The morning after the ridiculousness that was the South African presentation of the Superbowl, I was exhausted. It aired the same time as it did in the US which happened to be 1:30am for us. And my aging body wasn’t a fan of eating pizza at 2:00am.
We began the preparations for leaving our hostel and meeting our new ministry contact. Our contact Pastor Alec is amazing! He is a native Zambian with a sense of humor and a love for the Lord. We are staying in two spare rooms in his home. One has a deep freezer and a stove top for us to use. And there are floor mats for sleeping scattered throughout. It is a REALLY nice set up compared to what I heard other teams talking about last month (seven people in a bathroom sized room…no thank you!).
Our ministry seems amazing as well! This is probably subject to change, but at the moment the schedule is light and lovely. Monday and Tuesday we teach our own classes at the school that the church has set up for Orphans in the area. There are seven grades and seven of us so that worked out well. My class is Grade 3 and I taught them their Science, English, PE, and Bike Safety lessons out of a workbook the teacher handed me five minutes into class. For once, I felt in my element here even though I have no intention of returning to teaching after this…haha.
Wednesday and Saturday are bible studies that we are encouraged to share in, so perhaps I may use my Kinsman Redeemer Sermon after all. Thursday is village evangelism days where we will go out share door to door. I don’t know what that will look like, but I might use today to prepare some short messages to share for that. Friday is our day off and Sunday of course is church.
I love a schedule like this because I know it allows me not to burn out on any particular subject; teaching preaching, sharing, etc. I feel like this month is a gift from the father for sure! And another plus…as much as I don’t necessarily like kids…I think I really do! Because Pastor Alec’s wife has a one month old girl that she had me hold this morning while she prepared a bottle…and that baby stole my heart right from me without me even knowing. It wasn’t until I handed the baby back that I was like, “wait…what?”
She was just so little and it blows my mind to think that she will double in age while we are here. And as this is our first month actually living with a family, once I again, I say, “I am blessed!”
