I am alive! It’s been a few months since I posted last. Here’s a quick update of the past two months:
We made it to Africa!!! We spent December in Zambia, and this month we have been in Botswana. Zambia was a challenging month. We served at a church in the capital, Lusaka and we mostly did outreach. Six days a week we went into the markets, on the streets, past homes talking to people, inviting them to church, and handing out hundreds of flyers.
We did not fully agree with everything that was preached in the services at
We did not fully agree with everything that was preached in the services at church. We felt
We felt harassed by men in the community. We felt a little unappreciated and undervalued.
We felt a little unappreciated and undervalued.
We did not feel safe at ministry or at the house we were staying in.
We were in two car accidents.
A few of my teammates were harassed physically and were emotionally hurt.
Four of us caught malaria (check that one off my list).
Now please don’t think I’m writing all of this to get pity points, or to make the ministry we worked with look bad, or anything else. We had so many laughs that month and our team grew so close because we had to really depend on the Lord for our strength and in the process, we learned how to support and love each other that much better.
The main reason I am writing this is to give glory to the Lord. Our Father is so good to us and I felt more protected that month than I ever have. We were protected from so many situations that could’ve gone south very fast. Yes, all this crap happened, but the Lord is so faithful and brought us through.
Psalm 91 was brought up several times in our team times because it is known as the Psalm of protection. It talks about how God always looks after the ones He loves. In verse 14 and 15, it says,
“‘Because he loves me,’ says the Lord, ‘I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name. He will call on me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him.'”
We felt so loved and protected by Papa. He is so good all the time, and all the time He is so good. That’s just who He is.
We spent the last week of the year in Livingstone, Zambia. We saw Victoria falls (watch that vlog here), we spent Christmas with our squad (Click here! to watch that!), and we spent a few days at an LDW (Leadership Development Weekend) hearing from our squadmates about what they are learning and encouraging one another.
I spent the last few hours of 2016 on a bus to Botswana, and I rang in the new year, six hours into an 11-hour bus ride watching an episode of New Girl (shout out to my girl MC for that!!).
This month, we have been working with a church called Kingdom City Church. We have mainly been focusing on the Youth program called City Youth, but we have also been serving in the Sunday services, reaching out to people in the community, going to an orphanage and spending time pouring into the volunteers that work at Kingdom City.
I have had the privilege of working with the media team, creating videos, taking pictures and being available to help in that area whenever. It has been so much fun getting to know that team and working with them.
We are in our final few days of being here in Botswana and we are very sad to leave. It has been such a refreshing month of rest, playing with kids, pouring into locals and being poured into by them. We are so thankful to have been here this month.
This month we have not had the most reliable wifi, so I haven’t been able to upload many vlogs. I have been making them, and they finally have been uploaded, so I will include them at the bottom of this blog.
Thank you all so much for your prayers and encouragement. I am so blessed to have such an amazing support group back in the States and now all around the world. Feel free to email me if you would like to know more about anything or if you would just like to chat, my email is [email protected]. I would love to hear from you!
