An Eventful Week

As mentioned in my last post, it all started with a neighborhood sewage blockage that brought the yuck of five houses into our yard right outside the bedroom windows. After I posted last, the problem worsened by the hour. By the time we went to bed, the soupy sludge gurgled like a creek as it forced its way up through the lid and out into our yard.

Nope, no pictures of how bad it got. Some things you just don't want to see nor do I want to photograph, trust me.

That went on all the next day and night. Wednesday afternoon, the plugged pipe was located and fixed. There is only one problem. We now have gobs of human waste in our yard which seeped under the brick wall and out to the ditch in front of our house. Naturally, it is up to us to clean it up.

A few hours after the sewage problem was solved, the Zambia Foursquare Convention started. There was no time to clean up the sludge and really, where does one even start on a project like that?

This convention was very important to the church and to our ministry here as a whole new national team was to be decided upon.

The convention was excellent. We are thrilled with the new leadership team and look forward to partnering with it's members during the years ahead. It was good to connect with Zambian church leaders all in one place. I think it was healthy for everyone to have fun in the midst of handling church business matters.

Here I am in my traditional Zambian Citangi suit with Sarah Mwila. She asked Jason to take this photo to put here on my blog saying, "I want all your friends in America to see you are Zambian now!" Sarah is tons of fun and determined to teach me how to dance like a true Zambian. Good luck on that one!

Foursquare Missions Regional Coordinators Glen and Rosemary Mickel drove up from South Africa along with their assistant David Stime and Pastor Glen Denyssen, the national overseer for Foursquare South Africa. They were in Zambia for the convention and truly, it was wonderful to visit with them briefly there and then more in depth today when they visited our home before making the long drive back to Johannesburg.

Left to right: Pastor Glen Denyssen, Rosemary Mickel, Glen Mickel, Me, Jason, and David Stime. We thoroughly enjoyed visiting with them in our home. During convention, I mentioned that I make a pretty mean chicken and dumplings dish and invited them all to sample it the following day for lunch. There was no hesitation in taking me up on that offer.

I close with this image of Pastor Jennifer Nkandu, our new National Overseer for Foursquare Zambia. Jennifer and her husband John are seasoned pastors who enthusiastically chose to minister to those living in the compounds (Zambian term for slum). They are very humble and committed to discovering God's will for their personal lives as well as for the church at large.

We look forward to a fruitful season of ministry as we partner with Jennifer, John and the rest of the team in the coming months. I will keep you all posted! Until then, it is almost 1 a.m. so I'm off to bed.

I hope you all have a glorious weekend!

Blessings,
Beckie