Still Here!

Wednesday July 24, 2013

Dennis shows students where he comes from.

Greetings from Macha, and from MICS!

It has been way too long since we sent out any news. Honestly,there has been so much going on here that it was hard to take the time to figure out what to write about. We’ll try to include lots of photos so you can see what we doing, too.

We have had a run on sick or injured students lately. There is a virus moving its way around the boarding students particularly. We don’t think it is serious but more like the common cold and flu. Because the students live, study and play together the viruses are easily transferred. 

Teachers going to bridal shower.

We only have 1 ½ days of school left so we are hoping that the month long term break will cut off the spread of these germs. One student bumped his head and lost a front tooth, another had a wound become infected and we took him home so his mother could get him to the doctor and another student was hit by a car on his way home from school. He spent a few days in the hospital before being released to go home and recuperate. 

Mixing cement the Zambian way!

The big kitchen after sorting & organizing items from the container.

Mike pours the shower base.

The "mums" dance in laptop return celebration!

 While Kathy keeps the school running & meets with teachers and service staff, LeeAnn is teaching in the classroom each morning and helps keep boarding students busy and occupied in the afternoons, Greg runs errands, meets with community leaders, searches for and buys building materials, disciplines misbehavior, Dennis can be found running a skill saw or a drill and playing Frisbee golf, and Mike is busy laying block, brick or tile, replacing flooring and eating nshima with the kids at dinner. We try to eat one meal together each day but even that proves to be impossible on many days.

This week we have a soccer clinic with us. Push The Rock is a Christian based soccer camp that goes into schools to teach soccer technique and skills while sharing the gospel. This is incredibly fun for all! The teachers have told me that they are really “into it”; some said that they are surprisingly pretty good! The students have told me that this is making the week go by really fast. For some that’s a good thing but for others it’s rather disappointing.  Some of the children that are in boarding aren’t looking forward to going home. Our own sponsored children have been acting up, misbehaving, stealing others possessions and getting into fights.

Mike grouts the tile.

Here’s some of what we’ve been up to recently: tracking down student’s stolen items &

Dennis works on shelving.

administering discipline to offenders, reporting a missing classroom laptop to the police,
police investigate then hold our entire staff for 7 hours in jail, getting them released, have a prayer service for the return of the computer, computer is found early next morning at the base of the playground slide by two kindergarteners and an older brother. Then, welcoming our team, remodeling two bathrooms, installing closet shelving, giving out cough syrup and Panadol, bandaging wounds and pulling out slivers, breaking up fights. Fixing floorboards so teacher’s kids aren’t falling through, diverting drainwater away from the building, making crosses with the kids, walking the dog and keeping Dennis from eating all the fresh baked buns!

Every day we meet with the teaching staff for devotions and prayer for the day. And every day we join the student body for Chapel with singing praise and worship, reciting
1 Corinthians 13:1-8, praying and announcements.

PTR with the younger kids.

Working on dribbling.

"1, 2, 3, Push the Rock!"

Please pray for us; to finish crucial projects, put the campus in proper order, and close up buildings. Most days there is far more to do that we can get to or have energy for! So please remember us, that we’d be strengthened physically, personally and spiritually.

Standing together for the cause,

Kathy, Greg and the team

 If you made it this far in our post you get to see how the staff welcomed our team. This is the traditional Zambian welcome dance. They are singing in Tonga; saying "our visitors, our visitors, we welcome you!" You might even see someone dance that you'd never expect!