We have now been in Lusaka for a bit over a month, and we are settling in quite well. We owe a gigantic thank you to the Paul family who previously lived in the house we are now renting. They put a lot of work into preparing the property for us and sending us instructions on what to do when we have power outages, run out of water, or any of the other oddities of Zambian life occur.
Life in Zambia is an odd mixture of comfort and inconveniences. For instance, our house has a swimming pool which is pretty luxurious for us, but our faucets frequently run out of water mid shower or while washing dishes. This is separate from our drinking water which we buy in large containers at the grocery store. Power outages, “load shedding”, are a very common occurrence. So far we have not had power for about one third of the days we have been here. Thankfully we have a generator that powers the refrigerator, freezer, and lights when the power is out. A number of other routine tasks take a little additional energy here. The mosquitoes are plentiful! So the kids sleep under mosquito nets. Prior to putting nets up over the beds the kids were covered in bites. Driving is especially exciting and entertaining as most intersections are uncontrolled and you have to rely on telepathy with your fellow motorists to negotiate intersections with minimal honking. That being said, we have seen relatively few accidents. Isaac was pulled over once by the police (expired tags), but thankfully he had some ACU students on board to help me figure out what to do.
Since coming here we have learned a lot more about some of the challenges for the church here. While almost everyone would call themselves a Christian, there is a lot of residual witchcraft even in the church. In some cases you may have someone who is a pastor but also a witch doctor! It is a challenging environment. Many of the buses have Bible verses on them, but this may have as much to do with superstition as a love of God’s word. In some ways Zambia may be considered a cautionary tale of legislating Christianity prior to Christianity truly taking root in people's hearts.
At work, I have been reviewing old student theses for possible publication, finishing up the overdue lab manuals, and writing on the role of liberal arts and Chrisitan ethos in an agriculture degree. We have also been having students over to our home and going on field trips to various farms with the students. The field trips are very useful for me to learn about agricultural practices in Zambia. The agriculture students at ACU are great bunch and we love spending time with them!
In our last prayer letter we asked for prayer in finding a church. We have been attending a Reformed Anglican Church which is a mission plant from the Reformed Evangelical Anglican Church in South Africa. It is a small church of 25-35 people, but we have really enjoyed going there. We plan on visiting some other churches before we fully settle down.
Another prayer request was that we'd find a good doctor or midwife for prenatal care and the baby's birth. God has already answered that prayer in some ways! After meeting with a few different local doctors and midwives, we were feeling very discouraged. The doctors are very quick to induce and do C-sections (which is bad news for us as our babies have all been fairly late and on the big side) and home births are discouraged. A couple of weeks ago Isaac was meeting with friends for coffee and was approached by a lady from the U.S. who saw his ACU shirt. It turned out that she is a midwife who is licensed here in Zambia, and also a fellow believer! It's pretty incredible how God orchestrated the meeting (there were so many crazy little details in it that were evidently God's hand at work)! Isaac exchanged contact info with her and Faith was able to meet with her last week and discuss plans. We are feeling the most at peace about the birth than we have this whole pregnancy. God is so good! Thank you all for your prayers!
In addition to adjusting to life here, we have had a number of miscellaneous adventures including taking Esther to the emergency room after splitting her forehead on the concrete! Esther only got two stitches for her head and is healing up quite well. On a completely different note, we visited an elephant orphanage here in Lusaka, which was a big hit with the kids. The baby elephants are ones whose parents were poached so they are being raised up in captivity until they are weaned, then they will be released into the national parks.
In Christ and with much love from Lusaka,
Isaac, Faith, Korinne, Dietrich, Esther, and baby
Esther after her trip to the ER
Baby elephants at the elephant orphanage
Traditional Zambian food with some of Isaac's students
We celebrated Dietrich's 4th birthday earlier this month!
Isaac's students on a field trip to a local farm.
Singing hymns at our church's Independence day celebration.
Our church celebrating Zambian independence day!
The kids very much enjoyed the first rain storm of the season!
Prayer requests:
That Faith and baby would continue to be healthy throughout the rest of the pregnancy (due date is mid December).
That we would be able to serve ACU to the Glory of God.
For ACU, that the institution would keep unity and focus
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