Thank you to those of you who have been praying for our tiny, tiny baby with CP, Brighton. He weighed in today at 4.5 Kg, so he has gained one kg since we’ve been providing formula two weeks ago. He looks a little fuller in the face, though still feels so light. After he grows a bit, we’ll be able to see what other needs he has. Right now, we are just compelled to get him eating, and sturdier, to try to figure out what his needs are. Jennipher, his mom, seems very happy with his growth, as well as very relieved. Please pray for her, as she is sick (a cold, since is it “winter” here everyone is sick ((except us, thank God!!!))). Thank you to our supporters who have provided formula for Brighton, and food for their small, very poor family.
Joseph is 18, has intellectual disabilities, and has virtually nothing by the world’s standards. He has a Mom who loves him, a 5 ft x 7 ft home, yet no schooling, no books, no therapies, no wheelchair, no way to do anything for himself, and yet, was so happy. He was happy to meet us, happy to have us visit, and very upset when we left him. It is complicated. He needs to see a doctor. He needs a way to get to the doctor, and to get around in general. His Mom is getting older, and has trouble lifting him. He is incontinent, and sits in the dirt all day. He needs some diapers. He needs medicine. It was humbling to realize how little we could do for him, and yet how much God cares for him. How much his plight is known by our Lord and Savior, and how His strengths and weaknesses are all a part of God’s plan, for Joseph, for us, for his Mom, and for all who know him. His bright smile was a joy. Wishing there was more we could do for his Mom and him was frustrating, yet after reading Amy Carmichael’s writings for my devotional time this week, very apropos. She talks so clearly about our sufferings drawing us to Christ, as we learn to be more like Him, as we trust, and endure and look to the hope of Heaven, where all who are like Joseph will be made new. I can’t wait to see what Heaven is like, when those who are called, who had intellectual disabilities in this life will be perfected, and what that will be like.
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our afflictions, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort, too. If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation, and if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer. Our hope for you is unshaken, for we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort.” 2 Cor. 1:3-7
“But He said to me, My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” 2 Cor. 12:9-10
We have a 13 year old girl named Loveness who has an intellectual disability, and one side of her body is affected by muscle weakness/tightness since she had meningitis at 6 months of age. This is a cause we frequently hear, yet, it is hard to believe she hasn’t had something since birth (like reduced oxygen, or something similar), in order to have both left arm and left leg affected. Her arm and hand are never used, and yet, she does walk, though with a limp. We have taken her to the Italian Hospital to have a brace made for her foot, to turn it into the correct position for walking, and have connected her family to the Physiotherapy Clinic in their compound, called Chilenje. She has been going to Physiotherapy three times a week for one hour, and her family has been continuing the therapy at home, three times a day. They do seem to understand the importance of doing the therapy for her now, or the realization that she will NEVER be able to use her arm and hand. They are deeply committed, it seems, to caring for her, and are doing what each therapist tells them to do. This family has six children from about 25-13, I believe (it is hard to keep track so forgive me if I am off by a year or so), with a hard-working father (the welder who makes swings I’ve mentioned before) and a stay-home Mom. Each of the older children is in school for a diploma or degree, and family has very little resources. It would be wonderful if one or more of our readers would grab this need, and donate specifically to it. The cost will include the foot brace, a wrist brace, socks to protect her leg from rubbing, especially when summer comes, and new shoelaces for her shoes (her current ones are broken, and the shoes need to be snug over the brace). I don’t know the totals at this point, but I believe it would be less than $200. If you are interested, please email us, and we’ll happily put your donation toward Loveness’ supports and its’ associated needs. Thanks so much.
This is a formal thank you note, since Zambian mail is completely unreliable, to thank each person that donated items, packed boxes, moved boxes, repacked boxes, bought items, had bake sales, yard sales, or helped in ANY way to get our shipping container sent two days ago. Thank you also to our large donor that paid for the entire shipment so we didn’t have to affect our day-to-day operations due to the cost of the shipping. We are tremendously thankful for Catherine Martin, our US Director of Operations, who is not paid, and put in countless hours of her time! Catherine, you definitely get that double-raise next year. We will double your salary! Also, special thanks goes to the Earles family, who housed our whole 20 ft. by 8 ft. by 8 ft. container contents since late March when we left Charlottesville. They have great attitudes, and didn’t seem to mind having Special Hope boxes mailed to their home, and people coming by with donations, and others camped out on their basement floor inventorying items, packing, and sorting. This job couldn’t have been done without Catherine or the Earles family. Thank you, Jason and Mary, for your kindness to us, and your unflappableness.
We just can’t wait to get all the educational supplies to give to the clinics and classrooms here, and to share the books and other educational resources with families that don’t have anything. There are so many exciting things on that container, we are excited to receive it, but also very aware of how long the 45-60 days could actually be. Toyota has proven the fact to us that we are completely not in control of anything!
So, if you could each please picture this a personally addressed envelope in your real mailbox, thanking you for your time and effort from each of us at Special Hope Network, we are VERY grateful!
We had an odd theme today, July 20th, a regular old Tuesday in the life of those of us at Special Hope.
Remember as I tell you this story, that the basic meal for all Zambians for ALL meals is Nshima, a cornmeal porridge, that is eaten thicker than a porridge, more like the consistency of play dough, and is eaten with the right hand, rolled into a ball, and eaten with different ndiyos on top (”relishes”), such as little fish, beans, greens sauteed with onions and tomatoes, and very little else. In this way, a whole family can eat off of ONE PLATE, not each person sitting at a table with their own plate and silverware. Most families do not have full sets of silverware, place settings, cups, and even tables.
So this morning, I gave some greens we had been given yesterday by our landlord’s family to our garden worker, Mr. Daka. He was very grateful, and thanked me, and thanked me and thanked me. (Can you imagine a father in the US being overwhelmingly grateful for a bunch of chinese greens?) He has not been bringing food with him, though he works at our home all day. I asked him whether he has food to bring with him, and he said yes, but his eyes said no. It was a humbling moment for me, as I realized that his pride couldn’t admit how little he had, so I have to just take food out to him and assume it is in addition to what he is ‘bringing’ with him. To do other would shame him, and that would be very bad. I gave him some citrus from our trees to go with his greens and reminded him that everything he plants and cares for in our garden his family will benefit from….
Let me also take a step back here, to explain another layer. There are no McDonald’s, Wendy’s, Taco Bell, Chipotle, Starbucks, Dunkin Donuts, or any other easy to buy fast food. People just simply don’t have the money, so there isn’t the demand. So, for a man like our garden worker, who has a full-time job, his full salary will pay his rent, water, and electricity, and leave little else for food, and we are paying him well by Zambian standards. He would not have tupperware to carry leftovers, or any easy-to-carry snack foods. Remember my post early on about so wishing for granola bars or dried fruit from America because there are so few purchasable foods that are easy to carry with you? Aside from pieces of fresh fruit, Zambian food is not easy to carry. Nshima is hot, and cooked, and not saved for another meal. Mothers know exactly how much to make for the amount of people eating, without wasting a single grain of cornmeal. We never see people eating food out and about. It seems hunger is a norm here, when we feel the urge to fix that problem at its first provocation!
The next interaction I had was with our home worker, Mrs. Mulenga. She has been sewing some of the curtains we need, since my sewing machine is in the US, and I wanted to make sure she had enough money to make it to the end of the month, when she wants to be paid. She told me she does want to be paid at the end of the month, but if she could have $50,000KW today ($10), that would be helpful because all she has in her house to eat is nshima. Unlike Americans who are prone to exaggeration, such as “I have no food in the house, I need to go shopping”, when we really have canned goods, food in the freezer, and things on the shelf, but we just don’t have the extras to make abundant meals. She really meant that she only had a bag of Mealie Meal (nshima uncooked). I gave her the $50,000 kw….
Then we went to the home of our Nyanja teacher, and had our lesson. Beth and Nancy made us Nshima for a snack, while Maggie and Mollie and I watched (they were both on the edge of a full-blown fall apart rampage). The ONLY food in her kitchen, where 11 people live, is Nshima. We took her 5 bags of fresh produce we had bought for her this morning at the market when we bought our vegetables for the week. When I saw her kitchen, I was doubly glad we had taken her vegetables. As we did our lesson, her son Taonga peeled an orange, and handed some of the peeled slices to Nancy as she talked with us, which was very tender. 11 people, one giant bag of nshima, and nothing else in sight…..
The final step in the lesson for the day was that our previous garden worker, from the house we stayed in when we first arrived, called to say that he needed our help to assist him. To make a long story short, in trying to procure the title for his “house”, which is a small plot of land with a partially built cement block wall on it, he used his whole salary for the month. He had to do this in order to get water for his family at his “house”, since he couldn’t hook up to city water without the title. He was humbling himself before us to ask if we could help him, since all he had for the next 10 days until July 30th when he gets paid again (and he is paid quite well by Zambian standards) was one partial bag of Nshima, which might cover the next day or so…
I tell you all this, because I am learning lessons, not to produce guilt in you as you read. We are all used to abundance. Abundance of food. Abundance of variety of food. Abundance of availability of food. Abundance of availability of a variety of food, wherever we are. Others around the world are not so surrounded by choice as we are. What would your family do if you fed them polenta without salt for every meal for a week? My family would (and actually DID) revolt. Maggie’s face today, when she was served nshima with beef kidneys for her snack, was embarrassing to me as a Mom who doesn’t want to offend others. Beth held her face much more stoically than Maggie, but inside was quite revolted. Mollie was less horrified, and ate happily, since Nancy was rolling her balls of nshima and putting them into her mouth for her- which she loved! But, I have clearly trained them with variety and abundance! Maggie was horrified, and kept huffing her disapproval. I have some pictures of it, but I’m not too proud to post them.
So, as you pray for us, pray for those we serve. Today we were in direct contact, and able to affect the lives of four families in dire financial need. Please pray for wisdom as we give, that we would know how much to give, and how to give in a way that doesn’t take away the pride the folks here have in their work, or shame them in any way. Pray for the Daka family, the Mulenga family, the Zimba family, and the Lungu family.
And, for those of you carefully following our stories, please continue to pray for baby Brighton. He is now eating 4 1/2 bottles of formula each day, and has started to smile, and his Mama says he is happy and satisfied! Praise God!
This is a quick, short post to let you who’ve been praying know that Brighton, the baby who wasn’t thriving, and who we spent the day with last Friday, is eating! I called to check on him yesterday afternoon, and his Mom, Jennipher said he had had three full bottles by the time I had called, and that he was quite satisfied. This is a particular joy, because the NICU here wasn’t doing anything, and the doctors at UTH (University Teaching Hospital) seemed quite miffed that we had brought him, when the NICU should have been following him (and WAS following him), but just told her to keep breastfeeding him, even though her milk was different than with her first two children, and even though he wasn’t growing even a smidge.
If we hadn’t had our little malnourished orphan boy, Samuel, we wouldn’t have known how to be a help to them at all. We are grateful that our experience 14 years ago from the wisdom of nutritionists at Children’s Hospital in Boston came in quite handy this week as we used the same concepts to care for Brighton. We’ll keep you updated on his growth, as we eliminate, hopefully, malnutrition, and figure out what the extent of his other intellectual disabilities are. Thank you for praying!
a father of a child who has significant special needs, both intellectual disability as well as one entire side of her body affected physically, divulged to us that he has this child! Can you believe it took that many visits for him to tell us about his daughter? Her name is Loveness, and she is 13, with contracted muscles in her arm and hand so tight that she doesn’t use it for anything. She walks, but drags one leg, and then walks on the side of her foot. As I talked with her, I realized the extent of her cognitive delay, as well. We made an appointment with Isaac the prosthetist, and they took a taxi and met me there.
To back up a bit, this is surely a moment that God ordained before time, and that we had nothing to do with, in and of ourselves. Paul, the Dad, is a welder who makes swings. He makes his swings at the carpentry place we went to first, the place we had wrongly, and quite inadvertently gotten a reference to. The missionary who recommended him thought he had given us a different number, knowing full well that the carpenter we hired was a not-on-the-ethical-side-of-things fellow. Each time we went back to check on the first chair we were having made, we ran into Paul, as he worked on his swings, and as we looked for our carpenter who had gone missing. And, for those of you readers that know our kids, you’ll know that Mollie went on his swings EVERY time we were there. So we had plenty of time to talk with Paul. He also was the one who told us when our carpenter was in jail, that enabled us to get every penny of our deposit back. The final time we heard about his daughter, the sixth visit, was on Beth’s birthday. We had gone to the carpentry place to price and compare handmade dressers, desks, and chairs for her room, since she had been given money toward buying those things locally for her birthday. As Eric and Beth turned over each drawer, desk and chair to look at craftsmanship and price, I was standing by the swings with Mollie (of course!), and Paul came over to ask what we do here in Lusaka. Funny that it took him six visits! They say the third time is the charm, but not here. I guess it took him that long to feel comfortable enough to ask what specifically we do, and then to divulge that his daughter has needs, and to see what we could do for her. So, I called Isaac to see when he’d be in, and we made the appointment for Thursday (two days ago), and he evaluated her, and will make a brace for one of her feet. I am trying to find out the physical therapy clinic in her area, and will take her next week. She will need physical therapy daily for awhile, done by her family after being trained by a therapist, and followed up by me, and then, Isaac thought he could make a small brace for her at night while she sleeps to train her hand to be in a more ‘normal’ position. So, it was a good day of caring for a child who has needs, yet has a loving family, and no resources to care for her needs. We will need a donor for her foot brace, and one for her hand brace whenever she gets it, down the road a bit. If you are interested, please email info@specialhopenetwork.org, and let us know. We’ll let you know the price. The last one was under $100, so I think this one will be as well. The moral of the story is to keep going to the same places, and keep letting Mollie swing on their swings. At some point, someone will trust you enough to tell you about their child that they don’t usually speak about. And, that is worth a swing or two, don’t you think?
If I tried to write everything about our day, it would be a small novel, so I will do my best to try to convey the main points, and paint pictures for you of the parts I couldn’t take pictures of. We started our day with a 9 am appointment at the Chelstone Clinic, picking up our donor for the first braces we had made soon after we arrived in Lusaka. This donor ‘happened’ to be here for two months this summer working with Campus Crusade for Christ. We took her to the physiotherapy clinic to meet Bedson and his Mom, and to see how therapy is given here in Zambia, since she is an Occupational Therapy Student. So Beth, Christine, and I went to the clinic, where we met about 10 small children and their mothers, and one boy we were expecting to meet and serve in some capacity. We began to do therapy with as many children as we could, and at one point after about half an hour, Katherine, the volunteer physical therapist, pointed to a small lump under a big fleece blanket, and exclaimed that was the baby I was there to serve today! You see, he was born on May 19th, and still weighs his birth weight, 3.5 kg, which is under 7 lbs. He lost weight, and then gained just a tad. His diagnoses are unclear: cp? failure to thrive? low cognition? a combination of all of these? I thought to myself, “God, you have clearly gifted me with children who have cognitive delay, but what about this baby? What do you expect of me?”. As Eric and I discussed the possibilities last night in preparation for the day, we talked about how to determine who to serve, because the need is so great, and what, specifically, we should do for this baby. We talked about our options. Either let the Mom keep breastfeeding, and watch the baby slowly suffer, and most likely die, or intervene as best we can, and do what we can do to support her family in their desire for life for him. We chose the second. It seems a no-brainer, but, yet, with so many babies here (it seems every woman has one on her back), some might say, what is the death of one? And, yet, our God, the Good Shepherd, left his 99 sheep, to go save the one, and so, we took this one, Brighton, to the doctors we had been recommended. We were seen fairly quickly, Brighton was weighed and examined, and the next step was for us to go to University Teaching Hospital to be admitted to get nutrition given through a feeding tube, or to get the recipe to raise his nutrition level by adding formula to breast milk. To make a very long story as short as I can, this next part took all day. We were send three different places to be admitted, then finally paid, and were send to an intake nurse (with the little white hat and all!) who weighed, checked Brighton’s temperature, and asked all the same questions we’d already gone through. We were then sent around the corner to wait again. When we were called in to the treatment room, there were 5 treatment tables, without clean sheets on the stretcher-style tables, and 2 doctors, and a nurse. We were asked the same series of questions, and Brighton wasn’t looked at in too much detail. The doctor clearly was perplexed, and had no ideas. I told him about Samuel and his feeding schedule with the formula being made a bit more concentrated than the can said to do. He got up and traded places with another doctor, who was clearly NOT excited to see me there. So far, I was the only muzungu in the whole place, and I really stood out. He was not pleased, and asked me why I was there, and how I was ‘related’ to the patient. The sarcastic part of me wanted to say that he was my nephew and that Jennipher, the Mom, was my twin, but I held myself back, and told him about Special Hope, and that I am a mother of three children who have special needs. He was very unimpressed. He went back to his series of questions, and very little hands-on, very little care, and very little hope for this Mom with the baby who is clearly so sick and not thriving, though she is doing her best.
Let me make an aside here to say that my family has had the distinct, and now, clearly uncommon privilege of knowing some of the most tender, caring and kind doctors, and that today made me even more thankful for them. There were times when I needed hope, and they gave that to me, as a mom. Jennipher needed that today, and she didn’t get it from a doctor, a nurse, or anyone at the hospital. So, I know that God had me there for that part. Her child is not an accident, God created Brighton like he is, for His glory. Her child is adorable, and needs love and food, and clothing, just like any child. These doctors have so many to care for, and so little resources, that it seems they have lost what we have taken so for granted in our tender US doctors- giving hope to one who needs it.
So, after my telling the doctor about Samuel, and his higher caloric feeding regimen from Children’s Hospital in Boston, he thought that was a good idea, and recommended that Jennipher augment her breastfeeding with formula. So, we left the “Teaching Hospital”, which is the best hospital in Lusaka for kids with special needs, we’ve heard, and my brain started to work. ‘We are really hungry, get a snack. Go to a store that has formula, a bottle, and maybe a breast pump. Take her home to our house to show her how to make formula, boil the water to sterilize the bottle, etc. Oh, my, our Nyanja lesson started at home 1/2 hour ago! How did it get to be 4 pm?’ I went to a “Chemist”, and bought formula, large can, 130,000 KW or about $25, bought a bottle for 20,000 KW (less than $2.50), and bought a breast milk expresser for 69,500 KW (about $12), because the breast pumps were $120! Ran into the grocery store next door to buy us each a juice box, and a banana, to stave off the hunger, and drove home. Explained to her how to mix the formula, tried it, made the opening on the bottle bigger (glad for about the 1,000th time that I packed my Cutco knives in my suitcase!), and ahhhh, success, as Brighton drank and drank. Gave Jennipher a snack, changed Brighton’s nappy, and drove her home, with our Nyanja teacher, since our lesson was waylaid, and Maggie and Mollie since I hadn’t seen them all day. When we got to the edge of her compound, and I dropped her off, Jennipher was very thankful, and hugged and hugged me, and I realized then what we all need is a little hope. The doctors didn’t give her any. The nurses didn’t give her any.
I didn’t really do anything for Brighton. But, through God’s leading and timing, gave Jennipher hope. Hope that someone cares and loves her son. Hope that he will grow and become strong, Hope that things won’t always be this way. So, thank you, God, for using us today in the lives of this family. Please pray with us that little Brighton grows, and this will reveal what other delays he has. If any, at all! Thank you.
Finally after two months, untold hours of waiting, filling out documents, refilling out documents, waiting some more, being promised at least 10 times that we were going to get it THAT day, going to office after office, and then going to more offices, being on a first name basis with most of the people working in Toyota Zambia, livening up their waiting room more than they’ve probably ever had, we are actually in possession of the vehicle many of you gave toward- a tough, diesel, 13-seater Toyota Land Cruiser!!!
Sam was so thrilled when we went to Signs of the Times, and picked up our Special Hope Network logo to put on the side. They immediately attached a logo to both sides, much to his delight, and ours as well. After two months of waiting, we truly were beginning to think this day would never come. So, now we can go on roads that wouldn’t be considered roads in America- deeply rutted, rocky, dirt, cement pieces throughout, going over streams, and into gulleys, to get to kids who have never been served, who need care, and to be shown love by someone outside of their immediate family.
So, rejoice with us! We have enough friends here now, that we were able to drive by some of their homes, and they cheered with us, knowing the arduous task it was to get to this point, but how much more rewarding it would be to drive by your homes, those of you who gave of your resources to help us to serve these children who so desperately need it, and their parents, who are deeply encouraged by our interactions with their children and with them. So, thank you. Thank you!
For those of you who are reading the Enews and Updates, you are getting an almost daily account of what we’ve been doing. This has been a roller coaster of an 8 weeks, with many days feeling very normal and not terribly different than what I (Holly) would be doing in the USA, taking care of my kids, laundry, shopping for food, cooking, cleaning, and other such regular activities. Other days, though, have been so different from our normal routine, that it feels quite surreal to be on another continent living this life of faith and obedience to what God is calling us to do, and thinking occasionally about what our friends and family are currently up to. When we lived in the US, Africa was this big unknown (even scary) place. Now that I am here and have friends here and know so many kind Zambian people, that opinion has definitely changed. Sure, there are still things that can make my legs go weak with fear, but those are fewer and fewer as more and more the reality of life here is more known and less guesswork combined with movies and books, and articles I’ve read. In the US, I didn’t really know personally many people with tremendous need (meaning, no food, no money, and a little dark house with no electricity). The few I did know like that, I helped to link up to public service groups that helped to provide services and food to those in tough places, of course, using tax dollars. Here, in Lusaka, everything we purchase (no exclusions for things you need, like in some US States) is taxed at almost 17%, which is a ridiculous amount, after the higher cost of everything we are paying. If it is difficult for us to purchase things we need, not just the things we want, then how much more difficult it must be for those who have even less than we have. And, it seems those tax dollars aren’t used directly for needs of the people, except for medical clinics. If you could see the lines at those clinics, you wouldn’t believe it. Masses of people waiting in lines for hours for medical care they desperately need. It also doesn’t seem the tax dollars are used for road improvement, or other things like car inspections, for car emissions, and fewer breakdowns, or for therapies for children who have special needs. It certainly doesn’t seem like those tax dollars are used for any public classrooms for children who have intellectual disabilities. We’ll keep looking to see where those dollars are used, and keep you updated, if it involves children with needs. On another note…
We moved, for the 6th time since we left our home in Charlottesville, VA on January 28th. We are now in a very different style home than homes in the US, all on one floor, with bars outside of all the windows, and screens and glass inside those bars. It is secure, clean, has new paint all over (a rarity), and a cement block fence around the perimeter. If you have more than what you can carry on your body, you need really good security here, because people are in such need that the ‘things’ you have can provide for someone’s basic living, so robberies are always a potential. A missionary friend of ours was robbed on the downtown street two weeks ago (everyone gets paid on the same day of the month, so there is one day when everyone around town has a lot of cash on them, the people who pay their staffs, and the staff who get their monthly allotment), so we are careful, and especially careful when it comes to the welfare of our own children. So, the wall is odd. It feels very unwelcoming, but we have so many visitors, that we already have a revolving gate! We have two giant palm trees just inside our gate, and right now I am sitting on our front porch while the sun goes down with a beautiful sunset over the gate. It almost always smells of something burning, because people burn their trash, but right now, the smell is not too strong. There is always a lot of noise, like when we lived in the low-rent area of Salem, MA when we were first married. Always people talking, walking by, music drifting on the air, and sometimes a megaphone. Right now I can hear the sounds of a game of some sort over a megaphone far away, adding to the cacaphony. And, since it is sunset, people’s dogs are being let out of their crates and into the gated yards to do their guard work for the night. Unfortunately our little Boerboel puppies are crying (not a very fearsome sound, I can tell you), because they can see me, and can’t get to me, and I am not producing their supper! If you haven’t read our Enews and Updates, their names are Toot and Puddle. They are named after the children’s book series, a pair of best friends, who happen to be Maggie’s favorite animal, pigs!
So, we’ve made it through the moving, and are getting settled, which is both easier and harder with very little “stuff”. I was embarrassed at how much stuff I had when we left Charlottesville, but now, as I cook, I am so wishing for my kitchen things to make it easier to live. I have one 3 bowl set, and all three are constantly in use, or dirty. Who knew you need more than three bowls?
Today is Beth’s birthday, so we’ve had some fun today, and will do a special trip to a new area outside of Lusaka tomorrow. She was given some money toward furniture for her room (remember we have NONE!), and while we were out pricing a desk and chair, we met a Dad whose daughter is 11, and since she was 6 months old, hasn’t been able to use one side of her body. She had meningitis. She IS in school, which is wonderful, but we are still going to meet her this week, to see if there is any other way we can be helpful. This man is also the man who wants to make Mollie a swing, and who helped us locate the unresponsive, first carpenter who went to jail for taking our money and another person’s money. So, it took us seeing him at least 6 times before he mentioned to me his daughter, and her need. When we think we are going to price furniture, or shop for food, or other mundane tasks, it seems God always has something else in store. I need to go do the mundane, make dinner, but tonight, since it is a birthday dinner for our dear Beth, it is not to be mundane! Some of her favorites, ending with a chocolate almond cake (almonds hand-carried from the US), and a few more presents. Thanks for praying for us, we’ve really been thankful for each of you who write to encourage us, and pray for us daily or regularly.