Mission of Love Orphanage Zambia

Prayers for Ruth, Praise for Isaac

2012-02-07T13:00:00.001-08:00

it is time for urgent prayers once again. We want to ask if you will please keep the newest addition to our orphanage (Ruth) in your prayers. She came to us last week, weighing only 6.7kg's (14lbs 12 oz) at 1 year and 8 months of age. While we didn't expect her transition to our orphanage to be an easy one (in less than a month she has dealt with the death of her mom (her father passed away earlier), been diagnosed with HIV, and lived with 3 different families) but we hoped that with some good nutrition (she was living only on plain cornmeal porridge), and loving care from the housemothers that we would see a quick improvement for this precious, little girl. However her health hascontinued to decline. Along with her bouts of crying, lack of interest in food, diarrhea, and a general "failure to thrive" she has lost more weight and at 5.4kg's currently (11lbs 14 oz) her health condition is getting more serious every day. Tomorrow she will be taken to the local village clinic for her HIV review so we are asking for prayers for her, wisdom for the doctors, and grace and strength for the housemothers in caring for her. Our prayer is that God will grant Ruth favor and mercy and that she will be brought to health and strength in order to know and proclaim the love and care of our heavenly gracious Father.

On a more positive note - remember little Isaac who we asked for prayers for earlier? Here is a more recent picture of him. When we got back from South Africa we couldn’t believe it was the same baby! Thanks be to God who truly hears, cares, and answers prayers.

Orphanage Happenings for November

2011-12-13T04:36:00.001-08:00

Issac

Thank you for your continued prayers for baby Isaac. Since our big scare with him a month or so ago being so sick (read previous posts for more info) he has been doing better, drinking well and going from 2.6kg to 4.2kg. However, mid November he began having diarrhea, vomiting, and having a lot of pain, being unable to sleep. Knowing how quickly a little baby can go from bad to worse, we decided to be cautious and take him to the hospital right away. We went to the same place, 3 hours away and again they admitted Isaac. Since it was his second time back, in such a short time, the doctors think that he has been exposed to HIV and most likely is infected with the virus but despite testing him both times, due to lack of blood they will have to wait until he is 6 months old to test again. There is a possibility that there is also another medical issue (an descended testicle) that is causing him to have these issues but obviously still being so small, his health is still a matter of great prayer concern for us. Ennie is doing a wonderful job caring for him and is making sure that he is kept warm and healthy as best as she can, but we know that ultimately God is the only one who can ensure his safety and well being. Thank you for your prayers for him up to this point and as Isaac crosses your mind, please continue to lift him and Ennie up to the Lord – especially for wisdom in regards to his care while we are gone.

Orphanage Preps complete

Apart from all the physical work that needed to be done before we left for South Africa, another BIG task was to make sure that the orphanage was well provided for and prepared for our time away. While being gone during the rainy season is a blessing because it is a slower time “work wise” it does pose difficulties with getting supplies for the orphanage (especially for the locals) due to the poor road conditions. Local transport is not as available so with that in mind, we not only had to attempt to purchase all the orphanage consumables needed for 3 months (worse case scenario) but also make sure that all the babies had the next size up in clothes. Everything from medicine, to toiletries (soap, toothpaste, toilet paper etc), to food supplies (rice, beans, kapentas etc), to formula had to be inventoried, budgeted for, and purchased in bulk. For us that involved several trips to different stores and venders to get the right amount and be able to transport it all back to the orphanage. Praise God for his provision not only of money in order to purchase so many things in advance but also in additional help of Gretchen (from Kalomo) and our friends from South Africa to help us in this big task.

Help from South Africa

Approximately a week before we left, we were blessed with a visit from two dear ladies from South Africa – Mariann and Sannie. Mariann came as a representative of the Dutch Reformed Church in Rooihuiskraal, South Africa, while Sannie was an older friend of hers. While neither of them were “spring chickens” in regards to their biological age – their spirit and youthfulness of heart showed through in how quickly they jumped into helping with anything they could. From painting, to cleaning and organizing the library (we had some damage from some rats that decided to make their home in some of the preschool supplies), varnishing, to putting together furniture, cooking, cleaning, organizing school supplies, mending orphanage and personal clothing, spending time with the house mothers encouraging and doing Bible Study with them, hemming curtains that were too long, and watching Jakob – there was almost nothing that they weren’t willing to do with a smile and a great attitude. We enjoyed getting to know these two dear ladies and hear all the ways that God has lead, directed, and provided for them over the years. Thank you ladies for all your hard work and all that you taught us while here.

Currently in south Africa

We are now currently in South Africa visiting friends, family and supporters, awaiting the arrival of our second son (due Dec 18th). Our hope is to return to Zambia sometime mid/late January but the exact date is yet unknown because a lot depends on when Jakob’s brother decides to arrive and how long it will take for us to get his birth documents for South Africa and the States in order.

Current prayer requests

-Please pray for the orphanage during our “time away”. While it is good to put more responsibility into the hands of the locals there (our goal is to one day make it as self sustainable as possible) to help them be not as dependant upon us, it is a big adjustment for the house mothers, the staff, and the orphanage committee.

-Please pray that the rains come at the appropriate time and that God provides the locals there with the wisdom and manpower to take care of the garden and orphanage crops that we hope will sustain us through the next year.

-Please pray for God’s hand of protection over the property and things on it while we are away. Already, since we have left – the well, the tractor, and one it’s implements have already broken. With no one there with the skill to fix it –they are now planting and doing the rest of the field care by hand until we get back. Praise God that they were able to get the pump working again.

- Please pray for the health of our children and staff while away (especially baby Isaac). While they do have means to get to a clinic or hospital in emergency (or pre planned) purposes, travel during the rainy season (esp. with out us there) is definitely more difficult and out in the bush, anything can happen.

- Lastly, please pray that God enables the children, staff, and locals to focus on the true meaning of Christmas and be able to celebrate and cherish in their hearts the greatest gift of all that was given to us.

While it is a bit scary being away for such a time, it is a good reminder to us of whom we are relying on to meet the needs of the orphanage and provide for them – us or God – the one who started this project, loves these children and villagers more than we ever could, and who promised to complete the Good work that He started.

Thank you for your continued partnership, prayers, and support of us and the ministry over these past years. We and all the kids, staff, and villagers involved with the project thank you, and wish you a Merry Christmas, and a God blessed New Year in 2012.

Projects completed!

2011-12-13T04:31:00.001-08:00

After the past few weeks of long work hours, late nights, and little rest we are happy to report that most of the work that we had hoped to get done before the rains came is now complete! God has been good to give us the strength, energy, wisdom, help, and grace needed for each day and although all of us are quite tired (both from the intense heat and the long work hours) it is so nice to look around and see all that God has allowed to be brought to completion recently.

The Preschool

We are happy to report that the preschool is plastered, floor completed, windows and doors installed, door varnished, walls painted, shelves hung and stocked in the store room, and furniture complete. Alyssa now has the classroom and store room set up almost exactly as she wants it and now all that is missing is the children. Did I mention that all the furniture that is there had to be built by Alyssa and Jako? It took several weeks to get from the raw, uncut, rough pieces of wood called “planks” to finished, planed, cut, routed, screwed and nailed, varnished furniture but now all is ready and perfectly fitted for the children that will start coming at the opening early February after our return from South Africa.

Alyssa’s Flat

Alyssa is also very happy to have officially moved into her newly completed flat. Just like the preschool, lots of work went into installing doors and windows, painting, getting basic furniture, and making her place her own. Now not only does she have her own “haven” to be able to do all her office work and rest at the end of a long day but now there is also additional accommodation available for any single ladies that may want to come and visit/help.

Visit Alyssa’s website at www.alyssabolles.blogspot.com in order to see more pictures of the completed flat and preschool and to hear more about it from her perspective.

A new warehouse roof

And if those first two building projects were not enough to focus on these past several months, we recently decided that there was now a urgent need to put up a big outdoor carport/open warehouse roof in order to protect our vehicles, tractor, and various tractor implements and other things from the rain and mud this rainy season. No small project considering the size of the roof that was needed was 8m x 15m (approx 24x45ft) and it was now the hottest time of the whole year – not the best time to be working in the full heat of the shade on top of shiny tin. Needless to say there were lots of days where Jako was up early to work on it and then late into the night in order to make use of all the cool weather he could. With time getting short before we had to leave there were days when we wondered if this would be completed in time but now we are happy to report that the roof is now up and complete. Eventually we hope to close up at least some of the sides a bit and install a few shelves along the one wall but for now the vehicles, tractor, quad, and various big power tools (like the planer) and building materials are stored safely underneath.

Field and Crop Preparations

The last big “work” project that we felt we had to tackle before we left was to prepare the orphanage crop field for planting this year. With everything else needing to be done we didn’t how we were going to have time to get everything ready but God was good and provided Sakumbilla (one of our local part time general workers) with the ability and desire to be able to work the tractor for us. With the help of Charles (our local foreman), this enabled Jako to keep working on the other projects (mainly the warehouse roof) while they tended to clearing and plowing the land, preparing it for the planting of the corn. At the time of our leaving, there hadn’t yet been enough rain for us to plant the 1 1/2 hectares that had been prepared but plans are in place for Sakumbilla and Charles to do that at the appropriate time in our absence. The local orphanage committee has pledged their help as well. Please pray with us that God would provide the right amount of rain at the right time and both wisdom and discretion for the locals to know how to tend to this important task while we are gone.

Bugging Out!

Just on a fun note – as much as rainy season is often the favorite time of year for us as everything is new, fresh and breathes of “new life” it is often the time that the bugs seem to take over as well. So, if bugs are not your favorite thing – you might want to consider another time of year to visit and help us. However, if you like to see things beautiful and green – now is the time to come – and if you do – you might even be offered a tasty treat of the big flying termites (shown on our outside kitchen sink) nicely fried by the locals. They are a true delicacy here. Here are a few pictures of our recent bug invasion – both inside our house and in our outside kitchen.

The God who “truly” looks after the least of these

2011-10-29T14:11:00.001-07:00

Rarely have I been as excited as I am today to write an update about recent happenings here at the orphanage. For those that know me (Amber), you know that writing is not my gift and that I often struggle with it but God has done so many wonderful things here lately that this time, I just can’t wait to share it all with you

Baby Isaac

Before I go any further, let me say a big THANK YOU to all of you who prayed for Baby Isaac. He returned back to the orphanage last week and is doing amazingly well, gaining weight and looking like a whole new baby. In fact, the housemother’s even joke that he is drinking too much now : ) We were overwhelmed with messages of support and prayers from all over the world for him and I have no doubt that that played a role in the miracle that God provided to save his life. Only God knows the plans that He has for this little one but we do know that at such a young age, God has already used him to display his love, grace, and healing power to many in this community. To God, the true author and finisher of life, be the glory forever and ever AMEN.

Baby Esther’s Graduation and Sylvia

Now if the miracle of Isaac’s healing wasn’t enough to give God praise this month, God also showed us his love and watch care over the “least of these” in the life of little Esther as well. Please allow me to tell her story.

For those of you that might remember, little Esther came to us in October of last year (2010). Her mom was very sick and died shortly after her birth and although Esther was probably born only a few weeks early, she was very small at only 2kgs (4.4lbs). Even preemie clothes were big on her. Her situation was different than most however because unlike all of our other children, her father was still alive. Here we were stuck with a dilemma. We had decided from the beginning, that since we wanted this to be a community orphanage we would only take double orphans to live at the orphanage. Unfortunately we had seen too many times parents wanting to give away their responsibility as parents to let other people raise their kids and we didn’t want to encourage that or ask the community to take on a bigger burden than they could handle. However, tiny Esther had no milk and the father had no money to buy formula for her. Not wanting to start the trend of giving out formula (for many reasons) we told the family to bring the child to us to care for her until we could decided what to do.

After a few hours of intense prayer we decided that since we had 2 housemothers and only 8 kids and 1 baby at the orphanage at the time, we would agree to make an exception to care for Esther but only if the father was able to agree to three important requirements- 1) that she would only stay at the orphanage until 1 year of age when she no longer needed formula 2) that the father would have to volunteer one day a week to visit and help at the orphanage in exchange for her formula and care 3) that the father would have to attend all of her medical check ups with the housemother. We then left the choice with him as to whether he wanted us to agree to care for her (with those conditions) or if he wanted to take her to another orphanage 2 hours away from us. We were surprised when he agreed and then even more surprised when he actually did what he promised to do (with a little prompting) and showed up almost every Sunday for a year to visit her and help with manual labor at the orphanage.

As the year time frame began to near however, Gift (the father) began to beg us to keep Esther longer because of difficulties at home. He feared that his other wife would not care or look after the needs of Esther since she was not her own. While Ennie (the housemother) and us all shared his concern, knowing that that often happens in this culture, we felt we would be setting a bad example to keep her longer when she did have a father who had the responsibility to care for her. We discussed other options that the father could look into (having another family member care for her until she was older, etc) and basically said that we would pray along with him for God to help him find a solution. The year date was fast approaching though and it looked like she was just going to have to be returned home, to a family that she barely knew, and that we were just going to have to pray that God would look after her there. That is…. until something amazing happened …. : )

Somewhat out of the blue, one of our part time housemothers, Sylvia, who had been with us since the start of the orphanage, came to us, relaying her desire to resign her post at the orphanage. It seems that she was struggling with traveling the long distances between her house and the orphanage and it was starting to effect her health. We told her that we would miss her but understood her situation and she gave her two week notice. Then, the next weekend we heard rumor that she, somehow being distantly related to Esther (which we didn’t know) had offered to take her to her home to care for her. Being a widow herself with only one 8 year old son, she felt she had the means and now the time and since Esther was already familiar and attached with her, it was evident that this was GOD’s perfect provision. The father agreed and even now, I can’t help but smile at the way that God works.

While we will miss both Sylvia and Esther and their presence at the orphanage, our hearts are now at peace knowing that God has brought the two of them together, and that HE will continue to provide for all of their needs, just as He has from the beginning.

All of this blows our roofs off (literally!)

I will leave this blog entry with pictures of the preschool roof which took a hit when a big wind came through a few weeks ago. While not the kind of news we wanted to hear (or see), especially when it seems we just finished putting that roof up, it is pretty hysterical how it flipped the whole side over, just like the page of a book – all one piece completely attached. Please pray that God will give us wisdom how to try to fix or reattach it without too much difficulty. After trying to flip it today with a whole “crew” of men from the local villages, we confirmed that it was too heavy to flip back in one piece like we had hoped. The men however agreed to all return on Monday and Tuesday to help reconstruct the roof piece by piece. Maybe this community involvement is what God intended from the whole thing : )

with much appreciation for your prayers and continued support of us and the ministry,

Amber, Jako and Jakob John Joubert

Donations can be made out to Mission of Love with Jako and Amber in the memo line and send to:

21457 Lake Sharon Drive

Land O Lakes

Florida

34638

Baby Isaac Update

2011-10-18T02:49:00.001-07:00

Thank you, thank you, thank you for the many prayers that have gone out on behalf of precious baby Isaac and Praise be to God for His grace and healing hand that has sustained Isaac this far. We are happy to report that he is doing MUCH better now and looked like a completely different baby when we saw him on Sunday. He had noticeably filled out with his skin more elastic and supple and was even awake and quite active when we were there. The word we got then was that he would most likely be released to go home on Monday but today we heard that they are wanting to hold him just a bit longer. We don't mind as all that we want is for him to be well and healthy by the time he is released so the longer they are able to monitor and help him at the hospital the better. We are full of joy because he is doing so much better, full of gratitude for all of your prayers, and stand in awe and wonder once again of God's goodness, love and power to save, protect, and heal. Thank you for your continued prayers as Isaac is still very small and fragile. We will let you know when he is home at the orphanage and how he does after his arrival. We are sending with a picture so you can see how much better little Isaac is looking. We hope it does your heart as good as it did ours

Urgent Prayer Request for Baby Isaac

2011-10-18T02:48:00.001-07:00

This Sunday we received our newest addition into the orphanage- a one month old baby that was born to a 19 year old mother who got pregnant while going to school. While she was pregnant she ended up getting an infection and gave birth a month early, only to die a few weeks later. When we received the baby the mother had passed away 3 days earlier and the baby had survived until then on a bit of goats milk. While he was obviously small and very thin (2.5kgs/5.7 lbs) we didn't think he looked too bad and figured that his health should improve pretty quickly with access to formula and good care from the mothers.

However, that never happened and despite frequent feedings where he drank well, his little body did not seem to improve and the slight cough turned a bit worse. He even looked like he was loosing weight but we took him to the clinic on Thursday where he was prescribed some medicine and we hoped that that would do the trick.

This morning however we were woken up very early by the mothers saying that Isaac was very sick and that he had been up the whole night vomiting, with diarrhea, and was too weak to drink. As soon as we heard this we made quick plans for Alyssa and Gretchen to get him to the nearest "good" hospital, a 3 hour drive away, all the while praying that he would at least make it there. Upon arrival he was admitted almost immediately, given an IV, and they say that he will be there until at least Monday.

PLEASE PRAY FOR THIS LITTLE BOY WHO IS FIGHTING FOR HIS LIFE. When we received him and before the family left, we publicly dedicated the child to God and broke any bonds or dedications that might have been made for him at birth and so we are asking for immediate prayers for healing for Isaac in a way that would bring God glory and honor and show those around, in this community, and further - once again, the power, love and grace of God our Father.

Thank you for taking a moment to life this little life up in prayer, to the care of the best Father there is, and for asking for wisdom for us, the mothers, and the doctors in how best to provide for his needs.

The pictures below are one of Isaac taken Wednesday afternoon and the other as he was admitted into the hospital around noon today (Friday).

“Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you.”

Jeremiah 29:12

September 2011

2011-10-07T03:47:00.001-07:00

South Africa Breakdowns

We enjoyed the rest of our time in South Africa connecting with friends and supporters but were also very busy running errands and getting various supplies for the orphanage. Our trip back to Zambia however proved more eventful than we had hoped as we were plagued with multiple vehicle breakdowns. Thankfully God allowed us to get to a big town (Ellisrus) and then provided a wonderful family with a guesthouse who allowed Jako to park the Hilux out front and turn their drive into a temporary workshop. This family (who we had never met before) was more than hospitable not only offering us a good price on their lodging but good home cooked food and friendship as well. After 1 1/2 days of Jako getting dirty and replacing and checking many things (bearings, brake discs, fuel pump and prop shaft) we were back on the road and happy to be moving again.

Amber’s Surprise

The rest of the drive thankfully proved uneventful but Amber was quite surprised when we arrived back in Zambia and stopped to visit a friend but found a whole houseful of people yelling “surprise” instead! Unbeknownst to her, Alyssa and Gretchen had been planning this surprise baby shower for some time and it was such a blessing – great food, fellowship, and fun. Needless to say that the thoughts and effort behind this touched Amber’s heart more than words can say (by the way if you didn’t get the news Jakob will be getting a baby brother)

Baby # 6 She… no He

Upon our arrival back home we were happy to find things in good working order. We were surprised to find that this 12 day old little girl we had heard about and admitted while we were gone was actually a boy named Emmanuel. Zambians often confuse the pronouns “he” with “she” as the Tonga language is gender neutral so that is probably where the confusion came in. With his mother very sick (she passed away a few weeks later) and an unknown father he was referred to us by the local village clinic (see below) and is a very lovable little boy. We found out later that the grandparents (who were caring for the mother) are busy caring for 10 other kids, (6 under the age of 10) three of which are his half siblings, so resources and their ability to care for another child are very stretched.

Stella doing stellar : )

We were happy to see that our temporary house help, Stella, was proving to be a benefit when the mom’s took their turn being gone on their annual holiday. It is so good to see the way that God provide for all the needs of the orphanage. In fact it even seems as though Stella will eventually be hired to work at the orphanage preschool when it opens in February. This will be perfect as her understanding of English is very good and she will still be available to fill in at the orphanage on an as need basis when one of the mom’s is sick or in special circumstances.

Home Improvements

God, in his great wisdom, knowing the amount and size of the tasks needing to be completed here before the rains come and we return to South Africa the end of November for the birth, blessed us with two American friends from Kalomo to help us for a while. Tara was able to stay a week and Gretchen will be staying with us for a month. Both have proved to be big blessing and helped.

Jako (and Alyssa) have been working furiously on our big “to-do” list around camp and Amber has been extra happy that their house is finally getting some upgrades. While we have been living in the house for over a year and a half now, often other needs such as orphanage needs, crops, community needs etc. end up having to take priority (which is understandable) but now “finishes” such as sliding curtain rods in all the rooms (instead of pushing the curtains through the burglar bars), doors on all the inside rooms (instead of the temporary fabric hangings), light and an electrical outlet in all the rooms and having the guest toilet, guest shower and master bath all fully completed with plumbing, fixtures and painted is extra nice! With all of that done, it definitely feels more like “home” here and the house won’t be a construction zone when we bring home a newborn. Thanks Tara for varnishing all of our and the orphanage’s wooden doors and Gretchen for all your help painting those tedious bathrooms : )

Bed Bugs Bugging Us

Our home was not the only home to get attention though. For longer than a year now, the orphanage house has been plagued with nasty little insects called bed bugs. These things hide during the day, come out at night to bite the kids, and are extremely difficult to get rid of. Despite buying different chemicals to spray on them several times and even having the local village clinic come out to spray for them more than once, these little bugs were still bugging us…. that is until now.

Recently we decided that it was time for drastic measures. Wednesday we gave all of the kids plastic bags and asked them to place all of their belongings in one bag each. We then asked the moms to do the same with all of their things and then literally carried everything that was moveable outside of the orphanage. Thursday Charles sprayed the entire house, top to bottom, making sure to get up in the ceiling, get all the corners, and thoroughly coat all the furniture that was stripped bare inside and out. Due to health reasons from the fumes, the moms and kids “camped” out in the kitchen for two nights. During the day the moms and the ladies here (Amber, Alyssa, Gretchen and Tara) helped to clean every thing that was washable before it went back inside. The mom’s tackled all of their personal items as well as all of the baby things while we took back to our house ALL of the kids clothing, blankets, bedding, curtains, and mosquito nets to be washed. What a job that was! As soon as a load was finished and thoroughly dried each item had to be ironed to be sure that every bug and every egg was killed. We were going to make certain this time that no bug made it back inside.

Saturday was our big move in day and everyone (including all the kids) worked hard to wipe and clean the house before starting the work of moving back in. Everything that the kids brought back in had to be “approved” and we, as management, used the big “spring” (really summer) clean as a chance to rearrange rooms and give the moms a more space with our ever growing population of babies. I think every one was excited to get to start off again with fresh clean everything (as well as new rules to keep things that way) and so far PRAISE GOD – no bed bugs!!!!! The house moms and kids say they are sleeping lovely now and the babies and house mothers seem to be enjoying the baby play corner that each of the bigger bedrooms now have.

Other Work being done (Spiritual and Physical)

September month provided little rest for the weary out here. While Charles has been busy cutting poles to redo the orchard fence (cattle have already eaten some of our banana trees once again), Jako and Alyssa have been busy finishing both the roof on the preschool and Alyssa’s flat, putting a roof on the orphanage kitchen pantries, fixing lighting and electrical issues at the orphanage, fixing broken doors, handles, and furniture at the orphanage, accepting preschool applications (due to start early Feb 2012), planning for field clearing and planting and hiring locals to fill some of these jobs. Amber has been hard at work on getting caught up with much needed Administrative stuff and of course the daily/weekly programs of community welding, Children’s sunday school, and Sunday Bible Study still continue and are growing strong. Jako has been able to have some good discussions with locals that He has been discipling lately and Alyssa was even able to start a weekly Bible study with the house mothers.

Transportation Provision

One bit of encouragement that we did get this month was a “new” (actually a redone) LandRover. After finding out that Amber was pregnant again we realized that the needs of our family and ministry were fast outgrowing the provisions that we currently had. Just in doing the numbers- our family of four and Alyssa would fill up our Hilux (leaving no space for locals going to the hospital or clinic or no space to pick up any volunteers) and even though Jako fixed the broken chasis of it as best as he could, it is still greatly limited in the amount of weight it can now carry in the back for building supplies or orphanage provisions. Our other original vehicle, an old 1964 Landrover, while a great work donkey in the bush, is simply not suitable or reliable enough for lots of open road driving.

Earlier this year we started praying and looking at different vehicles, pricing them and weighing the short term and long term benefits that each would offer not only for our family but for the ministry as a whole. We knew that no matter what we got the vehicle would have to do “double duty” – being able to handle the daily demands of off road conditions, hauling in building supplies, and heavy orphanage provisions while also being able to serve as a basic family vehicle for traveling back to South Africa and for business in Lusaka and Livingstone. After much prayer and looking around we realized, once again, how limited (and expensive) good second hand vehicles are in Zambia. Almost by accident, God happened to lead Jako to a business in Livingstone that fixes LandRovers where he learned that the owner was in the process of redoing an older LandRover and trying to decide if he was going to rent it out for hire or sell it. God began to make it clear that this was the vehicle that he intended for us.

While it technically is an older model (1989) it has been 90% redone which makes Jako happy (as he is always having to fix one of our vehicles- the joys of off road conditions), and it’s design is just perfect to meet our growing family and ministry needs. Not only can it fit up to 10 people in it with it’s bench seats in the back, it also has a luggage cage allowing it to piled to the top with building supplies or orphanage provisions. It was built to carry a heavy load and has strong roof rack on the top providing it the ability to carry big or awkward size building materials/ supplies and was amazingly in a price range which was “reasonable” (very rare for Zambia). We received the vehicle in the middle of the month and are just so thankful to God for ALL His continuing provision – that He lead us to the right place at just the right time to get the right vehicle. Please pray for God’s hand of watch care over the vehicle so that it can continue to meet all the needs of our family and the ministry for many years to come.

What’s in Store for October/ November ?

Work, work and more work…..Please pray for an added dose of strength, energy, motivation, grace, mercy, and blessing on all of us as we continue to work long hours every day to try to get all the tasks completed that we hope to have completed before the rains begin and we leave end of November for the birth in South Africa. Some of the big things on the list is the finishing of both Alyssa’s flat and the education center/preschool (we had some difficulty with the previous builder which caused some BIG delays and since have hired someone else to finish and correct his mistakes). There are also small maintenance projects that need to be completed at the orphanage as well as clearing and preparing land for plowing and planting all before the end of November. Please pray for us during this busy time – that God will provide energy and strength to work, sweet periods of rest and refreshment in between, provisions for every need, and wisdom to know what projects to tackle when.

Kauwe Clinic Prayer Need

One last things that we wanted to mention and ask for prayer for. During the past few months there has been rumor of the government closing down the local village medical clinic at Kauwe. At only an hours drive away it is the closest medical facility to us. The nearest hospital is about a 2 hour drive away one way. The reason for this is increased instances of witch-crafting and spells being put on nurses and doctors. It has already been closed for a few days and then reopened and we have been told that it is most likely to permanently close on October 14th. Please keep this situation in your prayers because not only does it affect the medical care that us and the children at the orphanage receive (vaccinations, ARV treatments, general medicine) it also affects the quality of life of all of the villagers out here. We fear that many people will die because of lack of care if this clinic is shut done and it will be a great hardship to us and the children here as well but we also know that God can use this situation to show more of His Power. Please pray that God’s love and power will be made known in this area and that everyone around will see that Perfect Love (God) casts out all fear and that nothing in this world is greater than He.

To God be the glory, great things He has done and Great things He will continue to do!

With much appreciation and gratitude to God for making all of this possible and for all our wonderful prayer and financial supporters,

Jako, Amber and Jakob John Joubert

Donations can be made out to Mission of Love and mailed to:

21457 Lake Sharon Drive

Land O Lakes

Florida 34638

Please put our names in the memo line of the check

August 2011

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Alyssa Work Permit Granted: )

After the departure of the FBCW team our travels led us to Lusaka where we happily discovered that Alyssa’s work permit has been granted! Thank you for all of your prayers. Unfortunately they were out of the work permit books so for the time being all she has is a stamped receipt saying “granted” but at least they say we can check up on them (when they arrive) in Livingstone instead of traveling all the way to Lusaka again. We hope that is the case but for right now we just say Thank you Lord!

Meanwhile back at home

When we returned back to Mukamba the main task at hand was the roof for Alyssa’s flat. Jako, Alyssa and several of the locals worked hard and made pretty good progress but unfortunately were not able to complete it before it was time to leave to South Africa. Visits from local missionary friends, inventorying the orphanage food and toiletries supplies and then buying additional supplies for the time that we were gone also occupied some of our time.

“Sew” many blessings

One special visit that we had was from a dear friend of ours Corrie who although she had many difficulties on her journey from South Africa, still persevered to pay us a visit and deliver to us the gift of 3 hand sewing machines for the mom’s to use and to teach the children with. We are so excited about the possibilities that this allows, not only in allowing the mothers to make many of the things that we need for the orphanage (ie. school uniforms, and then cushion covers for the benches in the house) but also in teaching the children a practical trade skill. Needless to say mothers and children alike were both very happy!

Praise God for his continued abundant provision for us all.

Sanford – age 3

Just a few days before we left for South Africa we took our 15th child into the orphanage house, a precious 3 year old boy named Sanford. He was staying with his grandfather, step grandmother, and many other kids but in very impoverished conditions. From what we were told, his mother got pregnant in high school and passed away from a heart condition a few years later. As is common in these situations his father is unknown. Due to lack of family resources (they stay in just a stick hut without even mud between) Sanford developed stomach TB from malnutrition (note the orange hair) but has been in treatment for it for a few months and is beginning to improve. To aide in the transition to the orphanage home, his sister (technically aunt) stayed the day and night with him and he was feeling a lot more comfortable with his new surroundings when she left. It was really sweet to see the other orphanage kids gather around him and give him extra love and support in his first few days there – I am sure they all remember how hard it was for them. Please pray for this sweet young boy as he has to adjust to new surroundings and for his health to continue improving. It will take at least another 4 months of treatment to cure his TB if not longer but I am sure that we will begin to see improvement in him sooner just from the better nutrition and food that he will have access to now.

South Africa Visit

August 18th, with orphanage supplies fully stocked we left for a short visit to South Africa. While there our plan is to get a good prenatal check up for Amber (now 24 weeks pregnant), make arrangements for the delivery in December, visit supporting churches, and pick up necessary goods and items for the orphanage and ministry. We are enjoying our time here and especially visiting with friends, family, and supporters since the last time that we saw many of them was almost a year ago. Please pray for the rest of our time here, safe traveling mercies for the way back, and for safe, wise, running of the orphanage and the children while we are gone.

Orphanage Update

Thanks for your prayers for Otervia. She is doing much better now and seems to get stronger every day. Since our time here in South Africa, Charles called to let us know that the clinic just referred to them a 12 day old baby girl. From what we understand the mother is very sick in the clinic and the father is unwilling to take responsibility for any of them. For right now we have agreed to take care of her temporarily until we get back and further assess the situation . At the time being the orphanage now has 16 kids 6 of which are under 2. Charles also informed us that Social Welfare came by to visit today and that they were very happy to see how smoothly things were running there, especially with us being gone. Praise God for his continued favor and grace on us. We’ll update the blog again upon our return.

Until then thank you for all your prayers, love, support, and encouragement.

Jako, Amber and Jakob John Joubert

FBCW Zambia Team

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From July 22nd – August 5th we were blessed with the help of a team from First Baptist Church of Woodbridge, Virginia. What was special about this year was that all but 2 of the 12 were returning team members (not including Ethan who had already been with us for a few weeks). It was nice being reunited with so many old friends and getting to see their reaction to the progress and growth that has happened since they were last here. It was especially sweet to see the local villagers reactions and hugs as they recognized so many familiar faces from years past.

All in all they spent 11 full days with us in the bush doing a variety of things, serving with joy and spreading the love of God wherever they went. Here are some of the things they were involved with just to name a few…

Work projects – three days of clearing land (trees and stumps) from the crop farm, cleaning excess building plaster and dirt from the inside of the preschool/education center, digging and transporting river sand for plastering Alyssa’s flat (men and ladies alike), building rafters for Alyssa’s flat, building a platform for the goats (so they don’t have to sleep in the manure), and rounding up, tackling, and injecting vaccinations into about 75 of our cattle and goats.

Meeting spiritual and physical needs

For four days members of the team held a village eye ministry at four different locations – at the chief’s village, Mukamba, the cattle farm, and the crop “aka: stump” farm. During this time they were able to present many people with the gift of physical sight for the first time in the form of eye glasses while also giving each person a chance to receive spiritual sight through the gift of Jesus. The team was well received at each of these sites and God’s word did not return void.

Both Sundays the team was invited to preach and participate in the local village church service. Bill and Fred did a great job preaching while others eagerly shared their testimonies, lead the children’s church teaching and singing, and fellowshipped with other village believers through singing, prayers, and general fellowship.

Community Orphan assessment and distribution

A very important area that the team was involved with helping with was our first big official orphan assessment and clothing distribution. Weeks before the team arrived the local village orphanage committee sent out letters to all known families caring for orphans in the surrounding area. Families caring for double orphans (having lost both father and mother) were asked to come on the first Saturday and those caring for single orphans (those having lost only 1 parent) were asked to come the next. That first Saturday that team worked diligently organizing and sorting all the clothing donations that the team brought with rushing to get it done before the first families arrived.

Both days the team members, along with the village committee talked with each individual family and filled out information forms on how many kids each were caring for and what their greatest needs and challenges were in caring for them. Then pictures were taken of each child present and items of clothing and blankets distributed. It was amazing to see the cooperation between all of the different cultures, languages, and people present and the smiles on the faces of these families and kids as they received their visible gifts of love in the name of Jesus. It warmed our heart to see how many people we were able to help since our biggest desire in helping the orphans in the area is to support the families that are already caring for them in their home and only to take those into the orphanage that have no one able to do that. These gifts of clothing and blankets not only serve that purpose but keep the children warm and healthy in the cold winter. Thanks to all the many people who donated clothing and blankets (many from First Baptist Church Woodbridge and their children’s VBS program). In the end we were able to assess and help over 113 orphans living in the villages around us! After 8 years of working in Zambia and only 1 1/2 years since we opened the orphanage, it was humbling to see how God has so generously provided for us to meet the needs of so many needy families, all in the name of God.

Blessing the Orphanage

Even closer to home the team spent time loving on the kids at the orphanage as well, eating meals with them, playing games, teaching them Bible stories, and helping them with their English and reading skills. One team member, Fred, along with Alyssa, was able to spend some extra time assessing Precious, one of our kids who has had a lot of difficulty in learning the past few years and who we thought might have some form of dyslexia.

On Wednesday Jako was able to pick up 6 new bicycles for the children to ride to schools since the better government school is 8km (6 miles) away. Dean and Ben spent several days with the orphanage boys tightening and servicing these bikes to get them “road worthy” and boy were the kids eager to receive this wonderful gift. The few older bikes that the did have will now be fixed and go to village committee members to help them do their work of community orphan care.

The house mother’s were happy to receive pack and plays (camping cots), play mats, and developmental toys for the babies as well as additional medicine for them and the kids.

The night that the kids received their gift packages of new underwear and socks (from the children’s VBS program at FBC) the kids and mother’s showed their appreciation by starting up an impromptu chitenga dance where each of the team members were asked to dance with different kids in middle of the circle with a chitenga (African wrap skirt) tied around their midsection. Needless to say that there were lots of laughter and joy that night.

Missionary care – Having so many returning team members, the team was great in doing whatever they could to support us as missionaries – from giving haircuts and driving to town to help get orphanage supplies, bringing gifts of work tools, to tackling projects that make our life and ministry easier; – putting up shelving in Jako’s garage, building a huge 16 meter antennae for our phone, internet, and 2 way radio communication, fixing the quad that had been broken and not working for the past few months, and doing maintenance and fixes on both the Hilux and our 1964 Land Rover. Apart from that the ladies also were great at organizing meds, clothing and baby donations and helping Amber with things such as cooking, laundry and watch Jakob, especially since she was 5 months pregnant and sick with a bad cold during a good part of the time that the team was here.

The power of prayers

One of the first nights that the team was there, we heard that Otervia was sick and not feeling well. Upon going to check on her we discovered that she had a 107 F fever (41.6 C). We immediately took measure to pray for her, cool her down and give her medication but when the fever only went down a bit after a few hours (104) , we made the decision to have her taken to the village clinic. There they determined that she was just still in the adjustment phase to her ARV treatment for her HIV and that as long as we kept her fever down she should be fine. A day later she was and we have no doubt that that was due to the fervant prayers of the team and the motherly nursing that the ladies of the team bestowed on her.

On another day I (Amber) and Candi were back at camp doing laundry and other odds and end around the camp while everyone else was out working on the crop farm or doing eye ministry. As soon as the 2nd team left, they and the orphanage completely ran out of water and no one was left with the knowledge of how to pump water from the well with the submersible pump. Knowing that they might be without water for the entire day (ie. for cooking, cleaning, bottles, washing etc) they began to pray- specifically that Jako would return but for something small (we didn’t want an emergency on our hands). Needless to say the smile on our faces was huge when Jako returned to camp only 15 minutes later because the chain saw got stuck and he needed a tool to help remove it. According to Jako just as he was cutting a big wind blew and swayed the tree in such a way to pinch the blade. Prayer answered, water was flowing in no time, and it was just one more instance of the power of our God to answer prayers whether big or small.

All in all the team was a wonderful blessing to us and the community and we thank God for all that they were able to accomplish to him in their visit here with us. For those interested in reading more on the FBCW team visit feel free to visit their own blog site at http://missionzambia.blogspot.com/

Ethan and other things

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Ethan’s coming of age

Ethan’s time here with us deserves a separate post because although he has been here with us twice before with the team from Virginia, this year he decided to come for more than a month to experience a bit of missions “behind the scene” (the daily happenings of missions work when a team is not here) in order to further discern if God is calling him into full time missions or not.

Before comming he worked hard to raise donations for the orphanage from individual people and from his school. We were looking forward to his arrival long before he came because we knew that with his enthusiasm and eagerness to help he would be not only a good helper to Jako but also serve as a encouragement and morale booster to him, who often has to tackle projects alone or with local help. Ethan not only lived up to expectations but surpassed them.

Apart from the treasure of donations and goodies that he brought for us, the orphanage, and the preschool, he handled bush life like a champ (even getting sick with Tick fever), and was eager to help with whatever the project was for that day – from the brick oven and braai, to helping Jako with the chimney’s and door for them, to fixing the landy, painting black boards for the preschool, mixing cement, setting up tents and cots for the team, helping the kids with their reading and English skills, helping with Sunday school, chopping firewood, pumping water, and tending to visiting locals, Ethan did everything with a smile and a great attitude. He really got the principle that even if he was just standing there getting Jako tools, that he was blessing Jako by just being there and being an encouragement. We also had the privilege of watching his transformation from “boy to man” literally as he celebrated his 18th birthday with us here in the bush. We look forward to seeing what God will do with this fine young man as he continues to seek God’s will and direction for his life.

Other things (and visitors) of note

In July we got a surprise visit from the Kazangula District Council and a surprise gift/donation – 100kg’s of prepackaged vacuum sealed dates from Saudi Arabia! Imagine our surprise as this is the first time we (and the orphanage) have ever received anything “free” from the district and especially the fact that they drove it all the way out to us themselves – wow, what a blessing! We were able to show them around the orphanage grounds and they seemed to be very impressed so hopefully if they receive further donations they will consider us again in the future. The more that the orphanage can be supported locally the better for all that are involved in terms of it’s long term sustainability. After they left we realized that if we give the house a 2kg packet every week then the kids will have fruit (and all the nutrition that comes with it) every week for almost a year! And now that some of the trees in the orphanage are producing their first fruits, hopefully this will get us through until more of them are in “full production”.

Some “not so high” points":

Jakob’s first tick bite. Praise God he didn’t get sick from it like Ethan did. It’s harder to treat and tell the symptoms of a 1 year old.

Otervia struggling with her health and the health clinic struggling with getting her ARV med regiment correct. At least she has adjusted well to life at the orphanage and loves having lots of friends around to always play with.

Some positives:

Dr. Christa and “crew” (family, friends, and interns) coming out to play with the kids and do Aids training with the house mom’s now that there are more questions since we have a child with the HIV in our care.

A short overnight visit from Johan Beukman and his South African team while on an outreach! It did Jako good to hear his home language of “Afrikaans” being spoken all around him again.

Our second indoor (guest) toilet is now working and functional inside the house : )

Our chicken farming is doing well. We have already sold several batches of 20 or so chickens and the market in town and in the village seems to be good for them.

July Blessings and Help

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After a lot of travel at the end of June (up to Lusaka for Alyssa’s work permit and then Jako and Jakob down to South Africa to renew Jako’s drivers license and get their required yellow fever vaccinations), July was a blessed month for us with God sending us lots of help in the form of friends, family, and small groups coming to visit, encourage, and lend their helping hand for a week or two.

The first “wave” arrived on July 1st when Jako and Jakob returned with Jako’s mother Rika. Before leaving Livingstone they also picked up Ethan (a young 17 year old from the States), Tiens (a friend of ours from South Africa) and Emmanuel (a friend of Tiens from Zimbabwe). Tiens and Emmanuel had been traveling, doing missions for the past few weeks and wanted to stop by to help and encourage us before they continued their journey up north following the leading of the Lord.

Needless to say it was a full car that returned to meet me and Alyssa back home. After a week of it being just us girls, which we used to catch up on all the admin work (for Amber) and school planning (for Alyssa) it was nice to have the rest of the family home along with additional friends and family as well.

Tiens, Emmanuel, and a brick oven

As Jako was showing our friends around the “compound” Emmanual and Tiens noticed the wall that was half crumpled in our outdoor kitchen. Jako explained that Jakob and the village kids had accidently broken it down when they were playing and how he hadn’t gotten around to fixing it yet since he eventually hoped to build an outdoor braai (South African barbeque) and bread oven along that wall anyway. Well the Lord never ceases to amaze us because as we came to find out, Emmanuel happens to be a builder by trade and offered to tackle that project with the help of Tiens and Ethan while they were there. This was a sweet unexpected encouragement and blessing from the Lord because as much as Jako had wanted and hoped this project would be tackled sooner than later, the reality was that with all of the other big “to-do’s” needing attention around the orphanage and here, who knows how many months or years it would have taken to actually get around to it. Then God sends someone with just the right skills and desires to tackle the job! It was enough to make our hearts do a little dance of joy : )

Despite the cold weather, long hours, tedious, dirty work and nasty cold and stomach bug that was going around, the three men (and Jako) worked hard that whole week and before Tiens and Emmanuel left on July 8th, we had a beautiful indoor/outdoor braai and a bricked in bread oven that only needs a chimney left to complete. Not only were these three a blessing in the physical sense of all the work that they did but even more so in their ministry of presence, of being here, being an encouragement, and being willing to do anything they could to further the gospel or help us in any way. They were true servants in every aspect of the word.

Rika

And while the guys were busy working on their project, Rika was just as much a blessing helping me and Alyssa with Jakob, allowing us to get caught up on the rest of our planning and admin stuff, and all the daily housework tasks of cooking, cleaning, laundry, etc that go with living out in the bush. We have been so blessed to have had her visit almost yearly these past few years and she is always such a joy to have around. Her love of us and Jakob and willingness to help in anyway is always such an encouragement and boost to my spirits. I am so thankful that God has allowed me such a wonderful mother-in-law that is supportive not only of us but of our role with the ministry despite the sacrifice of distance that it costs her.

Alyssa, a pain in her back, and South Africa

Unfortunately during this time Alyssa was still struggling with her back which she injured back in April. We took her to a local doctor friend of ours at the time and were hoping that with some rest and pain management it would heal on the end but when a few months passed and it didn’t seem to be getting better, the decision was made for Alyssa to go to South Africa for some proper “treatment” by a physio for a week. While she was missed by both us and the children at the orphanage she returned feeling much better and with noticeable improvement. Please pray for her continued healing though as the physio’s said that it would take a full 6 months for her ruptured disk to fully heal.

Rachel and Karen

July 13th we sadly said goodbye to Jako’s mom and then picked Alyssa up from the airport where she met Rachel and Karen, two of her friends that had come to visit and help from the States. They not only blessed Alyssa with suitcases full of “things” for the preschool (as well as a few personal goodies), they were also a big help to her in working with the kids, helping with the school planning, Bible stories, and Sunday school lessons, organizing and finishing things in the Library, and general help around the camp, I think their biggest contribution by far was their companionship and friendship that they brought not only to Alyssa but also to us as well. As you can imagine, although we are surrounded by people out here in the “bush” often it can be quite lonely without others of our same home culture around. Needless to say there was lots of laughter and good memories before they left on July 22nd the same day that the team from Va arrived : )

Otervia

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A few days before the team left they got to witness the process of how children come to be admitted into the orphanage. You never know the day or the hour when something like this happens around here but 6 times in this past 12 months it has… and often it goes something like this….

We are told that we have visitors. Upon asking what we can do to help them they explain that they have a double orphan that they would like us to take at the orphanage. We then ask some questions to see if there is any way that we can just help with food, clothing, or educational assistance in order to help the child stay with the family they are currently with or if the child’s needs would be best served by being cared for in the orphanage.

In Otervia’s case – this is what we found out. Born to parents that were both HIV positive, her father passed away around the time that she was born (in 2002). While her mother lived until last August she was only on ARV meds for 6 months before passing away. Apart from having two older siblings that died at or shortly after birth, she has one older brother (age 12) who is living with grandparents and one half sister (age 1) who is being cared for by her own biological father. After her mothers death Otervia came to live with her Aunt and Uncle. The uncle is married with two wives and between them there are 4 other children that live in the village (3 of which are age 4 and under). Both wives are still young so most likely more children are on the way. Not long after receiving Otervia they realized that she was constantly sick. A few months ago they took her to the village clinic where it was determined that she was HIV positive (most likely contracted through breastfeeding). She was started on ARV’s in April of this year and although she appears small for her age and her skin looks as though she was bitten by 1,000 fire ants, she is a sweet, beautiful little girl with a shy smile that lights up the room. Due to her HIV status and the family feeling like they did not have the resources to care for her we agreed to take her in. The children and house mothers accepted her immediately and though it has only been a few weeks it is nice to see her thriving and getting stronger through proper medical care and good nutrition.

Please pray for her as she continues to adjust to a whole new living situation and for wisdom for us in how best to care for her, especially for her educational need. Although she is either 8 or 9 (her exact birth date is unknown, only her birth year) she has only ever had a few months of community schooling before the school that she was attending shut down. We tried to enroll her in the community school near us but it seems that her body is not strong enough to handle the walk there while it is still adjusting to the effects of the ARV’s. The time we did try it she came down with a high fever afterwards and the doctor suggested letting her heal a bit more before attempting the long walk again. In the meantime Alyssa is planning to help her with some basic education there at the home. We praise God for her improving health for for bringing her to a place where she will be well looked after and well loved.

The Idlewild Team : )

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Saturday June 4th was a happy day as we received the team of 10 from Idlewild Baptist Church in Tampa, Florida. What made this group even more special was that not only did it consist of 5 returning team members but also Amber’s brother Josh and new sister-in-law Katie. We got to camp early Saturday evening, and on Sunday, while Jako was busy helping to get Amber evacuated to Livingstone for her foot injury the team got to experience their first day of local “village” church. While Buff, the pastor of the team, got to preach, several of the team members helped to organize a children’s sunday school lesson, and all participated in vocal worship, regardless of the language of the songs being sung. For many it was a sweet welcome back into the culture while to the “newbies” it was a great immersion into the culture and people that they came to serve. Sunday afternoon was spent getting to know the orphans, house mothers, and Charles, gathering firewood and other “camp” duties and catching up from several days of travel.

Monday through Saturday were spent in a flurry of different activities. The team worked hard at all they did whether it be loading, unloading, and transporting bricks, working on the education center roof, or digging a big deep drainage tank for the orphanage run off water (often having to dig/chip through thick layer of difficult barash/solid rock conglomeration). They were also busy doing lots of small “one-day” projects as we call them (one day – meaning – one day I hope we can get to this….) such as filling in the trench all around our house (still there from the building process), clearing the orphanage soccer field, fixing our annoying ankle-twisting small front step, hanging up an extra swing for the babies at the orphanage, organizing all the wonderful donations that they bought (clothes, medical supplies, baby toys and kid games), and chopping the tons of firewood needed for all the bush cooking and nightly campfires where we would have debrief in the cold winter night air.

Steve, one of the men on the team, a welder by profession, was able to build Jako a nice solid metal work table (his old temporary wood one was barely standing due to termites). Another exciting project that got tackled (mostly the women) was to finish organizing and labeling the books in our community library. The guys were able to help add additional shelves, make wooden book ends so that the books didn’t keep toppling over, and finish the task that was started more than a year ago. Just cleaning the library from all the dust and rat “evidence” that had accumulated over the past year was a huge job. Thanks ladies for being willing to get “down and dirty” here in Zambia for us and the sake of the gospel (many of the books are Christian and preaching resources/references).

The Idlewild team part 2

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On the spiritual side the team was able to teach bible stories to the orphanage children every night and do daily prayer walks around the property here. It was neat to see the joy in the children’s faces as the team played, loved on, and taught the children the truths of God’s love for them, power, and protection. It warms my heart to think of the spiritual foundation that these children are being exposed to and the faith that they are beginning to exhibit. For them to have this kind of knowledge, and security in the love and power of God is so different from the traditional ways of living in fear and bondage to the many local spirits and always trying to find a way to appease them or keep them from being angry. The hope is that as these kids grow up they will have the truth and foundation of Christ to fall back on when times get tough, that they will be able to stand up to the community pressure of witch doctors and family members, and be able to be the leaders and light in an often “dark” community here.

Every day one meal was eaten up at the orphanage, cooked by the orphanage house mothers and the house moms really enjoyed the encouragement and love that they received from the team, especially from the ladies of the team who were often invited to help cook with them. The babies definitely received lots of extra love, hugs, and attention and the kids especially enjoyed the weekends when they were out of school and had more time to play soccer and games and read with the team members.

The Idlewild team part 3

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Sunday June 12th the team was able to participate with the local village church again. Mark was able to preach, the kids were loved on and taught in Sunday School, and team members were able to share testimonies and worship with the local congregation. It’s amazing how physical differences such as language, skin color, socio-economic status, and age can disappear in the midst of true worship.

The team continued to work hard both that next Monday and Tuesday to finish up as much as they could and even though some were up until the early morning Wednesday finishing the roof, it was nice to be able to see it covered and mostly completed! There were many tears as the team said goodbye to the kids and locals that they had fallen in love with over the past 10 days (and year for many of them). During their few days of debrief and sightseeing in Livingstone, the team was able to witness a rare occurrence of a lunar eclipse and lunar rainbow at Victory Falls at the same time. The team headed back home Friday, June 17th, tired from all the work and activity but hopefully satisfied in their hearts for all that they were able to do and the impact that they were able to make. Thank you team members for being willing to serve and sacrifice and to Idlewild Baptist Church and all the supporters who helped make this trip possible.

When the team left for home, the remaining three of us headed to Lusaka for a few days to submit Alyssa’s work permit and do some errand running while we were there. We returned back to camp Wednesday June 28th.

3 months pregnant and a broken foot

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Just the other day Jako was commenting on how our blog updates didn’t seem to be as exciting as they were several years ago before the orphanage was established – back when we were in little rubber duck boats, praying the waves on Lake Kariba didn’t capsize us and feed us to the hippos and crocodiles that were everywhere. Back when we were traveling from South Africa to Zambia every month or two, in borrowed vehicles, then our own 1964 Land Rover that Jako built (praying that it would make it because it was never really designed for the open road), putting up tents in the pouring rain and praying over difficult border crossings 6 or more years ago……. Well, I don’t know if God has a sense of humor or what but only a few days after Jako said that something “interesting” happened.

We had just finished picking up the team from Idlewild Baptist Church in Florida (which included Amber’s brother Josh and new sister in law Katie) when at a mid-road trip stop, Amber went to go and stop Jakob from picking oranges (bright balls) from a friend’s tree. After picking him up to direct him somewhere new, she accidently stepped into a trench that was covered by grass and subsequently twisted her foot and ankle. Since we still had another 2 hour bush drive left before we got home Amber didn’t mention much and just hoped it would feel better in a bit.

Unfortunately when we got back to camp, it was evident that the injury was a bit more serious than originally thought. Not only did she have a nice swollen ball on the side of her foot but she could put no pressure on it. Not wanting to take any pain medicine due to being 3 months pregnant (surprise – now the word is out!) she tried to tough it out but woke up in tears because of the pain. Fearing that the strain that she was under would be worse for the baby then a bit of medicine she did eventually took 1 tylenol and with a a bit of good ace wrapping from Jako she was able to make it through the night. Praise God that that was all the pain meds that she needed to take the entire “adventure”. The next morning, due to the pain we figured the foot was broken and decided to call our local African insurance company to see what they would suggest doing.

They were great to us and after looking at all the logistics (a four hour ride to the nearest good x-ray place, Amber being pregnant and not able to take pain meds etc.) they decided that the best course of action would be to fly Amber out via helicopter! We were definitely surprised but weren’t going to complain. Jako quickly got to work making sure the local soccer field was cleared, that they had a flag visible from the vehicle as a marker, and making sure they had the correct GPS coordinates in order to find us. You can only imagine what the villagers were thinking as they saw the helicopter land, load Amber up and then take off. There was definitely a crowd around the soccer field as many had never seen anything like this before. While the helicopter ride wasn’t Amber’s favorite part of the whole trip (thank God for doggy bags) she did get to see a nice ariel view of their home, the orphanage and mission, and it did cut her travel time down from four hours to half an hour. The insurance company was great (thanks SES) and got her to x-rays and a doctor in the time that it took Josh (Amber’s brother) to do his first solo drive out of the bush and meet her in Livingstone. Jako stayed back to help with the team and Alyssa picked up the slack of overseeing the cooking and other responsibilities that Amber normally handled.

In the end the x-rays revealed that her foot was broken but we praise God that it was a clean break, with nothing out of place, only requiring a good cast and crutches for about a month and that the pain was greatly lessened once the cast was on. We were quite relieved to hear the news as we feared that if anything was out of place (as often is with foot injuries) she would have to be flown to South Africa for surgery, and didn’t know what that would mean with her being pregnant. Amber and Josh returned to the camp the next day and apart from almost daily visits from villagers wanting to see if she was okay, life went back to normal – well as normal as life can be when living on crutches. The Lord knew the timing of everything though because the team was great at helping to care for Jakob, and taking over most of the “big cooking being on the feet a lot of the time” responsibilities and making sure that Amber had enough time to rest and recuperate. Now Amber is looking forward to two dates. July 3 when the cast finally gets to come out and mid December when the new baby is expected to arrive. Praise God for his wonderful provision and watch care over all of us.

What have we all been doing? (At least in May)

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WELL OH WELL……

Jako and Ben have been attempting to remove the water pump from the dry well by the orphanage. Despite their best effort (pulling and winching with a pulley system and the Land Rover, and then a brand new 3 ton block and tackle etc), the pump proved to be stuck so severely that it’s future is unknown. It is likely that someone from the village intentionally sabotaged this well meaning to do it harm. So then men then tackled plan B – uncovering the second previously dry well which now seems to have water in it. The hope was that the hole was still clear and open and that by inserting plastic piping they could put the new pump down it and get it working. Unfortunately they found it full of sand and after creatively trying to drill/flush it out with water, they concluded that this hole was probably purposefully sabotaged and filled as well. Bad news – they couldn’t get it working. Good news – there is water down there and it seems it is just sand filling it (not solid rock like before) so maybe God will provide another way for us to remove that with a smaller/local drilling rig. Please keep this situation in your prayers.

Ben has made himself useful in helping with various other work projects going around here and has formed quite a friendship with Charles our local security guard/foreman. Many days found him helping Charles with brick runs, digging trenches for running electricity to the tent’s new location and to the outside shower and toilet area, fixing the doors for the team toilets and showers, helping with the tent move- digging and relocating tent poles, distributing clothes to the orphans, cutting the kids hair (and encouraging them to try a new hair-do – the one pictured didn’t last), and helping Charles with harvesting his personal crop so that he would be free sooner to keep helping us around here.

Jako’s “Chief” Issue

Apart from all the general maintenance and fixing that Jako has had to do around here, (not to mention laying electrical lines to the outside shower, tent and toilet, rebuilding a completely new tent door, getting two lights installed in the house, and hooking up the generator electricity to the orphanage house) May has found Jako traveling back and forth to the chief (2 hours drive one way) and the district council in Kazungula (4 –5 hours away) in order to sort out land issues that arose a few weeks back. Thanks for all of the prayers that went out on the matter. In short, it seems that the Chief has been hearing lots of rumors, lies, and villagers complaining about us (due to promises that were made from visitors of ours many years ago that didn't follow through on things) and in the end God brought Truth to light. Not only did the chief promise his protection once again, he also straightened out those that were spreading the rumors and allowing them to circulate. The headmen that went with Jako were very supportive of the project as are most of the villagers and community around us. It just goes to show how a few people, spreading false witness, can do a lot of damage. The Chief, headmen, and Jako had a good heart to heart talk and in the end the Chief ended up going with to the district council in order to sort out the situation of who is in charge of the land and make sure that we are not being taken advantage of. That meeting went much better than expected and now everyone is on the same page, with unified support of the project and understanding of what we are doing and where we hope to grow and expand.

Please continue to keep the Chief in your prayers. While he confesses to be a Christian and seems to be trying to follow after God's way he is under tremendous pressure from the community and his council to continue in the traditional ways. He seems to be at an important crossroad where he is surrounded by people trying to help disciple and lead him and many trying to lead him in the ancestral and traditional ways as well. We continue to pray for him and as we believe that, at least now, his heart is earnest. In fact, his comment to Jako was "Don't worry - God will work everything out for you". We pray that the truth will continue to deepen and take root in the Chiefs heart so that he can influence many more for God's kingdom.

Alyssa teaching already…

Alyssa has been active teaching the kids at the orphanage math, reading and English. In fact, when the moms saw what a benefit she was to them, they asked her to help them with their English as well. The mom’s now enjoy their twice weekly meetings with Alyssa and the hope is that as she teaches them English, the mom’s will in turn teach her the Tonga equivalent that she will then teach to us : ) The kids are really enjoying the nightly reading program that Alyssa has set up with them, being able to borrow and “read” different books which is a true rarity out here in the bush. On top of all of this Alyssa was able to visit both of the local schools that the kids attend and talk to their teachers to hear how they were doing and what areas they most needed to work on. Did I also mention all the work she spent sorting through the donations and organizing new clothes for the kids at the orphanage?

One exciting thing that Jako and Alyssa were able to do on those visits was bring a huge smile to the teachers and kids at the two local schools by surprising them with a donation of soccer uniforms and a new soccer ball (Thanks Idlewild Church in Tampa, Fl). We can only imagine what pride and sense of self worth it will bring to the kids as the compete against other teams in their “new” uniforms and we pray that every time they see them they will be reminded of their father’s love and provision for them.

Part time Eye doctor?

May also found Alyssa busy acting as “eye doctor” for the chief and his entire counsel. During one of the meetings Jako had with the chief, he noticed that the chief was having a hard time reading some of the paperwork. Jako asked him about it and soon after Jako was offering the services of Alyssa who had been trained last year with the eye-doc-in-a-box program. Two days later both of them went back to the chief where she promptly examined him and all three of his wives. All but one needed and received glasses. On another visit, the chief requested if there was any way that they could come to look at the eyes of all of his chief council members. With all that he had done for us, we felt we could hardly refuse so a few days later, they took the few hour trek though the bush to examine all of them. In the end more than 15 pairs of glasses were distributed and plans were made to have the team from Va come and do the full eye program for the entire chief’s area the end of July. The neat thing about this opportunity is that along with many receiving the physical gift of sight through eye glasses, all that are examined are given the opportunity to hear the gospel and look at spiritual things in a way they might not have “seen” before. We look forward to seeing what God will do through this program in July and ask for your prayers in the preparation process of this.

And what about Amber?

Apart from not feeling very good lately (more on that in the next update) Amber has been busy keeping up with Jakob (the best missionary around here we still say because of the way that the community is always drawn to him), handling all the admin work of finances, correspondence, and documentation, general supervising, encouragement and training of the house mothers, food and toiletries stock and weekly distribution for the orphanage, plus taking care of the household duties of cooking, cleaning, laundry – that allow the ministry here to continue on a daily basis. Much thanks to Alyssa for stepping in and helping in almost all of these areas on the days that Amber was not feeling too good. She has proved not only to be an excellent cook, caretaker for Jakob (who absolutely adores her), great multi-tasker, but also a wonderful friend in the process. Thanks for being so flexible Alyssa and for standing in the gap. God knew what we needed when he sent us you.

May 2011

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This month found many projects happening, all at the same time at what seemed like lightning speed. Probably the most visible difference to the landscape was the building of the education center (left) and Alyssa’s flat (below) but Jako was especially excited about the floor to his covered work area being cemented and completed. It was exciting to see the dreams becoming reality every day as the buildings grew higher and higher, brick by brick.

Although we were able to hire local builders to do most of the brick work that does not mean that it was with out effort on our part. Apart from the general supervising to make sure things were being built to correct standards, bricks and rocks had to be transported, water had to be pumped more frequently and tools had to be borrowed out, assigned, and accounted for.

Moving House (or tent so to speak)

We decided that Alyssa’s flat would best be built on the slab where our first permanent home stood (our permanent tent). The foundation there was quite strong and larger than necessary and a few years back an additional slab was built next to it to accommodate a different, more temporary shelter tent to house extra wood. That second tent didn’t work out as ideally as we had hoped with the wind and the rain and so although the open slab worked great for sorting and processing the harvested sunflower and soya beans, when we measured it we realized that with a bit of extension on the front end it would fit our permanent tent perfectly. So the process to move homes started : )

After removing all the cemented metal poles from their old location, digging and replanting them in their new location, and rebuilding new A-frames to fit the new angles, we were happy to have the help of the local soccer team (who lately have decided that it would be a good idea to help around here and the orphanage once a week in exchange for assistance with a soccer ball and team uniforms) to help move the tent. While they have been mostly hard at work digging bigger beds for the trees in the orchard, having all of them on hand the day of the big “tent” move made the move much easier and kept us from having to completely break the tent down and set it up again.

Unfortunately in the deconstruction process, it was discovered that the wooden door frame that was built 2 years earlier had been badly damaged by termites. While the initial plan was just to replace the damaged parts that quickly changed when the local kids accidently knocked it over directly onto a wooden stool that shattered the supporting wood and shredded the metal mesh attached with it. So…. onto plan B – building a termite resistant metal framed door. While the effort required in building it will reap it’s rewards in the long run, the extra two days required to build it, when it seems like 1000 other things need to be done and everyone is needing your time and attention, often seem the straw the breaks the camel back ;)

Daily Interruptions or God appointments?

It sure does seem like we have had a lot of these lately. Apart from the tasks that we seem to be busy with on a daily basis, there always seems to be something else that “pops” up and requires our immediate intention. While some of these things we are happy to help with, other’s we wish we could just close our eyes and have God miraculously “fix”. All of them take time and energy, we are also learning that God doesn’t allow anything to happen without his permission, authority, or just by chance. With this in mind we are trying to see our often daily interruptions through God’s eyes, trying to lean on Him for understanding and wisdom in how to proceed, and what He wants us to learn from it.

Some examples this month included… tending to villagers medical needs (including giving stitches), fixing the generator, fixing the fridge, blown tire on the Land Rover, redoing the lights on the Land Rover because of an electrical short somewhere, tightening loose bearings on the trailer, unexpected visits to the chief and Livingstone, villagers requesting Bibles, having to move clothes lines several different times due to building around here, and receiving a new baby at the orphanage

Baby # 5

On May 31st we received our 5th baby of the past year. At two months of age, we were surprised at how well he looked considering that he had only survived on a mixture of cow and goat milk since his birth (due to mom being so sick and then subsequently dying). Given the name Mapenzi (meaning trouble) at his birth, we asked the family to choose a new for him and everyone agreed on the name Nchimunya (meaning normal). While I was a bit unsure whether this name was any better the house mothers and Charles assured me that yes, this was a good name and so little Nchimunya came to be under our care that very day. With a father that was unknown (thought to be a relative of the deceased husband), Nchimunya has two siblings age 3 and 5 and two others that passed away at age 1 and 2 due to hunger. The husband had passed away a few years ago and the mother has been sick for a while. The family that brought him was a relative of the mom but felt that they were already strapped to provide for his two siblings and their own 2 year old daughter. It was a special time when we were able to pray and dedicate him to God (in the presence of the family) and remove the charms that had been placed on him from birth when he was dedicated to the spirits. He is a sweet precious baby boy (the older boys were more than happy to add another male to their numbers) who has taken well to his new environment and just thrived on formula. We praise God for sustaining his life up to this point and look forward to seeing what will become of this precious life.

Another full time house mom

Unfortunately, the addition of the 5th baby to our orphanage house brought forth a staffing dilemna for us. While the first house is equipped to hold two families of ten kids each, we all recognized that 5 babies between two mothers would be a bit too much for them to handle with all the middle of the night wakings, bottle feedings, and nappy (diaper) washing. We had to make a decision on what to do and quick (we often have no warning as to when a kid or baby will come). After some time spent in prayer and weighing all our options we decided that we would hire Belita (one of our part time helpers) as an additional full time mother for at least 6 months (when baby Esther will be returned to her father at 1 year of age – she is the only baby that has a living parent and that we made an exception for when her mother died). She will either go back to her part time hours after that or stay on depending on if we get more children in the mean time or not. That now brings our total to 3 full time moms, 1 part time mom and the need for a possible second part time mom. Belita has done a wonderful job adjusting to her new role (and everyone enjoys having her around more) but please pray for wisdom for us and the logistics involved in whether or not to hire an additional staff worker.

Clothing and Shoes donation

Praise and thanksgiving to God (and a group called runners for Africa) who provided quite a large donation of clothing and shoes to us in May. Alyssa spent many hours sorting and organizing them, as well as inventorying the clothes that the orphanage children have so that we could determine what their current needs were. Every year tattered and torn play clothes get turned into rags, last years nice clothes become this years play clothes, and each child receives at least one “nice/church” outfit. In trying to keep with the standards of community living we try to make sure that the kids don’t acquire “too much” and that any excess that they do acquire get’s redistributed to other orphans in the area. We were happy to find that this year, we have received enough donations so far to distribute to some of the 30+ double orphans that we are helping to support in the community and another 30+ that are single orphans, many being raised by widows struggling to make a sustainable living. We believe that if we can help support these families to care for these children on their own then not only the children, but the community in general will be the better for it. Our goal for the orphanage is only to accept those children who have no one that is willing and able to care for them. While we are still praying for enough donations to provide blankets, clothing, and educational assistance to most of these children, we are so blessed by what we have already received. We pray that God will continue to bless those that have given and that He will continue to provide for ALL the needs of those living in the community as well as those in the orphanage.

April 2011

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April found us busy with harvesting, harvesting, and more harvesting. The first crop we harvested this year was the maize (corn) and we were blessed not only by a truly good yield but also by the number of orphanage committee members and community people that showed up to help us harvest it. It was a real team effort with some building the maize storage shed, some cutting grass to line it, some helping with harvesting, loading and unloading and even the kids from the orphanage got involved. We have found that when given the chance (and a one month school holiday gives a great one) the children not only learn another life skill about how to provide for themselves out here in the bush but also that they can prove to be very hard workers. And working together as a team reaps greater benefits than working alone.

Then we moved on to harvesting the sunflowers. Last year when we planted and applied fertilizer the villagers laughed at us saying that we were wasting the fertilizer because it isn’t worth it to put it on sunflower. This year, the villagers received a lesson straight from nature and were amazed at the size and yield that we received from the small portion that we planted. Of course we also attribute the good yield to God’s favor and blessing but we have already heard several in the village saying that yes, fertilizer for sunflowers really does work.

School Holiday

On a happy note, the children at the orphanage are all doing well. The babies are growing and getting bigger by the day, and the kids are enjoying their month long holiday from school. With their free time they have been busy with the harvesting, helping the mothers with the garden and other spring cleaning chores but also enjoying the extra time to have fun as well. Thanks to previous donations the children enjoyed getting a few new coloring books, crayons, books, toys, and games to play with (and see how they do with taking care of them). With all of the older kids having been at the orphanage more than a year now, all seem to be settled in with less behavioral issues and feeling more comfortable in their “new” home. Sylvester has stopped wetting the bed in the evenings, the children are more obedient, and even Millium and destructive behavior has gotten much better. It’s hard to recognize some of these kids as the same ones that came just over a year ago. The moms are also more confident and settled in their roles and things seem to be falling into a nice routine at the house.

School wise, the kids seem to be doing pretty well this year. While we have only received reports back on 3 of the 8 that are in school of those three, Pillohead is first in his class at the government school, Enest is passing, and Sylvester (who failed last year) is now number 1 in his class at the community school. What an amazing boost of confidence that has given him as He has learned that if he tries hard he can accomplish almost anything. His goal next year is to be able to attend the government school which he seems right on track for. We are still awaiting the rest of the grades for the other children but fear those might not be as good as the boys. We even wonder if Precious might have a significant learning disability so pray for us as we try to assess and help her with that. Thankfully help has come!

Help is Here

Thursday the 21st Alyssa Bolles and Ben Shaer (both from the States) arrived to lend us a helping hand. Ben will be with us for two months helping Jako wherever possible (like fixing the car in Lusaka) and Alyssa will be joining us for two years, focusing on helping the orphanage children with their education and hopefully helping us to establish a community preschool which may eventually lead into a grade school.

Although their first week with us was spent in Lusaka picking up our work permits (PRAISE GOD WE HAVE BEEN ALLOWED ANOTHER 2 YEARS IN THE COUNTRY!) and filing for Alyssa’s they have been real trooper and have already proved their benefit in many ways. The children have enjoyed hearing their Bible stories on Sundays, working along side them and Alyssa has already begun helping the children with their math, teaching them their times tables, and assessing where each of the children are at educationally. Please pray for them during their time here, that God will guide and direct them in all that they are supposed to do, give them peace and comfort as they are separated from friends and family and that God would give them strength and wisdom for each day.

God’s protection

One day as Charles (our local foreman/manager) was going to get paperwork signed from Salomi’s family we were wondering what was taking him so long. After dark he showed up apologizing saying that he had accidently rolled the quad going over a hill too fast. Not only was the quad inoperable but in the process Charles had hurt his hip and his jaw. While we trust that the quad can eventually be fixed (although it is definitely an inconvience at the moment) we are just thankful that he was not more seriously hurt because according to the speedometer he was going at least 35 kph (21mph) after he slammed on the brakes upon impact. Charles now respects any moving vehicle (tractor and quad included) saying that they are “like a lion” and need to be respected as such.

May Plans

Please pray for us as we have a few busy months ahead of us. Not only do we hope to get the education center and Alyssa’s two room home built but we also need to prepare for the two teams coming our way in June and July. May or June should also see us returning to Lusaka in hopes of getting Alyssa’s work permit. Please pray that her fingerprint clearance from the States gets back to us before too long so that we can continue with her application process.

We look forward to ALL that God has in store for us these next few months. With praise and thankfulness for His provision and faithfulness. To God be all the glory.

Our return to Zambia March 2011

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After being gone from the orphanage for so long we were certainly eager to return and see “in person” if things were going as well as they appeared to be through our weekly phone calls. During the 2 hour bush drive in we noticed that the rains appeared to be good with the roads still wet (but travelable) and most of the local crops fairing well. It did our hearts good to see all the kids and the housemothers at the orphanage healthy and happy and we enjoyed getting to meet not just 1 but 2 new babies.

In addition to baby Salomi (which we talked about in the previous post and have since determined she will be staying with us long term) we now had a new baby boy named Mainza who was born in November of 2009 (just 1 month older than our Jakob). We asked more about him we were told that his mother recently passed away after being sick for quite some time and that his father was previously deceased. His grandmother had brought him to the orphanage not long after stating that there was no one that could adequately provide for him as her and her husband were old and already had two other children they were currently caring for (one being Mainza’s brother). At 15 months of age he weighed only 6.8 kgs (15lbs) compared to Jakob who weighted 9.8kgs (22lbs), wasn’t able to stand even with assistance, and was covered with some sort of rash all over his skin. The photo taken above was taken almost 1 month after his arrival when he was already picking up weight and looking better.

We are happy to report now that after taking him to the local nutritional clinic and given extra assistance he is now picking up weight nicely and his skin is looking much better. Praise to God that his HIV test came back negative and with the diligent care of the housemothers his leg strength is slowly increasing. While not one to move around much on his own yet, you call tell that this precious treasure is very observant and while still a little weary of the Makua (white people) he is definitely attached to his new mother and very observant and smart, even at such a young age. Above is a photo of all four of our babies in a cute “real life” pose. (from left to right is Mainza, Genesis, Esther and Salomi).

Jakob was more than thrilled to have a new play mate and be back home around his local friends, the dogs, chickens, pigeons, and all the familiarity of life in Zambia. There is no doubt that this boy was built for the bush.

The Wells. the Garden, and work permits

We were very happy to discover that yes, things had indeed gone as good as we had heard (and hoped) during our time in the States. While both wells were not working when we arrived and Charles was having to drive quite a distance with the quad to get water for all the orphanage needs, I was very thankful that upon further inspection, the one well was able to be fixed with relatively little effort (meaning only 1 days labor instead of many). The well by the orphanage is still dry and despite our best efforts to remove the new pump that was placed inside not long ago, it appears that it is stuck and not wanting to budge with the 1 ton block and tackle that we we rigged (along with the towing power of a vehicle as well). In fact, the casing of the well started to come out instead of the pump and so we are going to have to put that project on hold until we have a larger block and tackle (as well as adequate time) to “tackle” it again. Please pray that God gives us wisdom and favor in that because the hope is that we can use that pump to see if there is water in one of the other dry holes that was dug.

Praise God that the rain was plentiful enough that the garden was still doing good (and flourishing) and that despite everyone still being in the learning process as how to best optimize space, weather and soil conditions, and what plants grow best where, the garden is providing 95% of their vegetable and produce needs. In fact, we already see the need to expand the garden to be able to grow more but due to time restraints that might need to wait a while.

Unfortunately along with the good rain comes a lot of critters that we don’t normally describe as good. One day Charles and I discovered this puff adder right behind the chicken coup where Jakob and the other children often play. Puff adders is one of the top two causes of snake bite deaths around here in the village. Praise God that He used His creation to alert us to this danger and take care of it before any of the children got hurt.

March also saw Amber, Jakob, and I making a trip up to Lusaka (Zambia’s capital) to renew our work permits. Even though we were pretty sure they would renew them and had no reason to believe they would not it is always a bit of a nervous (“trusting in God”) time. Thankfully, God showed us favor, the submission process went even quicker than expected and we returned to the bush to wait out our time before we would receive an answer.

USA Wrap Up- March 2011

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Thanks to those of you that prayed for us during our last few weeks in the U.S.A. After having the privilege of being present for Amber’s brother’s wedding (congratulations Josh and Katie Finklea) it was time to focus on the events of Missions Conference that we had been invited to at Idlewild Baptist Church in Tampa, Florida. It has been our joy to participate in this conference for the past few years and so enjoy the exposure and opportunity it allows us. Not only did we get to reconnect with faithful supporters, friends, and previous Zambia team members, but also enabled us to meet with new supporters, friends, and people just interested in finding out God’s call on their life and what they can do for the cause of missions. Over our time in the States we were blessed to be able to share at 4 different churches, 9 different small groups, and share with many different people about the progress, needs, and happenings of the orphanage and all that God is doing in our little part of Zambia. Two days after the conference ended, with tears in our eyes, we said goodbye to our family and friends Stateside and with great expectancy looked forward to our return “home” to Zambia.

Update from the United States and passing of Amber’s mom Jill L. finklea

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We are currently in the USA and have been for the past few months. Please forgive our tardiness for these updates but once you read them I am sure you will understand why. We came over on the 20th of December 2010 to spend Christmas with Amber’s mother (Jill) and family. Amber felt early in 2010 that we need to be here, knowing that after a three year battle with brain cancer, it could be the last Christmas that we spend with her mother. We prayed for a longtime to hear from God if it was from him or our own desires but He gave Amber and me the peace in August and confirmed that desire by providing the means for us to do so.

December and January whirled by with all our time and effort being focused on loving Jill. While outwardly she was only the shell of what she was three years ago, she was still alert enough to know what was going on, who was who, and gave us all good laughs in the way her mind struggled to process things. Amber cherished this time tending to even her every need (getting in and out of bed etc.) and will never forget how grateful her mom was of her being here. Amber spend most of her time with her mother till the day she was taken home to be with our Creator Jesus Christ on 29 January 2011. We thank God everyday that He made this possible for us to be here and to spend that time with loved once and dear friends. She was buried in Arlington National Cemetery atop of Amber’s father (John Finklea) who passed away in 1992.

Although we will miss her greatly and really hoped that she would make it to Josh’s wedding her passing allowed us all initial time to mourn our great loss (heaven’s gain) and then refocus on celebrating Amber’s brother’s wedding on March 4th. what a special gift for us being able to be here for that. February also found us catching up with friends and supporters, even up in Virginia and preparing for Idlewild’s missions conference next week which we are excited to be a part of.

As per our weekly phone calls with Charles back home, things seem to be going well and they are managing things on their own. One disappointment and struggle is that the submersible pump stopped working and then as they were trying to remove it the pipes got stuck so that well is now unusable until we get back and I can tend to it. Praise God that Charles has use of the quad and tractor to make water runs from one of the other wells many miles away. The rains are continuing at a steady rate and so far the crops are looking good. Support came in for us to purchase bicycles for the older kids to go to the government school and so far the kids are really enjoying that. All the babies seem to be growing and the kids all doing well.

Another baby?

On an interesting note, we had stated to the orphanage committee that we were not going to be admitting any new children into the orphanage until we returned from the States unless it was a true emergency.

On Februrary 14th we received a call from Charles about a new baby that was just 22 days old. According to him the mother was mentally unstable, very sick, unable to care for the baby, and abused by men so that the father was unknown. The only info that we got about the baby was that she was critical and so the committee was asking if the orphanage could care for her. Trusting their discretion we agreed (to be reassessed when we return)but asked a doctor friend to come out the next day to see what her exact needs were. Thank you Rob and Christa for braving the muddy rainy season off road dangers to do that the very next day. What they reported was that baby Salomi (nickname Shalom) was under 4 lbs of weight and approximately 2 months premature. Observing that she needed lots of extra care, they selflessly agreed to take her to their home, give her daily injections and extra care until she was a bit stronger. Right now she is doing well and thriving under them. We are still praying for God’s direction as to when to transition her back. Please pray for her that God’s grace will shine on her as it did on the other two baby’s. The family can not care for the little one but we will make a final decision on to how long we will keep her when we get back to Zambia. We will keep her or equip the family to take care of her so please keep that in prayer so that God would give us the wisdom that we need.

Thank you for your prayers and support we love you and appreciate it all.

Pray for:

The children at the orphanage and the mothers that they will stay health and strong

For the three baby’s that God would keep His hand on them.

For the orphanage project that everything will Glorify God and that there would not be any big problems.

For the well that has broken. That God would help the garden, orphanage and the community get water.

For Amber, Jakob and me that God would guide and direct us so that we do His work and not our own.

That God would give us the wisdom to push on in the busy homestretch of our last few weeks/week in the States.

May our Lord Jesus be with you all and i do pray that you all put your trust in Jesus.

With much appreciation

Jako, Amber and Jakob Joubert

Mission of Love Community Orphanage Zambia

e-mail: missionoflovezambia@hotmail.com

U.S.A. Here we come (Dec 2010)

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Things continue to progress here with rain coming almost perfect to this point. Just the right amount at just the right time. The roofs have all be leak proofed again and apart from a minor collapse of the chicken coup roof and a larger one of the car port roof, all have held up well under the rainy conditions. And the few roofs which showed weakness we were able to strengthen before our departure.

The chicken mansion is now complete and the kids, Charles, and all had a fun time trying to catch and round up all 200+ chicks to relocate them in their new home. This new place is much larger and has compartments for the different sizes of chicks to keep all of them safe and meet their different nutritional and vaccination needs. It also allows space for them to run outside and eventually be split between egg layers, and those that we will use for meet so we are all quite excited about this. Please pray that the chickens continue to stay disease free during this time where lots of illness’ seem to be going around.

God knew that we needed extra help during this home stretch and so we were so thankful for the extra help that God sent our way. First, a team from South Africa came to lend their hand with some projects around the orphanage for a couple of days. They laid electric cable from the generator to the orphanage house (so that there will be electricity there when the generator is running), helped clean up and rearrange thing around the house, and helped me build gates for my new workshop. Thank you guys and girls.

Our friend Gretchen also graciously gave of her time and talents for a few weeks. She helped Amber immensely with getting supplies for the orphanage organized, trying to find out how many of each item they will need while gone, inventorying what we have, getting baby clothes and needs sorted and ready for when we are gone (they all needed clothing for the next size/sizes up) and trying to get paperwork in order for the time when we were gone.

We were also blessed with a visit from my mother (Jako’s) and she made it her full time job to love and dote on Jakob as much as she could. He kept her busy but she was intent on making up for lost time since her last visit. He took her all over the show and invited her to play in the dirt with him. All her attention blessed not only Jakob but us as well to get the rest of the tasks done that we needed to give attention to. All of these people were instrumental in helping and were God’s special gift to us during this busy time.

Orphanage Christmas

Before we left, the children were blessed with Christmas gifts from the Dutch Reform Church in Livingstone. The church body put together some some gifts to each child and wanting to take pictures of it we surprised them gave it to them just a few days early. They were so happy and thankful for it! Each present was tailored for each kid, with the boys getting real tools and toy trucks, the girls getting umbrellas, a purse and knitting yarn, and the babies blankets and clothing. It was so much fun to see them open these gifts because I think that for all of them this was the first time that they received a gift for Christmas. Thank you Dutch Reform Church Livingstone for blessing these kids and in turn for blessing us.

Where things stand now

Currently all of the orphanage supplies have been bought, individual roles and responsibilities defined and clarified and everybody is “pumped” for the transition to manage the place on their own. It’s a bit bittersweet for us saying goodbye to everyone here, knowing how big the babies are going to be when we get back, knowing that Jakob is going to miss his friends and just leaving things in their hands, but at the same time we are excited about getting to spend time with Amber’s mom that side as her condition continues to decline. I know that Amber’s heart has been there for a while and will not be at true “peace” until she is able to love on her mom in person once again. Even so there were a few tears at the goodbye knowing all that we were leaving behind, even if just for a few months.

Summer Happenings (October – December)

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Things are going well here but busy as well. Somedays we just feel swamped with all that needs to get done but God is always good to give us the strength that we need for every day.

Right now we are focused on getting things in order for the rainy season that is fast approaching; plowing and preparing several fields for planting (much easier with the new tractor but still not easy ; ) building new cattle and goat shelters, making sure that all the roofs on the houses and storage sheds are still water proof, and making runs to town to make sure that the orphanage is in order for all that it needs during the rainy season while we are gone and local transport is sporadic at best.

Apart from those big tasks we still have the normal tasks of weekly bible studies, house mother trainings, over the counter medicine distributing, bible distribution, discipling, paper work, admin duties such as distribution of orphanage supplies, logistics of overseeing garden management and use/maintenance of the pump, taking people to the hospitals, getting the babies to their vaccination appointments, and just general tasks that come with life in the bush. And then things pop up at the craziest times.

One good example of a typical day here in the bush comes from an e-mail that Amber wrote her brother.

Oct 30 –2010 “Crazy times here at the camp. After a full day of work we had just gotten to sleep when Jakob woke up (we think his ears are still hurting him) then after nursing him the delivery truck came with the tin roof sheets, which is when you called. One of the guys on the truck was very drunk (and yet still asking for a Bible) and in the process of off loading managed to slice Charles' knee all up wide open and Jako cut himself on his finger pretty bad. Jako is now busy giving Charles about 10 or so stiches and then still needs to tend to his finger. and This all after he barely got any sleep last night from driving a 15 year old girl to the clinic who was having difficulty delivering. They came knocking on our door about 12:30 am and Jako didn't get home until after 4:30 The baby was turned sideways and was 3 months early. They got her to the clinic to deliver but the baby died about an hour or 2 later. At least the young lady is doing okay. And then he drove to town today for supplies so it's been a long crazy day and few nights here in our little corner of Africa : ) . Hopefully Jako will finish up here in another half hour or so and then we can both get to sleep. “

Can you tell it had been a very long day when she wrote that?

The good news

The good news is that there is several pieces of good news to report. Praise God for Charles and his family because they have been a God send. They really sacrifice of themselves to make the project run well and go above and beyond the call of duty on a daily basis. Charles has taken on the three boys at the orphanage as his own and often brags of them being “his kids” and Brenda is always so great to lead a hand to either me or the house moms when they get overwhelmed. We are happy to report that Charles’ house is now finished, complete with roof, and the family is thoroughly enjoying their new place. Progress on the chicken mansion is progressing as well.

The kids continue to do well and their behaviors and attitudes are getting better. Unfortunately from only half of them passed their school grade this year but the neat this is that God seems to have provided a new member to our team, Alyssa Boles (from the U.S.) who will be joining us in April 2011 to help with the children’s education. Apart from that we also hope to get some of them into the government school once we have the funds for some bicycles for them (the government school is too far away for them to walk)

Esther’s father seems to be fulfilling his commitment to volunteer once a week in exchange for his daughters care (formula is expensive!) and he has been sending his 2nd wife to all of the doctors appointment. This has been good because she really seems to be taking to Esther and continue to bond well, she will e instrumental when she goes back to live with them.

Meeting with the chief

Due to a community difficulties and a few people trying to cause trouble for us (see previous blog) it was arranged for the chief to come and visit us here, to see what was going on, and give a few wise words to the community. After two missed scheduled appointment (the chief is a busy guy) we were blessed by his presence and even more so when he publically set things straight at a community meeting, telling them that their behavior was unacceptable and that they needed to work together with us for the benefit of everyone. That really boosted the morale of the do gooders and those for the project while putting some appropriate “fear” into those who thought if they could get rid of us they would automatically inherit all that belonged to the orphanage and project (vehicles, tools, etc) to do with whatever they wanted. God’s grace and his faithfulness never cease to amaze us. How he provides not only physical relief and resources at the right time but encouragement as well.

The Community, the Orphanage, and Us

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A test run for being gone

Near the end of September/early October we travelled down to South Africa for a quick three weeks. While there we were able to pick up some important things for the ministry and work here, reconnect with several church’s, friends and supporters and spend some much needed time with Jako’s mom. Our time there was good but passed in a blink of an eye.

On a practical note we were interested to see how the orphanage and community would do without us for these three weeks and thought it would be a good test run for them for when we were gone to the States. I must say that we were quite happy with the way that the committee, community and house mothers stepped up to their responsibilities and we trust and pray that that will continue so that the community can begin to take more ownership in this “community” project and hold true to the promises and commitments that they have made.

Orphanage Garden and Water

One example of this is the garden. Up until this point we have been buying most of the fresh produce for the orphanage such as cabbage, rape, onions, tomatoes, etc… We always had planned for a garden but the plans for us being gone for an extended period of time gave us and the community the push we needed to make it happen. In early September we cleared land, put up a fence and planted a nursery. The orphanage committee (who receive no compensation and all has families of their own) was instrumental in helping with all of this work and proved their commitment by the hours of effort they put in there. My time seemed to be spent on trying to figure out a water solution since the orphanage well has gone dry. Planting enough vegetables to sustain all their produce needs while we are gone required quite a sizable garden and hence tons of water. Approximately 1000 liters a day!

That’s a lot to pump so at first I tried a drip irrigation system which proved to be too difficult to maintain with everybody wanting to move and mess with the pipes. Then we erected a water tower by the well we have been allowing the community to use so that water would be pumped directly into the tank and then flow to the orphanage house (reference previous blog). And now most recently God gave me the wisdom to figure out a way to hook up the submersible pump and still have the hand pump working for the community. It took many days of hard labor, building towers, digging lines, taking apart the pump, servicing it, raising and lowering the pipes, cutting new pipes and threads, but now at it is worth it to have running water for both us and the orphanage just by turning on a generator. However to keep the housemothers and children in touch with the village way of life the still pump their own water for bathing, eating, cleaning etc. At least they don’t have to transport the water anymore and the pumping that they do do is easy compared to having to pump for all the garden.

Now the garden is looking great and it is time to plant another nursery again so that we can have fresh veggies all year round. Isn’t it awesome to see the way that God works?

Community Difficulties

Unfortunately these past few months have seen us experiencing some community difficulty lately. Please keep that in your prayers. It is difficult and hard on the heart to give of your life to someone (or a group of people) only to feel taken advantage of. When we came here we came under the premise that the community was going to be working alongside us and more so that we would be working alongside the community but lately that doesn’t seem to be the case. The area that God has placed us in seems to be a dark place and Satan definitely has a stronghold here. The headmen are actively involved in witchcraft (if not leading it), and the people steal, lie, drink, deceive, and basically just wait around expecting to be given out handouts. Obviously this mindset is of the devil and shows even more why they need God but yet it is a difficult task to show love to them in a practical way that will not enable their behavior and wrong ways. We feel that we would be doing them an injustice if we didn’t do our part to encourage responsibility, doing what you say you are going to do, and living right. And the sad thing is that many of the locals around here say and confess to be Christians and yet, when you talk to them you see that most don’t even really know what that means.

So in there lies the dilemma, to be loving, caring and compassionate as Christ called us to be, while at the same time not enabling them in their destructive ways. Just one of many examples of this was when one villager told us that we HAD to give to him because that Bible says that “you white people must give to us black people”. When we asked him where we could find that in the Bible of course he didn’t have an answer. Recently several incidents have happened, of builders running away with money, headmen spreading rumors, people promising to do one thing and never doing it, things being lent or borrowed and never being returned, that make us feel like we are getting slapped in the face. That has been a bit hard on the heart – especially after all that we have tried to do for them which is why it is so important that we do this in God’s strength and not in our own. For with man it is impossible but with God ALL THINGS are possible.

Please pray that God would keep our hearts from getting hard, that He would give us HIS heart and passion for the people here and wisdom in how to respond to tough situations. Please know that there are good people in the area as well but right now it seems like they are too afraid to stand up for themselves and are being influenced for bad as well. That is where the tribal religion has such a hold on them – those without Christ constantly live in fear of having curses put on them or being bewitched in some way so community pressure plays a big role. Without Christ they have no strength or protection to stand up. Pray that God’s light would break through the darkness here in our area. I really believe that God is still wanting to do a work here so pray that those that need to stand up in the community will and those that need to silenced will.

Orphanage Happenings

We are also having our fair share of challenges at the orphanage house with mothers that not getting along and children running away but in all of this everyone is happy and thankful that God has given them a home. The children now finally seem to be settled in now and while there is still obvious testing of the boundaries (that is normal cross cultures) none of them have run away for a while. Now it is only dealing with the jealousy between the mothers and that might take longer then we would like because this it is so embedded in the Tonga culture (jealousy and not wanting anyone to have more than they do). Please pray for this. The children are really doing good at school and are trying very hard to have a good standing in the class. The local community school that they attend is not the best because most of lack of good teachers, good education of the teachers, and the teachers rarely showing up to school (because of trying to provide for their own family). Currently there are three teachers for over 300 children so you can think what a problem that could be. Seeing the need we are praying to start a grand A school where we would have a lot more control of the teachers and quality of teaching so please pray for this. We have experienced first that the role the education plays in poverty and how with out a good school education you can not make informed decisions.

Zambian family updates

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Esther- Tiny Blessing # 2

October 19th another unexpected blessing was brought to our attention. Tiny baby Ester was born early that morning to a mother who was very sick unable to breastfeed. Born 3 weeks early she weighed a mere 1.8 kg (barely 4 lbs) but compared to how Genesis was when we first got her, was already much stronger and more stable. Although we had said that we only wanted to take children who were double orphans, this baby needed formula (which is too expensive for the villagers to afford) and stood no chance of survival if someone didn’t step in to help. Knowing that her life hung in the balance we asked her to be brought to us until we could decide the best course of action for her. With the house mom’s now having experience with Genesis it was easy to hand her over to them and they cared for her like a champ. Two days later Jako was asked to bring the mother to the hospital because her health was failing fast and after talking to the Father, we agreed to care for this child for the first 6 months as long as the father was willing to come and help at the orphanage with odd jobs once a week and attend all of her medical visits. This was a hard decision to make because we don’t want to become a drop off center for people just not wanting to care for their own children (and be a bigger burden for the community to support) but in this situation our options were either to refer him to another orphanage much farther away, or try to work with him here so that the family can visit the child and be more involved in her care.

Ester on the left next to Genesis that was also premature when we got her.

After 6 months we will reevaluate the situation but our plan is to help her get strong and healthy so that we can transition her back to her family as early as possible when she no longer is so dependant upon formula or milk, most likely at one year of age. Please pray that the father continues to work with us on the care of this precious little girl and that he will take the full responsibility of caring for her when she gets just a bit bigger.

Family News

Family wise things are going well here. Jakob is doing well and is as active as ever, wanting to walk and be on the move always. He continues to thrive in this environment and apart from a few ear infections is doing great. He loves spending time with the kids at the orphanage and the local villagers are doing a great job at speaking Tonga to him. Always a personable baby – he loves any attention and brings smiles to anyone’s face. Easily adaptable, it is easy to see how God has designed him to compliment this ministry, even at such a young age.

The last few months, Amber’s mom has been weighing heavy on her heart. After much prayer, we feel as though God is directing us to spend Christmas in the States with her and her family. Her health is holding up but she has been sicker than ever with the new clinical trials she is on. Her spirits are still high and she is a trooper despite everything but we just felt it would great to be able to celebrate Christmas all together and to give her the gift of having all her kids and grandkids around for the holidays. We will then get to attend Josh’s (Amber’s brother) wedding, and a missions conference in Tampa, Florida in March. We also hope to be able to make it up to Virginia to visit some friends, churches, and supporters up there. All in all we will be gone almost three months. Please pray that it will be a time of rest and rejuvenation for us, that we will be able to enjoy some good time caring for and loving on Amber’s mom, and for everything to run well at the orphanage while we are gone.

It was a big decision for us to think about leaving the orphanage so long, especially in the rainy season, but we knew that if God was calling us to go that He would provide for the needs here. At first we were hoping that somebody would step in to fill our place but the more we prayed it seemed the more God was saying that we just needed to get things in place for the locals to step in and fill the void. While that idea seems a bit scary (as I guess it is any time we give up our control of a situation) we are also quite excited for the opportunities it holds in forcing the house mothers, orphanage committee and the community to step up to the plate and take on more responsibility instead of relying on us for everything. And when we started talking to the locals about it, they all seemed up to the task and excited as well.

Pastor Petrus

Almost anyone who has been here to visit us has had the opportunity to meet Pastor Petrus and his family. He was the one who first had the heart for the orphans in the area and took us in as his own from the projects start. He allowed us to put up tent in his village and we were accepted into the community based on his acceptance and approval of us and his elderly father was the one who gave us one of our first pieces of land. These past few years have have been trying for him however since he became a headman, and was entrusted with the full time care of his elderly father who really could do nothing by himself. Because of that he was able to allot less time to the care of the local church and the orphanage project. Always a humble man, it was hard to see him being torn in so many directions. In September it seems that God decided that his father had fought the good fight as he went to be with the Lord. He will be missed but now Petrus is able to start a new chapter in his life where he can be more active leading the church again and taking his rightful role as one of the three directors of the orphanage (Amber and I being the other).

Mid August to October 2010

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With the departure of our teams and volunteers, the camp was definitely quieter and more lonely. It was strange to wake up in the morning and not have to do my “cook-a-doodle-doo” to wake anybody up. It was nice in a way but we definitely missed everyone, especially their friendship and all their help. Progress continued but not at the pace that it was when everyone was here. It seemed that these months passed in a whirl of early mornings, late evenings, and one day just blending into other. Somedays we felt overwhelmed with all that needed doing and others it felt like we were just treading water to keep our heads above water (hence the late updates) and yet God gave us the strength needed for each day.

One of the main projects that I tackled during this time was the water pump situation. The well at the orphanage ran dry and we had to put up a 1000litre tank up at the main well. I then had to build a metal structure for it and with the locals help, laid all the pipes from the well to the orphanage and the garden (approx 300 meters).

During this time Charles’ new house was completed up to roof height which he as very happy about. When he took the job as our local foreman/manager/security, it was the beginning of rainy season so there wasn’t enough time to build him, his wife, and four young kids a bigger place than the small 3 x 3meter hut that was there from our previous employee. Needless to say, after 9 or so months in cramped quarters they were all very excited to see this new “mansion” going up.

When the local builders completed that we got them to lay the foundation for a new larger chicken coupe as well. At the same time, I was able to get our carport bricked in to serve as a more secure workspace that could be locked when we are gone.

An exciting new addition to the landscape of the orphanage is a nice big garden. The orphanage committee, house mothers, children and I worked hard to clear the land (trying out the new tractor), erecting a fence, planting a nursery, and then transplanting the small plants to their proper rows. While we will still have to buy vegetables for the house until these are able to be harvested everyone is quite excited about the possibilities that the new garden brings, not only in the variety of vegetables that they can plan and harvest but also for the opportunity to teach the kids another important village life skill.

Winter Help and Blessings

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Nate and Melanie

After the team left on May 25th, it was just us, Nate and Melanie again. (Well and many short term guests that happened our way : ) During this time Nate was instrumental in helping Jako build a generator room, build and plaster a septic tank, assemble furniture, fix broken vehicles, do plumbing, construction and various other odd jobs around our house and the orphanage. On top of that he also helped Melanie teach English and Bible Stories to the children and aided us in hosting the many visitors we had this year. Never one to just sit and do nothing, Nate was often found doing whatever needed doing without even being asked – whether that consisted of chopping firewood, starting a campfire, working on miscellaneous work projects,or even pitching in with dinner or dishes. He and Charles built a good relationship working together every day and it was neat to see the relationships that he had developed last year with the villagers flourish this year. To see the smiles on the faces of locals like Francis and Obie when they ran up to give him hugs spoke volumes. On a personal note it was great to see how much Nate had grown and matured in the past year as evidenced in the way that he was able to witness and talk to the locals in a bold and confident yet friendly and non-threatening kind of way. What a blessing he was and we look forward to see all that God has in store for this young man.

Melanie, on the other hand, having never been to Africa before, jumped right in like she was a pro. From the first few days she helped wherever she could and went to great efforts to learn how to do anything that might need doing whether that might mean washing dishes, stoking the donkey, helping with laundry, chopping firewood, pumping water, starting a fire, entertaining Jakob, or any of the other various things that often needed doing just to live out here. And on top of all that she willingly took on the huge task of teaching the kids at the orphanage Bible stories as well as English. And all this without a set curriculum. Trying to pick up from where Jenny left off she had to had to develop her own plans and directions and she did great! Talk about being thrown into the fire! The kids however loved her and progressed amazingly under her direction and guidance. She always made her time with them fun but instructional as well and now every time we hear the children with their much improved English we smile as we think of her.

She also helped organize the library, worked in the orchard, sorted through donations for the orphanage and tackled the task of leading weekly children’s church at the local village church so not only did the orphanage kids come to love her but most of the village kids as well. Her biggest help however came when we got our first little newborn into the orphanage. Baby Genesis.

Genesis

June 21st was a memorable day for us here at Mission of Love. One that we will not forget for a long time. That was the day that Genesis Matalikilo, our newest little addition, arrived on our doorsteps. With the mom being severely mentally ill and an unknown father, we had been preparing for her eventual arrival for the past few months but did not expect it to be this early. Being born on June 17th, she was born approximately 5 – 6 weeks early and by the time that she was brought to us at 4 days of age the only nutrition that she had had since she was born was a bit of ground peanuts that the family had tried to feed her. When we saw her she was soo tiny and looked so frail. From the best we could tell she weighed in at about 4 lbs. and was nothing but skin and bones. Thanks to a friend, Dr. Christa in Kalomo who gave us advise on how to care for such a premature baby without an NICU unit. We did what we could, prayed that she would make it, and rejoiced when she drank her first few sips from a bottle. With Amber still busy caring for Jakob (6 months old at the time) Melanie was instrumental in helping with the feedings (hourly at the beginning- then down to 2/3 hours even at night) and doing skin to skin contact to keep her body temperature up during our winter. Mom was thought to have syphilis so I (Jako) had to give her penicillin injections for 10 days and considering she was nothing but skin and bones, it was not an easy job – especially for my heart. At first she was so tiny she couldn’t even cry – just let out a little whimper when I stuck her but by the end of the course it was nice to hear how her lungs had developed by the loud cries that filled the room.

Later we found out that the mom was HIV positive and about 2 weeks after delivering little Genesis mother passed away. I believe that God in His goodness knew exactly how long she needed to be inside her mom and when she needed to be out; hence the name Genesis – God knowing her, caring for her, and providing her from the beginning. He even lead Amber to pump and store some of her own breast milk for her arrival and a provided a donation of baby girl clothes to show up not long before she arrived. God definitely knew what we (and she) needed in advance, long before we ever did and His faithfulness and provision never ceases to amaze us.

Erin

On June 29th – we had the added blessing of adding another member to our team for a month and a half. Erin Costello, a young college student from Florida, proved to be a trooper and a definite added blessing to us and the ministry. Arriving only a week or so after we received little Genesis, Melanie taught her the ropes of what needed to be done and she quickly stepped up to the plate, doing whatever was necessary and giving Melanie a bit of respite pitching in with the night feedings and giving her time to plan and teach the kids during the day. Erin was a joy to have around and especially loved spending time with the housemothers, speaking into their lives, encouraging them, and playing with and teaching the children. After Nate and Melanie left she was able to keep the teaching going for a while and help keep the progress going of the library as well. She was a great at doing any of the odd and end jobs that needed doing, helping direct and lead things when the FBC team was here, and even blessed us by watching Jakob at times so that Amber could tend to other ministry needs.

But I think the biggest help that Melanie and Erin gave was in caring for baby Genesis.Due to her small size and constant tending to we kept Genesis here at our house for the first two weeks and then slowly began transitioning her to the Orphanage house bit by bit. Although the house mothers were good with children, Rachel (who we decided would care for Genesis) had never had a child of her own before and none of the mothers there were experienced with bottle feeding, formula feeding, or the needs of such a premature baby. Melanie and Erin were great at supervising feeding after feeding, teaching them how to interpret her cries, how to tell when she was full, how to burp her and bathe her, and just making sure that they were comfortable with her and knowledgeable about how to care for her. They were also great at sorting through the baby donations to make sure that they had all they needed for her. So thank you Melanie and Erin – this precious little baby is doing well because of your watch care, love and sleepless nights.

Other Winter Visitors (May – August)

Apart from the three wonderful longer term volunteers that God blessed us with this year, we were also blessed by many other visitors.

Early May we were unexpectedly blessed to have an expedition team from Overland Mission literally show up in our driveway. While they were originally planning on doing ministry in another part of the chieftainship, God had other plans for this team to do some ministering, village to village evangelism and teaching to the orphanage children. In fact, the day that they arrived Amber had heard from the house mothers that the children were refusing to sleep in their bed at night afraid of some spirit or ghost that the kids had been seeing (a lady dressed in white). Instead they were all sleeping huddled together in fear in the main room. After explaining the situation to the visiting team they went up to the house to tell the children an encouraging Bible story about the power of God and pray for them. After they did, the kids have been sleeping in their own room without fear ever since : )

In June Jako’s mom visited for a week and apart from getting to spend some much needed time with Jakob, she also got to see firsthand all the progress that has been made here since her last visit a few years ago – before there were kids in the orphanage and when we were still living in a tent. She is always such a trooper, even when roughing it in the bush and we and Jakob loved having her around.

June also saw us receive a team from Dutch Reformed Church of Wonderpark , South Africa for a few days. While their original intent was only to spend a day or so with us God intervened (once again) to extend their stay a bit longer allowing them to help us with shoveling manure from our goat and cattle pen to use for the orchard. It was especially nice for me to be able to have some people from my home culture to speak Afrikaans with, braai with, and just fellowship with.

Fellow missionary friends of ours, Rob and Christa Murphy not only came out to visit and do some First Aide training for our house mothers in June but also lent us some of their summer/African winter Interns. Gretchen and Sharon came out to lend a hand in June and then Gretchen returned with Tori, Shannon, Katrina, and Kat for a week in July. Tori also made a repeat appearance in August.

Last but not least, Griet and Braam LeRoux made a visit out to us in Mid August so that Griet could begin to teach our housemothers how to sew. Griet is a wonderful seamstress and teacher and we were impressed to see all that the housemothers could make after only two days of teaching. A shirt, bag, and Bible cover! Our hope is that the mothers can eventually make the children’s school uniforms and teach the children a trade as well. Tailoring is Zambia is a skill that is highly prized for both men and women alike.

Thanks to all our winter helpers, both long and short term but thanks be to God the most, for providing the means to make all of it happen. May God bless all of you for the efforts here. Thanks for making a difference in this part of the world.

P.S. If anybody is wondering there is still TONS of things that need doing, help, or maintenance around here so if God is calling you to come and serve, just drop us a line so we can be in communication : )

Thank you for your support and love.

God’s blessings

Jako, Amber and Jakob Joubert

Mission of Love Community Orphanage

Zambia

First Baptist Church Woodbridge, VA

2010-11-11T21:12:00.001-08:00

1 Thessalonians 1:3- “constantly bearing in mind your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ in the presence of our God and Father”

The team of 12 people arrived in Zambia on July 23rd, full of energy and ready to get to work (and boy did they work!). If you include our home base team of me, Amber, Nate, Melanie and Erin that put us 17 1/2 total (Jakob being the 1/2 of course). After picking them up from Livingstone airport, we arrived back at Mukamba earlier than we ever have before. This time the team was spoiled because all the women got to sleep in the guest room and Jakob’s room (in our new house) and the men moved in to our old permanent tent and only had to put up their sleeping cots. Only those on past trips can truly appreciate the luxury of that compared to having to set up tents in the middle of the cold night after several days long days of international travel.

The next day was a Saturday and the team sorted out and organized all the reading glasses, donations, and other items that they brought with them. They also took the opportunity to practice and refine their eye clinic skills by testing the vision of all the orphans, house mothers and some of the other local people around our home. The rest of the day was spent getting acquainted/reacquainted with camp life and doing the every day duties of living out here - pumping water, getting fire wood, cutting fire wood, cooking food and many other little jobs around the house. They also took the opportunity to pick up all the bricks and other things laying around our home up and it looks so much better.

Sunday was a great day at the local church with singing, teaching, and preaching. It was a time of reconnecting for “old” (previous) team members and the new ones got into the swing of the church quick and had a great time fellowshipping with the local people. The afternoon was more relaxed (apart from the every day camp tasks) trying to let the team catch up from all their travel and jet lag and get well rested for the hard work ahead.

Monday (and all the days that followed) we were up bright and early, eating our breakfast and then off to where we needed to be. This year the team had two main focuses. One being the mobile eye clinic and the other to help clear land at the crop field. Every day the team was split into two groups so that one would be working clearing land and the other one doing the eye ministry. Usually the next day they would switch which worked very well giving everyone a different task everyday.

For the eye clinic the plan was to do 6 days of ministry; sharing the good news of Jesus with the people and testing their vision. We identified and notified three locations in advance (as much as you can do that out here) so that we could have two days at each place. Being the first time we have attempted this type of ministry out here, we definitely learned a lot by trial and error, especially about how to advertise and plan events like this out in the bush. The eye ministry proved to be very rewarding to both the team and the local villagers. Everyone involved seemed to love it in a sense that it helped someone to see again physically and then they were given the opportunity for their eyes to be opened spiritually with the good news of Jesus Christ that was shared with them. The team tested those that came for either near vision/reading glasses or distance glasses. Unfortunately the team could only give out one pair of glasses per person so those that had a problem with both had to choose which one they wanted. Lots of villagers showed up and almost everyone was able to be helped with either glasses, eye medicine, or advice. Those that had more serious or complicated problems were referred to the eye clinic in Zimba (a 3 hour drive away) where doctors were currently visiting for a week. I truly believe that everyone that came for the testing was sent by God. Now our prayer is that the seeds that were planted would grow and that those who made a commitment would become so strong in their faith that those around them would notice a difference.

The other big task was clearing tree stumps from the field at the crop farm so that we can plant this year with a better yield. Clearing trees out here in Zamia is not a easy task. Instead of just hooking a tractor to a tree or tree stump and pulling it out, it takes blood, sweat and many hours of physically digging the tree out. It’s main roots run straight down. Almost like an octopus spreading everywhere and then diving it’s arms as as far down as possible. Only after lots of effort to cut each of it’s huge roots could we attempt to pull it out with the tractor or the truck praying it would come down fast. Thanks to all of the team members for their hard work for it saved me months of digging on my own. We worked everyday to about 14:00 in the afternoon and then drove the 45- 1 hour drive back to go and have lunch.

After that the work around the house started from cutting wood, water pumping, getting the donkey going for showers,( if you do not know what a donkey is-come to find out and it is not a animal). They also mixed concrete for the footer for Charles (our foreman/security guard) new house that we are building for him. Steve took an old plough implement arm and build it in to a ripper attachment that i can use behind the tractor to break up the roots in the field. Some of the people also had time to fellowship with Pastor Petrus at his home helping him to get the sunflower off the husk. Now that was dusty work.

Later in the afternoons after taking bush showers the team headed up to the orphanage to meet the kids as they arrived back from school. They helped the house moms cook food, played with the kids, and taught them bible stories. Most of the evenings we all ate together with kids and house mothers having a traditional Tonga meal with them at the home.

The team worked hard in all they did and made sure that they found stuff to do even in the little bit of down time that they did have, whether it be playing with and loving on the kids, helping to give the goats and cattle injections, loving on Jakob, worshiping around the campfire, engaging with the locals and the women even gave Amber a special blessing by helping to clean the house! The last Sunday here was spent worshiping at the local church again reflecting on the goodness of God and what He was busy teaching all of us. After a few days in Livingstone to recuperate and see some of God’s great creation it was time to say goodbye to not only the team but to Nate and Melanie as well. After being with us a full three months it was like saying goodbye to family and we pray that God will bring them back to us again sometime soon.

All in all we had a blessed time and once again saw how God is moving in the area to enlarge His Kingdom. We are honored to be part of what God is doing in this area and know that He has placed us here because He is wanting to call these people to him. Thank you First Baptist Woodbrige for being faithful and for doing the things of God for His people in Zambia and also other places in the world.

Serving God and His people

Jako, Amber and Jakob John Joubert

Mission of Love Community Orphanage

Zambia

amberandjako@hotmail.com

Visitors from May

2010-08-26T22:29:00.001-07:00

John 13:34,35 “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. [35] By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

We received visitors from all over the US that love us here in Zambia and that really lived the word of God out this winter (their summer). The first people to arrive were Nate Sweerin and Melanie Richter who got here on the 14th of May. Some of you may remember that Nate was here with us last year for 3 months and this year he felt called to come for another 3 months. Melanie is his girlfriend. While we were a little apprehensive about letting a dating couple come for that long, because of our respect and trust for Nate we were willing to take that chance. But more about them late

The same day, Amber’s sister in law, JoAnn Enget, and two of her nephews (Caleb and Seth age 10 and 9) arrived to have a day of fellowship before they joined the team of 9 from Idlewild Baptist church in Tampa, Florida that was coming the next day (May 15th). This team was lead by Amber’s brother, Joshua Finklea and consisted mostly young adults (20’s and 30’s) eager to come assist us in any way that was needed. Little did they know that that they would get to experience a bit of our life (and difficulties) here in Zambia right off the bat.

About 45 minutes down the road to our home, the bed of our Toyota Hilux snapped in half. All I heard was a loud noise and anyone looking at the vehicle would have thought it was a tipper truck dumping it’s load of team luggage. Obviously we were stranded. Praise God that Mike Jones, a missionary to Zambia for the past 16 years, was driving some of the team in his 15 seater minivan. Even though it was late he called his wife and made quick dash to get his 3 ton truck from home (1 1/2 hours away) to help us out. The girls and the two boys were housed nice and warm a the Jones house while the men stood vigil by the broken truck, helped load it onto Mike’s flatbed, and rode in the back to Kalomo in the cold. From there we met up with the rest of the team and started the dirt road part of the trip. All in all a drive that was supposed to take only 4 hours took us over 12 hours, putting us home and asleep only after 3 am that morning. Just a few hours later, all of us still dirty from the previous day’s fun, got dressed and went to church to enjoy a nice long 3 + hour church service fellowshipping with the locals.

The team was busy and worked hard from the time that they arrived but seemed to be having fun as well. There were smiles and laughs all around as they spent two days at the local community school acting out Bible stories and playing with the kids. It was especially hilarious to see Amber’s little nephew Seth play David and slay the giant Goliath! One day they did the hard work of digging stones for our houses septic tank drain field. That is a tough job for anyone even if they are used to doing it but the team joyfully pressed on with it the whole day. Another day the girls put their frills and loaded cattle manure from the cattle farm for the orchard. While they were busy “in the poo” the men got dirty in their own way helping to get this set up for building a new cattle pen for the other one is old and falling apart. After loading up the poles (tree stumps) that Obie had cut throughout the bush they finally got to start putting it together. It took us 3 days to complete and now but us, and the cattle are happy (well maybe not the cattle) because now they can’t get out and destroy whole fields of corn. Back at home, everyone was digging ditches around the fruit trees and then filling it in with cattle manure for fertilizer.

Every afternoon the team taught Bible stories to the children at the orphanage and played with them. They even got the opportunity to eat almost all our dinners there with them. I don’t think quite everyone enjoyed the traditional Tonga meal every night (especially the Kapentas – whole dried small fish cooked in a bit of tomatoes and oil) but it gave them exposure to the local village way of life and they did enjoy getting a chance to fellowship and eat with them in that way. The ladies even got to help the house mothers prepare the meals and some even tried their hand at the art of stirring Nshima.

Unfortunately it was also a hard week emotionally in the village. When we arrived we learned that Charles grandson (7 months old) had just passed away. Charles is our local home security guard/worker. This grandson was the only child of his son and both parents were not believers. We grieved with Charles over the loss and Buff, the young singles pastor of the group was actually invited to go and preach at the funeral. What he said touched the parents heart and we pray that the seeds that were planted will take root and grow. Later on in the week, Buff and I were going to town for supplies and we ran across Francis (another local) who asked if we could take him and his wife, Florida, to the hospital (2 hours away in town). She was very pregnant (after having suffered a miscarriage the previous pregnancy) but not doing good health wise. After a phone call home the whole team was praying for them only to find out that the baby had died a week earlier in utero. After being transferred to another hospital the doctors said that if she had gotten there even a few hours later Florida would have been dead from infection. While we were sorrowed by the loss of this baby and for the family who so desperately wanted it, we saw God’s hand at work in preserving Florida’s life. A few days later when Florida was out of the woods, Francis came to visit us and the team and told us how he was suffering because of the situation and not being able to harvest his corn. Animals were busy eating it and he was facing loosing all his crops. When the team heard, they all jumped in the tractor trailer and ate a lot of dust to go help. One day’s harvest was not enough but the show of love and support to Francis brought tears to his eyes and we were able to hire 3 men for a week to finish the rest of the work that we couldn’t do. To date Florida is doing much better but please pray for them because the emotional wounds will take much longer to heal than the physical ones.

Apart from all the hard labor on the various work projects, the team worked hard at home as well with cooking duty, dishes, pumping water, chopping fire wood, starting camp and cook fires, stoking the donkey (you have to come here to know what that means : ) and all the duties that come along with camp life. Nate, having been here before, was a big help in showing everyone what to do and Melanie took no time getting into the swing of things. Even Caleb and Seth, the little brothers of the whole team got in on all the action from shoveling cattle poo, to starting fires and playing with the kids and even to slaughtering the goat (for food). The team also showered their love on Jakob relentlessly and he loved being in someone’s arms and the center of attention the whole time.

We must say that the team from Idlewild were a real blessing and they were good helpers of the project. They got a lot done that Amber and me do not need to do now so thank you everyone. It was real nice to meet you all. Thank you for the work that you did and Josh thanks for doing a good job leading it.

Thank you everyone we love you and know that we feel all the prayers.

Jako, Amber and Jakob John Joubert

Mission of Love Community Orphanage Zambia

amberandjako@hotmail.com

Our visit to America and back home in Zambia

2010-08-26T22:09:00.001-07:00

1 Peter 1:13 “Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”

We want to apologize that it has been so long for us to write these updates. Please forgive us as I do not have any excuse but to say that in the midst of all the work that has been going on around here, I have been lazy to make time to write them. We left for America at the end of February 2010 and were only there for two weeks. The drive out of the village was hard for it had been raining nonstop for an entire day and the rivers were filling up fast. We managed to get to the paved road after having to put lots of the vehicle underwater to get through the river that was in flood, but thanks to our Father for having compassion on us and letting up pass with out any damages (to us or the vehicle). We made it save to Livingstone where also some of the rivers were so high that some of the Lodges had to be evacuated to safety. We had to go to one of them to make sure that our booking for the teams that were arriving later in the year would be booked and have space for us. While there they were evacuating all the goods out of their chalets and the restaurant that was next to the river was halfway under water. Even at reception my feet were getting wet. We made it out just in time to make our flight.

Our time in the States was a wonderful whirlwind jam packed between ministry and family time. We had the blessing of participating in Idlewild Baptist Church’s 2010 Global Impact Conference sharing in three Sunday School/Bible Fellowship classes, three homes groups, setting up a display table and meet with the team that was coming over . Being involved in the missions conference activities, luncheons, sermons, and being around other missionaries seemed to revive our spirit and God’s heart. Every one delighted in getting to see Jakob and Jakob enjoyed his first visit to the States being showered with love and attention from everybody.

Thanks for your prayers for Amber’s mom, she is currently enrolled in a new trial where she gets chemo via IV and pills every two weeks. It was great getting to spend time with her and seeing her recovery after the incidents with her seizures. Praise God that she is now stabilized and going on about her usual activities. The new treatment however seems to come with more side effects than the previous with her having one sick week followed by a week of feeling better before the next course starts again. God continues to give her strength and energy for each new day however and we are currently keeping up with her via skype and phone calls. For those interested in more info about her visit www.caringbridge.org/visit/jillfinklea

Jenny also decided to go back home to the US to spend some time with her dad as he turned 90 years old. We were blessed to meet her dad and the rest of her family and spend a afternoon with them. We felt so loved and at home there. She was also part of the mission conference and played a big role in that to get Mission Of Love more exposure of what God is doing in Zambia. It was sad to leave America with out her and also to say goodbye to our family and friends, especially with this visit being the shortest yet.

Being back in Mukamba with only Amber, Jakob and me was hard with all the things that needed doing, especially with Jakob taking up a lot of our time. He is such a big blessing though and is loved by so many of the locals here. I think they were more happy to see him back than us : ) April kept us busy getting some more things done in our home and around the house and keeping up with the local Bible studies at church on Sundays. Our generator (which we depend on quite a bit in the evenings and for big power uses) broke but God made a way for us to get a new one that is bigger and stronger. It took some time to put together however because it uses a 55 gallon (210 L) metal drum filled with water to cool it. We were also blessed with a small 25 horse power tractor for the fields. It was fun to test it out and not be in pain like with the two wheel tractor that use to roll every time I hit a tree root. I started to clear land for a garden for the orphanage which is growing very good on this stage. I also plowed some land at the crop farm with it and must say that for the size that it is, it is doing very good and also very light on diesel. We were also blessed with the funds for the harrow and the three row seed planter so we believe that this year and next we are going to do good with the farming . God willing we hope to produce food to hand out to orphans and widows living in the area. We also had allot of village patients coming to us for medical assistance. Anything from from giving stitches to burn wounds that we had to attend to and then we are not even speaking of all the over the counter medicine that we distributed.

On a sad note, Jennifer’s father passed away May14. God was gracious to allow her a few months with her father and family before his homecoming. After much thought and prayer, Jenny feels that God is leading her to spend much time in the States to support her mother and be with her family during this season of her life. We miss her but we look forward to seeing all that God has in store for her as she continues to seek God’s will and direction for her life.

On a practical note Jenny’s absence left a void not only in our hearts but in the ministry. When the villagers heard the news they expressed their deepest sympathy but also questioned whether or not the programs she started would continue because she made a big impact in their lives with teaching and being their friend. God in His sovereignty had a plan to fill in the gaps that were left of Jenny’s hard work. By the end of May, Nate and Melanie were flying over from the States about the same time as the Idlewild team. Please go and read Jenny’s story on her blog at www.jennymaass.blogspot.com and see and feel it from her perspective.

Well that bring us up to the middle of May… more to be continued in the next post…..

With much love and appreciation for your support and prayers.

Serving our Lord and Savior Jesus

Jako, Amber and Jakob John Joubert

Mission of Love Community Orphanage

amberandjako@hotmail.com

God has enlarged our family

2010-03-10T08:02:00.001-08:00

I Chronicles 4:10

“Oh that you would bless me and enlarge my border, and that your hand might be with me, and that you would keep me from harm…and God granted what he asked.”

In the past few months, God has enlarged our family from me(Jako), Amber, Jenny and baby Jakob to 8 children, two fulltime house mothers and also two part time mothers. Yes the day has finally come that we have CHILDREN in the ORPHANAGE!!!! But before we get to that let me give you an update on the rest of us….

We were not sure when we will be leaving South Africa to go back home to Zambia with all the paperwork that needed to be done for Jakob John (he needed both his South African passport and an American passport). God was faithful and we received temporary passports and left SA on January 12 2010. It was not too hard with Jakob for he sleeps every time the vehicle moves and the drive was easier than what we expected. Not only did he experience his first border crossing, elephant sighting, and first time being stranded in the hot sun during a roadside vehicle maintenance stop, he also did his first camping night in Botswana.

Jill arrived on the 11th of December 2009 a day after Jakob was born. Jakob came two weeks early so despite her best efforts to see Amber pregnant God (and Jakob) had other plans. She spend the first month with us at my mother in South Africa and then the second month she came with us to Zambia. She helped us a lot around the camp and especially Amber as she adapted to being a new mom and our changing live styles in Zambia. She helped with cooking, washing, tending to Jakob, camp maintenance, and even helped with painting our new house. There were many more things that she helped us with that we are very thankful for and we cherished the special memories that were made. After getting to share in the first two months of little Jakob’s life Jill returned back to the States on the 10th of February 2010. (A few weeks later she was hospitalized with seizures related to her brain tumor but she appears to be doing better now. For more information on her health visit www.caringbridge.org/visit/jillfinklea Thanks to all of those who have remembered her in your prayers).

Amber is the best mom ever, facing challenges of being a bush mom every day, carrying on with her roles as Orphanage Director and wife, and keeping the camp up and running as well. She was changing diapers on the side of the road while I was changing tires.

Jakob’s first months in the bush have been full of bush riding (vehicle, quad, and off road stroller), breastfeeding, cloth diapers, night bathing, bottle feeding from daddy on Valentine’s Day, immunizations at Kauwe Clinic here in the bush, fever from the immunization and a cold, and tons of locals coming to see the white baby (I think that make him a better missionary than us!). With all our traveling we counted that Jakob had slept in 10 different places in the first 8 weeks of his life! At least he is now moved into our “new” house after living in the tent for one month so that he can also say that he lived in a tent with his parents. But more about the house later as well….. We did have to make a necessary trip (actually two) to Lusaka, the capital of Zambia, for Jakob’s immigration paperwork but praise God we now have all of his permanent paperwork sorted out. He is an official South African citizen, U.S. citizen, and has been added onto Amber’s Zambian work permit. Thanks to the Barnes family for so graciously hosting us while we were there. Unfortunately as we were getting ready to leave, I had to repair the right back wheel bearing first before we could go back home. Thankfully God helped with getting all the parts and after 1 1/2 more days of working on it we were back on the road. Thanks again to the Barne’s for letting me use their vehicle to go everywhere to get the old bearing pressed out and the new one pressed back and praise God that this happened while we were in the city and not in the middle of the bush.

As for me – the past few months have found me busy getting the orphanage house ready for kids and house moms, getting our house ready for us to move into, playing catch up on maintenance from the month we were in in south Africa, fixing generators and vehicles, chopping wood, running back and forth to town for supplies, leading Sunday Bible studies, bathing,diapering, and playing with Jakob and just working hard on all the projects that needed attention.

Jenny has been hard at work both physical and spiritually somehow finding time to put in all the window glass in the house and painting between all her teaching responsibilities which are greatly increasing. Now besides the community Bible studies that she leads on Tuesday’s and Thursday’s and the children’s Sunday school she has also started to give English lessons to some of locals. Plus, now that there are orphans in the house she has been busy spending time with them, trying to assess their educational status. It is not easy trying to start so many things from scratch but she has been doing a great job in her role as “teacher” here by us also while being a great help with the physical part of everything. Amber appreciates her extra hand with Jakob and in the kitchen and Jenny is really turning out to be a good cook. She was actually the first person (along with Amber’s mom) to move into our house and finally get out of the small tent that she had been living in for so long. They stayed in it the first month while Amber and I were in our tent till the 14th of February and then moved in to the house. I know that Jenny is looking forward to moving into the big permanent tent as soon as her bed is finished so that she can finally have a decent sized place of her own to call “home”. Learn more from Jenny’s perspective at www.jennymaass.blogspot.com

And speaking of our own house. It has been exciting to see the progress made there. All of the windows are in, most of all the painting is done (we tried the floor but it kept peeling due to the high humidity level of the rainy season), basic electricity is wired (run by generator and solar power), and guest bunks have been built. It is still not completely finished but after many years of living in our permanent tent we decided that it was done enough to move it … on February 14^th. (I bet you guys didn’t build a house for your wife for Valentine’s Day!) That was an exciting day for us and although one of the biggest benefits it provides us is added security when we are gone, boy does it feel nice to have solid walls around us.

AND NOW FOR THE REALLY EXCITING PART!!!!!

The Orphanage is up and running!!!!! After seven years of praying, planning, drilling wells, clearing land, breeding livestock, building relationships as well as buildings, and working hard from sun up to sun down the day of us actually having orphans in the the first orphanage house has become a reality!!! The past few months have been filled with community committee meetings, child and house mother applications and interviews, sorting through donated curtains, bedding, linens and blankets (thanks to those who so lovingly made so many of them for us), purchasing pots, pans, and household necessities, buying food stock and clothes for the the kids and finishing all the plumbing.

Then on Friday, February 12^th, 2 full time housemothers moved in and on Monday and Tuesday, 15^th & 16^th, 8 orphans moved into their brand new home. The house mom's are front right Ennie and from back left Rachael and also part time Silvia. The orphans are front left: Cecillier(8yrs), Silvester(12yrs), Pilohead(11yrs), Enest(12yrs), Briget(9yrs), Millium(5yrs). The Back is Precious(13yrs) and Pamela(14yrs)

We were a little bit worried about how the kids would adjust being moved into a new and unfamiliar place but we were surprised to see that most of them were all smiles even the first few days. I don’t know if it was maybe sleeping in a proper bed for the first time in their life, or living in a house with luxuries such as windows and a proper bathroom, or having more food than they had been used to but most of the kids seem to have adjusted very well. The house moms have definitely taken them under their wings and made them feel welcome, cherished and loved and they have been a blessing to have around. It is so nice to hear their laughter every time we drive into and out of our place.

Please pray for us and them as we work through getting each child placed in school, settled into their new environment, and getting their health status assessed. Already one of the boys has needed to get a tooth pulled and be on antibiotics for a possible infection. Please pray also for the house moms as they adjust to their new roles and try to discover the different needs and personalities of each of the children.

Just a week or two ago, I fitted a water pump that works with the hand to one of the dry wells that were drilled by the orphanage house. We noticed that with the rainy season there was some water in their and even without the pipes going the full length of the drilling depth we are getting about 200l of water a day out of it. We do have plans to extend the depth of the piping but please pray that God would open the veins of it to yield more water. This pump can pump into the air up to 15 meters and now we are filling above ground water tank that we have put up for the running water that the orphanage should have.

Other news from the bush….

Our library resources continue to increase. Just recently we were blessed to receive another 57 boxes of donated books, study materials, and school supplies. We get excited every time we are in there, looking at the boxes and are so eager for the day when the shelves will be up and organized and it can officially be opened. We pray that will be in the next few months but right Jenny is enjoying digging into it for her teaching purposes and the building itself has been an God send as a place to hang up drying laundry during the rainy season.

We have been blessed with our first overseas visitors (that weren’t family) that we put up in the guest room of the house God blessed us with. The senior pastor and missions representatives from First Baptist Woodbridge came and we had a very blessed time with them being there. Even though their visit was very short we still had allot of fun and were glad for them to see what God is doing in the area where we are. Thank you for your visit and you are more than welcome to come back. Also thanks to Abbie who came for a week to help with all the painting in the house.

Thank you for your continued prayers for our health. A few weeks ago we had a situation with Amber getting quite sick (she kept spiking a 104.9 fever). It appeared to be Malaria but didn’t seem to respond to the treatment until she was put on antibiotics (which probably meant it was something else). It didn’t make it any easier that Jakob then just started screaming and crying all day long and we couldn’t figure out what was wrong with him or if he was sick as well. He is normally such a happy and easy baby. I definitely had my hands full trying to care for both of them at the same time. Praise God for a wonderful Christian doctor friend in Kalomo who treated us (Jakob seemed to be having stomach problems related to the medicine Amber had to take) and nursed us back to health at their place for a few days. Everyone is doing great now but it just reminded us again how important the power of prayer really is.

Currently in the USA!

We are now currently in the States for a very quick two weeks for Idlewild’s Global Impact Conference. We fly back on March 19th and although this time is much shorter than we have ever had before (we need to get back to tend to the needs of the orphans and the orphanage) we are so thankful for the opportunity to be here at all and especially to show Jakob off to all our friends, family, and supporters. We look forward to sharing all the exciting news of what God has been doing in person and look forward to seeing new and familiar faces at the Mission of Love booth!

For more picture go to www.picasaweb.google.com/missionoflovezambia

Thank you all again for your continued prayers and support.

With Grateful hearts serving our Lord,

Jako, Amber, and baby Jakob

Mission of Love Community Orphanage Zambia

P.O. Box 620170

Kalomo

Zambia

Jakob John Joubert

2009-12-13T10:41:00.001-08:00

Jakob John is HERE!!!

God is so good. After leaving Zambia on December 3^rdand two long days of driving on bumpy, bad roads we arrived safely at Jako's home in South Africa on December 4^th. Amber handled the traveling well, even at 9 months pregnant and we made it back a day earlier than expected. The next few days gave us a change to unpack, get a bit organized, and rest before Amber's midwife and Dr. visit on December 9^th. Both gave good reports on the growth and development of the baby and I guess that was enough for Jakob because later that night Amber starting to experience some discomfort and at 4 am the next morning Amber woke up with contractions 5 minutes apart. 1 ½ hours later we got the go ahead from the midwife to head to the birthing clinic (another hour away).

The funny part of the whole thing is that we were staying with friends that night (an hour away from Jako's home) and since we weren't expecting our little guy for a few more weeks we didn't have a hospital bag packed yet. Everything that we needed for it was back home an additional hour's drive from the clinic! After making a quick call to Amber's mom to tell her that it looked like her grandson was deciding to arrive before she was (her flight was leaving from the States later that day) we were able to arrange with friends to go "fetch" our things for us.

The labor and delivery went well and at 3:03pm on December 10^th Jakob John Joubert made his entrance into the world weighing 2.93 kgs (6 lbs 7 ounces) and measuring 52.5cm (20.6 inches). His Dad cheered him on the entire way and was so supportive throughout the whole birthing process. Jakob is absolutely beautiful and 100% healthy as is mom. We all had a wonderful overnight stay at the birthing clinic before heading back to Jako's home on the 11^th. Our plan is to stay in South Africa at least through December to get Jakob's passports and documents in order before we head back to Zambia sometime early January. We are so thankful to God for this most amazing and beautiful gift that God has blessed us with. Thank you for your prayers – this is the best gift that God could have given us this Christmas.

Please read the update before this one about the work in Zambia.

Please go to www.picasaweb.google.com/missionoflovezambia

Thank you and God Blessings

Jako, Amber and Jakob Joubert

Mission of Love Community Orphanage

Zambia

A lot of hard work in a short time

2009-12-12T03:55:00.001-08:00

1 John 3:18-24.

18 Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.19 By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him; 20 for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything. 21 Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; 22 and whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him. 23 And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us. 24 Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God, and God in him. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us.

We are thankful to God for everything that He gives to us through the blessings that He gives His servants (you). Thank you for your prayers, support and finances that you all are giving. Know that God will bless you for that and as He says that He would be a bless those who are a blessing. While we do not always know in what form or shape God would bless us, He does and that is all that matters.

Fire and Water

Earlier in the year we were blessed with some money for a well that we had been praying about and wanting to drill. As most of you know we do already have one well on the orphanage property that was drilled in November of 2005. While we had this well dug to meet our personal and orphanage needs we also opened it up to the surrounding community of over 2000 people that constantly draw water from it. This meets a huge need in the community since the nearest other well is approximately 8km (5 miles) away and when clean water is far away, the locals often resort to using shallow, dirty, worm and bacteria infested standing water and many people (and kids) get sick and die as a result.

Now considering the needs of the orphanage as we prepare to open it, we realized that a second private well would really be a benefit, especially since then we could put an electric submersible pump on it to have much easier access to water without all the hand pumping (especially difficult for the house mothers to pump for all their needs and the kids AND transport it to where they are). With this in mind we were so thankful for the unexpected donation that God provided and after a long search for a company that would be both honest and fair we started drilling on the 17^th of October. We were very excited about the well but all did not go as we had planned. Just to give you an idea here is a piece that Jennifer wrote about the first day of drilling and the fire, so we do hope that you enjoy it:

By now the water drilling company had arrived, secured their large air compressor unit and drilling machine, and had begun the day long task of drilling up to 60 meters deep to find water… Just then a man ran into camp yelling, "Come! Come quick!" A bush fire had been set and gusty winds had swept it out of control through the orphanage property and it was quickly surrounding the drilling equipment. We grabbed shovels and ran to the drilling site where the equipment stood with a wall of fire raging behind it. The fire was 10 feet from the huge air compressor and drilling rig, and distance was closing fast. I wondered what would happen if the fire reached the heavy diesel machines. I didn't wait to find out.

The heat seared into my skin and ashy smoke burned my eyes and lungs. I shoveled harder and faster to dig a fire break. When the wind dropped, my blackened sandaled feet ran to the front line stamping out the smaller flames; throwing as big a shovel of smothering dirt as I could manage. Then, in the blink of an eye, the wind gust swept down exploding the fire into a monster, pushing our fire line back with shouts of sudden retreat. The monster eagerly consumed another few feet of dry elephant grass. We were forced to separate. The flames had jumped the road, wind shaping them into "fire twisters" licking the air and swallowing trees whole. Like cornered prey, the fire had strategically encircled the drilling site.

Then, above the pounding of the drill and the roar of the flames, I heard Jako's voice praying out loud, "Lord, don't let the fire jump. Don't let the fire jump the road. Turn the wind." The dirt road alongside the drilling site was our only hope; a natural fire break. The flames were eagerly sweeping through the grass on the other side and one misdirected gust would shoot the fire straight at the equipment like a blow-torch. We watched helplessly as the fire reached across the road like an arm, almost teasing us, threatening to ignite the other side in a moment's time. Our only hope was in God. For those next few minutes, the flames licked at what seemed to be an invisible wall. Fire twisted out and appeared to burn nothing in mid-air. The dry grass and trees on our side of the road did not catch one flame or ember; as if they were immune. The fire continued burning down the roadside, seeking a vulnerable, dry place to penetrate and jump; it failed. Ultimately, the flames paralleled the already burned side of the road; it had made a complete circle and nothing remained that could ignite. The bush fire was stopped dead in its tracks.

The fire had burned the wide area surrounding our entire camp. A row of our young banana trees along the orchard took quite a beating as well; their leaves, now crusty and orange, defy gravity standing out sideways from their stem as the intensity of the heat blew them and burned them almost instantaneously. But as Rahab's house stood alone amidst the destruction of Jericho, so today you can see a single patch of unharmed elephant grass; enveloped by black smoldering ashes on all sides. A testimony to God's protection and faithfulness to remember each time we drive by.

By then, we knew that the well that was drilled during the fire was dry. Over the course of the next week, two more painfully long days of labor and waiting and about 175 meters of drilling combined, had produced three dry wells. The third well was our last chance. When Jako returned to announce that the drilling company was giving up, I braced myself for the news and the utter despair that would follow. Instead, I watched peace and confidence in God's plan exude from his face as he stated, "Boy, wasn't God good when He gave us that strong well of water four years ago."

I do hope that she painted the picture for you as she did for me with her writing; God has really blessed her with a talent.

Dismal Days

Not long after the news of our three "failed" wells (please pray that God will somehow help them fill up with strong water as only HE can) we had a couple other "challenges" that came our way and really threatened to discourage us. First our computer decided to crash on us. Not only did it deprive us communication for some time but we also lost lots of data that was saved on it. All our admin stuff (e-mails, finances, paperwork etc) was put on hold and loosing lots of personal data (e-mails saved on the computer and even some pictures) was quite discouraging. Unfortunately, even with professional help, nothing was able to be recovered from our hard drive. Then not long after, our security guard, Fanuel informed us that he was no longer interested in working for us any longer and that he now wanted to be a farmer. Fanuel has served us well these past few years here and was good to give us a few weeks notice but it came as quite a shock to us. We didn't know who we would get in his place (the person would have access to almost all our stuff and could really do harm if he wanted to) and on top of everything else that was happening it was quite a difficult month.

But a Silver Lining

Thankfully God never gives us more than we can handle and after a few weeks things started to look up. We were able to order a new computer (Thank you Josh for bringing it over for us) and God has provided us a wonderful new security guard/general worker who we really trust, Charles. He is a middle aged man with a wealth of knowledge in many different areas (fruit trees, chickens, gardening etc) and has already proved to be of much benefit to us. We are very much at peace with him, trust him, and he has already worked wonder with our chickens which we were struggling with to get to reproduce. When he started we had approximately 40 chickens and when we left almost all the hens were busy laying and hatching eggs. According to Charles he expects the number to be up to 300 by April! And this is something he has done before so God is showing us He always has a reason for the things he allows (even the hard times) and that He has always works things out for our good. Not only are our chickens reproducing like crazy now but all the animals are. To date we now have 21 cattle, over 60 goats, and our dog victory just gave birth to 6 puppies. The locals are wondering what we are doing to get the animals to reproduce so much and all we can tell them is it is God's doing and not ours!

Bible Study Blessings

The Bible studies that Jenny leads on Tuesdays are going very well. The location is a 30 min drive from us and the people are showing up every week in good numbers (well, when it's not raining). We must ask lots of prayer for the Thursday Bible study that we have here at home. The area is much "darker" than the Tuesday one and the people here are deeply entrenched in witchcraft. In fact it often starts with the headman and the people here life in fear and darkness. Please pray that God would break the stronghold of Satan here for as Ephesians 2:8 says: For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God.

Please pray that God would give the people around us this gift that He has given us. The Sunday school lessons (that Jenny leads) are going very good and every week there are more children in the class learning about the Old Testament. The adult Bible studies (that I lead) are also doing well and the number of people attending is steadily increasing with a good solid core group. We moved the start time from 9:30 to 9:00 so that we can have a full hour together and if for some reason I am delayed the people wait. Please keep on praying for them. These past few months we have been working through a good series emphasizing men as the leaders in the family and how to be Godly men so that our wife's and children would respect us as the leader of the house. In an area where the women more commonly attend the church services it has been amazing to see the church full of men!! Now if only we could get them to all bring their wives along.

We have been giving clothes and chickens to some orphaned children in the community (through

the local orphanage committee) and that was a big blessing to us to see them receive these things with big smiles on their faces. With Christmas now just around the corner, please remember the children in the world because with all this coming Christ birth day celebrations that there are a lot of children out there without anything. And while many of us might not consider ourselves "rich" in terms of worldly goods, if you went out to get takeout food or eat out at a restaurant then you are still very well off. I don't mean to be nasty or ugly but think of that so please count your blessings.

Raising the Roof(s)

The past few months have seen lots of hard work, new building and construction going up. Probably the most noticeable is the erection of our house. The local builder has been doing great work laying the bricks beautifully at a fast rate (trying to beat the rains) and the rest of us have been working hard to get the roof up and on it and tackle all the other non brick work. While Amber and I were more than content to stay in a tent for the rest of our lives, now with Amber being pregnant and the little one (Jakob John) now on the way we figured that a more permanent house would be good idea. It also opens up more opportunities for hospitality since we are located so far from the nearest "town". To date all the brick work is complete, inside and out and also every room have been plastered. In October and November we had the added benefit of Amber's younger brother Josh who came to help for almost one month. While he was here we got the roof up on the house (even with a three week delay of building materials). That was a big

task accomplished and took a lot of hard work sometimes even in the rain. While Josh was there we also broke our old kitchen roof down (it was getting eaten up by wood beetles) in one day. It took us two very long day to rebuild it with new roof beams and tin roofing but it looks nice now and is definitely stronger than what it was. Have I mentioned how we witnessed our neighbors kitchen roof suddenly collapse because of the same wood beetles! The third task we were able to get done was to complete a big roof in front of our two store rooms that will be used as a combination car port and work station for the raining season. The local builder is now busy pouring the footers for the school house and laying the bricks just up to ground level so that he can continue the rest

Speaking of the rainy season, it appears to have started well this year with lots of good rains and clouds. Please pray that this continues so that the locals crops and harvest will be enough for them to provide for their families through the next year.

Family News

Amber is doing very well. God has been so good to her with the pregnancy and Jakob is not hurting his mother too much. She does not even look pregnant from the back, even 9 months along. Those that know Amber would know what hard time I have trying to have her do less but that does not happen easily. We are currently in South Africa preparing for the birth (staying with my mom) and we are looking forward to having Amber's mother join us in South Africa on December 11^th as well. Jakob is expected to arrive sometime between Dec 21^st and 26^th and she will be here until February so she can help us transition back to Zambia with a new baby and get settled in there. The plan is leave about 2 -3 weeks after he is born and we have both of his passports.

Prayer Requests

Please continue to keep their health in your prayers and for ongoing work in Zambia that is going on while we are gone. While the orphanage officials kept telling us that they were coming out to inspect the house and give final approval they have not yet to date. Please pray that God will move in that situation, that He will show us and the orphanage committee the children that God wants to put in the house and for the mothers that He wants for the house; that they would be God fearing women. Also please keep the dry wells in your prayers, that they would spring forth living waters and that God would give us wisdom in how to proceed with them.

Jennifer is doing good and you can read more about her at www.jennymaass.blogspot.com Also additional pictures of all the work can be seen at www.picasaweb.google.com/missionoflovezambia
Once again thank you for being part of this work God is doing in Zambia.

Jako, Amber and Jakob John Joubert (soon to be making his grand appearance) Mission of Love Community Orphanage Zambia

God sent us long term help

2009-10-09T12:11:00.000-07:00

What is time that it goes by so fast? I do not know if I am getting old or sleeping too late.
We arrived back in Zambia on the 8th of September from South Africa after picking up Jennifer Maass from the airport in South Africa. She arrived from the USA on the 5th of September to serve with us in Zambia as long as God needs her to be here and traveled with us from South Africa to Zambia. Our drive up was pretty uneventful with just a few difficulties. When we were in Botswana our Toyota Hilux decided that it had had enough of us changing gears and decided we needed an extra overnight rest. In the end, it proved to be just a simple bush in the gearbox lever that had disintegrated but it did take us several hours to take everything apart, get the new part and reassemble it. I was just thankful we didn’t have to take the entire gearbox out. Thank you Jesus! Then once in Livingstone I had to change the front leaf springs on our 1964 Land Rover since the main blades on both of our old ones had broken. Getting new springs was one of our tasks that we had to do while in South Africa and it was kind of funny that one of Jenny’s tasks when she first visited us in April was to help work on the Landy and now it seems to be coming tradition.

Jennifer will be overseeing the start of an educational center for the orphanage and also adult teaching in the form of reading and writing. Unfortunately the educational center is not yet built (much less up and running) so in the meantime she is helping us with all the other projects that we need to finish before the rainy season comes pouring down. From the beginning she had to jump in to the deep end driving a stick shift from Livingstone to Mukamba and was forced to learn “on the job”. Not long after we started the process for Jennifer to get her volunteer visa to stay in Zambia. Please keep that in your prayers – that God would allow the process to go smoothly and that her application would find favor with all the officials it comes across. Now that Jennifer is back the locals are very happy to have her resuming her previous Tuesday and Thursday community Bible studies (in two different areas) and the last few ones have been very well attended. The children are also enjoying her Sunday Bible lessons at the local church.

Once we arrived back in Zambia it took us 3 days to get everything going and in order again. First I put the generator I modified back on the tractor and then built a frame for another solar panel that we put up for more power. Then I moved onto the task of assembling the camp antenna for our two way radio system that we bought in South Africa. With all the different projects going on at several different locations and with Amber now being pregnant we thought it was time to invest in this so that any of us can get a hold of the other in an emergency whether we are at camp, the cattle farm or the crop farm. The range on the radios has proved excellent (30 km so far and hopefully 50km to Kalomo when I lift the antenna up further) and it has already proved useful for Jennifer when she goes to the Tuesday bible study or all the sand and rock runs that she has been doing. In fact, just last week Jenny used it to phone camp when the trailer got a flat tire when it was filled with 1 ton of sand 10 km (7 miles) away from here and I was quickly able to “come to the rescue” (although it took me another 2 days to fix the axel that had bent and just do general maintenance on it – does the fixing of things ever stop around here?)

With the raining season threatening to open up on us we have so much to get done that we had to hire 4 local people to dig 28tons of stones, 40tons of river sand, load over 30 000 bricks, haul water and dig 30tons pit sand for mortar to building our home. Not an easy job when temperatures have been over 100 F (high 30’s 40 + C) every day. Very hot and quite humid. The local builder that we hired started on the 30th of September and we had to have enough material ready for him to start for he goes through them fast. Jenny has really proved to be a blessing the past two weeks as permanent driver to our 1964 Land Rover for all the sand and rock runs which has freed me up for all the other tasks that I need to attend to. It is exciting to see the house going up but once that is done the builder also needs to get the school building to floor height before the big rains come. Just yesterday they finished pouring the floor slab and Monday we look forward to seeing the outside walls come up.

Since we arrived we have also finished all 20 beds (10 bunk beds) for the orphanage. Although the Va team had done the big task of pre-cutting all the large pieces I still had to cut 436 slats for the beds where the mattresses will rest on and then we had to attach it everything. The new cordless power drill that the team blessed us with (as well as a borrowed table saw) made the task much quicker to complete. The beds have now been sanded and with most of the mattress’ bought and painted all they need now is the ladders which will probably get made when we make the two house mothers single beds. The tasks that still remain before we can get kids in is to finish laying the electricity, installing the water pipes, and getting the proper final approvals from all the different government offices. We traveled to Livingstone the other day to talk with one of the departments that say they hope to come out to visit and inspect things by the end of the month. Since this will only give us about 5 or 6 weeks until we have to leave for South Africa again we decided it best not to admit children until we return in January. Not only will this give us time to get the house fully furnished and ready for occupation (ie. Curtains, pots and pans, children and house mothers decided etc) it also keeps us free from the worry of an emergency coming up while we are gone and the house mothers and children not being to get the help they need because of the untravelable roads. With our vehicles being the only ones that really run during the rainy season it will just make the logistics easier to make sure that we are here for a while when the kids and house mothers are getting settled in.

This past month has also seen progress with the community library. With all the donations of books we have received for it (and more on the way), our lack of storeroom space quickly pressed the need for us to get it finished enough for us to at least move the books in there. As of now it is all painted with the glass in the windows, the door put on, and all the book boxes moved on. All that is left to do now is to build all the shelving but that can wait until the rainy days to keep us busy. Josh, Amber’s brother is coming to visit and help us for a month at the end of October and we are excited about that to have another strong hand out here to help with the work. Sometimes I think that I bit off more than I can chew : )

Please keep on praying for our communications capability out here. Since we arrived back in camp our “durable and rugged” computer packed up and we are using one now that has 256mb ram and a 18gb hard drive so it is very slow and we are down to basic computer, internet, and e-mail operations. This has forced us to order another (hopefully more durable one) for Josh to bring over to us later this month so thanks for your understanding if our e-mail responses have been slow.

Amber has been busy keeping the home life on the camp running, cooking for us and local work crew we have here every day (at least 7-12 +), doing laundry, admin, and anything else she can do to free Jenny and I up to work. That is a full day’s job in itself. She just entered into her third trimester and she is doing very well. Baby Jakob is growing everyday and is so active he kicks and moves all the time. Amber has been trying to stay active during the pregnancy (in a safe and appropriate way) but last week we had a bit of a scare when she went bike riding (not the first time) and after only 5 minutes had to stop because she felt like she was going to faint. After resting a bit on the side of path she was able to make it back home where she checked her vitals (all were good) and slept for quite a bit. Later that day, she phoned a doctor friend that lives in Kalomo now and she advised Amber to go for a blood test to have her iron level checked. Later that week we were in Choma (a 3 hours drive one way) and God provided a place where we could get that done. We thank God because there just happened to be an OB/GYN who was able to do a proper examination on Amber as well. She said that all is looking good and that everything on the blood test came back good except for her iron level and now she is taking tablets for that which should also help with her recent fatigue. Thank you Jesus. She is handling things well but as Jakob (and her belly) continues to grow it now takes her almost a full day to recover after a trip to town from all the bumping and shaking. She has been thankful to have Jennifer’s help on those days that she needs to rest and apart from that she has been feeling wonderful. We are falling more in love with our “little guy” every day and are so looking forward to becoming parents in just a few months. We love every moment of this process!

As far as the rest of the month goes, please pray for strength and energy to complete all that needs completing before the big rains come. We’ve already had several light rain which might mean an early rainy season this year and yet we still need to get a new roof up on our kitchen, a new roof over what will be Jennifer’s permanent tent and a roof over an outdoor work space for me to keep working in the rain, all before the rain comes. Please pray for the upcoming planting season that we would get the right among to rain at the perfect time and that God would also give the local people wisdom for the planting of their crops and vegetable gardens. Please also pray for the drilling of a well for the orphanage, they were suppose to have drilled it on the 24th of September but the compressor broke down and they are now busy trying to get it fixed. Please pray that they would get it fixed and come and drill before the big rains arrive and they can no longer get out here. The last we heard they now plan to be here on this next Wednesday or Thursday (Oct 14/15) It is an exciting time for us with all the progress and so many things being so close to completion, and yet so much that needs to be done. Your prayers for strength, energy, good health, and lots of local help and cooperation would be greatly appreciated.

With much appreciation and gratitude to God and all those who help make the project possible through prayers and finances. God is good and may be continue to bless you and us abundantly!

For more pictures please go to www.picasaweb.google.com/missionoflovezambia

You can contact us at amberandjako@hotmail.com

If you want to read more from Jennifer’s perspective of the last month please go to www.jennymaass.blogspot.com

Thank you Jako, Amber and baby Jakob

When it pours it pours

2009-08-31T13:30:00.000-07:00

Proverbs 9:10 The Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, And the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.

Since we last wrote we have been so blessed with all the people that God has sent our way to help in the task that He has given Amber and me. We are so thankful that God is in control of this because I do believe that if it depended on us and our emotions and feelings we might not have made it this far. Travis, Ethan and Mark worked very hard in the two weeks before the team from Virginia arrived. They had to load and off-load lots of bricks for the building of the permanent team toilets and the showers. We decided this was better than struggling to build temporary ones every one to two years. They helped in mixing mortar for the laying of the bricks and also had to pump a lot of water for day to day living of camp life. They cut more wood than woody wood pecker cut in his life time. We also started and finished the slab for Jennifer’s tent so that she could have a permanent home when she arrives here to join us full time in September. It was not as easy task (as they soon found out) and they had to dig and cut out three big deep tree stumps and no there is no machine that you can hire to do that. It had to be done the old way of digging and axe cutting by hand. The ground was not soft and it took a lot of pick axing, shoveling, and sweat. They also build good relations with the local people that they worked with and ministered to on Sundays in church. Thank you guys that you showed love to the Tonga people and that your lives testified that Jesus is your King and Savior. That will have a life long impact on their lives.

The team arrived in Zambia on the 24^th of July. We did our best to rush to get to camp early but as things often go in Zambia it ended up being 11.00 at night when we finally arrived. Even though they had been traveling for more than 2 days, they had great attitudes in putting up their tents and cots (that they brought with them) in the middle of the night. By 2 am we were all in bed and slept in on the Saturday morning but some of us were up early to get water pumped and get the fire going to start making breakfast. We started a bit late that day with work and decided to tackle the main job for the week- to lay and dig the foundation for our own permanent home. Now that God is blessing us with a little boy that is on the way it is time to move out of the tent and into a home. We knew that this task would not be easy, especially with one big tree standing in the way so we cut it down and then while some of the guys started to measure out the area, other’s tackled the stubborn tree stump, and others helped get the camp and kitchen organized for the week. The woman on the team went to the orphanage house and started to clear a piece of land of grass and bushes for the orphanage school house/tutoring center. Later in the week a few of the guys started cutting and plane-ing wood for the orphan’s bunk beds and Mandie proved her artistic skills in painting beautiful children’s murals in the orphanage kitchen and shower rooms. They worked hard on these projects (even digging the foundation for the school house) the entire time they were here. It was a great witness to the Tonga people of God’s love for us because the locals are always eager to know why so many people would come so far to help when they don’t get anything from it.

The work projects were not without difficulty however. We had so many things break that I had to take care of and fix, and one on top of the others. You know how they say when it rains, it pours – well that was true in our case. In the course of a week both of our generators broke and left us stranded without power to pump water and cut wood for the bunk beds (our small solar panel cannot handle those loads) and our only air compressor breathed it’s last as well. The generator that blew up, blew the conrod though the engine block so we had to cut the generator part off (for those technically challenged - not an easy task as it was not designed to come apart like this). With a lot of prayer however, God gave me the wisdom to do this and build new parts to have it run off of the tractor engine. Even though I thought it would work theoretically, this was the first time I had ever attempted something like this so there was lots of rejoicing when we got it running (and on wheels) so that the bunk bed project could continue. With that one fixed, we turned our attention to the next generator (a fixed unit which runs our household power and work projects there). For some reason even though the engine was running the generator did not want to convert it to electricity. After a full day of working on it, taking the entire generator apart (and late that night) Ryan saw a small wire that was broken inside. After tending to that and testing it to see that it worked, the whole “fix it crew” did a victory dance. No worry that it was after midnight and everybody else was sleeping. This was something to be celebrated! God was so good to us. Through these difficulties and challenges I learned a lot (again) - to trust the Lord for the wisdom to do things and to be grateful for the challenges that He puts in my way.

Of course there were also vehicle issues to tend to as well (aren’t there always!) but this time thankfully less than normal. All we had to do this year was change the front and back brake drums and the brake shoes of the Land Rover, change a flat on the Land Rover and on the quad but compared to how long the other things took, this was done in no time. The children were blessed by the time the team spent at one of the local schools entertaining them and teaching them more about Jesus. The kids laughed, danced and had so much fun interacting with their new American friends. They also blessed the local village church by joining them for two Sunday Services. They sang with the locals, sang special songs for them (some even in their own language), preached the sermons, and even took the kids (that can never sit still) and kept them busy outside with some more teaching and fun things. We showed the Jesus film one night about an hour’s drive from us. Praise God that we were able to show the whole film without technical difficulties and that it was not as cold as it was the previous years. The next day Johan Beukman (who had driven all the way from South Africa to help us), Pastor Petrus and Richard went back for a follow up discussion with the people that came forward the night before and that was a very blessed time. They said that the people were very responsive to the teaching that they did and the talks they had with them. We praise God for this and for their willingness to go.

By the time the team left our house foundation had been dug, leveled, and filled with concrete. They also finished digging and leveling the footing of the school house so all that all we need to do now is mix the concrete and fill it in before the rains come in November. Even with all the “power” difficulties the wood team worked overtime to plane and cut all the wood to size for the 10 bunk beds so that all that is left to do is to assemble them. The murals that Mandie had painted looked wonderful and not only made the place look more kid friendly but made it look more like a home as well. The team had done numerous sand runs for building, watered the orchard numerous times, helped Amber with all the cooking and kitchen duties, and collected and chopped lots of firewood for us during the rainy season. The team gave their all each and every day and their exhaustion and blisters at the end of the day proved it. We were so blessed with all the progress they made while here as we never could have even done a fraction of all of this ourselves before the rainy season. Now God willing we are still on track to have the kids in soon! So exciting!

One Sunday, while relaxing after church, the team surprised us with a surprise baby shower and boy – what a shower of gifts it was! They had obviously made a announcement and taken collections in the States because we were blessed with everything from a camping cot/ play yard, baby sling, baby carrier, maternity clothing, baby blankets, bottles, cloth diapers, and tons of cute baby clothes. What made the whole occasion even more fun was having the guys present the whole time. At first I wanted to leave thinking this was more a “woman” occasion but after tons of objections from the team members I was forced to stay. The guys helped me out with lots of fun joking and baby related “MANness” to counter for all the ladies “oohs and ahhs” over every thing. It’s crazy to think how many things a new little baby needs but it definitely made the whole pregnancy experience more real for the both of us. Thanks to everyone who donated and blessed us so. After the team left we headed back to South Africa and had our first sonogram and for those that haven’t heard – it’s a healthy boy! To date Amber is just starting her 6^th month of pregnancy with the little guy expected to arrive sometime between Dec 21^st and Dec 26^th.

Before the team left we enjoyed spending a few days with them in Livingstone doing some sight seeing and relaxing. After 6 months of hard every day work it was nice to have some down time with the team just relishing in all that had been accomplished. Once they left we headed back to South Africa with Travis (Amber’s 15 year old nephew) to spend some time with my brother and his family from England (it had been 3 years since they had last visited). Travis flew home on August 10^th and we were so proud of him and all that he accomplished while here. There are not many young men his age who would be willing to spend 2 months (his whole summer) working as he did. We look forward to seeing all that God has in store for him. Since then we have been busy spending time with family, sharing with churches and supporters here in South Africa about all the progress, running all around getting things necessary for the orphanage that we can’t get in Zambia, and trying to get a bit of R and R in between. We will be in South Africa only one more week before we pick up Jenny and head back to Zambia early morning Sep 6^th.

We are thankful for God’s provision in Jennifer for she will be with us permanently as long as God calls her to be with us. She will be in charge of the orphanage school house/ tutoring center, starting an adult literacy program (so more people can access the community library), and doing weekly community Bible Studies which she started when she was with us previously. Of course she will also be responsible for from helping us with the all the daily “living” operations of the projects as well (ie. Fetching water, chopping firewood, etc). Please keep us in your prayers as we prepare to head back to Zambia and tackle all the work that lays ahead of us before the rainy season begins in November. Our goal is to have the orphanage house finished with kids in it, the library complete, land cleared and crops planted, and bricks laid above ground level for both our house and the school house. A lot to do but it is exciting to see so many things close to completion.

Please Pray For:

Our first born boy that he would be healthy and strong

For the officials that they would give the approvals to get the children in the house.

For Jennifer, the work that the Lord has called her to do, and her transition from the States to full time missions work in Africa.

For strength, energy, and perseverance for all the work that lies ahead in the next few months.

For local villagers to come alongside and help in all the various projects.

For more picture please go to: www.picasaweb.google.com\missionoflovezambia

You can contact us at: amberandjako@hotmail.com

God Bless

Jako, Amber and baby Jakob

God's grace and provision

2009-07-12T02:30:00.000-07:00

1 Johan 2:27-28: “As for you, the anointing which you receive from Him abides in you, and you have no need for anyone to teach you: but as His anointing teaches you about all things, and is true and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you abide in Him.28 Now, little children, abide in Him so that when He appears, we may have confidence and not shrink away from Him in shame at His coming.”

Since our last update we have been busy, busy, busy. Time seems not to be waiting for anyone but it self but we do thank God that He is in control of time and not us. In the middle of May we had to go and harvest the maize field (that we have planted for food for the orphanage) and man was that some hard work. Praise God for the help of the local villagers and orphanage committee. In total we harvested 20 50kg bags from just half a hectare (same size as a football field). Last November when Amber and I were cleaning the field it was hard work because we removed every bush and tree stump with roots. The locals then laughed at us and said that we were wasting our time to do that but I said to them that if you want a good harvest you have to clean your fields. We took more maize of the half hectare then the local people take of three hectare (6 football fields). Some of them told me afterwards that they see now how important it is to clean the fields so we do pray that they will do that and they would also be blessed with good crops. We thank God for his blessing on our crop, for the food that he has raised up, and the knowledge He give us in the work He sets before us.

Nate worked hard in his last days as he helped me to finish the ceilings inside the orphanage house as well as the outside ones (that were a bit more of a challenge than we thought) but once again God gave us the knowledge to finish it with a smile. Nate did all the undercoats of the painting of the walls and painted the ceiling boards. He was also a very big help when it came to fixing the vehicles and doing maintenance on them. He left us on June 8^th and as he left Travis, Amber’s 14 year old nephew flew in to visit and help us for two months. Nate thank you for all your hard work the three months you were with us and we pray that God would give you the direction that He wants for you.

When we got back to camp, Travis was quickly shown around and Jennifer took him under her wing with the work and teaching him all the do’s and don’ts of village life. With it being so different from the States he had a lot to catch up on and get used to quickly but under her leadership soon was a pro at all the daily duties that needed to be done like chopping fire wood, starting the fire, pumping water, filtering water and helping with whatever the work project was for the day.

Jennifer worked hard to finish all the window putty only to be given the task of painting. Jennifer and Travis worked long and hard to get all the painting of the house, kitchen, toilets and showers done and it all looks so good. Now we only have to paint the floors and then all the painting is done. God also sent us three friends from South Africa to help us for a week and in that time they were able to paint the outside ceiling overhang and trim so that the two new guys would only have the floors left to paint. Thank you Cindy, Budgie, and Carla for the laughter and energy that you brought and for all your hard work that week. I still have three solid wood doors to hang in the kitchen and bathroom and believe I will get to that soon to finish. Then it is just the plumbing and electrical work that needs to be completed before the building itself it 100% complete. Then comes the task of building the furniture before we can put kids in it but first things first.

The library is getting done slowly but surely in what little spare time we have. The walls have now been plastered and the floor is finished so all that is left to do is hang the door, put the glass in the windows, paint the walls and also put the shelves up so that the books can be added. We hope to finish soon but with so many projects going on at one time there is always something else that requires our attention. We definitely can not say that our days here are boring.

Also this past month we had to build a chicken coop earlier than I planned to because we lost 20 little chickens in one week (from various natural causes). This then became priority over the other projects so we went and bought the chicken wire and built it. Some of the locals came around to help and see what this crazy Makua (white man) had in mind and all of us worked hard on it to get it done as fast as we could. The chickens are safe and sound for now but the coup is still a work in progress as there is still a lot we want to do in it to finish it off. Travis enjoyed this project immensely and was a great help to both Fanuel and me with it. We had a lot of fun chasing the chickens and catching them to put them inside and Travis especially enjoyed running along side the dogs as they chased down the flighty chickens to catch them quickly.

I wish I could express the big blessing Jennifer was to us and the local people of Zambia. She worked so hard and did not once complain about anything. She did a weekly Bible study that she had to drive the old ’64 Landrover to. Some days there were more people than other days but she kept at it and the people really learned to love her and were very sad to see her go back to America. We are praying with the local people that God would bring her back to Zambia on a permanent basis to come and teach the orphanage children and the adults here that can not read or write. Please pray with us that God would direct her to where He wants to use her for the glory of His kingdom. Pray that God would raise her support so that she can make it out here. Also pray for funds for the school building that we want to build so that the children can get a good education to better themselves and the country of Zambia. She worked most of the time painting from early in the morning till late. She also did the children’s Bible study every Sunday at church and the children enjoyed it so much. She left on the 6^th of July and on the 7^th we picked up two young men from the States, Ethan and Mark who will be here with us for a month. Thank you Jennifer for all your hard work these past two months and for the love you have for God.

Now that Jennifer is not here Travis is working hard to show Ethan and Mark the ropes and lead by example with all that he learned. He has proved to be a good painter, chicken coup helper, and has even helped lay bricks for the team toilets. He pumps water (and can do all 15 20liter jugs by himself), chops wood and make the fire every night for us to have hot water to take warn showers. Just look at his blistered hands to see evidence of all his hard work. Being 14 years old (turning 15 this month) has it’s own challenges but he is doing good, is a hard worker, and we are very proud of him.

I had malaria about a week and half ago but am doing well now. Interestingly enough this happened at the time that our South Africa friends needed to be picked up in South Africa which meant that Amber was “forced” to do her first solo drive to Livingstone and back (a 4 ½ hour drive now). Thank God that she survived (and all with her) and that apart from finding another way home through the bush (meaning getting lost on the way back) God managed to get everyone back home safe and sound. Praise God that the medicine that we have worked for me as well for I am better now and everyday getting my strength back. Ethan and Mark, while only with us a few days now are already getting into the swing of things and being a big help. The guys are working hard and chopping allot of wood and pumping also a good amount of water.

On a very personal note is that we ask your prayers for funds for building us a brick house so that in the raining and winter seasons it would be easy on Amber for as of today the 11^th of July she is 16 weeks pregnant.Thankfully she is now over the morning sickness phase (God obviously knew we would need all the help he has sent our way) and we are very thankful to God for blessing us with a little one after 6 years of praying for it. Please pray that God would look down on this little child of Him and bless it to be healthy and strong (and also to be a little girl if possible since I (Jako) don’t know if I can handle another little me running around). We go for our first ultrasound on August 11^th in South Africa but have already gotten to hear the heartbeat which was very exciting and last night Amber even got to feel the baby move for the first time. By our calculations we are expecting the baby to be born sometime between Christmas and New Year but the ultrasound should confirm our due date as well. Right now our thoughts are to have the baby in South Africa but we are still researching, praying, and working out the details of all of that.

Our new goal for the orphanage house is to have children in there by middle end September to get all the approvals from the different departments. Please pray for this that God would give us favor and if there is something that we should learn that we would learn it quick. We are receiving a group of 14 friends from Virginia USA on the 24^th and ask that you would pray for them. With Johan coming up from South Africa to help, we will be a group of 20. Please pray that God would guide and protect them, help us to get a lot of work done while here, and give them wisdom to glorify Him and His Kingdom on earth.

For more pictures please go to www.picasaweb.google.com/missionoflovezambia

If you want to contact us at amberandjako@hotmail.com

God ‘s Blessings on all of you and your families.

Jako and Amber Joubert

Mission of Love Community Orphanage

Zambia

God gave us reinforcements

2009-05-17T07:23:00.000-07:00

2 Timothy 3:16, 17 –“All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.”

Yet another month and a half has gone so fast that I do not know what happened to it. It seems out here it is easy to loose track of time and days. Since our last update so much has happened.

1. We worked hard in this time to finish the roof of the orphanage kitchen.

2. Nate got all the burglar bars painted with the undercoat and the main paint.

3. Nate got all the doorframes painted.

4. Of the 15 doors that needed hanging we got 11 doors hung and that is not a easy task for the frames are so skew that it takes you a full day to hang 2 doors mainly because they do not come ready made so I have to cut the part where the locks fit in out and then use a wood chisel to work it. The doors also all have to be cut to size for most of them are solid wood except for the inside 6 doors in the house that are hollow so after cutting them you have to rebuild their support at the bottom and top.

5. We got all the doors that are fitted varnished and they are looking so good.

6. We also finished putting in the ceiling boards of the whole inside of the house and man are our shoulder and back muscles busted and full of knots with hammering above the heads the whole time. We had to work hard with the beams being all crooked by putting in shims in the strips that the ceiling boards get nailed to.

7. God provided local help to plaster the inside of the library. We went yesterday to go and get more sand out of the wet river to finish the screet on the floor of the library. The second load we got stuck badly in the mud and the Land Rovers winch did not work so had to drive the hour back to get the Hilux and went to winch the trailer out of the mud. (always excitement here ; )

8. We also had some local help that dug and started to build new toilets and bathrooms for the visiting people and teams.

9. We also installed most of the windows of the orphanage which is no easy task considering each of the main 10 windows has 6 panes which each need to be puttied in individually.

We have a new visitor with us that God has called to come and help us. Her name is Jenny Maass from Florida in the USA. She arrived here on the April 24 and we thank God for her help because she is a hard worker. She has put in almost all of the glass in the windows and the clay putty that needs to go in and we also get her to help holding the ceiling boards above her head. It is quite strenuous to the shoulders and back but she is a real trooper. She also helps Amber around the camp with cooking food for all of us and the workers that come and help from time to time. Another big project that she has taken on is teaching the New Tribes mission materials in two separate Bible Studies. This material uses chronological story telling to teach people about the Bible and since most of the church services here tend to be more evangelistic than discipleship oriented there is a real need for depth of knowledge and discipling. On Tuesdays she leads a women’s Bible Study on the orphanage cattle property and on Thursdays she hosts a mixed Bible Study here at camp. Having the studies on the orphanage land helps to impress the fact that everyone is welcome and not just those from a specific church or background. She also teaches the young children at the church on Sunday mornings so that they can get a better understanding of the Bible. The people really love her and have taken to her so we are praying that God would send her here on a permanent basis to come and be a teacher for the children in the orphanage. They are going to need it so badly to get a good education.

Nate continues to be a huge blessing here to us and I (Jako) couldn’t have gotten as much done around here as we have without him. It is nice to have someone around with the knowledge to work on vehicles (something always needs fixing around here) and who has the skills to help direct the locals with projects as well. He has definitely settled into the daily routine around here pumping most of the water everyday, chopping firewood, and working hard. He is always busy and never sits down. He has made friends with the local soccer team and often plays in their weekend games with them. Everyone around here knows his name and the young men especially really connect with him. Apart from the physical labor which he planned to do while here he has also stretched his comfort zone a bit and one week even lead the Bible Study for me at Church when I had to take a local to the hospital for a medical emergency (a young boy who broke his femur – did I say never a dull moment?). He did a great job and what a blessing he has been. It would have been nice if he could have stayed forever but we since his story is still being written in terms of where and what God is calling him to do we, are praying and waiting with eagerness to see all that God will do. It will be sad to see him go on June 8^th (only 3 weeks left and counting, sniff, sniff) but at least we will have the consolation that Amber’s 14 year old nephew will be arriving that same day to stay with us here and help us for the next 2 months. He won’t be the same as Nate but will definitely bring his own uniqueness and blessing to us as well.

Our work for welding program continues to be put to good use as almost every day we have people here asking for welding for their bicycles, ox-carts, and other items so God has been faithful to continue to provide additional local help around here as needed. The orchard sure is enjoying being watered so much! The local soccer team has also agreed to help a few days so when they show up we have quite a crew of able bodied hands and bodies. We have also had locals coming almost daily for medicine so it has been neat to see all the different people that God is bringing to our doors. The medicine that we receive for free we give away for free, but those we have to buy from town, we sell for the same price we buy it which works out good for the locals since they don’t have to pay the transport fee and take a day out of their schedule to go to town to buy. Right now is the season of eye infections. I think we have provided about 20 tubes of eye medicine to the locals in the past weeks. It is nice to be able to help them out in this way.

Now you might be saying, what about Amber? We haven’t heard you mention her yet? Well she has been busy with the task of keeping the home fires burning for which we are so thankful. Between cooking, doing dishes, keeping the facilities clean, doing laundry, finances, e-mails and correspondence. She is what frees us up to get done all the work that we are doing at the orphanage around here. Without her hard work behind the scenes, who knows what we would do. She also helps us host all the wonderful friends and visitors we have had lately. She is really a woman of Proverbs 31: 10-31. Please go and read it for your selves.

One notable family that we had the privilege of hosting lately was Chris and Amy Barnes along with their kids Sam, Holly, and Mary Ellen. They are Americans living in Lusaka and while they not only blessed us with their presence for a few days, they also brought along 19 boxes of books that had been donated to us for the community Library! Much thanks to Parkwood Baptist Church in Virginia (where Chris and Amy are members) and Exciting Idlewild Baptist in Florida for their efforts in acquiring and donating these books for the ministry. God willing by the time the next update is written the Library might be finished and ready for use! Right now the books have made a nice home in Jenny’s extra large tent :)

Please pray for us as we continue with the projects at hand here with the goal to finish the orphanage and have kids in it by sometime late June or early July, for continued favor with the community, and for God’s name to be glorified and made known through us.

For more pictures please go to www.picasaweb.google.com/missionoflovezambia

For more news to read please go to Jenny’s blog site www.jennymaass.blogspot.com . Her most recent entry gives a great description of what an average day in the bush looks like for us here in Mukamba.

Don’t forget that you can also contact us at amberandjako@hotmail.com

Thank you and God bless you

Jako and Amber Joubert

Mission of Love Community Orphanage

Zambia

Back in Africa

2009-03-27T21:34:00.001-07:00

2 Timothy 2:1-2. "You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus, and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithfull men who will be able to teach others also."

On the road again….

After spending almost 7 weeks in the States, we are now back safe and sound in Africa. As sad as it was leaving our friends, families, and supporters behind it is good to get back in our “home”land and on African soil once again.

Our time in America was wonderful and God blessed in so many ways. Our time there saw us between three different States (Tennessee, Virginia, and Florida) and in a variety of climates (from 8 F/ to 70+ F/)(-12 to +24 degrees Celsius). We were able to speak and share in 4 different churches , 3 different home groups, one Adult Bible study group, a deacoms meeting and two children Sunday school classes. A ministry booth display allowed us to meet many more people and share with them the work that God is doing in Mukamba, Zambia. Thank you Exciting Idlewild Baptist Church, Lutz Florida, First Baptist Church of Woodbridge, Va, Parkwood Baptist in Alexandria, Va, and Exciting Central Baptist in Tampa Florida for allowing us to share and spend time with you and for your support over the years.

We reconnected with friends, loyal supporters, and former team members from the past 6 years and it really hit us how much things have changed since they had last visited. Many of the earlier team members came when there wasn’t even one permanent structure on our property (only 3 ½ years ago) and now it seems there is a whole compound! We were also blessed to make new friends, spend time with new team members that will be coming to visit us in July, and meet new ministry supporters. Oh how we covet the prayers and support that go out on behalf of the ministry. If we have not said it enough before, THANK YOU, for all that you do.

Apart from getting fed spiritually from the churches and worship there, God also blessed us with much cherished time with Amber’s family. A week away with them in the snowy mountains of Tennessee was just what needed. Not only was the family time great, especially being with the nephews and niece (as they grow up so fast), but getting to ski with them was an added bonus. We miss not being able to share in the day to day happenings in their life and just to be able to reconnect again was truly special. Thank you for the prayers for Amber’s mom and her health. Please keep the prayers coming as it is difficult road that she is on but God continues to give her strength for each new day and right now she is healthy enough to do just about anything she wants to do. God has truly been good.

All in all we return from the States spiritually, emotionally, and physically refreshed with a new energy and excitement to get back to the work God has for us in Mukamba. We arrived back in South Africa with enough time to spend a few days with my mom (Jako’s) and pick up a young man Nate from the airport. He is a young 21 year old man from the States eager to volunteer the next 2 ½ months of his time and efforts for the Lord. He should be a huge help in the efforts to complete the orphanage and getting it ready to house kids.

The drive from South Africa to Zambia was relatively smooth and uneventful (although I wish we could say that for the roads- boy had the rain made them bad) and except for a busted universal joint about 60 kilometers (40 miles) from Livingstone we and the vehicle arrived safe and sound on March 13th. We were sad to discover however that the night BEFORE we got there someone broke into/slashed through our tent and stole some of our electrical equipment, our phone and internet communications unit as well as our duvet and bed sheet. It seems our motion sensor alarm was out of batteries and did not go off and because it had been raining that night, neither our security guard or the dogs heard anything. There were over 10 burnt matches lying on the ground that they used to see with and minor burns on the carpet so we are VERY thankful that the whole tent didn't catch alight. We are also VERY thankful that that was all they took. They obviously knew what they were going for becuase they left a cell phone, a computer packed away in it's bags, all the books, DVD, and other items so we are really thankful it wasn't worse. Although our hearts are a bit sore at the thought that it was somebody we knew (as they knew what they were going for) God showed once again his ability to protect all that is His. Except for the communications system most of the things they took was “niceties” instead of necessities.

It did however slow things down for us as bit as we had to sew up the tent, alert the local headmen and village authorities, file a police report, and then go about trying to get another communications system which took many trips to town and about 1 ½ weeks to go. We are now glad to say though that we are up and running once again and VERY thankful for it.

Apart from that everything else in the village looked great! Praise God there seems to have been good rain, roads are nice and muddy and fun to drive but the crops are looking good. Cattle, goats, orphanage house and orchard all are looking good and everyone from the area seems to be healthy so thank you for your prayers for that.
In the past two weeks since we’ve been here we’ve been able to get the Land Rover running again, complete the roof for the orphanage bathroom and start on the roof for the kitchen, install the front and back door and weld discreet looking burglar bars onto the windows. Next week when the roads have dried up a bit more we hope to work on the ceiling and fascia boards. We’ve definitely felt the transition of working hard all day so please continue to pray that God will give us all the strength we need for each day’s tasks, grace and love towards each other and the community, and favor with getting our work permits renewed and learning the local language. Thanks for your prayers to date and to God be the Glory.

For more pictures please go to www.picasaweb.google.com/missionoflovezambia

Thank you and God bless

Jako and Amber Joubert

Mission of Love Community Orphanage

amberandjako@hotmail.com

2009-02-09T08:11:00.000-08:00

November 08 to January 09

Proverbs 3:3-5
3 Let not steadfast love and faithfulness forsake you; bind them around your neck; write them on the tablet of your heart.
4 So you will find favor and good success in the sight of God and man.
5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.
A lot has happened since we last updated this blog so without further ado let me begin.

House News
Since November 08 we finished the roof of the orphanage house and the builders have finished all the brick and cement work that they were hired to do. It is really looking like a house now! Maybe not so pretty yet but we can see and envision it! The only thing that stays left to finish of the physical structure is the roofs for the kitchen, toilets, and bathrooms. There is still a lot of other things that still needs to be done like all the plumbing (including the water tank), the inside of the kitchen, the wash basins, and the shelves in the kitchen pantries. The septic tank still needs finishing, the glass installed in the windows, the doors fitted and hung, the walls painted, and the ceiling in the house installed with the electric wires. You might be thinking electricity in the bush? Aren’t you out in the middle of nowhere? Yes we are, but running water and electricity is one of the requirements from the government for orphanages. They do not differentiate between city and bush village standards (where nobody has running water and electricity) so we have to abide to the city standards which are harder but more beneficial to the children. Please pray that we get everything finished so that we can get approved by the different departments to get the children in before June of 2009 (our goal). There is still lots of work to be done we can get the needed approval from the Ministry of Health, Social welfare and also the district counsel.

Jako – farmer, missionary, or both?
We have also been busy cleaning half a hector of land to plant crops for needy children in the area. It was the first time I was able to put our small three wheel tractor to good use and I definitely felt like a farmer spending all day out there in the hot sun. It took hard work, not only getting used to operating the tractor but also removing all the stumps and tree roots that remained hidden just under the surface of the soil. We were happy that the hard work of clearing the big trees had been done 3 years ago. Trying to make a field in the middle of woodlands is no easy job and we experienced the truth of that again as it was slow going removing all that remained hidden. After several long days in the sun and with some community help (their own initiative), we got the ½ hectare planted. With no way to irrigate the land we trust that God will provide all it needs this rainy season. Please pray that there would be enough rain this year for the crops because last year there was too much, a lot of the crops died, and people are facing hunger this year. Please pray for them.

We also cleaned the orchard, replaced some trees that had fallen victim to termites or ants, and planted a few more. We replaced some mangoes and bananas and added 16 papaya and 16 orange and nartjie trees to the mango field. We were busy trying to get everything done before we left, wanting to make use of the rainy season to get them firmly rooted. When there is no rain Amber has to pump water to give each tree 2 liters and now with 180 fruit tree, that is quite a job. While all the trees are still quite small they continue to grow and we have even had the first fruits off of some of them already. Over the past few months we have had gooseberries, maulberries (which the birds got to before we did), strawberries, and now the granadilla (passion fruit) tree is in bloom and starting to make fruit. We pray that one day there will be a year round bountiful harvest of fruit for the widows, orphans and needy.

Animal Antics
To date we now have 17 cattle. We are happy to report that all of our cows that were of age produced a healthy calf this year. They are getting nice and big (and fat) and the community is noticing. Our bull (which we got when it was young and small) is much admired and everyone wants to know if they can buy one of it’s offspring. In December however we did have an accident with our ox. Obey, the man that looks after the animals, came to us one afternoon as it stopped raining and told me that Jamaica the ox ran away with the plow and it had cut his leg really bad. I went there with all the medical stuff that we have and even a stitching kit and when I got there I thought we are going to have to kill him because the plow had cut through all his tendons on the lower leg. I cleaned it and tried to give stitches but the skin was so tough that the needles kept bending. Eventually we decided to clean it well and bind it tight. After that we cleaned it every 3 day for almost 2 weeks and thank God he is walking with a limp but doing much better. While he will never be able to work again, but he should heal fine and be able to get nice and fat to get us a good price when the time comes to sell him for meat.

Our goats continue to grow and now number 49. I wonder if sometimes they don’t think they are rabbits : ) One day in January we even had 5 baby goats born in one day to four different mothers! God is definitely blessing the livestock and we are very thankful for his watch care and protection over them.

Christmas in South Africa
We were blessed to spend Christmas with my (Jako) mother in South Africa. After all the rain we had received in Zambia, the roads there had become full of mud and made it very tough for us to drive so when we got to South Africa with their nice tar roads and sunny weather it seemed like we were in a different world. We all went to visit a family friend at the coast and really enjoyed the weather there. A Christmas at the beach was very different for Amber who grew up with cold cozy winter Christmas’. We had a very blessed time and were even able to visit some family that my mom and I hadn’t seen in a very long time and that Amber had never met before.

Where are we now? South Africa, Zambia, USA!
We are now in the United States, blessed to have been invited to a missions conference at Exciting Idlewild Baptist Church in Tampa, Fl. It was a nice unexpected surprise for us to be invited again but we are enjoying our opportunities to share all that God has done in our lives and in Mukamba, Zambia. We also enjoyed a week visit up to First Baptist Church Woodbridge (Virginia) where we were able to share, reconnect with past team members who had helped in Mukamba before and meet with the team that will be coming to help again this year.

Of course one of the biggest blessings is being able to spend time with Amber’s family. While her prognosis or diagnosis still hasn’t changed (brain tumor) she continues to do well. She asked that we thank you all for the prayers and ask that you please keep praying for her because she knows that that is what is sustaining her so well now.

What’s Next?
We will be in the States (Florida) until March 5th and then head back to Zambia (via South Africa). The worst of the rainy season should be over by then so God willing we can get to work right away. Thankfully we are going to have a young man named Nate with us from the States for three months. He should be a huge help in working with me to finish all that needs finishing.

For more pictures please go to www.picasaweb.google.com/missionoflovezambia

Please pray for:
God’s name to be glorified in the area
The people of Zambia that do not have any food
The orphanage so that everything gets done in a timely manner so that the children can have a home
The renewal of our work visas

Thank you for all your love and support
Jako and Amber Joubert (amberandjako@hotmail.com)
Mission of Love Community Orphanage
Zambia

2008-11-12T09:35:00.000-08:00

October 2008 Update:

We want to start out by saying that everything that has been accomplished is not in our strength and power but only through Him that strengthens us and that is Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. We also can not do what we do with out your prayers, support and finances you give to us, so thank you for all that you do for us and the Kingdom of our Heavenly Father.

Family Reinforcement
Since we last wrote one of our biggest excitements was having Jill and Terry (Amber’s mom and oldest brother) arrive here to help us. We could not wait to see them once again. We were especially looking forward to having Terry here being that it would be his first time to Zambia and second time to the African continent. The morning early after their arrival in Mukamba I had Terry on the roof with me nailing and building the roof rafters so that we can finish the roof before they go back home. With Terry having a natural fear of heights he wasn’t the most comfortable with standing on planks laid between the rafters but he faced the challenge head on and from day one never looked back. The first day was a bit difficult for Terry for his stomach was not good and he had to run from time to time but thank God for the next day he was as strong as an ox’s. Every day we started to work at 6:00 in the morning and wouldn’t stop until 14:00 for lunch. Being then in the high heat of the day (upper 30’s C and near 100 F) Terry and I would rest for an hour or so and then work on some more things around the camp till dark.

Terry was a big blessing to me for even though we worked together most of the time I could also spend time with the builders and on other things that demanded my attention. It was so nice to have Terry and the helpers be able to go on with the roof when I needed to spend time explaining the details of the orphanage kitchen to the builders. In this way things really started to get done fast. One and a half weeks later we had the toilets, bathrooms and kitchen done building and now they only need their roofs. We also got all the iron sheets on the orphanage house roof! While we had hoped to finish the roof completely things didn’t work out quite as planned and now only the gables of the roof are needed to finish it. It is starting to look like a house now.

And that is not all – apart from the roof work, loading bricks and more sand, in the afternoon we completed a lot of projects at the camp as well. Many that had been waiting for a year to get done but that we have just not had the time for. Things like raising the middle section of our shade net off our tent (allowing wind to pass underneath and lower the temperature inside), patching up the crack it the donkey, putting mesh in the bathroom and shower windows and cementing around it so that the hornets stop making it their permanent home, and re-cementing around the kitchen panty to end the rat and mice escapades that had been going on in there lately. Amber and her mom were especially happy about that. We are very happy with the progress that we are making with everything and are thank full to God for all of it.

Amber’s mom helped a lot as well but even more importantly brought lots of encouragement and company to Amber. Since the work that Amber has here in Zambia is a different than mine (ie. Cooking, cleaning, dishes, accounting, correspondence, watering the orchard, etc) she has less opportunities to interact with the community as I do and with the women normally having less access to education, much less of them speak English as to the guys. Although we are trying to learn the local language Amber doesn’t have as much opportunity for creating deep friendships here as I do so Jill’s visit to us was an especially big blessing to her. They chatted up a storm as the watered the orchard, sewed screen into our kitchen, painted poles, planted more plants and made new plant beds, cooked, cleaned, pumped water, and did all the every day tasks that are required out here in the bush. Jill also brought a small hand held mini sewing machine which she taught Amber to use. Amber is now looking forward to try her skills with mending and hemming with this rather than just by hand.

Church
At church it is going very good and some of the church members have started to make bricks for the new church that they are planning on building. The roof and structure of the old one is busy falling in on them because of last years heavy rains. The bible study’s that God has allowed me to lead every Sunday morning seems to be fruitful. A couple of months ago when I started I was very sad for only 3 men and Amber came to the Bible study but now these last few weeks there are between 20 to 40 people coming and most of them are men. This is especially special as often times in these village settings it is the women who are the most involved in church so we thank God for the work that He is doing in the men’s lives in Mukamba.

Jill and Terry were able to experience two Sundays with the church there. Not only did they enjoy getting to meet Terry, they were especially blessed to see Jill there after all those months of praying for her. Roster, the pastor’s wife even led a heartfelt joyous song of celebration in her honor for God’s goodness in her life. It was a touching moment seeing the two of them leading the church in singing and dancing in praise and honor to God for All that He had done in their lives.

Heading Back South
After our time of hard work in Mukamba, we packed up and headed South to come and visit my mother and some friends that Jill wanted to see as well. We drove through Botswana and had some good family time in South Africa before Jill and Terry flew back to America on the 28th of October. After spending all that time with them it was hard to see them go but at least we still had time to spend with my mom since we were staying at her place. Since it had been 6 months since we had last been there we were able to connect with friends, families, and supporters as well as get needed items for us, the ministry, and the orphanage. God also blessed us by giving us opportunities to speak and share about the ministry in 3 different churches there and two different Bible Studies. It has been so humbling for us to see God raise up encouragement and support from people and churches in so many different places. This can truly only be a God thing.

Back Home Again
Now as we write this update we are back in Zambia, lodging in Livingstone for the night before we had back to Mukamba tomorrow. The drive up from South Africa was so beautiful with all the rain but it reminds us that our time for building and continuing on with the work here is short before the full force of rainy season is upon us. As the rain is beginning to bring new growth to life, we pray that God will do the same in our lives and in the lives of those we are here to serve in the local village area.

Please pray for:

For the work that we still need to do before the rain fall is too much to work.
Pray that we would have a balance between work and ministering.
Pray for out witness to the workers at the building project as we strive to strike a balance between quality control in their work and showing grace and mercy in their lives.
Pray for our health and attitudes.
Pray that God would guide and direct us in the women He want to have in the orphanage house as mothers.

For more pictures please go to www.picasaweb.google.com/missionoflovezambia

To contact us you can write to amberandjako@hotmail.com
For financial contributions please contact us and we would direct you where to give to, thank you.

Thank you for your continued support to us and the ministry.

Jako and Amber Joubert
Mission of Love Community Orphanage
Zambia

2008-10-05T09:51:00.000-07:00

Let me start off this entry by saying that right now I (Jako), look like a brick, feel like sand, and roll like stones. This is basically the three things that I have been digging and loading to get the building going these past two months.

On August 15th I twisted and tore the ligaments in my left ankle. Even though I had to use crutches for a few days I thank God that I was able to continue working. Though the ankle is still sensitive and a bit weak it continues to improve every day. We are thankful it has healed as quickly as it has and wasn’t injured more seriously.

Orphange House Progress
Even though we have hired local builders for the orphanage house, it has still been my responsibility to dig and bring them all the sand, stones, and bricks that they need for the building. Since we last wrote, the concrete floor of the house has been poured and the plastering is done in the whole orphanage house. This is huge and we are happy to see the progress.

Physical help from the villages has been decreasing so I decided that it would be a good idea for me to hire a small crew of 3 to 4 local guys to help me 6 days a week. Praise God for providing the financial funds to not only make this happen but for also providing me with dependable, hard working guys who I have known for a while. With all of us working hard from early in the mornings (6am) until late we have gotten lots done. We thank God for the energy and will power to get up every day and work in the heat. The temperature is now reaching 35 degrees C (95 F) and it is not even summer yet. At least the business and discomfort of the heat distracts us from missing all of our foreign helpers and friends from the past few months.

We have dug the hole for the orphanage toilet septic tank (3 x 3 x 2 meters, length, height, and depth respectively). We wanted to dig a bit deeper but after digging half a meter through barach we figured it would be easier to just go wider. We also dug the foundation and poured the footers for the kitchen, toilets, and showers for the orphanage house. Because of quality standards we hired the builders and to date they have finished all the brick work on the toilet and bathroom building and are now working on the kitchen. Thanks to Fanuel (our foreman/ security guard) the brick work is completed on the library as well. With all of the practice he is getting to perfect his brick laying skills, and soon he will be considered a master builder as well. It is very rewarding to see the end in sight for all the brick work.

The crew and I have been able to continue with the roof of the orphanage house. With the wood having lied in the sun for so long (unexpectedly) the planks ended up drying out and warping quite a bit. It’s taken us som muscle power to make them work but I am happy to say that to date we have finished the A frames on the roof . Now we just need to purchase more wood planks and tin roof sheets to finish it all by the middle/ end of October. This is the time that we will be heading back to South Africa with Amber’s mom and brother, Terry but also the time that the rain can start. The roof needs to be on before then because the top smooth layer of floor can only be laid once the roof is completed because of all the dirt and tree pods being blow around by the hard wind this time of year.

Headmen, Senior Headmen, and 2 hour late meetings
As I said earlier, help from the local villages had started to diminish. We also discovered several people cutting trees down on the property so we decided to call a meeting with the various headmen, senior headmen, and orphanage committee. After waiting over 2 hours for about 10 of the 28 headmen to show up we decided to start. These meetings are rarely fun as often it just becomes a blame game of who is not doing their job. This meeting however turned out quite productive. After working out some issues and clarifying some things, each headmen there agreed to send at least 2 people a week to help with sand and stone and anything else needed for the orphanage. We decided on days of Tuesdays and Thursday and so far most of the help has shown up. This is a big help not only to me but also an answer to prayer in making and keeping this truly a community orphanage. Thank you God for chairing this meeting for us.

Our KitchenAmber is very happy that the roof of the kitchen is basically done and the floor completed. She has already moved in and is oh so happy about her much improved cooking quarters and especially her built in pantry. After over a year of sharing shelves with tools, sleeping bags, and our personal storage items, she is now very happy that everything now has it’s own place.

First Fruits and Fences
The fruit orchard continues to do well and some of the trees are growing like weeds. Amber is very happy to have a fence around the entire thing that the “crew” and I put up in August. This fence will keep the local cattle from feasting on the young banana trees. It is sad to think that we probably would have had fruit from them last year had the cattle not eaten them to stubs but at least this year they have been outsmarted.

We have enjoyed our first few strawberries and think we might be able to harvest some gooseberries this year as well. And this is only a sampling of all the different fruits that we hope will come to bear in the next few years. Amber has been happy to have the local ladies coming by occasionally to help with the watering. She is also very thankful to have the assistance of our newly acquired “used” 4 x 4 quad/ATV that came up with a friend in July. This makes hauling the 220 liters of water needed everyday just for the orchard much easier. She has also devised a great system of reusing our grey water to limit the amount of hand pumping we have to do for watering.

Quad Power
Not only is the quad it very light on fuel (giving us at least double what we get with the Hilux and the Landy) we can use it to haul water, wood, logs and even some stones, and especially to get around in the rainy season when all the standing water and clay mud makes it difficult if not impossible to drive with our heavier vehicles. We truly thank God for this long prayer of more than two years.

Technical Difficulties
We had hoped that our multiple technical difficulties had ceased back in July but since then we have had several more things stop working. The first thing that broke was our small generator. Somehow it ended up leaking petrol on to the generator and basically blew some of our electronics and almost all of our appliances power supplies (including our computers). This forced us to leave for Livingstone to have our things fixed . While there we were blessed to find a good diesel generator that is bigger and can give power to both us and the orphanage house in the raining season (short term) for then our solar panel obviously won’t work.

With the generator came a free 180 liter electric refrigerator. We didn’t know exactly what we would do with it but figured now that we had the power to run it we would use it for the house and orphanage somehow. Obviously God knew what we needed before we did because we when got back home our fridge that works with LP gas stopped working. Try as I did I could not get it right so we had to put everything in the new refrigerator and start the generator 2- 3 times a day to keep everything cold. After trips to town and finding out that South Africa was the only place allowed to work on these fridges I upped my efforts. With over 2 weeks of praying and working on it, the fridge started to work again. We are so thankful to God that it is working and also for the money we are now saving on fuel for the generator since diesel is now at $2.64 a litter ($ 10 a gallon) here.

In between all of this the Land Rovers electric fan packed up. It took me some time to look for the right part in town but I came up empty handed. In the end I asked one of the village men than is known to fix engines if he happened to have a fan with a pulley that a belt can fit to and also a bearing to run out. To my amazement he had the exact piece. With metal we had lying around here I built a bracket for it. God gave me wisdom and after two days of planning and three days of building it is now working very well. Now I do not have to worry about the fan breaking or the battery dying. This is a huge weight off of my shoulders.

Our Late Night Visitor
In August we had a southern file snake visiting us for a couple nights and he was about 1 meter long. With all the poisonous snakes around here – this type is a good snake. They are not aggressive and are the only snake that will kill and eat black mambas and puff adders two of the most dangerous snakes and know for the death of lots of people. But for the last 3 weeks we have not seen him around at night. We don’t know if he is keeping a low profile or if the dogs have scared him to a new location

Us the Local Ambulance?Lately we had lots of patients; - from rocks falling on toes that burst open, dog bites, and burn victims our medical supplies and vehicle have definitely been called on and put to good use. And now there appears to be a local chicken pox epidemic going round! The two burn victims were severe and both needed hospitalization. The first was a girl who in the midst of an epileptic fit fell face first into the fire. We heard about her after she had been one week at the local clinic when they said that they could do nothing more for her. We helped transport her to a hospital that could help her. The second was a man that showed up at 23:30 one night. His whole back was burnt with no skin on it. He explained that they had been sleeping in a grass hut when it set alight. He and his wife instinctively ran out before they realized that the baby was still in the hut. He quickly ran back in but that was when he got burnt. Thank God that the baby was fine with no burns only little coughing. As severe as his burns were we hear that he is now doing better.

Our first Zambian Wedding
In August we had the privilege of being invited to our first traditional Tonga wedding in the village. Since the groom was the son of our local friend and village pastor Petrus they wanted the wedding to be traditionally Christian and I was honored to be asked to give scripture and a wedding message. It was a neat experience and we enjoyed seeing all the joyous dancing and traditions. The community made us feel like honored guests.

Tractor engine, customs, waiting, waiting and more waiting
After a week of waiting for customs and clearance in Livingstone, we now finally have our new tractor engine and parts. When we got it back home I eagerly assembled it all together and had fun testing it out. We praise God for the provision of this so that we can try to get our land ready for crops before the rains come. We are also thankful that God intervened in such a way to protect us from bribe fees and corruption in the importation process. While it is definitely different driving a vehicle I am having fun acquiring a new skill and trying out my farming abilities.

Help and Family on the Way
With the race to beat the rain well on it’s way we are ever so thankful to have Amber’s mom and older brother Terry planning to visit us from October 9th – the 28th. The plan is to spend a few weeks here in Zambia, then drive back to South Africa to spend a few days there before they fly home. Amber and I can then take care of some business in South Africa, spend some time with my mom and our supporters as well before we head back to Zambia sometime in November.

Thanks for your prayers for Amber’s mom. It is truly by God’s grace that she is able to come at all with her cancer. For those wanting more info on her story visit www.caringbridge.org/visit/jillfinklea .This will be Terry’s first time here and we are excited to have him as well, not only for his height and muscles but also just to make some good memories as well. Please pray for their continued good health and safe travels and also that we would get everything done in time before they come, before we have to leave for South Africa, and before the rains come.

Politics and Presidents
All three of the countries that we call home are undergoing presidential changes at the moment. In August President Manawasa of Zambia unexpectedly passed away and emergency elections are scheduled to be held the end of this month. In South Africa President Mbeki was asked to resign and a new President was appointed. The U.S. Presidential elections are scheduled for November. Please keep these three countries and leaders in your prayers – that they will listen to God’s leading and lead the countries in an upright and honorable manner.

Thanks for your continued prayers, encouragement, support, and for the role you play in helping to make all this possible. Thank you God and to you, God bless.

Oh and don’t forget to check out new photos at www.picasaweb.google.com/missionoflovezambia
In the first 2 new folders

Thank you

Jako and Amber Joubert