Every day our World Race team would partner with members from the Bauleni Overspill Baptist Church here in Zambia and we would go out together into the community to spread the love of Jesus. These members that we went out with were so much more than just translators (which is a big job in itself)! They keep us safe, showed us around, encouraged us, shared their wisdom with us and truly became our family. They have been so faithful and I know for sure that we would not have had the same experience if they had not been with us. Just navigating all of the streets and alleys of Bauleni is a challenge in itself!
Bauleni is a huge compound that is located in Lusaka, Zambia’s capital city. The houses and living arrangements vary a little from each other, but even the people with the nicest homes would be considered to have a very low quality of life from American standards. There is no running water in any of the homes and often times the women have to carry all of the water that they need long distances to their houses every day. The houses are usually made out of concrete cinder blocks with a tin metal roof. I think all of the houses have electricity, but I am not 100% sure. I only saw one family that had a stove, and most of the cooking is done over a little coal fire pits in the front yard. In spite of their rough living situations, the people are so friendly and hospitable. We greet the people as we approach the houses and almost immediately they will welcome us either inside their home or rush around to try to get little chairs or a mat for us to sit on outside.
In the Zambian culture they honor guests very well and they insist that we take the chair or the couch even if it means that the frail little grandma then has to sit on the floor. They are so eager to have us and hear what we have to say that they go above and beyond to make us feel honored. Which was so humbling! The majority of our visits were to members of the church that were sick or had not been attending for a while. So we would encourage them and pray for all of the sick people. We would always ask through our translator friends if there was anything in particular that they could use encouragement for. The typical answer was “yes you can encourage us.” When we first started there would be a brief moment of panic in my brain everytime they said this. I would think “Okay. I literally know nothing about you or the struggles that you are going through. How do I pick what verse to read? What if I say the wrong thing?” But then I realized that not knowing exactly what was going on gave me the freedom to ask God what verse He wanted me to read and more often than not one of those old verses that I learned as a little kid would pop back into my head. I would read the verse, explain it, and then share whatever God put on my heart. The people were so receptive to what we had to say and were so grateful and encouraged. It was definitely all God! It was so cool to see how their perfect heavenly father knew just what they needed and chose to use us to deliver the message, which was such an honor. I got to partner with my teammate, Amber, for these visits and it was so cool to see how more often than not both of the verses that we would pick would relate to each other. It was a total God thing because we were not discussing it with each other, we were just following what we felt like God was telling us to do. Amber was a huge encouragement to me in all of this and was so faithful in each situation that we were in whether that was praying for the sick, leading someone to Christ, or just encouraging and loving on people. The work we did here was so fulfilling, but it was draining at the same time as we were going from house to house and speaking to so many people, and it was such a blessing to have Amber with me to help if I got stuck and add her insight and wisdom. Another highlight for me everyday was all of the kids that we got to meet.
There were kids EVERYWHERE in this compound! Whenever they saw us they would yell “mazoongo!!” (which means white person) and run up to say hi to us. They were so cute and sweet! Also, kids here did not know what a high five was and so we would put our hands up and the kids would touch us as gently as they possibly could. It was the cutest thing ever!!
The people here are so hungry for the word of God and are so open to anything that we had to share with them. Our first Sunday we were here we went to take some food to a lady’s house that lived pretty far away from the church. Several of the people that saw us walking by called to us asking us to go over and share with them. I am pretty sure that would never happen in America…. That was also how we were able to talk to so many people about God, they would stop us as we were walking down the street, we would tell them what we were doing and about Jesus and over and over people would give their lives to Christ. It was so amazing! This one group ladies called us over and we started talking with them and found out that two of them had never accepted Jesus. They spoke English which was a huge blessing because it makes conversation so much smoother when you don’t have to talk in super short choppy sentences. I explained the gospel to them, shared some verses, and talked about the difference that God has made in my life. I answered the questions that they had and I could tell that they really understood what this Jesus thing was all about. And then they decided to follow Jesus! It was so awesome!! We had little New Testaments to give them, but Zambia has 72 different languages and one of the ladies could not read the language that we had. I asked her if she could read English and she said yes, so I got to give her my Bible. I have been carrying a key all year that says Whole on it, and the goal with the key is to learn what you can from the word and then pass it on to another person. I have grown so much in accepting and loving all of myself and also growing in wholeness with God, and I felt like God was telling me to give the other woman my key as a reminder that she is now whole with God, not lacking anything. They were both so appreciative and it was definitely one of my favorite experiences on the Race so far.
God has been so faithful to prepare the way before us, to soften people’s hearts and to give us everything that we needed each day to do His work. He has taken care of all of our needs, and even our wants like having the electricity turn back on at our place, and arranging another car when ours broke down for us to take to go on a safari (yes, it was awesome!) I feel so blessed to be a part of what God is doing here in Zambia! If you get the chance to come here you should do it! Your life will not be the same afterwards.
Prayer requests:
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Pray for a woman from our church named Falisa. She is a single mother to two young children and she is really struggling to make ends meet.
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Pray for all of the people that accepted Jesus this month (52 in total!) that they will get plugged into a good Christian community where they can grow in their faith.
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Pray for continued strength for the believers here as they continue to go out and tell more people about Jesus
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Pray for healing over all of the sick people in Bauleni. We saw a lot of people that were very seriously sick.
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Pray for continued health and endurance over my team and squad as we are entering into the last two months of the Race
Thanks so much! I hope you are all having a fabulous fall!
In Him,
Heidi / Chikondei
Our friends Joy and Becky
Pastor and Mamma Zulu
The ladies that I got to lead to the Lord: Cynthia and Modesta 🙂
