Today marks five and a half days in Zambia. I am still recovering from debrief and all the travels. It was roughly 60 hours from the time our bus rolled out from our hostel in Antigua, Guatemala until we pulled up to our ministry house in Zambia. Around 25 of those hours were spent on a plane and 9 hours on two buses. Tuesday we rested some and Wednesday morning we went to our first ministry site.
Wednesday, we started off having worship and a Bible study with a group of women who were primarily widows. They sure can sing. It was beautiful hearing them sing hymns in there native language. On a side note: Tonga in one of about 72 dialects spoken in Zambia. Needless to say, I am grateful that most of the people in this region, that we have encountered, know English as well. In the evening we were off to a “park.” (A grass lot by the road with a few trees and space to run.) We sat up four stations for the 70 plus kids: drinking water, sports, Bible story, and little kids group. I now understand why my friends like Africa and want to adopt children from here. The kids were from the local Awana’s group, well behaved over all, loving, calm, relational, and innocent. I must say my thoughts on Africa have changed allot from the mental picture I had developed through the media and commercials. As a matter of fact, the moment I stepped off the plane in Lusaka I felt a calm and peaceful spirit in the air. After Awana’s we had a break and went to my first ever local Zambian church… The dots are for the lack of words. They praised Jesus and thanked Him for a good while before they got to the rest of worship. It was beautiful from an outside prospective. Honestly, my squad mates and I were quite out of it from a physical stand point. 60 hours of travel and other factors were taking their toll on us.
Thankfully, Thursday was a day to relax and plan for the month. We are excited for the schedule but I pray we remain open to changes as we see happen daily.
Friday, we had a late start that was much needed and it all worked for the glory of God. I am sure Satan was not happy and trying to through a wrench in God’s “gears”. After a little pressure from God the wrench was merely crushed, and we were off to evangelize, however, that looked here, (building relationships, praying, encouraging, and sharing God’s loving word to the souls we encounter.) I want to expound on this time of Evangelizing. So, Lord willing, expect another blog to follow this one mentioning evangelizing. God showed me something extremely valuable that I hope to grow in the rest of my life. We left from evangelizing and went to a nearby orphanage were we met many more children from youngsters to teenagers. They we broke up into three age-groups and the staff, figuratively speaking, said “their yours!” Yes, be “ready at all times…” Thats in the Bible somewhere I know. I was paired up with the little ones. We got a good laugh after a squad mate got up and told the story about David and Goliath. One staff member of the orphanage then walked up and said, “Okay, now let me tell them in their language!” You can take a moment to laugh too! There was a minor detail left out, the children (with the exception of maybe a few), did not understand English. That also explains why some of the little guys and girls seemed like they were not following. We wrapped up last night with some local teens with a viewing of the movie, “God’s Not Dead” at a local church.
Please continue to pray that God will work how ever He sees fit through us, and for the hearts and souls we encounter to be saved and encouraged. “Your Kingdom come, Your will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven.” – Heavenly Father. Amen.
