Newsletter September 2023 | 15

News from Zambia!……..

It is now September 2023 and I have managed to get back on track for some news about what I am working on and about our lives! A lot has happened lately! Personally and in my missionary work. We are doing well as a family! The eldest son (19) has passed his exams in group 12 and left for the south of Zambia a few weeks ago to visit his mother. He is also looking for work there to earn some money here and there. Here in Zambia they have a gap year after they have passed their exams. Somehow the timeline of the follow-up studies does not match the time of the secondary education exams. Whether he stays in the south or goes back to Ndola, we have no idea. He also does not yet know which further studies he wants to do.

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The youngest (7) is in Grade 1 and is doing very well! He will move to the next Grade 2 in January. A happy little guy and very active! Loves playing outside, drawing and coloring and of course watching TV, preferably together with ‘mummy’, which unfortunately often doesn’t work, but occasionally it does. 😊 Every now and then we try to do something fun. Earlier this year we went to the swimming pool here in Ndola and recently we went to a festival on Kitwe for which we received free tickets. He really enjoys swimming, but is afraid of the water. We brought the orange arm floaters with us from the Netherlands and we plan to look for swimming lessons, something that is not common here in Zambia. Many people cannot swim. Fortunately, there is not much water in Zambia, so they are safe without a diploma.

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“Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in Him” Psalm 34:8

Our work.

We are both busy with our missions work and we also have other plans, more about that later. What does my work currently consist of? Too much to mention actually! What I still think is super cool is the fact that last year, together with a group of female colleagues from Operations Mobilization within Zambia, I was able to develop our VCJF training especially for women throughout Africa.

Did you miss anything about that? Then read my previous newsletters.   It is a discipleship training that encourages women to make disciples and do missionary work in their own environment! An intensive training of almost two weeks. Learning to give a Bible study where you don’t have to have studied theology, but just see what the Bible actually says about God, Jesus, women, sin, promises and many other topics. We doing a lot of identity topics. Showing that the women are of value, how God looks at them and I can tell you that God shows the most beautiful things and that a lot of healing also takes place in the lives of these women. How discipleship can grow is also very important, because we want to see multiplication of groups of women! And skills should not be missing either. Sewing by hand, making doormats, baking, cooking, smoking fish/chicken and much more.

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We have already trained many women in various African countries and this year we were also able to train a number of women from different countries in Kabwe, Zambia during our Love Africa conference. These women pass on the information they have learned in their own environment and this creates growth! How wonderful is that! Even the skills are being passed on!

Missionwork these days.

Mission work nowadays is a bit different than it has ever been! Because in addition to our training on Africa Area level, there are many things that are taking place online. Our team is now larger and we have video meetings via internet. In Zambia I am fortunately blessed with having internet. It breaks down sometimes and it’s not unlimited, but it works quite well! So we continue to guide the women online and we also have monthly online meetings for all women leaders within Africa with various encouraging topics. All my 5 female colleagues do the same and we travel through Africa to do different training courses. For me it means that I am travelling to another African country or at another location in Zambia for about 3-4 times a year. Yet I am also still working locally here in Ndola, working with the women and trying to train local women to do missionary work independently and thus allow multiplication to take place. Our motto is that local women should do the work. Simply because as a foreigner you are often associated with the fact that you bring a bag of money and then the Africans become lazy, as you can understand. This is what, in my opinion, has broken a lot in the past.

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Mobuley.

Mobuley works in various areas. Particularly at leadership level at the local base here at Isubilo where he does ‘People care’. Which simply means that he keeps an eye on the wellbeing of all the staff working on the base and all the volunteers. I can tell you that that is not an easy task. Just as there is always something going on at a company, there is always something going on on a mission basis. Often even more since you work with many volunteers. He also occasionally tutored teenagers who had difficulty with certain subjects. Nice to do, but attempts are now being made to have this done by people who live locally because it is expensive to travel to the suburbs every time. (An hour’s drive and gasoline is expensive) At regional level he is the leader for Evangelism.

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Other plans.

In addition, we are in the process of moving to a larger piece of land where we (well, specifically Mobuley) plan to grow vegetables, keep several chickens and turkeys for meat and eggs, plant fruit trees and many more activities in the area. future. The goal is to be able to provide for ourselves in a number of years (3 to 4 years), i.e to be able to pay for our children’s studies and to save for our pension. They don’t really have a pension here, only if you work for the government or for a large company. And even then you just have to wait and see how easy or difficult the government makes it for you to withdraw your pension. It will therefore be more busy the coming weeks and in the near future with all the work and also moving to another location. We will stay in Ndola, but just live outside town in a suburb. Right next to a poor community. What I find really cool is that we will have a small space where I/we can also do missionary work. I hope and pray that it is God’s plan for me to also teach sewing lessons to the women from the local community there. We will see! Hopefully more about that in a next newsletter!

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Columns.

At regular times I send a column from Zambia to the church magazine ‘Geandewei’, for the the Northern part of the Netherlands. Drachten | Leeuwarden | Dokkum. The topics are very diverse and provide even more insight into my life in Zambia.

If you would like reading the columns, click the button below!

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Some other pictures

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• Thank God for the fact that God is always with us.
• Thank God for allowing us to do something fun every now and then.
• Thank God for our marriage.
• Thank God for the children.
• Thank Godfor our work, my work
• Thank God that many women can be reached.
• Pray that the work can continue.
• Thank God and pray for finances.
• Thank God for finding a beautiful place where we can live and work.
• Pray that everything will go smoothly with the move in the near future.
• Pray for our plans, that God may bless it.
• Pray for a good balance that I am still looking for.
• Pray for a good balance in marriage, family and work that I am still looking for.

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