Guitar Number 2 music video: Burden Blessing

Awhile back I posted about my new guitar making hobby. I finished my second cigar-box guitar a few months ago and have enjoyed playing it. The sound is not that good, but the intonation is better than the first one. Plus, it's a cool shape!

Every guitar must have a new song played on it. This one is called Burden Blessing; it's a blessing for anyone who is carrying any sort of burden. Video footage is from around the neighbourhood.


What is your cross to carry?
To others it appears to be joy
Only you know the patience required
The struggle with faithfulness

May your burden be light, may your yoke be easy
May your struggle free the Hope of the world
May your ears hear the whisper, may your heart be full
of the One who knows you

Halfway There

Here we are at the 'Ides of March' and it is also approximately halfway through our term in Zambia. The seasons of life continue:

The rains seem to have tapered off; while the sun is still strong during the day, it is pleasant and cool in the evening. We have quite a bit of standing water in our non-draining backyard, but almost every other puddle around has become bone-dry. We do have quite a few mosquitoes as a result of the standing water.

We released the tadpoles we had been keeping in the kitchen after five weeks of watching them grow legs. In fact, one disappeared from the tank; I think it hopped away into the kitchen someplace.

At Home School we are finished two terms of grade 1, with one remaining. We don't do too much with Malachi in preschool, but he is soaking up a large part of what Kate is learning in grade 1--she is teaching him all sorts of things. It has been gratifying to watch Kate learn to read and write. (English spelings ar so sillie somtimes, but wee all haf tu lurn them!)

The nights are always quiet...many times after the kids go to bed, you will find Michelle watching a DVD on her computer, and yours truly playing a game of Settlers online.

At Chodort we managed to finish another kitchen--painted white! I designed it and built the boxes, and some other guys made the doors and painted them. Fixing (installing) them went quite smoothly. I took some photos for the purpose of making a brochure that potential customers can read to understand our products and prices.

So, we continue to do our work here, remaining faithful to our calling, for He who called us is faithful.

Andrew

Oreo the Canine Meteorologist

We had a big rain last night, with thunder and lightning disturbing our sleep for awhile. In the morning I looked outside and saw Oreo's food dish, full of water. Oreo has an annoying habit of moving her empty dish around the yard after eating. So when it's feeding time, I play 'find the food dish' since I haven't yet convinced her to fetch it herself.

But what Oreo was really trying to do was to measure rainfall. So I checked with a ruler and it was 60mm (over two inches). Not a bad soaking; the backyard is back to its lake-like status.

There was quite a layer of sand at the bottom of the dish, which indicates a heavier type of rain, which disturbs the earth it falls on and makes it jump into dog water dishes.

Now if I can just get Oreo to predict the weather, she'll be earning her keep.

Love

Love must be sincere.

             Romans 12:9a

Happy Valentines Day!

I have been married over eleven years. I definitely do not have a corner on the romance market, although I have tried; one Valentines Day I blew up a LOT of red balloons with helium and left them floating all over the house for my wife to find when she woke up. Some years we try to go out for a special dinner on this day: once I made reservations at a Greek restaurant, and they packed us in like sardines with about 50 other couples--no elbow room! This year, I let my wife sleep in and picked some fresh roses from the garden; she gave me a dark chocolate bar. (mmm!) Looks like supper will be roasted maize and hot dogs on the braai after a lazy day reading books. I guess we're an Old Married Couple now.

It seems to me that the whole human race relies on love for survival. When we love (cooperate) with each other, we thrive. When we fight, we die off. As a father, I see this with my kids--I want them to get along so badly, as it makes my life easier and also helps them. I'm sure our Father in heaven also sees things this way:
"if only you guys would just get along..."
"It's okay if Billy got more than you, I'll take care of it..."
"You'd be so much happier if you would just forgive your sister..."
"Where is your brother Abel?" (Genesis 4:9)

And now with the recent Globalization of our world--where we no longer have an excuse about not knowing about our neighbours since world news is available at the click of a mouse--the responsibility to love one another gets even greater. Too great sometimes. "Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law." (Romans 13:8)

Yes, from living in Africa I am even more conscious of the global disparity between rich and poor, when respectful yet downcast people come to the gate very frequently, asking for piece-work, and skinny barefoot kids who should be in school jostle to help me with my groceries when I emerge from the "rich-people" grocery store. I've been working hard at Chodort, trying to help the Carpentry Production department make a decent profit so that Chodort's employees can make a living wage. And when we succeed, what then? The cost of living goes up for everyone else.

Somehow Love has to factor in everything we do.

Bush Church

My friend Marvin asked me for transport to the hopping town of Harmony, where he had been invited to minister. Marvin makes cement blocks for Chodort on weekdays, but is also an active (Pentecostal) preacher in his community. I said I would give him a lift, would not stay for the church program, so that I could return home and take my own family to church.

Our plans don't always work the way we expect them to, do they?

Sunday came. I couldn't remember exactly where Marvin lives in the maze of muddy dirt roads in south Choma, so met him at a nearby high school. He brought his wife with him. We drove to Harmony, which is only 15 minutes down the highway. Then we waited at the side of the road for awhile for someone named Clive to come on a bicycle and lead us to the church building. Finally Clive arrived, then rode in the car with me while Marvin pedalled furiously on the bike behind us. The scenery was beautiful, as the rains have made everything green again. The sandy road went on and on...I had planned to just drop them off and then leave (they could catch a bus back to town) but when I realized how far into the bush we were going, I decided I couldn't leave them without transport. When we finally arrived at the little church, I called home and let my wife know.

The church is a small red brick building a bit bigger than our living room, with small slats for windows, a dirt floor, and a tin roof. Four or five benches were set up along one wall. The stage was raised slightly, with a battery-powered piano keyboard and speaker. There were english Bibles and songbooks (printed in Edmonton!) on the benches. The service began at 10am and went until about 1pm, after which we had some lunch outside (pounded maize with sour milk and sugar). We left around 2pm; I did some grocery shopping on the way home and got home at 3:30pm--about 7 hours later than I'd planned to.

I felt very welcomed and comfortable in this small church plant. A few of the church members were quite familiar with Choma/Lusaka/Western way of life, so maybe that's why I felt so accepted...and the church wasn't too crazy (maybe because there weren't many people there today?). In fact it was mostly in English, with some Tonga translation. The pastor said I would be preaching next time I visit. Maybe I'll put it off for awhile. :)

Happy New Year!

Christmas Braai

The church we attend has a tradition of meeting together on Christmas Day to remember Christ's birth. Afterwards there is a braai (bbq), with everyone sharing a good meal together. This year our family volunteered to host at our home, since we have lots of space in our backyard, and good kitchen/meeting facilities.

At 7:30 Christmas morning a car came to our gate and honked. I decided it must be someone to see my neighbour since the service wasn't supposed to start until 9am, but it turned out it was one of the organizers with some food and drinks to drop off. So I went out in my pyjamas and unlocked the gate.

At 9am a few people came but we didn't get started on the church service until past 10 sometime. Some of the ladies started peeling potatoes and preparing chicken. We lit the braai stand so that the charcoal would be hot enough later.

For the church service we sang a few carols and shared what Christmas means to us. Some of the young people presented "Lord I lift your name on high" with sign language, and also presented a sketch about making room for Jesus in our hearts.

Then it was time to play and eat!

Michelle chatted with the youngest member of our church.

The last person left around 4:30pm. So it was a long day, but good to spend it together in a meaningful way. Some of the people were saying that for many Zambians, Christmas is an excuse to drink in excess, so I'm glad the church was able to offer an alternative.

We opened our presents around the Christmas tree as a family afterwards. We didn't really have supper since we were still full from our late lunch! This was our second Christmas in Choma. Only one left before we return to a good old Wet Coast one! :)

Holidays in South Africa

We've taken a couple of weeks of holidays here in Holiday season. My parents were here for two weeks. For one week they visited us in Choma while we went about our work; they were able to spend some time at Chodort and visit some village schools with Michelle. Then we spent a week in Livingstone together, with lots of it in the pool to beat the heat! We also visited the Falls and enjoyed a self-driven safari in Mosi-au-Tunya park.

We both flew out of Lusaka airport on the same morning; Mom and Dad went home via Amsterdam and we went to Cape Town, South Africa. We have regional meetings in Durban next week, so we took the opportunity to see the south coast of Africa. There's been a bit of culture shock (in a pleasant way) as we play the part of tourists. We've enjoyed a ferris wheel ride, McDonald's, shopping, the Aquarium, penguins on the beach, and Table Mountain. See picture of me with some feathery friends. The area is cool enough for these penguins to thrive!

Today we drove up to Table Mountain and took the cable car to the top. We enjoyed the view, etc, but I was mostly thinking about my hike down! Michelle took the kids for lunch and then the cable car down, while I saved ten bucks by walking down the steep trail. It took one and a quarter hours. My legs felt a little shaky the whole time--maybe because I didn't have lunch?--but they did their job and it was a beautiful place to get some exercise!