Zambia, here we come!

Tomorrow is the big day! Tomorrow, Saturday, we will finally be on our way. Our first flight leaves LA at 9 p.m. We will have an eleven hour flight through the night to London where we will retrieve our luggage. We have a 24 hour layover in London so we will go to a hotel and hopefully sleep off some of our jetlag and possibly see a bit of London. Then we will fly another 11 hours through the night directly to Lusaka, Zambia where we will be greeted by the MCC Representatives there. After spending a week in Lusaka getting to know some of the MCC team and being oriented a bit more, we will most likely leave for Kitwe, our final destination, on Monday, August 27. This is a long journey so we would appreciate your prayers!

In the meantime, we still have a few more suitcases to pack, people to say goodbye to, and a host of piddly chores that must get done before we leave. One of these things is alerting you all to my new email address:

cherylduecksmith@gmail.com

Some of you have asked how to send mail or care packages to us while we are in Zambia. We would love to receive letters and postcards from you. You can send them to the Zambian address below. It is not recommended that you send care packages to us because it is expensive for us to receive them. In order to receive it, we will have to pay customs as well as a currency exchange fee, which can be far more than the package is worth. We have heard that it may be easier to receive 8 1/2 x 11 padded mailer envelopes with goodies inside, if you would like to attempt that. Our address will be:

Peter and Cheryl Smith
Mindolo Ecumenical Foundation
PO Box 21493
Kitwe, ZAMBIA

Our household expenses, travel, food, and schooling are paid for by MCC. Our work is funded through donations made to MCC. MCC is doing amazing work all over the world. My parents and my brother and his family were recently in Guatemala. They visited the sight of a huge mudslide and people couldn’t stop talking about MCC and how much they have helped them in rebuilding their homes. MCC is currently providing aid to people displaced by flooding in Nepal and Bangladesh as well. Check out their website if you would like to learn more about this organization and the projects they are involved in (www.mcc.org). If you would like to contribute to the work of MCC, you can send a check to the Akron office. The donation is tax deductible.

If you would like to send a financial gift to our family in particular, the best way to do that is to send a check to Mennonite Central Committee in Akron, PA. On the memo line, you will need to write: Credit Peter & Cheryl Smith PDA. PDA stands for Personal Drawing Account and it is the account we can draw on for our personal needs such as clothing, entertainment, and other expenses not covered by MCC. If you send a contribution to our PDA, this will not be tax deductible. The address you need for general contributions to MCC as well as to our PDA is:

Mennonite Central Committee
21 South 12th Street
PO Box 500
Akron, PA, 17501-0500

We are so thankful for your encouragement and support. We are carried by your prayers and covet them over the next three years. We are excited to be part of the work of MCC in Zambia and know that we will meet and work alongside many wonderful people. We are committed to staying in touch with you and being your eyes and ears in this part of the world. We hope to give you a window into what God is doing in Zambia. Pray for us and for the people of Zambia. Pray that we will have eyes to see how God has been at work long, long, long before we arrived and what small measure we can contribute to God’s work there. Micah 6:8 comes to mind frequently these days as I struggle with what we are called to do and what that will look like. When all else fails, I know I can focus on these three things: act justly, love mercy, walk humbly with God. May we all rise to this challenge and live out our faith wherever we are.