Matt and Polly / blog website

We have moved!

2006-10-31T10:23:00.001+02:00

Our blog has now moved to a new website - you'll now find us at www.mattandpolly.wordpress.com.

The new blog has lots of new features and you can even subscribe to receive our blog posts automatically by email.

Baby named in honour of Polly

2006-10-05T09:26:00.000+02:00

The caretaker who looks after the Jubilee Centre guest house we have been staying in has just had a baby. Polly was really honoured to hear that they had named the baby girl after her (they already have a son called Matthew!) – however, most Zambians hear dear Mrs Freer’s name as Pauline and not Polly…….so guess what?!

ebible.com

2006-10-05T09:25:00.000+02:00

I am in danger of revealing my geeky side but… some of you may like to know about Ebible.com that has just been launched – an online Bible commentary, concordance and all round useful resource.

Alpha and Aboutlife.com

2006-10-05T09:24:00.000+02:00

Keeping to the IT geeky theme, Alpha has recently set up Aboutlife.com, an online global community supporting the work of the Alpha course (an introductory course to the Christian faith) and where people who have done the course can setup their own blog to share stories, reviews, thoughts, prayers, pictures and debates – it is a totally open forum for discussion – a friend Rod Green has already started blogging on it. To become a member you need an invitation from a current member, which I’d be happy to provide if you want – just let me know.

Election results

2006-10-03T15:37:00.000+02:00

Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa was today sworn in following the disputed elections of last week. The elections themselves went peacefully – but the count led to some violence on the streets of Lusaka on Sunday after Mwanawasa’s nearest rival, Michael Sata, found himself in third place. At the final count Mr Mwanawasa got 43% of the vote, while Mr Sata finally came in second with 29%, and the other main candidate, Haikande Hichilima, won 25% to come third.

As he was sworn in President Mwanawasa said: “This is not the time to settle scores. Let us all be united to build Zambia," whilst Michael Sata has claimed that there was election fraud and he will make life difficult for Mr Mwanawasa both "inside parliament and outside parliament". The BBC News website has more.

Climate change - An Inconvenient Truth

2006-09-29T13:57:00.000+02:00

“Humanity is sitting on a ticking time bomb. If the vast majority of the world's scientists are right, we have just ten years to avert a major catastrophe that could send our entire planet into a tail-spin of epic destruction involving extreme weather, floods, droughts, epidemics and killer heat waves beyond anything we have ever experienced.”

So say the makers of An Inconvenient Truth – a new film following former US Vice President Al Gore as he tours the world in a bid to alert people to the imminent dangers of climate change. The film hasn’t made it to Zambia yet, but is now showing in UK cinema’s, and by all accounts is accessible and entertaining -arguing that global warming is not just about science, nor is it just a political issue: it is a moral issue and we all have a responsibility to do something about it.

If you want to do something about it…. Tearfund is campaigning on climate change and part of the Stop Climate Chaos coalition which is planning a huge rally in London’s Trafalgar Square - the I Count rally will take place on Saturday 4 November from 1-3pm in case you can go.

Elections

2006-09-26T16:20:00.000+02:00

This Thursday will see Zambians going to the polls to elect a President, MPs and Councillors. There are five candidates running for President, including Mwanawasa the current President. Zambia has a good track record in peaceful elections and this one looks set to be no different.

All the candidates for MP in Mapalo have now signed up to the community’s memorandum of understanding, so no matter who gets elected on Thursday the new MP has already agreed to helping the community to meet their agreed needs within three years – which is a great start for the community of Mapalo as they look to the future.

Candidates sign memorandum of understanding

2006-09-15T17:47:00.000+02:00

Those of you that read our recent newsletter will know that one of the communities Jubilee Centre works with in Ndola, called Mapalo, has been drawing up a memorandum of understanding in preparation for

Zambia

’s elections later this month. This memorandum basically identifies the needs of the community – and the idea is that each candidate standing for Councillor and MP is asked to sign up to supporting these needs if successfully elected.

Last weekend the community held a meeting for the candidates to publicly sign-up to the community’s stated needs – and 1,000 people from the community attended the meeting, and all of the candidates for counsellor and four candidates for MP (covering all the main parties) signed it! Photos were taken of each of the candidates while they were signing in solidarity with the community, and a national radio station also picked up the story on the day.

This is a great step forward for the community – helping to give it a long-term voice for change.

Successful retreat

2006-09-05T19:02:00.000+02:00

The Jubilee Centre strategic planning retreat last weekend was a great success, with the Board and staff coming together for three days to reflect on the past and dream of the future. The time was facilitated by Neil Warwick, a friend of Lawrence's (Exec Director at JC) and Church of England Curate in Tocester, UK. Neil did a fantastic job of bringing us all together and getting everyone's ideas out in the open, and Jubilee Centre now has five strategic priorities for the next 5 years - and an excited passionate team of staff and Board members to see them implemented. We've uploaded a few photo's from the retreat on our flickr photo pages if you're interested.

Being woken by the bin men

2006-08-25T15:15:00.000+02:00

I woke up to near asphyxiation the other morning – as I came to and wondered what was happening I realised someone had lit a fire near our bedroom window and, as is quite normal here, was burning their rubbish. Thick black smoke billowed from the burning waste – the kind that burns the back of your throat. As I protested in my mind at being awoken in such a way I realised that in fact it was our rubbish – Albert the caretaker of Jubilee Centre’s guesthouse was up and about doing his daily chores.

Refuse collection is not a practical concept here – those that make the mess clean (or in this case burn) it up. It may not be a pleasant way to wake up, but it certainly focuses the mind on the impact of your life on the environment – with no-one to take your waste out of sight (and mind) you are forced to see (and breathe) the end result. There are merits of a noisy group of men and a van taking away your offering to landfills and incinerators, but when it enables you to disassociate yourself from your actions, it no doubt cushions your response to the reality of your own contribution.

Newsletter - August 06

2006-08-18T14:14:00.000+02:00

You can now download our latest newsletter (Newsletter - August 06) - simply click on the link and click on the download button in the new page). If you'd like to get our newsletter, and prayer letter, automatically by email, just contact us.

Life in Ndola

2006-08-14T16:32:00.000+02:00

Sorry for being so quiet – things have been manic since we moved up to Ndola 2 months ago. Work is really busy but really great. Now we have found ourselves in a place where we can get stuck in, we are really making the most of it. Work is erratic but we are both getting involved in the areas we really wanted to be involved with. Home life is still pretty disrupted as we are still house hunting. We stay in the Jubilee Centre guest house which is lovely but other people come and go which means sometimes you can’t sneak bleary eyed into the kitchen in the morning for that first cuppa, and sometimes we have to move out all together so that paying guests can use the house. Office life makes up for it though and it’s very much a family atmosphere. We promise we will put some pictures up soon. Being all over the place means we rarely know where the camera, battery recharger and special cable thingy are all at the same time. But we will get there!

Jubilee Centre HIV/AIDS workshops

2006-07-06T14:16:00.000+02:00

We are now in Ndola, enjoying settling into life at the Jubilee Centre. JC is involved in leading leadership capacity building and advocacy workshops around HIV/AIDS in each constituency in Zambia, as part of the parliamentary reform programme sponsored by PACT-Zambia and USAID. These workshops bring together civic, church and traditional leaders and help draw up an action plan around HIV/AIDS for their constituency. Recently JC ran one in the Keembe constituency, which was reported on in the Zambian national Daily Times newspaper – you can read the article here.

A useful and relevant gift

2006-07-06T11:09:00.000+02:00

I’m aware that we’ve blogged about ‘acne cream and pre-shave scrub’ and seem to have lots of examples displaying paternalistic attitudes towards Africa, like sending inappropriate gifts – that seem to be ‘exporting the empire’ – in ways that don’t empower the recipient communities. Yet I know that lots of people want to help appropriately and effectively, and so far our blog posts may have only added to the confusion, leading to more cries of ‘but what can we do’? I know that talk of lifestyle changes and campaigning for changes to the structures and relationships between Africa and ‘the West’ often only partly satisfy those wanting to compassionately respond – and so I wanted to mention something that you might have that can be a useful gift…. a mobile phone….

In Zambia, as elsewhere in Africa, the mobile revolution has taken place. With access to cheap mobile phone networks the landline hurdle has been jumped, and the masses are reaping the ‘benefits’ of instant communication. The mobile phone can offer many benefits: setting up a ‘public mobile phone’ in a community can generate an income; emergency medical advice can be given to rural hospitals; money can even be transferred to family members in remote places. So if you have a mobile phone (that has a removable sim card) doing nothing, it might just be a relevant and useful gift to someone here (contact us for the best way to send it).

Subverting the empire in a post-modern world

2006-06-22T10:53:00.000+02:00

I have just read Colossians Re:mixed – subverting the empire, which is a fantastic book looking at the first century New Testament letter to the Colossian church/community for anyone who today identifies with a post-modern world. How do you read a biblical text that to post-modern ears can seem to talk of rigid absolutes that punch you in the face? This book attempts to help us hear the radical challenges that this letter would have originally sounded. Refreshingly creative it uses targums (extended modern para-phrases of the text) to bring the text to life and reveal that just as the first century community was under an empire (Roman), so too is our world (global consumerism). Rather than “flying the flag of empire”, the church is to be a, “community in refusal of the empire that bears the image of another Lord in its daily life.” It is to be a community that subverts the empire and provides an imagination alternative. This isn’t an anarchistic rant against consumerism or globalisation – it is much more, it is a call for the church to be a community made up of, “citizens of the kingdom rather than subjects of the empire.” Perhaps we’ll share a few more quotes and thoughts in the future, but for now if it strikes a cord with you get hold of a copy (it isn’t the easiest read, but is well worth the effort) and perhaps join us as we ask how our lives are ‘subverting the empire’.
“Paul’s ethic in the third chapter of Colossians is rooted in the narrative of Christ – died, buried, risen, ascended and coming again. This is not a narrative that imposes a series of absolutes to oppress us; it is a story of liberation from an empire that would take captive our imagination while it rapes and plunders the earth… This is a story of restored relationships, a love story that calls forth an alternative community characterised by compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, patience, forgiveness, love, peace, gratitude and wisdom. This is a story of creational restoration, a renewal to full humanness, in the image of the Creator. This is a community in which the word of Christ dwells richly. This is a community that is shaped as a countercultural force through the subversive worship of a subversive Lord.”

‘Colossians Re:mixed – subverting the empire’ by Brian J Walsh & Sylvia C Keesmaat

The parable of the Jiko

2006-06-14T10:52:00.000+02:00

A few weeks ago I visited an auction house in Lusaka to look for a second-hand fridge – I didn’t manage to find a fridge, but I did find a lesson in the importance of local community participation in development programmes.

On route to the auction house I had mentioned to my colleague that we needed to get a jiko (charcoal stove) for home; so when we arrived and immediately saw a mountain of jiko’s we laughed – there were literally hundreds piled on top of one another! So why did the auction house have so many jiko’s I asked the manager? The answer… a large well known international relief agency had brought them to help cooking in a refugee camp in Zambia. But it seems that the local refugee community hadn’t been fully involved in the process, as when presented with their jiko’s the refugees explained they cooked using fire wood and refused to use the jiko’s! Great for me, as I got a fuel efficient jiko for home, but not so good for the refugees or the relief agency in question, who was having to sell-off the jiko’s, presumably having not been able to convince the refugees of their worth.

May 06 Newsletter

2006-05-26T12:48:00.000+02:00

Here is our May 06 Newsletter as a pdf (click on the link and click ‘download’). It tells you all about our new move to be seconded to work for Micah Challenge Zambia with Jubilee Centre in the north of Zambia.

A good harvest

2006-05-26T10:51:00.000+02:00

A few weeks ago I blogged about the Harvest in balance in Zambia – as people waited to see how much rain Zambia would receive as they approached the harvest period. Well the rain soon stopped, and despite some areas having too much rain that led to localised flooding, the majority of the country seems to be ready to benefit from a good rainy season this year. The maize cobs are now drying out and will be soon be harvested and ground to provide a good supply of nshima (maize-meal) for the year ahead.

Getting Post

2006-05-24T11:42:00.000+02:00

We really value any parcels that come through, but you wouldn’t believe what we have to go through to pick them up! Last week it took 2 hours just to find the post box keys in the office before even heading off to the post office. Randomly someone produced a parcel slip for us from nowhere saying we had a parcel to collect. So when we arrived at the post office we went to one counter, waited, was sent to another, waited, then were told to go to another post office…..As it was lunchtime and everything closes for an hour and a half we gave up.

Back at the office (bearing in mind it is about a 20 min drive to the post office) someone else produced a slip for us from nowhere. So we decided to take both slips the next day and try again. We took another few hours tracking down the post box keys which turned out to be at the home of someone who doesn’t even work for EFZ.

Back at the post office, again we were sent to from one counter to four times, and even though the two slips were identical we were sent to different counters for both. After we waited at an empty counter for 20 minutes the world’s most grumpy lady arrived to collect our parcel. When she asked me (despite me having the right slip of paper and my passport), “how do I know that you are the right Mrs Freer!”, I just burst out laughing and asked how many Mrs Freers are there in Lusaka with the right slip of paper! After filling out three slips of paper, paying a small fee, running around for change, huffing and puffing we finally got our beloved parcels.

Finally off to the other post office who decided they wanted to charge us a holding fee because the parcel had been there longer than two weeks. Seeing as it was a big box sent from

America

just over 2 weeks previously I don’t believe it took a day to fly over and get through the most bureaucratic post office in the world.

Mosi-oa-Tunya

2006-05-23T12:32:00.000+02:00

Just back from a visit to Livingtsone in the south of Zambia to see the awesome Mosi-oa-Tunya (the smoke that thunders), otherwise known as Victoria Falls. A breathtaking sight - there is a set of photos's from the trip our photo site.

A Generous community

2006-05-23T12:22:00.000+02:00

Thought you might like to know about the Generous project – which I first came across at the Greenbelt festival. It is a growing community of people who commit to making small changes in our everyday lives to look after our planet and its people. You can sign up as a household – and share wisdom and learn from others mistakes. At the beginning of each month new actions are highlighted, which you can then sign-up to doing.

Debt relief for Zambia

2006-05-10T10:40:00.000+02:00

In April the government of Zambia announced it is to introduce free health care for people living in rural areas, scrapping fees which for years has made health care inaccessible for many people. The move was made possible using money from debt cancellation and aid increases agreed at the G8 in Gleneagles last July, when Zambia received $4 billion of debt relief; money that it can now invest in health and education.

This is an example of debt relief making a real difference to peoples' lives – and an example of how campaigns like Make Poverty History and Jubilee Debt Campaign, and advocacy work in general, can help bring about change.

User fees for health care were introduced in Zambia under IMF and World Bank pressure in the early 1990s – and the removal of such fees will cause a surge in patients accessing health clinics across the country. This will add increased pressure on the already chronic shortage of health workers in Zambia – with currently only one doctor per 14,000 people (compared to one doctor per 600 in the UK) – and there is also the problem that most people in Zambia live in the urban areas (where the fees have not been scrapped!), but none the less it is a positive step for the people of Zambia.

G8 Debt Deal

2006-05-10T10:39:00.000+02:00

Having blogged about debt relief in Zambia I received a briefing on last years G8 debt deal with the latest on how it is being implemented from Jubilee Debt Campaign.

LICC Imagine Project

2006-04-24T10:20:00.000+02:00

If you haven’t come across the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity’s (LICC) Imagine Project then have a look at their website. The project is seeking to revitalise Christian disciple-making for the 21st century, and has a new DVD resource for individuals and churches who want to address the challenge of living as disciples – rather than just converts – in today’s rapidly changing culture. The project aims to help the church move on from an individualistic me centred faith and connect faith to all of life and understand why it has so often found it difficult to equip and resource followers of Jesus for life in today’s world.

Greetings

2006-04-18T19:27:00.000+02:00

“You often see two (or more) people standing in the street and dissolving with laughter. It does not mean that they are telling each other jokes. They are simply saying hello. And if the laughter dies down, then either the act of greeting has come to an end and they will now move on to the substance of the conversation, or, simply, the newly met have fallen silent to allow their tired vocal cords a moment’s respite.”

Greetings in Africa, in my experience, are always vibrant, active and not rushed – and in Zambia, I am pleased to say, it is no different! The act of greeting one another is not just a polite start to a conversation – it often is the conversation, it breaks down barriers and makes you closer in every aspect. I read these descriptions of greetings in Africa recently – and wanted to share them. It puts into words the essence and practice of greetings in Zambia far better than I can:

“It is essential to exhibit from the very beginning, from the very first second, enormous, primal joy and geniality. So, for starters, one extends one’s hand. But not in a formal manner, reticently, limply: just the opposite – a large, vigorous gesture, as if one’s intention were not so much to offer one’s hand as to tear the other’s off. If, however, the other manages to keep his hand, whole and in its proper place, it is because, understanding the ritual rules of greetings, he has likewise executed the same broad, forceful gesture. Both of these extremities, bursting with tremendous energy, now meet halfway and, with a terrifying impact of collision, cancel out the two opposing forces. Simultaneously, as the hands are rushing toward each other, the two individuals share a prolonged cascade of loud laughter. It is meant to signify that each is happy to be meeting and are warmly disposed to the other. There ensues a long list of questions and answers, such as ‘how are you? Are you feeling well? How is your family?...’ – and so forth and so on…”

By Ryszard Kapuscinski from The shadow of the sun

Hand shakes come with different techniques as well - my favourite so far is shaking hands, then twisting them together, and both clicking ones fingers at the same time whilst still holding hands.... I'll give lessons when we get back to the UK!

Easter 2006

2006-04-12T14:04:00.000+02:00

Christ has risen!

He is risen indeed!

Allelujah!

“After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb…. The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he has risen, just as he said.”

(Matthew 28: 1, 5-6)

Peace be with you this Easter

We have also uploaded some other new photo's which you can see at out flickr photo pages

Solar water disinfection

2006-04-11T12:23:00.000+02:00

Believe it or not the power of the sun can clean water for drinking. In stark contrast to the activity of the previous post below this method for cleaning water is cheap and sustainable. It is relevant to the needs of millions of people, using the resources they already have and is not about creating dependency. In fact I can hardly believe it is true!

Contaminated water is filled into transparent plastic bottles and exposed to the full sunlight for 6 hours. During the exposure, the UV-A radiation of the sunlight destroys the pathogens in the water. Providing clean water to drink. A friend recently sent us more details of the idea – which can be found at www.sodis.ch or on the BBC news site. An amazing simple idea that can be carried out at a household level and costs very little. We are passing on the information to people here – it is just a shame the bottles the pre-shave scrub came in are not transparent (see below)!

Acne wipes and pre-shave scrub

2006-04-07T10:55:00.000+02:00

EFZ has just received a large donation of ‘medical supplies’ from a US based charity (although it could have easily have been one based in Europe). Sometime back EFZ was approached by the charity who offered to send a cargo container full of supplies to be handed out to the poorest communities EFZ works with. The container arrived in

Zambia

a few weeks ago – and now for the task of sorting through the boxes to identify what has been sent (there is no log of what was sent).

So what is found when going through the boxes?… medical gloves, face masks, medical breathing circuits, manual resuscitation masks, suction catheters, tracheal tubes (ok arguably so far, so good, as long as you are a doctor and have a fairly well resourced hospital in the first place)… sanitary towels, toddlers disposable nappies, wet wipes, infant formula, nursing pads (maybe these are useful, even essential, if you are used to using them – but are they really valuable items for someone who is hungry?)… aftershave, mouthwash, deodorant, toothpaste, conditioner, shampoo, hand lotion (maybe these items could be useful… possibly?)… and then we get to the hairspray, acne wipes and pre-shave scrub (apparently hairspray used on the hair of a black person damages it or makes it fall out, acne is not a major problem for black skin, and… well pre-shave scrub?).

You may ask why EFZ accepted such a donation? But when you are representing poor communities and are offered a free donation for them, are you really in a position to turn it down – especially when you are not even told what was being donated? Yes, they should have turned it down – but I don’t think you can blame them for saying yes. Many people will be genuinely grateful for the donation – and those receiving some of the goods will be really pleased to have been ‘thought’ about – but does that make it right?

What was the donor charity thinking? Are any of these goods actually going to meet the needs of a poor community? All of these goods come in plastic bottles and wrappings – so what is going to happen to the waste alone? Many of these goods will become an environmental hazard – take the disposable nappies, they take fifty years to decompose. Can you imagine hundreds of disposable nappies being dropped on a small poor community – what will happen to them? If people get given free disposable nappies, won’t they than think they ‘need’ them all the time – doesn’t this then create a dependency on something that is expensive, needs importing and acts as an environmental hazard?

The staff here now have the task of sorting through all the boxes (which will take some time), deciding who to donate these gifts to and then transport them across the country. In return for their donation the donor charity wants photographs of communities receiving these gifts. Yet why does this charity – and the companies that donated their products to it – think it can dump it’s rejects (for that is what they are) on the poor – and then sit back with an eased conscience? But is this much different to our general approach to Africa, of handouts with an attitude of superiority that say, “you really want our wonderful lifestyle – and this is what you need to get it”?

Instead of sending photographs of happy people receiving their acne wipes and pre-shave scrub, I am going to suggest we wait a while and then send a photograph of piles of plastic bottles and nappies in an African village setting attempting to decompose.

Church

2006-03-22T08:58:00.000+02:00

I think my hands have really been toughened up by all this clapping. The minimum amount of singing/clapping/dancing is about half an hour and, in one memorable place, going up to an hour and a half! There has been no end of invitations from our colleagues so we’ve been going to different churches just to get a feel of what is going on. It’s quite embarrassing as each time we go to a new place we have to stand up and be welcomed with a big round of applause. But the benefit is only new people get refreshments so we’ve been happily gorging ourselves on sodas and cakes each Sunday.

The churches are split between what they call here the evangelical, the Anglican and the Catholic. There isn’t any hostility between the three, and they work together at project level, but they are all seen as quite separate. All the churches seem very active at a local level, purely because there is so much need around them and within the congregations that it just can’t be ignored. And like probably every city there is a huge range of churches some of which are very wealthy and some really struggling financially. There has been a very strong influence from America on the Evangelical churches with lots of visiting pastors coming and going.

Anyway so far they have all been really welcoming and as there are an unbelievable amount of churches it is going to be difficult to choose one to stick with.

Patience is a virtue they say

2006-03-20T09:31:00.000+02:00

After discovering a computer virus on one of the computers at the office we discovered that it had no anti-virus software. As the new ‘’IT expert’’ I was delegated to fix the problem – which involved downloading the necessary updates from the web, which went something like this: 1) start download – all seems to be well, 2) suddenly loose the connection, 3) start again. Steps 1 to 3 were repeated again and again – and after only two days of doing this I had completed my task. Who says determination doesn’t pay off!

Home

2006-03-05T16:42:00.000+02:00

We moved into our new home over the weekend. It is a ‘cottage’ – which is what the servants quarters found at the back of many houses are called – and is pretty basic, but boasts semi-running cold water and electricity. We have two bedrooms, a kitchen, living/dining area, ‘shower’ and toilet. It came complete with a large family of cockroaches – which Polly gallantly killed whilst I cowered in the corner – and three major leaks in the roof, which proved interesting as it rained all weekend. The landlady has a garden full of maize and pumpkins, along with plenty of fruit trees, which should keep us stocked with guava, orange, lemon, grapefruit, passion fruit and papaya!

We will be at this cottage for at least a couple of months, and once we’ve got a bed to go with the few bits of furniture we brought on Saturday it’ll start feeling like a home.

A harvest in balance

2006-03-01T13:27:00.000+02:00

By all accounts the rainy season in Zambia has been good this year, and so a good harvest is expected during March. This is really being celebrated as the past few years have seen drought hit Zambia. The main staple food crop is maize – which is boiled or roasted over a charcoal stove, or dried, then ground into flour and made into nshima (a thick paste type food) that is eaten with vegetables and/or meat. Other food crops include ground nuts, beans and pumpkins. Cash crops also seem to be doing well, such as, cotton, sugar and tobacco. The good rainfall has other benefits too, as cattle and goats are well fed on the abundant grass, so are healthy, providing good quality milk and meat.

However, we are still in the rainy season – and so far it is not abating leading to concern in some areas of Zambia that there will be too much rain. People in the district of Gwembe we visited two weeks ago said if the rain stopped now it would be a fine harvest – but if it continues like it has been the harvest will be ruined. The livelihoods of so many literally depend on the rain in this area as the harvest of essential crops hangs in the balance – not enough rain has caused suffering in recent years, and yet too much will also easily bring ruin.

February newsletter

2006-03-01T13:15:00.000+02:00

You can read our February newsletter by downloading this file (simply click on download button in the new window).

Bono at the US Prayer Breakfast

2006-02-21T09:59:00.000+02:00

If you haven’t already read the speech that Bono, from U2, recently gave to the US National Prayer Breakfast for Congress then have a look at it (You can download the whole speech by clicking here and then clicking on the ‘download’ button in the new window):

“It's not about charity, it's about justice. And that's too bad. Because you're good at charity. Americans, like the Irish, are good at it. We like to give, and we give a lot, even those who can't afford it. But justice is a higher standard. Africa makes a fool of our idea of justice; it makes a farce of our idea of equality. It mocks our pieties, it doubts our concern, it questions our commitment. Sixty-five hundred Africans are still dying every day of a preventable, treatable disease, for lack of drugs we can buy at any drug store. This is not about charity, this is about justice and equality. Because there's no way we can look at what's happening in Africa and, if we're honest, conclude that deep down, we really accept that Africans are equal to us. Anywhere else in the world, we wouldn't accept it. Look at what happened in South East Asia with the tsunami. 150,000 lives lost to that misnomer of all misnomers, "mother nature." In Africa, 150,000 lives are lost every month. A tsunami every month. And it's a completely avoidable catastrophe.”
Bono, US Prayer Breakfast for Congress

Mwanze and Gwembe trip

2006-02-19T13:49:00.000+02:00

We have just returned from a trip to see some programmes run by EFZ in Mwanze East and Gwembe in the south of Zambia, and have posted some photo's on our Flickr site for you to look at. We will be blogging about our trip soon - but for now enjoy the photo's!

Muli Bwangi

2006-02-03T13:35:00.000+02:00

Just to let you know we made it finally. We don't actually feel like we are in Africa yet as I think we are being made to feel at home by being taken to the western style shopping centers. But everyone has been so kind and the 30th birthday was great. they gave me the biggest chocolate cake I've ever had (photos to follow) fully iced with 'Happy Birthday Polly' Thanks to all of you who sent cards and pressies. We spent our first morning here sat under a mango tree drinking tea, opening cards and generally feeling sentiemtal.

We'll let you know what Lusaka is like when we actually see it!

Jan 06 Newsletter

2006-01-24T19:02:00.000+02:00

The flight is booked and we expect to leave for Zambia on 30th January - find out more in our January 2006 Newsletter (simply click on the link and then click on the 'download file' button to open the file). If you would like to get these newsletters automatically please contact us.

Daily Prayers

2006-01-19T15:52:00.000+02:00

I have already blogged about our mission statement in ‘Getting to this point’. Since trying to put our statement into action through our lives, we have produced Daily Prayers that embody our statement. For some time now we have been exploring Celtic Christian traditions – using Morning, Midday and Evening prayer from, amongst other sources, The Rhythm of Life: Celtic Daily Prayer by David Adams. So we decided to produce some daily prayers based on our mission statement, which we can use a few times a day to create a rhythm of prayer and help us to put our statement into action. You can have a look at what we came up with by downloading our Daily Prayers PDF.

Some of you may find it too ritualistic, ordered or descriptive – or even frankly find us quite mad for praying in the first place – but we have found it extremely helpful in finding peace and calm in a busy individualistic world often full of stress. In making these times for prayer we hope to create a daily rhythm to live life.

“We have replaced the holy fast of Lent with our spring diet obsessions prior to bathing suit weather. We shy away precipitously from community and the pain associated with carrying one another’s burdens but exchange it for individualism and the agony of isolation and loneliness. Our days are no longer interrupted by times of nourishing spiritual reflections but by coffee breaks, aerobic workouts, and our favourite sitcom shows. We think we have escaped from the dead rituals of the past, but are caught up instead in the compulsions of fashion fads, shopping sprees, and the allure of a new vitamin pill that promises healthy longer life.”
From the book Sacred Rhythms by Christine Sine

Campaigning in 2006

2006-01-13T19:50:00.000+02:00

2005 was the year of Make Poverty History – which became the biggest campaign for global justice the

has ever seen. As well as raising awareness across the UK the campaign helped to deliver some progress on debt relief, and improved aid and HIV/Aids treatment. But it was always only going to be the first steps in a movement for change – and there remains much to do. Choose a campaign issue that you are passionate about to get/stay involved in during 2006. The MPH website has a good feature to help you get going. Or have a look at all our campaign related links here.

(I’ve also updated the rest of our links, which now appear categorised on the right side bar).

New year, new photo's

2006-01-07T19:57:00.000+02:00

Happy New Year! Christmas brought with it a new camera, which led to some new photo's, which you can view at our Flickr photo page.

Zambia: Condemned to debt

2005-12-21T22:53:00.000+02:00

"Zambia's textile and clothing industry used to employ 34,000 people. Then it was forced to open up to free trade. Without protection Zambia's clothing manufacturers could not compete in the global market and cheap imports flooded in. The industry collapsed and now it employs just 4000 people."

I recently came across this report - Zambia: Condemned to debt - from the World Development Movement. It looks at the effects World Bank and IMF trade liberlisation and privatisation policies upon the economy of Zambia. Interesting reading - with a good introductory summary.

"Despite the disadvantage of being land-locked, Zambia was once one of the wealthiest countries in sub-Saharan Africa. This began to change in the early 1970s. After the oil crisis (increasing the price of imports) and relative commodity price collapse (reducing the revenue from exports), Zambia had to turn to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank for assistance. So began some thirty years of Bank and Fund intervention in the Zambian economy. In return for loans, Zambia was required to implement Bank and Fund endorsed economic policies over three decades. Unfortunately, this period is a sad story of increasing debt, economic stagnation or collapse, and social crisis."

Read more at: Zambia: Condemned to debt

Getting to this point

2005-12-10T18:28:00.000+02:00

Some of you may be interested to know how we got to this point - well leaving the practicalities to one side… Over the last year or so we have been on a journey to discover what we believe as Christians God wants us to be doing with our lives. We wanted to see Gods Kingdom purposes leading and guiding our lives.

So, with the help of a book called Living on purpose by Tom and Christine Sine, we entered upon a process to write a mission statement – or a summary of what we felt called to do with our lives. We soon rediscovered the words of Isaiah 61 – which summarised for us Gods Kingdom purposes – the practical and the spiritual.

Jesus sets out in his work through these prophectic words – reading them at his first sermon (recorded in Luke 4). The words call into being the Kingdom or Reign of God. They shape Jesus’ ministry, giving it expression as he proclaims God’s liberating love for all.

From this first sermon to the rest of Jesus’ life he challenged his hearers to live a life that trusted his Kingdom-agenda, and it is that which has helped lead and guide us as we have prepared to return to Africa.

We’ve ended up with a sentence that summarises for us what we believe God wants us to do with our lives - "To be trees of justice... in community, with the poor, speaking out and caring for the environment." It was a hard process to go through, but it has been a really valuable process – and that is why we share it here.

Site feed

2005-12-10T17:18:00.000+02:00

The site feed has now been added - you can subscribe to the feed using the following address: http://mattandpolly.blogspot.com/atom.xml

If you aren't already familiar with Mozilla's Thunderbird email software it has a built-in RSS/Atom reader, which makes subscribing to RSS or Atom feeds really easy.

Friends along the way...

2005-11-01T13:47:00.000+02:00

Right we are off - the first blog post is here and as we prepare to leave for Zambia we have been saying our farewells. Leaving our community of friends in Devon. Visiting family and friends. It is a process that makes you reflective...

Saying goodbye is always hard - but is always a strengthening experience. You remember the good times, the fun and the laughter. You forget the petty arguments, the niggles and pains along the way. It teaches you to celebrate what God has given you and remember the lessons you've learnt.

And with a select few friends - often not the ones you expected - it helps you to go deeper in your friendship. It also helps you recognise Gods presence with you wherever you go - He is not confined to four walls or a region, and nor are His followers.

We leave excited about the road in front, thankful for the journey so far, and wiser than when we started out.

Godzone
This time of preparing to travel and saying goodbye has led me to re-read one of my favourite books, Godzone by Mike Riddell, which has an apt chapter on the subject:

"Travellers of Godzone also find companions along the Way. They share the road with fellow drifters and desperados. These weird and woolly wanderers are gifts from God to you. They do not always appear that way at first. Sometimes they seem as useful as the silver serviette ring that Aunt Agnes sends to you care of Poste Restante. But when the time comes to part, you realise that this chance meeting was the right person at the right time, and that your life is all the fuller and richer for the meeting. We need these little reminders that we don't travel alone, and that Godzone existed before we ever started to explore it"
Quote from the book Godzone by Mike Riddell

Welcome...

2005-09-06T14:34:00.000+02:00

* We have moved our website - you will now find our blog at www.mattandpolly.com *

Welcome to our blog site - the virtual home of Matt & Polly as we work in Zambia. You'll find our latest news and views on this site as things unfold.

Who are we?
If you have got this far you probably already know us - but for those that don't, or that do and have forgotten who we are.....

We are married; Christians; working in Zambia for a national Zambian church-based organisation through CMS; campaigners; passionate that the church is relevant to a post-modern world; lovers of the great outdoors, music and good food.

If you would like to know more about what we are doing in Zambia you can download the following: Leaflet (low res).pdf Poster (low res).pdf Poster (high res).pdf

Or please get in touch - see Contact us section for addresses.

How to use this blog site?
We update this blog with our latest news, views and photo's as and when we can. As our time in Zambia unfolds we hope to be able to share the experience through this site.

Revisit the site for updates - if you use Firefox internet browser you can have more than one Home Page open up when you start surfing the web - just seperate them using - making it easier to have www.justlife.org as one of your homepages.

Alternatively you can get an RSS or atom feed from this site.

For those of you new to blogging - a blog is an online journal or diary. Find out how to start your own here.

Comments and keeping in touch
We want to hear from you too! You can post your comments on our blog entries - just click on the comment button ('pencil icon') at the end of each blog entry - and you can also read other peoples comments. In case we say anything really interesting you can also forward any blog entry to a friend by using the forward button ('envelope icon') at the end of each entry.

You can also email us directly - see Contact us section for addresses.

We send out a regular email-update and prayer-email - if you'd like to receive them, send us an email asking to be added.

Contact us

2005-09-06T14:32:00.000+02:00

Our blog has moved - you can now find us at www.mattandpolly.com where you can also find out how to contact us.