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PARTNERPLAN
Keith & Ida Waddell - Zambia
December 2011
Mwandi UCZ Mission
PO Box 60693
Livingstone
Zambia
http://idaandkeith.blogspot.com
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Dear Family and Friends
In this is love: not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his son…….. 1 John 4:10
This text appears on the bell of the Jerusalem Church at the Mission. The bell was a gift from the Church of Lesotho, the Mission to Barotseland coming out of that Church. As a gift from our Mother Church it nicely demonstrates God’s love for us rather than our love for God, by sending his son into the world.
We have had the first real rains and the river is rising and the flood waters are beginning to spread. The fields are being ploughed and the maize seed sown. The trees are all lime green leaved and underneath lies the carpet of new grass. The egrets and open-billed storks are back and congregating, all signs of the advent season for us.
This year has seen the usual round of activities the teaching, nursing, building and coordinating. At the beginning of the year much effort was spent getting the new car on the road working in both Livingstone and Lusaka. The trips to Lusaka were combined with the procurement of milk formula, reagents, medicines and other Mission business. We appreciate the support we have for the Formula Programme. There are 46 babies at present receiving milk.
The new vehicle has been a real blessing for us and for the local Church. Between Epiphany and Easter we were able to visit, using the Church of Scotland vehicle, all 14 rural congregations in the Consistory. Boxes of clothes footwear and blankets and toys from the container were also left for the congregations to distribute according to need.
On Palm Sunday we joined the Council of Churches in Zambia, comprising of Roman Catholics, the Anglicans and the UCZ on Independence Avenue carrying palm fronds and crosses for an ecumenical march before morning services. In contrast Easter Sunday with Communion was celebrated at Situlu, one of our rural congregations; difficult to reach because of the seasonal floods.
The other main Church news this year was the arrival of our new Minister. The Rev Wezi Manda, his wife, Mary, and his young son, Kondwani. They moved into the renovated Manse in mid-February and had a baby girl, Taonga, in August. He was inducted in September. Just before him came Deaconess Given Nanyangwe who took the place of Deaconess Margaret Sepiso Lubinda who then retired. Unfortunately Deaconess Given died in July.
Another distressing recent loss has been Rev Derrick Lubasi, the Minister from Coillard Memorial Church, and adopted son of the late Graziella Jalla, He was buried at Sefula last week.
We continue helping to roof rural Churches and Clinics with zinc sheets. Mabumbu Church was the latest to renovate. The sheets for Luanja were bought today Two local clinics at Kangugu and Simungoma too have been roofed using funds from supporting Churches so that health facilities can be brought closer to people.
A major achievement is that the UCZ Sikuzu Community School will open on 6 January. Now Primary School-aged children no longer need to walk to school at Mwandi. In September the graduation of the second 4-month programme for 14 young people at the Mission Centre based at Sooka took place.
We have had visitors from the Church of Scotland, the Methodist Church, CEVAA PC(USA) and the Uniting Church of Australia and elsewhere emphasizing for us the community of Christ’s followers joined as a family through the incarnation of Jesus Christ.
Another delightful time was spent with the Vandermaas Family from the Netherlands who came to visit us in July: friends from Chengelo. At present we have Dr Frank LeBacq, An and Hellen with us over the Christmas and the New Year holiday, other old friends of Zambia.
Funding for the Aids Relief Project was a problem and following the laying off 16 members of staff, 5 have recently been re-employed. We are learning to do more with less. Also this year the Church appointed Romeo Singogo as Hospital Administrator. Romeo is our next door neighbour, a valued colleague and brother in Christ. We have appreciated getting to know him and the family.
At the Women’s Christian Fellowship Presbytery Meeting, Ida was bloused along with 110 other women from at Sefula in August. The Women’s Christian Fellowship are a uniformed group of women who play an important role in the life of the Church, similar to the Guild. In September the Mwandi Congregational Retreat took place over a long weekend in the bush near Kasaya. “Seeking the Church Transformed” was the theme.
At the end of September too we had peaceful elections and a fairly gracious hand-over from the ruling party to the opposition. A Commission of Inquiry into the Mongu Riots has been appointed to look at the causes, the conduct of the police, the treatment of detainees and the concerns of the Lozi people regarding their constitutional future.
Isaac Tembo who was sponsored by the Church of Scotland, has now graduated from Medical School in Dar-es-Salaam and is now registered in Zambia. It is good to welcome him back home and back to Mwandi after his year internship at Livingstone.
The High School was gazetted this year (ie, registered by the Government) but getting the school registered as an Examination Centre is a bureaucratic nightmare and we have been refused this year but we will try again early next year. The school has received money for two staff houses from Peace Parks through the Chief. Money has also just been received from the Methodists and a Swiss Foundation to build a third classroom block for our Grade 10s.
Our house finally has its roof after over a year underway. Four long years later the end appears to be in sight. The local builders are working now on the plumbing.
We are fortunate having Ruairidh, Fiona and Lucy on the Mission too. The Agric Project is being expanded to help make the OVC more sustainable. Fiona was successfully operated for her thyroid in September.
We enjoyed a visit from Kirsten and Stuart at Easter. It was a good time together and let Stuart see some of Zambia. They are now expecting their first child and our second grandchild which should be born just as we arrive back in Scotland next June.
Gregor graduated in July at Glasgow. It was a great day for us as we were able to be there. Gregor is working as a trainee Care Manager in Chester. He and Sarah are getting married in August when we will be home on furlough
Catriona did very well in her AS Exams and we are very proud of her. She has just received an offer from the School of Oriental and African Studies. She flies into Lusaka for the Horse Show today then will come down to Mwandi.
Mubita visits Acacia Nursery School once a week in Livingstone, he is enjoying the company, all the different activities including swimming. His speech too is much improved.
In all creation and in our lives around us we see God, God the Gift and the Giver of New Life and that is the beginning of the good news with this sense of his overwhelmingly real presence through our faith. We know and remember at this time that God’s greatest gift was given and accepted. In the beginning - the word of life.
We wish you all a blessed and joyful Christmas with family and friends
With love
Keith, Ida, Catriona & Mubita
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