FROM THE KITCHEN TABLE

From The Kitchen Table

~ The Desk of Lynne Schaefer ~

“In his heart a man plots his course,

But the Lord determines his steps.”

July 2013

In Myself Nothing – In God Everything

I have been learning a lot over the past years. Someone once gave me a key ring and on it, it said, “May only good things come your way!”  At the time they gave it to me, I thought, “That doesn’t sound right. If we only have good things come our way, we won’t actually learn anything!”  And at the time, life was actually good for me. I saw life in Mbala as easy.  Homeschooling at the time was a breeze.  I really was enjoying myself! Life could just have not been better! And then my little world started to fall apart. And life got pretty tuff.  And I remembered that key ring and thought, “Oh dear, maybe it would have been better if only good things had come my way!”

But, now as my storm has passed, and the lessons I needed to learn have been learnt, and I can see God’s gracious hand in it all, I am grateful for the hard times. In spite of the pain, the grieving, I am closer to the Lord. I trust Him more.  My faith is stronger. And I feel his forgiveness even more real than ever.  I am very grateful to my friends who went through this with me. Who stayed with me through this hurricane.  You know who you are.

Visitors

Our house has been a train station for the past few weeks.  We have had so many visitors passing through, for a night, a day or a few days, or even a week. We have had Irish (who were a blast), Germans, an American, South Africans, British, and next week we will get some more German and a few Austrian visitors. God continues to stretch the food to feed them all.  There are many days I think, “Oh Dear, what am I going to cook for all these folks” but God always provides. And the farm produces many of our needs.

We also have a young German girl volunteer, Melly, here for the next few months.  Pray that we will be a blessing to her.

Please pray for:

·         Grant, Joel and the younger kids, as they travel this weekend to a Bike race Joel has entered.

·         For the safety of Hope, Melly and myself as we remain behind

·         For Grants weekly classes in town. And his ministry here in Mbala.

·         For me, as I try to cook, entertain, home school, clean, and make everything from scratch (without a supermarket nearby to run to), that I will have the patience needed to accomplish it all.

·         For God’s continued provision

Praise the Lord that Luke’s health has really improved and he seems to be doing really well.

And we praise the Lord for the amazing gift of a dishwasher! It has really helped lighten the load.

Thanks for your prayers, and for your support shown to us during this time. Pray for us, please, that we may have the strength to fulfil the task and call that God has for us.

Many blessings,

Lynne Schaefer

And family: Grant, Joel, Hope, Charley, Olivia and Luke

Please note my new email: mbalamama@gmail.com

PO Box 420032, Mbala, ZAMBIA