“BUT I HAD TICKETS TO THE SUPERBOWL, JESUS!"

Presently, it is 1 a.m. on Monday morning, and I have just awoken to a new day. More important than that, I have just awoken to watch the SuperBowl. I am pumped! I forgot today was the SuperBowl until an American mentioned it to me, but when reminded, I immediately thought to myself, “You have not watched a football game the entire year. This is your last chance. YOU CAN’T MISS THE SUPERBOWL!” Not only is this the first time I have watched a football game, but this is also the first time I have watched TV in almost six months. There are a bunch of first happening right now...

Once Jesus asked one of his disciples why he was not in church. Jesus’ disciple told him that he was watching football, and when Jesus challenged him, the disciple retorted, “BUT I HAD TICKETS TO THE SUPERBOWL JESUS!”. Ok, that is not in the bible but that scene is in one of the funniest videos ever. (Click on this link or search Vintage 21 Jesus Films on Youtube to find the video. It is well worth your time.) My friends and I probably watched these movies at least 100 times in college. Some people call them sacrilegious, but I think they are great examples of the misconceptions that people have about Christianity.

Anyways, because I did not sleep last night guess what I am going to say to my boss tomorrow when he asks why I am sleeping at my desk. “BUT IT WAS THE SUPERBOWL, LAWRENCE!” Don’t worry Lawrence does not care one bit. I am watching the game in his house and sleeping on his couch. How many of you have that kind of relationship with your boss?

Giving Credit Where Credit Is Due

Three people this week asked me if I take the pictures that are on my blog. I am going to throw out two equations for you to help you figure that out.

EXCELLENT PHOTOS = JONATHAN HOFFNER

AVERAGE PHOTOS = DAVID BRAMLETT

I am not a good photographer and don’t pretend to be. Jonny gave all of his photos of Zambia to the Jubilee Centre to use; therefore, I have access to them. I figure why not put them up if they capture some of the things I write about. So, without further ado, here are some more of Jonny’s photos from Zambia.

Other Ministries of Jubilee Centre

Raise your hand if you think that the Jubilee Centre is an education NGO? For those of you that raised your hand, first that is weird. Second, you are incorrect. I don’t know if I have mentioned it before but the Jubilee Centre is actually a Christian NGO that trains churches in holistic ministry. When we say holistic ministry, we mean that the gospel of Jesus Christ should reach all aspects of a community. That means that we train the pastors theologically while also helping them set up ministries to their communities. That includes ministries to the orphans and vulnerable children in the community. That is where the teacher training comes in. Many of the churches that we work with run schools which educate the orphans and vulnerable children (community schools). Lawrence, the Executive Director of the Jubilee Centre, saw the need in these schools and recruited me to come in and help. We will expand the training to schools outside our network of churches, but this is where we have begun.

That is all good and great, but why am I writing about this now. Well, because the Jubilee Centre helps facilitate the ministries of these churches, it has many branches of work ranging from youth ministry to HIV/AIDS home-based care. Over the past two weeks, I have had the opportunity to visit some of the other projects run by the Jubilee Centre. One of the projects that affected me the most is a kitchen run in a compound called Chifubu. Fifteen churches in this compound provide volunteers and resources to run this kitchen, and six days a week this kitchen feeds children who are either orphaned or infected with HIV/AIDS or TB. Some receive meals three days a week while other receive meals all six days (it just depends on the severity of their situation). I had been to this kitchen before, but on Saturday, I truly realized the situation of these children. And it struck a cord with me. The fact that the only meal that some children receive is from the kitchen would not leave me. You could say that this thought haunted me.

I don’t know why seeing these children being fed affected me so much. When living here, after a while you forget that many of the situations you encounter daily are very difficult. You begin to see it as normal, but I am glad for the times that tug at my heart. I am glad for the times that remind me that I should be concerned and that I should feel compassion for these people. When this work becomes a job instead of a calling, I am in trouble. And when my compassion dwindles, I will also be in trouble. Thankfully, I don’t see that happening right now. I increasingly feel a calling to fight for and have compassion on those who do not have access to the basic necessities of life. Through all the difficulties, that is why I enjoy my job.

Differences

I love the You Might Be a Redneck if... jokes. I thought it would be cool to do a You Might Be in Zambia if... post. These are not really jokes because I promise you that each of these has happened to me..

You Might Be in Zambia if...

you find random bugs like crickets crawling on you while sitting at your desk.

you observe people urinating in your yard about once every two weeks.

you constantly hear the world muzungu (white person) wherever you go.

you saw a five year old girl peeing on the sidewalk in the major downtown area of your town while her parents stood beside her. This girl also tried to talk to me while she was peeing (true story that happened on Saturday).

the one movie rental store only has bootleg copies of the movies.

you have to sprint out of the grocery store to stop a thief from breaking into your car (happened yesterday)

50% of the cars emit visible black smoke from their tailpipes and you swear you are going to get lung cancer every time you breath

Those are just few of the things that you sometimes experience when you live in a place like Zambia. No, I did not catch the thief trying to break into my car, but I did chase him away before he was able to take anything. It was a dramatic experience though as I had to jump over a metal barrier to exit the store. I think the onlookers thought I was crazy. That is a usual occurrence though whether I am in Zambia or the USA.

A Regular

It is good to be known. Growing up in a small town, I enjoyed (and hated) going into a restaurant and being known. When I was young, sometimes my mother did not want to cook; therefore, we always went to Norris’ Fine Foods on those days. I would always order a pizza burger with french fries and a side salad (ranch dressing). It was a great joy one day to have the waitress ask me if I wanted my usual.

This tradition continued when I went to college in Chicago because starting sophomore year I ate at the same restaurant for breakfast twice a week. It was a small, local establishment and soon my friends and I became good friends with one of the waitresses. Her name was Shirley, and she was basically our grandmother in college. She would constantly make fun of us while also making sure that we were being good little boys while away from our families. To top it off Shirley knew my breakfast order by heart. My senior year I figured up that I had spent more time in that restaurant than the Wheaton College library. The total was probably about 350 hours at Egg’lectic (the restaurant) and 10 hours at the library. Needless to say Egg’lectic has a lot of my dad’s money.

Anyway, I now have a restaurant in Ndola that I can call home. It is called Suliwanji. We go there for lunch at least once a week because it is very good and very cheap. A heaping plate of chips (french fries) cost $1.50, and there are enough chips on a plate to feed two people. Ok, it is not healthy and to be honest a bit shady, but it is good. Unfortunately, Suliwanji was burned down in November. Therefore, it has been closed for the past two months, but this week it opened back up. You should have seen the smiles on the waitresses when we walked in today. It was their polite way of saying, “Welcome home.” Needless to say, all is right in the food world.

In the working world this week, we continue to see progress and excitement from the teachers. Yesterday one teacher said to me, “I am actually excited about teaching this year. There are so many things I want to change in my classroom so that I can become a great teacher. My attitudes on education have changed because of your sessions and your help.” I am also happy to report that 75% of the teachers have written long term plans for this first term. I honestly never thought that would happen. The progress and excitement of these teachers keeps me going.

Challenges

Well, we all knew that challenging circumstances would come. This past week we unfortunately had a school drop out of the program. The reasons are vast and complex, but let’s just say I disagreed with the situation and the administrators making the decision. Unfortunately, I don’t make every decision. I mainly feel for the teachers. They were putting the lessons into action and I could see their attitudes about education changing. With this specific group of teachers, we only have two and a half months remaining; therefore, I also question pulling the teachers out in the middle of the program.

In the good news department, one teacher quit her job at one of our schools and took a job at another school. She desperately wanted to continue the sessions though; therefore, I made the decision that she could continue since we are halfway through the program. It is exciting that the teachers still want to come and improve their teaching skills though many decisions are not being made in their or their student’s best interest.

For your information, we just started a new school year in Zambia. Students change grades in January, and the schools run on a three months on/ one month off schedule. Since this is the beginning of a new year, I have already noticed a “pep in the step” of some teachers. We will continue to work hard to keep this attitude, but needless to say I am encouraged to see these teachers excited about teaching.

Since everyone loves pictures, I have included some pictures of the children that Jonathan Hoffner took while in Ndola. Obviously, they are a lot better than my pictures. Again, Jonny and Michele will have pictures of their travels up on their website later this year. I will be sure to inform you when their pictures of Zambia are up. Peace and love.

A Slow Beginning to January

Ok. I admit that I have not blogged in a while. There is one main reason for that. To be honest nothing that interesting is happening. Life has settled into a routine. Since being back from Kenya, I have settled back into visiting schools, writing curriculum, and presenting sessions to teachers. I wish there was more to report, but that is life as I know it.

Culture shock was not as bad as I expected coming back from Kenya even though I think the potholes in Ndola are getting bigger. I met with a few teachers yesterday about writing long-term plans for their school year. They had tried to write their plans but were stuck on a few things. It was exciting because I was once told by another missionary in Ndola that I could never get these teachers to write long-term or daily lesson plans. I am happy to report that my teachers are constantly proving that lady wrong.

In other news though I encourage you to look and think about this story. It concerns a law in Uganda that will kill and imprison homosexuals. The law has been making headlines in the United States press for the past couple of months; therefore, you may have heard about the controversy. Even though the sponsors of the law are Christians, I personally deem the law un-Christian and am saddened by its existence. Presently, Lawrence Temfwe and I are writing a short response to the African church regarding this law. I will be sure to post it when we are done.

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2010/01/08/world/AP-AF-Uganda-Gay-Death-Penalty.html

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2010/01/07/world/AP-AF-Uganda-Gay-Death-Penalty.html