“Don’t eat my door!”

Everyone knows what it means to have to make tough economic choices: “Shall we go on vacation or paint the house?” “Shall we buy a car or pay down the mortgage?” I thought about these types of economic choices when I heard a Zambian friend put it like this: “Don’t eat my door!”

Don’t eat my door? She had recently received the great news that some money (K850 or $35) had come available to pay for a much-needed door for the house she was slowly building one small purchase at a time after many decades of living in a stick and mud hut. When she received the news, she playfully teased the one who would be delivering the money not to buy food with it instead. A door or food? A turn of phrase you’d probably never hear from an American.

Over the years, as we’ve become friends with Zambians, we’ve realized that it isn’t always possible for us to truly understand what daily life is like in Zambia, especially in the bush villages. On the other hand, we have so much in common. We all want a good home, we value hard work and perseverance, and we like to tease our friends. We love to laugh!

That’s why we’re so grateful for our dear friend and colleague, Percy Muleba, who has through countless hours of conversation, travel and training together, both here and in the U.S., helped us slowly enter the world of Zambia. And, we’re amazed that so many others have opened their lives to us in Zambia and Namibia, and given us the gift of relationships through the years.

This is why we have chosen to train in small groups over multiple phases so that we can, over time, get to know and be known by our students. And, this is why we just spent two weeks with three men, Titus, Martinet, and Pelekelo, in intense training and relationship building so they can integrate our curriculum and our DNA into their ongoing ministries in Zambia’s Western Province, multiplying our efforts to train the untrained to reach the unreached!

Already, these three have scheduled two training events before the end of this year. These events will include leaders from five denominations, both women and men. They have also requested that their wives be included in next year’s boot camp. We are delighted with all these developments!

We are so grateful for your prayers and financial support which gives us this amazing privilege. And remember, where we go, you go!

UPDATE: Our time in Zambia this trip is coming to an end sooner than we had planned. It’s winter here and COVID cases are spiking, and so new COVID restrictions in Namibia and Zambia have put stringent limits on our training. In addition, some of our students are under quarantine as they recover from COVID so they cannot meet with us. Last but not least, our travel agent has informed us that flights home are being cancelled in some cases. Consequently, we’ve made the difficult decision to change our tickets and fly home the end of next week. In the meantime, we will continue video recording our training for the Virtual Learning Project. Please pray for us that our new travel arrangements hold up and our trip home is safe and uneventful. Thank you!

A bible and pen are precious here.

“…if you cRy aloud for understanding…and search for it as hidden treasure…then you will find the knowledge of god.” Proverbs 2:3-5

Three women fish in the late afternoon on the zambezi river across from our training site in sioma, zambia.

Our mongu group was awesome, including our dear friends Yuyi and Mercy mundia (third and sixth from l)!

We are so grateful for Martinet, pelekelo, titus and nathan (our new team member and videographer)!

Percy and the guys!

Beautiful white-crowned lapwings frequented the zambezi river beach in sioma.