Now if you know me at all, you know that I love the people of Zambia and serving and loving on the orphans of Zambia. But here is a list of other things that I love about spending my summers here!
10. The Weather
Zambia is currently in its ‘dry season’, which is like their winter. The average temperature around this time of year is probably around 75 degrees, although some days feel much colder and some feel much warmer. The mornings and evenings are guaranteed to be chilly, so it’s definitely a nice alternative to Texas’s 100+ degree temperatures! Not too hot, not too cold, all you need is a light jacket!
9. No Seatbelts
I could probably count on one hand the number of times that I’ve worn a seatbelt in the three and a half weeks that I’ve been here. It’s nice to have a break from such restraint! I don’t know how legal that really is, but it’s the Zambian way and I’m for sure okay with that!
8. L’s vs. R’s
To the majority of the kids here, I am “Auntie Maliah.” My father Cletus has always been “Uncle Cretus.” Zambians like to switch their r’s and their l’s, so it makes things a little confusing but super cute at the same time!
7. Mint Cafe
It’s delicious. We only get to go out to restaurants on special occasions, but this is always my first choice when we do! They have this chicken sandwich with pineapple on it that I get every time and it’s actually really good. Also, they have ‘freezos’ or milkshakes in all different flavors (hazelnut is my favorite) and they are yummyyyy!
6. Zambian Birthdays
Every time any of the staff or volunteers (American or Zambian) celebrates their birthday in Zambia, they are forced to undergo the Zambian tradition of having water dumped on their heads. Because the birthday boy/girl usually knows it’s coming, they do their best to avoid the gallons of water that are meant for soaking them and that makes for quite a spectacle for everyone else to watch! This is a tradition that I would love to see America embrace! :)
5. Sunset on the Hilltop
Camp is held in the Legacy Center each day, and the Legacy Center sits on top of a hill that overlooks all of Zambia. In any direction you turn, you are able to see miles and miles of the rest of the nation. That kind of view makes for one spectacular sunset! Without trees or other buildings to block the beautiful African sunset, every color of the rainbow is visible and it’s a sight to remember for a long time!
4. Cynthia’s Cookies
During the Camp LIFE Auction Night, these homemade chocolate chip cookies are the highest bid item and raise thousands of dollars for the education department each week! Every time Cynthia bakes a batch, she leaves out the “reject” cookies for summer staff to eat up, and we are grateful every time! They truly are incredible and are probably THE highlight of the camp menu!
3. Zambian Singing
These people are just plain born with beautiful singing voices. Without a single voice lesson, all Zambians can carry a tune and harmonize to any song... a capella. Every day after camp, we circle up for praise and worship with all of the Americans and Zambians. I love to close my eyes and just listen to the Zambians’ raw and unedited voices that are genuinely worshipping God... it’s such a pure, angelic sound and I am convinced that the angels’ singing in heaven will not sound much different.
2. The Stars
Unless it’s a cloudy night (which it usually isn’t), the sky is clear and the stars are so bright here. They are framed by the African treetops here in Mulungushi, and it’s a beautiful and unforgettable picture! I love looking up at the stars as I walk home from dinner or another villa and talk to the God who so creatively put them in their place! I feel like God puts those stars in the sky each night just for me as a way to remind me how much He loves me and how big and powerful He is. The memory of the African night sky will be a picture that stays with me forever!
1. Uninhibited Orphan Love
This is by far the thing I miss the most when I’m gone and love the most when I’m here. These kids are so hungry for love, and it doesn’t take them long to trust the “white ones” that only want to show them love. Once they trust us, they show us so much love right back! Just yesterday, I was standing by a line of kids at camp and one of them just grabbed my hand and held it. Before I knew it, I had a whole flock of kids stroking my arm, touching and playing with my hair, hugging me, and holding my hands. They way they show their love is so childlike and refreshing, because they don’t hold back. It blows my mind every year to think that these kids, who have (many times) never been loved themselves, are still so capable of loving others so much and so quickly. Their love is genuine, pure, and completely uninhibited; and it’s unlike any other kind of love that I’ve experienced.
Wednesday, June 27, 2012
Sunday, June 24, 2012
a heavenly joy
Let me just begin by saying that this has been one heck of a week! It’s just been an overall challenging seven days and we’ve definitely gone through lots of ups and downs as a summer staff. Satan has been attacking us hard, as a team and as individuals, so we’ve all really had to rely on the Lord for endurance, grace, energy, and guidance (or at least I have). I try to remind myself often that Satan attacks hardest when he feels threatened, so God must really be doing some awesome things through this ministry if Satan is coming on so strong. And regardless of this being such a hard week for myself and many others, the Good News is being spread and hundreds of kids’ lives are being changed, and the rest doesn’t matter. As long as these kids learn and understand that there is a God in heaven who loves them as a Father, and that He sent His son to die on a cross because He wanted to spend forever with them in heaven, I will gladly dodge all of the curve balls that Satan tries to throw my way. I know that I have Jesus fighting for me and that He has already claimed victory, so I know that I can make it through anything.
Week 3 is over and we have officially begun Week 4! Excitingggg! I can’t believe that after this week is over, we’ll officially be halfway through the summer! What?! The days are long, but the time is flying by somehow! Funny how that works! Praying that Week 4 will be a week of God’s power and working in the lives of these kids and the Americans that come over!
Today, I led a Father’s Heart trip to Chainda where we got to deliver food to a few specific kids in that community. When we made an emergency stop to get more supplies at the LCA (an LCA is a Lifeway Christian Academy, which is a school built by Family Legacy within the community), I walked through the gate and saw a huge crowd of street kids and orphans just standing around. This wasn’t out of the ordinary, because any time that “muzungus” (white people) are in the community, they draw a large number of spectators. What happened next is what really hit me, literally: the crowd of 30 or 40 random kids burst into a sprint toward me as I entered the school grounds and proceeded to tackle me with hugs and laughter! In four years of coming to Zambia, that has NEVER happened to me! I don’t know why they came running to me since I didn’t know any of them, but all I can think of is that the Lord wanted to bless me in this way today. As I was walking home from another villa last night, I prayed that God would give me His joy and energy this week and that I would stay focused on my purpose here. I think this was His was of giving it to me for today. The joy that these kids attacked me with was contagious and beautiful, unexpected and not of this world. Not only was my joy renewed and restored, but through those little kids, God reminded me of the core reason that I am here. Behind all of the smiles, those kids have next to nothing and live in such darkness. I know I am in Zambia this summer to love the unloved, to be God’s mouthpiece to tell these kids that they have a Father in Heaven who loves them, and to be God’s arms to embrace these kids and give them the affection that they so desperately seek and need. What a privilege and a blessing. My prayer now is that the Lord would use me to full capacity to make this happen this summer. I know He’s called me to love these orphans this summer, so I’m praying that He would help me to love them beyond my own ability, because it’s that kind of love that they need.
So those are my thoughts and ramblings from the past couple of days! Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers!
Week 3 is over and we have officially begun Week 4! Excitingggg! I can’t believe that after this week is over, we’ll officially be halfway through the summer! What?! The days are long, but the time is flying by somehow! Funny how that works! Praying that Week 4 will be a week of God’s power and working in the lives of these kids and the Americans that come over!
Today, I led a Father’s Heart trip to Chainda where we got to deliver food to a few specific kids in that community. When we made an emergency stop to get more supplies at the LCA (an LCA is a Lifeway Christian Academy, which is a school built by Family Legacy within the community), I walked through the gate and saw a huge crowd of street kids and orphans just standing around. This wasn’t out of the ordinary, because any time that “muzungus” (white people) are in the community, they draw a large number of spectators. What happened next is what really hit me, literally: the crowd of 30 or 40 random kids burst into a sprint toward me as I entered the school grounds and proceeded to tackle me with hugs and laughter! In four years of coming to Zambia, that has NEVER happened to me! I don’t know why they came running to me since I didn’t know any of them, but all I can think of is that the Lord wanted to bless me in this way today. As I was walking home from another villa last night, I prayed that God would give me His joy and energy this week and that I would stay focused on my purpose here. I think this was His was of giving it to me for today. The joy that these kids attacked me with was contagious and beautiful, unexpected and not of this world. Not only was my joy renewed and restored, but through those little kids, God reminded me of the core reason that I am here. Behind all of the smiles, those kids have next to nothing and live in such darkness. I know I am in Zambia this summer to love the unloved, to be God’s mouthpiece to tell these kids that they have a Father in Heaven who loves them, and to be God’s arms to embrace these kids and give them the affection that they so desperately seek and need. What a privilege and a blessing. My prayer now is that the Lord would use me to full capacity to make this happen this summer. I know He’s called me to love these orphans this summer, so I’m praying that He would help me to love them beyond my own ability, because it’s that kind of love that they need.
So those are my thoughts and ramblings from the past couple of days! Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers!
Thursday, June 14, 2012
psalm 51:12 (and a bit more)
I’m sitting here with two of the other summer staff girls as we’re printing off a thousand pictures to go on the kids’ certificates tomorrow and I’m thinking about this past week. Tomorrow is ALREADY the last day of Week 2, and then we start Week 3 on Saturday! And while the days have flown by, we’re all exhausted and worn out in every way. Our strength for the summer has already been used up as we have constantly been running from 7:30am to 10:30pm every day, so we’re all really having learn how to rely completely on the Lord for his energy and strength instead of our own. Many of us are beginning to get sick if we haven’t already, and we hardly have time to rest and recover.
I found this awesome verse a couple days ago and I realized that it is exactly my prayer (and I’m sure many of the other girls’ prayer, too). It Psalm 51:12, and it says, “Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.” First of all, being on summer staff means having routines down and doing the same things day after day. I like having routines, but sometimes it gets hard to be joyful about doing the same thing over again. The verse says, “restore to me the joy of your salvation” and I know that’s what I need. I want God to remind me day after day about why I’m even here loving on these orphans, because of the joy of salvation. God has saved me and given me life, and I know that Satan is working as hard as he can to keep me from remembering that. If my days are monotonous, I want more than anything for the Lord to knock me over the head with the joy that comes from knowing Him! Secondly, summer staff can be very humbling sometimes as we are given jobs that nobody else has time to do and we do a lot of ‘behind the scenes’ work. Therefore, there are many times that we are assigned to do things that we don’t really want to do or we don’t think we have the energy to do. Satan also attacks us here by tempting us to slack off or not do our best, but that’s where our reliance on the Lord comes in. We have to ask God to “grant us a willing spirit, to sustain me.” That word sustain is so powerful because it means more than simply surviving, it’s being strengthened or supported. God will give us a spirit that is eager to help or do whatever is asked, and that will STRENGTHEN us. That’s exactly what we need! I know that I want and need to be strengthened and sustained over the next 7 weeks if I’m going to glorify Him at all. Please be praying that verse over me and the rest of the staff; we want so badly to do His work and love on His children in Zambia as well and effectively as we can, but we need sustenance from God to even have that be a possibility!
To finish up this post, I’ll talk a little about Zambian wildlife! The summer staff girls of apartment 7 have been blessed with a few pets over the course of our stay here in Mulungushi Village...
First of all, our friendly house-spider, Douglass, keeps us company in the bathroom as we get ready in the morning and as we do other bathroom business. He’s gray in color and about the size of a poker chip, and he’s super sweet in nature. He abides about 7 feet above ground in the corner of the bathroom by the toilet. There’s a little crack in the wall that he likes to venture in and out of, it’s probably where he rests and such. He likes to play hide and seek with us, so it’s always a gamble as to whether or not he’ll be peeking out of his little crack or not!
Last night, Becca and I were walking around Mulungushi delivering supplies to our Americans when, out of nowhere, two baby kittens started following us everywhere. They would keep pace about 10 feet behind us, but they never went in a different direction. Since they decided to cling to us, we thought it would be appropriate to name them. In the spirit of Zambian culture, we named the kittens by the Zambian pronunciations of our names: the gray kitten is named “Labecca” and the white one with black spots is now named “Maliah.” After giving them milk and bread, they followed us all the way back home, but weren’t there in the morning. So maybe someday, Labecca and Maliah will make a second appearance for us!
Finally, it is rumored that there are black mambas out at the Tree of Life; and although I’ve never personally seen one, I know they’re there! Black mambas are more toxic and faster than any other snake in Africa, and they are the only kind of snake known to have been able to bring down an elephant. We watched a youtube video on them last night, and learned that they can stand most of their body up by their tail and can “run” on their tail. They slither more than 5m/sec, which is faster than the average human can run. Long story short, these snakes are legendary, and I’ve been close to this snake even though I haven’t seen it yet!
Okay that’s all for now! Miss you all and wish you were all here with me!
I found this awesome verse a couple days ago and I realized that it is exactly my prayer (and I’m sure many of the other girls’ prayer, too). It Psalm 51:12, and it says, “Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.” First of all, being on summer staff means having routines down and doing the same things day after day. I like having routines, but sometimes it gets hard to be joyful about doing the same thing over again. The verse says, “restore to me the joy of your salvation” and I know that’s what I need. I want God to remind me day after day about why I’m even here loving on these orphans, because of the joy of salvation. God has saved me and given me life, and I know that Satan is working as hard as he can to keep me from remembering that. If my days are monotonous, I want more than anything for the Lord to knock me over the head with the joy that comes from knowing Him! Secondly, summer staff can be very humbling sometimes as we are given jobs that nobody else has time to do and we do a lot of ‘behind the scenes’ work. Therefore, there are many times that we are assigned to do things that we don’t really want to do or we don’t think we have the energy to do. Satan also attacks us here by tempting us to slack off or not do our best, but that’s where our reliance on the Lord comes in. We have to ask God to “grant us a willing spirit, to sustain me.” That word sustain is so powerful because it means more than simply surviving, it’s being strengthened or supported. God will give us a spirit that is eager to help or do whatever is asked, and that will STRENGTHEN us. That’s exactly what we need! I know that I want and need to be strengthened and sustained over the next 7 weeks if I’m going to glorify Him at all. Please be praying that verse over me and the rest of the staff; we want so badly to do His work and love on His children in Zambia as well and effectively as we can, but we need sustenance from God to even have that be a possibility!
To finish up this post, I’ll talk a little about Zambian wildlife! The summer staff girls of apartment 7 have been blessed with a few pets over the course of our stay here in Mulungushi Village...
First of all, our friendly house-spider, Douglass, keeps us company in the bathroom as we get ready in the morning and as we do other bathroom business. He’s gray in color and about the size of a poker chip, and he’s super sweet in nature. He abides about 7 feet above ground in the corner of the bathroom by the toilet. There’s a little crack in the wall that he likes to venture in and out of, it’s probably where he rests and such. He likes to play hide and seek with us, so it’s always a gamble as to whether or not he’ll be peeking out of his little crack or not!
Last night, Becca and I were walking around Mulungushi delivering supplies to our Americans when, out of nowhere, two baby kittens started following us everywhere. They would keep pace about 10 feet behind us, but they never went in a different direction. Since they decided to cling to us, we thought it would be appropriate to name them. In the spirit of Zambian culture, we named the kittens by the Zambian pronunciations of our names: the gray kitten is named “Labecca” and the white one with black spots is now named “Maliah.” After giving them milk and bread, they followed us all the way back home, but weren’t there in the morning. So maybe someday, Labecca and Maliah will make a second appearance for us!
Finally, it is rumored that there are black mambas out at the Tree of Life; and although I’ve never personally seen one, I know they’re there! Black mambas are more toxic and faster than any other snake in Africa, and they are the only kind of snake known to have been able to bring down an elephant. We watched a youtube video on them last night, and learned that they can stand most of their body up by their tail and can “run” on their tail. They slither more than 5m/sec, which is faster than the average human can run. Long story short, these snakes are legendary, and I’ve been close to this snake even though I haven’t seen it yet!
Okay that’s all for now! Miss you all and wish you were all here with me!
Tuesday, June 12, 2012
a few pictures
I love pictures, so I thought I would upload a few from my first ten
days here for y'all! Hope you enjoy.. more will be coming soon! :)
Monday, June 11, 2012
faith like a child.
It’s Friday night and the first week of camp has officially finished! It’s crazy how quickly the week has already gone by, and I can’t believe that we’ll be sending the first week of Americans home tomorrow morning!
Overall, camp went really well this week and we were able to figure out what worked and what didn’t for each day. Every day of camp looks different than the one before. If you’ve never been to camp, here’s a quick rundown of the daily routines:
Mondays begin with a tour of Lusaka for the Americans while staff organizes the hundreds of kids into their groups for the week. Then, after the tour is over, the Americans arrive at camp and meet their groups for the week.
Tuesdays are ‘rotation days’ and the groups go through three different stations for the morning. There’s the coloring station where the kids each get to color their own “Armor of God” page and take it home at the end of the day, the ‘snaps’ station where the kids have their pictures taken individually and with their American, and then the blessing time station is when the Americans have extra time to do one-on-ones with their group.
Wednesdays are the least chaotic- it’s small group times, big group times, and blessing times all day.
Thursdays are community days- the Americans are all bussed out to the compound from which there kids are and they spend the day going around and watching their group evangelize to the people in the community.
And finally, Fridays are the final celebration days of each week of camp! The kids are fitted for and receive a pair of school shoes, along with a Camp LIFE bracelet, a Bible, a piece of candy, a bookmark, and their certificate (with the snaps taken on Tuesday). Goodbyes are said, so many tears are shed, and countdowns to the next year of Camp LIFE begin.
Each day brings somethings special to the table, but I always love to hear stories from Thursdays in the community. Every night at dinner, the American ambassadors will share “testimonies” about the day, or stories about how the Lord moved in their group. This week was no different from the past summers when I listened to story after story about how beautiful, 360 degree transformations that occurred that day. The students become the teachers, and the teachers become the students on Thursdays. Everyone was so amazed at how boldly these orphans went around to drunks and witch doctors proclaiming the Gospel.. a story of our God’s overwhelming and redemptive love that they first learned about only 3 days before. Hundreds of precious children are unleashed onto these dirty, dusty streets with their Evangecubes and such hungry, eager hearts to tell the world about Jesus; and the result is completely awesome. Orphans, who are completely overlooked, neglected, and kicked around, are bringing the best news in the world to people and are changing the face of their community for the Kingdom. Their 3-day old (some less) childlike faiths bring numbers of people of Christ every Thursday, without fail.
These kids, who are surrounded by nothing but poverty, darkness, and hunger, and have never felt loved by anyone, are able to go out and proclaim the most perfect, beautiful love to complete strangers without hindrance. As for me, I live an easy, comfortable life and know I am loved by my family and friends, yet I still freak myself out and have never proclaimed the Gospel that I have known my whole life to people in the same way that those orphans do every Thursday. The last verse of Acts has always been so convicting for me, but I see it perfectly displayed in the communities when these children are evangelizing:
“Boldly and without hindrance he preached the kingdom of God and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ.”
Acts 28:31
I’m praying that God would make me more like these kids, that I would feel more than comfortable going up to a random stranger and sharing the story of our Father’s love with them. That I could have the same childlike and pure faith. That I would boldly and without hindrance share the Gospel like they do. Never would I have imagined myself praying to be more like an orphan, but here I am.
Hope that’s long enough for you! I know it was a lengthy post, but it’s really what the Lord’s been laying on my heart lately and I promised to keep you updated! Anyway, that’s all for now! Blessings until next time!
Overall, camp went really well this week and we were able to figure out what worked and what didn’t for each day. Every day of camp looks different than the one before. If you’ve never been to camp, here’s a quick rundown of the daily routines:
Mondays begin with a tour of Lusaka for the Americans while staff organizes the hundreds of kids into their groups for the week. Then, after the tour is over, the Americans arrive at camp and meet their groups for the week.
Tuesdays are ‘rotation days’ and the groups go through three different stations for the morning. There’s the coloring station where the kids each get to color their own “Armor of God” page and take it home at the end of the day, the ‘snaps’ station where the kids have their pictures taken individually and with their American, and then the blessing time station is when the Americans have extra time to do one-on-ones with their group.
Wednesdays are the least chaotic- it’s small group times, big group times, and blessing times all day.
Thursdays are community days- the Americans are all bussed out to the compound from which there kids are and they spend the day going around and watching their group evangelize to the people in the community.
And finally, Fridays are the final celebration days of each week of camp! The kids are fitted for and receive a pair of school shoes, along with a Camp LIFE bracelet, a Bible, a piece of candy, a bookmark, and their certificate (with the snaps taken on Tuesday). Goodbyes are said, so many tears are shed, and countdowns to the next year of Camp LIFE begin.
Each day brings somethings special to the table, but I always love to hear stories from Thursdays in the community. Every night at dinner, the American ambassadors will share “testimonies” about the day, or stories about how the Lord moved in their group. This week was no different from the past summers when I listened to story after story about how beautiful, 360 degree transformations that occurred that day. The students become the teachers, and the teachers become the students on Thursdays. Everyone was so amazed at how boldly these orphans went around to drunks and witch doctors proclaiming the Gospel.. a story of our God’s overwhelming and redemptive love that they first learned about only 3 days before. Hundreds of precious children are unleashed onto these dirty, dusty streets with their Evangecubes and such hungry, eager hearts to tell the world about Jesus; and the result is completely awesome. Orphans, who are completely overlooked, neglected, and kicked around, are bringing the best news in the world to people and are changing the face of their community for the Kingdom. Their 3-day old (some less) childlike faiths bring numbers of people of Christ every Thursday, without fail.
These kids, who are surrounded by nothing but poverty, darkness, and hunger, and have never felt loved by anyone, are able to go out and proclaim the most perfect, beautiful love to complete strangers without hindrance. As for me, I live an easy, comfortable life and know I am loved by my family and friends, yet I still freak myself out and have never proclaimed the Gospel that I have known my whole life to people in the same way that those orphans do every Thursday. The last verse of Acts has always been so convicting for me, but I see it perfectly displayed in the communities when these children are evangelizing:
“Boldly and without hindrance he preached the kingdom of God and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ.”
Acts 28:31
I’m praying that God would make me more like these kids, that I would feel more than comfortable going up to a random stranger and sharing the story of our Father’s love with them. That I could have the same childlike and pure faith. That I would boldly and without hindrance share the Gospel like they do. Never would I have imagined myself praying to be more like an orphan, but here I am.
Hope that’s long enough for you! I know it was a lengthy post, but it’s really what the Lord’s been laying on my heart lately and I promised to keep you updated! Anyway, that’s all for now! Blessings until next time!
finally here!
WE MADE IT! I am typing this up as I lay in bed, about to recover from my journey and nap. The windows are (permanently) open and I can smell the smoke from the common practice of someone burning their trash as it is blown into my room. The last couple of days were somewhat of a blur, but I will hit the highlights!
On Saturday, I arrived at the airport accompanied by Dad, Melanie, and Amanda; and we lugged my 175 lbs of luggage up to the check in desk. Once my bags were checked, we sat down and were then joined by none other than Travis! He drove all the way from Sky Ranch with a cold to come see me off to Zambia! :) After about an hour of killing time, it was finally time for me to head through security and meet up with Cynthia and her kids! I said my goodbyes and went through security without a hitch! 30 minutes later, we were in line to board our plane. The flight was pretty uneventful.. watched a few movies and got about an hour of sleep, but that was about it.
Sunday morning in London, we arrived and went straight to our hotel room for our layover. I roomed with Claire, Cynthia’s oldest daughter, and we took showers and slept for about 5 hours or so. At around 4, we all met back up and went through the London security and then on to the Giraffe, a restaurant inside the airport. I ate nothing there, but instead waited to order my last Starbucks drink for the next two months. Finally, around 7, we boarded our flight to Lusaka.
On the flight, I (again) got very little sleep! However, as we began our descent into Zambia, we were greeted by the most beautiful sunrise I have ever seen. I know I said the same thing last year, but the sunrise I saw this morning blew that one out of the water. I could distinctly see every single color of the rainbow in that sunrise, they were these perfect ribbons of color just sitting on top of one another. It was incredible! When I saw it, a verse from the song, “You’re Beautiful” by Phil Wickham popped into my head and I was floored by the beauty of it all. The verse says, “I see your face in every sunrise, the colors of the morning are inside your eyes. The world awakens in the light of the dawn, it’s all proclaiming who you are, you’re beautiful.” The sunrise represented a tiny piece of just how beautiful our God is, and it blew me away. God is so beautiful, and so are the ways in which He works. It just really fueled the joy in my heart for what He’s going to do over the next eight weeks and got me so excited and expectant. I know my words aren’t at all doing it justice, but that sunrise was a beautiful representation of God’s heart and plans to come.
Anyway, I’m finally here and am so excited! It’s going to be a long, tough summer, but I know I’m going to get to see the Lord move in incredible ways and that will make it all worth it. I’m about to crash and take a nap, so that’s all for now.
On Saturday, I arrived at the airport accompanied by Dad, Melanie, and Amanda; and we lugged my 175 lbs of luggage up to the check in desk. Once my bags were checked, we sat down and were then joined by none other than Travis! He drove all the way from Sky Ranch with a cold to come see me off to Zambia! :) After about an hour of killing time, it was finally time for me to head through security and meet up with Cynthia and her kids! I said my goodbyes and went through security without a hitch! 30 minutes later, we were in line to board our plane. The flight was pretty uneventful.. watched a few movies and got about an hour of sleep, but that was about it.
Sunday morning in London, we arrived and went straight to our hotel room for our layover. I roomed with Claire, Cynthia’s oldest daughter, and we took showers and slept for about 5 hours or so. At around 4, we all met back up and went through the London security and then on to the Giraffe, a restaurant inside the airport. I ate nothing there, but instead waited to order my last Starbucks drink for the next two months. Finally, around 7, we boarded our flight to Lusaka.
On the flight, I (again) got very little sleep! However, as we began our descent into Zambia, we were greeted by the most beautiful sunrise I have ever seen. I know I said the same thing last year, but the sunrise I saw this morning blew that one out of the water. I could distinctly see every single color of the rainbow in that sunrise, they were these perfect ribbons of color just sitting on top of one another. It was incredible! When I saw it, a verse from the song, “You’re Beautiful” by Phil Wickham popped into my head and I was floored by the beauty of it all. The verse says, “I see your face in every sunrise, the colors of the morning are inside your eyes. The world awakens in the light of the dawn, it’s all proclaiming who you are, you’re beautiful.” The sunrise represented a tiny piece of just how beautiful our God is, and it blew me away. God is so beautiful, and so are the ways in which He works. It just really fueled the joy in my heart for what He’s going to do over the next eight weeks and got me so excited and expectant. I know my words aren’t at all doing it justice, but that sunrise was a beautiful representation of God’s heart and plans to come.
Anyway, I’m finally here and am so excited! It’s going to be a long, tough summer, but I know I’m going to get to see the Lord move in incredible ways and that will make it all worth it. I’m about to crash and take a nap, so that’s all for now.
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