Seth’s Favorite Meal

On Wednesday night of this week, I stayed up waiting for Steve to get back from Kasama.  One of the night guards there is in the hospital and has been for most of the month.  They still are not sure what he has.  Steve went to visit him and meet the new night guard that was hired by the head guard.

I put our children to bed on most nights around 7 PM.  When they were little they went right to sleep.  Now they are aloud to read until 8 PM, then lights out.

Seth comes to me at 8:30 wanting help in his Language book.  He is working on Thursday’s work!?!?  I ask him why is he still up.  He is to be in bed!  He wanted to get ahead start in his school work so that he can eat his favorite meal.

I ask, “What is your favorite meal?”  You would think a mother might know what her children’s favorite meals are, but I’m sorry to say that I don't.  I know what they like and dislike, but not favorites.  He answered, “Chicken.”  I said, “I’m not making chicken tomorrow.”  He says, “You know, bugs!" with this very cute smile that only Seth can make.  He is up trying to get school work done so he can eat nshima and caterpillars at lunch time!!! :( YUK ! !

You have to know that I have a rule that started when Tobias was in 4th or 5th grade.  He started procrastinating in his school work.  He and I would be up until 10 or 11 PM doing school work.  It got to be very frustrating.  We didn’t watch TV, they didn’t have video games or game boys.  There was nothing to take away from him to encourage him to do better.  So I took away food.  I figured out what was a decent amount of work to be done in order to eat lunch.  They rest of school had to be done in order to eat dinner.  It worked!  He might have only had breakfast one day, but you can be sure he had all three meals the next.  He would relapse and do this every week or so.

I kind of had forgotten this rule, but Lane is now our procrastinator.  Tobias has grown out of it, Thank the Lord!  I don’t think I could survive two at a time.  So I started reminding them of this rule and last week I stared reinforcing it.  On Wednesday, Heather, Lane and Seth were behind in school work.  On Tuesday, Steve had bought the caterpillars in the market!  I personally will never buy them.  Since Steve was going to be gone on Wednesday, the plan was to have our house helper make it for lunch on Thursday.

Since Seth only got 1/2 a sandwich for being slow in school on Wed, he was making sure he got to eat lunch on Thursday since it was his favorite!

Thursday’s Lunch Menu, Seth’s favorite:  nshima, relish – rape and Chinese cabbage mixed, soup, and caterpillars.  All the boys/men in the house love them.  The women hate them.  Actually, we women refuse to try them, so I guess I can’t say we hate them.  I can say they don’t smell good when you cook them! :)

Good Friends

One is five.

One is ten.

One is a girl.

One is a boy.

One is South African.

One is American.

No Siblings to tell us what to do!

Five to ten movies pulled off the shelf.

We can control the remote!

Only the favorite scenes are watched.

Three movies later they settle in to watch one.

Mom says, “No more TV!”

Out the door they go.

Too many bugs at the garbage pit!

“Can we have the matches?”

They take out the garbage.

They light the pit.

They throw the papers in one at a time

Waiting for them to burn.

They use sticks to encourage the fire.

They pick strawberries and wash them.

They eat a few and bring the rest into the house.

“Do you like this?” (Pomegranate)

“No.”

“It is good.”

Knife comes out of pocket.

Pomegranate is opened.

“You just suck on the seed and then spit them out.”

“I know, do you like mulberries”

“Oh, yes! They are like blackberries”

Off they go to pick berries.

Shirt is pulled out and berries put in!

They to make it into the house.

They climb a tree.

They take turns climbing the light pole

With a toy gun slung over their backs.

Military training I am told.

They hunch down and dig in the dirt.

They stand around talking.

They climb the ladder to the top of the pump house.

They check out what is over the wall.

They stand around and talk some more.

Now they climb the wash line pole.

One is five.

One is ten.

One is a girl.

One is a boy.

One is South African.

One is American.

Both live in Zambia

Both are good friends!

Where in the World are the Schwarz’s Anyway.

This was also in our last newsletter written by Steve.

Zambia is smack in the middle of Southern Africa.  Steve had it nicely outlined and I hoped to copy and past and it didn't work.  If you start at the bottom tip of Africa: that country is South Africa.  Count up one country in the middle: that is Botswana.  Now this map is small and it looks like the next country straight north and right in the middle is Zambia.  I looked at a cloth map we have and Botswana doesn’t touch Zambia, but on the globe a little point does touch Zambia.

ZAMBIA                                       Mbala is up here.

If you can blow this up.  Mbala is listed on this map.  It is in the northern and eastern corner on the Tanzanian boarder.

So how do you get there?  Well, the first thing you do is book a
flight through your travel agent of choice with the destination of Lusaka, Zambia.  The flights most likely take you through South Africa or Europe.  Along the way you will move ahead in time by 6
or 7 hours from the Eastern time zone of America depending the
status of daylight savings time.  Two calendar days later you land
in Lusaka with some jet lag and realize you are still 650 miles
from Mbala!  Buckle up, it’s going to be a bumpy ride.  Actually, the roads to Mbala have improved considerably in the last 18
months.  If you travel hard, the road trip will only take about 12 hours.  Head out of Lusaka on the Great North Road through Kabwe, Kapiri Mposhi, Serenje, and Mpika.  At Mpika take Road
M1 to Kasama (the Northern Province capital) and then on to Mbala. Along the way you won’t see much wildlife as most of the game parks are in western and southern Zambia.  However, the northern landscape can be quite breathtaking especially in the rainy season. Now that you know how to get to us, we are expecting some visits! See you soon!

Article from our January Newletter

by: Steve Schwarz

The Spirit and the bride say, “Come.” And let
the one who hears say, “Come.” And let the one who is
thirsty come; let the one who wishes take the water of
life without cost (Revelation 22:17). In December I
(Steve) began entering the Maround Compound of
Mbala (pictured below) to share the good news of Jesus
Christ with all who would listen. These initial trips
into the area showed that an adjustment needed to be
made in the approach I was using. There is a veneer of
religiosity in most people resulting from years of programs,
events, and crusades. The first home visits revealed
that every person is affiliated with a church,
they all know Jesus, and they are all bound for heaven.
But just in case they needed to do something more for
their salvation, most would pray to receive Christ
again. Something was clearly not right.

The change of approach in January was very
simple but powerful. Instead of quickly entering into
the gospel in one visit, I began slowly working through
the issues on multiple visits while building relationships.
The people are so gracious and accepting that
they readily welcome many visits to their homes. The
first visit includes “get to know you” dialogue and basic
spiritual questions like Do you attend a church?, What
is religion ?, What is Christianity?, What is the Bible?,
and Who is God? The answers to these questions reveal
a great deal about spiritual condition of a person and
give direction for future visits. The second visit continues
to build relationship while going a bit deeper with
questions like Who is Jesus Christ?, What is sin?, Are
you a good person?, and How does a person go to
heaven? At the ready are stories of Adam and Eve and
the Fall of man as well as the encounter of Nicodemus
with Jesus. A third visit provides opportunity for my
personal testimony or a Creation to Christ presentation.  All along love of Christ is demonstrated and gospel truth is being communicated.

A basis fact is that the people here have heard
gospel presentations many times but not as a part of a
complete biblical context. As a result, many who claim
to be saved don’t know who God is or what He is like.
They have no foundation on which to build gospel
truths so the good news becomes a false, legalistic security.
The general consensus is that all a person needs to
do is go to church and pray and he will be made right
with God.

So, what is the answer? A clear, simple understanding
of God’s Word from Genesis through Christ
will be a good place to start. To that end, I will be starting
a weekly Bible study on Saturday February 12th at
one of the local schools. Our prayer is that men and
women will begin to see God as He has revealed Himself
in Scripture and fall in love with Him. By the time
the New Testament is reached in the teachings, there
will be no doubt that Jesus Christ is the only answer to
the sin that separates us all from our loving Father in
Heaven.

This type of teaching will take some time but
those who respond will be true born again believers.
Jesus commanded His followers to make disciples not
get decisions. Praying a prayer does not make someone
a Christian any more than just reading a Bible or going
to church does. I thank the Lord for the direction He has
given us in reaching Mbala for the cause of Christ. May
the result be many Mambwe-Lungu people joining
those from other tribes, tongues, and nations in worshiping
the Lamb at the throne of God (Revelation 5).

 

Ministry has Started

Steve has started going to the Maround Compound to do ministry in the afternoons.  Afternoons were picked because a lot of people are in their fields in the mornings.

Pray for Steve and his language helper as they do this.  For the past year of language we have been working with Christian people.  Most of our workers are Christians.  Steve is finding out just how dark it is here.  What he is doing now is like survey work.  Talking to people and finding out what they know of God, do they believe in heaven and hell, and such questions.  It helps him to know what method of teaching he will need to do.  Does he just go out and witness and then start discipling them.  Or does he need to start at the beginning of the Bible and teach them who is God and that he created everything. 

Pray for his communication skills.  He studied ciBemba.  I think he knows a lot, but to carry on a conversation is difficult.  He has all his questions written out in English and ciBemba, so he can read it.  He does read ciBemba pretty well.  The thing is this isn’t just ciBemba country.  A lot of people are Mambwe and they want to speak that.  He has come across a few other language too.

So pray for Steve as he goes out and does ministry.  Pray that God would open the eyes and ears of people and they would come to know the Lord as their Savior.  Pray for Steve’s language skills.

Also, a big thank you to the IMB for providing us with a 4-wheel drive vehicle.  Steve got stuck the first day.  A friend told him during the rainy season just to keep the hubs locked.  He forgot.  So they got stuck.  All it took to get out was to get out and lock the hubs and turn on the 4-wheel drive button and out of the water hole they drove.  I personally would prefer to avoid all water holes / big mud puddles, but that isn’t always possible.   You just turn on the 4-wheel drive and pray that you make it out the other side.  Steve has been using it every time they go out.

On a side note, it has been raining a lot here.  We had another gully washer yesterday.  I dumped out three inches of rain from my cup.  It rained several times in the night and most of the morning.  I just dumped out another two inches!q