April Update

April Update!

Determined to update this blog at least monthly I am making time on April 30th to do the April entry.  I can’t believe we have only been back for 2 months as it feels like we have been so busy and here forever again.  Risking boredom I have decided to do bullet points to give updates on what your prayers. encouragement, finances, and other support have been growing in Africa!

-We were blessed with Dr. Brian Whitlock coming to help with breeding cows and teaching this skill.  Everyone loved him and learned much and we travelled to 4 villages and bred 120 cows and taught during his time here.  

-We had a cooperative board meeting the other day and in one year membership has grown to 113!  We are breeding 400 cows this year, doing devotions in the bush, providing access to medicines in bush areas by placing small refrigerators in strategic villages that have power, teaching about various human and animal disease prevention, bringing a mobile tick sprayer to the area, and investigating the building of a small shop where they can sell medicines and operate out of.  They are making great strides towards self sufficiency and the future looks bright in many ways.

-Dr. Paige Pongratz and her 2 children will be coming in a couple weeks to do devotions and goat clinics in the bush areas.  The people are excited about her coming and we will have a busy week teaching and doing labs in the bush.

-I have been preparing my curriculum to teach an animal science course to seminary students at the International Bible College of Zambia (IBCZ) outside Lusaka in June.  It is 45 hours of class time over 2 weeks and something I have never done before.  The purpose of the class is to equip new pastors and evangelists to be able to bring physical knowledge to their congregations to accompany the spiritual.  I am enjoying the preparation and really looking forward to this opportunity as I think it is a great use of a missionary vet!

-Alicia has daily visitors with the formula program and has loved assisting these women in the ministry.  It provides such a help in a time of need for these struggling mothers and families.

-The devotions at the farm have been going well and are transitioning to being mostly Lozi led now.  We are going daily through the New Testament and are now just starting Romans.

-Homeschool is moving along and we hope to finish up the year just before we have Alicia’s family come to visit in July (a bit behind from our US stay!)

-Alicia’s Mom, sister (Shannon), 3 nieces, and cousin will be coming in July!  Thank God for a bigger house to be able to host teams and family!!  Everyone is of course super excited about their coming!

-Please pray for Zambia as a nation as elections approach in August.  There has been quite a bit of national tension building and we pray for a peaceful election and process.  There has also been a series of witchcraft ritual killings this year in the country that have resulted in violent and misplaced retaliation against Rwandan immigrants in the capital city.  Pray for calm and that these evils could be overcome peaceably.

-It is so great to hear from so many of you and what is going on back home!  We miss you all and look forward to hearing more!

Until next time,

Paul

Dr, Whitlock and Fred teaching in the bush

Back In Zambia

Hello!

Alicia and I have been meaning to catch up the blog since we arrived back in Zambia but each day has presented new challenges and business such that we find ourselves here for 2 weeks without an update!  

We arrived the first of March and everyone was happy to be back in Mwandi!  The kids even enjoyed (?) the plane flight a bit this time!  We flew through NYC and went to Times Square for dinner and to rest up before the 14 hour flight to Johannesburg.  I was happily surprised that each of the kids were looking forward to returning to Mwandi.  Mostly I think they were all excited to see the cat they had been missing for 3 months and we were happy she still remembered us!  

Immediately we had car trouble and I spent a couple days going back and forth to Livingstone as that is not an easy thing to take care of in the rural areas.  Once working we took a trip out to survey the country and catch up with the farmers.  I saw several of the new calves from the AI program and many happy farmers.  Inside I hoped the numbers could have been higher, but I kept that to myself as they were nothing short of elated in each area we visited.  The real excitement on the trip however came with the drive.  There has been drought all year- until just before we came back when it started raining every day.  This is awesome for crops, animals, and just life in general- but not awesome for the roads into the bush.  Thankfully the land cruiser is awesome and we made it out and back in spite of the roads and endless water.  I’m not sure how we didn’t flood the engine but at one point we had water lapping over the front of the hood.  

The water on the east side made us completely change plans to start with the west side and all of the difficult communication and logistics ensued but seem to have worked out so far…I have a good friend and classmate coming next week to help with the breeding and while the plan is constantly fluid we will have a great time!

We moved to our new house a couple days ago- not so hard when you don’t have many things and it is only 100 meters down the road.  With several helpers it only took a couple hours and Alicia and I reflected on how nice it is to live simply (which is embarrassingly not simple compared to the life possessions of the Zambians helping us move).  Our new house is very big and also embarrassingly nice!  It is right on the river and has an upstairs and 3 bathrooms!  We never dreamed of staying in such a place when we signed on here but now feel so blessed to have a place where we can accommodate the many visitors planning on coming this year.  We are also excited about the new ministry opportunities that come with the house including assisting with senior care, baby formula, gardening, and sewing ministries (separate ministries!).  

The kids brought a small TV and their Wii and have made the house a bit more American too (worked great until we ran out of power that night!).  The boys brought their bows and we are planning to make a ping pong table and get some guineas for the yard.  Home school is back in full swing and we have some catching up to do to finish by ‘summer’.  

We will not be so long before the next update.  Thank you to each of you for reading, caring, and supporting us in so many ways.  We could not be here or do this without you- we are your servants as well as for the people here.  Please pray for us to see clearly each day what God has for us and to keep His big picture first in our lives.  As always, let us hear from you and how we can help in your ministry and life.

Love,

Paul, Alicia, Isaac, Ethan, and Rachel

Kids reunited with Kaze

2 month old AI calf in Magumwi- same size as 5-6 month local stock!

Join us in Zambia!

We just returned the other day from a great trip to Seattle to visit the home office of Christian Veterinary Mission, our wonderful sending agency.  It was great to see everyone and feel a good connection to people serving with us.  No time to see Seattle or some of the amazing parks there, maybe next time...

Came home and closed on the house and moved out yesterday and are now officially homeless in America.  Now we travel the country in a loaded down mini van, currently with a flat tire as I type in an autoshop awaiting repairs.  The practice sale is almost complete and I leave my part of Hillside in great hands.

Two weeks ago we helped move Alicia's mom to a house 1 mile from her sister and are happy for her as she seems to be an automatic part of a great small town community.  We will probably live there most of this month as well and travel out to visit and speak here and there until we go back to Zambia.

We leave Feb 26th with a one way ticket this time and are excited to be going back for 2 years and then see where God leads next- stay longer, come back, another place, up to Him.

We would love to have you join us in prayer, financially, and relationally in Zambia.  We are a small part of the Church doing this work and it will not go on if it is just us.  If it is your joy to be part of what God is doing through people in Zambia here are some ways to come along:

1.  Prayer- we need your prayers for wisdom, to see God's leading daily, strength, open hearts and minds, and for us to stay in the peace He gives us in the work there.  We will be starting a monthly prayer letter- send us your information and we will add you to the mailing/email if you are not already on.

2.  Finances- we need monthly support to stay in Zambia and believe that if we are to be there it is because we desire to do the work and others desire to sustain it with giving.  I don't think we give out of pity or even always generosity or excess, but because it is our joy and it is amazing to be part of the work.  If your joy is in other work stay there, but if what we are doing in Zambia stirs your heart, know we need support and would be so honored to partner with you.  We are currently at about 60% of monthly support and hoping to be fully there by the time we go back.  So jump on!  See the link to give once or monthly (most helpful) in the upper right corner of this blog.  All support is tax deductible too!

3.  Relationships-  the best thing in life.  Just staying in touch is the best.  Email, facebook, phone calls, take your pick- we just love to hear from you.  We will be around for February if you want to get together or have us come speak somewhere we will do our best to get it in.  I love it, the more the better!
Paule262@gmail.com

4.  Education scholarships-  Alicia has been connecting Zambians she has personal relationships with to others who wish to send them to school for a variety of things.  High school, welding, nursing, teaching, and medical school so far.  Education is a good way to make lasting change in a family from afar.  Each person is someone we know with a different story that we have pursued ourselves.  Ask Alicia about details- aliciagayleevans@gmail.com if interested or questions.

Love you guys all, tried to keep it short- we will get back to more interesting stuff soon but had to do an update and request for help for now.  Looking forward to the next years and working with so many great people.

Ephesians 2:10

Paul, Alicia, Isaac, Ethan, and Rachel

Email Address

It has been brought to our attention that people cannot reply to the email updates you get from the blog- so if you have replied to the email and not heard from us it's because we didn't get the email- sorry!

You can communicate with us through email:
paule262@gmail.com

Love to hear from you!

-paul

Where Things Are Going

Hello Everyone!

It's been awhile and we have been back in the States for about 3 weeks now and there is a bit of a lull to catch up.

We will be in the US until early or mid February when we plan to head back to Zambia with CVM under a longer term commitment of 2-3 years at a time.  We sold our house in one day to the first person that saw it and are working on the details of selling out of the practice to a great veterinarian a few years behind me in the business.  The kids are enjoying a long break from homeschool while we are here and loving seeing their cousins and grandparents (and playing video games).  I have been working at Hillside a couple days a week and it has been fun catching up with clients and the staff.  Alicia has been mostly getting a million things done and spending as much time as she can with her mom and sister.

We plan to go back as soon as possible to continue the work we have started.  In March we plan to breed cattle again with a larger grant this time and do 400 cows in the area.  A classmate of mine and a friend from Canada are planning to come help with the dirty work and I am so thankful!  We also plan to help the newly formed cooperative with the purchase of a sprayer (large, mobile unit) for ticks on cattle that can be moved about the area for tick control.  This will be a huge help in controlling deadly tick diseases that threaten the livestock population there.  After breeding slows down we will get back to the rotating monthly education and devotions in the bush as our basic outreach ministry of the church.

In Mwandi we have been moved to another house on the river that is larger and can accomodate visitors more easily.  The house is owned by the Church of Scotland and must be used for ministry as well as a living place.  This was perfect for us as Alicia has been saying that she would love to have ministry opportunities she can do from home as that is so much easier with the kids.  When it was presented to us this way it was just...funny I guess?  God gave us exactly what we felt we needed and should have been praying for.  The things we don't trust Him with...  So Alicia will be helping out with a sewing club ministry, formula for HIV+ mothers of newborns, and gardening ministry from the house.  Amazing!

We are going to Seattle in January to meet with the CVM staff and hopefully get everything in order to become long term field staff there.  We would like to be part of this organization this way for accountability and support while we are in the filed.  They are great people and have helped to organize this last year with us as 'short term' participants so far.  Through you all and the organization of CVM, Mwandi Veterinary Project, and World Renew we were able to raise all of the support we needed to get through the year.  It came in in monthly support and one time gifts but in the end it all added up to just enough to see us and all the projects through the 9 months.  Thank you all!

This time going back we are expecting to stay longer term and CVM has wisely counseled us to get our monthly support in order before we go.  We need to organize regular monthly support from individuals who feel a desire to be part of this work.  We believe God has laid this work on our hearts and others in the Church and He is able to bring us together in it.  So, if you have been supporting us and plan to continue or if you have not but plan to this year coming up let us know so we can plan for the coming years.  Currently we still have our short term account you can give to (upper right of blog or cvmusa.org, short term, individuals and UCVSTM1768 is our account) or we will let everyone know once our long term account is approved and going.  You can also call CVM at 206-546-7574 to set up monthly support.

If it is your joy please let us know and know that we need you!  We would love to hear from you and are so encouraged by all the communication and interest in Mwandi we have received this year.  Look for another update coming soon as things hopefully continue to come together.  We would love to catch up with as many as we can this next month so drop us a line!

Ephesians 2:10

-paul

Rachel the professional international traveller.

Christmas fun with cousin Simon.

Coming Home

Very soon we will be coming back to the states for a brief stay to sort out some things before coming back to Mwandi to continue the work God has given us to do here.  When we came to Zambia it was for a 9 month commitment and to see if it confirmed that this was the way God was leading.  Figuring out where we are supposed to be and how we know it has always been a struggle for me in the moment  but when we step back and look at our lives things come more into focus and we can see where we have been and maybe some of where we are going.

Our time here started out rough with the bats and culture shock of coming into a new place and unfamiliar customs and there were a few nights we thought this would not last!  Over time though we quickly came to love the people here and feel at ease in the culture.  Sometimes it seems we even mesh better with life in Zambia than we did in the US!  We really feel our family is suited for this kind of work and life and that God has made us for a purpose such as this.  The kids still miss friends and we miss our families greatly of course and we are excited to be coming home for a couple months to see everyone!

We will be back on December 5th and staying until sometime mid-February.  While home we will be selling our house and my shares in the practice and getting things set up for a longer stay here in Mwandi.  We would love to catch up with as many of you as we can so let us know if you will be around and when we can get together!  We want to hear what we have missed this last year as much as share what we have been doing.  We will be going through IN, KY, TN, WI, and NC at least during our stay.

And THANK YOU to so many of you who have kept up relationships with us by e-mail, facebook, phonecalls, and cards!  The wonders of technology can make you feel close to your friends even from around the world!  Thank you also to so many who have prayed for us and given to support us and the work here- you are such a vital

Dog surgery in the village.

Rachel and her friends- Missionary kids from Bangladesh and Zambia

Our cat, 'Kaze'.  In english- our cat, 'cat'

part of what we are doing and I hope you feel the impact of that as much as we do.  Several people are planning trips to come help with the work next year and we look forward to another great year of working together with all of you to love our brothers and sisters in this world the way God desires.  It is for our joy and His glory.  Love you all!

-paul

Orphan Funeral

Today

A thirteen year old has passed away

HIV

TB

Thirteen

An orphan boy, no mom, no dad,

Today has made me very sad.

I did not know him, name or face
Only heard of life twice displaced
Secondly from earth erased.


Confused emotions torn,
At death no one is there to mourn
Who heard his cry when he was born,

They have both gone before.


Questions come of when we die-
Do we hear our Father cry?
Only if it is goodbye
And not welcome home forever

No more an orphan child.