Team Blog Summary – December 2011

Here is a summary of our team’s blogs for December. Click on a title to go to the full article. 




Brian & Sondra Davis

MISSIONARY JOURNEY: Jason Davis, apprentice
  “and all the people came early in the morning to hear him at the temple.”  Luke 21:38  NIV                   An apprentice has to choose a mentor.  (I am always humbled when someone puts that level of trust in my hands.)  Apprentices also get to choose when they will accept mentoring.  Jason has a habit of showing up early in the morning.  This impresses me to no end!  Not only does he understand the finer points of coffee consumption, but frankly, my mind works better in…

MISSIONARY JOURNEY: Mentoring
“What you have heard me teach publicly you should teach to others. Share these teachings with people you can trust. Then they will be able to teach others these same things.”  2 Timothy 2:2 ERV                   One of the great joys of missionary life is when one gets the opportunity to mentor an apprentice over a 2 year period.  I was fortunate to have this experience in my formation as a young missionary and have endeavored to return the favor.  Prior to this year, I have…

MISSIONARY JOURNEY: Servant hood Leadership
“…and whosoever would be first among you, shall be servant of all.”  Mark 10:44 ASV                 Every once in a while, a missionary gets to see the fruit.  While at a women’s Bible school training seminar among the Congolese refugees, we witnessed Congolese church leaders cooking and preparing a meal for the ladies of the congregation.  They had built their little grass kitchen, prepared a traditional meal, and even washed all of the dishes.  After the seminar, I asked the…



Rick & Karen Love


Needed: Home School Teacher
We just put up some information about our need for a home school teacher for our children. You might be interested or know someone else who could do this. Please see the following page for more information: Home School Teacher for Our Children

Pigs, Prayer, Praise, and Power
Our growing family is healthy and growing well. Caleb now has two and a half teeth and I call him our little snagle tooth. Even with teeth coming in for the most part he's a very contented little boy. Emily is well also. She's our little pink, poofy dress, wedding veil (piece of old mosquito net), princess shoes, singing, little darling. She loves to put layer upon layer upon layer of skirts (in the middle of our hot season) to make her dresses as big as possible. But under all those layers of…



Jeremy & Whitney Davis

Christmas or “Kimishish” in KiKaonde
We are two weeks shy of having lived in Zambia for one year.That is so hard to believe. Part of me feels like we just got here and anotherpart of me feels like I can’t even remember what carpet looks like or what DietCoke tastes like. Anyways, this post is not about our one year mark, that willcome later. Jeremy and I have been married for three years now, and wehave only been home for one Christmas so far in our marriage. Our Jamaican honeymoonfell on Christmas and now our third Christmas together…

Three Years
Three years ago today, I became Mrs. Jeremy Davis! It has been an incredible three years. I am blessed and so thankful. How do you put in to words what your marriage means to you? I don't know, but these three years have been the years I've loved the most and grown the most. We are blessed.

Fields and Christmas
After the day I had yesterday I am so grateful for a God that is so much bigger than me. I am thankful for his hand which is stretched out over those I cannot reach and over things I simply do not and will not understand. I am thankful that he is with my 91 year old grandmother as she fights back pains in Rome, GA and is having to take an unexpected 30 day stint in a live-in rehab to heal. I miss her and wish I could sit with and listen to her stories to pass the time, but God is there. On the opposite end…

Sunday Blessings
Yesterday we had a full and rewarding day. Jason, Erin,Jeremy and I all set off for the refugee camp for church. We were going toworship at Rd. 68 church because one of Jeremy and Jason’s close friends hadjust lost his baby. Very tragic situation, but all too common in Zambia. The service was great as usual. Rd. 68 church of Christ isone of the oldest churches we have worked with, and they are all Congolese.They get VERY involved in worship: loud clapping like you’ve never heard beforeand singing…



Jason & Erin Davis

Mini Update
It has been quite a while since we have given an update. We have been very busy lately having fun with my visiting parents and holiday festivities. Here a few pictures from the past few weeks! We have been having some beautiful sunsets!  Ellie hosted a missionary ladies tea time a few days before Christmas. She made each of us our own little gingerbread dolls that had different hair colors. We had to go around to each doll to find our where we were sitting based on the doll that looked like us! So…

Newsletter!!
After several days of technical difficulties we were finally able to send out a new newsletter! Here it is...click on an image of a page then right click and choose "view image." That will open the image to a widow where you will automatically have the magnifying glass as your cursor. Use the magnifying glass tool to zoom in and read the articles. I hope that isn't too confusing. If it is, comment on the bottom with your email address so we can add you to our email list! Happy Holidays from…

Congregation Report - Mumbezhi Church of Christ

This year we have tried to stress the need for each congregation to grow via evangelism. In a land where truth is relative and ecumenicalism is embraced as “right”, evangelism pushes people out of their comfort zone. Thus accepting this great work of the church is a challenge for our young church plants.

The Mumbezhi congregation is actually outside of the Mumena Chieftaincy and is pretty far out in the bush. The majority are from different tribes, Lunda and a few Congolese. Mumbezhi, however, has been excited about evangelism. After teaching about the Gospel for several months, one Sunday when we arrived the congregation announced that 11 people wanted to put on Jesus in baptism. What a joy!

 We pray that all of our young churches will grow in this value and skill.
- Brian & Sondra

Team Blog Summary–November 2011

Here is a summary of our team’s blogs for November. Click on a title to go to the full article.

 

Team

Congregation Report - Kayonge Church of Christ

The Kayonge church suffered a terrible split a year ago. Two of their church leaders gave themselves over to sin and left and took others with them. Now, there are three men leading a small group of women and children. The church has been working really hard to finish their building. For the past eight months they had been meeting in the local school, but now they meet in the church building with an almost finished roof. The church of Kayonge is committed and willing to suffer persecution for Christ…

Congregation Report - Mushingashi Church of Christ

A church of about 15 adults mostly 50 year old and above, Mushingashi is a light in the middle of darkness. They have faithful members that day after day challenge the drunken atmosphere that surrounds them. One of the recent highlights for them was the conversion of a Pentecostal leader who has a strong influence in this community. Lwendo came to worship one Sunday stating that, because of the longstanding relationship and Bible teaching he had encountered with these Christians, he was ready to join a…

Congregation Report - Mutanda Church of Christ and Kanda-kanda Preaching Point

The Mutanda church is partnering with us at Kanda-kanda, our new preaching point. We have been having Bible studies there for over four months now. About two months ago, a man named Aaron was dying from tuberculosis, so we had some personal Bible studies with him. He wanted to become a Christian so he was baptized becoming the first Christian there. Since then he has been recovering from the tuberculosis and always attends the group Bible study. Then, three weeks ago, we started studying about obeying the…  

 

Rick & Karen Love

Love Family Blog

We decided to start our family blog back up and separate it from the team blog. This will give a space to put our family news up that may not be relevant to our work as missionaries.

Raining in Zambia

Greetings from a very wet Zambia. The rainy season is now in full force. Everything is starting to turn into a beautiful deep green and flowers are blooming every where. We're doing ok. The power has been out for some time though and I hope it comes on soon. Also, our back-up solar on our house has stopped working properly. The solar batteries have gotten too old. This having to use candle light at night isn't always the most ideal way of having fun. (Batteries for flash lights are very expensive…  

 

Jeremy & Whitney Davis

Mumena in November

I am happy to inform you that we are back in Kaonde land, Mumena. We had a huge thunderstorm to welcome us back as we were going to sleep Wednesday night. Jeremy and I have a tin roof, so when the rain gets hard enough we literally have to yell at each other to communicate. It is pretty funny. I loved getting back and seeing the sweet faces that we have been working with. I have a friend, Mesa, who is 17 or 18 years old and has an 18 month old baby. She spends each day hauling water for her family since she…

New Season

The rains are definitely here. The past few days it has rained constantly, especially at night, which I love. It always makes me think of my momma and grandmother, hearing the rain hit so hard on our roof—they always enjoyed listening to rainstorms under a tin sheet porch. Who knew that one day that would be what my roof is made of. Here are some pictures showing some of the perks of the rainy season. Since the ground is still really tough, we will wait until the end of the month to plant and garden, so I…

Quick Update

Just wanted to show a few pictures today. I am so proud of my husband and how he handles his work and passion in Zambia. I am a blessed woman. Here he is teaching some Congolese "youth" about serving and teaching the church. There are seven men who came early this week from the Maheba Refugee Camp, just 45 minutes away from us. They have been working with Brian, Jason and Jeremy (the 3 Davis men) on preparing lessons and learning how to use their Bibles to teach. These men are still considered…

Rainy Season Adventures

Last week, we had a seminar for 6 young Congolese men training them how to be preachers. I won’t write much about that experience, but you can see Jason and Erin’s blog as they tell more. However, one thing that happened proved to be very memorable. The last day they were here, we took them out to a Bible study in Mushingashi that go to every week. They were going to get a chance to practice preaching for this small congregation. So we all loaded up in the truck and headed off for the 40minute…

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a great Thanksgiving in Mumena with our team and our special guest, Chief Mumena! All of the ladies had previously met to divide up who cooks what, and we ended up with a very, VERY good meal. I was feeling especially thankful that day for our Chief who is so supportive of our team. I was so glad he came to share in our tradition. I was also so thankful for our families many, many miles away and our amazing supporters back home. We are so blessed! We had the honor of being responsible for cooking…

 

Jason & Erin Davis

Shiny and Smooth Mud Floor

Yesterday morning I ventured off a few miles toward the roadside on my little blue bicycle to spend some time with the sweet ladies from the congregation Jason and I work the closest with, Kampande. The Kampande church is such a wonderful and faithful group of believers. They recently put a new roof on their church building with iron sheets. Their old one was made of grass which was not completely leak proof during the rainy season. They are so excited about their new roof and have much reason to be…

Give Thanks Unceasingly

"...for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or want. I can do all this through him who gives me strength." -Philippians 4:11-13 Content, peaceful, thankful. These three words could be described as emotions, adjectives, and gifts. You can't have one without the other. Can you be…

The Heart of a Preacher, First Blooms, and Birthday Wishes!

It has been a great week so far. Sunday Jason and I visited the Rd. 68 congregation at the Maheba Refugee Settlement so we could transport a few young men back to Mumena for a preaching seminar Jason, Jeremy, and Brian have been teaching the past three days. I have sat in on a couple of Jason's classes and really enjoyed watching him strive to inspire these men while teaching about the "heart of a preacher." Jason has taught on the topics of love, humility, and lastly this morning, service. …

Insta-Mumena Part II

Although I have put intagramming on the back burner a bit the past couple of weeks I do have a couple of photos and one horrific story to tell: Welcome to our front yard: Lake front living; it's quite luxurious! Care packages: My sister and brother-in-law are some of the world's greatest care package givers. They always manage to fit more in one box than I thought possible and send wonderful goodies. Maeci does have an advantage above many when it comes to care packages because she sent them…

Thanksgiving in Mumena

We had a great first thanksgiving meal in Mumena yesterday. So much to be thankful for! Here are a few pictures! Turkeys at the grocery store here cost over $50 so we had home grown turkeys to eat! The turkey roasting team The Davis Families Chief Mumena stopped by to take part in the yummy food Lydia Love The Chief's yellow bug! Caleb and Emily Love. I think Caleb was wondering where all the turkey went. It was a new experience being away from family on Thanksgiving but…

Congregation Report - Mutanda Church of Christ and Kanda-kanda Preaching Point

The Mutanda church is partnering with us at Kanda-kanda, our new preaching point.  We have been having Bible studies there for over four months now.

About two months ago, a man named Aaron was dying from tuberculosis, so we had some personal Bible studies with him. He wanted to become a Christian so he was baptized becoming the first Christian there. Since then he has been recovering from the tuberculosis and always attends the group Bible study. Then, three weeks ago, we started studying about obeying the gospel in the group study. After Bible study there was one person who was baptized.  We repeated the study the next week and two more were baptized: One, the head man of the village, Mr. Kanda-kanda Pupe.

Now we have started a study of the church from the book of Acts.  They want to begin meeting on Sundays and we encouraged them to do so, all on their own.  Please keep these new babes in Christ and the work at Kanda-kanda in your prayers.

The Mutanda church has nearly finished the remodeling of their building. They have worked very hard to finish before there is too much rain. Even though they are busy, they have been faithful to help with planting a new congregation at Kanda-kanda. Thank God for these faithful Christians.

- Sam & Ellie

Congregation Report - Mushingashi Church of Christ

A church of about 15 adults mostly 50 year old and above, Mushingashi is a light in the middle of darkness. They have faithful members that day after day challenge the drunken atmosphere that surrounds them.

One of the recent highlights for them was the conversion of a Pentecostal leader who has a strong influence in this community. Lwendo came to worship one Sunday stating that, because of the longstanding relationship and Bible teaching he had encountered with these Christians, he was ready to join a family that was committed to following Christ and his word rather than the words of men at his previous church home.

Lwendo is a young and vibrant person with a heart to seek God’s kingdom. He is in a slave-like situation where he was convinced that if he worked, for free, for the “apostle” of the Pentecostal church that he was serving God. Consequently, this “apostle” doesn’t even allow Lwendo time to go to Bible study. He works him like a slave and is the richest person in the area. Lwendo has finally seen the lies through the persistence and outreach of the Christians in Mushingashi.

Pray for this church to continue to grow as it faces new persecutions as a local Pentecostal church has just lost their most vibrant leader.
- Jeremy & Whitney Davis