Dear Friends and Family,

No, you did not miss our last newsletter. Nor have we forgotten. In fact, we often remember you in our prayers with thanksgiving. But the last time we wrote was just before Easter, and since then we have been traveling almost nonstop. So rather than try to recount every movement, let us tell you about our recent trip to Zambia’s Eastern Province.

The road from Chipata to Lundazi is a moonscape: craters within potholes. God help you if you’re pregnant!  Or have prostate trouble. Those last 100 miles took about four hours. Still, the destination was worthwhile. If Zambia can claim to be the “Real Africa,” then Lundazi is the Real Zambia.

Scottish missionaries came from Malawi starting in the 1890s. In those days, “mission field” meant wild animals, malaria, witchcraft, and inter-tribal warfare. Despite enormous hardship they built stations that endure. Even today, African Christians remember with reverence their spiritual mothers and fathers.

Modern Lundazi is like a county seat. One-story storefronts line the dusty streets. If you remember movies of the Wild West, it’s almost the same, except there are no horses. A short way from town you find typical rural villages: huts with thatched roofs, goats and chickens, no electricity or running water.

Following independence in 1964, the government took over certain mission schools in a bid for national unity. In recent years it has begun to hand them back. They suffer from lack of maintenance. Our inviting partner, the CCAP (Church of Central Africa Presbyterian) has regained eight schools within the district that we visited. Each headmaster was facing similar challenges: repair the facilities, find desks and learning materials, mobilize the community, provide housing for the teachers. In some cases, they also need to provide for weekly boarders—students who walk such a distance that they can only go back home on weekends. Girls usually crowd into a single room where they sleep on reed mats and fix meals over campfires. Boys look for lodging with a family in a village; otherwise, they must do the same. Though far from an ideal learning environment, it is inspiring to see their commitment.

We stayed overnight at the newly finished guesthouse built by CCAP as a project to generate income. We think we probably got the honeymoon suite. It had a toilet instead of pit latrine.

We visited all the schools, plus two clinics, a farm, a mission station, and several local churches. Both of us preached (at different places) on Sunday. Ted dedicated the guesthouse. Both of us taught lay-training workshops.

Sometimes the best moments come between the lines:

• Sue got to visit the teenage daughter of a woman whose funeral we had attended. She is now in boarding school and forging bravely ahead, like many Zambian children who lack their parents or a parent
• Ted was driving from a distant rural place when flagged down one night by a family in an ox cart. Someone was suffering from severe malaria. Ted diverted to a clinic. We think we arrived in time.
• Sue preached on the evils of Western culture, which many local people adopt without question. They asked her to repeat the same message at a school. They also rewarded her with a live chicken.
• The woman who interpreted while Sue was teaching on grief had—unbeknownst to us—recently lost her husband. In the past, she would not let herself be comforted, but when thrust by her church into speaking in front of 100, she derived much benefit from what she was repeating.
• We finally discovered how to change tires on our vehicle. It took a special tool to unlock the spare.
• We met an Italian priest on a bumpy dirt road, riding his bicycle like one of the local people. Turns out, he has served in this region for 50 years. He sure speaks excellent Tumbuka.

On our last night in Lundazi we were invited to a church, “just to say goodbye” to one of our hosts. That was the ruse. When we arrived, we discovered a farewell party that took our breath away. Once again we realized: our greatest gift is not to bring money. Nor teaching, nor counsel. It is simply to show up.

Since all of you have shown up for us in many ways, we say thank you once again as we head off to Zimbabwe tomorrow.

God bless,

Sue and Ted

The 2007 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 337

P.S. We will come to the States for three months of travel starting late July and ending early November. While not all of the schedule has yet been filled in, we currently have the following general commitments:

New England: August
Central Florida: mid-September
Atlanta: mid-to-late September
Philadelphia: late September and early October
Central Tennessee (Ted): mid-October
Albany, New York, area (Sue): mid-October
Central Ohio (Ted): mid-October
Central New Jersey: late October