Thankful

Our Thanksgiving was quite eventful….as always in Africa. Jenni was making little apple turnovers about an hour before we were to go to a missionary Thanksgiving dinner. She put them in the oven right before we left so they would be nice and hot….then the power shut off. We thought, “surely it will just come back on!” WRONG. The power was out the rest of the night. The turkeys weren’t done on time, dinner was 2 hours late, we were dripping wet from it being so hot and of course there were no fans or A/C to cool us down. We thought it would come back on before going to bed….WRONG. It didn’t come back on until 1 am. We had every window in the house open TRYING to get a breeze, which there wasn’t one! When our power is off, our water pump doesn’t work, so we couldn’t even cool off or wash off all of our sweat. So we just laid on the bed miserable, with a wet washcloth on our heads, missing cold, snowy UTAH! We did reminisce in the candlelit room…I guess we could try and look at it as a forced romantic evening! That’s a stretch though. The biggest bummer of all….we couldn’t talk to our family and friends.

Oh well, I guess that’s just how life goes here…but did it have to happen on Thanksgiving? And did it have to be like 150 degrees with 100% humidity that day!? We looked at each other that night and said the thing that we were most thankful for was electricity! Now each time we go in our air-conditioned room we are thanking God!! Actually, it sounds really bad…and it was….but we were able to laugh through it like….”hah! Isn’t this miserable??” The best part of the evening was the dinner…it was so delicious! We took our friend Choveque so he could experience the goodness of a Thanksgiving dinner! He said that it was the best food…he had 4 plates full and he said he has never felt so miserable. He thought he needed to go for a walk to make him feel better! We told him this miserable feeling was normal after Thanksgiving Dinner.

Last year at this time we were in the bush for a month long training called “40/40.” We spent our Thanksgiving in a tent, and had a lantern-lit chicken dinner since there were no turkeys around. We are happy that this year we had the opportunity to eat some turkey and stuffing! As we remember our 40/40 experience, we wanted to share with you some of our favorite memories: One day we met a couple of ladies in town of Petauke and talked to them about why we were there. Then they started talking to us about AIDS and they wanted to know what we thought about it and if there’s a solution to this huge problem. This gave us an open door to share about the cure for our hearts! We had a great conversation with them and talked to them about how Christ is the only solution to our “infected/sinful” hearts. It is more important that the inside of us be cleansed before we even think about our physical bodies. We will all die of something…nothing can cure physical death…but Jesus Christ is the only way to have everlasting life with Him! They thought this was a wonderful idea and solution to the problem of AIDS. We told them it’s not our idea but God’s and that it’s in the Bible. So they really wanted a Bible they could read in their own language, Nyanga. We didn’t have a Bible with us but we told them we would get one for them and bring it to them the next day. During this time we learned how blessed we are to have the Word of the one true God in our country and how much we take it for granted. Getting a Bible in their own language isn’t an easy, inexpensive thing to obtain. The next day we returned and gave one of the ladies a Bible. She was so excited to receive this gift that she invited us into her house for tea and bread. Then after we had eaten, she handed us a live chicken! We couldn’t believe it! We didn’t need a chicken but we were told that it’s offensive to them if you decline the gift they’ve offered to you. So we accepted and took it with us back to camp.

We loved being in Zambia last year. The people were so friendly! Then God blessed us with a great opportunity to see the majestic Victoria Falls. Since our internet wasn’t fast enough, we didn’t post any pictures, but we must say that it was a highlight of our trip! One night we even got to share the gospel with a couple that was there on their honeymoon! We stood in awe of God’s beautiful creation and the wonderful opportunities he always gives us to share His love! If you ever get the opportunity to see Victoria Falls...TAKE IT!! It is one of the most amazing things you will ever see!


On Sunday, Corey was able to preach in church. Choveque translated for him again….they are a good duo! It was a really neat day, as Corey preached about Jesus washing the disciple’s feet and the importance in following Jesus’ example. After the message, he had the whole congregation sit in a circle, and we all washed each other’s feet. It was an amazing time. Everyone broke out into praise songs. We just felt God’s presence there and it was so worshipful. It spoke wonders to the people. Most of the Africans think that if you have white skin, you are the “chosen” and deserve to be served. I think that the people who attended saw that this isn’t true. We are all sinners, we all need Jesus, and we all need to love each other equally, no matter what color your skin is or what position in the church you have. Corey concluded by encouraging them to not just make this a one time “attitude” of humility and love, but to go home and daily serve their wives, kids, neighbors, friends, and relatives as Jesus demonstrated.


We want to thank everyone for praying for Corey to heal quickly. He is 100% better now! Join us in praising God that he has protected us from malaria to this very day! Our prayer requests are almost the same as last post. Please pray this week for: 1) Leaders to emerge from our TLW group. Pray that their walk with the Lord would deepen each week as we meet. 2) Pray for wisdom and clarity for us as we are starting to make some big decisions about coming home in 4 months. 3) Pray for opportunities to share with our friend M. He has been asking a lot of questions about the differences between the Bible and the Koran. Pray that God would give us His words to speak, and give M ears to hear.

We want you all to know we are thankful for more than just our AIR CONDITIONER! We are thankful for each and every one of YOU! We are so blessed to have such wonderful family, friends, and prayer supporters! We love and miss you all! We hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving! We thank God for all of you!