Newsletter (November 27, 2014)

Dear all, We went to Mongu, the capital city of Western Province, with our neighbour during the Independence Day weekend at the end of October. It is about 610km west of Lusaka. The road is quite straight, passing through the Kafue National Park, and people will usually see some wild animals close to the road. We did not manage to see many of them as it was very hot while we were there.

Mongu is much hotter than Lusaka and it reached 36 degrees when we arrived. It is also very different to the rest of Zambia in the sense that it is very sandy. Everywhere you go there is sand, sand and more sand. During the rainy season the Zambezi River will overflow and flood the floodplain and at that time Mongu is a very beautiful place with plenty of water.

We visited our missionaries there and it is good to see for the first time their living and working environment. One of our missionaries is teaching in a very small Bible college which is facing lots of challenges. She has just arrived and she is very enthusiastically trying to improve things. Another couple works some of their time in the Bible college, but they spend much of their time trying to develop the Mongu Youth Centre (MYC), a SIM Zambia project.

MYC is planned to be a gathering point for youth with both indoor and outdoor activities, counselling services, life skills training, AIDS awareness, Bible teaching and values training. After a very long wait the Council finally approved our building plans and we are going to build on the site which occupies quite a large area. At the moment it is all sand with a few temporary buildings.

In a way it is good for us to go to visit Mongu at the height of the hot season, as we can then experience how hot it can be, and it is no mean feat for our missionaries to live and minister in such a difficult environment.

President Michael Sata died in London at the end of October. He was buried on 11 November and a presidential by-election will take place on 20 January 2015. Please pray for the nation, that peace and calm will prevail during this time and we can see the sovereign will of God guide us through this time of uncertainty.

Zara’s mum has not been well recently. She was hospitalised but was since discharged. Her condition has improved a bit but she feels very tired. We will leave for Hong Kong for two weeks from 19 November. Please pray that we will have a fruitful and good time with our parents.

Rain has finally come but we do have a drought in Lusaka and many bore holes have dried up. So we pray and hope that we will have plenty of rainfall this year. With Christian love.