On the road again....

One of the great parts of our ministry is that we get to visit most all the missionaries in Zambia.  We just recently travelled to the Western Province of Zambia (where we served our first three years).  On the way we had the amazing opportunity to see cape buffalo in Kafue National Park.  This is a rare sight and we saw them two different time!

 Our first stop was Mongu (6 hour trip) where we spent our first 15 months in language study.  Below is the flood plain.  As you can see, the Zambezi River is 25 kms from this point over the flood plain.  They are finally trying to build bridges over the flood plain to reach the town of Kalabo.  Back in 2010, we drove this 25 kms to Kalabo - during rainy season, in the rain.  It was a wild ride, for sure!

Below you can see the places that I am mentioning.

 After Mongu, we travelled about 5 more hours to visit a family in Sesheke.  As you can see, the kids had so much fun with their missionary cousins.

My beautiful friend, Melynda, baked me a belated birthday cake.

A snap before we leave Sesheke.

On the way home, we got a flat tire.  As you can see, we had lots of on-lookers which is really very common when one has a flat tire in the middle of a village.

After the flat was fixed (thanks to my multi talented husband), we were back on the way home after less than 30 minutes.  We leave in just a few days again, this time for a short holiday.  More pictures to come about that trip - hopefully, if I remember to take pictures.

The Number After Thirty Nine

I walked into my fourth decade today.  I was not bothered by the big 4-0 as much as I was a bit more introspective today.  I wonder what my life has been these past forty years and what my life can be in the next forty (plus!) years.  Have I lived well?  Has it all been for the glory of God?  

I have had the privilege to travel to fourteen different countries outside the USA in these past forty years.  I have seen more countries than some but not as much as others.  I have lived outside the USA for almost 11 years of my life.

I have a marvelous husband and three fantastic children.  It is my joy to live and minister in Zambia.  As I look back on my life, this one verse is speaking to my heart today:

A man's heart plans his ways, but the LORD directs his steps.

Proverbs 16:9

I am so grateful for the twists and turns that my life has taken; all the places I have seen, the people I have met, the gospel that has been spoken.  A few times, the Lord has taken me places that I did not want to go but, oh!, the beauty of allowing Him to direct my steps.  He has made all things beautiful even through the ashes of my grief of not getting my way.  I want my heart to be His - totally and always.  Trusting Him every day.  Praising Him in every way.  Lord, let it be so for the rest of my life.

A Teenager in the House

Our volunteer team wanted to do a surprise birthday party for Hadassah while some extra friends were in Lusaka.  We totally surprised her!

 On her actual birthday (July 28), we invited some friends over to the house to celebrate.

The kids always get to choose their birthday meals.  She chose fried chicken strips (thanks to Jeff), mashed potatoes, green bean bundles and....italian cream cake!

We are very grateful for all our friends who made 

Hadassah's 13th birthday so special!

2014-2015 Homeschool Curriculum

The new homeschool year has already started for us.  Many people have had questions on what we use for homeschool over here in Zambia, so I thought I would just tell everyone.  

Feel free to skip this post if homeschooling does not apply to you. :)

Above is Levi's Second Grade Curriculum.  

From the top down:

Rosetta Stone Spanish, Abeka Readers, Christian Light Readers of Helping Hands and Happy Hands, Explode the Code, Science in the Beginning, Horizons Math 2, All About Reading 3, Comprehensive Curriculum of Basic Skills 2nd grade, Language Smarts C, A Reason for Handwriting and Traditional Manuscript Handwriting.  Not pictured is Adventures in Phonics C because I forgot to put it in the picture, Mystery of History Volume 4 because they have not released the hardcopy (we are using a download for now) and The Drive Thru History American History Edition DVDs.  These are just the basics as we have lots of other books that go along with these, especially living books for history but I didn't want to pile all of them up for you to try to see...

Above is Zoe's Fourth Grade Curriculum.

From the top down is Abeka Spelling, Kay Arthur Bible Studies, Rod and Staff English 4, Meaningful Composition Writing Curriculum, Rosetta Stone Spanish, A Reason for Handwriting Cursive, Science in the Beginning, Horizons Math 4, Lightbearers Worldview Study (this is actually for middle school but I am adjusting it for all our children and it is the Bible that we all do together), Bob Jones University Reading 4.  She also is doing Mystery of History Volume 4.

And, Hadassah's Eighth Grade Curriculum.

From top to bottom is Abeka Spelling, Bob Jones University Literature, Deeper Roots Bible Study (we love these!), Rosetta Stone Spanish, Teaching Textbooks Algebra, Lightbearers Worldview Study, Bob Jones University Writing & Grammar and Bob Jones University Science 8.  Not shown is Mystery of History Volume 4.  This doesn't look like much (I realized as I piled up her books) but all of these subjects are very well rounded and in depth.  She also has a myriad of living books that go along with the Mystery of History as does Zoe.

Below are a few pictures of our school room...