Lovely Kids

Well I get a lot of complaints from people about not sharing my kids with them. As you can see they are so beautiful it is easy to try and keep them to myself. Here are a few pictures though. You can see they are continuing to grow up. Zibby's (Elizabeth's) eyes in this picture show a bit of the brilliance that she holds inside them. Ian is wearing his favorite outfit (yes we found a Spiderman outfit here in the used clothes market. When he is not wearing that he is likely wearing a Buzz Lightyear one! Emma is trying to help Zibby walk. She is such a great sister to both of the kids- though sometimes tries to be more of a parent than sister. I have been reading the Narnia series with her each day- She begs and I cave easily so we often end up reading 3 chapters a day and are midway through the fourth book since coming back from Malawi in February.

Mawenzusi

The name of the village in Kifipa is “Cold Stone” but it has nothing to do with ice cream shops. It is a village where a few years ago a short-term missionary went to show the Jesus film. From that a community of new believers was formed. They built walls and the community grew. Another missionary helped fund the roofing of the small church and the community grew. Once, twice, now three times the walls have fallen in. The building they made was like the village itself struggling but surviving. In fact despite the struggles with the building, the church is growing. There is an old Ethiopian proverb that says, “Smooth seas do not make skillful sailors.” This church will become skillful through their struggles.

As we entered the village we were greeted by a half dozen donkeys, a testament to the villages economic strength as a transport city. Most of the people in the village are farmers of course, but they supplement this income by carrying fish from the nearby lake Rukwa to Sumbawanga and other cities where they can sell them in the market. They use donkeys to carry the fish up the mountain.

As we arrived at the pastor’s house we heard a crowd gathered in the courtyard. The home was a traditional Tanzanian house with several small buildings including a pit latrine, a place to bathe, a small kitchen room, some bedrooms, and a sitting room. All of these buildings form a square with an open courtyard in the middle. The congregation met in the courtyard on small benches and grass mats. Sunday school had already begun when we got there but our arrival ushered in many others who may not usually attend the service.

We traveled with a long time pastor who makes up what he lacks in education with great passion and a pastoral heart. He had asked us to visit the church with him because it had been many weeks since he had been at the church and he was charged with overseeing this church as well as 7 others in and nearby Sumbawanga. He was tired from conducting a funeral in the city earlier in the week and another in a village further off. Biking for half a day to get to the village would have been too much for him.

In the service, I was asked to say something to the congregation as is customary when visiting a church here. Being the first visit to the church, I introduced myself but talked mostly about Palm Sunday. I remembered the donkeys. Here people don’t talk much about the triumphal entry of Jesus. They did not even mention the palm branches or the shouts of Hosanna. Instead, they remember Christ coming on a donkey. I talked a bit about the entry but talked more about how the church falling echoed in the reality of Christ’s body being broken. Like the death of Jesus did not kill the church, the falling of a building did not kill the true body of Christ in the village of Mawenzusi. Like the resurrection of Christ’s body on Easter, the body of the church lives on in the Christians who make up the community. And likewise the building too will rise again. After saying all this we gave a gift of about 20 dollars to the church towards the rebuilding project. You would think I gave them a new Crystal Cathedral from their reaction to the gift.

A little encouragement is all the church needs. They will rebuild from out of the rubble. Visiting the church building again after the service we saw the reason it fell was lack of cement holding the bricks together and other construction flaws based on inexperience in building and lack of money to buy cement. The gift I gave them is a little more than half of what it will cost to repair the wall that had fallen. A little more cement and they could prevent more falls in the future.

A seed has been planted. Another has watered it, so the story goes that Paul told the church at Corinth. More graphically, my friend and pastor, Mwanisawa called me and all Christians, “Punda ya Bwana”. (Donkeys for the Lord- could be translated in other words). We thank you for providing for us so that we can pass your gifts on to others.

In Him who calls us to be his hands and other parts in this world,
Zubers

Sickness and Health

The bugs keep biting but they are getting smaller. This year continues to be one of attack on our bodies. (You may remember the fly larvae that we popped out of our bodies in January).

It all started with me buying shoes over the internet. Because I bought shoes that I didn’t try on, they came a little smaller than I had hoped. Not to worry my foot got used to them except my big toe which ripped off the toenail and grew back poorly. In growing back, I got an ingrown toenail that became infected. While I covered it with triple antibiotic cream (our version of Windex for the fans of My Big Fat Greek Wedding), it continued to pus. I didn’t worry about it and figured when the nail finished growing it would be fine. And so it was for a few weeks time. Let me give a disclaimer here: I am not a smart man. Though I knew on some level that I had an open infected wound in my foot I never let that keep me from running through rivers, or wading in swamps looking for hippos while in Malawi. God has made our bodies remarkably good at fighting off so many things that should kill us everyday which causes us to do stupid things that the human body was never intended to do (like mentioned above for me or living in Michigan in February for some of you reading this email). The problem is that while waiting out this infection I got sick with malaria, giving the infection a foothold (my Jr. High English teacher would be proud of that pun).

This was my first experience with Malaria but I knew from seeing others and reading a bit what to expect. Malaria is carried by mosquitoes who are themselves infected with a smaller bug which takes two weeks to mature in the mosquito, which is why most mosquitoes cannot carry malaria. They die too soon. It does the same thing in us so this malaria likely came from a mosquito bite 2 weeks before. The alternating fevers and chills and overall aches followed everything that I read about, but when I took the science kit home test for it (which Becca was all too happy to poke me for blood that she did it an extra time for good mesure), it came out negative. I let the fevers come and go for another 2 days before I went to the clinic for a real blood smear. One thing that any African doctor can out diagnose nearly any American doctor is malaria. They see it everyday and the meds are pretty easily available. The entire blood test and doctors visit cost $1.20 cents (much cheaper than the malaria home test that misdiagnosed me). We had Becca and Emma tested too but they both came out negative.

While the Malaria symptoms went away within the next few days the ache in my upper leg would not. In fact, it got much worse. Feeling around the lymph node I noticed that it was swollen and really sore. This soreness and swelling continued to increase. In talking with Mark Guilzon, a doctor and new missionary in the Rukwa Valley, he encouraged me to get on antibiotics. After starting the Antibiotics, the pain decreased but I became worried when, what I thought I was feeling was a huge increase of size of the node. One doctor friend of ours recommended going to Iringa to get it drained. However Mark was coming that day up from the valley and agreed to take a look at it. He said what I was feeling was not one really big lymph node but rather two smaller ones. (While 2 is bigger than 1, I guess that size does matter, more so than number anyway). So I am continuing the antibiotics and today things continue to look and feel remarkably better. Three days ago I was in the worst pain of my life. Today, I am thinking of running. No swampy rivers though for a little while.

Meanwhile, Ian and Elizabeth are fighting off colds (Always blamed on the change of weather here). Becca also has a few scratches on her foot that got infected and swelled a bit. Maybe its something in the air (Maybe it is the weather). She will not be chasing hippos at any rate. But pray for our family as we continue to get bitten up by new bugs of all sorts.

In Him who leads through sickness and in health,
Zubers

Buggy new year

Well it has been a very buggy new year. We rang out the old year at a beach
along lake Malawi along with several of the missionary families from
Tanzania and Zambia. Actually this was the first step in our three country
tour. We have made plans to visit Zambia and Malawi before returning back to
Tanzania.

The beach was a beautiful get away from the stresses and joys of life in
Sumbawanga. We rang in the new year with volleyball and snorkling.
Sometimes we can take advantage of living in a country of so much natural
beauty, though this location is a 9 hour drive from our home so we don't get
the chance often to visit. We took full advantage of the swimming and
fellowship among missionary families because there is not much opportunity
for either living in Sumbawanga. Unfortunately it seems that the flies in
the area had also taken full advantantage of us.

Shortly after leaving Matema, we saw several bumps appear on Elizabeth (10),
then Becca (11) and to a much smaller extent Ian (2) and I (1). We thought
of several different possibilities of rashes and skin irritations. I had
not so fond memories of some medical training I took part in in the states
looking at picture after picture of skin rashes. However, yesterday as
becca was picking at one of them we discovered they were larva from a fly
that laid eggs in our clothing! We were told to treat them you need to
cover the opening with vaseline so that it cannot breath and when it sticks
its head out to squeeze it like a zit! On top of that Elizabeth has been bit
up by fleas and we have all faced the increase of mosquitoes as we left
Tanzania for Zambia. To exact my revenge on the insect world though I
bought a bag full of catipillars on the side of the road which we will roast
up and eat tonight for dinner!

While we are in Zambia we will be taking part in a Bible teacher seminar
where I will be instructing on various teaching strategies as well as
learning the system of evangelism and church development in Zambia and
Malawi. Following the conference we will be heading over to Malawi to
participate in the start up of a new primary and secondary school. Please
keep us in your prayers as we travel and battle the insects.

In Him who guides our ways through the great and minor struggles,
Zubers

Along with our work of evangelism and helping Kanisa La Neema to build a school we have taken on the joy of adding kids from the local orphanage into our house.  We first learned of the orphanage shortly after coming out to Sumbawanga.  It is a house for 53 kids from ages 0-6.  Many of the kids there have lost both parents due to AIDS and other illnesses.  Others have lost only one parent but often when parents remarry they do not take their kids from previous marriages into their new families.  The result is many kids with parents being left as orphans.  Becca began visiting and playing with the kids several times a week.  Over time our involvement grew and it broke our hearts to think of these 53 kids with only a limited staff of nuns and helpers there.  The workers do an incredible job to keep the place and the kids clean and healthy but their personal interaction is limited due to their small numbers.  We have begun to take in 2 of the older kids each week to share with them a world beyond the orphanage walls.  We share with them the market in town, some candy in a favorite little shop, our lives and our kids toys.  Here are some pictures of two of our favorites Marta and Lydia.

“I believed you were a Christian because when you saw that I was cold you gave me a shirt.”

Life here has been busy with few reminders of the snowy Christmas we had last year celebrating with extended family. Here things do not slow down for the holidays. In fact as I am writing this, the workers are finishing the foundation of our first stage of our school project. We will then have to wait for the rainy season to end before we can continue building. There is a possibility that we will be going to Malawi after Christmas to help fellow missionaries down there start a new school as well. We are also making plans for starting an English Service this spring with the purpose of evangelism to the high school educated English speaking crowd. Along with all these projects we have a continual line of people coming to our door (I refer to them as Lazarus and his hundred friends) asking for help. The sheer number of people who come and the stories they tell of AIDS, of blindness, of children losing parents, all asking for help, it can be overwhelming. Through it all, I have been traveling with an evangelist in our church, building a community of Christian and non-Christian youth for the purpose of sitting together and discussing the health of our physical and spiritual life. It has been a beautiful experience meeting people from all walks of faith here. I would like to tell you the story of one of these young men in our community.

There are times when community and hope breaks through the feeling of dependence. There is a guy who has been coming to our community meetings since the beginning. I never really believed that he had any interest in spiritual things, but he came. After the first meeting he came to my house and asked if I would support his band to make a recording. I thought this was the whole reason he came. But then the following week, though I did not promise him any support to his band, he came again. Unlike the other Christians in all of our churches, this guy looked cool. Not just cool here but American cool too (My overuse of the word cool shows my own lack of “coolness” I don’t know what the cool word to say is anymore). His name is Enok and he walks around with baggy pants with the ends rolled up, a neat shirt with enough buttons unbuttoned to qualify for an American boy band, and he just carries himself like he is cool. He wears these types of clothes regardless of the weather. The second meeting we had he was wearing an open shirt like this and he looked more than cool- he was freezing. The rain was dripping in on us as we talked about things of God. Surprisingly 12 youth came from outside the church in a heavy rain to talk about God. To talk about community. To talk about life in the body and life of the spirit. Evangelism here cannot separate the two. Enok came and he listened. More than that he actually asked questions. But I could not stand to see him shaking. We were close to my house so as the evangelist Mtoa continued talking I ran home to get a few shirts for the ones who were freezing. When I got back I gave the shirts away. Loaning anything here is dangerous so it is always better to view it as a gift. If it comes back, it too is a gift.I gave a shirt to Enok as well as two other kids.

The next time we met he came first to my house and we drove together to the place we were meeting. He didn’t say much, he got in the back seat with another person in our community and I spent the ride talking with Mtoa. Enock spent the ride reading one of Emma’s easy reader books- this one Scooby Doo. Later, he sat in this meeting not saying a word, looked cool as he slunk in his chair- well as cool as a young 20 year old can look reading a Scooby Doo book. At the end of the meeting he asked if he could borrow the book. The fact that he did not return my shirt jumped into my mind, also that the book wasn’t mine but rather Emma’s jumped in my mind, but again I gave him the book. (Don’t tell Emma.)

To my surprise he returned everything yesterday, his shirt and the other two that he collected back for me. I don’t know if he washed them, but he did cover any smells with perfume. I wasn’t home when he came so he came back today. When he showed up at my door, I expected to talk more about him borrowing money to make a recording. We did talk about this, but after I explained that we have received requests for over $17,000 worth of support this week only (not including money for the school we are building) he saw that his chances were not good. Instead of wandering off, leaving angrily, or being disappointed, he began asking me about my faith. He asked me why I came to Tanzania. He asked me if I was saved. I always find that funny when people ask missionaries if they are Christians as if that is not part of what is required. He told me that he wasn’t saved but that he is trying to sort things out. I was not prompting this conversation but letting the spirit lead through him. He asked me if people who sinned could be saved. Not about what the Bible said but what I believed in my heart. He asked if even people with AIDS could be saved. I was ready for him to open up and tell me that he too had AIDS. He didn’t say it but I told him about another girl who does. A girl who we are helping. A girl who will die leaving her infant an orphan- but a girl that we still pray for- a girl that still has hope not in this world but in the one to come. We talked about David and Peter in the Bible, about others that we both knew, about me. He told me towards the end of the conversation “I knew you were a Christian because when you saw that I was cold you gave me a shirt.”

Thoughts of Isaiah 58:6-8 popped in my mind “Is this not the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the chords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter? When you see the naked to clothe him, and not turn away from your own flesh and blood? Then your light will break forth like the dawn and your healing will quickly appear.” (NIV)

He told me that he was leaving for the next 5 months to go be a fisherman to make money but that he would come back. I gave him a Bible and showed him the book of John. He asked me to pray for him. When I said I would, he asked again if I really would. How many times do I say that to people and then in the course of the day forget to pray? He is hurting. He is desperate. He needs faith. I hope he finds it. I will be here when he returns. Maybe we can open up a bit more then. Anyway that line that he said, “I knew you were a Christian because when you saw that I was cold you gave me a shirt.” It’s the best thing I have heard out here in a long time. I needed to be reminded that it is my faith not my wealth that is being tested when I am faced with poverty. How should I respond to the world that doesn’t deserve these gifts? To a world that grows dependant on me always giving? How did Christ respond to me in my poverty? In my dependence? Mother Theresa once said, “Following Jesus is simple but not easy.”

In Him who came to share all he had,
Chad, Becca, Emma, Ian and Elizabeth Zuber