In Zambia, we worked with a ministry called Africa 4 Jesus. This ministry is located in multiple countries in the southern part of Africa, and the site in Zambia is found in the city of Livingstone. Livingstone is where Victoria Falls is located, which is one of the seven natural wonders of the world. We came in a season where the Falls are probably at the driest point but this allowed us to do cool things like walk across the top of the falls where there’s usually gushing water covering and swim in a “pool” hanging over the ledge looking down on the 354 ft drop. It was beautiful and I would love to come back when the Falls are full to experience a completely different side of this natural wonder. At the Falls you also have the opportunity to have very close encounters with baboons, which if you didn’t know are pretty aggressive and dangerous, just ask my squadmate Julia about her encounter with one while holding a can of Pringles (*spoiler: the baboon won.)
For our ministry, we went out into the village in which we were staying, Dambwa North, and connect with “people of peace” as is mentioned in Luke 10, where Jesus encourages his disciples to go out and preach the gospel and meet with people who welcome you with peace and stay for as long as they’ll let you and accept whatever is offered to you. The two teams at our ministry site were divided in three groups and we set out on foot, trekking through burnt orange sandy roads to houses we felt the spirit of the Lord was leading us to.
Our team connected with a woman who had two little girls. We met with this family a few times during our stay, and even invited them to the Christmas party we hosted. They came and brought some of their friends to the party, so even more relationships were made. We were sad we had such little time to spend getting to know our connected families, but the vision of Africa 4 Jesus is to continue investing in the families we connected with and take future world race teams to these same families so that they can continue to be ministered to and disciple and become good pillars of faith within this community. Africa 4 Jesus is focused on quality over quantity and I loved playing a part in deepening the faith of those in this community and encourage deeper understanding of biblical principles and how to actively live them out.
Through my time here, I’ve come to realize that I have a heart for discipleship. I like seeing where people are at in their faith, and making sure they don’t stay in that same place once I leave them. Short-term missions has been difficult because as soon as I feel like a relationship is being established and there’s a steady dialogue about Jesus and faith going, we have to pack up and leave and head to a new community in a new country. I wouldn’t trade this experience of traveling to so many counties, experiencing so many different cultures, and spreading the gospel among so many people groups for the world, but I’ve discovered that long term I want to be settled and invest in a community that I’ll be in for a long enough duration to foster strong and deep relationships.
On this note, I’ve found myself day dreaming of what is to come after the race and how I will integrate my heart for missions and discipleship into my day to day life back in the states. God’s given me some really cool dreams to continually be praying over for guidance and discernment on and I’m really excited to see where he’ll lead me once I’m back home.
Would you join me in praying over what God has in store for me once I return to the states while I also pursue staying present and focused here on the field, praying that I would achieve a healthy balance between focusing on the now and the next?
