Things I love about Zambia...

… waking up and being able to say…”I’m in Africa!”
…not having a time schedule every morning
…starting the day by praying with my brothers and sisters in Christ
…bad days
…good days
…singing at the top of my lungs while cooking
…grocery store trips that take all day…and require traveling to 3 different towns…
…police checkpoints all along the way
…waiting in line at the grocery store for a half an hour just to check out
…learning patience (see above)
…not being able to find everything you need at one store and having to go to 2 others just to get brown sugar.
…Cadburys chocolate!!!
…shopping at the market and having fun with the Zambians.
…seeing Zambians smile back when you smile at them.
…coca cola light
…making Zambians laugh just because I am a stupid muzungu! (white person)
…singing to the cashier at the grocery store…
…cooking dinner in the dark…no power
…star bakery rolls.
…drive through market stands-again…being laughed at by the Zambians cause we paid way too much for oranges and sweet potatoes!
…beautiful chitenga material…(skirts)
…hanging out with friends…being real and vulnerable.
…Dennis and Sue Anderson
…having God wake me up!
…quiet time
…alone time
…trying to get started preparing after 2 day trips to the store only to find that you still don’t have all you need and will have to wait another day….another trip to town.
…stillness
…being interrupted from the busyness of the day to go greet a dear friend (Edgar) and meet his new wife and son.
…cooking
…baking
…peanut butter and jelly sandwiches on star bakery rolls
…power
…no power…(God allowed the power to go off right in the middle of baking today…This is Zambia!)
…generated power that is allowed to run so the bread could finish baking…
…no power…that allowed us some time to rest and pray together…I love these prayer times….God meets with us!
…walks on the dirt road with Sarah
…Sarah showing me how to “slash” the grass…(cut)
…almost getting slashed in the head by Sarah…
…openness
…preparing for all the guests that will be here in 2 days.
…making the mission feel like home for the guest that are arriving soon.
…catching up with an old friend…Lorna
…children smiling and greeting us on the dirt road walk.
…emails
…music
…Catherine…my African mum
…POWER!!! And the ability it brings to cook dinner!
…meatloaf, homemade mac and cheez…green beans!!!
…teamwork
…Christian brotherly/sisterly love
…the presence of God.
I hope this gives some insight on my last 2 days here. So much continues to go on around me and there is becoming less alone time as we approach the teams arrival on Friday and Saturday…then the real fun begins!
God taught me 2 amazing lessons today…
1. The mission is important…I am not.
With so much happening since I have been here….God reminded me of this today. He asked me simply to accomplish the mission of why I am here and that is to serve the teams that are coming real soon and to serve as unto Jesus…that was my focus today…to serve and to prepare as if I was doing it for Christ. I had a blast serving.
2. Power…don’t live life without it!
If you couldn’t tell by the above…power is needed. Stop and think about all that you do on a daily, hourly, minute by minute basis that requires power. Everything shut down today when the power went off. No more baking/cooking…no flushing toilets…no washing dishes or clothes…no internet…no emails….just silence and a pause…rest. It couldn’t of come at a better time. Someone was having a difficult moment so we again…stopped and prayed. God was right there in our midst. It was awesome…I believe that God allowed the power to go off so that we could just pause and pray. Prayer has been HUGE this trip and I am learning so much about it. It’s our connection with the God of this universe…it is fellowship with Him and with the body of Christ…it is healing…it is uniting…it is cleansing…it is crucial! Thanks God for turning off the power….so…when it did come back on…it was like ants scurrying around…you should of seen the way we all were hurrying to get dinner cooked. As I was washing dishes…I was thinking out loud the lessons I had learned about the power going off…1st One must be connected to the power source…(we were disconnected.) Our power source is God Himself…and once one is connected…the power is always there...the question is am I connected? 2nd Power here is needed for flushing toilets…washing dishes/clothes…cleaning…God’s power in our lives cleanses us…gets the crap out of our lives…allows us to be clean before Him. 3rd…Accomplishing our mission today required power usage…Accomplishing God’s mission for my life demands that I be moving in His power alone…I cannot do it on my own.