but scary experience. We then hiked down to the "Boiling Point" which was very fun going down, but quite a work out coming back up. At the boiling point, we were able to see people white water rafting, and kayaking. The fun part is that we climbed the boulders to different points in which we could just look out and take in God's beautiful creation. After we finished hiking back up, we went to the market for some good finds. We then ate lunch and went swimming at "The Sun", which a beautiful hotel on the Zambezi River. We all had so much fun swimming, and just relaxing in the hot sun.

            Saturday morning was bittersweet. We were so sad to be leaving Livingstone, the Buckners, George, Bertha, and the Smiths. We had such an incredible time with them, but we were comforted knowing that we would see them again before we leave. We were also very excited because we were getting ready to start a new adventure in Macha. As we finally arrived, we quickly unloaded and made ourselves feel at home. We happy when we found out there were some Norwegian Medical Students living with us for a few day. After dinner, Leah and Maureen held "Saturday Night Fun Night." The Lord gave us the idea to do a painting night centered around His creation in Africa specifically. We turned worship music, as each girl ate cookies, drank lemonade or tea and painted a picture of something beautiful in God's creation that stood out to them while we have been here. We were impressed at how many artists we have on the team, but everyone’s paintings were absolutely beautiful. It was such a fun night to reflect on the Lord's creation.

            In the short time we have already been here, we have already created incredible friendships. We have been playing sports at 4:00 pm every day with the Norwegians and people from the community. We had our first clinicals already and have connected very well so far with the other nursing students. It has been fun to work together and get to know them all.

            Another huge blessing this week is the coming of Dr. Marilyn Simons! We could not wait for here to get here, and will be starting class this week.

            Please continue to pray for the team, against any schemes of the devil, and as we dive hard into our studies. Pray that as we have a month left, that we would continue to live in each day for what God has for us.

            We love and miss you all!

-Leah and Maureen :)

Long awaited Update from Papa Mike and Cindy Honey

Dear Family, Friends, Prayers and Supporters,

Greetings in Jesus Name to you all on the 7th week of the Zambia Abroad Program!

Mike and Cindy Helvie are writing to you this week. We serve as the Resident Directors or Program Directors for this year’s team. We get to do many rewarding things like plan activities for emotional and spiritual well being of the team. We also take very seriously the safety of our 18 ladies. Mike has gotten the name of “Papa Mike” and he has had to step in at times, to keep single men a safe distance away from our lovely ladies.  I find myself on my knees in prayer for wisdom and discernment as we minister to Zambians and our team.

We are thrilled to be able to return to Zambia, a country we served in from 2009-2012 as missionaries and lecturers at Pilgrim Wesleyan Bible College. We love introducing the students to people and special places we know from our years of service in Zambia. We also served in South Africa and Albania and have been missionaries for over 23 years.

Let us review the past two weeks. The students had clinicals at Zimba Mission Hospital. There were also optional Friday clinicals on the Maternity ward. Highlights that the students told us about were: observing surgeries, learning about HIV/AIDS in the Antiretroviral clinic, and helping to do diagnostic tests in the hospital lab. The ward charge nurse Paul Banda helped some students put in IV’s! The biggest excitement was assisting with births. Students were so surprised that Zambian ladies rarely cried out and that some births happened within minutes of the mother’s arriving (these moms are very experienced with childbirth and for many of them this is their 7^th or more child)!

We had many travel days. We traveled to Choma for ministry with EMIZ/Poetice. On a home visit we sat on the ground with some 20 family members of all ages while the father read from the Bible in His native language.

We went to Livingstone to renew our visas. Many documents were requested and prepared by Ken Buckner of the mission “Come Go with Us.” We went in the immigration offices with some trepidation and much prayer. We left by the end of the day with 20 temporary work permits!! Thank-you Lord!

A fun long day of travel was to Pilgrim Wesleyan Bible College in Jembo where we had served for over 3 years. On the way there we had our van break down but thankfully our faithful driver Lovemore grabbed his tools and crawled under the van to the accompaniment of  “Silent Night” playing loudly on the CD player. We made it in time for chapel where the group sang “Jehovah Has the Final Say” and Mike preached. A highlight was playing volleyball, some of the students also received marriage proposals! Papa Mike was there to negotiate the bride price in cows but in the end it was too high for the Bible college students.

It was a sad day when we left Zimba to come to Livingstone. We had made many friends in our four weeks there. We found the welcoming home of Ken and Karen Buckner. We said “Good-bye” to Professor Marcie Baird with a celebration on the sunset deck at the Royal Livingstone Hotel. We got close to four giraffe and a herd of zebra!

Testimony night was especially meaningful as Sarah, Sarita and Kayla opened their hearts to us. We had many tears and prayers. The candlelight worship night that was organized by Lisa and Sarita helped us to experience God’s presence in a very deep way.

After a day of ministry in the bush we came in and found we had a surprise visitor from the US. The girls came in and screamed as they embraced Shelli Rowley our Zambia Program Coordinator/Mom/Prayer Warrior from IWU. Shelli gave out the care packages that parents had so carefully prepared. There was so much joy and laughter as the girls enjoyed reading the notes, seeing the treats and eating them!

Ministry in Livingstone has included: A Health Fair where students set up booths and taught on: blood pressure, wound care, hydration, and purity.  We also have done three Vacation Bible Schools. The last one we found we had over 200 children! We showed a film on Joseph’s life at Ebenezer Children’s Home and talked to the older boys and girls about purity. We were impressed with the nurturing atmosphere of the home.

Yesterday the team attended Kabuyu church. The church and Pastor Paul prepared Nshima, chicken, and gravy. Some girls even tried Chibawantu, a traditional drink with ground corn in it.

We have enjoyed the hospitality of Ken and Karen Buckner and “Come Go with Us” mission. Mama Karen prepares wonderful meals and Ken is a great organizer. He even brought us gelato (Italian ice cream) as a special treat on a hot day! (Actually all the days have been hot with temperatures over 100 degrees it does cool down at night).

We have seen God’s faithfulness in so many areas: safety, relationships, ministry, visa’s and completing university assignments.

Thanks for your prayers!

In Christ’s Love and Service,

Mike and Cindy Helvie