Friday Fun!!

Before I get to the fun Friday activities let me tell you what happened on Thursday. I was at Shop-Rite to buy our groceries for dinner- I had backed out of my parking space and was about to exit the parking lot when a lady driving a van backed out of her space right into me. I was laying on the horn but she was not listening- obviously!! The damages are to the left front quarter panel, no damage to my tire or wheel. My driver's door just makes a squeaky noise when I open it. Erik has taken the car to the shop today to be repaired, the lady had no insurance but has agreed to pay for it- I'll let you know how that turns out:)


We had the Cooks over Thursday night for dinner and swimming. Niki, Coby, Kelsey and Hannah Rodgers came over. Ricky and Austin, Niki's husband and oldest son, were in Jo'burg for the weekend. As the kids were swimming, we kept seeing this little head pop up over the concrete wall from our neighbor's house. We asked him to come over and meet the kids. His name is Jonathon, he is 13 years old, and he belongs to the maid, Jane, at the house next door. We asked him to come back and swim today. His English is not too strong we will have to work on communicating.


Friday afternoon at 14 hours, Chelsea played in her first basketball game for her school, ISL. They were playing the dreaded American International School. The league is U-15- that means 6, 7, 8, 9th graders were playing. She started the game and looked scared to death. The stands were packed with students from both schools, she looked at Erik and I and mouthed, "I'm scared". She was defending a girl about 5 feet 6 inches tall. I told her, don't worry about how tall they are- they all have to bring the ball down to dribble in front of them, steal the ball then. Well, she never really felt comfortable on the defensive end but when she got the ball she did a great job dribbling down the court, going for shots, passing, etc. She scored 4 out of the teams 10 points. There were 4 girls her age on the team and the coach played 2 of them at a time so she got to be on the court for quite a bit of time. The final score was 35-10- She was the leading scorer on her team with 2 baskets!!


We attended the "Town meeting" last night at the Marine House in Lusaka. There were about 150 Americans. They were all here for various reasons. We hung out with the friends we already have here and met some new ones.

Bradley's First Field Trip

Monday was Bradley's first field trip and we went to Cheshire Homes. This is a local rehabilitation clinic for children. The children stay at the clinic during the week and return to their parents on the weekends. The home is run by Catholic nuns and also 4 teachers and 2 physical therapists are on staff. There are several Cheshire Homes all over the world and it is funded by an organization out of the UK. It is very clean and very well run. We saw about 20 children. The majority of children were born with some bone abnormalities that had been operated on and they are completing treatment at the home. One boy was autistic and kept reaching out to touch the children- he was 9 years old but the size of a 5 year old boy. One boy was in a wheelchair with no legs at all. There were 2 classes from our school both Year 5, about 47 kids. They sang a song for the childen and the children from Cheshire sang a song back- It was sweet to see their smiling faces. They liked having visitors!!

I was waiting around the school Monday until it was time for the field trip hoping to catch a glimpse of Chelsea at snack time and enjoying a Coke Light from The Tuck Shop(school snack bar). The Headmaster approached to ask how I was doing, how the school year was going, who I was looking for- basically, what was I doing??- I told him that I was going on the Year 5 field trip. He said, "You have way too much time on your hands". Obviously things are different here than in the States. I was the one and only parent on that field trip.

Okay...I have a funny story that may be just for mommies...I'm going to use hypotheticals...

One day Mr. Derrik went to work. He was sitting in his office when his administrative assistant, Forgetful, came in and asked if the company would be giving her Mother's Day off. Well, as Mr. Derrik thought about this and the holidays that were already offered, he advised that Mother's Day was celebrated on Sundays therefore not a work day after all. Forgetful then taught Mr. Derrik that women have Mother's Day once a month and it is usually the 2nd day of a cycle.

Mr. Derrik went home and discussed with his wife who advised she would gladly go to the Chemist(pharmacy) and send in medicine to help Forgetful with Mother's Day pains as to not interfere with work. Please keep in mind that Mr. Derrik's company already offers 20 vacation days to all employees per Zambian law:) Happy Mother's Day!!!

Sermon Sunday...

The Bowmans, missionaries from First Baptist Church of Jacksonville, were in town this week. www.BowmansinZambia.blogspot.com. Bob knew of the Bowman family through his church family so we decided to meet. They live 12 hours north of Lusaka and come in once in awhile to do some shopping or gather other provisions. They have been here for 7 years- they moved here when their son, Caleb, was 18 months old. Caleb now has 2 sisters and one brother all born in South Africa. They are in the middle of their second term. What a great example of obedience to God's calling!
Amy Bowman said, " My mom works nursery at First Baptist with one of your friends in Jax- Van something"- I said "That must be Teri Van Duyn." What a small world!!
The Bowmans attend Woodlands Baptist Church when they are in town so we decided to join them there. It was such a blessing. It was funny when they asked visitors to stand and there were only 2 white groups of people, both from Jacksonville, Florida.
The preacher was a visiting preacher but delivered a great message- He was a little loud- I thought he must be watching all those preachers on TV because the Zambians normally speak very softly- it is hard to hear them sometimes.
Anyway, today's lesson was from Romans 12:1. I learned that the other chapters leading up to this were all about the Gospel described by Paul to the Romans. Once Paul finished telling them that we are all sinners, we all need a Savior, the only one who can save us is Jesus, he came, he died, he rose again- Paul goes on to tell the Romans that we must offer our bodies as a living sacrifice. We must wake up daily and seek God's wisdom on what He wants us to do for Him today. Once we accept Christ, we die to ourselves and live for Him. He created us, we are His hands, feet, mouth, here on Earth. The preacher went back to the Old Testament and explained the procedure for forgiveness of sins in Leviticus was once a year, the Levite priest would go into the Holy of Holies and ask forgiveness for all- this would only be temporary and would repeat every year. The priest would also take an animal to sacrifice, the animal depended on the sin- read Leviticus for details. All animals must be pure, unblemished- but again, that was only temporary. The New Covenant came as Jesus, the perfect lamb, died on the cross for all of our sins, once and for all, never to be repeated. We now have that relationship to go directly to God to ask for forgiveness and Know that we are forgiven.
I love this...Abraham was asked to sacrifice Isaac- and submissively did as God asked- God did not want Abraham to suffer the loss of his one and only son as God would have to suffer in the future. God loves us so much!! Do we forget to praise him sometimes just for that fact alone??
I do!!