We finally moved into our permanent housing – yea! The house is not too far from where we were living, so this past weekend I made several trips back and forth moving our items. The good news is that we have yet to receive our household goods shipment so there wasn’t too much to move. The bad news is we are back to living out of suite cases, at least for the time being. For some reason the car I was using (a loaner from the US Embassy) wouldn’t start Saturday. It turned out to be a dead battery so we were back in business after a jump. I discovered that they use car batteries which require water and ours seemed a bit dry, so I topped it up (distilled water of course) and so far so good. This brought back memories of Auto shop at Lane Tech, 1977. I remember my teacher was excited as he explained these new things called maintenance free batteries which were just coming out! Not sure why the fad has missed Zambia. At least something I learned from shop class is still relevant, I certainly won’t be rebuilding any circa 1977 carburetors anytime soon (an inside joke, you had to be in Mr. Chaufness’ class to get this one)! I am trying to think of some sermon illustration – one needs to fill your battery (water – Spirit?) if you are going have the energy to get moving for God…mmm, maybe.
Amy is attending Tumekutana (http://www.tumekutana.com/) in Rwanda this week and will travel from there to Houston for the Board meeting of the Medical Benevolence Foundation (www.mbfoundation.org). Keep her in prayer as it is an exhausting 10 days. Her first flight was scheduled to leave Lusaka at 12:20 am but departed closer to 3 am, in part due to a drunken brawl on board! So it was not a great start to a difficult stretch of traveling. Also, please prayer for the MBF Board as they continue a search for a new director. We are struggling at home to make it without her, but Ruth especially has pitched in with cooking, and I have discovered Zambian ‘fast’ food.
Tomorrow the boys will celebrate UN day and they need to bring some food item representing their home country. I have thought of things like hotdogs, potato chips, peanut butter (George Washington Carver – Chris suggested this one, he loves peanut butter and was rightfully impressed when he studied Carver’s life). I thought the peanut butter one was brilliant – I could make a bunch of small PBJ sandwiches…then I noticed the letter to parents forbidding peanuts! So I have settled on apple pie – I will bake two tonight. What’s more American than apple pie?
The next big event is that the used cars that we ordered from Japan are scheduled to arrive in port by Friday. Then begins the overland journey and various clearances of borders – apparently some new rules in Zimbabwe have added significant delays to car transportation. Ever the scientist I am running an experiment – we ordered from two different companies a few weeks apart. I planned to see who would be faster. Turns out the cars are on the same ship. It will off load our Land Cruiser in Maputo Mozambique on October 20th and our Gaia (a Toyota minivan with 4 wheel drive) in Durban on October 21st. then its an overland race to Lusaka! I’ll keep you posted on the winner.
Friday morning I will be preaching at the Chapel service for Justo Mwale Seminary (www.justomwale.net). I am hopeful that God will use this time, both to encourage the students and faculty, as well as to help me get a better sense of my role there.
Finally, in the interest of full disclosure, and so we don’t give anyone the impression that life is too difficult, the new house has a swimming pool (small but nice) and its own tennis court…not too bad! We are hoping to open our home to the many missionaries we are getting to know as well as the Peace Corps volunteers who often visit Lusaka from the rural areas, where they don’t get to relax in such nice surroundings. It also has a lovely guest room – so plan a visit!
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