Newsletter (October 17, 2013)

Dear all, We seem to have a lull in activities recently, so we could have some breathing space. We are going to Hong Kong to visit our parents and friends next Monday. We will be away for just two weeks and we hope to have some rest before returning to Zambia.

The weather this October is very unusual. The first few days were very cold, just like winter. After that we had some showers and today we had thunderstorms, after some very hot days. Maybe rain will come early? We don’t know yet.

We finally had malaria two weeks ago. Maybe because of the hot weather we are still tired. Timothy went to see a doctor this morning and he said the malaria should have cleared and he may have some bugs in the stomach so he prescribed some medication. Hopefully we will be ok by the time we go to Hong Kong.

A young man from our Ndola church passed away in Lusaka two weeks ago because of renal failure. We attended the funeral and went to the cemetery. As usual this was a very sad occasion, as he was only 33 years old. His fianc�e passed away a year or two ago and this year he planned to get married in July, but postponed it to December because of his health. Now his fianc�e has to bury him. The preacher was our elder from Ndola and he was supposed to be the master of ceremony of his wedding! We sat in church listening to the tributes paid to him, went to the cemetery to attend the burial, and were filled with sorrows and sadness, and deep in our hearts we cried and mourned with his mother and his fianc�e. This certainly is one part of life in Zambia which we find it hard to accept. Lusaka is a prosperous city in many ways, but in the midst of all its prosperity and wealth there is still lots of poverty and sorrow.

Please also pray for Mercy, wife of Eric, TCCA top student from Burundi. She gave birth to a girl but apparently her (the mother’s) bones were fractured. She will be immobilised for about 12 weeks and possibly her studies will have to be deferred. Life and death, health and sickness are just one step away in life. Let’s thank God for every day that we are alive in this world and let’s commit our�selves to glorify him and serve him each day as we don’t know how long we will live in this world. With Christian love.