I have inadvertently realized that not everyone on my email is on Facebook, so I need to share photos and stories better. Over the next week I will catch you all up on what has been going on these past few months, since leaving Virginia to the rest of the world.
Our first month was spent in Zambia Africa. In particular my team and another team, (Team Meno) were sent to minister in the town of Livingstone, Zambia. The home of Victoria Falls, one of the 7 Natural Wonders of the Wordl! As many of you know from my first blog, it took us a long time to get to Livingstone. We traveled for days! As soon as we stepped off the bus we were overwhelmed by taxi drivers shouting, “I take you!” “You must come with me!” I’m normally pretty good in crowds, but I’m not good in crowds where people are trying to grab stuff off me and put it in their vehicles. Cue my squad mate Micah. In his stern Oklahoma drawl he goes, “Back off guys, let her through!” and he grabbed my hand and safely escorted me off the bus. As we came around the side of the bus to retrieve our things, there he sat, all smiles and greeted us, “Hey world race! we finally meet!” Grab your things, don’t get into the taxis and I will take you home.” It was our host Sanderson. He is the embodiment of Barnabas constantly exuding encouragement and a passion for the gospel.
Leaving Zambia was extremely difficult because of this man and his wonderful wife and daughters. In 3 short weeks, I felt as though I was leaving my family all over again. But I’m not done with photos, so I won’t end it here. 🙂
Sanderson took us all to the house we’d be staying in for the next 3 weeks. We. had. a. house! It was glorious, it had 5 bedrooms, a kitchen, a living room, and a dinning room. Plenty of room for these joined teams. We all settled in and began ministering the next day. Being that Sanderson is close with many pastors in the city we got to work with different churches. For my team we worked with Mercy Tabernacle and Pastor Oscar.
Pastor Oscar
We did door to door evangelism and saw many come to know Jesus! It was INCREDIBLE! What I loved most was that Pastor Oscar wasn’t just about evangelism, but growth as well. They have an incredible follow up plan set in place for those who are prayed for door to door. They never want anyone in their community to feel alone or abandoned, so they do weekly visits to new converts and to the sick and poor. It was such a blessing to serve their church!
As we served Mercy Tabernacle, Pastor Oscar introduced us to a fellow pastor named Pastor Lawrence. I’d like you to meet Pastor Lawrence:
He is a 10 year old Pastor who wants his peers to know the love of Jesus. His church meets every saturday morning in his front yard and his congregation is about 80 kids! We had the privilege of participating in one such service and it was amazing!!! I was so humbled and challenged to meet a young man with such passion for his generation. They are believing God for a van for their little church, so that they can take all the kids to regular church on sunday. As it is now, they take turns getting to go because they don’t all have rides there and the walk is too much for some of the smaller ones.
Among serving churches we also served some orphanages in Livingstone as well. Orphans are very close to Sanderson and L’weendo’s hearts, their passion and love for these kids is beautiful. We played games with them, we spoke to the older kids about the importance of sexual purity and abstinence before marriage. We encouraged them to dream big dreams and trust God. In turn they shared their smiles, their hands, their songs and jokes. They shared some kisses, they shared trust but mostly they shared love. There is a saying in Africa, orphanages aren’t successful if kids are educated and well fed, they are a success if the kids don’t die. The wonderful truth about the orphanages we went to, was their was a genuine love for these kids. Amazing men and women volunteer to be house mothers and fathers to these kids. Each parent having a house with 12 kids in them, where they are loved, fed, educated, and believed in. We had a chance to love on the adults of the orphanages as well. That was a particularly special blessing for us. Our last day at the orphanage I received a note from one of the boys that had been in my group. He wrote thanking me for coming, and wishing I could stay. He also wished I could be his real sister, so I wouldn’t leave. I hated leaving them. I could feel bile in the back of my throat and hot tears streaming down my face, as we drove away. I held back the tears as best I could, but they are rebellious.
This is Edwin and Victor. Edwin wrote me the note, Victor refused to leave my side every time we visited.
My Note:
Ministry in Zambia was a blast! But we also had some days off, and they were spent well. Our first Day off we went to Victoria Falls. It is seriously one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen
It was the first time I’ve ever seen a full circular rainbow!
Later in the month we paired up with an organization called, “Loves Door” which is a ministry that has set up a church, orphanage and community in the middle of several villages in the bush. We met and prayed for some of the most beautiful people I’ve ever seen. We also encountered some of the strongest spiritual warfare I’ve ever experienced. From weird dreams, to actually hearing my name called out in the middle of the night, it was crazy intense. I even had a hippo sniff by my tent in the middle of the night. (Thank God for prayers of protection) But here is a bit of the beauty I saw:
We had some very silly moments in Zambia. We laughed a lot together. From singing to strangers in the grocery store, to watching my friend sniff condoms at the supermarket because she thought they were air fresheners (yes, that did happen and she will remain nameless… for now) We tried to carry each other on our backs like the African women do with their children. I was successful with Brooke, Heather was not so successful with Chris. We (and by we I mean, not me) killed and ate chickens, we ate caterpillars and fell in love with Coca Cola. (It’s made with real cane sugar and has half the calories of what we have in the states!) I have also never sweated so much in my life! Literally sitting still I could feel sweat rolling down my back, it was hot! I looked for any excuse to cool off, this was my happy place:
I was stared at many times, for doing this. Essentially I was ok with the stares. It was hot!
That was Zambia. I have many more pictures to share and they will be coming soon. If anyone has any questions they want me to answer I would be more than glad to do it, just comment your message and I will blog the answer later in the week. Thank you all again for your love and support, I am truly honored to represent you by sharing Jesus and His great love.
