Happy Thanksgiving!!

For Thanksgiving all the IFM missionaries got together and celebrated at the Washers home in Garneton. I spent the night at Tori's house and Helen also joined us. Tori made us pumpkin ice cream and we watched a movie on her laptop! It was a fun night. That morning we got up and cooked all the food and then headed out to Garneton. It was so nice to get together with the family that God has given me here in Zambia. We ate all the traditional dishes that we would back in the states. We were even able to find a couple turkeys!! After we ate all the kids put on a little program for us on Thanksgiving! It was really cute! Then we shared just one of the many blessings that God has given to us this year. For me it was just seeing God at work in my life. Looking over the past year He has taken me to many different places and has helped me grow so much. Thinking of where I was a year ago and then where I am now- I just see God's faithfulness to me, and it is overwhelming. A verse that God has been impressing upon me is "to whom much has been given much more shall be required." God has granted to me eternal life through His only Son, and if thats all that He did for me, He would still be an awesome and loving God. But He has given me a wonderful Christian family and friends. He has given me health and food and clothes. He has done so much for me that I in turn need to be giving back to Him. God showed me that so many times I take my health for granted. Yesterday on our way home we stopped at the hospital to visit a lady from the church who has been sick since I arrived here in September. Going through the hospital and seeing the many patients that were there and realizing that most of them will die soon, was a very eye opening experience for me. God has truly blessed me with good health and so many times I take it for granted. Another thing I am thankful for is that God also answered a prayer for me. The Leadership Conference is coming up in just one week. For the conference we are printing a workbook that is 200 pages and we are making 225 books, which is about 45,000 copies. Our copier here is not very reliable, and to make that many copies was a big burden on us. On Wednesday it got to the point where the copier wouldn't even print one page without a paper jam! It was very frustrating to the church secretary and I who are working on this huge project. But then God showed me that He is faithful even in the "little" things, Kristie Washer was in town and had stopped by the church and I was talking with her. She mentioned to me that they have a rice o'graph machine and that there is someone out there in Garneton that would be able to run the machine and finish the copying for us!! It is such a huge burden lifted off of our shoulders and I am so thankful for it!! It will save us so much time and it will also save wear on our copier! Just one more thing to add to my list of things to thank God for!!

Great is Thy faithfulness! Great is Thy faithfulness!

Morning by morning new mercies I see;

All I have needed Thy hand hath provided --

Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me!

Update from Zambia!!

17 November 2006

Greetings from Zambia!!

First of all I would like to share something that God showed me today in my devotions. I was reading Matthew 6 verses 22-23 which reads "The eye is the lamp of the body; so then if your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!" I did further study on it and the passage really started to make sense. Take for instance a tight rope walker; he focuses his eye on something in the distance. If he were to look down at the rope he would fall because he would become dizzy. Also it is very hard to keep focused on something when your vision is not clear. In my Christian walk I need to make sure that my eye is steady and singly on Jesus Christ and Him alone. It is only then that there will be true light in my life. If there are things that are making my eye or focus unclear then I need to get rid of them, so that I can fully pursue that which is heavenly and not earthly!

The Leadership Conference is only 2 weeks away and there is still much to do. Every year there is a workbook that is handed out to each conference guest with all of the notes from the different workshops. I was able to get started on the copies this week and Lord willing the copier will make it through all these copies! Please pray that God would begin to work in the hearts of the people attending the conference. We want to see God do great and mighty things but that can only be accomplished through much prayer!! I have also been continuing the work on the student records. I have found a program that we will be using to keep track of the grades and classes. It is something that I want to make sure can grow along with the college. I am still working on putting things together for TRACS. There are many little details to attend to.

The container arrived last week with 8,000 books for our Theological Library!! I haven't been able to start anything with them yet. I am still doing some research and trying to figure out the best way to set up the Theological Library! This is not something that I am good at and so I do covet your prayers on this! It is very overwhelming to me!!

One major prayer request I have is concerning my work permit. To work in Zambia you are required to have a work permit. My application for my work permit was turned in 3 months before I arrived. I went down to Lusaka about a month after I got here only to find that they were missing two documents and were not able to approve my permit. I found the missing documents and turned them in and went down a second time last week. That time there was no record of my permit and so they were not able to help me. They just said to check back in a couple of days! The only problem is, right now I am on a tourist visa and it is only good for 3 months. My three months is up December 12th. If I don't get my work permit before then I might have to leave the country for a couple of days or I may be able to extend my tourist visa again! Please pray with me that it will get approved before then. Phil Hunt went to Lusaka today and is checking on it for me. I hope to be able to write again soon and tell you how God answered this prayer!

On Sunday I moved into the guest house where I will now be living. It is located right on the church property. And conveniently my office is also located on the property. My morning commute only takes but a minute!! It is completely furnished and a perfect size for me! I thank God for providing it for me!

Thank you all for your prayers!!

In Christ,

Brianne

4 November 2006

On Wednesday the Hunts previous house worker, Mary passed away. The Hunts were still in South Africa and so Helen and Tori felt that they should attend the funeral. I didn't really want to because I thought it would be inconsiderate for me to go since I didn't even know her. But Tori said that it would be fine because the family wouldn't even know her or Helen but we wanted to represent the Hunts. Mary was Catholic and the Hunts had witnessed to her for a long time but don't believe that she was ever truly saved. So to go to the funeral was very sad for us because we don't know where her eternal destiny is. It was really hard for us knowing that they thought she was in heaven because she was a good person and did good things and went to church. But we know that the only way to Heaven is through Jesus Christ. There is nothing we can do to earn our way into heaven. I was reminded of God's amazing Grace, I don't deserve to go to heaven, yet by His Grace and His love he died on the cross for me!! It's so uncomprehensible, yet so amazing!! God has also been showing me the brevity of life. Like James says in James 4:14 "Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away." The funeral service was a lot like an american funeral. However, all the ladies wear cha-tengay's. They are pieces of material that you wrap around like a skirt. But most of them are bright so it is very different from the American tradition of wearing black. At the front of the church the daughters and others were gathered on the floor for the service. They were crying so loudly and even wailing. Its their way of grieving. After the chruch service everyone has to find transport to the cemetary for the burial. But only one mini-bus comes for about 70-80 people, so it is mass confusion trying to get on the bus. We had a car and we were able to take one of the daughters with us. There was also a truck that went and there were so many people crammed in the back! I think for me the most shocking part of the day was the cemetary. On the road in there were so many graves with fresh dirt over the top. There was another funeral taking place when we arrived. And then in the section we were there were 6 other graves already dug for more burials that day!!! Death is so evident here. Every week someone I know speaks of a funeral. People are dying here at an amazing rate. Their average life expectancy is 34 years old!!! It's remarkable.