God's grace and provision

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