A Doggy Blog!!

Wanted to do a blog today but there isn't much to update on so.........

I thought I would do a doggy blog.....

I recently adopted 2 more dogs. I say adopted but I guess I maybe should say re-adopted. The two new guys were with me at Grace when I was there.  Jehoshaphat and Boaz will be great for the farm when we move.

Here are some pictures of the new boys

King Jehoshaphat

Boaz

Boaz and Akayla love to play!

finally tired out!

No doggy blog is complete without Kayjn

This is our favorite spot on the mountain at the farm.... Kayla has dug out a bed for herself.

Focus

Things have been challenging to say the least. This paperwork is taking so much longer than I had hoped. And with the well coming up dry and the rain season just around the corner building will be put on hold until after the rains are over... probably next April some time.

Of course there are many things to do still like fixing the community road that will allow access to the farm even in the rains. And I am really hoping to get the bore hole put in during this dry season as it is the best time to drill.

I had hoped to get some things moving and houses built so we could move to the farm soon but since nothing is going according to plan we have decided to shift our focus.

Instead of waiting to move we have decided to try to get some outreach programs going now. We have 3 ideas at the moment.

First we want to get a football league going. On our next trip we will work on clearing land for a football pitch (soccer that is ) and talk to the youth. We are hoping the youth from different villages will want to compete against each other.... if not then we will try the church youth groups. They can be coming to practice at the pitch and we should be able to organize a tournament for them with some prizes.

Second, we will talk to the people at the ministry of health to see if they would be willing to conduct under 5 clinics at our place. The closest one for the ladies right now is quite a far walk for some of the villages. We would have to build an insaka (a small shelter of wood and grass) and whenever we are there we could provide transport for the health personnel.  In future, when we have moved that side this could easily become a feeding program.

Third, we also want to talk to the churches that are out in that area. There is a Catholic church and a Seventh Day and a couple other non-functioning churches.  We would like to talk with the pastors and explain that we are not a church and are not after their membership but that we would like to work together with them. We could invite people (from all the churches) to come for some bible studies and teaching times and general encouraging of unity.  Being is such a rural area we were thinking this is the best way to reach people that are so spread out.  These meetings could use the same insaka that we intent to put up.

We really think this is a good idea to shift our focus to more ministry related activities. Please pray for us as we talk to the people in that area that they would be receptive and respond to the gospel.

september trip

We just recently returned from another trip to the farm.

We had gone with 3 things in mind.

First, we wanted to check on the well to see if the boys had found water..... they did not. Even after 20 meters the hole was dry. We will have to drill a bore hole instead. We have been getting prices. So far the prices range from 15,000K to 30,000. I am waiting for another quotation from a friend and then we will see what can be done.

Second, we went to put a fire break around our young pine trees. We had tried to get back up to the farm quickly but we still found the hills covered with smoke and ash. We were too late. The fires had already swept through. Fortunately we did not loose all our trees but we did loose some.

Third, we also went to follow up on the map issue again. We managed to get the map stamped by the three necessary offices. Upon returning to Ndola we took the papers to the lands office only to find that the man who said he would help us is in Kitwe for 3 weeks and his boss was sick. We will need to try to follow up again this week.

So all in all it was not a productive trip. Things did not go according to plan..... but as my friend reminded me.... "whose plan?"

We keep believing and pushing and praying.... We value your prayers and support.

Thank you to everyone who is standing with us.

God bless you.

Well

We traveled to Mpika on Aug 11. My goal was to dig a well. Once the we found water I wanted to start making bricks.  Unfortunately even when we left on Aug 27 they had not yet found water. They had already dug to a depth of 15 meters but still no water. I am, however, still hopeful that even after we left they managed.

I just wanted to post a few photos of the digging. It is such a hard job doing everything by hand.

GPS

Hello once again. I thought I would write just a short blog this morning to keep everyone up to date.

We are planning our next Mpika trip on 11th August and are hoping to stay for 2 weeks again this time. I am asking if God lays us on your heart that you would continue to pray for us. Please pray for protection as we travel and also as we stay in the bush at the farm. Please pray for God's favor and grace so that we can accomplish many things on this trip.

I want to thank God for providing us with a GPS. We are very thankful for it and are optimistic that it will help us to make some positive progress.

I say a big thank you once again to all of our supporters. We thank you for your encouragement, your prayers and also your financial gifts. We appreciate so very much that you are sticking with us even though things are moving so slowly.  We believe God is in control and that He knows exactly what He is doing (even if we do not always!).

May God bless you and keep you and make His face to shine upon you and grant you peace!

God is so Faithful

I wanted to write this blog for a couple reasons.

First, I want to thank all those people who have been praying and do continue to pray for us. Without your prayers and support we would not be able to even survive. Without God's help and His continued faithfulness we would not be able to continue or even be alive for that matter.  So a very big Thank you !!!!

Because of your prayers I really believe a breakthrough is coming.... how? what? when? I do not know, I just feel a sense of anticipation in my spirit. I am so thankful to God for the things He has been teaching me. I have been reading a book by Mike Bickle called "After God's Own Heart" and in there he talks about getting to know the emotions of God..... I am only on chapter 5 and already God has renewed my spirit in ways and places that have been dead for a long time. I simply can not fathom that overwhelming love God has for me, and the fact He actually enjoys me..... that just blows my mind. 

Second, I also wanted to testify of God's protection and faithfulness..... if you will bear with me I would like to share an excerpt from my personal journal.

July 5

"God is faithful..... one day i was walking and its like He said 'read Ps 121'. i knew that was 'i lift my eyes up to the mountains......'   so i thought it was just cause i was so focused on the mountains on the land.

i read the rest of it and it's about 'the God who watches over Israel never sleeps or slumbers' and 'as the mountains surround Jerusalem so He surrounds His people' and 'the sun will not harm you by day nor the moon by night'.

when i got home from the farm i had this bemba song, Talala, in my head. i said to myself "why am i singing a bemba song when i hardly even know what it means?"

it's like God said He liked that song and it meant that He never sleeps, so it reminded me again of Ps 121.

then i finally clued in! He was trying to show me how much He had been protecting us....

on the trip we were almost hit by a semi not once but 3 times.

the first was on the way there. we were parked at a lay by and this semi swerved off the road like a crazy man and sped through the lay by. we were still in the car. Praise God i was not out with the dog and also that i had parked on the inside .... praise God not the other side or he would have hit us for sure.

then on the way home there was a semi passing another semi and he was not going to make it back in so i just slowed right down. didn't really even think much about that one until......

on the Kabwe road it happened again. but this time the semi was trying to pass a whole row of semis (prob 5 or 6) and there was no way he was going to get back in so he actually ran me off the road. if he had gone off at that speed he would have overturned for sure so it was better i went off the road as i had slowed right down already. Praise God it was at a point it was even possible to get off as that road has so many places where it would not have been possible.

so when i remembered all that i thought truly our God never sleeps nor slumbers but He ALWAYS watches over His children.

almost seems like someone is out to get me... what the enemy might not know is that instead of adding to my desire to give up and go home it actually make me want to stay..... that i might be doing the right thing.

Praise God for His Protection."

Truly our God never Sleeps nor Slumbers..... talala Yesu!

Other Interesting Finds

On our last trip we also found a couple things people might find interesting......

this is a local trap used for catching small game such as rabbits and rodents.

I almost walked into this spider's web... but thankfully I did not!
 

Boundary

We traveled to Mpika the end of June/ beginning of July and were able to do a complete boundary cut line.  It was important to get that done since many people are coming to that area looking for land and we didn't want our land to be given to a new comer by mistake.

Here are some pictures......

One Step Forward

On our recent trip to Mpika we were able to obtain the letter from the city council that we have been waiting for for months...... We praise God for that!!!!!!

We were able to work on the road and finished just over a kilometer. This may not sound like much but  considering it is all done by hand it is quite a distance.

Every tree had to be chopped down with an axe

The road winds back towards the mountain.

Could it be true?

We are planning to travel to Mpika on May 5th and stay till May 17th.

We will follow up on paperwork both at the city council and at the ministry of agriculture.
Please pray we find favor and that we are able to obtain ALL the necessary papers we need to actually move to the next step.

We plan to camp at the farm and hope to do a bit of work..... I have a list of simple things to start with and we pray that we actually make some headway.......

Could it be that we are finally going to start? We are very hopeful.

Please continue to pray for us.  First about the paperwork but also for wisdom, favor, protection and especially that we would find honest, hardworking people of integrity to work with.

Thank you SO very much for your continued support and encouragement.

God bless you

A Step Forward?

In the last blog were waiting for the Mpika city council to meet on Feb 6th. That meeting took place as scheduled. I traveled to Mpika to attend the meeting and interviews regarding our application. The interview went very well but the meeting was inconclusive. We were told to wait for the "full"council meeting to be held March 31st. ........    So again we waited.

March 31st came and the meeting was postponed to the following week.          So we waited.

The following Monday the meeting did take place but it turned into a two day meeting and finally concluded on Tuesday.

When I phoned on Friday they told me that the application had been approved.  Praise God for that. Unfortunately they were not able to tell me when the letter of recommendation would be ready. I will make a follow up phone call in the next week or so.

When the letter is ready we will travel to Mpika to collect all the papers and bring them back to Ndola for approval.

So we may have actually taken a step forward. I hesitate to get too excited until we actually have the papers in hand but at least there seems to be a trickle of light showing through at the end of this long tunnel of waiting.

Thank you to everyone for all your prayers. Please continue to stand with us in prayer.

God bless you all

Paperwork

Let me start off 2014 with a brief update on how the paperwork is going for the farm.

The papers are with the Mpika city council and they are to be looked at during the next scheduled meeting which is to be February 6. I intend to travel and attend that meeting in order to ensure the papers are considered and not pushed to a later date.

Please pray that things finally start moving forward and that the paperwork is looked at favorably. Also pray that all the paperwork finishes soon so we can be granted the title deed.

Thanks to everyone and Happy New Year