An update from Jako and Amber:
This trip up we went past our normal stops and headed straight to Lusaka the capital of Zambia to find out about the status of our work permits. In doing that we spent two days in Lusaka with them sending me from office to office. In the afternoon of the first day I found out that our permits had been approved but that they were all out of the permits that they needed to give us (and had been for three months now). They also said that they did not know when they would get the new permits. From there they sent me to another office and there I had to wait about one hour before they told me that I had to come back tomorrow for they were out of report orders that they had to give us to state that we have do in fact have work permits. The next morning we did as we were told and went back to the same office where they put a stamp in each of our passports (only valid for 30 days) and said that we have to be back at their office before 7 July 2007 to get another stamp. That worried me knowing that we were only coming back to Zambia on 19 July but when I tried to explain they were so busy that they wouldn’t listen and just ushered me away. The rest of the day we walked around in Lusaka and did window shopping and than got an early night’s sleep to hit the road early the next morning on route to Mukamba.
We worked hard the entire time we were in Mukamba because there was much we needed to do. We loaded stones, dug a big hole to get sand (to fill in our foundation), mixed concrete, and started to lay the foundation slab. It took us the entire week and we still weren’t finished because some days it was only Amber and me that were available to do any work. It is a busy time for the people there as they are busy finishing the harvest. There were days that I was left to mix concrete and smooth the slab while Amber pumped almost 500 litres of water in a day. What a supper women God has blessed me with. On Saturday the 16th, we again fought off both discouragement and fatigue started work at 7 o’clock. About two hours later, just as we were wondering if we were ever going to be able to finish this project, people started to show up to come and help. We had people mixing with the hands and the concrete mixer. Before long we had about 12 and despite all disbelief (we thought there was no way) at 17:30 in the afternoon we finished! Man, were we excided and if we hadn’t been so tired I’m sure we would have danced with joy. It was a true testimony to God’s goodness and what can be accomplished when we work together.
One of the days when we went to Kalomo to go and buy cement we heard from Petrus that the Zambia communication network got a new system that he heard might work in Mukamba. We were very surprised and sceptical but figured we had to at least go and check it out. When we talked to them they told us that what we had heard was correct. They have a unit that works as a land line but is wireless and works through an antenna. They had towers up for it in Livingston and Zimba but would need to come out to test to see if they could get signal where we were. To our surprise they did on Thursday the 14th (drove their own car at their own expense) and we all rejoiced when they found signal! Praise God for this technology! We bought the unit then and there and applied for a line and the next day I went back to Kalomo and picked it up. Next year we will activate the internet and then we also have 24 hour internet conection. Well for a price it seems you can get a lot. The unit cost us a lot of money but God is good and we thank Him for this. To have phone and internet connection in the bush where everything else failed is just amazing. Even satellite phones struggled there. It was a sweet reminder that God will provide all our needs as we prepare (mentally and physically) to move there permanently.
We left Mukamba on Tuesday and went to Livingstone to go and find out what we could do to get the 30 day story sort out. After a long explanation in Livingstone they said that the work permits had arrived in Lusaka but they did not know if ours would be ready or not. They said that we should just go up there to find out but with it costing quite a bit of money to do we decided we’d try our phone contact first to see if ours were ready or not. We attempted to phone our contact in Lusaka but no luck getting her. On Wednesday we got a number of some one else but by the end of the afternoon we were getting antsy and when she said I must phone her again at 11:00 o’clock on Thursday, Amber and me decided to go to Lusaka on the bus the next morning. We got tickets and left on the bus at 5:30 the morning we got to Lusaka and at the Immigration’s office at 12:00 and they were sending me from room to room. After a lot of running around we found out our’s had been issued! It was only God’s grace that we were able to get though because they closed at 12:30 for lunch (not opening again until 14:30) but we wanted to catch the last bus back to Livingstone at 13:30 so we were praying and God granted our wish and 20:15 we got back at Livingstone excited about all that lay ahead for us. We arrived home in South Africa late Friday night.
Thanks so much for your prayers for this endeavour. Now that we have our work visas we do not have to worry about how many days we are allowed in Zambia for the next two years. The rest of this year we will spend transitioning with the hope to more there permanently come beginning of next year. Next month we head up again to meet a team from Va coming to help start the first orphanage house. God is good!
Prayer request:
Please pray for the cement that we will need to keep building. Currently there is no cement in Zambia because of the demand for it in South Africa due to stadiums they are building for the the 2010 world cup. Zambia does not know when they will get cement again. We are planning to see if we can get some in South Africa and take it up when we need it next month.
Please pray also for God’s guidance and peace as we begin to prepare to make Zambia our new home – both physically and mentally as we start to transition from all that we know, love, and appreciate here. That we will be reminded of God’s faithfulness and step boldly, with faith, into this new chapter, to the glory of God.
No comments:
Post a Comment