It’s officially month 9, which is the last month of the race!
So for this final month I’ll be at Kids Alive (an orphanage) in Lusaka, Zambia. This will be our 3rd month with Kids Alive.
This week we have spent the week painting a newly built home here on the property. It creates more living space for children! Praise the Lord.
Most of the week days we spend our time doing manual labor here. Anything from moving rocks, painting a house, leveling the ground, building a chicken coop, etc. it’s hard work but it’s an honor to serve Kids Alive in the tangible ways that we know will help them after we leave.
In the evenings we spend time with the kids who live here. After already living here for 2 months, we really know the children well. For this month I feel like the Lord is really pressing it on my heart to have sit down conversations about faith with the older girls. Please pray for those conversations, I would love to leave this girls with more heart knowledge of Jesus.
We really try to not create unhealthy attachments with the kids. Even though my maternal instincts tell me to tuck the girls in and to say I love you, I know it will just hurt them more when we leave.
One of the biggest things I’ve learned while staying in places for only months at a time is to focus on leaving an impression of Jesus and not an impression of myself. It’s so easy to fill the role of coming in, giving the kids candy, letting them bite me if they want to, spin them around, make them laugh, & then leave. But what’s easy is normally not what’s right.
I try to do the things like telling them that it’s not okay to bite. Showing them not to laugh when others are hurt. Teaching them to not eat the dirt even when they cry and get mad at me.
I’m trying to teach them rights and wrongs like my parents taught me. But way more importantly, I’m trying my best to love them like Jesus would.
This last month is going to be a month of fighting to stay present. It would be nice to just scroll through Pinterest and look at the clothes I’m gonna buy when I get home, but looking at Pinterest doesn’t grow God’s Kingdom!
If you want to pray, pray for my team and I to push ourselves to stay present and fully invest ourselves in the final weeks of ministry!
Thank you for reading this update and as always please message me if you have any questions or just want to talk.
I love you all and see you in 27 days!!!!
