Newsletter (March 26, 2020)

Dear all, Greetings from Zambia and we trust all of you are well in the midst of a nationwide lockdown.

No one could have foreseen the turmoil that we are now facing since our last newsletter in December 2019. For Christians we do have hope and peace in our hearts because our Lord is in control of everything and we trust that he will look after us and protect us wherever we are.

The President has just announced there are now 12 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in Zambia. The government has closed all schools, colleges and universities. Church services have been reduced to not more than an hour and the number of people attending a service has also been limited. So our church has split the morning service into two, one at 10–11am and another 11:30 am–12:30 pm. Evening services and Sunday Schools are cancelled. Home groups have also been cancelled.

The Chinese Church has suspended all meetings, including the Sunday worship service. Timothy happened to preach there on 15 March which turned out to be the last service before the suspension.

At the moment things are OK in Lusaka. We can get provisions from supermarkets and the government has not closed the border like other African countries but very few flights are flying into Lusaka, as other countries have suspended international flights. A few days ago, before it was announced that there are now 12 confirmed cases, people were still very relaxed (except the Chinese community), and as we went to the supermarkets, people were still eating and drinking coffees in restaurants and cafes. These probably will stop now, as all restaurants are ordered to only offer takeaway services.

Please pray that the virus won’t spread in Zambia and other African countries. Most of the countries won’t have the capacity to cope. The government has been urging people to observe personal hygiene, frequent washing hands and keeping social distance. However it may not be easy to do for many people, especially those living in townships where there is no running water nor clean water source, poor sewerage network and the living environment is crowded. Also, public transport in Zambia relies mostly on minibuses and they are usually extremely crowded.

We will stay in Zambia for the time being. We are not planning to return to Hong Kong or New Zealand as everywhere will be the same. Flying is actually quite dangerous and it is very easy to contract the virus while travelling. Anyway with the closure of many major airports and suspension of flights it will be close to impossible to fly to anywhere in the world.

Very sorry for not communicating sooner, but we have been very busy in the past two months, trying to do the radio broadcast. We have finally done all the recordings and last week Timothy managed to edit the last three sessions with the producers at the radio station. It has been very exhausting for us and we finally can take a good rest. There will be three more sessions to be broadcasted. We are thankful for a very good team to work with. Without them the broadcast would not be able to go on air.

Zambia had lots of rain in January and February. However because of the drought in 2019, the rainwater has been absorbed by the soil and the amount of water going into the hydro-lakes is not as good as expected. So load-shedding will be continued and at the moment we are scheduled to have power cut for 12 hours a day, although we have more power than that most days. It will be increased towards the latter part of the year.

We planned to return to Hong Kong at the end of the month but we have to cancel the trip. We also have plans to go to Covenant College as Timothy needs to do some work in the library, and to Ndola to say farewell to the last remaining missionary couple whom we know. They are returning to the US for good. We also have to cancel the trips because of Covid-19.

Thanks for sending us updates of the church’s response to Covid-19. It is good to know that there is online livestreaming of both services. The timings are not too convenient, but after New Zealand reverts to standard time in April, it will be easier for us to participate in the evening services which will start at 7am Zambian time.

May our Lord be with you all in this time of uncertainties. Blessings.