Newsletter (October 28, 2010)

Dear all, We managed to collect Zara’s employment permit in Lusaka two weeks ago. Our administrator told us that many of our missionaries’ renewals have problems, not that they were not being renewed, but their files were lost as they went through the system. We can understand how frustrating this can be, as Zara had to go to the department very often, to talk to the officials, and try to deal with all these difficulties.

We also met Young Fan and had an evening meal with him. His company decided to reduce their operations in Africa and withdraw from Zambia. Young Fan was supposed to go back to China several months ago, but somehow he was still in Lusaka. His wife in China has given birth to a boy and we thought he would return to China to be with his family. This was certainly his plan then but now it seems he will go back for a short while and return next year to start a business with some other people.

We are having a low voltage problem in our house recently. The voltage was so low that the lights were very dim and lots of appliances didn’t work. The meter even stopped several times. Zesco (the national power company) people came many times to check the poles and the house and everything seems to be OK and every time thought they had solved the problem. The situation was very bad last week and then suddenly on Sunday evening it came right again. We thought the problem had been resolved but then today the problem came back briefly in the morning. However it was not as bad as last week. We called Zesco again and the people came and now they suspect the connection in the underground cable may be faulty. So please pray that this problem will go away as it is very disruptive in many ways, and if there is really a problem with the underground cable it is not easy to fix.

Concerning the building project, we are very encouraged to hear that several persons have already donated money towards its cost, and another church is planning to do a matching grant. God is certainly working among his people and it looks like we will have money to complete the whole building project.

It is getting very hot now, with no rain at all. Previously there would be some rain in October, but not this year. Some people say it is the hottest October since records began. We find it OK and certainly are coping better than the summer in Hong Kong because here the relative humidity is very low. Nevertheless we are looking forward to seeing the rain come. With Christian love.