Inward Renewal

On a recent family outing, we went to a town called Chirundu which borders Zimbabwe.  Tim, being the safari man he is, scouted out all the possible sites to see while we were there.  A few kilometers before the town, we stopped at the Chirundu Forest Reserve.  Tim and Michelle (along with us for the weekend) got out and started scouting out the place.  It didn’t look all that interesting to me at first so I hung back getting the children ready.  I took Ian and Ireen – we walked around the path and I was, for the most part, unimpressed.  Tim, on the other hand, was thrilled with what he saw.  Perhaps the discrepancy exists because I was looking up at trees and Tim was looking down at stumps.  This was a petrified forest.  No, it wasn’t scared of wild animals…the tree stumps were wood turned into rock.  They maintained the appearance of wood but all organic material had been replaced by minerals in a process called petrification.  Really, quite cool. Ian might gain more of an appreciation in years to come.

Earlier this week it rained very heavily in the Lusaka area so I’ve been carefully observing the drainage patterns out at Ciyanjano.  With our fencing project nearly completed it’s important that the water that’s draining from the top of the property to the bottom finds an adequate pathway under the fencing.   As the gullies exit the property on the lower boundary, water has been pushing up against the fence with debris.  So, on Tuesday I started making plans for designing a drainage system that consists of a stone/cement chute and iron gate at the fence line.  Jailos, Boniface, Richard and I went to George compound to organize rock.  We purchased 20 tons of gray rock to line the two chutes that needed to be created.  This morning I headed out to Ciyanjano early before work started to survey the progress being made and to give more instructions on how the chutes should be angled and constructed.  Ian and Ireen came with me because it’s their special “papa time” during the week.  Ian enjoys the ride in the “truck” while Ireen loves playing at the Sakala’s.  If they see me wearing my rain hat, they want to wear theirs too.  They always return from our half day adventure hungry and ready for cat-naps.  Check out these pics:

As you may or may not know in recent years AZ has had quite the baby boom.  Ian was born 10 months after Maddie, Tazi was born 6 wks after Ian, Jojo was born 6 months after Tazi, and Elli was born 3 months after Jojo. Pheww! sounds like some old testament genealogy.  Anyway, at our recent team gathering we were able to get pics of all the little squirts.  Cute bunch!!

This last MDO (mom’s day out), the rest of the AZ moms came over to work on various sewing projects.  Elise and I are both making baby blankets as gifts and Stephanie wanted to make Chitenge Christmas stockings.  We had a blast trying to come up with a pattern for the stockings and then a technique for making the folded cuff.   Since we’re all amateur (at best) seamstresses it took a lot of time and laughs but the end result was worth it.  Stephanie will have beautiful and unique stockings for the Christmas season this year.

Ireen loves helping mama in the kitchen.  Last weekend we were headed for an international braii (cook out) and brought along a side dish and dessert.  For the dessert I thought I would be “American” and brought along rice krispie treats.  However, when you use grape and strawberry flavored “Malvin the Mallowsaurus” marshmallows and rice krispies made in South Africa, the results are anything but “American”.  See the sequence of events below:

On rare occasions we’ll have a bag of marshmallows on hand.  Because Andrea made sweet potato souffle for Thanksgiving, we had a few left over.  Ian is in to marshmallows in a really big way!  So when he saw me opening up the cupboard he was sure that he wanted one – which I was more than delighted to do.  But I expect him to say “PLEASE” and “THANK YOU” when I give him something (which he is very accustomed to saying nowadays).  However, Ian had something else in mind.  With his hand trying to wrench the marshmallow out of my giving hand, he decided that he didn’t need to say “PLEASE”.  So things escalated between he and I…. I withdrew the marshmallow and sat down in the living room as if to say I was ready to bunker down for battle.  Ian of course followed me and started to pitch a fit. I laid the marshmallow down on the sofa and pleaded with him to repeat after me “PLEASE”.  He stood there reaching his hand out, acting as if he was going to take the marshmallow.  With his eyes glued on me, monitoring how I would respond to his defiance – he simply wouldn’t comply.  After flicking his little hand with my finger he turned his back to me and walked off with tears streaming down his face.  What would happen over the next few minutes seemed innocuous enough – but was still disobedience. A minute later he came back to the couch with his pacifier in his mouth.  I took it away from him because it was enabling and comforting his rebellious heart. Of course he turned his back to me again and and walked off with his lips quivering in distress.  This happened again and again in this fashion, with him: sucking on his toothbrush (item of comfort), clutching his ducky blanket (item of comfort), fetching Ireen (to plead his case for him) and finally bringing Andrea (his ultimate persuasive defence).  This whole episode was quite compelling and I felt like giving in to the little man.  But the real issue was his marshmallow disobedience and all these other things served as little wedges that kept him comfortable in the midst of his disobedience.  So, I held my position to the end.  Eventually Ian calmed down and came back to me and said “PLEASE” (pronounced peace in Ian language) and “THANK YOU” (pronounced do-do in Ian language).  It was exhilarating to see his heart of disobedience bend, so I ecstatically commended him and gave him the marshmallow.  I remained faithful to him this morning and he’s been happy ever since.  This all happened half an hour after I read the following passage in my devotional reading.

Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression for the remnant of his inheritance? He does not retain his anger forever, because he delights in steadfast love. He will again have compassion on us; he will tread our iniquities underfoot. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea. You will show faithfulness to Jacob and steadfast love to Abraham, as you have sworn to our fathers from the days of old.                                     (Micah 7:18-20)

A Tree House

A tree house, a free house, a secret you and me house,
A high up in the leafy branches cozy as can be house.

A street house, a neat house, be sure and wipe your feet house
Is not my kind of house at all ~ let’s go live in a tree house.

Shel Silverstein

Ireen has been drawn to climbing trees for as long as we can remember.  Each and every day, she makes her way up into her favorite guava tree in the backyard. She may not be visible, but we know she’s up there because of the way she chatters.  It’s like she is talking to an old friend.  When she feels mellow, sad, excited, or uneasy…she climbs.  Even after the noon showers and the tree is soaking wet she still asks,  “Can I climb the tree?”  For the most part she has a pretty good safety record, though she has fallen a number of times.  But routinely, she picks herself up after shedding a few tears and again ascends the tree.

Nowadays she’s an expert climber.  She swings from branch to branch with ease and dismounts with her famous flip. Yesterday, I found her 20 ft up in a tree at Ciyanjano.  Emma Whitfield was also with her and the two were as happy as they could be.  I wasn’t upset with her for climbing that high.  A few words of caution are in order, but Ireen likes to go that high and seems un-phased by it.  The fact that she made it up there by herself proves how daring she has become, not to mention how strong her upper body has become.  For the most part, it seems a healthy activity as she exercises her muscles and her imagination.

After everyone “put away” a delightful Thanksgiving dinner, the Action Zambia team spent time recounting some of the things we were most thankful for.  Going around the room, each of us attested to the Lord’s faithfulness and lavish blessings.  Following that, we sang the hymn “We Gather Together” and closed with a litany from the Book of Common Prayer.

Outdoor games were planned for the children (15).  Corbin and Jordan Ruseler helped get things started by organizing foot races out near the old football grounds… and the children had so much fun.  Parents who were looking on found it difficult to watch from the side lines.  Steve Allen really shook things up by playing tag.

After the fun outdoors, Andrea brought the children inside for a Thanksgiving craft.  They made thankful turkey hands.  Each child traced his/her hand and then wrote 5 things they were thankful for in each of the fingers.  The craft was finished off with glueing turkey heads on and decorating it.

Check out the fun below:

About twice a month, Andrea and Ireen catch the pancake bug.  When Ireen catches it, she follows Andrea’s every move.  She helps Andrea by stirring the batter and “supervising” the entire process from her perch on top of the step-ladder.  Ian catches the bug too – but he’s more interested in doing what Ireen gets to do.  Inevitably he buts in.  If Ireen let’s him get to the top rung of the step-ladder… he’s all smiles.

The Action Zambia missionary team opted to do a pig roast Hawaiian style for Thanksgiving.  That’s right, turkey got nixed in favor of Luke and Brent’s pork plans.  The results were absolutely fantastic!  We wish you were here to taste it.  True to style, Luke or Brent decided to throw a few parts into the serving pot.  Guess who got the surprise?  None other than Karen Singleton.  The picture above captures the look on her face.  She pulled out a hairy “protrusion”.  Most onlookers were shocked to see her holding up a hog’s tail.  But, Karen wasn’t so sure that it was the tail!  She thought it might be “something else”.  Hmmm… I guess we’ll never know.  Anyways, this got a lot of laughs from around the table.  Karen was so kind as to try to feed it to her husband Tracy (picture below).