**Breaking News**

After 44 days of living with raw sewage gushing around our house and through our yard, the crisis is over (we hope)! Hooooray!!! Tonight was a victory celebration at the Sibleys. Cleanup begins tomorrow.

Blessings and joy,
Beckie

"If anthing is excellent or praiseworthy, think about such things."

I titled this post with the last few words of a well-known passage of scripture, Philippians 4:6-8. Is it possible to find anything excellent or praiseworthy after forty-one days of the neighborhood's sewage gushing all over our property? Honestly, some days, okay all days, (keepin' it real here), it seems I can't tolerate even another minute of it and yet that is not a choice I am privileged to make.

Actually, I am astounded that Beckie Sibley, who gags at the slightest sight, sound, or smell (particularly smell) of bodily fluids has managed to carry on a somewhat normal life while thousands of gallons of sewage meanders under her windows and through her yard. Seriously, it is absolutely disgusting to see what people are flushing down their toilets particularly when it is ...uh I'm sure you get the picture.

Below are a few images I captured recently no more than twenty feet from the foul-smelling sludge. As you can see, God has showered me with precious gifts all of whom are "excellent or praiseworthy" so they are what I choose to "think on". Enjoy!

Justin asked for pictures of his little brothers and sisters. After sitting for individual sessions (which was quite painful for the boys) they wanted group shots. Of course they could barely keep from laughing. We all had fun. Jason was being crazy as only a dad can do keeping us all in stitches.

Here are our sweet daughters. Their sisterhood has grown deeper since Sia and I returned from the States.

Aren't they just the cutest girls???

Okay, the story behind the above picture: Carlin is telling Justin he needs to get used to being second place in the family because he is not the "little kid" that left for Zambia a year and-a-half ago. Sibley men are constantly teasing each other over who is top dog. These boys can hardly wait to see their big brother and show him who is boss.

Can you hear the giggles through these images?

I just had to include this picture of Jason polishing the wood floors. He cranks up the music and really goes after it. Notice the sweatband? I absolutely LOVE my husband to pieces!

Living with raw sewage is one of the worst things I've ever experienced; yet it has provided another opportunity to see scripture come alive with relevance to my daily struggles. So again I ask the question, Is it possible to find anything excellent or praiseworthy in the midst of my current circumstances? I give all glory to God and say with utmost sincerity, YES.

"Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

"Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things." Philippians 4:6-8

Blessings and joy,
Beckie

A Special Home and Family

One of the most awesome and unexpected surprises to come along our Zambian journey is discovering Marlena Bellavia of Bend, Oregon (just up the road from our hometown of Redmond) and Vima Lupwa Homes in Mukomfwa, Zambia. Be sure to check out the website to learn more about this wonderful home and family.

Last Friday, we made a huge batch of potato salad with lots of our own fresh eggs, packed it into individual containers, and let it sit overnight (in the frig of course) for all the flavors to blend. Saturday, Shauna, Carlin, Steven, Sia and I scrunched into Jefferson's taxi and off we went to see the family.

We always take the same two books Handa's Surprise and Chameleon's Clever Trick as they are favorites. We will sneak in a few more next time but for now, these bring delightful squeals.

After Shauna read Handa's Surprise, Mwape and Alek identified all the animals. It brings me great pleasure to see these children become absorbed into the story.

Shadrek's eyes lit up at the first taste of potato salad as did the whole family.

Next, Carlin read Chameleon's Clever Trick. The children laughed and laughed. Loveness finds the camoflaged chameleon.

Loveness and Melody proudly demonstrated how they created these beautiful doilys. Someone named Winnie comes to the home every Tuesday morning to teach art and tutor the children in reading. I hope to meet this special lady on my next visit. The children can't wait to show her off to me.

Before moving to Zambia, I had no clue that peanuts are grown in the ground. Here Mwala holds up a plant with all the peanuts attached to the roots. We left with a whole bag of freshly picked peanuts and instructions to boil in water for 20 minutes. We had them for dinner tonight and they are quite yummy.

Below, Shauna and Mwape just about have this plant picked clean.

God has given me a real passion for children. Hearing their laughter, watching them play, gives me great joy. Being part of their childhoods is a tremendous privilege. Ooops...I'm going to save all of that for another post.

Now for an update on our sewage/water saga. Hard rains have kept the workers from being able to fix the pipe due to mud slides in the trench; BUT...drumroll please...WE HAVE WATER AGAIN! Woooo Hooooo! We are celebrating and giving thanks to God that we have our water back. Now if he would just stop the flush of our neighbors toilets from flowing under our windows and through our yard...

Blessings and joy,
Beckie

"Hello Beckie? Edith is dead."

That is how I learned that our friend Edith had died of what no one really knows. It doesn't seem to matter to anyone because knowing the cause of her death doesn't change the fact that she is dead. Dying, death, and funerals are processed very differently here. Death is an enormous part of life in Zambia.

The last time we saw Edith and her darling little girls, they were leaving for Lusaka to visit relatives in September. An illness delayed her return home to Ndola but we were under the impression that she had recovered. Her husband joined her in Lusaka after several weeks.

Edith is survived by her husband Sidney and their daughters, five-year old Shanda and baby Shalome who will celebrate her first birthday next month. She loved her family dearly and was a devoted mother. She will be missed by all who knew and loved her.

The following pictures were captured July 27, 2008 during Dan's visit to the Ndeke church.

Above: Isata asked to use my camera after church. The first person she photographed was Edith who was happy to oblige. She adored Isata and the feeling was mutual.

Below: This is 5 year old Shanda singing with her Sunday school class before the congregation. Her life will be forever changed.

Below: I captured this image during the same service. Edith is cuddling her baby daughter Shalome.

Below is husband Sidney.

Please keep Sidney, Shanda, Shalome, and all of Edith's friends and family in your prayers.

Blessings,
Beckie

They Broke the Water Lines

It happened last Thursday but since we have a large underground cistern, we still had water to our house until yesterday. We are capturing rain water off the roof for flushing toilets.

I guess the people who told us, "It could be worse" were right. It is worse.

Thank you for your prayers, words of comfort, and support. As a family, we all agree that we will laugh hardily about this someday. But not today.

Blessings,
Beckie

Sewage on All Sides

Dearest friends and family,

After my last post, many of you wrote to say that you care about what is happening in our lives, even the bad. So I will now share our reality for the past five weeks.

Jason called Kafubu Water & Sewage to let them know that the sewage level was at the top of the covers and would be spilling out into our yard within an hour or two. Click here for the rest of that story. That was February 7.

We are now surrounded by sewage. Granted some sides of the house are worse than others but I will let you see for yourself. While I usually enjoy photography, for obvious reasons these images were quite depressing to capture. Remember, this is our home and neighborhood.

The picture below shows where the problem begins once it backs up at our house. Waste from several houses starts coming up right here. As you can see, it literally runs right next to the house. This is a closeup. The photo following was taken farther out.

The window is to Carlin and Steven's bedroom. Ours is to the right just beyond the edge of the image.

From here the crud flows to the left along the length of the house and around Isata, Shauna, and Sia's bedroom where it splits off and meanders toward the outside wall of the property. Since I showed that picture in my February 11 post, I won't include it here.

Several of these access points exist in our yard. Up to now, all sewage bubbled up through the spot shown above. Today, the point in the back yard started flowing. In the picture below, the window to the far left is our bedroom (this is the other side of the house from the view shown in the first picture), the next window is actually the hallway leading to the boys' room. Next is a door. Then you see a small window up by the roof, then another door. Last is the window of our living / dining rooms. Oh, and the cute young man is Steven.

What appears to be water is more sewage. If you look carefully at the base of the house underneath our bedroom window, you can see a small black dot which is actually a narrow tunnel under the house leading to the area of the first two pictures.

It's purpose is to channel rain water and in this case, more sewage under the house where it can drain to the front and eventually empty into the ditch alongside the road instead of pouring inside our house.

Once it reaches the outside wall of the property, it passes through a small hole in the wall and out into the ditch beside the street. If you look closely, you can see the hole through which the stuff flows through.

Water and chunks then fall over the side to move along down the road.

The broken pipe causing this horrible problem is on the property two places down from us. Several families live there in one-room brick dwellings next to a main house. Jason went down and captured the next image. This is behind the main house. The huge mound of dirt resulted from digging down to the broken pipe.


I cropped the above picture to show you the children, brazer and basin of dishes waiting to be washed.

Of course none of this happens silently or without completely overhauling your sense of smell. It sounds like a babbling brook, seriously it does. But the stench is horrific and it never goes away. It is there when we eat, sleep, bathe...it is ALWAYS there and to be quite honest, it is depressing.

As you can imagine, we appreciate your love and prayers even more than before. The people around us don't seem to recognize this as a CRISIS! Although we understand why, it makes us extremely frustrated and sad.

The first time Jason went down to the house, he asked someone living there if she had called Kafubu Water. She said no because she didn't want to waste her talk-time when it wouldn't matter anyway. Honestly, I can see her point. The problem didn't have to take this long to solve. Several days went by when none of the workers even bothered to show up. The days they did arrive to work, they worked a few hours only then disappeared.

No one likes what is happening but they all accept it. We have heard, "It could be worse," on more than one occassion. But it just isn't acceptable for us to live this way. It's been almost five weeks.

Again, I want to thank you for standing by us through all of this. It means so much to know we are loved.

Blessings,
Beckie

Top of the Class

I have so much to share with you; some is wonderful and encouraging, another is frustrating (yes the sewage is still flowing abundantly--it's been more than a month now), and the last is heartbreaking. This post will focus on the first.

Last June, our beloved taxi driver Jefferson began bringing his little daughter Gloria to our our home school after she finished her government sponsored classes for the day. Class sizes in Ndola are 50+ per teacher. I have worked with several students attending Zambia's public schools and all were far below grade level. Gloria came to us half way through grade 3 and still couldn't recognize the letters in her name; yet it didn't take long to realize that she is one smart little girl.

Within two months, Gloria was reading well. Of course her understanding of English skyrocketed quickly. She completes her math facts, 100 addition followed by 100 subtraction in less than seven minutes with few to no errors. These are big accomplishments for an eight-year old Zambian child.

Up until last week, the only feedback we had from Jefferson was that Gloria loved coming to our house. It was obvious that neither he nor his wife Partner realized how much her math and reading had improved...until last week.

During a trip into town, Jefferson said Gloria has excelled to the top of her class and is often called upon to read stories or solve math problems in front of her peers. He learned this from her teacher.

Above, the kids are working on their math facts. They love to race each other to be the first one done with no errors.

You can only imagine how encouraging this was for all of us. I've taught my children how to work with the younger students so we all shared in the joy.

Jefferson and Partner were delighted to receive such an outstanding report. He talked to another taxi driver who then asked if his seven-year old daughter could join us. We were thrilled to accept Winnie into our little school. She was very shy at first but opens up more and more as the days progress.

The girls come to us after their school day is finished about 2:30 p.m. Since they have been in school all day, I focus on math, reading, and English. After that they play until it's time to eat. They eat dinner with us savoring each morsel.

It is a privilege to make a difference in the lives of these precious little girls. Our goal is to have them well grounded in the basics before we leave Zambia. We teach them all sorts including the importance of washing their hands and how to do so effectively.

Of course the boys believe that the true secret to success is sailing on the rope swing with style. Jason installed it up high in the largest of our six avocado trees. I will let the pictures tell the rest of the story.


Above Winnie works on her math facts. The goal is to finish 100 addition and 100 subtraction in less than ten minutes. Gloria's time is under seven minutes.

Of course just as important as math and reading is lots of fun. Above, Gloria introduces Winnie to the rope swing.

She is still not too sure of us. But we adore her!

Of course Gloria the pro loves to show off for her new friend and the camera.

Notice the concentration and the chicken (above).

For everyone who has met Jefferson, don't you think Gloria looks just like him? We absolutely LOVE this child (above). She is just as spunky as she looks too.

Little Winnie was not too sure about the camera until I showed her the images after each shot. She warms up to us more and more with every visit.

Above, Carlin takes a flying leap. As you can see from the image below, it's all about style.

Below Steven helps Winnie to swing as high as she is comfortable.

Of course Steven was all too willing to show off his "surfing" skills.

It gives me great pleasure to share these wonderful events with you. My next few posts won't be fun to read but will give you glimpses into the realities of living and working in Zambia.

Thank you for your love, devotion, and commitment to our family. When the challenges seem overwhelming, we always think about the love showered upon us from home. God loves and provides for us through people available to Him. Thank you for your words of encouragement and your prayers. We treasure them all.

Blessings and joy,
Beckie