A Bit of Catching Up

So I realize that it has been a really long time since my last blog post and I apologize for that.  I have just been really busy doing all sorts of different things and it gets difficult to make time to sit down and write a post.

Well I guess I can catch you all up to speed on what has happened over these past couple weeks that I have been here.  We started our classes, which includes being at class at 6:30.  We began going to chapel once the college students got here. We have been to Victoria Falls in Livingstone. We have started a rotation for working at the clinic.  We have been working with the kids at the Haven.  We have attended a traditional Zambian wedding in a village, which included a lot of dancing.  We have attended a couple different village churches.  We have visited with the patients in the local hospital.  We have watched the Namwianga secondary school football (soccer) team play in the championship match of a local tournament. We have attended a traditional wedding.  We are currently participating in a measles vaccination outreach this week, in which I personally gave about 70 shots to children.  We totaled giving over 450 shots just yesterday alone. 

Unfortunately not everything we have experienced so far has been positive in our eyes. There have been many close calls with death with some of the children from the Haven.  I am sorry to say that we have had to live through the untimely death of one of the children from the Haven that many of us had gotten attached to in the first few weeks we have been here.  This has been quite a blow to everyone in our group, but it has been especially hard for all of the aunties who work with the children because they have literally watched him grow up over his few short years.  I know that God has some sort of plan in this, but it is definitely hard to see what He has in mind in situations like this.

I have been able to befriend a few Zambians while here, including Justin (one of our night guards and coach of the secondary school football team), Prince (choral teacher at Namwianga and has been helping us with our Tonga songs), Fine (a guy who lives in a village next to the clinic and goes to secondary school in town), and am starting to play sports with some of the other college students and even watched a Zambian national football game with a about 50 of them all squished into a classroom that had a TV in it.  Within the next couple days we hope to be paired with our Tonga tutors for the semester.  Tonga tutors are college students who have volunteered to help us understand Tonga and their culture better and so that we can help them understand English and our culture better.  I cannot wait to develop this relationship with one of the college students.

I could go into so much more detail on all the things that have happened, but this will have to suffice for now.  I will try to start posting more often so I will be able to put in more details about the things we are doing, experiencing, and learning.

Much Love and God Bless,

Paka (my Zambian name because they have a really hard time saying there R’s)

Kamwamba!

Kamwamba!

Well I made it to Namwianga Mission yesterday.  It is so surreal finally being here and actually living here.  To get here we had an 8.5 hr trip from Memphis to Amsterdam, an hour and a half layover, a 9.5 hr trip from Amsterdam to Lusaka, Zambia, then had to get our visas, then dealt with everyone getting there bags (only one was not transferred from plane to plane), then went through customs, then had about a 20 min ride to the hotel we stayed at for the night (got in somewhere around 1 a.m. Zambia time), woke up at around 7 for breakfast and then left at 8 with a small group to take care of a few things in Lusaka while we were there, then hit the road for about a 6 hr drive to Kalomo (stopping at a place called Tooter’s for lunch, which had fried chicken and fries), from Kalomo it was only about 7Km to our houses on the Namwianga Mission.  The trip was long and incredibly tiring, but well worth it to get to this beautiful place.  God definitely blessed us with our smooth trip.

The LORD replied, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”

-Exodus 33:14

Our House:  I am in the Small Mann House.  It literally is a small house. We have a small kitchen area/ living room, a small bathroom, and two small rooms with bunk beds in both.  Electricity has been pretty good since we have been here, only turning off once today for about 30 min.  We got all moved in yesterday when we got here.

All of the Zambians I have met are extremely excited and thankful that we are here.  Zach Rhoel, one of the guys in my house, got up early this morning and ended up talking with a Zambian named Jonathon.  They got to know each other a bit and Jonathon asked to have a bible study with him tonight.  So he came over to the house and we invited him in and all got to meet him.  The bible study just ended a little while ago.

Today, the main thing we did was go to the Haven, the small children’s orphanage, to tour it, get assigned specific babies, and eventually play with the kids.  It was eye opening to see all of these beautiful, precious orphans.  There are over 75 of them spread out over 3 separate buildings in which they are separated by age, condition, etc.  Each one of these children has either lost both of their parents or has lost their mother and thus lost their food supply and their father cannot feed them because formula is so expensive and poverty is so great here.  I can’t help but feel love for these children.  I don’t have a specific child assigned to me, but I went to Haven 2 which houses the toddlers today and played with kids there.  I met a little girl named Ella, age 3, who just loved to be held.  Ella and I just chilled together for the time we were there and she started to cry when I had to put her down to head back to unload a container that has some of our stuff inside.

Tomorrow our plans are to have a complete tour of the majority of the mission and then head into Kalomo.  It is really difficult to explain everything here and we only have a certain amount of internet we are allowed to use during the semester so pictures will be few and far between unfortunately.

Leza Mulekeke (God Bless You)

Surely God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid.  The LORD, the LORD himself, is my strength and my defense; he has become my salvation.

- Isaiah 12:2 

t-minus 10 days til lift off

Well as many of you know I will be heading back to Harding in 6 days to get together with my Zambia group so we can do our final preparations for the trip.  It's all starting to hit me that in a little over a week i will be leaving the country for the first time.  There are so many things rushing through my mind right now.  I am anxious and excited but also have a little bit of fear.  I know that this trip is gonna change my life and with that comes fear of the unknown.

Recent events have reminded me where my focus needs to be.  I don't always know what He has planned for me, nor am I able to always understand the reasoning behind certain events; but I find comfort in the fact that the Lord will direct my paths if i trust in Him.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to Him, and He will make your paths straight. (Proverbs 3:5-6)

I am extremely grateful to every one who has sent me financial support for my trip.  You have definitely been a blessing to me.  It has definitely shown how much I am loved and how much people believe in me and what I am doing.

Please continue to pray for my team and me.





Here is a link to some pics from a previous trip to HIZ.

Here is a promo video to give you a small taste of what i will be experiencing