My month in Zambia was trying and difficult, but at the same time it was a month of joy and family.
Lets start with the trying. Our ministry this month was with an orphanage. When we were working with the kids there was so much joy and hope. We could see God working in them and we wanted so much for them in the future.
However the director of the orphanage wasn’t exactly on the same page as us. His theology was a bit crazy, and the way he interacted with the children left all of us concerned. We saw so many things that could be hazardous to the health of the children both physically and spiritually. All throughout the month my heart was weeping for the kids who lived there.
There was no organization, we never knew what the next day or even hour held. Sometimes we were teaching the kids, sometimes we were cooking, sometimes we were working with the administration, and a lot of the times we were just sitting around. I can’t explain to you the amount of disfunction that we encountered every day in ministry, especially from the leader of this orphanage.
All this disfunction led to our team being drained. Spiritual warfare was a real thing for our team last month. As soon as we stepped into the car to go to ministry we could feel the energy drain from us. We had to rely on the Father each day to carry us through and to give us the patience, grace, and love to make an impact in that place.
In the middle of the month none of us wanted to continue on with ministry. We were reminded though that we are called to be a light in the dark places, and that is what God was using us as. Whether we saw it or not God used my team last month to impact the women and children at the orphanage. Even though we could not see the fruit of our labor in a lot of things I trust that God used us at the orphanage to make an impact there.
Now onto joy. For five days some of my teammates and I were able to lead a Beauty for Ashes retreat in a village 10 hours away from where we were staying. In the village we camped in our tents and basically lived in the African bush. It was dirty and unhygienic but so fruitful.
God showed up at this retreat. We were able to be real and raw with these women by sharing our stories. In return these women opened up to us and to God and were asking Him for more. We bonded not only with the women in the village, but also the women who had come with us from the orphanage. We lived in community with them 24/7.
Some may have looked at our living conditions and thought that it was a horrible week. It was instead a great experience. I saw God clearly, and saw Him moving so much during this retreat. We may have gone to impact the lives of these women, but they ended up impacting my life far more.
As we preached in a mud hut with a thatched roof, I saw God in these women. They exude joy in hard situations. They trusted in the Lord, even when they have so little, and it was truly a blessing to spend a week with them.
It was also a month of family. The environment where we lived was much different than where we worked. I truly felt like I was at home in this place, which was a little bit terrifying. We were welcomed with such loving arms into this family called DreamRunners.
DreamRunners is a ministry run by an amazing American woman named Jackie. She has been taking care of the 14 guys we were living with for the last nine years. They came to live with her when the orphanage they were living at closed down and they had no where to go.
I wish i could explain to you how incredible these guys are. They are growing into men of God who will change this nation and the world. The faith they exhibit blows my mind. They don’t shy away from deep conversations about the Lord. They take all their struggles to God with expectant faith that He will show up.
These guys became like brothers to us and took us into their family. There is so much more that could be said about this place and these guys, however if I tried to type it all I would be writing for days.
While there have been trying things on the Race so far, this month God blessed us with this family at a time that we really needed it. Also the house where they lived. We had actual floors, even though we were on our sleeping pads, running water, not to mention the gorgeous yard with green grass. There was even a pond, what the heck even is that?! God is so good!
As if this month couldn’t get any crazier, we gained two new sisters. Hannah and Dani who were on an Adventures trip called Exposure. They joined our team for the month and brought such a spirit of excitement and readiness to serve. it was such a joy to do ministry with them. They brought a new light onto our team and re-enegized us for ministry and the Race.
I am so thankful that these two girls are my sisters. They are women who are in tune with the Spirit and full of encouraging words. Saying goodbye to them was hard, but I am so excited to visit them once I get back to the states.
The Bible says that God will not give us burdens beyond what we can bear. Last month I saw that to be true, by diving into the Word and prayer we were able to endure through out the month. God is so gracious; he blessed us even in the hard things and carried us through the entire month and for that I am so thankful.
