Report On The Last 6 Months

I know numbers are not all important but they do give an idea of what is going on and recently I had to complete a report to renew a grant and I thought I should share.

We have artificially inseminated 170 cows in the district with a 58% pregnancy rate expecting about 100 calves this December/January. Our hope was a 50% rate. This was spread out among 57 families in the bush.

The new cooperative started by Dr Toby Hudson has grown to almost 100 members and is now bringing medicine and supplies to farmers in the bush in an ever-increasingly independent manner from outside help.

329 men and women have attended educational meetings in the bush on topics including artificial breeding, anthrax, blackleg, lumpy skin disease, and giving injections. This education is continuing in each of 10 areas monthly and attendance is growing.

@400 dogs have been vaccinated for rabies in an area where human rabies cases are not out of the ordinary.

45 dogs have been spayed or neutered on our dinner table to keep populations under control. A spayed or neutered dog is not multiplying and is a more loyal animal to the family that will keep other animals (unvaccinated dogs) away from the home and children.

Through individuals in the US we have been able to send or assist 4 individuals through educational programs in teaching, medicine and trade school. This has been a wonderful example of the Church helping brothers and sisters who are so less fortunate to be able to help themselves and become a blessing to others in their community and families.

We have started morning devotions on the farm with all the workers and it has progressed to being mostly Zambian led now and even continues on days when I am not around. I learn so much from these humble servants and praying with them about how to reach their community each morning.

The Church in the bush has been strengthened through the programs and we are discussing with UCZ about areas where new church plants are needed that we are working in. During each teaching or workshop we discuss that it is the love of Christ flowing through His people that brings us to each other.

Many relationships have been born and grow here. We have had hard conversations about adultery, alcoholism, dependance, faith, witchcraft, child abuse, and wonderful conversations about people growing in their faith, learning skills and trades, becoming educated, loving children, and leaving patterns of destruction. God has used these relationships to grow us, other missionaries, Zambians and Americans alike.

Thank you for your prayers, interest and support this year. We have not done any fundraising ourselves and yet all of our needs have been met here though our friends and family back home. The things that are happening here are a result of the whole Church following Christ. We feel we are where God wants us for now and we are planning on coming back after a short stay in the US this winter. Often it just feels like such a simple assignment of connecting people with each other or with information or ideas. Truly it is that God does all the work and we are just obedient to what small part He has for us to do. Such a joy to be doing this work. We miss you all in the States though and look forward to being with you soon!


Love,

Paul and Alicia

Ephesians 2:10

Teaching in a bush church

Alicia playing with kids during a rabies clinic

‘Here on Earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart because I have overcome the world.'  

John 16:33

About a month ago, 2 girls and 3 boys from the Congo were rescued from being trafficked to buyers in Namibia. They were caught in Mwandi. A Zambian man who works for the mission hospital was on the bus with these children. He knew that something didn’t seem “right” with these 5 kids and their guardians. He called the local immigration officer and police, and they investigated the matter. These traffickers make a lot of money selling these children. They offered the immigration officer a $40,000 bribe for him to let them leave without reporting them, but he does not love money more than these children’s lives. The police arrested the traffickers and put them in jail. The children were sent to the only foster family in the western province, our missionary friends who took care of the previous 4 Congolese boys that I have mentioned before. I am so thankful that these children were saved from being trafficked. Our reverend spoke about this issue at church this morning. He said that Mwandi is a prime area for human traffickers because of the unregulated border of the Zambezi River that we share with Namibia. Traffickers can cross the river here easily without having to go through immigration - so, no legal documents are needed to cross. These traffickers come to Mwandi and take these children to Namibia because it is a country where there is a market for these children. Our reverend and many people here have said that kids are often sold in Namibia and South Africa for witchcraft rituals. A common practice used by witch doctors is to cut out the hearts of these children and use it for shark bait in order to receive demonic/mystical blessings. Other times, they are sold into slavery or for the sex trade. Evil does exist!

These kids are very different from the last group of Congo kids. They do not listen, they physically fight, steal, run away. They are a lot of work for the other missionary family who both have full time jobs. The missionary couple that is caring for them has done a great job with them in a really short amount of time. Their behavior is improving greatly everyday. They can even sit still and quietly on the front row at church for 3 or more hours at a time. I have volunteered to help watch these kids for a few hours each day. They have been difficult at times, however, I feel so blessed to get to be apart of their lives. I feel so blessed that God has saved these children from being trafficked and that I get to show them love. I hug and kiss each one each time that I see them. Since they only know French and Swahili, if I forget to hug and kiss them, they come to me and point to the top of their head for a kiss and motion for me to wrap my arms around them - even the 9 and 10 year old boys. Oh, this makes me feel so special!

Please pray for these children. Tomorrow, the International Organization for Migration (a UN organization) will be taking these children to Lusaka to be sent back to their home and to be cared for. It is a complicated matter, especially since they come from a volatile country and they may not even have parents looking for them. Pray that if they have parents looking for them, that they will find them, and if they do not, that they will be placed in a loving home. Also, praise God for the hospital worker doing God’s work and reporting their captors to the police.

Terrible evil does exist in our world. Sometimes I take my sin (my evil) way too lightly. Seeing this obvious evil, though, always makes me hate my sin, and reminds me of how desperately we all need a Savior. The good news is that we have hope in Christ. This hope is what moves us to care about others, to fight for justice, to love the helpless, to be the people that God wants us to be. Without it, we will get bogged down with the overwhelming needs in this world. With it, we can trust that God’s beautiful glory will be revealed and all things will be reconciled.

-Alicia