This month in Livingstone, Zambia we have been working with a wonderful ministry, J-Zone. We have had the opportunity to work at the play park slashing grass, digging holes, making a volleyball court & soccer field, painting the bathroom, and putting the fence up all so they can have kids in the community come to this park to have fun & learn about God. This month I had an opportunity to be on the day camp planning team. We were asked to plan 2 different day camps, one for 2-13 year olds & the other for 12-18 year olds. It was neat to work alongside women on my squad who has so much camp experience and get to be apart of what God had in store for the children we were going to reach. We prayed over the day camp and the theme of being a child of God is what we decided on. Our theme verse was 1 John 3:1 “ How great is the love of the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!” It’s neat because the idea of being a child of God was something God walked me through in the last month. It’s neat to see things come full circle.
During our 1st day camp we had about 60 kids, and it was so much fun. It was cool to see different people on the squad fill in different roles from counselors, team building leaders, games, lunch crew, and bible & crafts. This camp would not have happened unless our squad was united and gave it our all. It was so neat to see our squad’s interactions with the kids. Here are some pictures from the day camp:
Working at the play park was a lot of hard work. Manual labor is not something I love to do, but learning to give it my all because of who we are doing the work for. After one day of digging, slashing & raking, my hands had started to get blisters. It was easy to start complaining after only a week about how tired I was or how hot it was. Some mornings I would wake up and not want to do anything that day because I was sore. During one of my quiet times, I was praying and feeling very convicted. Working at this play park wasn’t about me and how I was feeling, it’s about what God was doing and for the kids. I had to change my mindset and attitude. It’s amazing how much easier things become when we choose to not complain or let things bother us as much. I definitely still had moments of falling back into the complaining, but I tried to catch myself and choose to not. Overall I was so blessed to play a small role in this ministry and helping with the play park. I cannot wait to see how God continues to grow and transform the play park!
