Life on a farm in Zambia

Today, I would like to show you the farm where I stayed while in Zambia.

Like most farms in the area, this farm is back a long lane and across the "dambo" (an area that fills with water during the rainy season and used as a water supply the rest of the year).

I stayed with this family of Afrikaans farmers.

They attend Independent Baptist Church in Kabwe.

The back of the house

The room where I slept

Every night I slept under a mosquito net.

Even though the net is made of mesh, it gets quite hot and very hard to sleep under one.

The farm has a number of fruit trees & bushes.

They have mangos, papaya, guava, pineapple, pomegranate, grapes, bananas,...

The farmer's wife dries any excess fruit.

She also makes butter & yogurt with the excess milk.

Homemade butter - yum!!!

Marion and I became like sisters.

She was truly as Anne of Green Gables says, "a kindred spirit".

Marion's house

Gate to the farm

The sheepfold

Marion has over 100 sheep.  She raises them for a profit.

Many lambs were born while I stayed there.

I loved being on the farm and would tromp out through the sheepfold and fields.

On the second week, the farmers came home from the store with a pair of muck boots for me!

That was so precious that they thought about me 

and wanted to make me feel a part of the family.

This farm has between 15-20 cows.

Everyday the foreman delivers milk to homes nearby on this bicycle.

I greatly enjoyed living on the farm in Zambia.

I enjoyed the godly fellowship.

I enjoyed the busyness of farm living.

I enjoyed feeling at home & like family.

After surrendering to serve the Lord in Zambia,

one of my prayer requests was about housing.

Between me & the Lord, I asked Him to provide a place for me 

to live on a farm and specifically near this family.

A few weeks ago, I got word that they found a place for me to live.

Guess what!

The Lord gave me the desire of my heart and has allowed me to live on this same farm!!!

I am so excited to get to my home there, to teach children, share the Gospel, 

disciple the saved, and also to be with my Afrikaans family.

"Delight thyself also in the Lord: and He shall give thee the desires of thine heart."  ~ Psalm 37:4

MZBC VBS

On the first day of VBS, there were 50 - 4&5 year olds.

They were divided into two classes.

That first day was exciting and hectic at the same time

as we made plans for a larger group than expected.  

We set up more chairs and tables, shared crafting supplies, and prayed even harder.

Our goal - to share with these little ones the love of God by pointing them to the Savior.

The smiling faces were so precious!

Monday- Wednesday, the children were taught about the days of creation,

Adam & Eve's sweet fellowship with God in the Garden of Eden,

and then of thier sin which broke man's fellowship with God.

(We could see the Holy Spirit working in the hearts of these little ones 

as we talked about how we are all sinners in need of the Savior.)

Thursday, the children sat in quietness as they listened to Miss Michelle

 talk about Christ dying for their sin.  

They asked questions of curiosity and spoke of believing in the Savior.

Friday, we used the puppets during our lesson to talk about Heaven.

They liked the fact that there would be no sadness or crying in Heaven 

and that Jesus would be there.

Each day we had a handful of children who wanted to talk privately with the teachers.

By the end of the week, we had a number of children who had responded to the lessons. 

Many seeds were planted.

Many lives were touched.

We saw 4 children saved in our class!!!

One of the little girls who was saved, was a visitor on Tuesday.

She was invited by a bus kid.

On Wednesday, she accepted Jesus as her Savior!

She said, "Miss Gina, I understand and I want Jesus to save me from my sin".

That's not the end of the story.

On Sunday evening, her parents attended the closing program.

Her mother went forward during the invitation and accepted Christ as her Savior.

Later in the evening, one of our pastors was speaking to the girl's father.

He ended up accepting Christ that night also!!!

We had a glorious week of VBS with high attendances each day.

The most blessed thing was the around 30 children & parents who were saved.

I am so thankful that I had the chance to be here to see the Lord at work in so many lives.

"And Jesus called a little child unto Him, and set him in the midst of them,

 And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.

Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven."

Matthew 18:2-4

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

About the Ministry of Furlough -

Furlough is a time when missionaries come home from the mission field to report to their supporting churches, gather more needed support, visit with family and friends, and the opportunity to serve in various ministries at their sending church and other churches.  During furlough, a missionary is pulled in many directions of service.  It is not always an easy task to go from one place to the other, saying quick "hellos" and quick "goodbyes".  The people a missionary invests in on furlough are lives they may get to impact for Christ for just an hour, day, or week.   The eternal rewards of the Ministry of Furlough will many times only be known when we get to Heaven.  The Lord uses the ministries a missionary is a part of during furlough to strengthen their spiritual walk and to teach them things that will help their ministry on the mission field.  Pray for your missionaries on furlough.  Their heart's desire is to be on the mission field where God has placed them. 

How to know the will of God?

Every Christian has asked themselves this same question a multitude of times.

As a child growing up in a Christian home, I was always directed to follow the will of God.  
To some, "the will of God" seems to be so far away, so untouchable, so unattainable.  
"How do I know?"... "What if I make the wrong decision?"... are questions we face.

As teenagers looking toward the future, we seek God's will for "where should I go to college?"  or "who should I marry?"



As young adults, you may still be searching for "God's will in your life", "what should I do with my life", "was my spouse really God's perfect will for me?"...

In our adult years the question about the will of God may come to us in the form of many questions like - "where should I live?" "where should I work?" "how to raise my children?" "what minsitries do You want me to serve in?"

As older adults, although a bit more settled, you may still ask "what is God's will for me now that I am older?" "do You really have a purpose for me in my older life?"


Yes, all through our life we seek to know the will of the Lord.  In my 20 years of service in ministry, I have found myself asking the same questions on numerous occasions.  Each time, God has revealed His will to me in the same ways, but yet in different ways too.  What does that mean?

Let me explain the 3 main things that help us to know the will of God.
1. Through the Word of God
2. In communication with Him in prayer
3. By the counsel of godly leadership

How can you know the heart of God, unless you know more about Him?  We learn of our Lord through the pages of His Word.  If you are not in His Word, how can you hear His voice?  I was recently reminded of a lesson I taught at a Mother/Daughter Banquet about 5 years ago.  I had been studying the life of Mary, Jesus' mother.  

Mary was a humble woman.  She wanted to be so in-tune with God that He could call her His "handmaiden".  A handmaiden is someone who can anticipate their Master's needs just by the wave of the hand, pointing of the fingers, with a look of the eyes... 

The best handmaidens are the ones who are so close to their Master that they can know what is the Master's will by watching the Master's eyes.  Whew!  That is the type of servant of the Lord I want to be!

We cannot be that in tune with the Lord if we are not hearing what He has to say to us.  Is the Word of God alive in your heart?  Is God doing life changing things in you?  Maybe its time to "burn off the dross" and allow God to purify and sanctify you as a vessel for His use.  Let's get in God's Word, ask Him to work in our lives, and then obey and heed to what He says!

As God speaks to us, we need to be in communication with Him through prayer. I have realized that as I write down and pray over things in my life, I can hear God's will more clearly.  When I voice my prayers to my Heavenly Father, He sometimes reveals to me that my requests are not of His choosing and then He works in my heart to accept His will.  As we take time to praise, pray, petition & plead with Him, He provides peace and direction in our lives.

George Muller

A quality prayer life is something that noone can give you or take away from you.  Yesterday, I was thinking about the people who have made a great impact on the world for Christ.  I thought of Hudson Taylor's hours spent in prayer, George Mueller's prayers of faith, and how David Livingston died on his knees while talking to the Lord.  The Gospel went forth in a powerful way and the lives of these men speak to us today, because of their persistant prayers to God.  How is your communication with God?  You may be missing out on knowing the Lord's will in your life, if you are not in constant communication with Him.

I am amazed with how many people say they are faithful in devotions & prayer, but then turn around and do something that they say is "the will of God", but is totally contrary to the Word of God.  

Why is this?  I believe it is because of our fleshly nature. We know what God wants, but our own desires many times over rule what He says.  There are even good people who have others vouch for thier decision as the "will of God".  No matter where we are in this sinful world, we will always be able to find someone to agree with our decisions that are made in the flesh.  

Beware of faulty counsel!  The Bible teaches us that "in the multitude of counselors there is safety". Who are your counselors?  Do you go to people who you know will go along with what you want to do or do you find people who are - in the Word of God faithfully, have a personal prayer life, are faithful to church, have a godly testimony, are clearly of the Lord and not of this world? 

It is important for us to have godly counselors for a number of reasons - 
1. they help to guide us away from our own will, to the will of the Father;
2. they have a clearer understanding of our strengths and weakness, 
3. they can see how God is working in our lives as we share what He is speaking to us about and how He is leading.

I have 3 main counselors that I go to - my pastor & his wife, my parents, and another very godly leader. These three counselors know me well, share in my burdens, and pray for me faithfully.  I am so thankful to have such spiritual people in my life.  

With that said, I have a warning I need to throw in here.  Beware of "godly" counselors who may have thier own agenda.  Your walk with the Lord needs to be strong as you seek Him personally.  You should not rely on the Lord to tell your counselors what you should do.  God WILL speak to you!  He uses your counselors to guide you, but He does not use them as your "lord & masters".  He is a personal God and it is His leading you should seek, not the will of man.  

I say all of that, because as I was seeking the Lord about first going to Africa, some of my "godly" counselors did not want to see me leave.  They had their own reasons for not wanting me to go at first - my dad did not want me to go so far away for so long because I am still his 'little girl', another wanted me to stay because they did not want to find a replacement for my ministry in the USA,...  

Those were of course only initial feelings.  As these "godly" counselors saw God at work in my heart & live and His drawing me to the foreign field they saw God's hand in it and counseled me to go.  We all prayed and fasted for 6 months before that decision was made.  God made Himself clearly known to us during that time.  I would not have gone, if God had not worked in that way.  

This is where a strong personal walk with the Lord comes in.  You must spend time alone with God!  I had to get away from what man and human reasoning said and listen for that "still small voice".

So, I ask you today - what is God speaking to you about?  Are you listening to Him?  If not, what will you do about it?