Resting My Feet

Hi everyone,

Some of you will be wondering where I have been. After someone hacked into my laptop I lost all my newsletter connections and have had to reload as many as I can. Please accept my apologies for any rude emails you may have received – it truly wasn’t me but some crazy hacker who gets pleasure from upsetting people.

Life has been very hard here. I have been betrayed again but God is good and I’m back fighting. Last week we took a woman to hospital in Labour – the baby was dead but we at least saved her life. I believe she may have taken some African herbs. Another young girl here took the same herbs and aborted a baby girl at four months. They don’t know what they do. Many of the people are Christians in name only. Many only hear Gods word when they go to Church but even if they had a the bible they couldn’t read it. So many are illiterate, So the exciting news is that we are beginning literacy classes on 5th October. This will be in the vernacular language and next year we will add an English class

Come on you TESOL teaches come and help!!

I now have a Pastor working with me which lightens the load. I am in Ndola at present having a good rest. I’ve had a series of hard knocks so it’s good to be out of the village for a while. Our school is going well and we’ve added Bible in Schools to our curriculum, the ladies are sewing once a week, and we have begun a community project to take care of those who are HIV positive. Some follow up HIV training is to occur in the next few weeks. My soccer team is still winning their games so I love them. My garden is taking shape and I’ve prepared holes for my banana plantation ready for when the rains come in November.

Pastor Richard and I hold prayers and bible reading every morning at 7.30am and every day someone new arrives to share with us. I love this ‘family’ time. It is very hot here all of a sudden. No rain since March so the ground is very dry and dusty. The death rate here is high: on average there is one death every week in my vicinity. But good news - we have finally got rid of the incompetent nurse in the local clinic after advocating for a couple of years. We now have Peter a young male nurse who is lovely to chat to as well as a good nurse. I am often amazed that one woman and God can make a difference but our God is big. I have just returned from worship in a Baptist Church filled with 300 or more Africans worshipping in English. It filled my heart. The Pastor talked about living a life of love as Paul exhorts in his letter to the Ephesians. We sang that beautiful old hymn “Have thine own way Lord “– it brought tears to my eyes, tears of gratitude and rededication.

I say a big thank you to those of you who pray for me and those who support my work financially. I am often tired and lonely but I renew my vow every day to serve God in this place and I can't image doing anything else now. May you all be greatly blessed and may your foot one day stand in this Footprint here in Zambia dedicated to Jesus and His love.

Durelle

Zambian Elections

Zambia has been having national elections. The picture shows Michael Sata the new President of Zambia: for the full story see today's Guardian. The reporter notes that:

On Thursday youths fought running battles with riot police in the towns of Ndola and Kitwe, setting fire to vehicles and markets.

Durelle was in Ndola on Thursday, but is safe and well.