2nd Team

Its been really wonderful to hear that so many folk have been reading my blog, and that Team 2 found it helpful before they arrived. They have now been out here for a week – one of the guys said to me this morning that it feels as though he has been in Zambia forever and would love to stay. In fact so many people do want to come back, I've just heard from Ella who was with the 1st team that she tried to book for team 3 but unfortunately we are full to busting so its just not possible. We still have places available on the 4th and 5th teams but of course that's out of school holiday time so not possible for so many people.

So life in Lusaka continues – I had a wonderful birthday and the biggest cake – it even had candles and I was thrilled that Anna managed to phone me, I just hope it didn't cost her too much as I don't expect she used the cheap number. Last week it was so cold we had to get extra blankets for everyone, but this week its been warmer and today really hot – I had to get out my sun hat.

Today we've been really busy – we started at the House of Moses feeding the babies and toddlers (37 in total) and then went to Kaunda Square where the local church was holding a clinic, they provide this free service once a month in different locations. Doctors from the university teaching hospital volunteer their time and the local home based care workers work as voluntary staff. We arrived at about 11.30am, they had already seen about 50 people when we arrived – usually they see between 180-200 patients. They start by weighing and measuring height and taking patient details, then they have their blood pressure taken, are tested for diabetics, given an eye test and have the chance to talk to a doctor. The church provides medicine, so its a really amazing service, Faith in Action. This morning in my devotion group we studied James 2 where he talks about Faith and Deeds, here we see how a group of folk have set up a church in a really poor neighbourhood, their main outreach is too the poor, sick and marginalised – in this place they have followed this teaching in a way that is so inspirational.

So many people we met, have very little materially but their faith is as high as mountains, they truly believe that they have been saved, they proclaim the kingship of our Lord Jesus Christ at every opportunity. They are not shy about sharing their blessings and welcome us into their homes. I have been so blessed to receive this welcome, this sense of kinship in the love of Jesus. Knowing that we are all brothers and sisters, that in Christ there is no black or white, disability or ability – we are all equal in His sight if we love and follow him.

On the subject of blessings and answered prayer, our coach window was mended, the insurance came through to pay for it. We are now praying that our next trip down to Livingston will be uneventful and that more of the new road will be opened up for us to use.

We are now down in Livingstone, another hard journey – on the way we saw 2 overturned lorries, neither of them were small – the trailers were on their backs looking very sorry for themselves with the load spread all around. One only just landing on the railway line so I guess that will cause all sorts of problems. It was extremely hot as we motored towards Livingstone and once we hit the dirt road we had to shut off all fans and windows as the dust was really bad. I just kept praying the we would be surrounded by God's angels who would surround the coach with their protective presence as so many other vehicles were going really fast and could easily have sent another stone winging its way towards us.

This afternoon we took the team down to the Zambezi for a sunset cruise. The colours were amazing God is amazing to have created such a beautiful place. As the sun sunk below the horizon the river was coloured the most amazing pinky red, if anyone tried to paint a river with these colours we wouldn't have believed that they could be real.
So hear I am back from Livingstone, Dorne who is working for 3 months at MacDonald's Farm came to stay on Monday for 2 nights. She was such a blessing, we talked an prayed together she was such wonderful company, on Tuesday night we went to the internet café at Arcades and had a very companionable time catching up with emails and Facebook friends. I didn't get time to copy this into blogspot so it will have to wait until next time I can go on line.

I would really appreciate your prayer for a family that I went to visit on Tuesday afternoon. I went with Eunice and Evelyn who look after the guest houses, the mother was Eunice's sister in law, she had died on Friday ('whilst I was in Livingstone) leaving 8 children aged 3 – 22yrs and 2 grandchildren. Her husband had left her for another lady who he is now married to. He will have nothing to do with the children, the close family do not have the means or room to take the family on so the mother's sisters feel it would be better for the 4 younger children to go back to the mothers village and live with their grandmother which would leave the 4 older girls to fend for themselves financially, but they could keep an eye on them. The two younger girls should be in school but neither can afford to go, at the moment these older girls plait hair which just about pays the rent and buys a little food. They live in two rooms with a very smelly outside privy which is shared by several other families, they don't have any furniture, we sat on bamboo mats on the floor. But before anything can happen they need about £50 for the fare to get the small children to the grandmothers village. I'm feeling that God is saying to me that I should give them this money, I've already given them about £18 to pay for some food to keep them going so do please pray that I am making the right decision. This won't of course help the older girls who need to return to school but I can't take on that kind of commitment. After I wrote this I ha an email offering me £50, so I've given them the money

I feel so privileged to be here, how many folk in the UK would welcome you into their home and then ask you to pray for them, my prayers seem so inadequate but I know that God honours our prayers; so I pray for his continued love for this family and to give me wisdom in using my resources wisely.

I've also been really sad to hear that my brother in law, Jim is in hospital – he is very ill and all the family are extremely worried about him. Please do hold him, Sue is wife in your prayers. Jim is out of hospital now, praise the Lord he is home from hospital although still feeling really rough.

I think that's all for now, except you will be pleased to know that I now have a work permit which means I can stay here until 2011! No more visiting the immigration dept to get my passport stamped.

So I pray that God goes with you.

Love Carol

ps I've just spoken to Jon, Katy and Jared on Skype - wonderful to see and hear them