Community
One of the many many ways God has already blessed me on this trip.
Starting with my AWESOME team!!! From the very beginning of training camp, we knew we were all meant to be together. We’re all very different, from different backgrounds and families but we all click together so well. Without them, I would for real be missing home a heck ton. I’m so excited to continue to learn and grow with these people over the next couple of months.
Before I tell you about the community I live in, let me tell you: I LOVE ZAMBIA!!!! The people, the views, the culture is unlike any place I’ve ever been to before. It is impossible to not be happy here! Everywhere you go you’re greeted by smiles, hugs or the sweetest hellos from the cutest faces ever! Every kid is fascinated by white people here and literally CHASE US DOWN just to touch our hands or say hello. Living in an actual neighborhood and not on the touristy side of things definitely makes us stick out like sore thumbs. If you’re trying to find out where we’re staying you can ask anyone within a mile of our house and they’ll tell you where the “Muzungus” or white people live. This definitely comes with some downsides though haha. Some of us girls have been proposed to or had people come to the house asking for us. But don’t worry- our community is very very safe and we have a guard (Jimmy) outside our house at night.
God has definitely lined us up to meet the right people and build relationships with them. He blessed us abundantly with our roommates here at the community home we’re living at. Aside from my 10 person team, 4 other volunteers were here living with us this past week. Rafaella from Brazil, Hannah from the UK, Julia from Switzerland and Jean Tomas from France. We all (them included) weren’t sure how 10 missionaries and 4 volunteers living in one house would work out. Little did we know, this was all part of God’s plan. Over the course of the week, sharing one living space, our two teams became one team. They joined us for our team times, prayed with us, laughed with us and danced with us. Who would’ve thought we would actually be doing ministry in our own home? Not in a formal way or anything, but just by sharing our stories with each other and showing them how we live our lives with Christ. Sadly, they all had to leave on Friday morning to continue on with their travels. 🙁 We celebrated our final night with cake, dancing, and so so many good laughs. Hannah (Jimmy), Rafaella (Jimmy), Julia (Jimmy) and Jean Tomas (accent)- I am so glad our lives have crossed paths. You are all such amazing, inspiring people. I’ll never forget meeting you all and I can’t wait until our paths cross again! I wish you all the best in your travels! Keep in touch!
One of our first days here, Mikayla and I were walking down our road when one of our neighbors called out “Hello! Come here, I want to be friends with you!” In the States that might sound creepy and weird but here we were just excited someone wanted to get to know us! We trusted our instinct and met the kindest, sweetest family ever! Woopa, a 17-year-old girl, was the one who called out to us! (Her birthday is today so we’re going over to celebrate with cake later!) Over the past week we have already been able to build such a sweet friendship with her and her younger siblings: Sunday, Peter, Blessing, Malika, Namacow, Boo Boo, and Prince. On days when we have sports ministry, we meet them at their house and then walk with all of them over to the fields to hangout and play on the sidelines of the futbol game. I am so excited to see how our friendship will continue to grow with them while we’re here in Zambia.
Another friend who we met is Rebecca! I have to give you a little background information for this story: Here in Zambia, there are two forms of transportation (besides walking and biking) Taxis and Mini Buses. Mini Buses only cost 3 Kwacha (about 25¢) to take you into town, so of course, that’s the way we get around. Also, it is a WHOLE EXPERIENCE. A minibus is a small 4-row van that should probably normally fit like 16 people comfortably. Here, THEY PACK IT FULL! As of now, my counting record is 22 people, a live chicken, and a baby smashed into our bus. Okay now back to the point- earlier in the week I was uncomfortably smushed next to this lady in her work uniform. That lady happened to be Rebecca! She works for Mukuni Big 5, an animal sanctuary here in Livingstone. I struck up a conversation with her just about her day and she ended up telling me all about her work! There they do elephant rides, cheetah walks, and lion walks. These are all activities we had heard that were offered but we were being told a WAY higher price. She told us that us being volunteers here we qualified for a way lower price. All of that lead TO THE BEST DAY OF MY WHOLE LIFE!!!!!!!! YESTERDAY I PLAYED AND WALKED WITH LIONS AND CHEETAHS AND THEN RODE ON AN ELEPHANT!!!! and to make it even better- we got to see Rebecca after!
Thank you for all of your prayers so far! Please continue to pray for me and my team as we continue to do sports ministry, teach in school, and start door to door ministry this coming week.
Also please pray for me to not crave queso anymore ….it’s getting to be a problem.
Pictures!!!!!!!
