From The Kitchen Table

SCHAEFER FAMILY NEWS
From The Kitchen Table
The Desk of Lynne Schaefer
October 2008

Charley (6) , Joel (10), Luke (7 months), Hope (8) and Olivia (3)

" And they that know thy Name will put their trust in Thee: for thou, LORD, hast not forsaken them that seek thee. "
Psalm 9:10

Dear Family and Friends

With the heat and the dust wearing us all out, we wait expectantly for the rains to start in the next few months. It has been so hot we almost feel like we could melt!
We have just recovered from a tummy bug which had us all vomiting! We were wiped out for a few days as we all tried to recover our strength and regain a bit of lost sleep. Fortunately, not all the adults were down at the same time. Poor Lorna was the last one standing and then the last down of course! Luke escaped the whole ordeal - we are all very grateful to the Lord for that.

Motherhood is So Worth It!


The children are all doing well. Luke is just growing so fast and is getting to be a very busy and active little boy! Soon, when he starts walking, life as we know it will be over! Fortunately there are lots of eyes to watch him. He is a very sweet and a very happy, smiley boy.
Olivia is a very sweet little 3 years old. We were cooking in the kitchen and it was just the 2 of us, for a change, there is usually a kitchen full of girls wanting to cook. Everyone else was busy with other things. She was cutting up tomatoes and I was busy telling her how clever and helpful she is, and thanking her for helping me and keeping me company. She then said, "Do you know why you I do it?". I asked why and she said, "Because I love you." Motherhood is so worth it!

Bible School

Grant is busy running a mini Bible School on the college land. There are 7 Pastors that have come in from rural churches to receive teaching for a few days. Grant, Jonas and Pastor Musonda are doing the teaching and we have some Zambian ladies doing the cooking. It is an event that everyone seems to enjoy and the Pastors are always asking when the next one will be.

Weekly Classes

Grant's weekly Bible classes are doing well. Many students or past students bring their children (over 10 years) to study with them. It started when Joel began attending class with Grant. His students then realised what a benefit it would be to their own children, and so his Wednesday evening class has a number of children in it too. The children are all connected to a parent who is currently studying or has done the classes in the past. It is wonderful to see just how much our son Joel has grown in his faith from attending the classes. He is even determined to pay for the books himself with money that he has worked for. Sam is a young boy who is using his late father's books. His father did the courses a number of years ago but sadly passed away. Sam began coming to the classes with another friend whose father was Grant's top student.

Art Classes

Lorna and the kids have started going to art classes held by a renowned Zambian artist here in Mbala. Mr Zulu is quite famous for his artwork and has started giving free art lessons to whomever wishes to attend. At the moment I have not had the time to go, but Lorna has been taking the children on a Saturday morning and they are really enjoying it. Hope seems to be the one that loves it the most and is doing very well.

Orphinia

Last week a friend of ours drove through our gate with a newborn calf! The mother had rejected the calf and they did not have milk to feed it. So they decided to give her to us as they knew that we always have a calf or two living in our yard that is bottle fed by one of the kids. She is very sweet, we have named her Orphinia! She is Charley's calf to feed.

Lorna

It has been a huge help having Lorna here to teach the children math. It has taken a load off Grant who used to do it with them. She is busy trying to work out the logistics of the resource centre. We need to find a shop or place in town where we can start the library, but at the moment we are getting all the resources together and looking at getting everything catalogued. She has got to find her feet in a different culture and to get herself adjusted to life here first though. She seems to be adjusting very well considering she has lived alone for many years and now lives in a very lively, noisy, busy household!

Zambia...and South Africa

With the death of the Zambian President, we are not sure of who will be the next man to run the country. Please pray for Zambia and that the right man will be elected. Zambia has been doing so well and the economy has grown so much in the 10 years we have been here.
Please pray for our home country of South Africa too. We now have a new president after our previous president was forced to resign. South Africa needs our prayers. People are suffering due to the rise in the costs of food and fuel etc. Many people are going through some hard times.

Please keep us all in your prayers and we remember you in ours. Thank you for your support and for your prayers.

Praise God For:
- His Continual Provision
- - For our wonderful children
- - For Lorna coming to serve here
- - For the Growth in Grant's students

Please pray for:
- Zambia
- - South Africa
- - Our Safety
- - For our Support
- - For us as parents to raise our children right before the Lord

With Love,
Lynne Schaefer and Family

From The Kitchen Table

SCHAEFER FAMILY NEWS
From The Kitchen Table
The Desk of Lynne Schaefer

September 2008

Lorna and Luke

" Draw near to God and He will draw near to you."
James 4:8

Dear Family and Friends

The Joy of Being in Our Own Home

We are so glad to be back into our normal routine and in our own home. It makes a big difference for me as a mom to be back into our school routine and the usual routine of running a home. The children are much more settled and happy in their own environment. We enjoy all the hard work and effort it takes to keep life going here. Grant and Joel are up at 6 am every morning, working in the garden before breakfast to keep the veggie's coming into the kitchen, and we girls keep the meals on the table. We are so blessed to be able to live on this little farm. When times are hard, there is always something to eat. We have pigs in the pen, ducks, cows and chickens for eggs. If there is no money in the purse there is always food in the yard or garden. Last month we ate our turkey. He tasted terrible, rather like eating an old leather boot! But it was food. We lose so much of our support in the exchange rate - but we realize that the Lord still provides for us through the farm.

Aunty Lorna comes to Stay....For Good!

My sister Lorna has come to Zambia on a long term basis. She will start a resource centre in town. Grant and I have had it on our hearts to start one for years but have never had the time to do it. We prayed for someone to come and help us by starting one and the Lord did not just send anyone - he sent my sister who is also my best friend! Our kids adore her and we stand amazed at how the Lord works. Lorna was a very successful financial administrator of a high-tech engineering company but felt called by God into the ministry. She gave up her very "cushy" life to come up here to work for the Lord. We continue to see how God changes lives and uses them for His Glory! She is also helping me with the home schooling by teaching the children maths. I of course welcome the help!! We are looking for donations of books, Christian literature, or sound biblical teachings on CD, tapes or DVD's to use in the resource centre. The centre will be based in town and available to anyone to come and read, listen to sermons or watch Christian DVD's on various issues.

Luke and His Three Smothers... I mean Mothers

Our little Luke is growing like a weed! We all adore him and his sisters can't get enough of him. Nothing like having a live doll to play with!! They dress him, bath him, change him and pour love on him. The poor boy hardly has space to breathe sometimes! He gets smothered! The other day, someone lent us an ancient heat gun type of contraption. It looks rather similar to a genie lamp! We were mucking around saying if we rubbed it and a genie popped out, what would we wish for? Some of the answers were quite funny but Charley said she would wish for mom to have another baby! The kids love having a baby around; they are so much fun. Luke is such a smiley baby - bringing lots of joy to us all.

Working Hard....

We have been working hard redoing our flower garden. It involves shoveling manure and lots of digging. A friend here in Mbala is helping me to plan out a new garden and plant new flowers and plants etc. It is really going to look great when it is finished. We started when Grant was down in South Africa for his mom's memorial service. We were left here, unable to go and feeling rather lousy about it. So we decided to get stuck in and do some hard graft! Well it sure made the time fly by quicker and wore us all out. By evening the kids were begging to go to bed!! I even got to have the evenings all to myself with just the distant snores of the kids to comfort me. We also harvested the onions which was a huge job! The kids worked so hard - we all had blisters on our hands. Yesterday Charley filled a 90kg bag with manure all by herself! Joel and I had a cow dung flinging competition! What fun!

Missing Granny...

We are all missing Grant's Mom so much. She used to regularly keep in touch by email, so the silence is felt. The children and I also had a hard time in the fact that we were not able to attend the service held for her. It was a very difficult thing for us to have to stay here and not be able to honor her at her memorial service. She was a wonderful lady and was loved by all. We miss her.

Enjoying Visitors...

We recently had a team of visitors up from South Africa. Joel was so blessed to have his friend, Joshua, come up with the team. It was such a treat for him. He and his best friend , Friday, enjoyed Josh so much. We never saw the boys until feed time, they were so busy with all kinds of "boys" stuff! Like making bows and arrows and shooting Joel's pellet gun and the like. Josh even helped in the garden each morning before breakfast. My friend Di also came and was such a huge help with the kids and cooking. It's always such a blessing having visitors. Pastor Jonathan and Henlo went with Grant to a conference in the bush and were well received. They were given gifts and Pastor Jonathan was asked to preach more than he had planned on!

We continue to thank God for His provision and help in our our work here. Grant continues to get new students and he has become a real member of the community here. He has become accepted and loved by the people. We had so many visitors come and pay respects to us at the loss of Helen. Fourteen pastors came, church leaders and twenty five ladies came all to grieve with us. They brought funeral gifts and money which is part of their custom. We were amazed. They knew Helen as she had been up here twice to visit us and they felt the need to mourn her too.

Please keep us all in your prayers and we remember you in ours.

Please pray for:

* Us as we continue to grieve the loss of Grant's mom
* For Lorna to settle in well and for guidance as she begins planning the resource centre
* For God's continual provision during the increase in cost of living etc.
* For the safety of us as a family.

With Love,

Lynne Schaefer and Family