Monday, February 29, 2016

MEET "CHRISTINE NAMWINGA"

Christine Namwinga is 84 years old.  Christine was baptized 6 April 2014 in a small village in Zambia.  She lost her husband in 1992 and also suffered through the death of all ten of her children.  Five of them died when they were young, at the same time, being swept away in a flash flood as they took cover under a bridge in a heavy African downpour.  She recovered the bodies of only three of those children.  One son died on his wedding day of a heart attack, another daughter died giving birth to her first child and the other three died of malaria.

In January of 2014 Christine became destitute and came in from her village to ask the priest for help, only to be turned away and told he couldn't help her.  She wandered through town and noticed a white signboard - The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It was Saturday, so she spent the night waiting outside the building until she could attend church.  She recognized a strong spirit drawing her there.  And so began her conversion.  The elders began to teach her.  On Sundays she would get up at 3:00 a.m. and walk the six hours it took to get to church.  Another sister befriended Christine and invited her to stay at her home on Saturday night and again on Sunday night to make her trip to church a little easier.

A few senior couples in Christine's area, connected her to Mother's Without Borders.  They have helped her with some of the essentials that she needs around her homestead.  She was given a mattress so she wouldn't have to sleep on the dirt floor and she chopped down some small trees, lashed them together and made a bed frame.  She mixed yellow clay like dirt around her farm with some water and using her bare hands, painted her humble little home to give it a face lift.  A well was dug near her home so she wouldn't have to walk 5 kilometers away to fetch water from a stream.  She hired local men and managed her funds perfectly.  Her roof was repaired so it didn't leak, a porch was built to protect her entry from the heavy rains and her outdoor kitchen area was rebuilt.  A senior sister, Sister Lowe, even added a roof to her outhouse by lashing some branches to the posts of the outhouse to form a pitch for the roof and then sewed the fabric she created from plastic bags that mealie meal comes in, to the outhouse walls with wire.  Quite ingenious. They took her grocery shopping one day but she had no idea how to shop for food because she had only ever shopped at the village markets.

One day when a senior couple was visiting Christine, she was not feeling well.  The husband offered to give her a priesthood blessing.  At a point in the blessing he paused for a very long time.  When he continued, he was impressed to bless Christine that she would be able to go to the temple and have her children and her husband sealed to her.  Tears flowed and the spirit bore witness that this was the Lord's blessing to her for being so faithful, so obedient and so deserving of this glorious opportunity.

Eight months later, that blessing became a reality.  First she need to get a birth certificate in order to get a Zambian NRC.  Then a passport.  Then a temple recommend with Temple Preparation Lessons. In the midst of all this preparation she developed double vision and couldn't see out of one eye.  They nursed her along with an eye patch and medication from an eye doctor.  And then she was ready for the temple trip to Johannesburg.  It was her first ever trip out of town; her first ever trip on a big bus; and her first trip ever out of the country.  She along with 28 other children and adults from her branch, spent 38 hours on the bus to get to the Johannesburg Temple.  They spent two days at the temple and then back on the bus again for another 38 hours home.

Christine was sealed to all ten of her children, her husband and her parents.  She is a beautiful lady with a strong testimony of the gospel and love for her Savior.  (As told by Sister Susan Lowe)

Christine's words: "My name is Christine Namwinga.  I know that my Heavenly Father loves me very much, in that he has made it possible for me to reach this age and special time to allow me visit the Temple.  I thank very much the missionaries who taught me the restored gospel, and also many thanks go to Sr Lowe and Sr Querry for their tireless help in my life.  They have made me to become more dedicated and strong in the things of the Lord as well as temporal.  I know that if I continue following the commandments I will trully be saved and live a better life here on earth.

I am happy that I was sealed to my husband, children and my parents because this assures me that one day we will see each other and be together forever in the life to come.  I will always be remembering your help my sisters and I will be crying anytime you come to my memory. 

I know that this church is true and it is lead by a prophet of God Thomas S. Monson.  I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet from God.  I promise that I will share what I know to be true in this church to other people so that they come to the knowledge of the restored gospel as well."


Christine Namwinga

Christine's homestead

The bed frame she made for her mattress
Taking District President Kapato to the homestead

Her kitchen
 The outhouse the Sister Lowe helped to roof!
Christine's way of grocery shopping
A "face lift" for her home with yellow dirt
Christine and Sister Lowe after her sealing...April 2015
The group from Zambia that attended the temple - children and all

".And if thou art faithful unto the end thou shalt have a crown of immortality, and eternal life in the mansions which I have prepared in the house of my Father."  D & C 81:6  Christine will be rewarded with a mansion!

A REMINDER THAT WE ARE NOT FORGOTTEN

Every day at 4:30 p.m. our time here in Johannesburg, we receive a phone call in the center from America....7:30 a.m. Utah time.  The sweet delicate voice we hear on the other end of the phone is Miri Bytheway, our granddaughter.  She calls us when she wakes up every morning just to say "Hi" and this gives us a little ray of sunshine at the end of our working day.  She cannot begin to know how much we look forward to those phone calls.  To be one of the first things she thinks about when she wakes --- reminds us that we are not forgotten.  Ngiyabonga kakhulu our little princess!!!




Friday, February 19, 2016

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY 8 - 14 February 2016


HAPPY VALENTINES to all my family and dear friends.  I love VALENTINES DAY!!!  Valentines Day is so much more than a "romantic" greeting to someone special in your life.  It is a day to acknowledge all those that have made an "imprint on my heart".  Special people that have blessed my life with their smiles, kindness, love, laughter, support and just complete goodness.  It is a time to recognize all of you.  So just want to say.......HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!  I am so glad that our paths crossed and that you call me friend.  

Our daughter, Misti, wrote a post on Valentines Day wishing everyone a special day.  She describes my feelings adn so many others of this day. I received her permission to share it on my blog...."Happy Valentine's Day!! Many call this single-awareness day but I disagree with that saying. I may not have a "significant other" to call my Valentine but I am truly blessed in the love department. I have a family that I love and who also loves me. My niece told me the other day that she thinks she will love me forever. smile emoticon How can that be bad. Children celebrate Valentine's Day with classmates and friends because it's about showing kindness. So today whether you have a special someone or not, may we all show a little more love to our family, friends, acquaintances, and even enemies. The world can only get better with a little more love!"
Misti, you are loved by so many.  I am in awe that you are part of me!
on Saturday, 13 February we had a Valentines Party with the senior couples in the area.  We had such an enjoyable time.  It truly is a fun time to have a party.  I had a great time decorating our home for the occasion but then we spent most of our time outside because it was a gorgeous evening.  We had a braai with chicken and sausage, with salads, baked beans, homemade rolls and dessert.  It was Sister Charlotte Needs' birthday on the 14th, so we had cake and birthday wishes.  There were different props for pictures of each of the couples, played a Valentine trivia game, Kubb and then ended with the Newlywed Game.  It was an evening of laughter, fun and just pure enjoyment.
We are ready for our guests!!!!!
Greeting at our door....

It was a gorgeous evening.
The group that played kubb.....Dennis was impresses with the accuracy of the women...
Braai is ready for all to enjoy...

Elder Walton trying to figure out the Valentine trivia.

A crown for the birthday girl.....Charlotte Needs
Her husband surprised her with this cake...so yummy.

Such a fun group....

Newlywed game
Our Valentine couples.....
Linford and Mary Beckstrand - Area Auditors
Rion and Charlotte Needs - Area Auditors
They will be leaving us in May.  They have been reassigned to the new Mbuji Mayi DRC mission as an office couple.  They speak French and he is an administrator.  Perfect for the area.  We will surely miss them.
Paul and Ginny Graf - Legal
Jann and Emery Powell - ICS
Karl and Margaret Blake - Humanitarian
Chuck and Liz Walton - Executive Secretary
Susan and Walt Peterson - Humanitarian
Me and Dennis
The week prior to Valentines was spent in the center working on further preparation for training.  Bro. Holmes is doing Madagascar this weekend; then he is going to Zimbabwe next week to train church history advisers from Zambia, Malawi and Bulawayo and Harare, Zimbabwe; and then he travels to the DRC to train advisers from there, Congo and Cameroon.  We have been helping him prepare booklets.  We are also working on a wall display in the center.  On Wednesday night we skyped with James from Salt Lake about the RPC and when we got home late, we had no internet.  Frustrated.  Thursday we had Elder Robert and Sister Sharon Berg (Public Affairs) over for dinner and did an oral history.  They leave for home on 1 March.  A great couple. They have done so much for the public affairs department.  They followed in the footsteps of their two previous predecessors....the Murdocks and Kyles!
 These two came in to see us.  The young man (Andrew ?) served in Durban while we were there but never in Swaziland....can't remember his name.  But he just got a job.  He was so excited. This young lady was just baptized two months ago.  So excited about the gospel.  She is teaching her mother.  Blessings of our center being situated where it is. 
 This little girl was in the Self-Reliance room with her father.  Absolutely ADORABLE...
 Her father...
 This is our secret room behind where Dennis works. It is called our RPC - Records Preservation Center.  It is where we keep the artifacts that people give us.
 The cabinet opens to our secret hideaway.
 Inside where we store the artifacts - special boxes and folders
 Bro.. Leon Holmes in his office
 We are in the process of preparing the Clive Hickolls collection of the history in South Africa for digitalization.  We had to take out of the binders behind Dennis, years of collecting papers so we can store them forever in Salt Lake.
 Sharon and Robert Berg - Public Affairs.  We did their oral history.  Great people!
 This cute family was sitting in the patron housing waiting room and I could tell they needed suckers!
 Mark from ICS helping us with our computers
Sunday, VALENTINES DAY.  I got up and made blueberry pancakes for Dennis and then we left to attend the Alexandra Branch for church.  We searched for an hour and never did find it.  I wish we cold have captured what we saw during that hour of searching.  Not too sure we were in very safe places and saw so many squatter camps.  The places they call home just went on and on.  I never stop being amazed.  We finally decided that we had better go back to a ward to partake of the sacrament.  So we drove to the Joburg 2 ward for the 10:00 sacrament meeting.  We were so bumped. We had bought valentine suckers for the branch and we were so looking forward to going there.  Our plans are to go there next Sunday.  We have a plan.  That afternoon we went to visit Sherry Weeks.  She has been sick and we wanted to take her the valentine candy and roses that we had given out at the party the night earlier.  There was a special missionary fireside broadcast that we went to that evening.  Another full Sabbath day. 
This is all I could get of Alexandra......bad pictures 
 We had no idea what was going on at this place but cars were lined up for miles along this road. Double parking in some cases.
This is Rodney and Madeline from Zimbabwe.  They sent us this recent picture.  Dear friends....
 
It is BIRTHDAY time at the Arkell family.  More than a third of their family has birthdays in one week.
Ben's birthday was 9 February.  A great husband and father.  We are so glad to have him in the Lombardi family.
Kamri and Jessa's birthday is 11 February.  These two get to share their birthdays with each other.  Kamri is such a delight...just full of life and spunk and enjoys life to the fullest.  these are her new glasses.
 
This adorable one was born right after we arrived home from our last mission in 2014.  What a glorious day that was.  She is just getting cuter and cuter with each passing day.  I could just sweep her up and kiss those little cheeks of hers.  Jessa, stay little until we get home!

 Jessa talking to grandma on the phone....
 The other two-thirds......beautiful family.

This is what I am striving for: