June 2007 printed letter
Word of the day:
Provider: n, 2 a: one who supplies or makes available. In Chewa, ‘amapereka’.
June 2007
Dear friends and family,
I have been dwelling on C.J. Mahaney’s The Cross-Centered Life lately. Yesterday he quoted Sinclair Ferguson’s admonishment, “We need to expend our energies admiring, exploring, expositing, and extolling Jesus Christ.” How much of my life is focused on who I am and what I am doing at the time? Certainly more that I should be focusing outward on refracting Christ’s light to the world!
On that note, let me go about ‘admiring, exploring, expositing, and extolling’ Christ.
Susie and I accepted a short-termer from California, Shannon C., to experience medical missions alongside us from March-the first week of June. Shannon helped us as we finished our first trimester of classes in March, learning how to teach to an audience of Zambians.
January to March was a great three months, even if neither Susan or I feels gifted to teach formally. I really saw the benefit and was glad when we decided to continue our classes with Living Waters schoolteachers in May. It went well with Emmanuel Family home housemothers and Venter Baptist Church. The church, partially as a result of the classes, have been accepted to host an under five clinic to serve their community- right out of their church building! Please pray for them with this awesome outreach opportunity.
During April school break we promptly took off on vacation to Zanzibar along with all the single ‘girls’ living on the Farm! Megan, Shannon S.- my roommate and teammate from our 2004 Zambia trip who is here for a year, Susie, Shannon C., Lydia- here for 3 months, and I had a refreshing time on the beach, swimming with dophins, eating TONS of seafood, and touring Stone Town before we returned to ‘normal’ life. What a wonderful blessing to be somewhere so beautiful- kind of makes you wish you were a missionary in Africa, doesn’t it? ;)
During March God orchestrated a very strategic meeting between Action Zambia and an organization called Missionary Ventures International (MVI). Both are like-minded in their ministry strategy, but MVI has a current hands-on medical ministry that formed out of the need seen in their area… and they have been praying for full-time workers to come alongside them. As you may imagine, this perked the interest of Susan and myself.
MVI’s missionary family live in Sinazongwe which is about 6 hours south of Lusaka in a little-developed area. Though they have a hospital, it is understaffed and has few resources- they often refer patients to MVI for practical help. The Engelbrechts do pastor training and have also found medical clinics helpful for the pastors to use as a route of outreach to their communities. Check them out at: www.mvzambia.com.
Action Zambia and Missionary Ventures International have since formed a partnership agreement that will allow Susie and I to work alongside MVI from August to December of this year to help with the medical need. At that point we will reassess our involvement. We are so excited to see how this unfolds!
The end of May Susie, Shannon C., and myself traveled down to Sinzongwe for two weeks to see first-hand the work going on. We met Fanwell and Agnes, Zambians who have been an invaluable help to MVI learning to do HIV counseling and medical work. In seven clinic days we were able to see over 200 people! Many were simply colds and allergies that never get attention because of the lack of medical care in the valley. Others came for Malaria tests we were able to perform with our microscope or deworming for persistent problems. We had a prenatal day where we saw about 15 pregnant women and other people in their community.
My favorite was when we traveled a few hours off the beaten track to a church plant site for Mbole church. While Susie and I saw patients, along with Fanwell and Agnes, the church planters were able to pray with patients. That night they showed the Jesus Film and had a great response from the crowd- what an awesome partnership between treating physical and spiritual needs!
Back in Lusaka our classes with Living Waters teachers continue… but they look a little different this time around. Susie, Shannon C., and I made simple fact sheets instead of lessons and pairs of teachers volunteer to create the lessons we usually taught and teach them to each other. They have done a wonderful job of preparing, coming up with creative ideas, and stretching themselves. We came up with this idea so that when we leave for the third trimester, September to November, we can leave all the fact sheets and give them a whole year’s worth of simple medical lessons.
Thank you for your continued prayers for our ever-changing ministry here in Zambia. Susie and I both retook our nursing and midwifery exams, respectively, June 7th after failing in November. But, despite what can seem frustrating at times, we know that God is our Provider- both to provide what we need and to deny us what we think we need. To Him be the glory!
Stephanie
P.S. Once again, sorry about my format not being anything special- one of these days I'd love to figure out how to transplant my Word document with pictures onto here, but for now, all the pictures used are in other blogs or on my picture page. Thanks!
Provider: n, 2 a: one who supplies or makes available. In Chewa, ‘amapereka’.
June 2007
Dear friends and family,
I have been dwelling on C.J. Mahaney’s The Cross-Centered Life lately. Yesterday he quoted Sinclair Ferguson’s admonishment, “We need to expend our energies admiring, exploring, expositing, and extolling Jesus Christ.” How much of my life is focused on who I am and what I am doing at the time? Certainly more that I should be focusing outward on refracting Christ’s light to the world!
On that note, let me go about ‘admiring, exploring, expositing, and extolling’ Christ.
Susie and I accepted a short-termer from California, Shannon C., to experience medical missions alongside us from March-the first week of June. Shannon helped us as we finished our first trimester of classes in March, learning how to teach to an audience of Zambians.
January to March was a great three months, even if neither Susan or I feels gifted to teach formally. I really saw the benefit and was glad when we decided to continue our classes with Living Waters schoolteachers in May. It went well with Emmanuel Family home housemothers and Venter Baptist Church. The church, partially as a result of the classes, have been accepted to host an under five clinic to serve their community- right out of their church building! Please pray for them with this awesome outreach opportunity.
During April school break we promptly took off on vacation to Zanzibar along with all the single ‘girls’ living on the Farm! Megan, Shannon S.- my roommate and teammate from our 2004 Zambia trip who is here for a year, Susie, Shannon C., Lydia- here for 3 months, and I had a refreshing time on the beach, swimming with dophins, eating TONS of seafood, and touring Stone Town before we returned to ‘normal’ life. What a wonderful blessing to be somewhere so beautiful- kind of makes you wish you were a missionary in Africa, doesn’t it? ;)
During March God orchestrated a very strategic meeting between Action Zambia and an organization called Missionary Ventures International (MVI). Both are like-minded in their ministry strategy, but MVI has a current hands-on medical ministry that formed out of the need seen in their area… and they have been praying for full-time workers to come alongside them. As you may imagine, this perked the interest of Susan and myself.
MVI’s missionary family live in Sinazongwe which is about 6 hours south of Lusaka in a little-developed area. Though they have a hospital, it is understaffed and has few resources- they often refer patients to MVI for practical help. The Engelbrechts do pastor training and have also found medical clinics helpful for the pastors to use as a route of outreach to their communities. Check them out at: www.mvzambia.com.
Action Zambia and Missionary Ventures International have since formed a partnership agreement that will allow Susie and I to work alongside MVI from August to December of this year to help with the medical need. At that point we will reassess our involvement. We are so excited to see how this unfolds!
The end of May Susie, Shannon C., and myself traveled down to Sinzongwe for two weeks to see first-hand the work going on. We met Fanwell and Agnes, Zambians who have been an invaluable help to MVI learning to do HIV counseling and medical work. In seven clinic days we were able to see over 200 people! Many were simply colds and allergies that never get attention because of the lack of medical care in the valley. Others came for Malaria tests we were able to perform with our microscope or deworming for persistent problems. We had a prenatal day where we saw about 15 pregnant women and other people in their community.
My favorite was when we traveled a few hours off the beaten track to a church plant site for Mbole church. While Susie and I saw patients, along with Fanwell and Agnes, the church planters were able to pray with patients. That night they showed the Jesus Film and had a great response from the crowd- what an awesome partnership between treating physical and spiritual needs!
Back in Lusaka our classes with Living Waters teachers continue… but they look a little different this time around. Susie, Shannon C., and I made simple fact sheets instead of lessons and pairs of teachers volunteer to create the lessons we usually taught and teach them to each other. They have done a wonderful job of preparing, coming up with creative ideas, and stretching themselves. We came up with this idea so that when we leave for the third trimester, September to November, we can leave all the fact sheets and give them a whole year’s worth of simple medical lessons.
Thank you for your continued prayers for our ever-changing ministry here in Zambia. Susie and I both retook our nursing and midwifery exams, respectively, June 7th after failing in November. But, despite what can seem frustrating at times, we know that God is our Provider- both to provide what we need and to deny us what we think we need. To Him be the glory!
Stephanie
P.S. Once again, sorry about my format not being anything special- one of these days I'd love to figure out how to transplant my Word document with pictures onto here, but for now, all the pictures used are in other blogs or on my picture page. Thanks!
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on Friday, July 13, 2007 at 10:13 AM.
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