From The Kitchen Table.

From The Kitchen Table
~ The Desk of Lynne Schaefer ~
May 2009

“But now, O Lord, thou art our Father; we are the clay
And thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand.” Is 64:8

Dear Family and Friends

Math, Chicken Giblets and Beans

Life with Children truly means there is never a dull moment. It is harvest time here in Zambia. The rains have ended and it is now the time for the tiring, yet very rewarding, harvest. Grant has been busy all week training rural pastors and leaders, while the kids have been shelling beans! Math was not done until late in the afternoon, when Grant had time to teach each one their lessons. Charley was outside in the thick of things. Shelling beans and getting real dirty while she was at it. Grant called her in for math, but on her way through the kitchen she discovered a pot of “Chicken Giblets” freshly cooked on the stove. What a treat! She grabbed a chicken foot, a chicken heart and a piece of liver, and headed down the passage for math. Grant nearly roared with laughter as she sat down and neatly placed her “treats” next to her on the table. She then pulled out of her pocket a handful of beans – to help her with her math!

Snakes Alive!

Grant, Joel and Friday (Joel’s best friend and our “Sixth Child”) went to Chisanza village to teach and show the Jesus Film. You have to go by boat to get there. Grant had been teaching for a while and decided that they would have a little break before carrying on. The villages started to sing a song and as they began a snake came right up out of the ground right where he and his interpreter were standing. It was quite a large snake, but sticking its head out was the biggest mistake of its life. In a matter of seconds the villagers chopped it in half, one half went back down the hole! Then, when they were eating in one of the small village huts, Joel looked up and saw another snake slithering through a small hole in the wall. It wove its way in and out through various holes in the mud bricks. There were hundreds of people who came and watched the “Jesus Film” and many were reported to be saved that weekend. Chisanza is a village where witchcraft is heavily practiced. So we praise the Lord for the work he is starting to do there.

Luse Community Orphanage and the Mbala for Mbala Project.

Now that we have been on the mission field for over 10 years, we have observed how often people come to start a project and then some years later they abandon it. Most missions started in the past have not been able to be self sufficient or run by the locals when the missionary leaves, hence, all the mission station ruins that scatter Africa. One such abandoned project is an orphanage here in Mbala that was started by a well meaning foreigner. Only now a few years later, the funds have dried up! Who suffers in the end – the orphans! So, after giving it loads of thought, I came up with a plan to start the “Mbala for Mbala” project. This will involve the local business men, churches and people of Mbala to look after the Luse Community Orphanage. I have approached some of the prominent business men asking if they would be willing to give something every month to the orphanage. They suggested that we get together and hold a meeting and discuss the project. We plan to do this when Grant gets back from a trip to Lusaka in a few weeks time.

The ladies group in our local church went to visit the orphanage last Tuesday. They all took what food they were able to spare. On my way there I stopped and asked a few shops if they would be willing to give something. I was given Maize Meal, sugar and cooking oil. It was a very encouraging start. There are, however, many obstacles that we will need to cross in order to get such a project up and running effectively. But, our prayer is that the community will embrace the orphanage and start to look after the orphans without outside support from the West.
Yummy, Yum!
Just in case there are some of you out there that feel sorry for us living up here – DON’T! Guess what we ate the other day. Fresh (Organic) strawberries from our garden, waffles and whipped cream with Hope’s home- made maple syrup! Yum! Eat your heart out - or come visit us!

Praise the Lord for:
· The showing of the Jesus film in Chisanza village and also Kawama village
· Those that accepted Christ on those occasions
· His protection from snakes and those things we do not see
· The discipleship course Grant is holding this week on the college land

Please Pray for:
· Grant as he travels to Lusaka next week
· For the Mbala for Mbala project
· For the Luse Community Orphanage and its orphans
· That God will guide us as we try to find a solution for the orphanage
· For our protection each day as we serve him here

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

God bless.
Lynne Schaefer and Family
Grant, Joel, Hope, Charley, Olivia, Luke (and Friday)
PO Box, 420032, Mbala, Zambia

From The Kitchen Table.

From the Kitchen Table
The Desk of Lynne Schaefer February 2009

Luke and Joel
“The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.” Exodus 14:14

Dear Friends and Family

It’s hard for us to believe that we have now been in Mbala for over 10 years. Joel was just a bit younger than Luke when we moved here and he is now eleven. We came with just a trailer and only a few possessions and now we have a house full of stuff! Every time another missionary family or ex-pat leave we gain and now we are getting short of space! It is amazing to see how the Lord has provided for us over the years. It was about 15 years ago that Grant felt called to come and minister here in Mbala. It took 5 years before we could come. He first had to go to college for 4 years and then we worked with our church for a year. We praise the Lord for his provision and faithfulness to us over the years.
Grant's calendar for the year is filling up with all the various opportunities he has been given to minister. He no longer has to seek out places to minister they come to him to ask him to teach.
On March 6th, our little Luke will be a year old. Praise the Lord for this little boy that was added to our family and been a true joy to us all!

Lightning Strikes

With the rainy season comes the lightning! This time it was our house that got hit. Praise the Lord that it was only our printer that went up in smoke. This is very frustrating for Grant, as he has to print out his sermons and tests etc for his classes. Our kettle also blew from a power surge or something like that, but that is not as devastating as our printer going up in smoke. We were able to buy a new kettle right here in Mbala.

Funny Stories from the Past

Looking back to our first years in Zambia, we can see just how much we have learnt and grown over the years. We were such city slickers when we first came. When we started our first vegetable garden we had no idea what we were doing! We can remember planting carrot seeds one by one. If you have ever seen carrots seeds you will have a good laugh about that - they are tiny! You never plant them one by one!

When we were given our first chicken we were so excited, especially Grant, who loves eggs. He asked a Zambian, "When will this chicken give us eggs?" The man looked at Grant with a strange look and sadly told him that it would not give us any eggs. Grant was so disappointed and asked him why? He said, "Sorry Mr Grant, this one is a male!" Yip, we must have looked like such idiots to the locals.

It has taken many years to learn the culture and see just how many mistakes we must have made over the years. We are still learning and are just grateful to the Zambians for being patient with us. They have taught us a lot and we can only pray that God will use us in spite of ourselves. That is the great thing about God - He uses us while He continues to change us. If He had to wait for us to be perfect before He used us, He never would be able to! We no longer feel like foreigners or strangers, Mbala feels like home.
We now have an auto bank machine here in Mbala. This is a truly terrific thing! We used to have to travel a 320km round trip to the nearest auto bank and if it was broken Grant would have to get on the bus and travel a 2000km round trip just to draw our support! Now, we just have a five-minute drive into town – life is so much easier!

So, we praise the Lord for providing for us, keeping us safe, restoring us to health when we have been sick and allowing us to serve Him here in Mbala for the past 10 years.
Thank you to you too for praying for us and supporting us over the years. We are most grateful!
God bless, as you too continue to serve him.

With Love,
Lynne Schaefer and Family (Grant, Joel, Hope, Charley, Olivia and Luke)
For more photo’s go to grantandlynneschaefer@blogspot.com

From the Kitchen Table

The Desk of Lynne Schaefer
January 2009

"Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself"

Matthew 6:34

Dear Family and Friends

Tornados, Fireworks, Accidents

and

Mama Mechanic

The Tornado!

Christmas! A day most people are feasting and celebrating. We as a family went out to the Coffee Estate to have Christmas lunch with good friends. But, for others here in Mbala, the day turned out to be a day they will remember forever. At 3:30pm a tornado swept through a new housing area here in Mbala. Ripping the roof off a church and demolishing many houses. A widow lost almost everything she owned, but was happy that her children were safe and unhurt. Her house was ruined, but through the generosity of her church, they have tried to rebuild a small section of her house. It was like a funeral for those who had just finished building their houses. They sat, looking at their demolished home, crying. It was heartbreaking. The government has provided some tents for shelter and World Vision provided blankets and food. Our Mbala Baptist Church that we attend has just finished putting the roof on their newly built building. The tornado missed by metres! We praise the Lord, as the church has saved and struggled for many years to build this new building. Unfortunately, the church just next door lost its entire roof! There is no record of there ever being a tornado here in Mbala in the past!

The Fireworks!

We were invited out to a farm for new-years eve. Our friends there were going to have a fireworks evening for the kids. They invited all the children of a nearby village. Our children were so excited and were not let down when it started. The display was magnificent. The village children were clapping and shouting with glee. They would have never seen such a display ever before. It was wonderful.

The Accident!

Grant had to go down to Lusaka just after Christmas. We were left holding fort here. Boy, did everything go wrong once he left! We had no power for a few days! My dryer broke and with the amount of rain we get a dryer is very useful! We would also have to iron absolutely everything if we never had a dryer as we get Putsi Fly here. It's a fly that lays eggs in your wet clothes and then when you wear them the egg hatches a maggot which burrows under you skin and basically stays there feeding of you! It is very painful! I also broke down in my little Trooper on a day that I was extremely busy. And then, one of our calves's died. I was thinking it could not get worse, and then, it happened. The awful accident.

It happened on the 2nd of Jan. Steven, a young man that works here on weekends to pay for his school fees, fell off the pigsty roof. His arm caught on the broken glass on top of the surrounding wall. His arm was very badly cut, severing main veins and ripping the flesh into an open, jagged gash! There was blood everywhere. It was the worst accident I have had to deal with. I bandaged him up and took him to the hospital, not knowing if they were going to be able to stitch him up. But they did, and they did a very fine job of it! It has actually restored my faith in our hospital here. His arm seems to be healing well, and he has now returned to school doing his last year. He has worked hard to pay for his school fees, books, uniforms etc. We are very proud of this hard working young man.

Mama Mechanic!

While Grant was still away, my oven also broke and the breaks on the Nissan Patrol failed on our way to church. Lorna was driving and when she tried to brake at the junction, there were absolutely no brakes. She had to swerve to avoid hitting an on coming car. We had to drive the rest of the way to church very, very slowly. The roads are also very slippery and muddy because of excessive rain! After church, we decided that it was not a good idea that we would now have no transport. The Isuzu Trooper was out of action after breaking down and we had towed it back home. We decided that we needed to fix it as at least it had brakes. I sat thinking about it all, and decided that it must just have a blocked fuel filter. How hard can it be to change a filter, surely not that hard? The battery was also dodgy. So, we slowly drove to town in the car with no breaks, and I bought a new fuel filter. I fitted the new filter, we took the battery out the Nissan and put it into the Isuzu and it started first time! No problem! We now had transport. Well, Grant came back and everything is now fixed. He fixed the leaking seal on the patrol that caused the break fluid to leak out. Fixed the oven, the dryer, and boy are we happy to have him back!

Praise God that:

- Steven's arm has healed with out any infection

- He has continued to provide for us

- We have had good health

- Hope has now started Bible school too on a Wednesday night

Please pray for:

- Our continued protection and good health

- For Grant as his ministry grows and expands to more remote villages

- For me as a mother to have patience and wisdom in dealing with the children and family issues

Thank you for your prayers and support. God bless you all.

For more photo's please go to our blog spot: grantandlynneschaefer@blogspot.com

With Love,

Lynne Schaefer and Family

Grant, Joel, Hope, Charley, Olivia and Luke

PO Box 420032, Mbala, ZAMBIA

From The Kitchen Table.

From the Kitchen Table
The Desk of Lynne Schaefer
PO Box 420032 Mbala, Zambia

November 2008

Dear Family and Friends

The end of the year is closing in fast. Where does the time go? I can remember as a kid how the days would drag by. Time seemed to be in no hurry at all. But now, as the years add up - it rushes past leaving me wondering where I will find the hours to get everything I need to do, done!

It's birthday month this month, with Joel and Hope celebrating their 11th and 9th birthdays. My, how they have grown! Joel has become a very hard working lad. Getting up early to first have his devotions and then head out to the garden with his Dad. Hope is rather like her mother who would prefer to stay up late and get up late. But, in the Schaefer house there is certainly no sleeping in. Some of us struggle with that rule - but others like Charley and Luke are happy to get up at 5am and start the day! With the on-set of the rains, the veggie garden needs more hands to keep the weeds out! It looks like we may all be getting out there before breakfast to do a bit of weeding before we begin the rest of the day's chores and school.

Music

Our home is usually filled with music. Sometimes it's the sounds of the kids practicing on their instruments or one of them playing music on the family computer. Charley particularly likes music. She is the one who will usually put music on to listen too. I try to exercise early in the morning when Grant and Joel are in the garden. The girls like to exercise with me. This morning, Charley was sitting next on the bed and Olivia asked if she was going to exercise too. "No", she replied, "I am only here for the music!” Joel is doing well on the guitar considering he has to teach himself. Hope and Charley are coming along nicely on the violin. Hope has a real passion for the violin and is doing very well. She prayed and prayed for a violin for a long time. Joel made her a "pretend" one out of a tennis racket and she would put violin music on and pretend to play for months that way. When she finally got a real one she was so excited, it has become a very important part of her life. We are blessed to have another missionary lady right here in Mbala that is teaching them to play.

Mega Mushrooms

With the rains comes the food. It's the season for growing crops. Most folks are busy preparing their lands to grow their maize, beans, groundnuts and sweet potatoes. It is also the season for gathering wild mushrooms. The first rains bring huge, delicious mushrooms that have a meaty texture and taste. Later in the season more varieties appear and are gathered and sold at the markets. I was given a gift of a very big mushroom, which I just had to take a photo of! It was delicious. Sorry that you never got to taste it.

Grant's Groundnuts

This year we will be growing groundnuts. We will press them for the oil to make our own diesel. We have been plowing our land in the late afternoons using our little Isuzu Trooper. It is such a great little car and does the job so well. Either Joel or I drive down the rows while Grant holds the plough behind. I have to watch that I don't go too fast. Sometimes I forget he is behind, but then I hear him shouting for me to slow down. There he is puffing and panting, running behind the car while I am inside thinking about all sorts of other things instead of concentrating of the job at hand! I do apologize of course for going to fast - with a little grin on my face!

Puppy Power - One More Blow for Evolution!

This month we found ourselves looking after 3-orphaned puppies. We soon discovered that it is an incredible amount of work and a very tiring thing to do. Their mother was unfortunately poisoned when they were only a few days old. We volunteered to try keep them alive by feeding them with baby bottles we bought in town. Every 2 - 3 hours we would all takes turns in feeding them and wiping their bottoms with a damp piece of cotton wool - to simulate the mothers licking - necessary to aid in .... Well you get the picture! After two days and a sleepless night, Grant decided that we needed another plan!! He called in our female dog, which had had puppies a year before, and showed the pups to her. After a short time, she lay down, and the puppies eagerly found her teats and started suckling. And guess what? She produced milk and has been feeding them and licking their bottoms ever since!! They are now fat, active, mischievous little 5 week olds. Isn't God amazing - just by watching and looking at nature we can prove him as Creator. Things like this don't just happen due to a big bang! Nope, only God could create such an amazing world!

Big Boat in Action...

Finally, after a few years of fixing, finding parts and redoing the engine - the ministry boat is on the water. It was a great day for us all to be able to go speeding across the great Lake Tanganyika to a remote village where Grant has started teaching. The people in the village asked him to come and start a Bible study once a month. There are men and women from a wide range of denominations. Grant will continue to go once a month. We as a family only went with him this time to test the boat and spend the weekend camping at a lodge near the village. We had a good time and the children enjoyed swimming and playing on the sandy beach. The boat is running well. We just need to purchase a bigger prop and it will be all set to do further ministry on the lake. The only down side is the cost of the fuel! Here in Zambia, one liter will set you back just over R20.

Other News...

Mbala Baptist Church, the church we attend here in Mbala, have finally finished their new building. I am so proud of them as the have constructed a huge new church building without much outside support. They as a church have given from their own pockets and raised the funds themselves. It is great to be able to go to church without an umbrella to protect you when it rains during the service, and to have space between your legs and the pew in front of you. They have demolished the old building, which was practically falling down and had a threadbare grass roof. They completed the new building just in time. Our rains have started in full swing! Grant has been preaching at the services for the past few weeks. Mbala Baptist does not have a Pastor at this time, but often ask Grant to preach on Sundays.

Lorna is working on setting up the resource center. Annel, a young man from Mbala Baptist Church, will be helping her with all the necessary arrangements to get it up and running.

Luke is growing fast! He has decided he is in no rush to crawl or walk. Why should he be when he has so many willing hands to carry him around? He does have a rather mighty scream that comes out of such a little person, but he will soon learn that it will have a serious negative affect to use it!

We are very grateful to the Lord for his continuous provision through some rough financial times. We know that everyone is struggling with the recession and pray that the Lord will also continue to provide for you all as he continues to provide for us.

Praise God For:

* Good health at this time
* For the cooling rains
* For our boat that is now complete for further ministry into remote areas
* For his continual provision

Please Pray for:

* Us to have a malaria free rainy reason
* For our financial support
* For our Children to grow strong in the Lord
* For Grant as he continues with many ministry opportunities
* For Mbala Baptist, that they will remain strong in the Lord and be a witness to the Mbala community

Thank you for yours prays and support. God bless you all.

With Love,

Lynne Schaefer and Family

Grant, Joel, Hope, Charley, Olivia and Luke

PO Box 420032
Mbala
ZAMBIA

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

From The Field

From the Field
News Update
July 2008

"The clock of life is wound but once
And no man has the power
To tell just when the hands will stop,
At late or early hour."
Anonymous


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

Dear Friends

We greet you all in the precious Name of Jesus. Wow it has been a while since I last wrote. So much has happened both exciting and tragic that I would probably need to write a book to share all our experiences. This year so far has been a very unsettling and challenging year for us in so many ways. It started out by me driving the family down to Cape Town at the beginning of January. Lynne was expecting our 5th child in March and we felt that it was wise for her to be out of a malaria area during the last few months of her pregnancy. After the 6 day drive (4500Km, 2600miles) we arrived safely in Cape Town.

The Lord provided a wonderful place for us to stay and we thank Christine so much for letting us stay in her home while she was a way. After 3 days settling the family in, I returned to Mbala, by flying to Lusaka, Zambia and then catching the bus to Mbala. I believe that so much can be learnt about a country and its people when you use their transport system. It is both challenging and enlightening. While back in Mbala I was able to leave some work for the Bible Students for while I was away in Cape Town for the birth of Luke. Around mid February I then made my way back to Cape Town to be reunited with my family. On the 6th of March Luke Daniel was born to us and what a gift. We thank the Lord that a wonderful friend of ours from Kasama in Zambia was with us holidaying in Cape Town. She is a midwife in a Rural Clinic near us and often has to give our children their immunizations. It was such a delight for Lynne to have her there when Luke was born. We opted for a home birth and it really worked out so well.

During this time my Mom had a black out due to her blood pressure and smashed her ankle in the process. As many of you are aware she is fighting cancer and has been for the last two and a half years. She has been very brave and has been such an inspiration to me as she leans on God for her daily strength. As a family our plans were that we would be returning to Zambia around April, but due to my Mom's condition Lynne and I felt that it might be best that we spend some time with her. Besides breaking her ankle and having to move into a Frail Care Facility she was also informed that there was no more treatment available to treat her Cancer. Her body was rejecting the Chemo and the Oncologist advised that it may be time to cease the treatment. And so towards the end of April we headed off to Port Elizabeth to spend some time with my Mom. As a family we thought that this may be the last quality time that we have with her. As it turned out it was a wonderful time although mixed with a lot of emotion. Towards the end of June we decided that we had to return to Mbala and so we once again took the long road North. The trip went well and we praise the Lord for no break downs even though we were quite heavily laden. We arrived home to find that our staff had taken good care of the place, but despite this we had a dog and a cat that had died. One of our cows was bitten by a snake, but they managed to save that.

Returning again we were faced with the accounts of a number of folks who had passed away while we had been gone. When you leave they seem so healthy and then all of a sudden after a short illness they die. Every time we return we discover this and it is quite emotional as life just seems to come and go. As a family we took some time out just to settle and readjust. There was lots of unpacking and rearranging to be done. We spent a number of days in our vegetable garden to get it cleaned up nicely. So at the moment we have some vegetables, mainly lettuce and carrots coming in now. We also have a big field of onions which we transplanted before I left in February. Although we lost a number of seedlings due to the heavy rains we should harvest enough for the year.

On the ministry front we are about to get going again. Ba Jonas, our evangelist, went to evangelize in a village about 30Km from us and was accused of being Satanists. This is quite common up here when folks enter and area and are not known in the area. It really is all about relationships. They were told once they are known they will be heard. Other exciting ministry opportunities are becoming available in the rural areas. The struggle that we face is that these areas are not close and require fuel for the vehicle to reach. Our current cost of diesel per liter is R 20.00 per liter or US$ 12.85 per gallon. I want to make some more diesel but my oil source has dried up so I need to find other alternatives. We do pray that we can find a solution to this challenge. The classes are about to resume in the next few weeks. I have just been informed that I need to return to South Africa again to spend the last few days with my mom. As soon as I return to Mbala the classes will begin.

We are still awaiting the result of a project proposal we were asked to submit regarding a poverty alleviation scheme using Soya Beans and manufacturing Bio Diesel. We have had a very positive response from the government, but now just await a formal reply. Fuel has become worth more than gold in these parts. I am sure that all of you are also having to adjust your finances due to the increase in fuels. The challenge out here is that your distances are so vast.

Another wonderful answer to pray is that Lorna Bucklow, Lynne's sister, will be joining us at the end of August on a permanent basis to start a reading and tape Library in Mbala. We have felt that this would be a wonderful resource for the believers here, but have just not had the time to get it going. She has also offered to help us with some of our schooling of the children. Do pray for her as she settles up things in South Africa and begins a new life here in Mbala.

Lastly, while we were down in Cape Town we were introduced to blogging. We have set up a blog site where we will post the newsletters with more pictures. We are restricted in our emails due to our very slow and costly connection speed. So if you would like to see more pictures then please see the link at the bottom of the page.

We must take this opportunity to thank each one of you for your prayer and financial support. We realize that under the current economic climate we are all having to readjust our priorities on where our hard earned money should be going. We thank you that you still consider us on that list. May the Lord bless you as you bless others.

Praise God for you!!!

Praise Items:

Praise God for the safe birth of our son Luke.
Praise God for the wonderful time we had with family and friends while in South Africa.
Praise the Lord that we covered so many kilometers without any incident.
Thank the Lord that the ministry continued in some areas while we are away.
Thank the Lord that we were able to spend a month with my Mom before she weakened too much..
We praise the Lord Jonas continues to minister faithfully in the villages.
We praise the Lord that we have good health.
We thank the Lord for each of you who encourage us, pray for us and help us financially, despite also having to face the struggles of daily life.

Prayer items:

Please do pray that the Lord may protect Lynne and the children while I return to be with my Mom.

We do ask you to pray that we may be able to find a solution to the ongoing increasing cost of fuel.
Please pray for Ba Jonas as he continues to reach out to villages with the Gospel.
Please also do pray that in some way we will be able to get to some remote villages on a regular bases for teaching.
Please do pray for Lorna, Lynne's sister as she comes up to join us at the end of August.
We ask you to pray for the new students that the Lord would give them a love for His Word.
Do pray that God may enable us to continue to be a light for Him in Mbala. May our actions and attitudes speak louder than our words.

"Witness for Christ with your life
As well as your lips."

In His service

Grant Schaefer


PS .Please note our new Cell number.

email: mbala5@yahoo.co.uk

blog: http://www.grantandlynneschaefer.blogspot.com/

homepage: http://www.taila.org.za/

Cell: +260976152411