The New Face of Chande Nut Butter

Newsletter September 09’ sorry wrong order

Dear Friends and Family,

Well the month of September was great. It was very, very hot, but great. We do not use blankets or even a sheet to cover up at night. We have placed a fan to blow intermittently onto both of us while we sleep, and we still wake soaking wet. The rains are not supposed to come until November or late October, but we have had some the last couple days and I think it is a special blessing from God to help people from cold climates like us. Amy, Wil, and I like to sit on our front porch at night to breath in the rain smell and watch the lightening. William is 10 months old now and is not walking yet, but he is very mobile, and has learned to climb on things. He has started to brush his teeth, say “bye bye” while waving, and pick his nose, unfortunately. We gave him his first haircut about a week ago, and I even cut his mothers hair (thanks for the lessons Ang Oswald). We are adapting to Africa more and more as a family, and are learning to manage our time and take care of each other. No tropical diseases this month, or venomous bites (even though when Binwell and I were working in the bush he did almost step on a cobra barefoot), or car break-downs. I would count us very blessed.

The peanut butter is going very well. We found a plastic manufacturer in a city near by, that is now making our containers, and a newspaper company that is printing our labels. We no longer have to rely on the U.S. for any part of the P.B. production and this is very exciting. The orphanage is moving one step closer to monetary self sufficiency (One of our main long-term goals). I have also searched out cheaper ways of producing, and by getting wholesale ingredients in different places we have cut our production cost by about 30%. We have hired another woman to make peanut butter, and a full-time saleswoman to help move the product. I am very excited to see all of this coming more and more together, and just to see women who have lost their husbands get a good job to take care of themselves and their family.

We are still having trouble with our banana land. The permanent secretary is part of a group of men who have been commissioned to write a new constitution for Zambia. He has told me “ I want Zambia to have a constitution that will stand the test of time, one like the United States has”. This is a good thing, I think, but it means that he keeps canceling our meetings so he can be in Lusaka (Zambia’s capital) for meeting on the constitution. I have not given up hope, and continue to pray that it will work out very well.

At the youth meeting we went to at the end of last month, one of our churches, Chamboli, did very well at the singing competition. They have been asked to go to Lusaka to compete at a national level. They sing beautifully and I think they will do very well.

The pastors from the churches in Congo have traveled to Lumbumbashi for a leadership seminar led by Pastor Chanda, and a team from Inglewood Baptist Church in Texas. While he is there, pastor Chanda is getting some Swahili bibles for our next trip into Pweto, and the regions around. It is best to get the bibles there I have learned, because the dialects of Swahili, and French are different then those of eastern and northern Africa where most bible translations come from. We will be heading into the pweto area again around the first week of November. I think that on this upcoming trip we will be going into moba to scout it out as we plan to plant churches going in that direction.

The Orphanage school in Ndeke, Kitwe has got a new teacher named Barnabas, who is doing classes using audio and video. It has proven very effective, and the pupils are enjoying it a lot. I think he will be a great addition.

We got a chance to meet with several missionaries in the copperbelt for dinner a couple weeks ago. There was about ten of us from places like: Sri lanka, Holland, England, South Africa, Australia, and even the good old U.S.A. It was very nice to spend some time with people and not have the heavy language or culture barriers that we are used to. We met a nice couple of missionaries at the beginning of the month, and they have a 15 month old son (Micah) who has become fast friends with William. Having these contacts has already been a big blessing, because we can all learn from each others experience, and sympathize with each other when needed.

Amy has been very busy trying to create profiles on all the orphans chande supports, and has been spending long days at the schools trying to get things that are very unorganized, organized. It has been great to get to know all the children, and their stories. Some of the orphans are being supported by people in the united states, and Amy has been arranging letters to be sent from the orphans to their supporters. This has been nice to spend time with them, and learn their likes, and dislikes, and just to encourage them however we can.

Recently I have been spending some days in the bush in a village called “maposa”. There is a school and a church there that was started by chande. A team from wyoming came and put a new roof up to replace the broken down school/church building. The villagers job was to put up the walls. It is months later and nobody has done anything, so a man from church named Zachariah, and I, are trying to fill in. We have been mobilizing the people, making bricks, and trying to get the building constructed before the rains set in hard. I have been bringing volunteers from the youth meeting I started on Sundays, and they have been happy to serve. This church has also recently been left without a pastor, and has slowly fallen apart. The kountz fam has been out there every Sunday. I am preaching a series from Matthew 5-7, and trying to teach some basics of the Christian life. It will probably take a couple of months. The youth from my group are excited to help with this church. Binwell has been translating for me, and many others have offered to come to help build, help evangelize, to sing, and just to encourage this church. Our hope is to get the church a full time pastor to disciple and care for it. I feel very strongly that Zachariah could fill this position (he has been preaching there off and on for a while), but the Lord chooses who will be pastors, and he will have to be called for that to happen. I am very blessed and encouraged as I see this church growing and being revitalized. Please pray that we would get the building up before the rains, and that the Lord would raise up a pastor to fill that position.

All in all things are going well. It is a rollercoaster ride, but we know that God will work all things together for good. Thank you for all your financial, and prayer support. You are all such an encouragement to us. We will keep you all in our prayers, and let you know as things are moving forward…. I also have set up a blog to put little things up for people to see, and publish old newsletters for those who have missed them. If you want to visit it, it is www.kountzfamilyzambia.blogspot.com we love you all.

In Christ,

`The Kountz Fam in Zam

Newsletter October 09’

Hey Everyone,

The month of October went by very quickly I think, but it went very well. I read e-mails talking of snow, and thought “if I could get the temp in my house down to 85 I would be sitting pretty”. We did not have our usual Oct. weather, but we did still find a Zambian pumpkin to carve (white outside orange inside), and Amy made home-made apple cider which was delicious. Wil got some batman pajamas from his aunt and uncle so he got to dress up as batman for halloween. He looked pretty epic, cape and all. It was a really good time, but I don’t think Wil knew why we were taking so many pictures of him. I guess he is getting used to it. As the rainy season approached so did winds, and as winds approached so did children with home-made kites. One day William saw one in the air, and he was so excited pointing at it and talking. After this Amy decided we should make one, and so we did. Wil’s gift for turning eleven months old was a very nice home-made kite. He flew it and we have some great pictures of it. We also got to celebrate the Zambian independence at our school in Wusakile. The children all prepared different skits and dances, and it was a great time. Some of the teachers also danced and I am sure the cheers of the children could be heard for miles.

On the work side of things we spent a good deal of time in the bush this month. On average we were out there about 4 days out of the week leaving only two days to work at the orphanage. Like I said previously there is a school/church in the bush, and we have been spending a lot of time working with the people there. If our claim on the banana land is accepted and demarcated (it isn’t yet but I am excited about all the opportunities God has given us to serve in the mean time) it will be in the same community of Maposa, so I think our work with the school, and church there will always be part of our ministry here. We are putting up some bathrooms there to increase hygiene, and some temporary walls on the school to keep the rains off the children while they are learning. This is nearly complete. We did not come with enough time to make and fire bricks so we will have to make the permanent structure after the rains have finished. The church is doing well. It is getting more organized, and starting to have a worship service on Sundays, instead of the casual bible study that it was having. Many people from town have come to help, and we even had some girls come to sing choir music for a couple weeks. The church was very blessed by this. We have also started a Wednesday bible study to help the church members to learn more and grow, and to build community within the church. As I am writing this right now I am sitting at one of the schools wooden desks waiting for the bible study to start, as a fresh breeze cools me off, and the sound of school children and wild animals makes an ambiance. (birds and stuff, no lions ha ha)

The last week of the month we did evangelism, (if you don’t know what this is it is going around sharing the good news of the gospel with people, ie talking about jesus)in the bush. We went from hut to hut, and field to field (people are now sowing corn) sharing with people, and at the end of the day I would preach a message. It was a very good few days. Many people from my Sunday group came to help. Doing this kind of evangelism followed by preaching is often called a having a “crusade” by some. Before I never really thought about it, but now I am starting to like this name. If you think about it, it is very much a battle that a Christian worker fights, it is just different weapons that we use. -“for we do not wrestle against flesh and blood”- As I am out I see the light of the Gospel destroying strongholds that people have in their lives. One man we visited asked us to pray that he would not have such a desire to drink and be drunk. He saw that this was just one of Satan’s many tools to keep him from having true joy as a Christian. He was so excited to hear 1 Cor 10:13. There were many people who did not know Christ, but because He had already defeated the power of sin, they had simply to believe on Him and their plea for eternal life would be successful. A small band of children from the school followed as we set out after eating lunch. We called them our little evangelists. Binwell and I went to the other side of the village and met a man who was weeping bitterly. This man had lost his wife only a couple of weeks earlier, and he was young. He told me that nothing worked any more, and that everything at his house was falling apart with out her. He said all he could do is cry and drink. I couldn’t try to imagine what he was going through, and was broken hearted for him. I brought him some promises from the bible. We spent time under a tree encouraging him, and slowly saw his frown turn to a smile. He invited us into his house to pray together, and said he knew he couldn’t find true comfort in alcohol. He promised to get rid of all his alcohol, and as we left he was smiling and waving telling us to get him every time we were out in the bush. We were at another house talking to a family under a tree when he came walking up with an ichisongoli (curious bush fruit) saying, “I forgot to give this to you”. That man sat with us at every house we went to after that just to listen to what we were saying. He was so excited to hear the word of God. I think he will have a very bright future filled with light and hope. Please pray for the people in Maposa to cling to that great gift that God has given freely to all who will have it. Also pray that those who mourn would cast their cares upon Jesus who is able and willing to free them from these burdens.

At our schools we let orphans come for free. We fund it by having non orphans come to our schools for a fee, and by people supporting the children on an individual basis. When Amy was working on making profiles for the kids to send to America for people who were interested in sponsoring, we noticed that some children had slipped through the gaps. Some of the orphans are no longer coming to the school. This can happen for many reasons. Maybe their family moved and we didn’t know, or it could be bad. Maybe their life with their uncle and aunt, or whoever is caring for them is abusive. Maybe they are not being cared for at all. Maybe they have decided to run off and be street kids which all to many orphans do. Either way we are starting to investigate this. This Friday we are going to try to find Emmanuel who hasn’t been seen at school for some time. We will continue until all the kids are accounted for, and we are sure they are being cared for. If there home life is bad, or they have run away then we will have to try to bring them to the orphanage to stay, and pray for God to provide for them. Their provision is the reason we are trying to start businesses for the orphanage. Please pray for these children, and their wellbeing. Without an education in Zambia, an orphan is promised a very hard life filled with hunger and pain. Please pray for God’s love to be shown through His people towards these children.

We where set to go to Congo twice in November, once on November 3^rd to Lumbumbashi, and then again on the 15^th to Pweto. We did not go this Tuesday because William got sick, and then Amy got sick, and then I got sick. We are all three feeling much better. We thank the Lord for His healing and provision. I will be going to Pweto still, and will probably make the trip to Lumbumbashi in early December, but I must preface everything with “if God wills”. Please pray for the soil of men’s hearts to be prepared to hear the Gospel, and for our coming to be an encouragement to the local churches, and the leadership. Also pray for our safety, and for the safety of the wives and children that Ba Chanda and I will be leaving behind.

Thank you all so much for your prayer and financial support. God has put all of you in our life, and chosen to bring His provision for us through you. We thank you for your faithfulness in this. We rely on your support so much, and are so grateful for every prayer lifted up to heaven, and every penny given for our physical support. We keep you all in our prayers, and are encouraged greatly by what we hear about going on in your lives. With deep gratitude and love,

The Kountz Family