The team and I were surprised when we stopped. “We’re here!” shouted Roderick. We had been hiking through the bush (30 km outside of Livingstone) for only ten minutes at this point, and we reached a clearing where a mud house once stood. The frame was all that was left. There was also an “L” shaped, thatched wall about ten yards from the house. Besides that there were nothing but trees, dirt, and bushes. “Where’s the village?” someone asked.
Roderick pointed to a line of trees. “There,” he said. Then he pointed to another in the opposite direction. “And there.” Finally a third, behind us. “And there.”
We strained our eyes but saw no sign of people or huts. We had passed by a small herd of cows on the way to the site, which indicated there was somebody living out here, but not seen by us. We thought it was all a joke. We were told to expect a real primitive situation in our orientation prior to leaving Livingstone, but it still caught us off-guard. Our hosts began unpacking their stuff, so we followed suit, not knowing quite what was in store for our time in the “village” village (village).
The scenery is about what you would expect from the African bush. Like other aspects of Africa, it meets my expectations almost exactly. The only part I didn’t expect was just how much I would appreciate and love it. It is primitive living for sure though. Imagine the best camping ever, but knowing that if anything happened, such as snake bite or crocodile attack, there is no hospital fifteen minutes away. There are no showers or even buckets for showers, so river bathing is a thing. That “L” shaped wall was the bathroom, where a nice deep hole was dug in the center. Enough about that, let me move on to our ministry.
Ministry in the mornings was heavy-lifting. We hauled and piled a bunch of stones for a couple of hours daily. The two piles created were to be used for a future building project. I think the project had something to do with the remnants of the house at our campsite. In the afternoons we ventured out into the bush to seek out the villagers. It turns out that there were indeed people living out there, they were just spread out. Our goal was simply to get to know the people, but opportunities arose to evangelize, as some of the people admitted they were not Christians. At this point I only ever heard stories of evangelism on the Race. I had anticipated opportunities to come up, but I’ve only worked with Christians on the Race, and any non-Christians I encountered it was made most difficult to evangelize. This was the first time I witnessed it, and the first time on the Race I witnessed people surrendering their lives to Christ. I believe ten people surrendered over only two days of home visits. It was a most joyful ministry! Please pray for your new brothers and sisters as they become rooted in the faith and seek out community in the local church.
We returned to Livingstone on Saturday where we now stay in a nice, cozy team house. I am pleased to inform you all that I am now nice and showered, after a two week hiatus. Perhaps that was too much information… I’ll stop this post before I reveal too much unwanted info. Africa and Manistry have been amazing! Keep praying!
