Ninas Family Missional Life

Muka Sikutanta (wife of Sikutanta) with girls at church in the ciicuta. June 30 (Sunday)                Today was my first time to preach a sermon.  I thought of it as teaching a Bible study without asking or answering questions.  We had 12 adults and about 30 or more children. One of the adults was the Headman for the area who works for Chief Mapanza.  Blu introduce me as Sikutanta (He who climbs), and Lynne as Muka Sikutanta (wife of Sikutanta).  After church he asked Blu again to tell him my name, and Blu said Sikutanta.  The Headman asked, “What is his real name?”  Blu told him, and the Headman wrote down my Tonga name and real name in the Tonga Hymnal he was carrying.  I am going to interpret that as a good thing.                 I thought the sermon went well since I finished exactly on time at 12 PM, and I had covered all of my points.  The Headman was shaking his head in agreement all the way through my sermon.  Lynne participated in my practical demonstration.  It

Sitting on my stool, blogging.  June 29 (D-11)                Sitting under a mimosa tree outside our hut on a hand-carved wooden stool we bought in Livingstone typing this.  We paid 60 Kwacha ($10.90) for two at the downtown street market.  The original asking price was 60KR for one.  However my friend Wes stepped in and helped me negotiate.  Yes, Wes helped me half the price, but they still weigh a lot.  The man we bought them from said it takes about two days to cut, carve and stain the stools.  I have included a picture so you can see that which I bought and on which I am sitting.                Something I had wanted to mention previously, but it kept slithering out of my mind.  We have not seen a single snake since we have been here.  Of course, it was 42°F this morning.  There was a snake killed in the manner of Stephen in Acts 7 at NDO while we were in Livingstone.  Blu called it a common tree snake, because it was in tree and they are common.  It was non-lethal.  But

June 28 th Addendum                Friday in Choma!!!  What was I thinking when I volunteered to drive the teachers and my wife to Choma to grocery shop.  Everybody in Central Zambia was in Choma today.  Oh, and they all were paid today also.  There is only one grocery store in Choma and that is the Spar.  They have three hardware store, three housewares stores, 2 stationery stores, but only one grocery store.  Welcome to Zambia!!!                So my day really started after  posting the blog entry this morning and preparing to teach science to 1 st -4 th grade.  We talked about how airplanes fly, and built paper helicopters.  I had a good time, they  had a good time, we all had a good time.  I thought my science class today went well.  Then it was off to Choma with the teachers from NDO.                No trip to Choma is complete without lunch at the Choma museum.  Last time I was there with Wes a few weeks ago the special was goat stew.  No special this time, so I settle

Lynne and Sikutanta on the ferry to Botswana for the Safari. Lioness we saw next to her freshly killed elephant. June 28, 2013                    “Back in the saddle again!”, as my friend and childhood hero Gene Autry would say.  Back home at NDO for the first morning devotion on Luke 9:23 and Galatians 2:20.  Missed seeing the Rosemont Team at devotion, but they are winging their way home to you.  I did not take my computer to Livingstone with us, and now wish I had so that I could have written and kept up with all that was happening.  Now I will have to try to remember all of the remarkable and memorable events from our journey to Livingstone.                Our trip from Livingstone to Choma (where my friend Blu picked us up) was on a big blue motor coach.  It takes 3 hours to drive in the bus from Livingstone to Choma.  Our motor coach left Livingstone at 9 a.m. and made 4 stops (one was a mandatory weigh station).  We were also slowed several times by traffic.  We sti

June 23 This was written before we left for Livingstone and I forgot to post it.  Here it is!!  By the way I now have a Tonga name.  It is Sikutanta (pronounced "see koo tontuh") which means He who climbs.  I climb the water tower every evening to watch the sunset you might say religiously!!  Thanks Blu for the name and the ride home today!!                First some housekeeping.  Those of you who are on the ball will have noticed that the dates on my blog entries were a day off.  Fortunately Blogger date stamps them, so if you were paying attention you were not confused.  Today is Sunday, June 23, 2013.  There are only 6 hours difference between Zambia and LaGrange.  Thank you for your patience and understanding. It is 7:30 a.m. Sunday morning here at NDO.  If this were a week day, the children would be out playing or on their way to breakfast by now.  The only sounds are our chickens who are laying eggs and our Tom Turkey gobbling. If you have ever heard the term “d

     The Rosemont Team is airborne as far as we know.  Lynne and I were walking down the street in Livingstone and heard a jet takeoff.  That is not a very common occurrence here, so it must have been them.  They were tired after a long week of ministry at NDO and ready to get home.  We are still in Livingstone becuase . . . the van is now broken.  Sound familiar?  It was the bus at the beginning of our adventure here.  We have checked into the Ngolide Lodge with Wes and Laurie awaiting the repair of the bus.      This morning we went to immigration to get an extension on our visa so we can legally stay until our departure on July 11.  We visited the market that the team visited Monday.  Wes and Laurie know some of the vendors there, and Lynne and I were hoping to buy some African greeting cards with art on the front.  Well, after spending more Kwacha, we found Wes chatting with two gentlemen.  He introduced us and then Wes wandered off.  I struck up a conversation with them, and even

Billie Anne and Alex walking with the children. Mallor playing goalee for the children. Mary Beth Smith loving on the NDO children. Curtis and Sam Playing soccer with the children. June 22                (Lynne)  The Jesus Film showed last night.  We had a good crowd finally show up.  It was interesting to watch.  When we arrived and began setting up, there were only a handful of people.  Then we got the speakers working and put Kalenga on microphone singing and playing the guitar and Mulenga on the African drums.  It was reminiscent of the stories we grow up hearing of the drums of Africa calling the people to come. Once the sounds filtered out into the bush the people began to arrive in family groups and groups of young men.  The film began playing and the team was praying.  At the part where the blind man who cries out to Jesus is healed, Blu stopped the film and told the people that we are all blind spiritually and that if we will cry out to Jesus, He wil

               The first day of winter here in Zambia has arrived, plus or minus a day.  It is a big day Mapanza.  The Rosemont team has spent their time this week teaching True Love Waits and walking through village inviting Zambians to come view The Jesus Film tonight at 18 hours (that is Zambian speak for 6 PM -noon Lagrange Time ).  The film will actually start at 6:30 PM, but time here is flexible so Wes and Blu built in 30 minutes of time for those who arrive late.  The entire team will help set up the equipment in a local village and then stand by with interpreters to be counselors for those who have questions are have been impacted by the film.  Lynne is staying back to milk Martha.  Normally Noah, our Zambian worker, milks in the afternoons.  Lynne volunteered to milk for him if he and his new wife would attend the Jesus film.  Kalenga our cook and musician is needed as a counselor and interpreter, so I am staying back to wash dinner dishes so he is free to go.  PLEASE PRAY E

June 20, 2013                    I am sitting in the meeting hut (ciikuta-pronounced chee koota) where we meet for church and devotions.  Although it was in the mid-30’s this morning, at 10 a.m. it is in the mid 70’s and very windy (almost said breezy, but that is too pleasant a word for the 30-40 MPH winds that we experience).  Max (the Siamese) is in my lap napping.  The sound of Tanga is carried on the wind from the staffers busy about their day.  Thursday is cleaning day at the Ninas hut.  Martha (not the cow but the worker) washes then hangs out our clothes today.  She will also sweep, mop, and put Cobra floor polish on our floors.                Curtis and Russell just walked by on their way to volunteer to help Lynne in the NDO garden.  It is time to plant onions and carrots.  They will help Lynne and Noah clear out the okra plants that are no longer producing, spread 4-6” of mulch, and plant the seeds.  The bean plants that we replanted are struggling but green and st

June 19 th Addendum                Bible study with Kalanga today did not go as I expected it to go, but God had a plan.  My plan was we would take a passage of Scripture and separately study it using the ABC method.  Each morning we would compare notes and discuss the passage.  Kalanga did not understand what I had planned.  So I taught the passage to him.  Our passage today was Romans 8:28-30.   Check it out and you will see the challenge I faced, but God brought me through (Jeremiah 1:5-8 was actually a passage we referenced in our discussion).  Now that I know I will be leading Kalanga in a Bible study I can prepare better.                Yesterday our study was earlier in Romans 8 when Paul talks about the Holy Spirit interceding for us when we don’t know what to pray.  Kulanga share with me that when he was in Swaziland digging for amethyst, he ran out of food once.  He had not eaten or had water in several days.  Without money he could not purchase food or water in the l

Lynne washes dinner dishes by Zambian sunset. Toby leads the devotion, Mulanga interprets. June 18                This is the Rosemont teams first full day of ministering.  Randy led devotion this morning.  We had a few deliver True Love Waits to local schools, some did cleaning in the student houses, and others go to work building bookcases and a goat milking stand.  Lynne is holding on to hope that the baby goats will deliver before we leave for America.                Sunday, Kalenga, our cook and musician preached the church service.  I was prompted by the Holy Spirit to share a Bible study method with him. It is my personal adaptation of the Navigator’s ABC Bible study.  I wrote out the steps on an index card for Kalenga, very proud of myself.  Then he asked me for a dictionary so he could understand what I had written.  The language barrier had reared its ugly head.  So, I offered to meet with him this morning and study a passage of Scripture with him using the meth

Father's Day Card from NDO Children Sentiment Father's Day Card (cont'd) Father's Day Card (Cont'd) Nshima and Beans after Kid's Club under the Sausage Tree                Maribeth had the foresight to send a Father’s day gift and card with me in my suitcase.  I want to thank you Maribeth for Season 1 of Duck Dynasty.  The children at NDO had a skit and gifts for the NDO fathers and me.   We received had made cards with drawings from all of the children, and they sang to us. They marched around each of us singing the song Father Abraham, but substitute Papa Ninas (or whomever) and “many children” for “many sons.”                It is a very windy day here in Zambia.  We had a very large dust devil pass through the NDO campus earlier.  It was bigger than the new water tower and about the same height.   We can see the school, kitchen and dining hall from our hut.  When the dust devil passed through the campus, nothing was visible for 2-3

Please identify this bird for me. Peter prays with Blu to accept Christ. We had another beautiful day in the bush on the African savanna.   There were between 75 and 100 children at Kid’s Club today.   Darbi taught the lesson.    Blu had the opportunity to pray with Peter (an orphan from one of the villages) to accept Christ.   Praise the Lord!!!                The sunset was gorgeous tonight, as usual.   My God always does an awesome job on sunsets.   As I was up on the tower taking pictures, the children were headed back out to the bush from Kid’s club.   You are probably thinking of them walking down dirt roads to their villages.   I could hear them all across the bush talking, laughing and joking headed back to their villages.   Most use narrow footpaths through the bush.   We are approaching June 21 st which will be our shortest day of the year.   Some of those children walk a long distance from their village to Kid’s club and they don’t carry flashlight

June 14- We had a mostly an uneventful day her at NDO.  We did launch 2-liter bottle rockets in school.  I only had a basketball pump so we used small bottles so I wouldn’t have to pump so much.  I let the teachers launch 2-liter bottles.  It was windy, so we maxed out at 50-75 feet.  The kids loved it.  I am going to launch them next Friday with the K-1 students. Lynne and I had arranged to eat in the NDO dining hall tonight.  Kulenga was cutting and frying potatoes for chips when I arrived.  I offered to operate the mandolin cutting the potatoes while he cooked.  It didn’t take long before the mandolin had eaten the end of my middle finger on my right hand.  To say it bled profusely is an understatement.  I took off for our hut and first aid while Lynne stepped in to help Kulenga.  I know he felt bad that I cut myself, but it was clearly my fault.  I have it wrapped in gauze and secured with a band aid.  We can’t let a little cut stop us out here in the bush.  I returned to the

Site of the Kavanga Bible study.  Chair for the teacher! God sent a kitten to greet me at Kavanga!! The Kavanga Bible study went well according to Hilda and Abbey.  Patrick was in the field dealing with other animals grazing on his property.  Charles, the man you have been praying for salvation was also not there.  They had a new kitten in the village who took a liking to my beard.  We made fast friends.  Kavanga, the old man of the village is 93 years-old.  He was very amused when we talked about God promising Abram and Sarai a child heir. Wes is going to Namwala tomorrow. One of the missionaries they know is in the states with cancer and Wes is going up to secure some of their belongings to prevent pilfering.  Tomorrow is Friday.  Rosemont team leaves Saturday.  Abbey prayed for you guys last night at praise and worship.  It would have brought tears to your eyes to hear her intercede in prayer for you.  I helped Christen give reading assessments today.  We are using the