Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas from the Schwarzs here in Zambia!  The teenagers slept in and so we had a late start to our morning.  Steve and Seth don’t sleep in very well.  I forgot to shut the curtain and so the sun was shining in my face at 6 AM.

We did our devotions and then worked together to make breakfast.  It consisted of fresh squeezed OJ, oatmeal bread toast, eggs, and fried potatoes (those are Steve’s specialty).  We also had Krispie Kreme donuts that we had pulled out of the freezer.  I made the dough a few weeks ago and Steve fried them up.  Thanks to Mary Margaret for telling us how good they are out of the freezer.

Steve making donuts!

Lane let these girls in the house the other day.  They love attention from their humans!  Sara and Kenzie, six months old and weighing 50 pounds already.

Merry Christmas to all our family and friends!

Cactus

If you were going to drive to our house and we gave you directions, we would tell you about the tall cactus just outside of our gate.  It is the only cactus like it on our road.  Actually, I haven’t seen any thing like it here in Mbala.  When you have arrived at our gate, you will know you are at the right place because of this tall cactus.

One Sunday, last spring (that is spring in the northern hemisphere) after church we pulled up to our gate.  While waiting for Tobias and Lane to unlock the gate we notice that several of the tall limbs of the cactus had been cut.  Steve thought maybe the wind blew them down.  I’m thinking no way.  It isn’t even the windy season and it has never happened before.  Clement finally remembered that Zesco (electric company) had come by and told him they needed to be trimmed.  They were getting to close the electric wires.  He informed the guy that is was Zesco’s job to trim stuff away from their electric wires.

So we go in and have lunch.  In the middle of lunch, Steve gets up, gets gloves, and goes outside.  He wants to see how heavy they are.  He proceeds to hauling them all into the yard.  We even had to get the ladder out as some were still stuck up in the cactus.

I didn’t think they should go to waste and so asked Clement to plant some along another wall in our yard.  I like the color green in God’s world and this one I wouldn’t have to water!  Best kind of plant to have when you get 6 to 7 months of NO rain.

My long line of cactus soldiers!

These two pictures were taken soon after they were planted.  I was thinking that here at least we would never have to trim them because of electric wires.  But look closely in the picture.  There are electric wires running right down the outside of our wall.  Next hope – maybe they will not grow too fast.

This picture was taken today!  All but three of them have new growth on them.  It starts out as little as the tip of your pinky finger.  The first picture shows the cactus with no new growth and then this is the same cactus.  It grew this much with no rain and we didn’t water them!

July Newsletter

First Baptist Bible School in Mbala

Our first Bible School was a success! As Steve was praying and planning the start of Bible School in Mbala, he felt that a different format may help the students better remember what they learn. Bible School is normally held for six days with four courses being taught. It was decided that a two and a half day format with only one or two courses would be more productive. Instead of having three sessions per year, our format will have a session every two months that rotate between the villages we work in. This is a work in progress that will certainly adapt over time to best meet the discipleship needs.

The first Bible School was held at the Kaseshya Church. They had been meeting in the local school up until one week before the Bible school was held. The school started charging rent, so the people began looking for and praying about a piece of land that they could buy.

Just a few months ago, they bought a piece of property and have been hard at work making bricks. All this has been happening during the harvest season! I’m am surprised at this, but it goes to show how serious they are at getting their own place to worship. In order to meet the needs of Bible School, the Kaseshya people constructed a temporary grass building and built a toilet facility. Construction was finished a week before Bible School started.

Leading up to Bible School, Steve was surprised as the applications kept coming in. His expectation was a class of ten people or less. When class began we had eighteen students in attendance! God is good! The students came from five different villages. Two students even came across the border from Tanzania.

For this first session they studied Old Testament Survey I and New Testament Survey I. They had class on Tuesday and Wednesday from 8AM until 6PM followed by examinations on Thursday morning.

Right across the road from the church lives a man who comes to our Bible study during the week. He is a member of another church but he graciously let us do all of our meal preparation at his home. Three women who were not taking the classes did a wonderful job of cooking and serving breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Other church members opened up their homes for the traveling students to sleep each night. Things went so well that if we didn’t know better, we would think that Bible school in Mbala had been going on for years. The Lord exceedingly and abundantly provided beyond our expectations!

A New Experience for Me - Rita

This past Sunday I took my camera to church for two reasons.  The first one was that I wanted a family picture of us in our Sunday clothes before Tobias leaves us.

The second reason was we were having baptism.

We always stop at this one couple’s house and pick them up and take them to church with us since they are on the way.  Steve said I should take a picture of a Zambian corn crib for my Dad who is a farmer.  So at this couples house I jumped out to take a picture of their corn crib.

When we got to church and had our picture taken, I then took pictures of the two couples already there.  I went in to put my stuff on the school desk and saw the cattle corral out the window.  I decided I would take a picture of that too for my dad.

When I got back outside the lady whose corn crib I took a picture of grabbed my hand and started leading me up the hill.  This was a first for me.  I was being taken somewhere and at first didn’t understand.  She doesn’t speak English and I don’t speak ci-Mambwe. 

But I soon figured it out.  She was taking me to get a picture of a larger corn crib with corn in it.

The pole has notches in it to climb into the crib.

 

I also got pictures of the corn being shelled and the cattle!  After each picture I had to show everybody the picture on the little screen.  So much laughing was going on!!  They loved to see themselves on my little screen.  Much fun was had all around even though we didn’t understand each others words!  And all this before church.

After church we walked down to the stream and three new believers were baptized.  As we finished up a small herd of cows came to get a drink.  Actually, the boys informed me they were all bulls. 

As we were walking back up the road, I heard a small rumble.  I looked back and another herd of cows were running down the road to the water.  We baptized just in time.  Those cows were thirsty.   They ran into the water right where we were.

It was a wonderful day worshipping our Lord and Savior.  Also, a good day to baptize – much warmer than Saturday was.

Mbala Sunset

From the house roof – not good, too many trees

From up in our tree house.  Much better view! 

Going down.

Zoomed in on the going down!

This one is cool, you can see house roofs of our town.

All gone.

I finally got pictures of the sunset here in Mbala, thanks to Tobias.  So many times it is so beautiful but it doesn’t last long.

Birthday, Graduation, Leaving Africa Party

On May 8th Tobias turned 18! My brain doesn’t think I’m old enough to have a child that old.

We had a party for him the weekend before his birthday. Matthew, one of his friends is in boarding school and this is when it suited them to come too. This was the last time he would get to see Matthew.

Joel, Tobias, and Matthew

As the title says it was his 18th Birthday Party, Graduation from High School Party, and (sad) I’m leaving Africa for college Party.

Eighteen candles make a lot of light!

Trick candles!!! Never had this kind before. He blew and blew and the flames just kept coming back! :)

Often when our three families get together the kids have to line up shortest to tallest for the food line. I have never gotten a picture and so wanted one while all four kids are still here in Africa. As you can see, Tobias is the tallest, but he has two years on Joel and Matthew. They have time to catch up.

Opening presents

Fun times visiting with friends

One week after his birthday Steve and Tobias did a Father / son hike with two nights camping.

Tobias did all the planning. Steve didn’t just want to walk on the road from Mbala all the way to the falls. So Tobias got on Google Earth trying to see if he could find trails. He did and they didn’t get lost!! There are no signs to guide you through the bush.

Improvements have been made to the falls area. There now are guard rails! They have places to camp. They also have showers and flush toilets!!

It took them longer to hike it than they expected, so when they got into cell coverage they called for me to come pick them up.

Christmas and Easter Celebrations

We had two wonderful celebrations and I have yet to write about them.  So I am going to combine them here for you.  Better late than never telling you.

Our two churches in Kaseshya and Chupa got together and planned the Christmas Celebration.  Here in Zambia Christmas is celebrated at church.  The celebration was in a village between the two places in the school there.

The service started at 8AM.  We sang songs, some of them were Christmas carols.  Then Steve preached on Christ’s birth.

We then walked to a stream where six were baptized.

Lane timed the walk on the way back, 45 minutes.  We got sunburned!!

When we got back to the school we celebrated the Lord’s Supper together.  This was the first time for those that were just baptized and for the church in Chupa.

While all this was happening, men and women were slipping out to go help cook our noon meal.  The chickens had to be killed, plucked, and cooked.  Fresh Chicken.

That is one big pot of inshima!!  The fire is right beside the pot next to the wall.

Serving up the food.

Women visiting while cooking!

Waiting on the food.

It started pouring while we were eating. So we hung around a while waiting for it to stop.  It didn’t!

The Easter Celebration was held in Zombe village. This village is an in between point for Kaseshya and Chupa.  For a few months now, this has been a preaching point for Steve on Tuesdays.

This was a weekend long effort.  On Friday night half of the Jesus Film was shown, followed by preaching.

On Saturday they did evangelism in two different villages.  Then finished the Film in the evening with a sermon again.

On Sunday we had a wonderful Easter Service with the two churches and the preaching point.

The women cooked up a delicious Zambian meal of chicken, nshima, and a veggie.

Before the service.  It ended up being too windy and so we took the tarp down.

Double Rainbow on Easter morning!!

We got a few rain drops on us, but mostly just had passing clouds.