the gift of Gab

Coming in to Lusaka was pretty incredible. The skies had been too cloudy for me to see anything along the way; however, at the border I was able to see a huge lake and then most of the way into the city. Lusaka is a very spread out town with some high rises in the center. Surrounding the city is a lot of farm land with smaller houses and even a lot of mud huts with thatched roofs.

I made it through customs ok. Getting a visa is now $100!!! Instead of the $50 is used to be. I guess, the Zambian government charges whatever the reciprocal country is charging. (So, for example, Germans only pay $25. I’m going to have to work on getting my German passport again.)

I flew in with Rick and Tracy (missionaries who met here in Lusaka two years ago – getting married in January) whom I’d met at the retreat near Jo’burg. They gave me a ride to Bryan and Diane Wilson’s home. (Bryan is the FM Zambia director.) On the way in we stopped for pizza. It was really pretty decent.

It was really great to see Diane again after two years. It was also great to meet her 8-week-old daughter Charis, son Ross (19months) and see Toby (4) again. We had a chance to catch up a little before Bryan arrived. He was pretty beat from a long day of flying.

It was my first night with a mosquito net over my bed. It was kind of weird at first, but did provide a lot of comfort, knowing that I wasn’t going to get chewed up too badly. This one was a round net, so parts of it were actually sitting on top of the mattress which meant that I’d get my feet tangled in it every now and again.

It was my second night with the malaria prophylaxis and it made me sick again. I’m hoping that doesn’t last.

Posted by Gabi at 07:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

On Friday night at the retreat, we had a bonfire. It was huge! In fact, it was so big, that most people sitting near it had to move to get out of the heat. The general idea was to sing praise songs and share what God had been doing in your life. Mostly it ended up being a time to sing. A few people did share some wonderful insights.

Several of the songs we sang were in Setswana (the most common language spoken in Botswana). Obviously, I couldn’t sing along on those. So I listened, and soaked in the music.

Listening to the songs took me back to 1993 when I was driving down a busy road in Seattle. I heard a song on the radio called “O Se Baba” which means Thank You, Father in one of the Nigerian languages. It had beautiful African rhythms and beats and a fantastic chorus of African voices. It was at that time that I KNEW without a doubt that God wanted me to do missions work in Africa. However, I said NO and kept doing my own thing.

This time, as I sat listening to a group of Botswana women singing in Setswana, I again drank in the African voices and rhythms. “Alleluia, Alleluia.”

As their voices blended together, I heard God quietly say “Welcome home.”

For most of my adult life, I have felt out of place in American society. Now I understand why. I hadn’t yet come “home.” I’ll be coming back to the US on Sunday. But next year, I’ll be coming back to Zambia. And I’ll be looking forward to hearing God say again, “Welcome home.”

Posted by Gabi at 02:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

When Bryan first told me that I would need to attend the Flying Mission retreat in South Africa, I was a little skeptical. I wasn’t sure that I would enjoy meeting so many new people, most of whom work in Botswana. Since I’ll be moving to Zambia, I won’t actually get to spend much time with them.

However, the retreat was phenomenal! And the people were even better! I feel like I’ve come away with new friends.

In the morning we had worship time, then a speaker. The theme for this retreat was “Change.” The speaker focused first on personal change from a Biblical perspective (why, how, when, etc), then on corporate change (again, why it’s important and how to manage it).

After lunch, we had nothing on the schedule again until supper. This meant that I had several hours at a time to get to know other FM team members. It really was good to get a chance to meet so many of them. Now when I read the weekly e-memo or e-mail people, I’ll be able to put a name to a face!

The retreat took place at Stony Ridge Retreat Center about 45 minutes west of Jo’burg and belongs to Scripture Union. The accommodations were quite rustic. The beds all had springs to hold up the mattresses. Five of us “single gals” shared the room. So every time someone moved, the bed would squeak. It was also extremely non-supportive for anyone’s back. So I put my mattress on the floor. I’m sure it started out as a 4” mattress many years ago. It’s a little thinner these days. However, sleeping on the floor was certainly better than sleeping on the coil spring bed. And I’m sure my chiropractor will appreciate it also! ;-)

We had a swimming pool right next to the thatched-roof dining hall. The pool was extremely cold, but I got talked into swimming anyway. ;-) It really was quite refreshing.

Every evening, we had some sort of special event. On Thursday night, we all met in the hall and played games. They were meant to get to know each other a little better. Since there were a number of new people and some from other missions, this was a very good thing. On Friday night, we had a HUGE bonfire where we sang praise songs and shared what God had been doing in our lives. And on Saturday evening, we had a talent show, which turned out to be quite entertaining.

The talent show almost didn’t happen because of a storm. It was raining so bad that the power went out for a couple of hours. However, we didn’t let that stop us. We all trooped down to the hall again so we could have a surprise party for one of the women who works in Botswana. She really was quite surprised! (That’s always the best part.) As Tina was opening her box of presents, someone realized that we hadn’t turned on the light switches. Turns out the power was back on. Who knows how long we’d been sitting in candle light!

On Sunday morning, when I got ready to leave to fly to Zambia, I was surprised by the number of people who stopped me to say good-bye. It was truly lovely. Of course, there were lots of promises to e-mail and send some of my pictures.

I’m absolutely looking forward to seeing all of these folks again at next year’s retreat (which will be held in Kasani, near Victoria Falls).

Posted by Gabi at 02:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Today I went to the Apartheid Museum. It is amazing what we will do to each other in the name of money and religion.

Officially, the political practice of Apartheid began in 1948. The hate and segregation was building up long before that. The simple version is that conflicts broke out over land and money (from gold and diamonds). The Afrikaans (Dutch decendants - white) got the upper hand in the 1930s and were able to pull it off. They remained in power for over 50 years.

Numerous anti-Apartheid activists were imprisoned, killed, or banned. In 1991, then president FW De Klerk, commuted Nelson Madela's life sentence and he was allowed to go free. Around the same time he also lifted all of the bans, freeing many other activists from their home-imprisonments and allowing anti-Apartheid movements to take place legally (they'd been taking place illegally for many years).

In 1994, the first fully democratic vote took place in South Africa. Apartheid was officially over.

The museum did and oustanding job on portraying the history of Apartheid and the events leading up to it. Well worth a visit if you are ever here. I spent about 2 1/2 hours there. The next time I come back, I'll probably go through it again. I'm sure there's stuff I missed on this visit.

Today, Blacks (completely African) and Coloureds (Blacks mixed with something else, or other minority races) have many more freedoms. South Africa has made much better strides in repairing race relations than has the US. It's really only been a decade. However, there is still huge disparity between the haves (primarily white) and the have-nots. It will be interesting to see how things change in the next decade.

After lunch, Kathy let me drive her car around the neighborhood. Oh very exciting. I drove on the left side of the road, instead of the right - and I didn't even kill us. It was great. A little scary though. It was weird trying to keep straight was side of the road I was supposed to be on. I kept drifting over to the right.

Maybe I can get some more pratice in Zambia next week.

Well, I'm off to the retreat center now. It's about an hour away. I"ll blog, but won't be able to post until next week.

Keep the comments coming!

Posted by Gabi at 05:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Tonight Kathy took us to dinner at Dros. A very nice restaurant that serves burgers, steaks, pizzas and a few other items. We also invited Mark's two assistants: Siza and Rioleen. Two very lovely women. Rioleen ordered a cheese pizza with chicken livers. Pretty sure we'd never see that in the "good ol' USA."

At dinner I ordered the Monkey Gland Burger. I was told that the sauce is made from a gland taken from behind the monkey's ears. The burger was delicious.

Turns out the Monkey Gland sauce is a kind of chutney. No monkey parts at all. So it was a little sour and a little fruity. Very yummy.

Posted by Gabi at 11:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

South Africa has the highest crime rate (as an entire nation) in the world. For that reason, all the houses and shops have bars on them.

I'm not talking about bars just on the windows. Every window, every door has bars. Then the entire property is surrounded by a wall. The wall is either an iron spiked fence or a brick wall with iron spikes on top. Then on top of that is an electric fence. And still, people's homes are robbed/burglarized. People are routinely carjacked and held up at gun point. Sometimes the only thing the thief gets away with is a cell phone. Often these crimes happen in broad daylight. Yet everyone goes about their daily business.

So while the bars are a good thing, for the most part, they can also cause some problems. Nichole, one of the other World Venture missionaries here, told us that she was unable to get out of her yard today. Her gate remote (like a garage door opener) batteries had gone dead. It was 5:45 in the morning so no one else was awake. She had to wait for her landlords to wake up so she could get let out to buy new batteries. Yikes!

This morning, Kathy and I walked over to the Walk Through the Bible South Africa headquarters. Again, the bars were everywhere. Kathy's husband Mark works at WTB which is just a couple of blocks away. It was great to get a real image of the place. About 20% of my on-field time will be spent in South Africa and I'm sure some of that time will be at WTB.

The time here has been pretty relaxing. No touristy stuff. Kathy and I have discussed quite a number of details concerning my secondment to Flying Mission. It's good to be able to talk face-to-face on those issues. There's only so much you can get done in an e-mail.

I've also really enjoyed getting to know her girls. They provide a lot of lively converstation at dinner time. Last night we went to their awards ceremony at school. Both girls came away with academic achievement awards for the school year. Their year will be over on November 30. They bump up to the next grade on January 10, 2007.

The next day here should also be pretty laid back. Tomorrow afternoon, I head off to the retreat with Flying Mission. I'm pretty sure I won't have access to the internet then. RIght now, Yahoo is also not playing well. I'm not able to access any of my e-mails. But keep 'em coming anyway. I'll be happy to read them and respond as soon as I can. And I can always access your comments on my blog! ;-)

Posted by Gabi at 04:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Yesterday morning I arrived in Johannesburg. Kathy Schaaf picked me up at the airport. (Kathy and her husband Mark are the Southern Africa area directors for World Venture. Unfortunately, I won't get to meet Mark on this trip since he is in Madagascar on business.) Before she arrived, I was able to confirm my flight to Zambia on Sunday and exchange some US Dollars for South African Rand. The exchange rate is about Rand 7.6 to $1. So I had a sandwich for lunch that was Rand 29, which looks like a lot of money at first. But I'm starting to work out the conversion thing.

When we got back to Kathy's house around 10 AM, I took a 2 hour nap, which was wonderful. I'd been moving since 7:00 AM Saturday morning. 10:00 AM South Africa time is 1:00 AM Arizona time. So I'd been on the move for 42 hours at that point. I did sleep some on the plane and in the London airport, but it's never quite the same as sleeping in your own bed.

In the afternoon we picked up Kathy's daughters, Sara and Katy from school. Both girls are delightful. We had great conversation around the dinner table. At dinner we tried to find as many different ways to say thank you as we could. I think we rounded up 15 - 20 languages between the four of us. Not bad.

Grey's Anatomy (yep, the one we get too) was just coming on around 7:30 when I decided it was time for me to go to bed. I was pretty pleased at having made it that far. And I slept good. Didn't get up again until about 6:30 this morning!! Yay!

This morning I went to Lawley with Kathy, who is a nurse. Lawley is a suburb of Jo'burg. It used to be an "informal settlement", which means it was just shacks. Now part of Lawley is a "formal settlment". So the structures in Lawley One are normal houses and quite sturdy. In Lawley Two, they are still basically shacks, and there is no running water at all. All the water is trucked in. All of the front yards are wonderfully clean, and most have vegetable and flower gardens in them.

In Lawley, we picked up several people in front of a school. The kids seemed to be on recess. When they saw my camera come out, I suddenly had many new friends! They were all full of smiles. Several of the kids were using a fallen tree as a jungle gym. It was very fun to watch.

After we got everyone in the car, we did a drive through of the neighborhood to see some more of Kathy's patients. Unfortunately, the people were were looking for today were not at home.

We stopped at a "creche" which is a preschool. There was one teacher with 55 children!! The kids all sat in a circle around the room while the teacher read them their lesson in short sentences and the kids repeated. Kathy asked the teacher if the kids could sing for me. They all jumped up and were exited to sing. They sang "We lift His name higher, higher, higher! When the praises go up, the blessings come down!" OK, at their age, it might best be described as yelling, rather than singing, but it certainly was joyful. They sang several other songs as well and recited some verses (can you tell this is a Christian preschool?) They would have kept on singing if I hand't left. It was so delightful!

After a few more stops, we were on the road again. It turns out all of our passengers have AIDS. Kathy drives them up to a Catholic-run AIDS clinic in Central Jo'burg every Tuesday. Having someone like Kathy to check up on them and provide them with transportation ensures that they will continue on their medication.

It's been an eventful day so far. Now it's time for a nap - the jetlag is still kicking my behind. Tonight we go to the girls' school for an awards presentation. Should be interesting from a teacher perspective. :-)

Posted by Gabi at 04:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I made it to South Africa. Praise God! Both flights were rather uneventful - which is just the way I lke them.

While I was sitting in the London Heathrow airport for many hours, I observed a number of things. Here are two of them:

Little girl in a denim dress
Sits in a red chair and giggles.
She tries another red one,
And then a green one.
And finally decides -
The best seat in the house is still
Daddy's lap.

A sea of multi-ethnic faces
The low hubub of converstation
In every language imaginable.
Tired faces, excited faces
Anxious, happy, and relieved faces.
Constant motion - people coming, people going
Coming and going, going and coming.
And waiting.
Waiting in limbo;
Neither here, nor there.
Just waiting, waiting in Terminal 1
Waiting to move on.

Posted by Gabi at 04:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Wow!! Only two more sleeps before I leave for Africa! I can't wait! :-)

And I've still got a lot to do and the next two nights will undoubtedly be very short. However, thanks to the help of some friends, it's starting to look a little more manageable.

The other day, I asked a handy-man to help me with some work around the house. He said he wouldn't finish installing the shower door because I had already started. (Note to self - never start a handy-man project if you can't finish it. None of them will touch it with a 39 1/2-foot pole.) Then I asked him to paint one interior door and 8 door frames/jambs. He thought it was going to take 5 hours (at $25/hour). I thought it was a little steep, but willing to pay because I needed to get it done. When he came back the next day to get started, he told me he had thought it over, and it was really going to take 10 hours. Apparently, he's a very slow painter. I told him to take a hike.

When I was telling my friend/co-worker about this, she volunteered to come over in the evening for an hour. She got a lot done in an hour and I painted for another 2 hours. Now the door jambs are all done and the door is half way done!!! Yay for Cindy to volunteer.

My friend Laura and her kids also came over to help with the shower door. Now they've enlisted the help of their Uncle Larry - good guy. He's coming over with Laura this afternoon to finish it up.

Laura and the kids came back over after youthgroup/AWANA/choir to help me stuff envelopes. WOW. Ronnie slept on the floor (poor kid gets up at 4:00 AM every morning for ROTC) and Nikki, Laura and I had a great little assembly line going on. We were done stuffing by 10:00 PM.!! Praise the Lord.

I really am blessed with some wonderful friends. I have felt so much love and encouragement in this process - especially recently in trying to get my house in order to sell. (It goes on the market on Saturday at 3:00 PM.)

Praise God for the wonderful "family" I have when my own family is physically far way. Thank you! Thank you!

Posted by Gabi at 10:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I've been feeling a bit stressed recently - working full time, taking two classes, trying to prepare for a two-week trip to Africa on October 14, and full-time missions in July of next year, AND getting my house ready to put on the market. Yeah, just a little on my plate.

God did make it clear he wanted the house on the market before I leave next weekend. And there are an amazing number of "little" jobs that need to be done by then. Every time I turn around I find something else.

One of the things I've been most concerned about is how little support raising I've been able to do. I should be much farther along at this point, but haven't been able to give it much attention. But God knows that I'm doing as much as I can humanly do.

God proved this with some wonderful encouragement.

On Wednesday night I found a letter in my mailbox that had been hand addressed. It was from some friends that our family had known back in Alaska about 23 years ago. It was a lovely update of what had been going on in their lives and how their children were taking such good care of them. AND a check for $25. I just about cried.

On Thursday night, I received another letter. This family friend still lives in Alaska. She too had received the news release from World Venture. Another lovely update on her life and a one-time gift of $50. There was also a check for $25 and a monthly committment in that amount.

This time I did cry.

What a faithful God I serve! One who reminds me that He will take care of everything - big and small. He's got it all under control. Even if I can't see the whole picture today.

Posted by Gabi at 07:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Yee Haw! Only 10 more sleeps until I leave for Africa!!

I'm so excited I can hardly stand myself. :-D

Posted by Gabi at 11:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

My Bible has been found!!!

I can get back to thumping people with it. Yay!!

Posted by Gabi at 12:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)