Many new updates from the past 3 months have just been added...so you can catch up with the news from MICS and Macha.
We hope to have SoMacha.com up soon, so please check back often!
Feb 27, 2008 - When the Saints Go Marching In!!!!
0 comments Posted by Gil and Ronda / SoMacha.com at 8:11 PM
As the MICS students marched from the wooden house to the new school building on February 25th they sang "When the Saints Go Marching In". It was sooooooooo special to hear them harmonize and add special echoes as they marched......and ..... see them smiling from ear to ear all the way. The excitement was high!! The work crew stopped what they were doing and watched in amazement.
God is Faithful!!!
It was amazing how much the students enjoyed their desks after sitting on the floor for three weeks(-: and ..... even though the building is not finished the "little saints" thought is was beautiful and the best school they could possibly have.
As we unpack materials and supplies that were stored for the new school we are again reminded of the generosity of all of you. The container that was shipped from Arizona held materials and supplies beyond anyone's imagination. Some of you have shipped supplies that seem to arrive at the exact time they are needed. We are so thankful to each one that has helped. We pray the Lord will bless you as He is blessing us.
Celebrate with us as we begin this new chapter of MICS in this beautiful new school building(-:
Please keep praying for us as we still need funds to finish. We know He will provide just as He has each step of the way.
WAHOOOO !!!!!!!!! (as I love to say when some one comes to Macha or something special happens
We are excited to be in the new building and will send a report of our first week.
Please keep praying for the workers to finish and funds to complete the building.
Feb 11, 2008 - MICS had first week in Wooden House in Macha
0 comments Posted by Gil and Ronda / SoMacha.com at 8:06 PM
They were all in their places with bright shiny faces(-:
God blessed us and showed us favor as we had a week of sun shine so the parents and boys and girls could get used to the new route to school..... a ways away from the Macha Mission Hospital building on very muddy trails. Some biked, some walked, some came in trucks, some in cars. One bicycle had the adult driver and three kids on it....that taxi got its moneys worth.
School began with 36 students present on Monday and by Friday we had 46 with 50 children enrolled for next week.
As the classes started we had no teacher for the reception (Kindergarten) class. A class of 6 or 8 students.....should be a piece of cake...right??? Wrong!!!! It is one of the things I really like to teach...right??? Well, we started with 6 children...4 boys and 2 girls. Thankfully 2 of the boys spoke English! The other 4 spoke NO English and most had seen very few white people. One little boy kept calling Elmo ( a Dutch student) and me "Mazungu" which means white person. We kept telling him our names and his name but he just kept yelling and bossing everyone with a very loud voice in Tonga....by the way the other kids called him the baby, that is how small he is. One little girl just laughed at me ...no matter what I did to correct her she would laugh at me. She was pulling hair and pinching other children and if I would talk to her or stop her she would laugh in my face. She would run away if I put her in time out, even when I just tried to hug her, she would just laugh out very loud...... The first day I finally just took her to another class as the rest of my class was going wild and watching to see what she was getting away with. The second day the same thing happened but we did stay together for about 15 minutes not just 7. By the third day she was with me the entire time!!!!!! and by the end of the week she wanted to hold my hand and sit next to me....and was not calling me Mazungu any more. She did not laugh at me all the time either.....miracles never cease. She and the other little girl in the class started to speak English. Imagine in just one week!!! It was so funny they both started saying "Thank you very much" and so .....randomly on Friday all day they would say or blurt out "Thank you very much" and then again" Thank you very much" They thought they were so special and clever!! Pretty cute...and sure made me smile.
I have hired a teacher to teach this class but she starts on Tuesday. They are Kindergarten age but about at three year old preschool level. I had planned way over their heads and really had to scramble to keep them under control. Joy Mutepfa....I have empathy for you with your three years olds as they came in to the new school year with you! I think they have a 30 second attention span. That is a lot of activities in a morning from 7:45 to 12:30 (-: It has been good for me to get to know these little ones and know their level of instruction. I am sure they will learn English well in the next few weeks and will progress by leaps and bounds this year.
On a sad note, we accepted two girls from the village on a sponsorship from a family from Canada. They attended school for 2 days last week. We heard that on Friday night their hut burned to the ground. No one was hurt.....thankfully. They were all sleeping and a candle set the fire. The thatch roof really burns fast and falls into the room. They all got out but lost everything. Even their new school uniforms and shoes they just received the day before. I am sure they are emotionally stressed as they begin a new school and can not speak English, then lost their little home and place of security and all their possessions especially their new school things, Please pray for them.
The building is still not done. We are still waiting and praying and doing things one day at time while we wait. In talking with parents, the kids had a great week and it seems like they think the wooden house is a great school. SOOOOO we will continue as long as needed.
Please continue to pray for us daily. The teachers and students are holding up well under difficult times. We are anxious to be settled into the new school.
We also have a prayer request. Our car is out of commission because of a leaking seal on the fuel injection pump. The nearest parts are in Lusaka (5 hours away) and we are not certain whether to have a local mechanic take it apart and then go to Lusaka for the spares or have the car trucked the 360 km to a mechanic in Lusaka. Always something to challenge our ingenuity.
God got the first truckload of rafter lumber and roofing sheets through the muddy road from Choma one week ago today.... and today and a good portion of the roofing is now in place. The "big truck" went to Choma on Friday to collect the remainder of the roofing sheets, window panes and doors but has yet to return. (Word has it that even the road between Choma and Lusaka is getting worse because of the rains, and of course all supplies come from Lusaka ultimately).
Today is sunny and the teacher from near Lake Kariba was finally able to get here......two bridges and part of the road between Batoka and Lake Kariba have washed out making her travel "very interesting". We are so glad she made it as it was a rough trip for her. We have had at least three teachers come for interviews, accept positions and then go home and decide it is too wet, muddy and rainy to come every day so they have failed to show up for the starting of school.
God is making a way as we begin this week. Early this week we saw no way to begin but now the classrooms are ready in the MICS Wooden House and the children will arrive tomorrow. We are an "innovative school".....innovative is in our name and we are excited to be using an innovative plan to begin the 2008 school year in Macha.
Please continue to pray for us as we walk through this interesting and challenging process.
January 28, 2008 - A Day of Rejoicing!!!
0 comments Posted by Gil and Ronda / SoMacha.com at 8:03 PM
Yesterday the school roofing sheets arrived!!! You may not think that is a very big deal.... but...... for us it was surely "A Day of Rejoicing!!". We had a welcoming celebration for the guys as they brought the truck in after many, many delays and lots of hard work.
When we arrived in Zambia a few weeks ago we found out that we had no roof on the new school building and no money to purchase the roofing sheets. We were finally able to order some sheets last week when some money was being transferred from Holland.....which by the way got lost when it was transferred to the bank in Zambia. This seems to happen quite often when money is transferred????? The bank just says it is lost????? SOOOOOOOOO on with the story......the sheets were ordered and we found out that they were making them in green instead of the requested color, brown. Our first delay(-: They then began to make them but in brown.......but.... the entire country of Zambia was having major electricity problems. Lusaka has been "load sharing" for many months now but last week South Africa stopped selling power to Zambia. At the same time Zambia was having trouble with their Lake Kariba and Victoria Falls power stations so the entire country had no power. This affected the company that was making the roofing sheets and MANY other companies in Zambia .....soooooo..... they closed the plant that was making the sheets as they could not produce anything without power....another delay. FINALLY on Friday we got a message that the roofing sheets were finished....on the truck ........and on their way!!! YAHOO and Hallelujah!!! We also heard that the bank found the money they said was lost...PTL that was a VERY good thing!!!! Everyone was very excited and it gave us hope that maybe the school could start on the 4th of Feb after all!?!?!??! You see, we had delayed the start of the 2008 school year from 23 Jan to 4 Feb. because of the roof situation. About an hour after the truck left Lusaka we received a message that the truck with the roofing sheets on had a flat tire. In the mean time our big truck left Macha and headed for Choma...the closest town on the tar road..... where they were to meet the truck coming from Lusaka. The company that makes the roofing sheets did not want to drive on the dirt road coming into Macha.....very smart people!!!!! don't you think?????(-: The next message we got was that the Macha truck was loaded with the roofing sheets and headed to Macha....again we rejoiced and knew soooooon and very soooon we would see them on the roof at the school!!!!!!!.......only to get another message..... that it was taking them one hour to go five kilometers because of all the mud and rain and water and muck on what they call a road(-: At one point we heard that the road from Choma was closed and it surely seems like a God thing as with a few phone calls..... where some of the words were dropped ....or .....the call was totally dropped we some how got permission to go through and they opened the gate and let our truck through but all the other trucks and vehicles were sent back to Choma. Soooo, again the excitement was high!!!!!!!....they were getting closer!!!!!!....only to hear they were stuck!!!! along with four other trucks. Thankfully we have cell phones in Macha now and a team of about 30 guys were sent out to help. The team worked all through the night to get the truck out. They actually had to totally unload it to get it out. By lunch time on Sunday we had another message that the truck was out of the mud....fully loaded...... and they were moving again!!!!! By this time none of us actually believed that we would ever see the roofing sheets in Macha soon, but we knew that if it did arrive we needed to have a HUGE celebration.!! Finally at about 5:00pm we gathered a large group of people together to welcome the truck and crew into the school site. There was much shouting, cheering, jumping up and down, and thumbs up as the truck pulled in. We had some volunteer visitors from the US here that are "city planners" and they said they never saw a group of people so happy to see a truck arrive(-: I guess in the States we would not have had the OPPORTUNITY to experience all these challenges to make us appreciate it's arrival.
The sun is shining today, the first time in many days, and the men are busy putting the roof on the building. We have hope again that the school may be ready to open one short week from today. We have lots to do to get ready but God knows and His timing is perfect. He is so faithful and His provision is so great.
We thank you for your prayers as we know He does hear them and answers them. He is so faithful and even when the going gets tough or we don't see a way clearing we know He is in control and He will work everything out.......even better than we could imagine or plan. BUT the waiting and working things out is not always easy(-: Please keep us in your prayers as we continue to try to get the school open by next Monday morning. We will continue to keep you posted. Keep in touch with us. We do not have internet at the house but we do try to collect it each day.
The Krause's left Milwaukee this morning for another year in Macha. Please pray for safe travel, on time connections, and no lost luggage!
It has been a whirlwind trip here in the US. We visited many places and saw many people. While in the US we stayed most of the time at Ronda's mothers house (Edith). She was willing to give up much of her living space for all of our suitcases and donated items. It was wonderful to be able to spend so much time with her! Our Daughter Jill came all the way from California to visit us in early December. We went to New Hampton, Iowa to visit some of our friends and faithful supporters of Macha (Thank you!). Our Daughter Kris, her husband Kenny and their two boys James and Kaleb came From Georgia to visit over Christmas. Greg came up from Chicago several times while we were here too. We spent time in Fondulac, Wisconsin visiting friends and additional supporters of Macha (Thank you too!). Christmas was fun and exciting...we packed 22 people in Edith's (Ronda's mom) 2 bedroom condo for the day. Everyone was a great sport about the crowded space and it was great to spend time with our family celebrating the birth of Jesus.
Packing up to return to Macha this year was quite a big project (it always is!) Between all the donated clothing and school supplies we packed our bags to the limit. Can you imagine seeing 2 "retired old folks" (I say that...because that is what we are!) lugging over 425lbs of baggage though the airport?!
This year we will face many new challenges. We will have to assess the situation regarding the November fire when we arrive. The new school building is far from complete and we will need to figure out how to start classes with the current structure. Probably the most difficult challenge (or as Gil likes to call it "adventure") will be living in our new house without running water or electricity. We are hoping that running water will be available sometime soon (thanks to generous contributions from the people of First Baptist Church in New Hampton, Iowa). The electricity is another story. Please pray for the progress of these projects.
The school is growing rapidly. We are encouraged by the positive response from the people in the community. Please pray for us, for the people and children of Macha and that God would continue to guide the progress of MICS.
Thank you!
The first grade students gathered at our house for a cooking lesson/pizza making party.
Mrs Mono made the pizza dough for the students. They then shaped the dough into pizza crusts and added toppings.
While the pizzas baked, we watched a video. When they were done...we all enjoyed delicious fresh baked pizzas!
Wow! Things sure are happening fast here in Macha!
The school is growing very fast and we are quickly out growing our 2nd temporary space.
We recently hosted the MICS 2nd annual family picnic at our home.
We had games, food and plenty of activities for all the family members of the school.
Everyone had a wonderful time celebrating the progress of this new school.
It is amazing to see how God has blessed the school. It is a long road, but we are slowly making progress with this huge task.
Thank you to all the MICS parents and students, and thank you to all that have supported and prayed for us this past year!
Although we do have many things to be joyful about, this is a different kind of joy!
Ronda's sister, Joy, arrived this week for her annual visit to Africa (her 5th visit!) 
She arrived on a Flying Mission plane safe and sound. The first grade students made the trip out to the airstrip to greet her. 
While she is here, she will be helping us with the school and our move to our new home at the site of the new school. We are SO excited to have her here!!
We love visitors...so check your schedule and book your flights!
To celebrate Skip/Gil/Dad's birthday, we went to have picnic on a nearby mountain. We were also there to have a farewell party for Dorien our good friend and valuable helper from Holland.
We had a great time...lots of fun. Fun sounds like a funny choice of words, but all of us think it is such a great quiet get away place.....leave the pressures of Macha behind. We all laughed, as when we and everyone else thinks about it, Macha seems like the place where you would come for quiet and peace and to leave the pressures of the world behind. I guess all of us have high pressure jobs(-:???? here. Anyhow we all enjoyed it!On the way home, Doc Phil (no...not the guy from TV!) decided to show us a short cut...during the "short" cut it got dark and we got stuck one time....you would be soooooooo surprised at how many people came out of the bush! Then we got lost a few times and people had to tell us how to get back...Any of you that know Skip/Gil/Dad will know that this type of adventure was the highlight of his birthday celebration!!!!!!
We have had some problems with the website over the past week. Hopefully things are fixed and we will be back up without any more interruptions.
We will be updating very soon...so please check back to see what is happening in Macha!
With the arrival/unloading of the containers containing the wooden house and the arrival of the men from Holland to assemble the house, we wanted to update you all on the progress.
Everything has gone at lightning speed as you can see from the following pictures...
Now all that remains is the painting of the outside.
Needless to say we are excited!!!!
August 4 - AM unloading of the house components
August 4 - PM arrival of men from Holland for house assembly
August 4 - PM Inspection of house components after unloading
August 4 - PM Inspection of slab for house
August 5 - AM House assembly begun (floor placed on concrete slab)
August 5 - PM Floor laid and start of assembly of exterior walls
August 6 - AM Raising of "KMB" flag and continued assembly of exterior walls and some interior walls
August 6 - PM Completion of exterior wall assembly and topping roof rafters
August 7 - AM All roofing boards in place and placing of final side of roofing steel
August 7 - AM Interior kitchen work started
The Next Chapter Of "For Such A Time As This"
0 comments Posted by Gil and Ronda / SoMacha.com at 12:19 PMAbout seven weeks ago Gertjan vanStam's father came from Holland to visit Macha. While here he decided to purchase a used prefab wooden house and ship it in cargo containers "For Such A Time As This" because there is such a shortage of housing in Macha and we had to send the head teacher for MICS on an early paid maternity leave because the hospital needed the house the Sakalas were staying in. He returned home with this mission. He purchased the house but first it had to be taken apart. As they took the house apart they found that they had to ship the house in three containers...not one or even two.... 
Well, the men here began to prepare the foundation and poured the slab in preparation. As things were formulating, two of the men that were taking the house apart in Holland, found out where the house was going and volunteered to come at their own expense "For Such A Time As This" to Macha to help put it together...... They looked at the calendar and the only time they could come was the week of August 5th. Only FIVE weeks from the date of shipping three containers. In all honesty no one thought the containers could or would make it in that short five weeks....at least from the human perspective....but when God is involved in " For Such A Time As This" nothing is impossible. If you remember the container that was shipped from the US in January just arrived last week..... over seven months later plus all the hassles of it being shipped to the wrong port. .... and that was only one container we were needing all THREE containers to arrive in FIVE weeks.
The slab was just finished this week and had just enough time to cure. The men from Holland arrived in Macha at 4:00 on Saturday by plane just after the containers were all unloaded and placed where they will be used as offices or work shops. Can you believe the men and the house were here and both ready on the exact day????? which,if you remember was the only time they could come....It truly is a "For Such A Time As This" miracle in Macha this year. The house should go up in about a week or two. The house has two three bedroom apartments and two efficiency rooms for singles or visitors.The house is most definitely here " For Such A Time As This" as we must move out of our current house before we return home to the US in November and we need the Sakala family back in Macha with us at MICS. A wooden house in Zambia is unheard of and everyone is watching to see what it will look like. God truly provided it "For Such A Time As This" and it will fill our needs for housing.
Unbelieveable! The Container Is Finally Here!
0 comments Posted by Gil and Ronda / SoMacha.com at 12:02 PMWell, almost...
On August 1st the container made it to the Flying Missions headquarters in Zambia. It was unloaded thanks to the hard work of many helpers.
There are tons of items (over 14 tons!)to go through. Many of the items are for Flying Mission and their missionaries.
The container will remain where it is and will be used by Flying Mission for storage and work space. The items for Macha have been separated out. We have not scheduled a time for these items to make it to Macha, but we are currently trying to coordinate the delivery.
Can you believe it...almost 6 months of packing and prep work followed by over 9 months in transit...and it is finally here!
We are so thankful to Flying Mission, to all that helped with sending items to Arizona, those that helped pack, ship it, and unload it and we also want thank God for watching over it all this time!
Macha Innovative Christian School (MICS) had its 2nd annual Fun day!
Students, parents, teachers, and our classroom helpers gathered for a day of games and entertainment.
We had clowns, relay races, bingo, marshmallow games, hula hoops, and even a tug-o-war!
At the end of the day the children performed for the parents by singing.
Last week, while all our visitors were here, Mrs Esther planned a Traditional Tonga party for all the guests.
The local people that are from the area around Macha are known as the Tonga people (there are many different regions within the country of Zambia)
Mrs Esther served Tonga chicken and nshima (corn based staple in the Tonga diet)
We had a bonfire with traditional games and singing.
Some of the local women performed for us and danced in the traditional "Tonga style"
Kim, Britnee, and Dorien were not afraid to try to learn something new!
We had a wonderful time. Lots of eating, laughing and celebrating!
