Julius and Peter’s Send Off Celebration August 2010       Pastors Julius, George and Peter

Sons of Thunder Medical Ministries began in 2005 with one room.  It quickly spread to two rooms, then three and now it is a whole building with plans for expansion.  The medical clinic includes an outside waiting area on a covered back porch, a large inside reception area with sign in registration and indoor waiting, two exam rooms, a full laboratory, Labor and Delivery, a male ward, a female ward, pharmacy, storage, and male and female bathrooms, each with toilets, sinks, showers and a bathtub.  There are laundry facilities, kitchen area and a sluice room.  Sons of Thunder is a full service clinic seeing over 1200 outpatients each month including Under Five, Antenatal, TB and HIV care. Sons of Thunder Clinic is an ART Center for HIV patients under the Kazungula District Ministry of Health and we are a referral center for the other rural health centers on this side of Kazungula.  We have initiated 632 patients on ARTs to date and currently have 534 on medicine with 200 waiting to qualify.  We also admit patients and have an inpatient bed capacity of eight beds currently. Our inpatients get three meals a day; well balanced meals including nshima, eggs, kapenta, vegetables and even chicken on occasion.  All the fresh vegetables are supplied from our Farming God’s Way Clinic garden.  Because our ART numbers were so large, we decided to provide mobile ART services even before they were promoted by the Ministry of Health.  We travel to four different sites on Fridays to provide ART services within the communities of Kabuyu, Katapazi, Sinde and Siakasipa, all within the Kazungula District: Kabuyu the first Friday, Katapazi the second, Sinde the third and Siakasipa the fourth.  We also provided full services to Kasiya in the Livingstone District until they established and staffed a full clinic there.  Now we provide full services twice a month to Siandazya and Natebe alike in the Livingsone District .  Just recently we began outreach services to Makoli, also twice a month in the Kazungula District.

 While Sal is busy providing care at the clinic and outreach areas, my biggest role has been with our HIV Community Care Program(Sons of Thunder and Kabuyu, Katapazi, Sinde and Siakasipa).We sent seven people living positively with HIV to a workshop in town in 2008 to become treatment supporters under a program sponsored by AIDS Alliance.  We also established a group of people from among Sons of Thunder residents to form a Home-Based Care group.  Since January 2009, after coming back from furlough, and following my trip to Swaziland to learn Community Health Evangelism or CHE, I began weekly classes with both groups together.  We started with team building and proceeded to cover the CHE classes targeting just HIV and all its ramifications.  HIV positive and negative people found working together to minister to our group of HIV clients now over 500. During those classes, we covered topics such as What is HIV, Transmission, Prevention and Treatment, Consequences of Sex Outside Marriage, God’s Plan for Marriage, Requirements of Marriage Partners, Emotions such as Denial, Fear, Worry, Guilt, Anger, Bitterness, Forgiveness and Unforgiveness, Counseling, Compassion, and Caring for the Whole Person.  We spent weeks discussing tradition, customs, culture and contrasting what it says in God’s Word.  From whatever God had us discussing over the month, the group would develop a drama to perform at each outreach site for that month. Always included with the drama would be corresponding scripture.  In the group, we have three pastors; two of which always go to the outreach areas with us.  So class would be on Thursday mornings and Friday the group would travel with Sal to the outreach site where Sal would see HIV clients receiving ARVs.   They perform the drama and bring forth God’s Word before Sal begins seeing patients.  While Sal sees the patients, the treatment supporters’ talk with individuals about adherence to medications, answer questions concerning living with HIV, teach lessons on perhaps nutrition or some other relevant subject and counsel and pray with individuals. The treatment supporters along with the home based care group visit homes in the areas that have been designated as needing a visit…perhaps a patient is too sick to make it to the clinic or perhaps there is a defaulter who for whatever reason is refusing to come to get help.

The treatment supporters have just sort of taken over areas of responsibility….Lena at Sons of Thunder, Abel at Katapazi, Kenneth at Sinde and Siakasipa, Sally at Kabuyu,  and Charles as secretary keeping written records of activity.  Two weeks ago I felt like God said my time of teaching Thursday mornings at Sons of Thunder was finished and I was to turn the lessons over to someone in the group to carry on….so last week Precious led the class with the CHE lesson she selected to facilitate.  The class reported it went well and they didn’t have to translate….they could just use Tonga!!!

Over the months, it has become apparent to me that each community where we offer HIV care, there needed to be a support group within the community and then as months progressed it also became apparent that a leaders group was developing in each area.  The treatment supporter overseeing the area would be instrumental in helping a support group form from among HIV positive patients.  A leaders group of both HIV positive and negative people would be crucial to carry out home visits and seed projects. I feel like my time teaching CHE at Sons of Thunder is over, but is just starting in all the other areas as the leaders groups are formed.  The same classes I taught here for the last 9 months (how appropriate J) are now to be taught in the outreach communities.  Sally, one of the treatment supporters has already begun teaching the CHE classes to her group!  So, Precious is continuing the teaching at Sons of Thunder and Sally is already teaching them in Kabuyu……you can see how God is growing this effective web of ministry, reaching people physically and spiritually….we speak truth right from God’s Word.  We don’t sugar-coat or tickle ears.  We just speak truth.  These people are already faced with their own physical death.  They need and want to hear the truth….Eternal life is at stake.

As we left for furlough in May 2010, Boston University came and gave SoT seeds, fertilizer, watering cans, sprayer, and hoes to plant a PMTCT garden, which was planted Farming God’s Way during my absence.  The garden has already produced a harvest and has been found to be income generating to be used for food for vulnerable HIV positive mothers and exposed infants.  When the groups in the four outreach areas saw the success of the project, they also requested gardens.  We did not want to give the hoes, watering cans, seed and fertilizer without training in the method of FGW.  So, in coordination with Patrick’s visit from South Africa two weeks ago(God’s timing is always perfect) we held a three day workshop for 20 participants in Farming God’s Way, four from each outreach area and four from our home group.  Now the plan is to go out to the area on their respective Friday and assist them in planting an income generating garden initially to benefit positive Mothers and exposed infants, but afterwards to broaden the target base to include patients who need food assistance.

FGW Training in Katapazi Nov 2010

After the gardens are established and we receive the new vehicle, the next step is to travel to the four outreach areas and teach CHE classes just as we did here at Sons of Thunder.  Some of those very same issues need to be addressed and discussed for healing to occur.

In addition to this, we have been teaching students from the Western School of Nursing.  Sal has been teaching Anatomy and Physiology in the classroom and we have been hosting groups for their three week rural health clinical rotation. 

Sons of Thunder Clinic is becoming well-known throughout Zambia and will soon be recognized as a nationally accredited HIV center.  Preliminary inspections by both the District and Provincial Ministries of Health have been made to help prepare us for the Medical Council’s accreditation review.  In order to help us comply with national requirements, the Ministry of Health has posted a male nurse to our clinic and is looking for a pharmacist or pharmacy tech as well.  Posting of these positions means they pay the salaries even though we are still required to provide housing. 

In addition to national recognition, we have been awarded a grant from ZNAN (Zambia National AIDS Network) sponsored by the Global Fund.  This grant money is specifically targeted for HIV/AIDS care.  The monies are allocated for lab refurbishment, a new bush vehicle to do mobile ART clinics (antiretroviral treatment clinics), a CD4 machine with reagents (needed to do CD4 tests specific for ART protocol guidelines), an autoclave, and some top-up salaries.  The CD4 machine arrived last week but without reagents.  The vehicle is ordered but not yet received.  The lab construction is underway.

God is good and His blessings abound as He establishes Himself as Our Provider!!!    Even with all these blessings, there is still much more to be done.  Monthly operational costs are still a great need to continue the work .

Last group of students from Western School of Nursing Sept/Oct 2010

New lab Construction  (Clinic on left)

(Chicken Coop on right – plan for more wards, laundry and kitchen)

Plan for Maternity Ward across from Lab

Long Overdue.....

     ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS IN ZAMBIA!!!!!

Building the Tabernacle

Just to let you know what has been happening with the Medical Ministry….. 

Sal continues to be forever busy seeing outpatients not only at Sons of Thunder, but also at five other outreach communities.  There have been two more communities that have written to request us to provide medical services in their areas; Siandazya and Siamasimbbi.  Both areas are very far from any kind of medical care.  To give you some kind of reference, they are approximately 30 kilometers (18-20 mile range) away from Sons of Thunder and we are the nearest medical facility.  The villagers of Siandazya have built a grass hut for us to use as a clinic building and have come to the farm with the headman to present their petition.  Still knowing that we are supposed to do what God puts in front of us, we will probably be starting in October to provide full services to them twice a month.  Along with outpatients, we have a full inpatient ward most of the time, caring for predominantly AIDS patients and Obstetrics.  For example….five babies were born in the clinic last Monday!!!  Besides that, Sal’s phone number is well known and he answers calls 24 hours a day, being his own EMS service.  I guess God prepared him with all his missed night sleep as a paramedic in the States!  Now if that weren’t enough, he also has been teaching Anatomy and Physiology at the Western School of Nursing.  God has definitely equipped him because I can’t keep up.  Just this past week Lena B told him, “I know what your gift is” and when Sal asked what that was, she said “You never get tired; you are always working in God’s strength.”  I believe that to be very true.

I, on the other hand have been busy administrating the rest of the ministries here, children’s home, primary school, farm, piecework, sewing, vehicles, taxes, budgets, payroll as well as hosting Traveller volunteers, student nurses and visiting teams from the States. I know that sounds like a long list, but the only reason I can do all that is because the Zambian leaders in each area are doing a fantastic job! Lena and Royce with the children, Phillip as headmaster of the school along with excellent teachers, Alexander and Abson over the villages and farm, Pastor George over the church, Terry with the vehicles, Eunice with the sewing classes and Advent at the guest house! As for my role with medical, I still manage to do Under Five once a month, but my biggest role has been with our HIV Community Care Program.  We sent seven people living positively with HIV to a workshop in town to become treatment supporters under a program sponsored by AIDS Alliance.  We also established a group of people from among Sons of Thunder residents to form a Home-Based Care group.  Since January after coming back from furlough, and following my trip to Swaziland to learn Community Health Evangelism or CHE, I began weekly classes with both groups together.  We started with team building and proceeded to cover the CHE classes targeting just HIV and all its ramifications.  HIV positive and negative people found working together to minister to our group of HIV clients now over 500. During those classes, we covered topics such as What is HIV, Transmission, Prevention and Treatment, Consequences of Sex Outside Marriage, God’s Plan for Marriage, Requirements of Marriage Partners, Emotions such as Denial, Fear, Worry, Guilt, Anger, Bitterness, Forgiveness and Unforgiveness, Counseling, Compassion, and Caring for the Whole Person.  We spent weeks discussing tradition, customs, culture and contrasting what it says in God’s Word.  From whatever God had us discussing over the month, the group would develop a drama to perform at each outreach site for that month. Always included with the drama would be corresponding scripture.  In the group, we have three pastors; two of which always go to the outreach areas with us.  So class would be on Thursday mornings and Friday the group would travel with Sal to the outreach site where Sal would see HIV clients receiving ARVs.   They perform the drama and bring forth God’s Word before Sal begins seeing patients.  While Sal sees the patients, the treatment supporters talk with individuals about adherence to medications, answer questions concerning living with HIV, teach lessons on perhaps nutrition or some other relevant subject and counsel and pray with individuals. The treatment supporters along with the home based care group visit homes in the areas that have been designated as needing a visit…perhaps a patient is too sick to make it to the clinic or perhaps there is a defaulter who for whatever reason is refusing to come to get help.

The treatment supporters have just sort of taken over areas of responsibility….Lena at Sons of Thunder, Abel at Katapazi, Kenneth at Sinde and Siakasipa, Sally at Kabuyu,  and Charles as secretary keeping written records of activity.  Two weeks ago I felt like God said my time of teaching Thursday mornings at Sons of Thunder was finished and I was to turn the lessons over to someone in the group to carry on….so last week Precious led the class with the CHE lesson she selected to facilitate.  The class reported it went well and they didn’t have to translate….they could just use Tonga!!!

Over the months, it has become apparent to me that each community where we offer HIV care, there needed to be a support group within the community and then as months progressed it also became apparent that a leaders group was developing in each area.  The treatment supporter overseeing the area would be instrumental in helping a support group form from among HIV positive patients.  A leaders group of both HIV positive and negative people would be crucial to carry out home visits and seed projects. I feel like my time teaching CHE at Sons of Thunder is over, but is just starting in all the other areas as the leaders groups are formed.  The same classes I taught here for the last 9 months (how appropriate J) are now to be taught in the outreach communities.  Sally, one of the treatment supporters has already begun teaching the CHE classes to her group!  So, Precious is continuing the teaching at Sons of Thunder and Sally is already teaching them in Kabuyu……you can see how God is growing this effective web of ministry, reaching people physically and spiritually….we speak truth right from God’s Word.  We don’t sugar-coat or tickle ears.  We just speak truth.  These people are already faced with their own physical death.  They need and want to hear the truth….Eternal life is at stake.

Some of the leaders on the farm were in the CHE classes and were so impacted that they asked me to please teach some of the classes to all the married couples on the farm.  Now, with so much in front of us to do, Sal and I will not just do something to do it.  We watch and pray until we see what direction God wants us to follow.  After months of waiting, God brought confirmation through many different ways and people and so I agreed to teach the classes.  At the same time as I was seeking God’s direction for these classes, I was doing a personal bible study on the Tabernacle and God clearly spoke to me the message for Sons of Thunder out of Exodus 25:8-9,  “Then have them make a sanctuary for me, and I will dwell among them.  Make this tabernacle and all its furnishings exactly like the pattern I will show you.”  It is clear to me that God wants us to build Him a tabernacle so that He may dwell not only among us, but within us!  The message God spoke to George after his time of fasting and prayer seeking direction for the church “Building the Kingdom” rings the same message.  The Word says that “the Kingdom of Heaven is within you.”  Clearly God wants a people here prepared for Him….  “clean hands and a pure heart, ”  no longer ruled by the sinful nature, but living by the Holy Spirit.  We have had four classes so far and people are being convicted….some have stopped coming, some are hungry for more.  The classes are opening eyes and minds to the Truth of God’s Word.  God wants a holy people and just as He cleaned up and continues to clean up the physical surroundings here and shake that which can be shaken, He is once again giving us another chance to get in right relationship with Him.  Thank you Lord….You be glorified..

Sorry It Has Taken So Long...

Sunday, June 7, 2009

I am sitting here Sunday morning sipping on a cup of Hazelnut Decaf and listening to my Ipod.  I have decided to write you to once again thank you for all your prayers, encouragement and financial support.  Thank you for giving me grace when I have not been able to write weekly updates as I have done in the past. Today I am waiting for Sal to deliver the second baby of the day so that we can go to church together. If the woman (or should I say the baby) is uncooperative with my plan, I guess I will be going alone.  But, while I wait, I thought I would sit down and put thoughts to paper. There is so much I want to share with you…so much God is doing in the lives of people and on the farm….so much He is doing at the orphanage, school, church and of course the clinic! 
 
Farm….

• We had a whole training on “Farming God’s Way” early this year provided to all our farmers.  FGW is called “conservation farming” in the secular world and has proven itself to be effective in this area.  There is no need for plowing or big machinery…just a hoe, a little order and “God’s Blanket.”  The clinic garden was used as a sample and I must admit the carrots were beautiful…straight, bright orange, big and sweet!!!  Alexander has been moving forward with the plan for FGW and is leading the other farmers.  He also has been working with the “chili pepper people” in order to discourage the elephants.  You see, we had over 200 of the big guys and their babies coming through ravaging all the gardens and fields…sometimes in one night.  Firecrackers just weren’t enough! The rangers had to come and kill an elephant to get them to move on.  New markets have been opened for farm produce including our fruit from the orchards.  Professor has been working hard marketing and overseeing the orchard.
• There are no more loans being given out…credit is coming to a halt and there is a need for teaching budgeting and money management skills. There is no more free seed and fertilizer this year, and the guys are ready to pay for it themselves. 
• We have two villages that have the capacity for electricity and 10 homes have now been connected…all at their own cost and with a monthly bill. 
• The Department of Road Transport is finally having the main road here paved so they have a Chinese company hired to do the work…the maps have slotted our little road to be the detour….so they are coming through widening our road and will pass right through two of our outlying villages and Revelation village and the front gate!! That means buses and trucks coming right past the front gate for the next three months….addressing our concerns, they have agreed to speed humps, a traffic attendant and watering to keep down the dirt and dust.  They have also agreed to widen the road to the Hill.
• We just had a woman’s ministry here where 40 women were taught sewing classes by a retired home economist right here at the guest house.  She had four classes a day and the ladies made chetange outfits, as well as stuffed elephants and Tonga Lady dolls to sell. Sue purchased 4 hand crank machines to use and leave here and one of the more advanced Zambian women is going to continue the classes now that Sue has left.  We made the front room into a sewing room and the classes start up again Monday.  They are going to learn little boys shorts and little girls chetange skirts and/or dresses….the first ones will be for the orphanage before they make them for their own children. Another woman from a work team came during the same time and taught 20 ladies crocheting.  Both classes ended with certificate presentations and the sewing class was a fashion show!
• The electric all over the farm has been updated and worked on making things safe in the guest house, orphanage, clinic, boreholes, new church site, and some of the tobacco barn and school.
• New screens are being completed for the guest house as well as new curtains in the bedrooms and bathrooms.
• Janice has left the farm….she has gone to Livingstone to join her husband Albert who got a very good pastoral position with Rainbow in town and their two children get free private education at Rainbow school.  It was a blessing and now they will be able to do ministry together.

Janice's Last Day

Carrots - Farming God's Way

Crocheting Class

One of the Sewing Classes

Agatha with the Hand Crank Machine

 Eunice in her new chetange outfit

Tonga Lady Dolls and Stuffed Elephants

Tonga Lady Dolls (up close)

Orphanage…

• There have been many inaccurate reports spreading about the “orphanage closing and us sending the kids all over the country.”    Those reports were initiated when people from outside the district used the pulpits of our smaller planted churches in the surrounding areas to put fear into the Zambian families of the children and it has caused a bit of havoc. Families have been going to Social Welfare asking for their kids…most not in any position to take their kids and some with the intent of giving them to another orphanage outside the district. I just hate gossip and unfortunately no one has come to Sal and I to secure the truth.  When we returned in December, three boys (Misheck, Thomas and Wilson) had been moved to Global Samaritan according to Jaime’s plan to reunite some of the kids with their siblings.  There was one more boy slotted to go, so Joseph quickly followed his buddies.  Now in case you are not aware, our largest donor has chosen to reduce their support by one half effective in June, and to continue with half through the end of 2009, at which time they will contact those who have given, and give them our address with the opportunity for them to continue to have part in the orphanage work.  We trust they will.  While others have deserted the children and the work, God has helped us remain faithful to provide and care for the children’s needs with the resources He provides.  God is a big God, our Provider and He will take care of the kids.  Remember this is His vision and those are His kids…He has promised never to leave them nor forsake them. Right? So as we look to God for His plan for the children, we continue to walk through the doors He opens. When I was at Global Samaritan last month for a certificate ceremony for a ladies ministry (same as here at SoT that I told you about above) I spoke with Miriam who is now running the operations there and she told me she had two positions for girls open up unexpectedly and she also had three more boy positions left in the same house as the other SoT boys.  Taking that as an opportunity God provided and clearing it with Social Welfare, Racheal and Peggy were moved last week and Steven, Joe and Mapalo are scheduled to move by the end of the month….Nine of the older children moved to be with siblings, closer to Sons of Thunder Primary School, eight to a house with English-speaking house mothers and guaranteed secondary education (Global is currently in the process of building a secondary school for their children). All that sounds like God’s provision to me!  Peter was reunited with his father and sisters…his dad has a good job, is remarried living in town and is now able to take proper care of Peter.  So approved and recommended by the Ministry of Social Welfare, Peter went home! That makes 10 children…taking our numbers down to 38.  Now God also opened the doors for a possible 8 children to go to Villages of Hope Children’s Home up by Lusaka. Villages of Hope is with the man who first approached SoT to partner and put money into our orphanage, a plan that was negated by field management at the time.  That Christian investor had the same vision as SoT and has since established a children’s home with individual houses, 8 children and a house mother to each home. He has a school started and is also constructing a clinic.  There is farming and even a restaurant on site.  The director of Villages of Hope and some Board members came to SoT to meet and discuss the possible transfer of children since they just happened to have a house being built that should be ready by June. We all went to the Ministry of Social Welfare and they were in favor of the transfer….the Ministry of Social Welfare up near Lusaka was also in favor and authorization from families is now being sought by the social workers.  If forward progress continues, 8 more children will be provided for through the countenance of God.  That would take our number down to 30.
  Funny, but we are really only approved for a capacity of 25….the original director of the orphanage however chose not to abide by the government regulation and accepted more than double that amount causing overcrowding and all the public health issues that arise as a result of sleeping two and three children to a bed and now not having enough toilet facilities for the number of children, etc. Since God’s Word tells us to submit to local authorities, I am looking to see if we indeed will be at 25 soon!...and that would take us to 50% !   These are the only plans we have for the orphanage right now …we have no Plan B, no plan of man, just stepping as God lights up the next stone.

Racheal and Peggy go to Global!

Peter Reunited with His Dad

Luyando Reunited with His Aunt

• On a lighter note, we are being sponsored by David Livingstone Safari Lodge in town.  They had a Christmas party for the kids here at the orphanage with food, a tree, “Father Christmas” and a gift for each child.  They brought maintenance workers and a cleaning crew…along with a television crew and newspaper journalists…even the Provincial Minister came to deliver a short speech.  At Easter time, they sent a very plush bus to pick up 25 children and 5 adults for an Easter luncheon at the Lodge.  They had a lovely buffet with long tables set up on the lawn along with a moon bounce to jump in and baby chicks for the kids to hold and pet. 

Dressed Up Waiting for Bus

Easter Luncheon at David Livingstone

Notice the Forks!

Faith Holds a Chick!

Moonbounce, Fun and Games

Easter Egg Hunt for Those Left Behind

• A young woman from Scotland named Kelly, who had been here last year, returned with a friend to work at the orphanage. They are with a group called Travellers Worldwide and are here for 2 weeks coming back and forth each day from town.  They stayed here the weekend and just yesterday they and 31 children along with 4 ladies and Doubt (who is now called Able) just took 31 of the older kids to the Mosi-o-tunya Game Park in the lorry driven by Terry.  They also included the children who went to Global along with two boys and the house mother from Global. They saw the animals at the park, had a picnic lunch at the Baobab tree and got ice cream from Steers at the Spar shopping center.  When they got back to the farm, they were filled with excitement all telling me what they had seen!!!

Group Ready for the Game Park Outing

In the Lorry

Ice Cream!

Tuckered Out!
 

Church….

• Pastor Hank came on a work team and taught a Pastoral Counseling Workshop at the beginning of the year for Pastor George and the surrounding pastors. 
• Pastor George is the District Evangelist and has been going out doing outreaches showing the Jesus film
  He has planted a new church in the District.  He was in charge of the local conferences in the District
  He is growing spiritually….God has shown him his responsibility as a Pastor to speak the Truth and confront sin, as well as discerning spirits and the role of spiritual authority in the church.
• Construction on the new church was resumed after more than a year of sitting at foundation level.  Right now, it is at roof level and electric is being installed. 

New Church at Roof Level

New Church Stage Area
 

School…

• School sponsorship has been implemented
• Killian’s contract was not renewed and a new Headmaster/Education Secretary was hired.  Phillip holds a University degree for teaching and gives us the qualifications we needed for grant-aided status.
  Paperwork for grant-aided status was corrected and resubmitted with Provincial Ministry of Education’s approval…waiting for national approval.
• Final inspection and paperwork made for SoT to be a seventh grade examination center
  Maintenance work done at the school and one of the teachers houses worked on….making provisions for an American teacher to spend 2010 teaching at the school.
   

Clinic….

• Geoffrey left Christmas eve, leaving Sal and I the only professionals…but God provides and we ended up having 4 groups of nursing students over a 12 week period…no less than 14 on the farm at any one time.  They stayed in the tobacco barn and rotated between the clinic, orphanage and school…a week at each site.  They covered nightshift and helped with emergencies and we got to teach them some skills and theory.  The director of the school liked the experience and training they got here so much that she has asked Sal to teach some lectures starting in August. 

Nursing Students

More Nursing Students

Students:Health Teaching to Orphanage Workers                                                                                        

• We hired an RN/Midwife….she and the new Headmaster are married.  We put them in the tobacco barn and Philip drives so he has been driving back and forth to the school on the Hill.
• Community Health Evangelism….classes continue on Thursdays and then outreach on Fridays with dramas and home visits to HIV clients.  Support groups rising up in 4 outreach areas.  Reminds me of “each one, reach one.”  What I teach and we discuss on Thursdays, they put into practice on Fridays and now they are starting to teach in their areas….etc.
  Many stories to tell……

 Work teams…

• Started off with team of 3 pastors….Pastoral Counseling
• Couple of men from Farming God’s Way – (unexpected…a God encounter)- training in Farming God’s Way to about 35 of our farmers
• One doctor from UK….worked with us in the clinic…a blessing
• Group from Villages of Hope….spur of the moment….open doors
• One woman from Indiana….sewing ministry/devotions for 40 women during the month of May
• Team of 5 from US…crocheting classes/devotions for 20 women, Farm Feast and fellowship, outreach with Pastor George
• Team of 16 from Gonzaga University…dinner and fellowship, visit to clinic and orphanage
• Traveller volunteers…orphanage workers…took children to Game Park
   
  It’s hard to believe it’s only 6 months since we arrived back on Zambian soil.  God has been accomplishing a lot ….there’s in between the lines stuff that has been taking place also but this would end up 20 pages or more and I think I will spare you!!! J
   
  Love to All…
  Sal and Renee

Catching You Up

February 21, 2009

I have started writing many an update, but time is never on my side and I seem to leave them all unfinished.  Let me catch you up with a few things…..

When we arrived back in Zambia on December 10^th, we were given the news that the other missionaries here overseeing everything else besides the Medical Ministries would be leaving Sons of Thunder.  That occurred December 17^th, a mere one week after our return.  Well, no longer surprised by God for “His plans are not our plans”, we buckled down to once again resume the oversight of all the ministries here.  The initial step meant moving back into the guest house, which we did December 18^th.  Next was end of the year financials and getting a handle on all the budgets, reviewing all areas with regard to operation, personnel and maintenance issues.  Then of course there was Christmas and the children!  There were no plans in the works, but God being our Provider and always there for us, a woman in town called on the phone.  She had just completed making shoeboxes for the children in town and had thought of our children’s home….her question: “Would we like shoeboxes filled with goodies for all our children?  She and her husband would love to make wrapped packages for all the kids if I would just give her a list of the names of all the children with their corresponding sex and age.  I was thrilled!!! God, you are good! My answer of course was YES….she brought wrapped Christmas gifts for each child and Christmas morning every child got their own present!  We had two Traveller volunteers that had been working in the children’s home all month.  They wanted to spend their last day which was Christmas with the children handing out presents, playing games, singing songs and presenting the story of Jesus’ birth.  Lena and Royce had bought extra goodies for a Christmas meal ….things like rice and beef and cake!  It was a nice time.  Our God provides more than we could possibly hope for right?....so the day after Christmas, the children were once again blessed by a lodge from right here in town.  The owner and staff of David Livingstone Lodge arrived at the children’s home in vans with their chefs, repairmen, and cleaning staff all armed with the supplies of their trade.  Not only did they come prepared to do work, but they came to celebrate as well!!  They brought a small Christmas tree and decorated the large front room.  They brought balloons and sweets….also bananas and drinks.  “Father Christmas” as they called him came with a red suit and a pillowcase for a beard, sat the children one by one on his lap and gave them each a present….every child got a new t-shirt to wear!  All of this was quite a surprise, but they also brought a camera crew and newspaper reporters!!!  The Provincial Minister himself arrived and gave a speech!!! Sal and I, caught off guard, were also interviewed (in our scrub shirts of course)!  The next day SoT Children’s Home was on the local news (and so were we)!!!!!

I wanted to write and tell you of the four legged creatures that terrorized our villages and ravaged our fields and gardens!!!  I am serious…..we had literally hundreds of elephants on the farm!!!  You see, Zimbabwe is in such a state right now facing starvation that even the military is suffering from hunger.  So they started shooting elephants for food!!  The elephants started running for their lives so to speak and the Zambezi River was crossable, so they have been migrating north into Zambia….well we are only 25km outside of Livingstone, surrounded by forest and have lots of food between orchards, gardens and maize fields!!!  There were herds all over the farm…in different villages and even right here on the farm proper.  Elephants disappear during the day and come out under the cover of night….Big BIG animals that can’t be seen right in front of you because they are black as night.  One night when they were out in force, I went out on the front porch and literally heard them on both sides of the guest house….on the left of the house in the small orchard garden area and on the right on the other side of the driveway where the main gardens are!!  You really feel helpless….what do you do to get rid of an elephant in your garden?  Well ZAWA was called….ZAWA is the Zambian Agriculture and Wildlife Authority….they came out with firecrackers to help scare off the animals.  They even stayed for 10 days on the farm answering sightings at night.  When nothing was working, the number of elephants increasing and many fields and gardens destroyed, it was decided that an elephant would have to be killed.  So, at first they sent out a novice with an AK 47…..one night a lone bull elephant was spotted in the garden by the house….after three shots and three full misses, the elephant charged chasing the ranger and Alexander into the dairy!  So, next ZAWA sent two elephant hunters with high powered weaponry to the farm….and about three days later, word came that they had killed an elephant.  People from the farm were called to come collect the meat.  After the elephant had been killed, the herds started migrating further north….we heard news that our neighboring farms were now being troubled.  Three people have been reported killed by the elephants since the bull elephant was killed here.  We had a few weeks of peace until last week when more elephants were sighted….some at 2pm right here behind the tobacco barn on the soccer field.  We also have chili pepper people working with our farmers to grow and use chilis around their gardens to keep the elephants away….seems the elephants don’t like spicy foods!!!  Despite the discouragement of the elephants, the farming ministry here continues to move forward with new principles of farming being learned, new markets being developed and God speaking.  It remains the heart of SoT…..

White uniforms and nurses caps all over the campus here……why, you ask?  Well, because the Western School of Nursing has asked if we would be willing to allow their second year registered nursing students to do their rural health clinical experience here.  So, for three weeks, we have 17 nursing students living and working on the farm between the clinic, children’s home and primary school. After this three week period, there will be another 18 students coming for the next three week period.  God provides for all our needs….even helping hands!  You see I guess I haven’t told you that December 24^th after taking a break for Christmas with his family in Lusaka, Geoffrey finally received his graduation certificate and an accompanying government position at another rural health center outside of Kazungula District. So December 26^th, he packed his belongings here and relocated.  That same day we received a call from another Clinical Officer in town, retired and looking for work….so Mrs. Malamo has been with us on a trial basis also for the last three weeks!!!!  We’re not sure yet if she is supposed to be our next C.O., but for now she is help.  A new doctor from the UK is supposed to come visit in March for two weeks also helping out….so you see God does take care of His people.

I think I mentioned to you that God would not let me alone about “community,” so taking steps as He lights those stones, we now have a support system of health workers developing.  I am organizing the program and teaching weekly lessons….Treatment supporters and Home Based Care volunteers are joining forces in our HIV Support Program to become Community Health Evangelists or CHEs.  They have been going out every Friday to our ART locations either going to people’s homes or teaching through drama at the Rural Health Center site.  The first message God gave us was the message of the lost sheep….you see we had files of people who never returned to the clinic after they found out their HIV status or after they started medicines.  Our goal was to find the “lost” patients and minister to their needs just as Jesus went “to seek and save the lost.”  The message deals with both the physical and spiritual needs of the people which is what CHE is all about….and coincidently is what Sons of Thunder is all about!!!  This was the training God had me go to Swaziland for if you remember….now it seems to be the time to implement it….one step at a time….and I’m watching it multiply before my eyes. 

The other main issue at the moment is a shortage of mealie meal (maize-based meal used to make nshima which is the staple food of Zambia).  Long cues waiting for delivery trucks to arrive and rationing of meal have made it hard on the villagers here not to mention the children’s home and clinic which buy in bulk amounts.  We are talking waiting in lines for 12 hours or sleeping at the mill the night before and then only able to get one 25 kg bag.  Well, Sal went into the local Spar and negotiated with the owners/managers and was able to get a truckload of 50 bags sold to him.  So now the villages are getting the meal from the guest house; Lena and Royce are getting their weekly bags for the children’s home without standing in cues or trying to find 6 other people to help them purchase the numbers they need and the inpatients in the clinic are being kept fed.  It’s also been nice to divide in smaller portions for home visits and of course it’s here if someone from off the farm is in dire need….again feeding Africa physically and spiritually!!!

God never ceases to amaze me and I am humbled to be His child!!!  He reminds me all the time here that He is our Provider….He is the one responsible for this vision….not only for the plan but the provision of all that we need to see it carried out.  My job is to just say yes and step as He lights the stones.  Be at peace my friends during this time of financial instability and always remember….there is one thing that never changes….one thing that never waivers.  He is always there.