Hi Everyone! Hello from Gaborone, Botswana! We have been here for about a week now. It has quite literally been the opposite of our time in Zambia. I feel like I say this every time, but it really is true… it has been a crazy month! Over the course of just one month it is amazing what God can do. We started out with a new team, a new ministry, and a new continent. It was an adventure every day. This was easily the most challenging month of my Race so far, but God is great and he doesn’t ever give us more than we can handle. He equips us with everything we need to get through all the trials and struggles we experience in our lives. This month the biggest blessing has been my new teammates. It has truly shown me that when situations get hard you can either isolate yourself or you can take advantage of it and draw closer not only to your team, but to God. I want to do my best to share just a little bit of our experiences this month with you and then share some of what I have learned during our time in Zambia.
We spent a majority of our month in the hustle and bustle of the capital city of Zambia. Lusaka has been described to me as insanely busy and overpopulated. The drivers are hectic and all over the place. There are about 2.4 million people living in and around Lusaka. Our ministry mostly consisted of outreach and evangelism. We walked around different neighborhoods and markets distributing flyers for the church we were working with and talking to people about Jesus. I will say that there were some amazing conversations and I was almost always able to find at least one person who I really enjoyed talking to. However, it didn’t take me very long to see why this would be so important for me to do. While we did have some great conversations and met some nice people, there was one glaring barrier that caused many struggles and sometimes unsafe and extremely uncomfortable situations. This was the first time in my life where the color of my skin compromised my safety and truly changed the way people interacted with me. We spent the first couple weeks in situations where we were continually harassed, followed, objectified, and slandered. If it wasn’t comments about how we didn’t belong there, it was comment about our looks, or trying to get away from drunk men who lacked all sense of propriety and more often then not would try to stand far to close or touch us. In case this was not enough, add two car accidents, four cases of malaria, and more bugs than any of us cared to count, in places that you didn’t want to think of them being. There you have a light and slightly sugar coated overview of what some of the struggles we experienced during our month in Zambia.
Now, I for one strongly believe that there is always something new for us to learn every day, especially through struggles. I feel like I am still working through what all we were supposed to learn from some of our situations this month, but one of the biggest was thanksgiving. It was such a glaring reminder of how blessed we are to live where we do. I am so blessed to be able go about my day without expecting that sort of treatment on a regular basis. I also learned how important it is for us to choose to find joy in the little everyday things and to rejoice in Him everyday. No matter our situation or our circumstances God is always with us. He is our guide when we can’t see where to go next or what to do. He is our protector and our healer. The important piece to remember is to put our full trust in Him and that it is all in His timing.
There are always going to be things that we struggle with in life, but even if we have to look, it is always paired with joy. There is always something that we can celebrate and rejoice in. This month while we had many struggles we also made some good friends who left lasting impressions on me. It is my favorite part of this Race to be able to connect and develop friendships with the people that we are working alongside. This month I met an amazing 22 year old woman named Petronella. We shared a love of music and worship, which gave us a quick bond that only grew over my time there. I learned so much from her. She possess an incredibly bold faith in Jesus. She came out with us many times during our outreach. There was never any hesitation in her actions to go speak with anyone we came across. She led with confidence and praised the Lord like no other. We had the opportunity to serve several times together and she had no reservations about pushing me out of my comfort zone when it came to sharing the Word. I am so thankful to have met her and I can only hope to come away from our time together with more confidence and boldness in sharing the Word with the world. It is something that I hope to carry with me through out the rest of my life.
We have heard the phrase many times during our time with the World Race, don’t just go on a mission trip, but “live on mission.” Later during my Race in month four in Kosovo our host made a point to tell us that as Christians we are all called to evangelism. It may take on different forms. It could be going overseas to share the Gospel with unreached people groups, it could be serving at a local rescue mission and sharing the love of Jesus with the people there. Or it could be sharing Jesus and inviting your neighbors, friends and family to join you for church on Sunday. This is what I hope for all of you that you will choose to live on mission no matter where you are or what that may look like for you. I encourage you carry yourself with confidence and boldness. Don’t shy away from sharing the Word of God. There will be people that won’t listen, there will be people who will change the subject or just ignore you, but there will also be the people who will listen with genuine interest. All we can do is share and the rest of it is up to God.
