FROM THE KITCHEN TABLE AUGUST 2011

From The Kitchen Table

~ The Desk of Lynne Schaefer ~

July/August 2011

“Praise the Lord. Blessed is the man who fears the Lord, who finds great delight in his commands.” Psalm 112:1

Jack Straw!

We have been blessed to have Jack Straw come and stay with us. He’ll be here for 2 months and has already been such a blessing to our family! He is a seriously laid back, fun young man. He has been such a big help to me and great company for our son Joel. He helps me with the kids schooling and basically is willing to do anything you give him to do! And it is wonderful having another person with a drivers licence! You can follow his blog of his stay here at: http://jackgoestozambia.blogspot.com/

Mwenda Conference

Grant was asked to be the main speaker at the annual Mwenda conference of the church we attend here in Mbala. It’s held in the bush, where everyone just kind of camps out. Each year at the conference, believers are baptised in the nearby river. Our son Joel, Jack, and Stevie got baptised by Grant that Sunday. It was a memorable experience for all.

Stevie

Stevie is a remarkable young man. We first met him about 8 years ago. He was troubled by demons and it literally physically stunted his growth. His Grandmother had been heavily involved in witchcraft and when she died the demons went into Stevie. Jonas, our evangelist, is related to him and lived next door to us at our old farm. He took Stevie to his house and kept him there, praying for him. Eventually, Stevie was set free from his demons and Christ has done an amazing work in his life. He is still small for his age, but he is a delivered, free man in Christ! He was baptised along with Joel and Jack! Steve has been a part of our lives for all those years now, and it was very emotional seeing him baptised.

Six kids

At the moment we have 6 kids. Our friends who are also missionaries here in Zambia had to take a trip down to South Africa. Their youngest, who is home-schooled, has stayed behind with us for a month. So we have a full house at the moment with Joshua and Jack here too. He is doing the same curriculum as our daughter Charley and has slotted in with her for school.

Visitors

We often have visitors passing through our home either for a meal or to spend a night or two. The past few weeks have been a busy “visitors” time. It is always enjoyable meeting and chatting with various folks. Sadly, we had to say goodbye to our “peace corps” friends who often stayed with us and have now gone back to the USA. Kate and Meera had become very special friends to us and our children.

Clean Bath Water

We are very blessed to have been able to purchase a new hot water cylinder!!!!! Grant’s toe nails were actually turning orange from the water that came out of the farm cylinder (it was clogged with dirt and we were unsuccessful in getting it open to clean it out. After tirelessly trying to fix our old one we brought with from the other farm, it finally burst its seams for good. With water pouring out and spewing everywhere. The only solution for a while was to boil water on the stove. But, we thank the Lord that Grant was able to get a new one when he made his last trip to Lusaka to fetch Jack!

The Spotted Pig

One of our pigs gave birth to the cutest little “orange” spotted piglet! We have never before had a piglet that colour born in our pig sty. He is terribly cute and strange all at the same time!

Praise the Lord for:

· For Grant’s teachings at the Mwenda conference and all those who God saved and were delivered from demons

· Jack!

· For a new hot water cylinder

· For supplying our needs to feed all those who stay in our home

· That Grant’s entry permit was approved

· For Stevie and his amazing testimony

Please pray for:

· For the conference Grant will be teaching at next weekend

· The 4 seminars Grant will be holding and teaching at on the collage land next month

· For the children and my entry permits which we now need to apply for now that they have approved Grant’s

Thank you and God bless you all!

Lynne Schaefer and Family

Grant, Joel, Hope, Charley, Olivia, Luke

PO Box, 420032, Mbala, Zambia

May 2011

From The Kitchen Table

~ The Desk of Lynne Schaefer~

May 2011

“Find rest, O my soul, in God alone; my hope comes from Him.”  Psalm 62:5

It’s a Madhouse Sometimes...

Sometimes and sometimes can mean “quite often” in our case, things go on in our house that would freak other people out.

Our missionary friend Steve, who also has a vast knowledge in vet nary skills, neutered our 2 male cats on our kitchen table. Of course, I could not watch, having the kitchen as a surgery was a bit strange, but he did the job and did it well. Out here, it’s is great to have such handy people close by.

This past month we slaughtered an ox of ours which has supplied us with meat for quite a while. It is a hard thing to do, but it has to be done in order to feed our family and the numerous visitors that we get. We now have biltong (beef jerky) hanging in the pantry to dry too. One year Joel even had some drying above his bed – under his mosquito net!

We often have chickens waltzing into the house, and even a calf or two have been seen clip clopping down our passage. A friend was standing talking to me one day and asked, “Um, is there supposed to be a calf walking down your passage?” The dogs who are supposed to be outside are not as obedient as the kids and are often found in the house in totally forbidden places! We have a cat that is constantly opening the fridge, and a sheep who wears a red studded dog collar around her neck.

Sometimes, things happen and I think to myself, “Thank goodness there was no one around to see that”. It is not impossible to exit the kitchen door, skid on chicken poop, fall and sprain an ankle! Of course there is no GP to pop down to get it checked out at, the hospital is a very, very last resort, so its bandage it up and pray that it heals – FAST!

Of course, the worst always seems to happen when Grant is away, and many times I am left scratching my head wondering what to do or how to solve it without him.

But, God supplies our needs, often in very strange ways. He looks after us and provides for us way beyond our expectations. He gives us joy in the lonely times, bringing many visitors who provided good fellowship and laughter. At the end of the day, it’s a blessing to be able to lie down to sleep at night and say, “in spite of it all, God is good!!”

 

Other News

We are slogging away at getting the language into our heads. It is a slow, but steady process.

Grant did a trip on his motorbike to Lusaka to submit our “entry” permit. We have been here enough years to apply for one instead of a work permit. We are praying it will be approved. It will save us having to apply for a work permit every 2 years.

Grant was invited to traditional ceremony by one of the chiefs. Although a real cultural shock, it was a great learning experience for him, enabling him to understand the culture better. He was given the best seat, right next to the chief!

Praise God For:

· Grant’s safe trip to Lusaka and back on his motorbike

· For his provision

· For his protection from creepy crawlies ( a friend was recently bitten by a snake and had to be air-evacuated out of Zambia)

Please Pray:

· That our entry permit will be approved

· As we try to learn Bemba

· For Grant’s students

Grant is blogging his daily life as a missionary – A Missionary Diary at the web address: grantschaefer.blogspot.com.

Thanks for your encouragement, your prayers and support of our ministry here.

 

God bless.

 

Lynne Schaefer and Family

Grant, Joel, Hope, Charley, Olivia, Luke

PO Box, 420032, Mbala, Zambia

MARCH 2011

From The Kitchen Table

~ The Desk of Lynne Schaefer ~

March 2011

“I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Jer 29:11

We are blessed!

It is amazing how one phone call can send you into a spin, create chaos, and doubts.  When our landlord phoned to say he wanted to move back to his farm, we were distraught.  The kids sobbed. But, now a few months later we can see that God had something so much better for us.  The farm that we have moved to is amazing.  We are blessed, and thank the Lord for providing a place far better than what we had before.  It has been a very stressful time, but now we can see God’s hand in the chaos, and are grateful to him for making our plans!

 

Language

Pray for us as we seek to really learn Bemba this year.  We are finding it much easier to learn now that we have been hearing it for so long.  Our ears are tuned to the language, we now just need to get our heads to learn it and our mouths to speak it.  We know the basics, but we want to really make an effort this year so we can be more effective in ministry.

 

Olivia’s Sheep

Little Olivia turned 6 on the 20^th March.  She is the organiser in the family.  She is the one who remembers everything and is like my “memory card”.  She always wanted a lamb, so we organised a pregnant ewe for her from a friend.  “Ma” arrived and we all fell in love with her.  She was such a funny sheep and kept us all entertained as she wondered around the yard.  She gave birth to a cute little lamb which Olivia named “Noodles”.  But, Ma got really sick and we tried everything to keep her alive, but sadly she died.  She was buried with tears and flowers on her grave.  Noodles has been adopted by our other sheep, “Mean Ma”, whose name describes her character!  To be fair, she is not as mean as she was when we got her.

 

Other News

The good news is we found the other “Boomslang” snake that got away. It was huge.  He dropped out of a tree only to meet a huge club swung by our gardener.

 

We are in the process of starting a new veggie garden.  It makes life quite hard not having one, as we rely so much on it for our family’s veggie needs.  So our meals have become even more basic, as we start over here on the new farm.

 

We are blessed to have many great walking paths here on the farm.  So in the afternoons, the kids and I take relaxing walks to de-stress from the day, pick wild flowers and examine fungi and other interesting things we come across as we walk. 

 

We have had a lot of power problems since we moved in.  Our transformer got struck by lightning which left us without power for 9 days.  The first month of being here in the new house, we had about 17 days out of 30 without power.  I am grateful for the little wood stove that we have in our kitchen.

 

Our driveway has also become a 4 x 4 vehicles only driveway, as cars continue to get stuck! It has got so bad and any attempt we make to fix it just makes it worse.  With the rains coming to an end, it has dried up a lot, so we look forward to the dry season where we will try to mend it in time for the next rainy season.

 

Praise God For:  

• For providing a great new farm for us

• For His love for us that he provides beyond our expectations

• For his provision during a very costly move

• For his protection

• For all of you who continually pray for us and support us

Please Pray for:

·         His protection from snakes and other creepy crawlies

·         For our financial needs, as the cost of living continues to increase

·         For wisdom for Grant as he continues to minister to folks

·         Grant and I as we really try to tackle learning the language this year

Grant is blogging his daily life as a missionary – A Missionary Diary at the web address: grantschaefer.blogspot.com.

 

Thanks for your encouragement, your prayers and support of our ministry here.

 

God bless.

 

Lynne Schaefer and Family

Grant, Joel, Hope, Charley, Olivia, Luke

PO Box, 420032, Mbala, Zambia

February 2011

From The Kitchen Table

~ The Desk of Lynne Schaefer ~

“Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.” Psalm 90:12

February 2010

A Really Interesting Move...

The past 2 months have been spent trying to get the move done. We first had to help Mrs Silungwe whose farm we have moved onto, to move out.  Then we had to fix up the new farm house, and move us, our stuff and all our animals.  We had to catch our chickens at night, while they were half asleep.  The pigs got loaded into the back of the truck, and getting them out into their new sty was very interesting!  The cows are still at the old farm, while we continue to prepare a kraal for them.  They will be walked here.

We have had many challenges, but at least we now have water coming into the house as Grant managed to rig a pump up to the well. The well gives really good clean water.  We need not even boil it for drinking.  It tastes so good!

The house is huge and there is so much space.  We have a guest room and a school room and a laundry room. 

The kitchen has a separate scullery.  The yard is very muddy, we have got stuck a number of times in the driveway.  The road to the farm is a bit of a mud bath, but only a km long.  We are still fixing things and finding a place for everything.   The windows still need to have mosquito screens fitted to them and we still need to find curtains for a few windows.

 

We don’t have a landline, only cell phone.  The cell phone signal is very bad on this new farm.  The best place to get just a low signal is in the kitchen.  So doing email etc is quite a challenge at the moment. The best signal is actually on top of the huge anthill outside the kitchen. Grant says I should change the name of this newsletter from “From the Kitchen Table” to “From the Anthill!”

Why the move to another farm?

 

People have asked why we moved to another farm and not back into town.  The reason is that the farm supplies so many of our needs.  We get almost all our vegetables from our garden; it provides a lot of our meat and other needs.  Our cows provide all our milk, butter and some cheese.  We have a huge strawberry patch (which we have planted here too) that provides jam.  When we first moved to Mbala we had some very tough times where we ran out of food and money.  It was then decided that we should live on a farm where a lot of our needs could be provided for. 

More Snakes

We are grateful to our friends who came to help us paint.  While painting one day, our friend, Mike, spotted two huge Boomslang snakes in the tree just outside the kitchen.  He managed to kill one, but one escaped. They are a very poisonous snake.  Grant also almost stepped on a small Cobra just near where the gate now is.

Praise God For:

· For providing a great new farm for us

· For all the help we received during the move

· For his protection and provision

 

Please Pray for:

·         Us to settle in well

·         For our safety

·         For continual provision for us as a family

·         Grant and I as we really try to tackle learning the language this year

 

 

 

Grant is blogging his daily life as a missionary – A Missionary Diary at the web address: grantschaefer.blogspot.com.

 

Thanks for your encouragement, your prayers and support of our ministry here.

 

God bless.

 

Lynne Schaefer and Family

Grant, Joel, Hope, Charley, Olivia, Luke

PO Box, 420032, Mbala, Zambia

December 2010

From The Kitchen Table

~ The Desk of Lynne Schaefer ~

December 2010

“Christmas – When God gave us Jesus!!”  

 

Dear Family and Friends

 

We’re Moving...

Those of you who have visited us know that we are very settled here on our farm.  So, it came as a shock to all of us when our landlord phoned us and said he wishes to move back on the farm – giving us 3 months to move.  Moving a house is hard, but moving a farm, well, that is a bit of a challenge.

 

Part of the shock was that Grant had spoken to our landlord before we started to build our guest house, and he told us that he never plans to move back on the farm.  Basically, telling us we can stay on here long term.   We know that God must be in it all, so we got over the shock, and we found another farm to move to only a few days after we heard we had to move.  It is only a few kilometres from this farm. It is much bigger and has a well, and the house has enough space for us to have a guest room. We will move in the middle of February, cows, pigs, chickens, ducks, rabbits, kids and all!

I just want to ride!!

Grant has had a really busy year of ministry.  He felt the need to get some spiritual input for himself.  He needed to refresh himself after a busy year of ministry.  He travelled on his motorbike to Fiwale where he was the guest speaker at a graduation service. Then he rode on to Lusaka and flew to the REAP conference in South Africa where he was able to sit under some excellent teaching and get spiritually refreshed.  Travelling on his motorbike was also a time for him to relax and have some much needed time-out and away.

 

Power Problems          

Every time the rainy season begins it brings electrical black-outs.  Since the rain started, the power has been terrible.  It has gone for days at a time.  While Grant was away, it went for 4 days.  Grant is the one who makes sure that the generator works to keeps the fridge and freezer cold for a few hours at a time.  Whenever Grant goes away, things go wrong.  But, as Joel has got older, he has developed into a Mr. Fix-it himself.  And has proved to be a very capable substitute for when Grant is out.  He fixed my car, fixed the generator, lit the wood stove, and made sure that any problems got solved.  He is only 13, but I am so thankful to the Lord for giving me a son who is a very capable and hard working.  He never complains about all the extra work loaded onto him.  

 

Merry Christmas

We pray you have a wonderful Christmas, remembering what Christ’s birth means to us.  We pray you have a joyous time with family and friends celebrating His birth.

 

Praise God For:

·         For Grant’s safe travels.

·         For providing another farm for us to move

·         For his protection daily

Please Pray for:

·         Us as we prepare to move

·         For us to continue to be a witness her in Mbala

·         For continual provision for us as a family

Grant is blogging his daily life as a missionary – A Missionary Diary at the web address: grantschaefer.blogspot.com.

 

Thanks for your encouragement, your prayers and support of our ministry here.

 

God bless.

 

Lynne Schaefer and Family

Grant, Joel, Hope, Charley, Olivia, Luke

PO Box, 420032, Mbala, Zambia

October 2010

From The Kitchen Table

~ The Desk of Lynne Schaefer ~

October 2010

“Do not worry about your life...” Matthew 6:25

Dear Family and Friends

Funerals!

One of the most important events in the Zambian culture is a funeral.  We have attended many in the years that we have been here.  But, the last month we had to organise one. Sadly, we had to bury the old white man Chris.  He had been part of our lives for many years, and died on September.  He had no family that he knew of, lived alone on a farm here in Mbala and Grant was basically “his family”.  For years Grant looked after his needs and we had a trustworthy young man live with him to care for him the past year.  He went blind, lame, and was very ill at the end.  His wish was to die on the farm and be buried there.  He got his wish.

A few days later, one of the chiefs died in a village where Grant does ministry and Grant was asked to preach at the funeral.  It was a huge cultural eye opener, with many traditional practices taking place at the burial.

Zanzibar

With the past year being rather hectic, and with all the responsibilities that I try to keep track of, I came to the point where I really needed a break as a mom.  My good friend Renate and I had the opportunity to go by train to Dar es Salam and then on to Zanzibar for a few days.  We had an amazing time, meeting wonderful people and just reading, relaxing and site seeing gave me energy to continue to be here, school the kids and be a hostess to many, many people passing through our home.  It was a break I really needed and thank the Lord for providing it.

.

On the Home Front...

Grant has been very busy with various ministry opportunities.  He has preached many Sundays at our local Baptist church, shown the Jesus film in the village, taught at seminars and continued with his evening classes.  He is also training to run an Ultra-marathon with our missionary friend, Steve.  They run early in the morning, trying to fit it into their busy day.

The children are all well.  School is going great, but difficult to do in this incredible October heat.  Here in Zambia, October is known as suicide month, because it gets really hot from early morning!  It becomes difficult to achieve anything!

We have started to build our guest house where we will be able to accommodate all our visitors. We have started to pour the foundations.  We still have not finished the house painting – but really hope to do so....sometime soon! 

We thank the Lord that I was able to sell some vegetables from our garden today, to help with the many financial needs we have.  We are grateful to the Lord for always supplying our needs and more.  We have fresh organic veggies, milk, eggs and meat just from the farm.  Our children are happy and have a life that they enjoy.  We have lots to be thankful for. 

Praise God For:

· Good health

· For the various ministry opportunities Grant has had the past months.

· For my R & R trip to Zanzibar

· For his protection daily

Please Pray for:

· Our financial needs

· Protection against sickness

· Grant’s  students

Grant is blogging his daily life as a missionary – A Missionary Diary at the web address: grantschaefer.blogspot.com.

See more great pictures at grantandlynneschaefer.blogspot.com

Thanks for your encouragement, your prayers and support of our ministry here.

God bless.

Lynne Schaefer and Family

Grant, Joel, Hope, Charley, Olivia, Luke

PO Box, 420032, Mbala, Zambia