Saying Thank You matters

Albertina and Me

My Friend Charity (previously referred to as "Charlotte")

          

I asked "what would you like to take home", she said "YOU" I said "I dont think I will fit in the bag",  she said "lets try!!"

Today at KOP we had a "Fun and free clothes for you afternoon" for the guardians of the Orphans we look after.

These ladies live hand to mouth and have opened their homes to look after others, even tho they don't really knowing where the next meal is coming from.


Saying THANK YOU matters because often we can feel taken for granted, overlooked, exhausted and unloved. 
Often the truth is we are loved and valued by those around us, but how are we to know unless it is spoken and demonstrated.

Be the person to voice your gratitude, it lifts people and is contagious.  

I dare you to tell the people around you this week something you are grateful for each day.

It turns out.....

 It is funny how living away from familiar things brings out parts of your personality you didn’t realise were there.

In the last week I have made 2 sets of curtains and homemade Lemon Curd (from Momma's recipe).

It turns out that I can sew and I enjoy it, turns out that I like things decorated sparse and clean, where I didnt think I liked a particular home style, starting from a blank canvas it turns out I like natural tones.  

Turns out that I also like dogs and not just cats (Im now looking for a puppy in earnest).
Turns out I work better when others are around (so now Im sharing an office with Andreas).
Turns out that Joy and Peace can be found in a place to settle and call home.

Wanna buy a great album?

www.itunes.apple.com/gb/album/eight/id560137363

 -   all proceeds go towards me being in Zambia working with Orphans

Deadly Squash

I was strangely reassured this morning when I read my half empty squash bottle!
I have to ask what did it taste like before this warning!!

Did that just happen?

From this week I have a home help, her name is Catherine and she is officially amazing!  To explain, although I dont really need a home help, by employing her I am giving her a job and helping to feed her family. 
I officially moved into my own apartment on monday, a nice 2 bedroom place on the end of the AQ building (for those who know where that is). With Catherine’s help, it looks great and I am settling in nicely.  Having somewhere to call home and to entertain feels good already.

Catherine was not feeling well last week, she had a sore throat and by wednesday had completely lost her voice. 
For about six and a half years I have trying to take opportunities to pray with people to ask God to heal them of various illnesses, so far with few visible results.
So on wednesday I asked Catherine if I could pray and ask God to make her better, she whispered yes,
I prayed and then she started to whisper “thank you for PRAYING.....  AH... HE DID IT....I CAN SPEAK..... I HAVE MY VOICE BACK”
Im pretty sure I was more surprised than she was! She grabbed my hands and we jumped up and down in surprise and excitement.

Even tho I come from a church where we have regularly seen God heal illness (the Kings Arms, Bedford, UK), it was amazing that He did it for us in Kaniki, Africa.

So Im gonna keep praying and see what else He wants to do here.
He is amazing and I love that He loves us and the details in our lives.

Yes I am.

 So to quell questions of am I actually in Africa, here are some photos taken this week in a village down the road.

 Chasing games are always fun

This is Zambia.

Flying Solo

There comes a time in everyones life where its time to go it alone.  The moment you take off the stabilizers on your first bike or start to swim without your arm bands on as a kid, the day you think you are grown up enough and move out into your first flat, the first time you do a job without your student badge on.

This week, Gemma and Tim leave Kaniki to go home for 3.5 months.
Gemma has been running the Orphans Project very well for over a year and is going home to have her first child.  Even tho I feel weaned, she has let me slowly take the reins on my own, the thought of not having her around to ask advice or bounce things off is quite daunting.

They are also my English buddies, I will be the only Brit in a sea of Zambians and Danes.
No-one else will know who Noel Edmunds is or What Jim’ll fix it is (some of you are thinking thats a good thing).
A funny Scottish or Brummy accent will not be recognized and a full English will mean both  of your parents were born in the UK.

So I wanted to take this opportunity to join with Heaven and stand to my feet (in true Kings Arms fashion) to applaud Tim and Gemma’s last 2.5 years of incredible work here in Kaniki, the lives of many short term teams they have changed by how they have led and by just being their lovely selves, the orphans and families they have encouraged and fed, the communities changed by the houses, schools and churches built and for sharing their house and lives with little old me in the last month.

Here’s to flying solo and new adventures opening the school for orphans on their return.

You both have left an amazing legacy and I cant wait to meet little Water/Wind/Hammer.
(their surname is Mills)
x

Water, Water, Water

Meet the KOP Team.

                                          Misellie, Mrs Chomba, Lister, ZJ and Abel.
                                          They are great and much fun is had by all

Water, Water!!
There first rains came last week, there was much excitement and it totally poured down in a way that I have only seen here in Africa.
On the water front.... here in Zambia sometimes things don’t work as you would hope for.
On Monday I was in the shower and had just used my soap when the water cut off.  I stood there hoping it was a minor blip in supply, I stood there and stood there with the soap slowly drying onto my skin... thinking “How the heck am I gonna finish my shower”.
I thought through drying myself and hoping my skin would not look flaky or dry with dried soap on it, No, that would feel weird.
Do I go back to my room in my towel and hope it comes back on soon? No, it could be hours or in the worst case scenario days before that happens.
Then I had a brainwave!
I figured that there was water in the bathroom and that this was my best option right now, so there i stood scooping handfuls of clean water out of the toilet cistern.  It worked and I was clean.
Later in the day I left taps on and managed to flood the kitchen when the water came back on!
TIA as they say....This is Africa!

















On another note ..........
Meet the KOP team.