Today, is Tessa Claire’s 4th birthday, where has the time flown? She will be celebrating with her oma and opa and Grandpa this afternoon, I wish I had been more on the ball and had her present ready, I was so busy thinking about Christmas before I left, I forgot to think about missing her birthday! But, we will have a GRAND celebration when I get home!
This morning was overcast again, and I think we are very thankful, when the sun did pop out from behind the clouds, it was intense! It is dry enough again, for the wind to whip the dirt around. Hard to believe we go from mud and puddles everywhere to dust blowing again.
We were scheduled to go to the Oasis of Love Church and GEMS today, Stephanie needed some final video for the CIT video she is working on. Charity is a CIT and she leads the girls in singing, at their club.
Got to Skype Bob, this morning, he has been going to bed and then setting his alarm to get up about 1am so we can talk. We had a nice morning chat, and when we said good-bye, I got up to make some toast and the power was out! Missed out on breakfast, a granola bar will do.
Flancine said she would pick us up at 9:30, so about 9:35 I headed out in the front to wait for the sound of her car, a few minutes later Stephanie joined me. We lock the front porch gates, then go into the house and lock the front door, all with padlocks. Then we exit through the back door, lock the door and then double lock the gate in front of the door. We sat there and then realized the power was back on. Did we want to go back and unlock the back door and gate? We were sure that as soon, as we did, she would arrive. A cup of coffee sounded awful good to Steph, we sat some more, soon it was 10:00 then 10:15. We said why not maybe they forgot us. We went in, Steph made herself a cup of coffee, and we both had a piece of banana bread. Just as we finished we heard the car honk at the gate. We hurriedly locked up the back and it wasn’t Flancine, it was Eunice another counselor from Oasis of Love. Flancine was preparing Holy Communion so she sent Eunice with her car for us. We arrived just in time for the last praise and worship song, we were welcomed and the sermon began. This would prove to be our shortest worship yet. Seeing we missed the first hour and a half, they start at 9:30 with intercession and 10:30 begins praise and worship, then the message, communion and dismissal. We were out just before 1:00.
Grace , another of the GEMS leaders, prepares lunch for the girls, because they begin their meeting at 2:00. We had lunch from the bounty of rice, chicken in a sauce to pour over the rice, green beans, native beans (Grace made me try some, she gave me the little spoonful, and they were good) and a cooked cabbage dish. We are the guests of honor, so we are served first. First we are brought a basin, and a bottle of water, they pour it over your hands, and dry them with a towel. After we are washed all the girls come to get their hands clean before they eat. We are served first, on china plates with real silverware, the girls have plastic divided plates and plastic forks and spoons. That are washed in cold water and reused each week. They never use hot water for doing their dishes. It surprises me that there isn't more illness passed around because of this. The children are fed well, they had more rice on their plates than Stephanie and I had combined. They all sit in plastic lawn chairs in a circle. The older girls in regular chairs the little girls, in small child size plastic chairs. The very little ones, share a plate, they sit with their knees touching and both scoop until all the good food is gone.
GEMS Girls finishing off the left over communion bread while they wait
Waiting to get their shirts, they keep them at the club and give them out each week
Beautiful GEMS
Sweet and precious
Talking with Stephanie
Preparing the lunch
Eating their fill
Sharing their plate
Soon Flancine is telling them to hurry, they only have two minutes to finish, they lick the plates clean, there is nothing to throw away, except for the few chicken bones they have knawed clean.
They begin their GEMS with Micah 6:8 and then proceed to march around the outside of the chairs singing. “We are marching, we are marching!” They sing several songs as they travel around the chairs, one of which is Father Abraham. I love how they pronounce Abraham! After, they finish singing, they sit in their chairs and Joyce tells them about the visitors from North America. We both introduce ourselves and tell them we bring greetings from our clubs, they clap and welcome us. After chanting “we welcome you, we welcome you, we welcome you!”
We're marching! We're marching!
Joyce begins to go over the prayer poster Kathy left with her, telling the difference in English phrases and the British English phrases they use.
Next they recite a Bible verse, the advanced use a method we used at training, where the verse is written on several pieces of paper and they have to put it in order and say it. The awareness girls just get up and recite.
Advanced GEMS
Awareness GEMS reciting their verses
Now it is time for them to break off into their small groups, which are large small groups. The advanced meet with Joyce and the Awareness meet with Lilan. The CIT’s , Charity, Mercy and Purity, sit in on the awareness group. Charity did lead the singing, but they don’t have a very major role.
Awareness GEMS
Advanced GEMS
Soon it is time for us to leave, we need to be back to the service center by 15:30 to meet the other girls from Pentecostal Holiness and Deliverance who sang on the CD for a picture. We need to get a cab, because with the girls who need to return for a picture there are nine of us. As we drive on to our road, I am anxiously looking for the girls from PH and Deliverance, they should be here, cause we are a few minutes late. No one is around! Oh shoot, nothing is ever how you imagine it to be here! I go inside and call Catherine, she says that her girls are on their way, except for Gatrude, is out of town. I can’t believe that, I told her how important it was to have everyone here for the picture. I ask about the Deliverance girls, she says she will call Alice. Alice is our next door neighbor and attends Deliverance church, she use to be a GEMS leader, until she needed to work more to help support her family. She came over and said the girls had another program this afternoon and couldn’t come! Augh! They were here yesterday, and said they could be here at 15:30, I said I had the CD and they would be able to hear it, I was sure that would get them all here.
OK! Plan B! Can we take two photos and photoshop them into one? I think we can, Stephanie thinks so, although she has never worked with photoshop. We take a picture of the girls who are here, only one is missing her shirt. Of course she is one of the shorter ones, and needs to be in the front! We did take some close ups of their faces and we’ll see what we get. If we can get the other three girls here at the same time. The best laid plans of GEMS ladies, don’t ever seem to go right, here!
Some of the CITS who sang on the new CD
The photo finished and the girls are off, and Steph and I look at each other, and can’t imagine how we can be so tired, from just going to church and club. It was only 4:45, but we didn’t have much lunch, we are a little wary of African prepared food. We ate just enough to be polite at lunch. Another thing, we are never sure what time the power will go out, usually somewhere between 5 pm and 7 pm. We made some scrambled eggs and toast and called that supper!
Steph always looks forward to our Sunday nights here, she calls her Mom and catches up on everything at home. They talk and laugh, while they are on Skype.
The tree behind the house, the whole house smells of the beautiful fragrance of these flowers
The sky just before dark....the heavens declare the glory of God!
Tomorrow, proves to be interesting, we have much to accomplish in this last week, but some of the things depend on information from Jan that I haven’t received yet, so we may have do to some juggling of our days around, until I hear from her. Nothing ever goes as planned in Zambia!
1 comment:
Boy, they really treat you like royalty, don't they? Well, you deserve it.
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