Botswana Bits - ZAMBIA EDITION

Just to say that Jeff's trip went really well. He was able to fly with Joel, Marcus, and Rick and get them pretty much up to date as far as their Botswana Licenses are concerned. He was also able to have a meeting with the guys and talk about safety issues, stresses and stuff like that.

It rained off and on nearly the whole time he was there which made flying more work but they managed. First, he went to the Farm that FM bought just outside Lusaka, it has two houses and a small guest house on the property and a bush airstrip. FM was able to put up a small open air hangar last year and they are hoping to put down a cement slab sometime in the near future.

To and from the farm.

Hanger at the farm.

Joel and Sue Bolthouse where the first FM family to go there, the whole plot needed a lot of TLC (and it's a BIG place) it was pretty run down (actually Roger and Sally Green from the U.K. went up to the farm first to do repairs) . Then Rick, a single guy from Canada joined them and now Marcus and Evelyn and family from Germany (worked for FM in Botswana for several years as well) have taken up residence in the "pilot house" which is a fixer uper. They have reconstructed the one end of the house and now they are working on the other end.

Hospital, Chitokoloki

Jeff was able to help Joel with some maintenance on a couple of the planes as well as some maintenance on the house (i.e.) they put up a ceiling fan and a few other bits and bobs.

Jeff and Joel flew to Chitokoloki, which is out in the Northwest part of the country. There is a mission hospital out there. They would like FM to have a regular scheduled flight from there to Lusaka once a week (I think) at least. Everything official happens in Lusaka and it's quite a drive coming from the NW corner into the middle of the country where Lusaka is. Chitokoloki is rather remote, their electricity is produced by generators at certain times of the day. They are not "on the grid" as they say (not connected to the power utilities) Jeff showed me a picture of one family's solution to the hot water challenge. They had a cast iron wood stove that they built a fire in every morning and they had it connected to a large water tank and the stove would keep the water tank hot for the rest of the day. The folks out in Chitokoloki would really like to have an FM pilot based out there full time (sometimes medical flights, and flights for meetings, and getting people in and out of there from Lusaka,..). It's was funny, they actually have some quads out there and instead of driving around in trucks they just use those mainly to get from home to the hospital and around the mission station.

Repair job.

Cast iron stove.

As Jeff and Joel were preparing to go back to Lusaka or maybe it was Mukinge (another mission statoin with a hospital) they got a strange request from the folks at Chitokoloki. They asked them if they could try to find a large double trailer overlander truck that had broke down on the way (The truck is quite heavy duty to make such a trek), they wanted Jeff and Joel to drop a fan belt down to the guy so that he could replace the broken one and carry on with his journey. They found the truck and circled above it's position and threw the belt out the window and the guy found it and waved and then they carred on back to Lusaka. Jeff said that he had never thrown anything out of the plane before, of course we were all reminded of that old movie "The gods must be crazy."

I know Jeff went to Mukinge to do some flying with Rick but I can't remember the chronilogical order. Mukinge is also a hospital/mission station run by SIM missionaries, in a rural setting. Rick has been based there for awhile, in fact he just moved up there like three weeks ago.

Refueling

Transport

On his way back to Botswana Jeff stopped in another village called Macha (to learn more about what's happening there check out Gil and Rhonda's website, www.somacha.com) . Macha hosts a malaria research hospital and they also do work with HIV/AIDS (every hospital helps with that). There is a man from Norway, whose wife is working at the hospital, he (name is Geritjan) has used his time to help the community develop communication links via satillite. The more a person can accomplish in their home village the less they have to make the long, expensive, arduous trips into Lusaka (not to mention be away from home and family, which would decrease the spread of certain disease...) so he has been working on developmening projects like the internet cafe, a little coffee shop/restaurant, a place to sell local crafts like baskets and pottery. Gil and Rhonda, a for mentioned, have went up to help start a school (they had been working at a Christian school in Gaborone for the past 7 years, they are wonderful Christian people). Gertijan would love to have a pilot based there full time because he makes several trips into Lusaka a week and he has been using FM extensively. He is a visionary type of guy, he was so excited about being able to use the plane that he got several of the Zambians together and they just started slashing and digging out a run way 1000 meters long. He would love to see this type of project duplicated all over the country so that the rural areas can be helped. All the projects mentioned are Christian based a great place an opportunity to share the gospel.

Zambia is a very poor country but the people there seem to be hard working and creative and we can see that God is opening so many doors into that country, we really think that things are on the up and up and God is doing great things. I have some Zambian friends here in Gabs and it's exciting to hear the hope and joy in there voices as they talk about the changes happening in Zambia. So we are just excited that FM can be a part of that Kingdom building work. We just want to help and support that in anyway we can. We would value your prayers for the missionaries there and for the local Christians, Zambia IS on the up and up but it's STILL difficult to live there, just physically it's much harder (meeting your everyday needs take sooooo much more time and effort) and getting any paper work down take what seems like forever (sorry the guy that has that stamp is on holiday or at a funeral, come back next week....). So please pray that the Love of Jesus would be so full in our and their hearts that these troubles would pale in comparison.

Community Centre, Macha

Internet Cafe

Future airport site in Macha.

Hope you enjoyed the Zambia edition. Check out the blogsite www.jeffandmichele.blogspot.com to view more pictures.

Jeff and I are still not sure where God is leading us, but we know He will let us know in his time. Thank you so much to all of you who have been praying for us over these uncertain times. It means so much to us and we know God will be faithful to your prayers.

Love,

Jeff and Michele

Jeff and Michele Royce
c/o Flying Mission
P.O. Box 1022
Gaborone,
Botswana
Africa

royces@flyingmission.org.bw
http://www.flyingmission.botsnet.co.bw/news.htm
http://jeffandmichele.blogspot.com