Newsletter (November 22, 2012)

Dear all, We have not been writing for quite a while. We are fine and looking forward to the end of term and then some rest before we start packing and returning to Dunedin for home assignment.

It has been hot since October and rain came late this year and so far we have only a few days of rain. Because of the heat most people, including us, are quite tired and without any energy to work, especially in the afternoon. The weather forecast seems to be saying there will be rain most days for the coming week, so hopefully the rain will bring some relief from the hot and dry weather.

This is the season of mangoes. There are great varieties of them in Zambia. The bigger ones have no tissue, so they are much easier to eat but not as sweet. The smaller ones are very sweet but they are full of tissue. The smaller ones are the most common type. You can find them in most houses (except ours) and TCCA. This is also the season of mushrooms and, again, there are many varieties of them. Some are as big as an umbrella and you can always see people selling them on the roads as you drive down to Lusaka. We like eating them, but they are quite difficult to clean, especially the smaller ones.

Timothy’s mum had a fall the other day, and fractured her knee cap. She was hospitalised for a day and then went back to the rest home. Later she was found to have pneumonia and was hospitalised again. The x-ray shows that she has fluid in her lungs and needs to go back to have a review on 17 December. She is now discharged and we will monitor her situation and see what to do next. She will turn 95 in March next year.

This month is harvest month in our church and we have many evangelism meetings throughout this month and early December. The first one was held two weeks ago at a church member’s home. It was a very good meeting and many people in the neighbourhood came to attend the meeting. We managed to talk to some people, some of them are Catholics. Most people would be churchgoers, unlike the situation in western societies. The challenge here is to try to find out if the people are really saved and, if they are not, how to lead them to see the truth. We hope to attend more evangelism meetings in the coming weeks and please pray that we will be able to share our faith with many others.

Please continue to pray for our future. We are planning to return to Zambia in May 2013. We believe God is leading us to come back, in spite of our frailties and weaknesses. Please pray that God will still use us and we will be able to serve him here and experience his grace, though in different capacities. With Christian love.