Ahhhh! I am officially fully funded! It took 15 months, but God does what he promises. I am so thankful to all of my supporters for helping me travel to 16 countries so far and spread God’s love to many lost people. Now more than ever God is calling his people to go to all the earth and spread his Good News. I have been blessed not only to experience the culture of Christianity across the world, but also grow in boldness for Christ. I used to wait for others to do the speaking or even confront the problems. But through these past 9 months I learned that sometimes you don’t have another chance to say something, so take it when you can.
Now onto a quick update from Zambia. This last month we spent our time in Serenje District, Zambia. This was the farthest from civilization I have been so far on the race. We split up into small groups to live with 4 of the local pastors. I spent the month with my teammate Cassie in Pastor Mumba’s house. We walked more than 10 miles every day through the literal African bush. I was without internet and cell service for the whole month other than one time I was able to send my mother a message telling her that I was alive and had not been eaten by a lion yet.
Our first day doing ministry was village to village evangelism. I thought I could hide behind my team and get away with not preaching this month, but God had other plans for me. By the end of the first week I had preached more than 20 impromptu sermons and encouragements! The Lord doesn’t just want to speak to you through what you read in your Bible, he wants you to bless others with it as well. After I shared all of the parables several times, many Psalms, and stories from the Old Testament I was spiritually dry and tired. When we would arrive at someone’s house I would ask God what I needed to share because I had shared all that I could think of on the spot.
It was clear that we couldn’t just cycle through the same few stories all month. We needed to be able to wing it. And by wing it I mean that I would open the bible and read whatever story I opened to. When the pastor or translator read it in Bemba I would have to quickly think up the best way to share the message they needed. Within the first week I came to find that it wasn’t my job to figure it out. It was my job to bring God’s word to these people and God would do the rest.
Some of the most fun times this month were at home with our host’s children Prisca, Maggie, Agnes, Cornelius, and Sarah. They didn’t speak much English, but we had the best times. About a week into our stay I asked them if they had seen any Disney movies. Being so rural made it nearly impossible to see new movies or old movies for that matter. They had a TV, but only local channels. So I was able to copy 65 GB worth of cartoons and family movies for them to plug into their TV. It wasn’t much, but I was also able to leave them with my videos from the race and our time in Zambia.
Even though the youngest girl is too small to remember me, she will hopefully grow up seeing my face through our pictures and videos. It’s always the hardest to say goodbye to children who don’t understand why you must go. Getting to know the kids this month was such a blessing! I know I said that this was going to be a quick update so I apologize. There is so much to tell you and I can’t wait to get back on here with pictures and videos!
Love you all and I can’t wait to get back in 8 weeks!
