Ninas Family Missional Life

      The school year has ended.  Teacher ran screaming from the building yesterday with tears of joy covering the sidewalks like the morning dew.  As I write this we are a little over 48 hours from departure on Saturday afternoon.  Anxious?  Nah!!!  Excited? You betcha!!!  I know volunteer season is a mixed blessing at New Day Orphanage.  Although they enjoy the volunteers and what they contribute, after the third or fourth group passes through Mapanza, they have to become weary of being host.  Our goal is to be more of a blessing than a burden.      You may be wondering what kind of food they eat in Zambia.  I found some good photos and information on The Baxters website while they were serving with Hands at Work .   So the photos are descriptions are theirs. Here you have nshima (corn meal paste) made from maize ‘flour’, fried chicken, soup (a sauce made from tomatoes and onions) and finally cabbag...

Ernest Hemingway     Many people have asked me what the goal is for my beard.  My principal, Chip Giles, suggested I enter the Ernest Hemmingway Look-a-Like Contest .      I know I am better looking than Papa Hemmingway, but I could dirty myself up.      We are 7 days out from our departure.  I am currently fighting my Typhoid shot, Yellow Fever shot, and a bad cold.  I am hoping to get better over this three-day weekend, get packed and in the mindset for Zambia. It's on my bucketlist.  Please tell me you know what a bucket list is!?!?!?!?                                                             Here are my top 5                               1.  Visit Antartica       ...

Bailee Wilson Ellen Taylor      One more day of school with students.  Two more post-planning day next week and this year is in the bag.   Had the privilege of taking a picture with two of my favorite students.  I was honored that they asked if they could take a picture with me.  Congratulations Taylor and Bailee on moving up to Troup!       The odyssey of getting a Yellow Fever shot came to fruition today. Apparently the Rosemont Zambia Mission Team has placed an undue burden on the Yellow Fever serum supply.  So the die is cast, preparations (except packing) are complete and we are ready for an adventure.  Rosemont Baptist Church will be commissioning  Lynne and I this Sunday, as well as, Alaska Missions members. You might remember that our daughter Maribeth is wrangling at Latigo Dude Ranch in Kremmling, Colorado.  Her photo is at right.  She seems so natural in her cowgirl duds and sitting atop ...

Plasmodium falciparum      "Say hello to my little friend  .  .  .  "  I really hope we don't become friends.  This is Plasmodium falciparum , the parasite that causes malaria in Zambia.  I know, I know, you were expecting Plasmodium vivax , my old friend from my Auburn parasitology class (thank you Carl F. Dixon).   P. falciparum is a more virulent species than P. vivax.  Estimates are that 75% of malaria cases in sub-Saharan Africa are from P. falciparum.   This form of malaria has the highest moratlity rate and usually involves the most complications.  On Monday, Lynne and I will meet our new friend Mefloquin.   We chose Monday because it creates an alliteration for us "Monday, Malaria, Mefloquin!" Cool huh.  As of two day we are two weeks from departure to Zambia.   Looking forward to being there  .  .  .  two days of air travel not so much.        ...

  There was great concern and consternation among our Rosemont Zambia group over the picture I reposted of the Spitting Cobra (dead) from a hut in Zambia.  Did a little research and found the following information from the Zambia Travel Guide .  I found it enlightening and informative.  Please take note of the highlighted portions. Snakes, spiders and scorpions...  Encounters with aggressive snakes, angry spiders or vindictive scorpions are more common in horror films than in Africa . Most snakes will flee at the mere vibrations of a human footstep whilst spiders are far more interested in flies than people. You will have to seek out scorpions if you wish to see one. If you are careful about where you place your hands and feet, especially after dark, then there should be no problems. You are less likely to get bitten or stung if you wear stout shoes and long trousers. Simple precautions include not putting on boots without shaking them empty first, and a...

Our Pastor, Adam Camp, has been preaching a series  called Authentic Faith using 1 John as his text.  Podcasts of the sermons are available at the Rosemont Church website.  In my Sunday School class I am teaching through the Gospel Project for Students. Two common themes recur  in the sermons and the teaching my students are receiving from the Gospel Project:   "love one another" (John 13:34-35) and Authentic Faith (James 2:19).  So I am sharing my daily devotional from Power to Change . Shudder May 13th, 2013   John Grant  and  Marty Stubblefield “ You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that and shudder. ” James  2:19 “Y ou say you have faith, for you believe that there is one God. Good for you! Even the demons believe this, and they tremble in terror .” James  2:19 “ You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe and shudder! ” James  2:19 In the midst of sharing ...

  Wanted to share a Mother's Day post from Dabi Tidwell:   " So I was laying in bed reading a book. My church clothes were tossed on the floor. Blu comes in and says "Whoa...look at your skirt..something's in there!!" I look and say "No, just the wind blowing it..." Then my skirt practically jumps off the ground and Blu attacks it with a shoe...a huge spitting cobra.. ." Anybody have a mongoose I can rent for our 6 weeks in Zambia???  Shook me a littlle bit, so I thought I would focus on something else about the country for which Lynne and I depart in less than 19 days.     The national currency in Zambia is the Kwacha According my research $1 US is equivalent to 5,300 Kwacha (ZMK).  So that would mean that   1 KMZ=0.000188679 US dollars 100 Ngwee = 1 KMZ.  So if you exchanged $200 US, you would be a millionaire. So math whizzes, what is the value in US dollars of 10 Ngwee ?

Mishek       We are down to 22 days before we depart for Mapanza, Zambia. Those of you who were praying for Mishek who was in the hospital will be glad to know that he is back at New Day.  Not completely well but on the mend praise the LORD.  You gotta love that smile.      Lynne is finally feeling better after a week and a half of sinus problems; at times she was bed-ridden.   She is up, working in her garden, milking Millie and on the mend also  praise the LORD.  She leaves next Thursday for a week of camping in the Smokey Mountains with her parents.  This is an annual time-away with her parents.  I have started to organize in my mind what I need to pack for Zambia.  We will begin to organize in earnest after she returns from the Smokeys.  I still have two weeks of school left that occupies my mind.      There is a Rosemont Zambia team meeting this Sunday at 5 PM at "Handy" Randy's home. ...

        We have good news!!  Our passports and visas for Zambia arrived today.  We are 'cleared in hot' as Naval Aviators would say.  I have added a countdown timer to the blog so we can watch the time run down.  Please continue to pray for New Day to find water when they drill again in about a week.  Also pray for Mishek one of the students who is sick.  Thank you for your prayers.

  It has been a long but interesting week.  A few of the highlights.  We mailed off the paper work to the Zambian Embassy in Washington, DC, in an attempt to purchase our multi-entry visa.  Lynne spoke with them via telephone before we took that leap of faith.     Veronica Roth unveiled the title to the 3rd book in her series  .  .  .  the title is Allegiant. The cover of the book will be unveiled on May 9th.  I have to say I loved the Hunger Games trilogy, but this one is EVEN BETTER!!!  You can test drive the first book by reading the first 100 pages of Divergent at Harper Teen .   The school system finished the last two sections of the Criterion-Referenced Competency Test.   As one student put it, "this school year is in its death thrall!"  If the number of fights and referrals is any indication, it is a restless, violent death.    Probably the highlight of the week is the school-system moving fr...