This month has been an amazing month. This is our first month out of 4 that we will be spending in Africa. My team partnered with an organization called Hope Ministries. They have an orphanage and they do a lot of evangelism in the villages and in Bulawayo. Throughout the month our team did many different types of ministry. We did sports ministry, evangelism, helping put on a Christmas party for orphans, newspaper distribution, and teaching children Sunday school classes. We were living in a house with the pastor of the church we were partnering with and his family. It was so much fun getting to live with them and build relationships with the family.
On a regular day of ministry, we would go to the hope ministries office in the morning and participate in a bible study with the staff. From there we would go out to do ministry. Some days we would do newspaper distribution and that would look like us going into town with a christian newspaper that has peoples testimonies in it and handing the papers out to everyone. We would go through so many newspapers and everyone was so interested to read them. We would invite people to church while we were handing out papers as well. It was kind of an odd thing to do, but it was really cool to see how interested people were in the papers and how they would ask questions about the church and actually want to come. Another ministry we would do was sports ministry. We would go to the church, which was kind of in the middle of a village. We would gather any kids around and play soccer or netball. It was always so much fun to get to know some of the kids from the neighborhood. Somedays we would do evangelism and go door to door in the villages and hand out papers and invite them to church. We were able to meet so many people and invite so many people to come to church.
One day we were able to help put on a children’s Christmas party and that consisted of us singing Christmas songs, playing so many games, feeding the children (rice and beans of course) and teaching the Christmas story. It was kind of weird that we were having a Christmas party in November, but it was so much fun. We were able to love these kids who were orphans. They were all so sweet and loved everything we did. One activity we did with the kids was coloring and we tore out pages from coloring books and they all got some crayons and colored. They loved it so much and couldn’t get enough. We brought out stickers and they alls started sticking them to their faces and putting them on our faces. We were able to have so much fun from something as small as three coloring books, a box of crayons and some stickers.
Unfortunately this was our last month that we get to spend with our current team. Next month in Zambia Lis and I, the girls from our team, will be put on an all girls team. I am very excited to be on this team and get to know the girls better. Stay tuned for more updates.
