Lake Tanganyika News - April 2008

Greetings form a sunny Zambia!! The rainy season is drawing to a close and we are entering the time of year when it can become really hot during most hours of the day. People's energy levels are low and the best time to do physical work is early in the morning, just after sunrise. With few people having eletricity, going to bed early at night and getting up before sunrise, is the normal way of life. Lack of a good nutritious diet also contributes to low energy levels and that is why you see people resting in the shad of trees around midday. We might think that people are unproductive, but they are just ordering their working hours in a day differently that us, and that for practical reasons.

Div is in South Africa receiving training at a company call INSERV. They collect data on the location of different tribes and people groups, specifically for the use of missions and prayer. Div is planning to do more research along the shores of Lake Tanganyika, this time in the areas outside of Zambia. While he will travel many miles, he might as well collect the date in a proper way so that the information can be complete and usable by the people updating books like Operation World and other publications. INSERV covers Southern African and all information is available for anyone, in particular for mission organizations needing it to know where unreached people groups are in order to focus their church planting projects, evangelism, prayer, ect.

For a long time now, we have been searching for a detailed map of the Lake Tanganyika area, and finally came upon people who can help us. INSERV is busy compiling one for us and Div will get it from them when he finishes his traning.

We managed to hand in our paperwork, on all the items brought into the country, on time and are now waiting for the reply from the Ministry of Finance. Thank your for all your prayers!

Please continue praying for Riaan who will travel to Lusaka by bus to write his SAT exams on the 3rd May.

Day Care Centre

We started with a playgroup at the Day Care Centre. Our focus is on orphan children and our intent is to have no more than 15 children in the class. Our missionaries, working in the dirrerent Children's Ministry groups will assess the situation of each child and through them we will invite the ones who are truly orphaned and vulnerable. We do not have sufficient funds at this time and therefore want to start small and let it grow as time progresses. We already identified 10 children of which 8 reported for school. Ethel is the lady who is currently teaching the children. She is one of the Good News Missionaries. Althouh she has no formal traning, she has an excellent ability to work with children.

We recently received a visit from 4 ladies who assisted us with curriculum and lesson plans for the school. They also made apparatus and decorated the classroom for us. Two of the girls were from Germany, one from England and one from New Zealand. We were blessed that two of them were preschool teachers! We are very grateful to the Lord for their willingness to come and help us for 10 days.

Discipleship

Three of the local families in Mpulungu, recently finsished a 90-day discipleship traning at our training base in Kabwe. The three men have been working with us for almost two years now. We have built into their lives and they are in thruth showing a great deal of potential. We know that the Lord wants us to use them to shine His light in Mpulungu. We decided to send them for extra exposure and traning in the Word of God. While they were out, we cared for their older children who had to stay behind and attend school, making sure that they at least had enought to eat.

After their return, all of them testified about God's goodness in allowing them to learn so many things which are not heard in the local churches. We are excited to see the growth in their lives and how eager they now are to spread the wonderful truths they had learned. One of the ladies already cooked a meal for her neighbours and invited the women so she could share with them what she had learned.

Please pray for these families as it will not be easy for them. The enemy is not happy over what has happened and will do anything in his power to stop the good news of Jesus Christ from being spread further. Some of the people in their home churches already treat them with suspicion (typical of a witchcraft culture).

We, however, are very positive. They are not strangers in the town or the culture. When they go out and spread the message, it is much easier form people to relate to them, rather than to us, because they share it from within their cultural wordview. They know which examples to use to make the message more understandable. Africa believes that Christianity is the religion of the white people and that it is not meant for them. If their fellow brothers, who are Christains, bring the message and live Jesus out in the workplace, it has a much bigger impact. Please pray that God will protect these 3 families and that they will stay committed to their calling. From our side we would like to assist them as far as possible, so please pray for strategies on how that should be done.

Youth Camp

During the weekend of 10-13 April the Good News II missionaries hosted a camp for the youth. We invited youth from all the churches in and around Mpulungu. It was held at a camping site 30 km outside of town. Riaan and Mariska joined in. The missionaries teamed up two-two and presented different subjects relevant to young people. The Good News II missionaries did an excellent job in presenting truths from the bible and witnessed through the way they conducted themselves throughout the weekend in and out of class. The youth are positive and eager to learn more. Please pray that the youth will grow in their walk with the Lord and that they will really learn how to have a true relationship with the living God.

One of the missionaries, Callen, has been invited to attend a youth gathering this coming Saturday at one of the churches where more thatn 300 youth will gather. They heard about the teachings on the camp and also want to learn more. These young people are hungry!

Boat

The rainy season is almost someting of the past. A team of 3 men are currently working on the jetty on our property. Because of winds that occur on the lake, Div has decided that the jetty will not be build out onto the water, but that a trench will be dug inland, so that the anchored boat will have some protection form the waves.

On Div's return from South Africa, work on the boat will start. In the mean time, the hull of the boat has been moved onto the grounds of the Day Care Centre. All the wood, for putting in the ribs and for building the framework of the boat, has already been bought. The term "buying of wood" has quite a different meaning to what it has in town. We send someone to move from village to village, finding out where people are chopping down trees and cutting them into planks. Our carpenter was way for more than 2 weeks "buying wood" in the villages along the shores of the lake. When the planks reached Mpulungu it had to be reported to the Ministry of Agriculture for paying of taxes.

Prayer

Nothing we do here happens without resistance from the enemy. We therefore need a lot of prayer covering. Amongst ourselves we have started with an extra hour of prayer each day. This involves all the missionaries and each person prays as an individual at the time that suites him/her best. We are very encouraged by the commitment that Riaan and Mariska are showing in keeping their hour of prayer each day.

Please continue praying for us, also accourding to the points mentioned above.

Thank you and may God bless you richly.

Div, Eleanor, Riaan and Mariska