Hello all you wonderful people! So, a quick update of what’s been going on in the last week. We made it to Zimbabwe after four days of traveling. We have settled into our home for this month. We live with a beautiful family. They have two lovely daughters who are full of energy, ages 5 and 9, and they have a new born two week old baby boy. He is precious, and fortunately for us doesn’t keep us awake at night. It is so nice to finally live as only our team and in a home environment. So, far we have had a week of ministry. We are working in the school system this month with a program called Scripture Union. Scripture Union is all over Zimbabwe and plays a huge role in each school. We have the coolest coworkers too. Not only is our ministry host, Abraham, hilarious, but the guys in the office are the best as well. We have such a fun time messing around, while still glorifying the Lord and teaching the children.
As I mentioned, we had four days of traveling from Nepal to Zimbabwe, which was only supposed to take three days. Once again, my half of the alphabet got the bad flights with the long layovers. After the first night sleeping for three hours in the airport and two flights, we were all pretty exhausted. The next day we had a seven hour layover in Ethiopia, that turned into an overnight layover. BUT, God was actually providing for us in this moment. Since the airport had cancelled our flight, they bought us all rooms in a hotel, rooms to ourselves and two meals. This was the first time in two months that I had been by myself, much less slept in a room all to myself. To be honest, it was really strange, and I even missed having my people around me. Another perk is now I can say I have visited Ethiopia, because we slept and ate outside of the airport. The Lord allowed us to rest when we needed it the most and went above and beyond by giving us a hot shower and a bed all to ourselves. He was so faithful in providing strength for travel days.
Another blessing in disguise since we missed our flight and couldn’t leave Ethiopia until the morning, our whole squad got to stay in two hostels the night of arriving to Harare, Zimbabwe. It was another night of recovery from travel and time I got to spend with Sydney Williams and Sydney Ruther. We popped popcorn and ate baked beans out of the can in the cold rain for dinner. I was blessed to get to room with them and just have their amazing company. (PS the baked beans tasted like American baked beans so I was so happy.) Overall, travel wasn’t as bad as I was expecting. The Lord gave us small chances to relax and rest as well as some of my favorite foods. Sydney^2 and I brought oatmeal to eat in the airport one morning, and Starbucks even gave us free hot water, so that plus the baked beans and apples and peanut butter made traveling easier. Also, fun fact my team has banned me from mentioning apples, oatmeal, or bananas because apparently I talk about how enjoyable they would be too much… I think that’s debatable.
One other cool way God has provided for us is in our ministry this month. In a few blogs already, I shed some light on our frustration with the lack of education and that there were basic needs of people that weren’t being met when we might could’ve helped. Well, God opened the door for us this month with that. He put us in a position to impact the school system in the community of Bulawayo directly. We are getting to influence kids in their future decision making processes, making sure they know who they are in Christ, and even teaching sex ed and HIV/Aids courses. What we felt helpless in last month, we have been given a chance to make a difference. It has been incredible to see the work that Scripture Union has done in the schools here. In the beginning of this year, the new prime minister tried to ban Scripture Union from the schools and even people who weren’t Christians stood up for them. It’s so great to be a part of this ministry working with the children, teachers, and even all of the people in the offices. They truly are impacting the city on a physical/educational level as well as growing a spiritual community.
All in all the first couple days here have been amazing from our living situation to our ministry to seeing how The Lord has provided more so than usual the last couple of days. We absolutely love our family we live with. The girls are such beautiful balls of energy who love to have dance parties, watch movies, and best of all cuddle on the couches. I also got to hold the little baby for a couple hours the other day and man have I forgotten how precious newborns are. We all just love them and fit right into their household.
Everything is good here in Zim!! We love Africa with all the fresh fruits and cheap popcorn. Your continued prayers are greatly appreciated though! Update on my health: since coming to Africa I have finally maybe gotten rid of the cold/cough that I’ve had since the first week of India, so I am the closest to 100% I’ve been the whole race. Thank you for your prayers and support. So far, Africa has been beautiful in so many ways, and I am really looking for this month to refill.
