Hello and Happy New Year from Livingstone, Zambia! WOW a lot has happened since I posted the last blog and I’ll try my best to catch you up! First, I’ll back track to Costa Rica
Last time we talked, I was planning a seminar for local business owners to promote the #WEARE611 movement in Jacó, Costa Rica. That ended up going well, we had around 20 business owners show up and it was SO cool to see the movement begin to take life! The main lesson I took away from Jacó was the power being putting action behind your passion. I was able to use my business degree to help a town and I felt like I was thriving that whole month!
We then packed up our bags and hopped on a bus to a beautiful farm in Granada, Nicaragua! This farm was right in the middle of the some of the worst slums found in the country. We went during a time of political unrest so any time we would walk through the town, there were always stares due a lack of tourists. I got to talk to a lot of the business owners and many are shutting down until the country can get back to normal, but they were extremely thankful to see us!
It was normal to have locals walk up and tell us, “thank you for coming to visit.” One local business owner to impacted me said, “when you come to visit Nicaragua, you help all of the people of Nicaragua. You aren’t supporting the government, you’re supporting the people.” That moment made me realize how so often we characterize an entire country based on what’s happening within the government and what we see in the news. When in reality, there are people and stories behind those screens. There are mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, daughters, and sons. That changed a lot for me.
The month was spent doing a couple different ministries. My team and I would go out into the slums to do evangelism and home visits. We acted as the church and swapped the normal way of doing things from the people visiting the church, to the church visiting the people. It was during this time we got to pray over people and illnesses, job searches, etc. One woman in particular who my team and I fell in love with was Patricia. She lived in a concrete home that was donated to her by a family in England. She spent a long time talking about how grateful she was that she got not one room, but TWO rooms for her 10+ person family. She then broke out in spontaneous worship and we got to pray over her health during that time. The next day we learned that she had gone to the hospital for heart problems so we each wrote her a letter and spent time praying for her. About a week later we found out that she was okay and was headed back home so we got to visit her a couple times before we left, each time spent just sitting and listening to her stories.
It was in Nicaragua that I got to see the personal side of Jesus. He showed me that if Jesus were still walking on the earth today, He wouldn’t be in Passion City Church, He would be in the slums of Nicaragua sitting and listening to Patricia’s stories, playing soccer with the kids in the dirt street, and making soup with the local church women. I loved this revelation and I want everyone to be able to experience this!
Finally, I got to help start up a socioeconomic business with some of the local women making Tamarindo seed jewelry! My squadmate Mary and I partnered up to help figure out potential expenses, create a budget sheet, and design a website for the project! The website hasn’t gone live yet, but I’ll let you know if it does! We got to hear the stories of the women and help figure out which jewelry pieces to make. Again, I felt like I was thriving in this role because I was able to see the fruition of my education!
After Nicaragua, our teams headed to Honduras! My team and I were placed with Ignite Ministry, they run a private kinder and secondary school as well as host Bible Study groups for the local community. The month was spent doing what I call “indirect ministry” as we spent most of it serving our hosts so that they in turn could serve the community better. We did lots of manual labor projects like picking up around the property, weeding, painting, and cleaning.
To be completely vulnerable, up until about halfway through the month I was frustrated with the ministry because I wasn’t able to instantly see the fruit of it. That’s when the Lord taught me the lesson that I need to be willing to serve without expecting to see fruit. My Squad Leader posed the question of “would you still be willing to serve, even if you were treated like a servant?” and DANG that hit me hard. The Lord during this month called me to lean into Him and trust that He will produce fruit from the seeds planted during our ministry. Believe it or not, I feel proud of this month and despite not having cute pictures of a finished playground or witnessing someone getting saved, I know that the Lord can use whatever I can give Him to make an impact and I’m trusting that He will.
THEN CAME the looooongest travel day(s) of my life! We began our journey in Honduras at 8am on a Wednesday, took two buses and four planes, and made it to our debrief location in Malawi late at night on Saturday. We spent time relaxing debriefing the past four months and then went through cultural training for these three months in Africa! During this debrief we were also placed on new teams! So it was a sad goodbye to Team Harber and I am SO excited to introduce you to…
TEAM POSSIBLE (cue the Kim Possible theme song)
Ya’ll… I am SO excited to be on an all girls team! Last month we were in Malawi and our team preached just about every day at churches spread throughout the country! I was able to preach three times and in the beginning I was suuuper nervous. It felt like I was taking my really personal relationship with the Lord and putting it on display for all to see. A couple weeks ago I preached on one of my biggest themes in life: Light. How the Lord uses the light metaphor to describe three identities; John 8:12 “I am the light of the world,” Ephesians 5:8-9 “Walk as children of the light,” and Matthew 5:14 “YOU are the light of the world.” HOW. COOL. That Jesus uses the same metaphor to describe us as He does Himself!
Africa has rocked me hard in the best way. The people here are unbelievably kind and the children are the absolute CUTEST. We have a lot of children who live around our home. So for Christmas, to distract ourselves from being away from home and to celebrate with the local kids, we threw a HUGE Christmas party! Our host brought the speaker from his church and we played Christmas music, had hot chocolate, roasted chicken, and made baked beans. It was so much fun and a party for around 8 kids turned into a party for the whole neighborhood! It was a pure birthday celebration at its finest!
This month we’re in Livingstone Zambia and I have a feeling that it might be my favorite month! We have broken up into teams of three and every day will either plan and host a kid’s program, or go into the local community and hang out with two families we’ve chosen to invest in. One of those families was invested in by a previous World Race team that was here a month ago and the mother got saved with them! We’re now talking to her about what baptism means and she might get baptized while we’re here! The other girl I’ve really connected with is Tourin, you can see her below! She’s SO awesome and super sassy!
ONE LAST UPDATE: Wow wow wow we are SO close to being fully funded! As of right now we have raised $14,860 which means we are only $3,240 away!! This last bump though is definitely the hardest so I need to ask for your help. If you know of anyone who is passionate about international missions or loves to support missionaries, please send them my way! You can email me their info or give them mine (below) and I would love to have a conversation with them!
Beyond that though, I am absolutely blown away at the support. I know I’ve said it before but I never want to understate just how thankful I really am. I spend so much time with Jesus just telling Him thank you for His provision and YOU have played a role in that. Jesus has provided time and time again and He has used you to do so. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
As I type this, I am sweating in the humid, Zambian heat but I know that it’s freezing at home! Feel free to send or comment pictures of your sweaters, mittens, and snow along with an update of how you’re doing because I would absolutely love that! Also add in how I can be praying for you because I don’t think of your support as a one-time thing, I see it as us going on this journey together!
Wishing you a Merry Christmas & Happy New Year from Zambia,
Hannah Neel 🙂
