Hi everyone!!!
First off, thank you for all of your support and prayers over the past couple of months. Without you guys, this trip wouldn’t be possible!
A week ago, I left Indianapolis to head to Gainesville, Georgia for training camp. Training camp was nothing like I was expecting and surprised me in all of the best ways! For starters, I was blessed with the best, most loving and funniest teammates for these next three months. We immediately became like a family and I couldn’t be more thankful to be in this journey with them!
Monday morning (Jan 28th) we left training camp to the airport and to start our long travels TO AFRICA!!!!! 🙂 🙂 🙂
After more than 50 hours of buses, planes, train, and layovers; Wednesday night (Jan 30th) we finally landed in Lusaka, Zambia. The second I stepped off the plane I was beaming from ear to ear, I already loved it here! We stayed at a lodge in Lusaka for the night to get some actual rest before our long drive. The next morning we woke early to start our 8+ hour drive across the country to Livingstone, Zambia; where we will be living and serving this next month. We finally arrived early evening that day and were greeted immediately by the biggest smiles, hugs and “hellos” from all of the neighborhood kids.
This month we’re staying in a community home with a couple other volunteers, 2 local people, spiders, lizards, and hornets. 🙂 (pictures at the bottom)
While it’s hard adjusting to this heat at all hours of the day, the people and community here are so wonderful and they make it so worth it! Even with the language barrier, people go out of their way to talk to us or to call us over to them. Yesterday in the taxi ride our driver was so excited that it was our first time here that he went out of his way to give us a mini tour of the city.
I’m so excited to spend this next month in this beautiful place and be completely stretched outside of my comfort zone. No air conditioning, limited water, and heat all day long remind me of how blessed I am at home. Despite these things, these people live with so much joy, and it’s rubbing off on me! We start ministry this Monday and I CAN’T WAIT!!! This month we’ll be working in schools, doing sports outreach and door to door evangelism. Please pray for me and my team as we continue to learn to live in the community, get settled in our new home and start our ministry work. I’m so excited I get to share my experiences and stories with you all. I’ll be blogging weekly to keep y’all updated 🙂
My new friend, Norman 🙂
Our home for the month:
