(Written 1 week ago from this post date – bad WiFi, sorry!)
So, first of all, I feel I must apologize because I have not done a good job at keeping you all updated on what is going on.
To be quite frank, I don’t even feel as if I’m fully caught up as to what is going on in my life either! Ha!
So, on January 11th, I found out that I would be co-leading a group of amazing young adults to Africa for three months – this is through the same organization that I went to Thailand and Cambodia with last year. We left for Africa on January 28thand arrived here on Feb 1/2nd-ish.
This was not something that was even on my radar before January; it was more as if God just drew it out of thin air and was like, “Oh hey, by the way… here’s this thing… you need to leave in a week.”
So, let’s get fully caught up…
After arriving home in April last year from Thaibodia, God moved my family and myself from New Mexico to South Carolina in September. Moving is always hard, but this was something that the Lord had been preparing me for since Thailand. We sold our house within a couple of weeks and got a move on.
In South Carolina, we’ve been staying in my Gramma’s condo (thanks Grams); fully furnished, on the intercoastal of Myrtle Beach, super nice, and I started a job at a local coffee shop.
Starting at this coffee shop definitely came with its hardships, but if you know anything about me, you know I love coffee, and I have a passion to combine coffee and missions; so, making coffee for people was one of my favorite things in the world.
After the new year, I reached out to Adventures in Missions and asked them if I could drive over and serve during their training camp; since I went on a trip last year, I knew what it was like, loved it, and would love to be around the racers as they are preparing for their trip.
Soon after, I received an email back saying they were still looking for leaders; a smile over took my face and a yes overwhelmed my spirit.
I went through the required steps and one week later, I was in Atlanta, Georgia for training.
It was a week full of “What the heck am I doing?” “I’m so excited!” “Is this going to come together?” “God you are so good!” “God what the heck is happening?” And a lot of those stress-laugh emojis… you know the one?
But it was a week full of things just continually falling into place, even when I was close to convinced they wouldn’t.
But God likes to be funny like that, right?
So after a week of training – you know, gotta get those smarts – we started on our journey very early on January 28th. The team tried to calculate the total travel time and it was around 55+ hours of plane rides and layovers (one very long layover in London where we were momentarily lost on a train trying to get to Buckingham Palace), one good sleep in a lodge, and an 11-hour bus ride from Lusaka, Zambia to Livingstone, Zambia.
That brings us to here; Zambia, Africa.
“Specifics” of Ministry:
The team, as well as my co-leader and myself will be serving alongside of a local ministry here in Livingstone.
In the mornings we will be splitting up into two groups to go to two different schools and be teacher aids.
On alternating days, we will be doing sports ministry and street/door-to-door evangelism in the afternoons – loving on them and praying on them, sharing the gospel as we go.
During our free-time, we will be doing anything from resting, spending our own personal time with the Lord, getting to know the village and the people here, and just living life here.
The Team:
The team is made up of 8 young adults.
Tyler, Drew, Mckayla, Hallie, Carlee, Bree, Ellen and Sarah.
Then there is my co-leader, Andrew, and myself.
Unfortunately, we have had two teammates who are not listed above that have not been able to continue on with us; one who heard clearly that the Lord was calling her in another direction.
Our other teammate, Bailey, made it to London with us, but had to turn around because she continued to grow sicker and sicker throughout our travels – Update: Bailey will be re-joining us at the end of the month
Prayers for all of my teammates, and my co-leader and I as we go along would be so appreciated. I pray every day that they walk deeper in their relationships with the Lord, experience new life that takes them out of their comfort zones and learn how to walk more and more like Jesus every day.
What’s next?
We have about 2 more weeks in Zambia with this local ministry then we will be continuing to Zimbabwe, Africa to work with a church and the local outreaches that they participate in there and then to Johannesburg, South Africa.
How Can You Partner With Me?
I need to fundraise around $1,000 more. You can use the donate link attach to this blog and website to help fund my Africa trip as well as continue an overflow into my future trips by partnering monthly.
You can also be praying regularly. Myself and my team need some prayer warriors and people who just love to talk to God on our side; if this is you, please let me know, and I will create an email link to send out prayer requests hopefully weekly.
This is a pretty rough overview of everything that has happened. I plan to post regular updates, and my team will also be posting weekly/biweekly blogs, so keep an eye out for those.
You can see more during the trip on Instagram @overflow.imagery &hannagram2.0
Thank you for reading all of this and for all of your support all ready; you all mean the world to me.
Share the Hope,
Hanna
