2025 First Quarter Update

Hello friends and family! 

One of our new year's resolutions for 2025 was to send out updates more frequently, and as you can see, we’re failing pretty miserably at that so far. Here’s to doing better the rest of the year!

We’ve been pretty busy over the last few months (thus the lack of updates)! 

God has answered many of our prayers since our last update! One of our major prayer requests was for rain, as Zambia had experienced a terrible drought in 2024. Your prayers were answered and we have actually experienced flooding in the last few months. 

We closed out 2024 by celebrating the marriage of two of our dear friends, Chilambu and Eliel, on December 28th. Korinne was very honored to be a flower girl for them!  

We rang in the new year surrounded by friends at our house! 

The first week of January we had a much needed week of rest and family time with no commitments. It was so nice to catch our breaths and spend time together as a family before our schedules once again filled up.

Faith’s Parents Visit

On January 9th Mama and Papa Bush arrived for a 3 week visit! We took them to Livingstone for a week. While there, we hopped across the border into Botswana for a day and visited Chobe National park. We had a wonderful time there and saw all kinds of wildlife-including a pride of lions fresh off a kill!  Victoria Falls was as amazing as ever, but the water was shockingly low compared to the last time we visited (June 2024), due to last year’s drought. 

Back in Lusaka we had a great time showing my parents around and introducing them to many of our friends here. They got to be here for one of our student fellowship nights, which is always a highlight! Also, Mama Bush taught a crocheting class for some of the ACU girls. We were very sad to see them go, but we’re so thankful for the time we had with them here! 

The work at ACU

The week after they left, classes started back at ACU. Isaac is teaching Chemistry to second year agriculture students and History of Thought (philosophy) to first year students in all majors. This is his second time teaching these courses, and he now has a better grasp on where the students are starting from and how best to teach them. He also helps the part-time lecturers with labs in physics and biology. Teaching biology students how to use a microscope for the first time has been a highlight of the term! Although the students had learned about microscopes in secondary school, they had never actually used microscopes. 

The work at ACU is quite varied and challenging to describe. For example, in a single day Isaac may be marking philosophy papers, lecturing on types of chemical reactions, attending chapel, helping students prepare arguments for disputatio, and discussing personal issues with students. Right now, we are nearing the end of term one and the students are exhausted. Please pray that they will have strength and diligence as they complete the term. 

The bi-weekly student fellowships in our home have become very important for some of the students. Those from outside of Zambia have expressed special gratitude for these times of eating, visiting, story telling, and singing. Our friends, the Pauls (they used to work at ACU and moved back to Canada the same week we arrived in Zambia), were in town for a quick visit  along with a group from their church in Toronto, so we had a special student fellowship night with them. It was a joy to share this fellowship across cultures. 

In march, ACU had a sports day and the students asked Faith to judge the events and give out the awards. The students competed in a number of relays, races, and group activities including tug-of-war, an egg race, foot races, etc.  ACU also had their annual storytelling night which our kids enjoyed immensely. Isaac told a couple of stories and we enjoyed hearing some traditional African tales from some of the students and faculty. 

Please continue to pray for ACU as a University, as ACU is in the process of searching for a new Vice Chancellor. Pray that those involved in the process will have wisdom and discernment. At the beginning of this term, we were able to install solar panels, batteries, and inverters on most of the buildings, which is a massive blessing. This means that, while the students do not frequently have power in the boarding houses, they are able to charge devices on campus. Because we frequently do not have enough textbooks for the students, and we rely heavily on the students being able to read digital texts, the improved power situation is an amazing blessing. 

Home Schooling

Faith and the kids also started back homeschooling the same  week that ACU classes began. Things were a bit rough at first, and it took a while for everyone to get back into a routine after 2+ months off from school! Our homeschool co-op also started back up and we have some new families joining us! We now have a family from Russia, one from South Africa, and a few Zambian families coming. This is another way God is answering your prayers for our family. 

The kids have started going to soccer (football) practice every Saturday morning, which has been really fun, and an answer to prayers, as we’ve met several other families there with kids the same ages as ours. One family has even joined our homeschool co-op! 

The Kids participated in a science fair with about 15 other kids. We did a project on identifying animal tracks by taking casts of the tracks then using books (and Google) to find out what animal made them. We found  giraffe, wildebeest and impala tracks, as well as a couple others that we had trouble identifying. Korinne was nervous about talking to so many people at the fair, but once she got the hang of presenting and talking about the project, she did an amazing job! 

Rain and Homelife

Thankfully we have had lots of rain over the last couple of months, praise the Lord! This also is an answer to your prayers! In the abundance of the blessing of rain we have actually experienced some flooding in parts of Lusaka. A family from our church lost about half of their books to water damage when their house was flooded during heavy rains. The rains mean that power and food issues should not be as difficult in the coming year. However, recent reports showed that the reservoirs were already beginning to fall which is an ominous sign when considering the electricity outlook for 2025. 

Another not so fun part about more rain. All of the girls got putzi flies due to our laundry not drying out sufficiently. Putsi flies lay their eggs in the soil and on damp fabric,  then when they come into contact with skin (human or animal) they hatch and burrow into the skin until mature, then they wiggle their way out. They are very uncomfortable, and can get pretty painful as they grow. Thankfully they’re not too hard to get rid of. A little Vaseline makes them start to come out for air, then they’re pretty easy to pop the rest of the way out by squeezing. Needless to say, they’re not fun to get. (I'll be nice and won't include pictures).Our dog also got a whole bunch and was pretty miserable, it was quite a bit harder to get them out of him.

In March we threw a surprise birthday party for a friend’s 30th, and we also celebrated Faith’s birthday with a few friends. We are really missing everyone back home! We have 2 new nephews and a niece that have all arrived in the last 2 months, and 3 more of our sisters/sister-in-laws are expecting in the next few months! As much as we love life in Zambia, we sure wish we weren't quite so far away from our families and friends back home! 

It’s hard to believe it’s already April! Time is really flying by! 

With much Love,

The Madsens

Prayer requests: 

• Good health, we’ve been struggling with sickness over the last couple of months. 

• Wisdom as we continue to consider extending our work at ACU into 2026 and beyond.

• Pray for the work at ACU that we would be able to faithfully disciple the students.

• That our kids would be able to make good friends here in Lusaka.