Deputation
Notes
April - June 2006
Dear Praying Friends,
Zambia 101:
I was recently reading one of the Zambian newspapers online and came
across a headline stating that Zambia
is now one of the leading nations of the world.
Wondering how a small African country of 11 million people could count
as a leading nation, I continued to read past the title. The article described how the United Nations
had declared Zambia
as having one of the highest percentages of orphans in the world. According to this article there are over
850,000 orphans in Zambia,
which is nearly 8% of the population! This
statistic reinforces how young the country is as a group; the average age in Zambia is 16.6
years. Yet no matter how old or how
young, they still need to hear the message of salvation and put their trust in
Christ alone.
“Suffer little children to come unto me, and
forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom
of God. Verily I say unto you, whosoever shall not
receive the kingdom of God as a little child shall in no wise enter therein” Luke 18:16-17.
We
look forward to joining the ministry in Zambia and reaching out to these
kids (and adults) with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. During the past month of June, we were able
to take part in the Missionary Linguistic Program at Bob Jones University. While we did not learn any foreign language
during this time, we were taught many different methods of learning a
language. It was a very intense month
for us. The program consisted of three
separate classes: Language Learning –
where we learned about different methods of learning a second language; Phonetics & Phonology – where we
learned to hear different sounds (many not used in the English language) and how
to reproduce them; Cultures In Contact
– where we learned about differences in cultures and how to deal with them from
a Christian perspective. Classes began
each weekday at 8:10am and went until 3:00pm.
While mom and dad were expanding our knowledge and stretching our
tongues, the kids enjoyed the Child
Development Center
and made many new friends. Thank you to
all who prayed for us during these classes.
We are excited about what we were able to learn and can’t wait to get to
Zambia
and implement some of these methods as we learn the language of Bemba.