the gift of Gab

Posted by Gabi at 9:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Mpidi

Dorothy and I had a purpose for our drive. The mission station had decided to give bags of clothing and blankets to those in the outlying villages for Christmas. Most of them are not able to travel into Chit to sell their crops and go "shopping" at the container. So Willis loaded up Dorothy's car with boxes and bags to give away.

As we went along, Dorothy would think of someone in a particular village to give one of the boxes. The trip that normally takes about an hour and a half took about three and a half hours that day because of all the stops we made. Most people were thrilled to be getting a package.

I was struck by the differences between those who live in Chit and those who live farther away. They looked much poorer. The children were all running around with clothing that was torn and tattered because they simply didn't have anything else. Many of their parents were dressed that way as well.

But what struck me even more what the joy in their faces. Even if they weren't getting a package of clothing and goodies, their faces shone. They were delighted to be a part of it all. The children loved it when I would take their pictures and would pose for me.
How many of us can say that we're thankful in all situations? I know I'd have trouble.

Posted by Gabi at 9:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

One of the blessings at Chitokoloki mission is the number of containers they receive from the US every year filled with items for the community. Primarily, those items are clothing, but they also contain household goods, personal hygiene products, crafts, etc.
When local people bring food to supply the hospital or do work on the mission station grounds, they are often paid with items from the containers. Sometimes it's a combination of cash and goods. They agree to how much their food products or services are worth and then get to go "shopping" at the containers.

What that really looks like is that the "buyers" put together a list of items that they would like to have. For example: a dress for a 3-year-old girl, men's shoes size 7, trousers for a 12 year-old-boy, bath towel, soap. These tickets are collected throughout the week to be filled. Ruth Hannah is in charge of filling the tickets and Vella will often help her with them.

Since I've been here, we've gone to help Ruth a couple of times. It's been an interesting challenge. While people may request specific items, there is no guarantee that they will actually be in the container. Then it is just up to us to do the best we can to fill the ticket and hope that they will be able to trade or barter with someone else later on.

I do think it's a pretty clever way to pay for things on the station. Because of that,
people in the Chitokoloki area are fairly well dressed. Most people don't have to wear clothes that are completely falling off their bodies, though the sizes are a bit troubling at times. ;-)

Posted by Gabi at 9:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Chitokoloki is a small community in NW Zambia near the Angolan border. It is located on the east bank of the Zambezi River which flows to Victoria Falls in the south. The mission hospital, started by the Plymouth Brethren community over 100 years ago, is the only thing in the village of Chitokoloki. However, it is surrounded by a number of other small villages. So the whole area has come to be known by the name of the mission station.

Normally, there are seven families who live on the station. Right now, three of them are away for the Christmas holidays. So things are a little quieter than they would normally be. Often times, you can find short term missionaries working on a variety of construction or medical projects and even a number of med students. Of course, they typically don't come over Christmas either. And because most of Phil's flights serve those coming and going to the station, there hasn't been a lot of flying for him during December either.

One of the things the hospital does is put on a party for all of the staff on the station. This includes both hospital and clinic workers and those working in/around the homes as house help. There are 108 people invited to the party this year.

So Vella, along with two of the other women on the station, have been baking cookies, cupcakes, etc. for the shindig. I've enjoyed helping Vella. Since her oven doesn't work properly, she's been baking everything in an old wood stove. It seems to work pretty well, though it does require a few adjustments. For example, since there is no top heating element and the heat is fairly one-sided, we have to rotate the baking sheet about half way through each bake cycle.

Chit has no regular electric services, so the station uses a diesel generator for power. We get electricity from 11-12 in the morning and from 6:ish to 9:30 in the evening. That's it. The rest of it is all done by natural or candle light. The houses all have battery operated lights, but the batteries run flat in a fairly short amount of time. So 9:30 is pretty much bed time for me. Kind of hard for this night owl to admit.

The internet only works when the power is on, and unfortunately, it doesn't even always work then. Being the e-mail junkie that I am, it's been quite an adjustment for me. That also means that these blog entries are all going to get posted around the same time. ;-)

Posted by Gabi at 8:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I got the house I looked at on Monday! I'm so pleased. This just confirms to me that I am where God wants me to be.

Bryan went to talk with the owners today. They initially said they wanted $750 for this little house. So he talked with them for over an hour about a lot of different things, but never about price. At the very end, he told them I could only afford a total of $575 and they accepted my offer! Whoo Hoo!!! That price includes the house, 24 hour gate guard, electric, and water. God is so good!

The house does need some work, so the owners have asked that I do the upgrades and they will deduct that amount from my rent each month. So I plan on putting in new flooring (only concrete right now), as well as updating the bathroom a bit. The 2nd bedroom is actually detached from the house and sits across a small breezeway. I think that will make a lovely office/guest room.

Now I'm looking forward to getting back to Lusaka to set up my house. It will be nice to have a home again. I moved out of mine in April and have been basically living out of a suitcase since that time. Whew!

Posted by Gabi at 8:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Driving to Chitokoloki

The drive to Chitokoloki was long and exhausting, 12 hours to be exact! And I am so glad that I got to do it. As part of my in-country orientation, I am going to spend a couple of weeks on a mission station. The purpose is to understand their unique problems and transportation needs. That way when I get into the office and people are calling me from the bush, I'll have a much better understanding of what they need. Of course, part of that need is the drive to and from their base of operation.

I drove up with Dorothy, an American missionary who has served here for the past 17 years, and one of her Zambian workers named Willis. Dorothy drives a big, old, white Land Rover which is nearly impossible to get into with my right arm in a sling. (I still can't put any real weight on my arm.) Remember that I was getting into the left side of the car (which would be the driver's side in the US) so it would have been easiest to pull myself up with my right arm. Couldn't do that though. Her truck has no running boards and no overhead grab bar. I'm sure I was quite a sight squirming around to get into this thing! I was just hoping and praying that I wouldn't have to pee the entire way just so that I wouldn't have to get out anywhere!!

We drove northwest out of Lusaka. It was paved for about the first 400 kilometers (250 miles) which made for pretty smooth sailing. The highway goes directly through Kafue National Park. And when we got there, we started to see impala, puku, wild boars, and an incredible number of birds. About half way through the park, we saw a group of people standing by the side of the road with their cameras. They were quite animated. Willis, who has a very sharp eye, said he saw some elephants in the brush.

Unfortunately, all I ever saw was bits - an ear here, a tail there, a midsection between the trees.

Once we turned off the paved road, we still had about 350 kilometers (217 miles) to go. We turned onto a red ribbon of mud. Apparently it had been recently graded so it wasn't too bad. However, Dorothy did chose a times to drive along the edge of the road since there were fewer potholes there. Eventually, we came to the forest road. Dorothy and Willis were rather worried about this since there had been so much rain recently.
The forest road has hardly more than a sandy path. It was bumpy, it was sandy, it was muddy, it was rocky. And every so often we would come to a downed tree in the middle of the road. I suppose some of them we could have moved. However, there was clearly a path around each one, so we took the little detours and made it around. We even made it across the flood plains which had much less water in them than expected.

At one point we had to cross a river. I don't remember the name of it though. There is no bridge in this village. We had to put the car on a pontoon and get pulled across. The bank on either side of the river is so steep that Dorothy didn't want to risk the extra weight in the car, so she asked Willis and me to get out and walk down and then walk back up the other side. No problem.

When I got out of the car, all of the little children started giggling and laughing. I wasn't sure why, but it was obviously directed at me. I asked Willis if the children were not used to seeing a white person. Noooo. He said that wasn't it. Then he very gingerly went on to explain that the children were not used to seeing someone of my size. OK, reason # 1,206 to continue losing weight! Most of the Zambians are a very healthy weight and the only fat people they see are typically white.

So we got across the river and back into the Land Rover. We continued on through the forest road and saw fire lilies and delicate lavender orchids growing wild! So beautiful! We finally made it to Chit at 6:30 in the evening and dropped Willis off near his home.

Vella Smith greeted me with a great big hug. Roger and Sally Green also were in Chit on their way back to Lusaka and I was glad to see them for a bit. I'll be working with them in Lusaka. I'll be spending most of my time in Chit with Phil and Vella Smith and their 17-year-old son Bradley. Phil is the Flying Mission pilot stationed here in Chitokoloki and Vella runs the guest house.

Posted by Gabi at 7:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Today I bought an SUV! It's a 1996 Toyota brought in from Japan. Doug used to be a car salesman, so he and Bryan came with me to buy the car. Good thing!! They kicked the wheels and made sure everything was working right. I made sure it was a pretty color. And it is - dark green. Oh yeah, it is in pretty good shape too.

The truck runs on diesel which is still cheaper than gas (called petrol here), but is still about $6/gallon. It's also an automatic. Initially, I had wanted a stick shift to save on gas mileage. Doug told me though that doesn't make much of a difference anymore; it really did about 20 years ago. Since they drive on the other side of the road here, having an automatic will certainly make that easier, especially in the city.

I had expected this process to take a several months. All the others were so surprised that I already have a vehicle. I am just delighted that God has already taken care of this detail!

On the way back to the Farm after buying my truck, we stopped in to see another house for rent. I love it!! It's a two bedroom, 1 bath on Makeni Road which puts it between the Farm and the City. That would be perfect for me. The lady said she needs to talk to her husband about the price and will get back to Bryan with the information.

Tomorrow, I will drive to Chitokoloki to spend just over two weeks on a mission station.

Posted by Gabi at 7:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Well, it's been a long journey, but here I am at last! Just one week ago I was heading to the Phoenix airport to catch a flight that left on Sunday at 9:20PM. Some friends of mine, Barbara and Ian, drove from Benson to help get all six pieces of my luggage to the airport. I hadn't expected that and was so very thankful.

Other than having my arm in a sling, the flights were pretty uneventful, which is just the way I like them. Both flights were about 10 hours long. I had a 4 hour layover in London's Heathrow airport.

I arrived Lusaka on Tuesday morning at 6:35AM and was greeted by Bryan, our director, and Richard who handles the IT department. They drove me back to the "Farm" which is what we call the FMZ plot complete with airstrip. It takes nearly an hour to make that drive. When I arrived, all the FMZ folks who were in town were there to greet me. They made me feel so welcomed right away. We celebrated with coffee and warm mango pie! I could get used to this!! :-)

Since arriving in Lusaka, I've been to the city several times running errands with people which has helped me get a feel for the city and its layout. I've been to shopping centers, government offices, medical facilities and looked for a car and a place to live. And today, I went to church. It's mostly ex-pats (white) and Richard was leading the Christmas Carol service. So another couple who was staying at the guest house and I went to the service. It was quite delightful.

Every evening since arriving one of the FMZ families has invited me over for supper. It's been quite nice. I've really enjoyed having some one-on-one time with each of them. So far, there's not a rotten one in the bunch! ;-)

Today, I was able to cook lunch for Doug and Deb (staying in guest house) and Richard. It was great to finally cook again. I enjoy doing it so much. I was having a bit of homesickness this morning, so I was able to whip up some comfort food - rice with stroganoff and green beans. We bought a small watermelon along the side of the road for dessert. Yum!

Posted by Gabi at 7:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

While I am full of God's grace, that's not actually what I'm going to talk about. Rather it has to do with a visit to the emergency room. I know it's hard to imagine that I might actually hurt myself. ;-) But I did.

On Friday night, my parents and my friend Elizabeth hosted a wonderful going-away party for me. There were well over 50 people there. I was really touched by that and had a great time. I did spend most of my time by the front door though and felt bad that I wasn't able to mingle as much as I would have liked. Overall, the whole thing was quite lovely. What a great send-off!

In Tucson, we don't like to put up street lights so that we can see the stars better. In gerenal, this is a good thing. And in this neighborhood, as in many older neighborhoods, there are no sidewalks on the streets.

As I was walking in the dark to make sure one of my friends made it to her car ok, I caught my sandal on the pavement and took a dive. I scraped up my knee and the heels of my palms as well. When I got back inside, I noticed that my elbow was hurting. Pretty soon it started to seize up and it got harder and harder to bend.

About 4 years ago, I did something very similar. I was stepping off the curb in a church parking lot and lost my footing. When I went down, I jammed my elbow. (Are you sensing the theme of gracefulness here?) Since the doctor initially thought I had broken it, I had to keep it very still for a couple of weeks. By that time, it had seized up so badly that I had almost no range of motion left in that arm. It took nearly 6 weeks of physical therapy to get my arm back to 100%.

By the time we got home from the party (around 11 pm) I realized that I had reinjured my arm. So off we went to the emergency room. The doctor confirmed what I thought. Thankfully, it was not broken. He gave me a sling, told me to take some Ibuprofen and ice it to keep the swelling down. We got home around 1:30 am.

Hm. The timing of this couldn't have been worse. This was less than 48 hours before my flight to Zambia. And it was my right arm! Thankfully, I was able to get some laser treatment on both Saturday and Sunday morning. That made a significant difference in the swelling, bruising, and pain level. Then I realized that with my arm in a sling, I wouldn't have to carry any of my luggage. And I could probably get people to help me put my very heavy carry-on into the overhead bin for me. Hmmm, not so bad after all.

So throughout my flight, I asked people to help me lift my backpack, to help me open my water bottles, and various other things. Ironically, it was the airline and security employees that wouldn't/couldn't help. But there were plenty of other very kind passengers who were willing to help me.

By now, Wednesday morning, my arm feels much better. I've kept it moving and I've gotten a lot of my range of motion back (about 70%). The woman who runs the FMZ guest house is a trained physical therapist and will help me get my arm back to 100%. Praise God!

Posted by Gabi at 9:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I was pretty excited that the bank had finally approved the sale of my house to the disabled veteran. We were supposed to close on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. But you've heard that adage about counting your chickens before they hatch.

I found out on Tuesday that the buyer no longer qualified for his loan. Hmmm, is there anything we can do? My realtor told me that since the buyer was trying to get a VA loan that was the best place to be since they could review his credit and doing a manual underwrite if appropriate. "I'm sure it will be fine."

On Monday, as we were driving back from California, I found out that the sale had completely crashed and burned. His credit was now too bad to work with. It sounds like he was still on the mortgage for the house he and his ex-wife owned and she had defaulted on the mortgage. That, unfortunately, affected his credit as well. There may be more to the story than we know. All I know is that for the past week, my realtor and I have been shooting e-mails back and forth with papers for me to sign to get the house back on the market. It should be back up by Monday.

Do you know anyone interested in a 3 bedroom, 2 bath house in a lovely neighborhood?

It's God's house. He will sell it in His timing, even when I don't understand. I do know that I have a wonderful friend who's agreed to be my power of attorney, even for this situation. I don't have to worry about anything from Africa! Praise God!!

Posted by Gabi at 9:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

My brother Michael graduated with his M.Div. about 4 years ago. He's been wanting to pastor his own church since that time. It's been a lot wait for him, but yesterday, he was finally ordained as a Priest in the Charismatic Episcopal Church (NOT Episcopal USA) www.iccec.org. Now he is going to pastor a small parish near Tacoma, WA, in a little town called Pyuallup.

Of course we couldn't me more excited for or prouder of him.

Since Michael had lived in California until early November, he chose to have his ordination there so friend from his church and from seminary could attend. So on Saturday, November 29, the four of us piled into Mom and Dad's car and drove to Southern California for the big event.

Wow, what a big deal this was! It was a marvelous ceremony. Very liturgical, very formal, and very God-honoring. I wouldn't have missed this for anything and am so grateful that God allowed me to stay for this.

I was that crazy lady that was wandering all over the church with her camera trying to get pictures from every angle. It was a little difficult sometimes since the candidates (there was another guy being ordained also) were facing the bishop and had their backs to the congregation. It was not ok for me to go behind the altar rail to get pictures, so most of what I got was from the side. At one point, I went to the end of the rail and tried to hang over it a little. Poor Michael thought I was going to climb around it and break ALL the rules. I think he just about had a heart attack!!!! He may have also giving himself whiplash shaking his head so fast and furiously. Don't worry. I didn't do it.

Of course, after the service there was a great party with tons of people and food. We estimated that close to 150 people showed up!

If you click on the picture below, you'll get to the photo album of 183 pictures of the event.

Ordination to Priesthood

Posted by Gabi at 9:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)