I have always loved sunflower fields. As our Squad traveled the forty hours from Malawi to Zambia, I was surprised to see many sunflower fields.
As we drove by these sunflowers, I asked the Lord about this next month in Zambia. The first two months of the Race have been challenging because I have lacked opportunities to use my gifts. I desired for this month to be a time I could not only use my gifts but thrive within them.
Little did I know that these sunflower fields would be a part of the Lord answering my prayer.
This month we have been working with ‘J Zone,a ministry that serves youth in schools, churches, and orphanages proclaiming the love of Christ. Our primary role has been helping them to build a day camp for kids in the local community. When I say build, I mean literally from the ground up.
The first day of ministry, our host Sanderson, walked us to a large field with waist-high grass and told us, ‘This will be the play park for Day Camp. At the end of the month I want to run Day Camp twice.’ If you could see the field, you would understand that this was a tall order. But I was so excited because I love camp. Working and interning at Ligonier Camp has played a significant role in my story and help me learn to use my gifts in ministry: discipleship, adventure education, teaching, and creating experiences for kids.
Here I found myself in Zambia helping to physically build a camp. Our Squad ‘did the work’ this month to make the play park ready for Day Camp: slashing grass with machetes, digging holes, putting up a fence, hoeing a volleyball court, and leveling a soccer field. We also developed a curriculum and gathered supplies to run Day Camp. One of my roles was design a curriculum for the day camp: from games, to team building, to Bible Study, to silly songs, to crafts. I was asked to design the Bible lesson and craft for us to teach. Planning a craft was challenging because there were limited resources,- so I asked the Lord.
I remembered the bathroom building,the only structure at the Play Park. I began to envision a mural on the building, specifically of a sunflower field. I imagined the kids learning in Bible Study about being a child of God and then coming over to put a yellow handprint on the wall. Then, to have all the hand prints at the end of Day Camp becoming a field of sunflowers, proclaiming that these children are claimed as God’s beloved children.
I have learned on the Race that the Lord loves to remind us how big He is and about His power in making Kingdom work happen on His timeline. God is so good because I was able to see this vision play out before my eyes. The first Day Camp we ran, I watched as every child came over to the wall, painted his or her hand yellow, and placed it on the wall. As they did this, I was able to tell them why we were putting hand prints on the wall and why it matters that they are children of God.
As the first Day Camp unfolded, I was completely overwhelmed by God’s love for me. That He cares so much about us,that He heard my prayer and answered, even when my vision for the mural seemed impossible.
I painted a mural in Zambia this month that taught kids about their identity in Christ! I helped start, plan, build, and run a Day Camp with my Squad. I asked God to allow me to use my gifts and to thrive this month and He took me to ministry with a vision to build and run a Camp. He created space for me to be an artist and display the Gospel through creativity to kids. These are two aspects of ministry I am incredibly passionate about and God let me thrive inside of them this month.
I look back at those sunflower fields as we drove into Zambia and realized the Lord was promising something to me. That I am his child and He loves seeing His children playing and thriving in His beautiful world. He wanted me to know that and to teach kids that same truth. God cares so deeply for us and I am so romanced by the ways He shows His love to us. He desires for us to use the gifts He has given us to build His Kingdom.
Zambia has left my heart full. It is such a sweet way to end my three months here in Africa- remembering ‘We are children of God’. This is our first month in Asia, and our first stop is the Philippines! Pray for the transition to a new continent, with a new team, and new opportunities to share the love of Christ.
