This blog is a later then normal because Zambia had a long weekend in the middle due to public holidays, which of course one must make the most of! Apologies, since I am sure you were all bursting at the seams to read this earlier. And apologies, I don't think this one is shorter :)
Week 1 highs
- The discipleship class at the base has been doing a series on the Father heart of God, I've popped along to a couple of sessions and really enjoyed them.
- Jono taught that Tuesday and that seemed to go well.
The week 1 lows
- Jono went to the supermarket and they were almost out of milk, so he bought a bottle of fermented milk, I didn't even know you could get fermented milk!! It was disgusting, DONT try it, no matter how tempted you are, which I'm sure now you know it exists are all keen to try it!!! Consider yourself warned! I feel a big fat "I told you so" may follow the disobedient!
The week 1 other stuff
- Tuesday (week 1)Jono took Peter to the Dr, he was my transport back to the base, so I decided to walk at least partway into town. I walked past a group of children, to my surprise they started a chant - "Umusungu, Umusungu" I don't think I've ever had a chant about me before! It was strange.
- Jono has continued his shoe ministry (and now, week 2 has finished it!)
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| Yande in the standing frame, singing sunny sunny sunny sunny day. |
As mentioned earlier last weekend was a long one. Nakoli church were heading out to a village called "Insano" (sound ominous) in the bush for an outreach, we decided to tag along.
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| Before leaving, Peter gave this girl a yoghurt goatie. |
I've mentioned before about the roads here being bad (with potholes), I'm not sure this picture quite captures it, there were other places on the trip that were worse. Driving here in Zambia is dangerous, people pull out at intersections willy nilly. On these kind of roads people tend to drive wherever looks like it has less potholes (including the other side of the road), thankfully these kind of roads people are going slowly and there doesn't tend to be much traffic.
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| Attempt to capture potholes (like at times Uncle David and Aunty Ailsa's driveway but longer! and probably worse!) |
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| Sunset on the way. |
So pot hole roads were just the beginning of the driving experience. Jono managed to drive us safely there and back for which we are very thankful.
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| Tall grass, following the 'road' which looks to me more like a foot path! |
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| Check out those muscles! The truck seemed to stop and not start at one point, never fear, males to the rescue! |
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| The truck that went from church - look at all those people piled in and hanging off the edges |
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| So there were some kinda narrow bits that we had to navigate through, more narrow for the truck though, it took it a few minutes to get between these trees!!! |
We drove through the bushiness for about an hour, trusting the pastor to take the right turns with the lack of cellphone reception (he'd been there once before), before we finally neared the village.
One of the most amazing and memorable things was the greeting we received upon arrival. The village people came out to meet the car singing, we arrived in the dark, it was so incredible to hear the united sound of Zambians getting louder as they came towards the car.
We found the 'real grass roots Africa' there I think! No cellphone reception, no electricity....
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| The 'shower' |
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| Inside the 'shower' - the people were lovely and heated the water for us though! |
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| The toilet |
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| Our bed AKA the car |
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| Eating Nshima with the gang - this also doubled as the 'bedroom' of the pastors |
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| Jono outside their church with a couple of OM missionaries that came with us. |
Zambian's normally go to bed early and get up early, follow the sun or something like that. However for some reason, they seemed to transform into party animals (I may consider them somewhat insane for this behaviour!). They seemed to have their last 'church' type service starting at about 10 pm and finishing at about 12am, and then would get up at 4/5 am to pray. Jono and I were much more sensibly behaved and often missed both of those things!
As Zambians have so much natural rhythm there was much singing (to the point lots of people started losing their voices), and dancing. One thing I did find amusing is when they formed a circle around the musical instruments and were pretty much walking slowly - despite this, we joined in :)
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| Some dancing |
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| More dancing |
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| Someone tied shitangi's around our waists as we 'needed extra support' while we were shaking our butts (I can't imagine white people need extra support, we are white, we have not the butt shaking abilities of Africans!) |
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| Yea I told these kids to dance, of course they obliged since I'm white |
They had epic handmade insturments.
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| Instruments - my favourite is the one in the middle, it's like an enlarged banjo that doubles as a drum and seat!!! |
One cool thing there was they had about 20 people get baptised, which was a privilege to be able to go and see.
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| Lovely walk through the countryside for about an hour to find the lake for the baptisims |
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| I've seen working cattle around for a little while, and been meaning to take a photo, on the walk it was my lucky day. How old school is this? |
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| And again just in case you missed the cattle doing work other then making milk |
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| This one has a bell, we didn't see any in Switzerland, but in the depths of Africa a cow has a bell |
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| Thee event |
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| Another person getting the dunk |
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| The lake that they occured at |
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| Sunset on the return journey |
Some other photos
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| One of the houses we passed near the village |
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| Sunset on the return journey |
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| I seemed to acquire this child (Lydia) for the weekend, she would often seem to 'find' me |
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| Night time shot with the glow of the fire |
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| It was not uncommon for us to have a group of children staring at us. This was just before I decided to run at them like they were birds, they behaved in a similar manner to birds, squawking (and laughing) while they fled, I don't know where that idea came from but it did! |
We were so blessed to be able to go and experience this village. It was such a privilege. People were so welcoming and honoured us more than they should have!
Jono had yet another opportunity to preach, he spoke on "You are special to God" to the youths. Peter asked us if we would mind being asked some questions from the youths and himself about virginity, so we did that also. I had the opportunity to help with Sunday school, I got the children to act out Noah's ark, up until that point it had seemed the teacher would just speak to them, I see that as a bit boring for children. There was quite a bit of laughter as they acted out Noah's ark, hopefully it'll stick in their memories!
For some reason people seemed to value our presence there quite a lot, it was a bit strange, we didn't do anything to deserve it. All we did was show up and try to fit in. They gave us the impression quite a few umusungu's wouldn't do the same (too far out of their comfort zone or something). Anywho our behaviour (although we thought it was normal) seems to have impressed another pastor (he seems great, he preaches like a passionate black american preacher!) who was there, and he invited us to go and visit his village and church, which is great for us. We get to see more of Zambia, I can't complain! So another village experience is on the cards.
Week 2 highs
- After the weekend one definitely appreciates coming home and the luxuries of life, a bed, a flushing toilet and a shower. It reminded us somewhat of coming back from tramping, despite the fact you've enjoyed the tramp/weekend away, it's still so nice to come home again!
- Jono has been having some good conversations with some fellow OMers
- We attended the friday night braai, which is a good time of fellowship with people.
Week 2 lows
- We've been feeling a bit tired from the weekend.
- Jono has a bit of a cold.
Week 2 other
- We attended prayer and fasting this morning to pray for the upcoming Love Africa conference. I don't handle missing meals well (I considered putting this under the lows), at the end there was one hangry Karlyn, just as well food wasn't too far away.
Prayer thanks
- That we had good health in the middle of the whop whops.
- For safety while we've been travelling.
- My health is pretty good now, cold is gone. Yay.
- For the lack of culture shock we've had recently
- For the opportunity to go and experience a village that doesn't even feature on google maps
- Some of my patients have been making progress, sometimes slowly, but progress all the same, which is a real blessing.
Prayer requests
-For the Insano village. While the outreach seemed to go reasonably well, the church there still seems in a fragile stage. Prayer especially for God to guide the pastor well, and for the people to follow that leadership, and for the church to grow in strength and number under God's guidance.
- For continued safety while we travel.
- Mum and Dad Miller are visiting from next Saturday, so that we have good times with them, and get to see awesome sights.
- That we'll deal with culture shock well
- That we will connect well with the locals and missionaries. - That God will be our highest priority, followed by our marriage- Still haven't found that car part, so that we will find it soon.
Bethesda prayer requests
- For more financial supporters, with looking to expand in the future we are aware that the financial costs are going to increase.
- That the children and adults I've been treating will make good progress/have healing)
- That Given would be healed (An update of Given, we will take Given to be assessed by a plastic surgeon next week)
- That the Bethesda ministry would continue to grow spiritually and in number.
- For some land so we can build an integrated school (we want enough land so that we can also grow some crops to help feed the children)
- For a computer, printer and car for the ministry.
OM prayer requests (another new category, I'll turn you all into prayers by the end of our time here!!)
- That preparations for the Love Africa conference will go well (It's here in Kabwe hosted by OM)
- Some of the students (In the teacher training course, discipleship or missions classes) are struggling to pay their course fees
- For finances so dormitories can be built so that more people can attend the discipleship and missions courses here
