July, 2006

MINISTRY NEWS

American mission teams top the news this month. Teams from Seattle, Central Florida and Seattle were all here in Okahandja at the same time. They conducted Kids Clubs (VBS), helped in pre-schools, did teacher training in a local primary school, helped build traditional African huts, assisted in several agricultural projects, helped with soup kitchens, visited the sick and elderly and many other activities that demonstrate the love of Christ in a cross-cultural setting. One of the most encouraging aspects of these short-term missionary endeavors is the way it connects the American church with the African church. Many team members have been coming year-after-year and have built strong friendships and ministry partnerships with Christians in Namibia. Most of our work in the past month has been focused on providing practical support for the teams and building relationship with them.

Last week, several of us were involved in a project to expand and improve Pastor Thomas’ chicken coop. It reminded me of “Extreme Makeover: Chicken Home Edition.” We first tore down the original chicken coop and the chickens thought we were filming “Prison Break.” They scattered to the four winds but once the new structure was completed, they came back to roost in their fancy new home. One hen was just a few days from hatching her chicks so she just sat there as we demolished the coop around here and constructed another one. As she squatted on her eggs, two doves took up residence on her back. We couldn’t figure out whether they were supplying Mommy with moral support and protection or they just thought she was something soft to sit on.

The new sewing project is thriving. We now have 6 sewing machines and 3 instructors. A few weeks ago, a young Christian college student showed up on our doorstep trying to sell us a Kirby vacuum cleaner. In the process, Val told her about our many job-training projects. Her response: “You must meet my mom. She just moved here from Orangemund (southwestern Namibia in the restricted diamond district) and she has a sewing business.” So a few days later, Jean (the mom) showed up at our door. We didn’t buy the vacuum cleaner, but we did get our third instructor. God is good.

We are still awaiting news on our work permit renewal and it now looks like we will not hear a definitive answer before our departure. That presents a bit of a challenge since our current work permits expire a week after we leave Namibia. Without going into all the legal implications, an uncertain work permit status greatly complicates our re-entry into Namibia in September. So 10 days ago, we implemented a back-up strategy. We applied for 90-day work visas and they were approved a few days ago. The bottom line is that we can now leave on our trip with the peace of mind that we will be able to get back into Namibia and the end of the trip without any hassles. It gives us much peace of mind to have this cleared up before leaving the country. Please continue to pray for the successful renewal of our work permits for another year.

I recently wrote a short article for the Northland Staff Newsletter that I thought all of you might enjoy as well. It is a brief description of a day in the life of a Distributed Pastor in Africa:

Monday, 26 June 2006

6:30 – lots of incoming emails in response to our newsletter (Chronicles of Namibia).

7:00 – Pastor Thomas arrived for our daily mentoring/planning session. Mentoring topics include: his family budget, personnel and parenting issues, and church challenges. This morning we discussed how to keep neighbors from stealing his water, how to transport a load of bricks and goats to our new property, and opening a youth center in the squatter’s camp.

9:00 – Pastor Stephen Nell stopped by unexpectedly from South Africa. We toured our new property and discussed our many community development projects.

10:00 – inspected bundles of river reeds collected yesterday. We’ll use them to build traditional African huts for our cultural center. I also walked the dry river bed looking for new reed sources.

11:00 – back home tackling more emails. They arrive faster than I can respond.. There will be even more tomorrow.

13:30 – inspected broken sewing machines of a Damara lady who does upholstery. We will fix her machines and in return she’ll join our job skills training program as an instructor.

14:15 – led meeting between Christ Hope, International (AIDS ministry) and Hope for a Better Future. CHI needs vegetables to feed AIDS patients and we need a submersible pump for irrigation. We agreed to launch a joint vegetable plot project where we supply the land and supervisor and they supply irrigation equipment and workers. It was attended by a Lazarus (an Owambo man), Thomas (a Kavango), Alex (from Zambia), Annamieke (from Holland) and myself (from America) – a distributed partnership at its best.

15:30 – ran personal errands, a vital part of every African day. Bills are paid in person and in cash (not safe to mail money), requiring frequent trips to the bank. You must go to the post office to collect your mail (no residential delivery).

16:30 – six of us headed for Monkey Mountain for a sundowner party. It’s really a huge pile of boulders (not a mountain) and it’s inhabited by baboons (not monkeys) but Baboon Rock Pile just doesn’t sound as nice. The view is breathtaking and the baboons keep a safe distance. It overlooks the reservoir and dam above the town and provides a beautiful view of the surrounding mountains. So we go there often with our wine, cheese and crackers and enjoy the African sunset with friends and celebrate our awesome God. It’s a little chilly this time of year (it’s winter down under) so the Glüwein (German mulled wine) warmed us from the chill.

18:15 – back home in time for a series of phone calls: a couple of friends looking for a pastor to marry them tonight (they are truly spontaneous), a Namibian friend looking for a place to stay in Orlando next month, and a luncheon invitation for this weekend at Swakopmund where I’ll be preaching. It’s quieter there now that Brangelina and family have left.

19:00 – a brief time of relaxation watching “The Practice” and “Boston Legal” (yes, recycled American TV is alive and well in Africa).

21:00 – back to my email Inbox to end the day responding to more emails from friends and ministry partners.

in the namibian NEWS

Polio is still the talk of the country. The second round of polio vaccinations begins tomorrow. Thankfully, the outbreak of new cases seems to be diminishing.

PERSONAL NOTES

Bugsy’s training program continues to be a frustrating experience for everyone except Bugsy. If it positively, absolutely needs to be chewed, shredded and deposited on the front lawn, just leave it within reach of Bugsy. He will take care of it for you, guaranteed. We scold Bugsy for something and it is Bo who hangs his head in a show of guilt for something he didn’t do. Bugsy just looks at you and says smilingly, “Yeah, yeah, whatever; can’t we just play?” And he bounces away without a care in the world. Like all gangsters, he places himself above the law.

We are excited about our visits to America and Germany, but at the same time we are exhausted. It has been a hectic few months of ministry and our time in America is usually very tiring as well. We would appreciate your prayers for refreshment and the renewing of strength somewhere along the way. At the same time, we are very excited about Jamie and Bobby’s wedding and about meeting our son-in-law Jesus for the first time (Jenny’s new husband).

ON THE HOMEFRONT

The biggest news is that we will be there soon and are still hoping that more of you will join us at the beach on August 18-20. Today the motel releases the unreserved block of rooms they were saving for us, so if you have been delaying making your reservations, today is the day to do it. This will be our primary time of reporting on all that God is doing through, with and in us so we hope many more of you will decide to come here about our work in Africa. This will be our primary reporting time while in Central Florida. We would love to meet with all of you individually, but we don’t have the time or strength. Once again, the reservation information is as follows:

Reservation Phone: 1-800-206-2747
Address: Holiday Inn Cocoa Beach
1300 N. Atlantic Avenue
Cocoa Beach, FL 32931

slice of african life

Winter in Namibia is quite a different experience than in America. The biggest difference is that it occurs in June, July and August. Another difference is that in some ways it is harsher than American winters (even though the temperatures are similar to Florida winters) since Namibian homes have no central heating. Therefore the interior of your home gets very cold at night and remains cold during the day. And yet, being outside in the daytime is quite pleasant. The other day, a stranger on the street commented on the fact that I was carrying my jacket over my shoulder. “Only in Namibia do you wear your jacket inside the house and take it off when you go outdoors.” It was an insightful observation. To keep warm at night, we wear lots of warm clothes indoors and keep a blanket handy at all times.

Friends told us recently of a poor family they know in the squatter’s area who bought a TV a year ago. They have never turned it on because they don’t have any electricity in their home. But they are still excited because they followed our friends’ advice by waiting until they could buy it with cash rather than buying it on credit. And the lady was so proud to report that she is now saving money for a washing machine in spite of the fact that they also have no running water in their small shack. But just the same, they are moving up in the world. Then they asked our friends to loan them the money to buy an electric generator so they could watch the World Cup on their TV, which went through the entire warranty period without ever being turned on.

This months’ African animal fable is a Zulu story about the BABOON. Leopards love the taste of baboons but it has not always been this way. Long ago they were friends. One day the hungry leopard chased a rabbit into a hole in the ground. He asked his friend baboon to guard the hole while he took a brief trip to the river for a before-dinner drink. When he returned he found baboon snoring as the rabbit was scurrying away to safety. In his anger, he began scolding baboon for his laziness and called him a stupid monkey (baboons hate to be called monkeys) and at one point grabbed him forcefully. As he licked his bloody paws, he suddenly saw his friend in a new light: a tasty meal. Seeing the carnivorous look in leopard’s eyes, baboon quickly suggested that the best way to eat a baboon was to throw him in the air near a tree. The baboon would fall to the earth and break into a bunch of bite-size pieces and thus make a delicious meal easier to eat. So that is what leopard did. Of course baboon grabbed hold of the tree and scrambled to the top. He then proceeded to hurl screeching insults down on his former friend, the leopard. To this day, the leopard loves the taste of baboon and baboon escapes to the trees whenever leopard comes around with that hungry look in his eye. This story is summarized from When Hippo Was Hairy: And Other Tales from Africa.” If you would like to read the full version and lots of other African folk tales, we highly recommend this book. ISBN: 1-86872-456-5. Baboons are everywhere in Namibia and are organized in social groups of 10-200 and travel with the dominant male in the center of the group. They love to sit on fence posts and watch tourists go by. They also congregate near tourist parking places and climb in the car if you leave your car door open. Then they refuse to leave until they get food.

FINANCIAL SUMMARY

Here is our financial summary of our funding for 2006:

$  19,100     2006 YTD Giving (through June)
    21,936     2006 YTD Budgeted Need
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$  -2,836     2006 Ministry Account Balance

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Thank you all very much for helping us pursue and sustain God’s calling for us in Africa.

IMPORTANT NOTE:
When giving through Northland, make sure you designate “Lon and Val Garber” on your envelope or attached note. Otherwise, your donation may not be credited properly to our account. If you are mailing the donation to Northland, the address is 530 Dog Track Rd. / Longwood, FL 32750. Donations for specific projects can be sent to “Hope for a Better Future Trust” c/o Hazel Sun, 659 Dunblane Dr., Winter Park, FL 32792-4620.