It’s October. Home is approaching winter with rapidity.
Pumpkin patches, hayrides and bonfires are in full swing.
Soon friends and family will be donning their blaze orange, piling into pick-up trucks, and heading to the woods for deer hunting opener.
I can almost hear the leaves, feel the biting wind off the prairie, and smell my mom’s chili on the stove and the Betty Crocker Banana Nut muffins in the oven.
This October I am spending each day drenched in sweat, with no air conditioning, spotty electricity and bucket showers. I am dry for roughly 10 minutes each day, right after I shower, before I commence melting once again.
I knew this would be life. I’ve experienced it before, but I must admit that even I grow weary of it here. I wake up each night to roll over and change positions, and each time I find my pj shorts drenched in sweat.
Despite living in an oven, the rashes that accompany the extreme heat, bug bites and occasional malaise, this month has been extra special.
This month, my team of six girls combined with all the girls from four other teams to form one mega team. We call ourselves Team Omega.
These women are phenomenal. It is cool to see how God is growing our friendships, and to also see each of them step into the giftings He has given them.
We have been attending and leading a Bible Study for the women of local village, leading day camps for kids, and investing in the lives of children at a local orphanage.
I woke up this week and realized two mind-boggling things:
- It is almost NOVEMBER and the end of month three on The Race. Do I really only have 8 months left? ??
- I have less than 1.5 weeks until I leave Zambia.
What Zambia has taught me:
- Each month goes by faster than the last.
- Ice shortages are real, and people here will literally cross borders to buy it.
- Wall spiders and I can coexist, so long as they don’t crawl on me or my bed.
- Ministry gets more and more normal, and being passive becomes a higher risk.
- Sometimes I miss home, and that is okay.
- Finding your place within your community is beautiful and life-giving.
- God designed the body to work together. There is no need to fear using your giftings. If you are being responsive to Him, He will make sure all parts compliment each other.
- If you invite the Holy Spirit into a space, He shows up.
- People in Zambia are active. Each morning that I go running, I come across a whole heap of local Zambians who also run.
- Reading the book of Numbers aloud to a friend is quite possibly one of the funniest ways to read it. The Israelites and Moses were a bunch of cry babies sometimes, and God rightfully got fed up with them. I am often convicted about this, and am working on not following in their footsteps, this blog post being an exception.
With that, it is currently 2:30 in the morning. I couldn’t sleep, so I decided to write an update that I could post later.
I hope you are all well, and are enjoying Fall at home. My team and I miss home and all of you, but are continually grateful to be here. This season is beautiful. I send you my love.
With His joy and peace,
Liesl
