This week was our first week of ministry work! I am working in a school here called Young Heart Academy. School here is much different from school in America. School starts at8am and we leave at noon Monday-Friday. The kids LOVE to learn and they also LOVE to sing and dance during class. It is so much fun to be a teachers assistant and it’s a reassurance to me that this is what I am meant to do someday for the Lord. It gives me a purpose to know that just by loving on these kids and giving up my time to be with them shows how important their education is. I volunteer in the second and third-grade classroom and I have gotten to teach every day so far, on multiple occasions the teachers just left me alone with the kids with the instructions, “We have a meeting. Just teach them.” It takes them a while to write so we usually only cover 2-3 topics in 3 hours. Every school morning is filled with laughter and song in their school and ends the same way. They are always eager to learn American music so this week, in addition to English, Math, and Science, I also got to teach the kids the Macarena and the student song. Slowly but surely, they are teaching me their songs too; my favorite song so far is called “Do you love the Lord?” Because following that question, my classroom is filled with students joyfully shouting about their love for the Lord! On Fridays, the students have a half day and they get to have gym class from 10:30-12. Most of the children don’t have pencils and some don’t have books to write in. Their classrooms are brick walls with chalkboards and a tin roof. They mostly use picnic tables instead of desks. Instead of letting the circumstances stop them from learning, the students embrace this by sharing with one another and using extra chairs. I got to learn new games in their language and interact with the kids as a friend instead of their teacher and that was such a fun and different experience!
After school on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, we have sports ministry from 3-5, but in Africa time is NOT a concept. Usually, we don’t start sports until 4:30 and we push back the end time as needed. Since sports and I aren’t exactly the best of friends, I usually just sit on the sidelines. Sports ministry takes place in the middle of a dirt patch in a huge cornfield in Nama Tama where we are staying. This week, they played football but my new friends and I played hair salon on the sideline. They taught me about the games that they play here and they like to sing music in English so I knew the words to sing along! Most of the children here go to church and they openly speak to us about their faith and their church traditions.
On Tuesday’s and Thursday’s, we will be doing door to door ministry instead of sports ministry but because of the rain, we haven’t been able to do that yet. We did, however, get to take a tour of our neighborhood and see the other side of town where we will be ministering and it was absolutely beautiful!
Our friends who were staying in our home with us left this week and it was so sad to see them off. But it was also exciting to see how much we impacted each other’s lives in just one short week! The house already feels quiet and strange without them here; our team will miss them so much! On the bright side though, we threw a party for them on Thursday night and the evening was spent dancing, making (slightly burnt) cookies, and eating cake. We got to exchange contact information and notes we wrote to one another. It was such a sweet time in fellowship and encouraging one another.
My heart was heavily burdened this week when I received news of concerns at home. On Monday Christa Nieves passed away. She was the mother of one of my best friends at home, Blair. I didn’t find out about the tragic news until Wednesday when I got WiFi. I am absolutely heartbroken for Blair and his family. I could physically feel pain for them and it was so hard for me to move on during the week. It took over most of my thoughts and all of my prayers. I love Christa, Blair, and their family very much so this greatly impacted my week. I have been praying for them and I will continue to do so as my trip goes on; they are always in my thoughts. I have been constantly reminding myself that the Lord is my comfort and we have to lean on him-especially with something as difficult as this.
During this past week, I have been asking God to reveal my spiritual gifts to me. On Monday, I woke up with a heavy weight on my chest and a cloud of sadness over my head. I couldn’t explain the feeling and I couldn’t figure out where it came from. That night during team time, we did a listening prayer-(a prayer where everyone closes their eyes and opens their hearts and minds to whatever the Lord is telling them or showing them to encourage one of their teammates with by sharing it out loud)-and one of my teammates mentioned weight on her heart. I shared with my team that the weight was my weight and I prayed about why I was feeling that weight so heavily. The sadness didn’t go away; on Wednesday, when I found out about Christa’s death, I felt that same weight. I slowly pieced together that it was the Lord who allowed me to share in on her family’s emotions with them from Monday until I received the news on Wednesday. I think the Lord may be revealing the spiritual gift of feeling others emotions deeply.
Additionally, yesterday, I got to do my first tourist activity! I got to take lions and cheetahs on a walk, and ride on the back of an elephant! It was such an incredible experience and I am so thankful for the opportunity! I feel so blessed to be here and I cannot wait to see what the Lord does next. Zambia is finally starting to feel like home & it is so good to be home!
Thank you for all of the love and support back home! Please pray for my team as most of us have never been away from home for more than 2 weeks. Some of us are getting slightly homesick but we need to be reminded that this is where God wants us to be. Also, please pray that we can get used to our schedule. Please be praying for Christa’s family and friends as grieving her loss is difficult. Also, last but not least, please be praying that we can continue to build relationships here and get to know the culture and people even better so that we can love them well and share the Lord with them!
Personally, pray for my heart because I am learning to be still and listen to the Lord. I also feel like I don’t get many opportunities to actually tell people about Jesus and at first, this was frustrating but I am learning that God just needs me to love the people here and be aware of every opportunity; I know that he will do everything else.
