Mission News from Mulungwishi

December 2004

Dear Friends,

The year 2004 is quickly coming to an end. We want to take the opportunity to wish you the Lord’s richest blessings during this Christmas time and in the New Year. Thank you for your encouragement and prayers this past year through our joys and tears. Our family is keeping busy. Amber is now full time at the Children’s Hospital in Seattle. Andrew continues filming sports for local TV and working with the plastics company. Michelle is teaching kindergarten and Jeff is in PR at the University. We always miss them but we are thankful that they are busy and settled. We treasure the time we were with them and the rest of the family this summer. People here are still talking about “The Wedding” Michelle and Jeff had at Mulungwishi!!! We were so blessed by our Congo family and all they did for the celebration. We have many good memories of both weddings and graduations and fun pictures!!

The University and Seminary continue with full schedules and the miracle of trying to keep everything going in this unsettled country. We thank you for your faithful support this year. The students are encouraged by your sharing gifts when they realize you do not know them or their situations. This year the Women’s School has 45 students as does the Seminary, and there are 65 in Information Technology and 7 in Education.

We have just completed two days of Round - Table discussions concerning the future of the University with our partners from the Methodist Church in Switzerland and Denmark. Unfortunately, nobody showed up from the U.S. There was also a representative from Africa University. The sharing revealed a deep appreciation for the Seminary, the faculty and program we have developed. The School of Information Technology, which is in its infant stages, is in need of faculty, classrooms and equipment. We especially need technicians who can keep the systems running. Maybe some of you will think about coming out to teach and help?? As always, finances are a large part of the discussions and how to make funds stretch even more.

Our youngest child, in the Nutrition Program, is 40 days old. Her mother died when she was 21 days old. Her grandmother is now her “mother”, and she also has a baby of four months!!! We are trying to help the young grandmother keep healthy so that she can continue to nurse both babies!! The grandmother is overwhelmed with grief and is undernourished herself. She needs support and encouragement. This little baby “angel”, as we call her, is so tiny, beautiful and delicate.

As this Christmas approaches, this baby has made us all the more aware again of what happened that night!! We can imagine the straw, the sounds and smells of the cattle and sheep, a rough manger bed and Mary with the precious Baby. Holding “angel” reminds us of how great the miracle of Christmas was and still is!! The small Baby looked like other babies but He was the very Son of God, the Messiah, Immanuel, God with us!!! So simple, yet so incredible this Gift was given to us who believe!! We are overwhelmed by wanting to protect and be assured that our baby “angel” will be alright and try to help give her a future but think of that Christmas night so long ago!! That Baby gave and gives us an Eternal Future as Heirs in the Kingdom with Him, children of a Holy God!!! As we pray for baby “angel”, we also pray for you, that during this Christmas time, you will be blessed and overwhelmed with the reality of Christmas! That Baby, was the Christ Child, our Savior!!!

Thank you again for being a part of our lives. Please keep praying.
Christmas blessings, In His Love, David and Lorene

Congo mailing address:
P.O. Box 22037
Kitwe, Zambia
Africa

Persons_mulungwishi @ hotmail.com  [without the spaces]

Please remember that our email system is elementary; messages sometimes take a week or so to get driven up to us from where they are received in Lubumbashi. So be patient with us.

This page was last updated 12/18/2004