Update on Zambia!
Sorry for the lack of information, but internet in Africa is slow and unreliable. But here is the scoop on what I am up to right now.
We have made it safely to Zambia and are living in Livingstone at a women’s center. Accommodations are great, we have showers and toilets (still no squatty potties), and a full kitchen with a working oven! The mosquitoes are fierce, so we are tenting on top of our beds. We are blessed to be staying with team Arm the Masses in addition to our team as well. We are cooking for ourselves this month, and since we have a real oven there may be cookies and brownies on the way…
Our ministry this month is two-fold. We spend the mornings at a primary school and a preschool, split by team. Our team is at the preschool and Erin Peters and I are helping to teach the first grade class. There are only seven students, so we are already brainstorming ideas for crafts and games to do that we normally couldn’t if there were many students. In the late afternoon, both teams head to the local soccer field to do sports ministry and just hang out with any kids that show up. Then we come home and have great fellowship with both teams and cook dinner.
Weather is much warmer than it was in Malawi. Temps are easily in the 90s, as October is the hottest month for Zambia. It does rain occasionally, but it is still dusty and dry.
God has been teaching me a lot these past few months about who I am and who he made me to be. People talk a lot about how much you change on a journey like this, but I have been learning that I’m not so much changing as becoming more like who God created me to be in the first place. I am shedding things that really were never a part of me to begin with, and embracing things that had been there all along. Last month I did and experienced so many things that I never would have even considered before the Race. I preached the gospel to over 100 people, I played games, sang goofy songs, and told bible stories to tons of little kids (little kids intimidate me), I watched a demon be cast out of a woman, and saw people fall to the ground from the power of the Holy Spirit. I am being incredibly vulnerable with my team, I have shed more tears than I probably have in the last couple of years, and I really feel like God is in the midst of it all.
This month is already so good for us in many ways, but it is also going to be a bit difficult as we anticipate likely team changes at the end of the month before we head to Asia. I always appreciate your prayers and thoughts as I continue on this journey.
I am super excited for what is to come this month and can’t believe that it’s already October!
