We have spent our first holiday on our mission field in Zambia.Our arrival in Lusaka greeted us with many surprises and put us through several challenges but we are now so much stronger for these trials.Some of you may have heard that our entire shipment of winter clothing, electronics, food and US goodies were "burned" in a truck accident in Zimbabwe.The shipment traveled from Richmond, VA to Durban, South Africa by boat, then was to travel by truck from Durban, South Africa to Lusaka, Zambia by way of the country of Zimbabwe.While in route, over land to Lusaka, the truck experienced brake problems in Zimbabwe and we are told "burned with our entire shipment."

Even with all the banking, relocation, shipping, travel and other challenges of moving to a new country and finding housing and settling in, we have been surprised by God's faithfulness and have, literally, seen the hand of God moving in our favor in so many instances.

We have begun to settle into a more comfortable, less stressful "routine," and have started ministry and convention work.Our Baptist Convention of Zambia partners have been very gracious to allow us time to settle in with only a few necessary meetings and preaching engagement requests.

After living in the hustle-and bustle of South Africa for so many years, it takes some getting used to the "unhurried" manner in the way people conduct business and transact dealings here in Zambia.Throw everything you know, about driving, out of the window and relearn to drive in the heavy Lusaka (capital city) traffic among the taxi drivers in Zambia.You need not break any laws, but the culture of driving is unlike what we learned in USA Drivers Education 101 (and even different from the crazy traffic and mini-van driving in South Africa).

These taxi and mini-bus drivers, here in Zambia, weave in and out of traffic quickly and recklessly all day long, in order to get as many customers as they can in every trip.

Our children had two pet German Shepherds that had to remain in South Africa when we went back to America (end of August 2005) for our one-year USA/Puerto Rico assignment for church deputation.The female dog, "Chacaliese Ebony West," died while the male dog, Tosca, is still with one of the Baptist Convention of South Africa pastors.We allowed them to get a new pet, a female kitten named "Champignon Ella Westee." "Champignon" is French for mushroom, "Ella" is Spanish for girl and "Westee" is the Zambian pronunciation for "West," a truly international flavor.This little ball of fur has helped the children tremendously in their transition to this new culture.They can come home, do their homework and cuddle up with the kitten.The new kitten has become very adept at catching the many spiders, flying roaches, flying ants and salamanders that come into the house.

We have been told, on more than one occasion, by many others, Zambian and expatriates, that it takes lots of patience to be able to live and work in Zambia.Things do not happen fast, many things are in scarce supply or not available, workmanship is extremely poor and pricey, and punctuality and contract keeping is hard to find - like in most places. Internet service and snail-mail is "iffy," you might receive your package and you might not, if you do, someone may have already helped themselves to your things. Although Zambia has declared itself a Christian nation - it is only a political declaration - and this means different things to different people.

No need for us to wonder what God is doing in our lives with some of the adversity we have had to face, so far away from family and friends.In the short time we have been here we have made great friends and God has given us a heart for our Zambian brothers and sisters.To our surprise, we are learning to approach adversity like an unwrapped gift, just waiting to be opened and taken in.There is an element of all of the fruits of the Spirit that we have had to practice or we have experienced in these past six months.God must truly love us to allow us this privilege.

But what happens when we live God's way? He brings gifts into our lives, much the same way that fruit appears in an orchard - things like affection for others, exuberance about life, serenity.We develop a willingness to stick with things, a sense of compassion in the heart, and a conviction that a basic holiness permeates things and people.We find ourselves involved in loyal commitments, not needing to force our way in life, able to marshal and direct our energies wisely.Legalism is helpless in bringing this about; it only gets in the way.(Galatians 5:22-23 The Message)