One year here!

Wow, this time one year ago we were on our way to Zambia!! Jon and I were laughing as we reflected on the past year; we literally had no idea what we were stepping into when we got on that plane a year ago! But praise the Lord that we stepped out in faith! It's been a roller coaster ride but we thank God for his direction in our lives. Coming here has been a life-changing experience and to be a part of the Amano community is such a blessing.
On Sunday we had the incredible privelege of seeing three of the young people from school being baptised! It was such a moving service as we heard these young people tell their raw and genuine testimonies about giving their lives to Jesus. For us, this is the core of why we are here; to see the young people making a choice to follow Christ and to live out their lives passionately in pursuit of Him.

It is a strange time here at school at the moment as the Grade 12's prepare to start the IGCSE's in October. It starts to become a reality that these students will soon be leaving Amano with the exception of those staying for 6th Form. Living on campus and seeing these students day in and day out (especially those in the dorm) means that we are very much a family here; it will certainly be sad to say goodbye!

But we had a brilliant evening last Friday as we attended the Grade 12 fundraiser; they are trying to raise money for a final outing together as a year group. So they hosted a dinner and quiz night in the school hall. They did a brilliant job in decorating the dusty bare hall. It was incredible that 90 people bought tickets (in comparison to 30 last year) ad the whole evening was a great success (apart from my quiz knowledge!).

I had also wanted to post a picture of the new volunteer, Melanie who is now helping out in the Girls Dorm. Mel has come from an organisation in Germany called 'Liebenzell'. She has been here for 4 weeks now and is a HUGE blessing to us. I managed to get a picture of her and the primaries :-)

Football, squash and jousting!!

Sorry it has been a while since we last blogged, term is now well under way and we are busily back into the swing of things! I can't believe that we have nearly been back 3 weeks already..time is flying!

The first weekend we were back Jon went to meet his brother Rob in Ndola and they went to watch Zambia vs Uganda at the new(ish) football stadium. Thankfully Zambia won!!

They had a great time together; it is such a blessing to have a family member close by. We plan to visit his project on October Half Term. Rob continues to work in Mpongwe (about 2 hours from us). You can see his blog at http://www.doingmybusinessinthebush.com/

Life in the dorm is going well so far this term. We have 26 girls and we are currently working hard as a staff team to help create more of a community and family atmosphere. We have made quite a few small changes to ensure that the girls are participating more in dorm duties, including organising activities for Friday evenings. We have introduced a reward system; 'Dorm Points' which is so far going very well!! and we have also tried to introduce a weekly prayer meeting with the girls.

                                                      Baking with the primaries!!

Last weekend Jon and I took the secondary girls into town to play squash! I so wish I had taken my camera as there were some brilliant moments. I'm glad to say that most of the girls are about the same squash playing level as me! enthusiastic but not so good at hitting the ball! We had a great laugh and it was brill to spend time together :-)
Jon has now started to get more involved with dorm life so that we get to see each other a bit more. He is now coming in every tuesday evening. So far it is working out well.

T4:12 (youth group) is still running regularly on Thurday evenings for secondary students. Our theme this term is based around 'God has a plan for your life'; Last week we talked about Courage and tonight I will be talking about having our Identity in Christ. We continue to have lots of loud and silly games; it's great to see the students relax and let their hair down after a busy week of studying, especially as it comes closer to the IGCSE's.

Last week, the young people dressed up one of their team members as knights and then we held a jousting competition! I've not laughed that much in a long time!

This weekend is also a busy one; the grade 12's will host a 'quiz and dinner' night tomorrow to raise funds for their graduation activities and then Sunday 3 students are getting baptised at the Amano Family Worship. Very exciting!!

Back to normality!

So, Yesterday was the first day of school of the third term! The borders came back on Monday and so the peace of the dorm is broken! It has really been great to see the girls, catch up with them and get back into routine :-)
We have certainly been blessed with an amazingly relaxing holiday and we're feeling refreshed and ready to go again now!
Jon has been verrry busy trying to get his driving license sorted. He reckons he has queued for over 20 hours last week trying to see the driving centre manager and get all the documents etc sorted. A good test of his patience! He managed to pass his theory test with 86%. He took his test yesterday- and YAY!! He passed!! So so pleased as we both now have our Zambian driving licenses!

In the holidays Jon's brother came to visit; he is currently working for 'Kaloko Trust' near Ndola (about 2 hours from us). He came to stay with us for the weekend! It was a massive boost for both of us to see a member of family and Jon and Rob enjoyed some beloved computer games together! Jon hopes to see him again this coming weekend :-)

We managed to squeeze in a whole day of movies as some of us gathered to watch the WHOLE lord of the rings trilogy! Numb Bum!!

As promised, here is a pic of my friends baby- he is called Mumba Lumpa!

Today, I got some amazing cushion covers made for the youth groups old battered sofa's. So chuffed with them that I thought I'd upload a few pics :-) They will look good in the banana house when it is ready!

Jon has settled back into school life and the kids are enjoying his 'mini-affro'!! No time for a haircut yet!

Can't believe we have now been here a year! Time is flying too fast.

happy days :-)

We're having a lovely holiday so far. Really enjoying our time at the farm- so peaceful and relaxing. Last week we spent most of the week catching up with friends, watching the American 'Office' (amazing!) and doing a bit of preperation for next term.

Tuesday was our 2nd wedding anniversary and we enjoyed a very chilled out day which mainly consisted of me getting thrashed at Monopoly again(!) by Jona. We had a mini braai in the evening where Jon cooked us a lovely steak and we ate in the garden :-) We both can't believe that 2years have slipped by so fast...but what a brilliant 2 years it has been :-)

On Wednesday we had an 'interesting' day in Lusaka when we went to try and collect our work permits. It was great that we were able to fly down in one of the little planes, only took 1.5hours as opposed to about 7 on the bus! We arrived at immigration, never been there before and it was a real experience!! lol. I think we spoke to most of the staff members in the building and were back and forth between desks and after approx 3-4 hours we unfortunately left empty handed :-( It seems that they have been misplaced somewhere in the endless stacks of blue files!  So after waiting a year for them, the search goes on!
But we did have a lovely lunch with some friends at a curry place. I had an AMAZING sweet and sour, almost like what you might get in England :-) We had a quick look around a few shops, it's very interesting to see how westernised the shops etc are in Lusaka, it was almost like looking around West Quay in Southampton!

On Thursday Jon and Jarrett spent the morning painting the banana with a white undercoat. It's very exciting to slowly see the banana house taking shape as we prepare for it to become a youth building where we can meet for youth group/discipleship groups/socials etc. We plan to let the young people come up with ideas for what colour it will be and all the interior designs etc. Should be fun :-)

Yesterday Jon went to Ndola to meet his brother who has arrived in Zambia! woop. He will be working just past Ndola for a charity called Kaloko. He will be helping to set up a radio station and doing some business research for them. They came back on public transport and it's really great to have Rob here for the weekend. We went to a friends house last night and had a great evening playing board games and relaxing.

Whilst Jon went to Ndola, I went to Amanda and Sarah to Chingola to see Illona (a primary teacher from the school who has gone on maternity leave). Her baby is called Mumba and is now 4 weeks old. He is soooooo cute and it was great to see Illona looking so well!

Really enjoying our hols so far and happy that today has no schedule apart from reading books and playing squash (for the boys!).

TwaDusha (To Rest)

In the last couple of weeks it has been quite busy, stressful and felt like a cricket innings at times. And now we have reached a rest and recoup point. There have been some real gems from the last few weeks, firstly spiritual emphasis week came at just the right moment and was really refreshing for all who attended the talks. In that week one of the students decided to become a christian. The Girls dorm has become more of a community, last weekend they all had a meal together from the chicken the village gave us and they have also been helping with different dorm duties. We are very pleased with how there is a good sense of community developing and hope it continues into the new term.

Also Did  not mention this in the last blog but it was a historic moment for me as I managed to beat Dave at squash 2-1, which is a 1st so now need to keep running for the ball, Good thing the court is small in Squash.

We're excited that Jon's brother is currently travelling to Zambia, he is coming to work in Ndola (about an hour and a half from us) for 3 months with a charity called Kaloko Trust. It will be brilliant to see him and we're really excited for his arrival!

Today was a sad day as we said goodbye to Matt and Louise, a couple who have been helping at the school and in the dorms for the last 3 months. We have become very good friends with them both and it will be very sad to see them go. But we had a fantastic day together with them; they cooked us a lovely lunch and then we had a dip in the verrrry cold swimming pool.

We are currently staying at our friends house. They have gone to Germany for the holidays and offered for us to house and cat sit. It is a gorgeous location and we're absolutely loving it already :-) They have 5 cats which is pretty fun! One of them brought in a dead bird this morning- yuk! Feathers everywhere!