mulimu ki yo munde

"Mulimu ki yo munde, na caa cao fela. Na caa cao fela, Mulimu ki yo munde!"
God is good, all the time. All the time, God is good! 

It's amazing how no matter where you are, kids will be kids. Here I am, in the smack middle of Zambia with precious boys and girls from ages 4 to 13 who have led such incredibly difficult lives already, yet they act so similarly to any other kid I've ever known. If they see that you have "plasters" (Band-Aids) in the classroom, they'll point out week-old scrapes on their knees, feet, and elbows to win sympathy and (ultimately) a prized plaster to brag about to all their friends. If they get hurt when you're looking, it's all tears - but if they hurt themselves around their friends, they'll just shake it off! They still want to be first in line for everything, get the largest and best servings at lunch, and show off their colored David and Goliath coloring sheets to every single one of the teachers. I've learned that attention spans of first graders are just as short in Africa as they are in America, but thankfully, "Bubbles!" works just as well (puff out your cheeks with air and hold - they'll stop chatting and screaming and, as an added bonus, they're so amused by how their friends look that they'll stop hitting them, too).

Some things about the kids and what they do here are very different, though. Instead of the kids enjoying a mid-morning snack, we as teachers hope that we had enough breakfast to serve them that morning (and that we'll have enough lunch to keep them full until, for some of them, the next morning). Instead of peanut butter sandwiches, we serve porridge and rice (and on Fridays, nshima with beans and cabbage - a huge treat!). When we run out of water at the top of the hill, we let out early. Instead of freezing in too-cold classrooms with cranked-up AC in the afternoons, we open up the tent flaps and hold on to our papers, teaching materials, and flip flops for dear life. Also, everyone (adults included) add "ee" to everything: five-ee, search-ee, Kate-ee. For some reason, though, they take the "ee" off of "Stephanie" - instead, I'm just Stephan. Every time I introduce myself, I get a little bit of a chuckle...apparently that's only a guy's name around here. :) Took a little while to get used to, but everything's finally become normal to me now!

One of the cool things about bein with pre-K to 3rd graders in all day is that you pick up a lot of really cool songs and tips - like how to make fritters (fried bread balls) or what will happen if you don't wash your hands before you eat. Try em out - I promise you'll enjoy these little tastes of Africa. :) 

Auntie Jane's Fritter Recipe

Auntie Jane is our all-star fabulous cook at VOH. She's actively involved at Hope Church, in the community, and - of course - with the Zambia Project. These balls of goodness are amaaaazing - I'd imagine they're heaven with honey and powdered sugar drizzled on top and I know they're good with peanut butter and jelly, but up at school we love them just as they are. Many Zambians get their entire income from selling these to passers-by on the roadside.

Combine:
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
3 tbsp sugar
pinch salt
2 cups water
...and mix together until you get a sticky dough. Drop large rounded spoonfuls (2-3 inches diameter) into simmering cooking oil, turn when browned, and take out when they look golden. Voila! Hot or cold, they're good-uns. :) 

Wash Your Hands-ee (to the tune of Frere Jacque)
The first time I saw the kids do this one I just about died!  

Wash your hands-ee, wash your hands-ee, wash your hands-ee before eating. (Motions: Act like you're scrubbin your hands after coming in from playing outside.)
Wash your hands-ee, wash your hands-ee, wash your hands-ee before eating. 

Stomach pains-ee, stomach pains-ee, stomach pains-ee just now. (Bend over looking sick...)
Stomach pains-ee, stomach pains-ee, stomach pains-ee just now.

Call the doctor, call the doctor, call the doctor just now. (Dial up on your imaginary phone.)
Call the doctor, call the doctor, call the doctor just now.

Operation! Operation! Operation just now. (Slash your stomach open!)
Operation! Operation! Operation just now.

Feeling better...feeling better...feeling better just now. (Just act like you're feeling better. ;) )
Feeling better...feeling better...feeling better just now.

Bye bye, doctor. Bye bye doctor. Bye bye doctor just now. (Wave goodbye over your shoulder as you head back outside again!)
Bye bye, doctor. Bye bye doctor. Bye bye doctor just now. 

Row, Row, Row Your Boat
This one's with a little African twist. :) 

Row, row, row your boat gently down the stream. 
If you see a crocodile, don't forget to scream. AAAAHHHHHH!!!  

And here's just a few of my favorite songs that we sang in the bush, especially in Nangula and Nalulau (and I can't promise that any of these words are spelled correctly - Lozi/English dictionaries are few and far between!): 

Hakunah 

Hakunah ya swana ni Jesu. Hakunah ya swana ni Jesu!
Hakunah ya swana ni Jesu. Haku, hakunah!
La mata...

La mata, mata, cuale, cuale.
La boto loha, cuale, cuale.
La bata, bata, cuale, cuale.
Haku, hakunah!

There's no one, there's no one like Jesus. There's no one, there's no one like Jesus!
There's no one, there's no one like Jesus. There's no one, there's no one like him. 
We walk-ee...
We walk-ee, walk-ee, here, there.
We turn around-ee, here, there.
We search-ee, search-ee, here there.
There's no one, there's no one like him! 

Rapheal's Song
Rapheal, one of our translators in Nalulau, sang us this song every morning as we were boiling water for coffee and making Jungle Oats to help us ease into the day. 

I wake up in the morning and see the sunrise
I feel the Lord's joy in my heart.
I wake up in the morning and see the sunrise
I feel the Lord's joy in my heart. 

(Chorus)
Oh Lord, I need your guidance
In all things I do and wherever I go. 
I need your love every day
In the long way I still have to go.

I see flowers around me and birds of the sky
I feel the Lord's joy in my heart.
I see flowers around me and birds of the sky
I feel the Lord's joy in my heart. 

(Chorus)

All angels of heaven are kneeling down
All creatures are praising the Lord.
All angels of heaven are kneeling down
All creatures are praising the Lord.

(Chorus)


Ki Mulena 

Ki mulena, mulena wa mulena. Ki mulena! [Translation: He is king, king of kings. He is king!]
Ki mulena, mulena wa mulena. Ki mulena!

Ki yo munde, mulena wa mulena. Ki yo munde! [He is good, king of kings. He is good!]
Ki yo munde, mulena wa mulena. Ki yo munde! 

I miss all yall so much and I can't wait to see yall in person! Thank you as always for your thoughts and prayers - we need them (it's our last week this week at VOH!) - and know that you're in my prayers as well. All my love and in His peace,

Stephanie 

david vs. goliath

Hey, yall!

I’m finally getting back into the swing of things at VOH after my 2-week respite and, lo and behold, this term’s almost over! We only have another 8 days of school left with the kiddos, which means that us teachers are getting the kids prepped for their performances for their parents/guardians next Wednesday, packing up the tent (i.e. de-sanding everything that’s salvageable and tossing the rest) so we can easily move into the new classrooms (cross your fingers that they’re actually going to be finished by September), and of course, doing student assessments. Instead of taking exams, the students are “assessed” by their teachers on their abilities to write, read, speak English, count, identify shapes, do math...stuff like that. It’s taken all week for Stephen, Jane (another medium-term intern, also from Texas!), and I to evaluate all the 1^st, 2^nd, and 3^rd graders’ proficiencies, mostly because of the amazing backstories Stephen tells us about each child. Stephen knows every one of these kids as if they were his own, from the village they were born in to who they hang around with after school. 

From a teacher’s perspective, one of the worst things about these kids’ lives at home is that where they sleep, the cohesiveness of their families, their parents’ educations, and the nature of their communities funnel directly into their abilities to learn and perform well at school. Most of the kids who attend Village of Hope Orphan School live with single parents, grandmothers (“kukus”), or guardians in the villages close to Mutoya. Although the Zambians who live in town certainly don’t live in luxury, the lucky few have access to electricity or at least solid walls on their houses or flats. Life for the villagers, on the other hand, is quite different. The best of bush houses are made of mashasha (bamboo mats) and twine, the stove is the fire outside, and in the winter (as it is right now in Zambia), they freeze at night. To really understand the community’s values and what’s considered “normal” everyday behavior in the bush, though, I needed Stephen.

Stephen’s heart cries out for the children who live in the villages communities in and around Mongu. While he’s been teaching village kids at VOH and in other school systems, he’s learned that the communities that the children grow up in drastically affect their performance in class – and unfortunately, in the bush villages, it’s usually for the worse. As Jane and I talked to Stephen about the performance of child after child, we learned through individual stories that many of the students’ “families” were actually congealed fragments, the mom often working two or three small jobs to support five or six of her children, all born of different fathers. Sleeping around was a part of what Stephen called “the order of the day” – and why not? If you need nshima and fish for you and your children, and a man offers you food in exchange for something, what an easy fix that is. If he doesn’t want your kids to sleep in the same house as you and him (mashasha houses often have just one room, but a curtain of extra blankets can act as a divider if you have enough of them), then your children sleep outside. If you depend on him for every type of support, you don’t have to care about your children – so you either send them across the village to their grandma’s (kuku’s) or you let them wander. If you have a boy, perhaps the worst that can happen is he’ll get really good at fighting with the other boys in the neighborhood. If you have a girl, though, her wanderings will make her prey to all the men and boys in the village just as you were when you were young. But what’s the big deal? It’s a part of life. It’s just “the order of the day.” 

Not every family looks like that, but Mwangala’s and Nayoto’s do. Some parents are simply uneducated and don’t know how to help their kids in their studies at home, or they simply don’t care enough to support them in what they have learned. It's simply village culture. A few weeks ago I asked why we didn’t assign the kids homework or at least let them take their workbooks home so they could practice their English and math. Stephen told me that they’d tried that – but the handouts and books never made it back to school. Parents or guardians at home would see the paper and think, what perfect fodder for tonight’s fire for dinner or, I can use that to roll up a cigarette. 

In my past experience, the opposite has always been the norm: home was where my friends and I always found encouragement, love, and enthusiastic support. Our parents (or the government, at least) cared whether we showed up to school or not. Sexual or physical child abuse was something that you only heard about on the news – perhaps a tragic story of some dilapidated family that lived in a town far, far away. Sibling rivalry was bickering over who stole whose favorite tank top, not which sibling’s father was better than the other’s. A decline in a student’s performance was attributed to drugs, alcohol, too much TV, or hanging out with the wrong crowd. Here, it's more likely because a mom is trying as hard as she can to feed her 5 kids with whatever she can get from selling herself or fried bread on the roadside (the commodity depending on the customer). It’s not okay that life in the villages of Africa is like it is when there are millions of good, giving, caring people who have the resources and hearts and abilities to fix it. So what can we do?

I’ve seen pictures of starving African children and I’ve read statistics on how corrupt governments can be. Usually I’m barraged with images and facts in commercials or magazines, and the fix-it-all answer is always the same: “Send money to my organization that you have no vested interest in, I’ll take care of the details, and just trust me that your money’s used to its greatest extent to completely reverse the trajectories of these peoples’ lives.” Quite honestly, that plea might be the most effective way of inciting a response from people who have too much and who live an ocean away from starvation, abuse, and true need. The Zambia Project’s website does the same thing (it only costs $1 a day to provide an orphan with all they need to live and thrive in a loving home, and just $1 more to send them to school). I understand why needs are presented like that – tear-jerking stories and heartbreaking pictures have to be shared, especially when your own heart is so broken from the real thing. Apart from getting people to come to Africa and see the institutional brokenness here themselves, there seems to be no other way to bring actual change to people who desperately need it than to ask for support. 

What I’m starting to see, though, is that money sent in an envelope can only take you so far (this is another one of those “duh, Stephanie” moments). More money funneled into one of these village communities via the Zambia Project will absolutely help build proper houses for families who live under piles of rubbish piled on top of itself (Moonga’s house that I wrote about in my last blog is a perfect example). Money is desperately needed for building materials and construction crews to get the school building finished on time for next term. Money is the primary bottleneck to every project that the Zambia Project takes on, from drilling a well for a village that’s never tasted clean drinking water to building a security wall around the school so the kids, classrooms, and teaching materials are safe. Yes, money is important. But money just can’t fix everything. 

When Stephen and the rest of the teachers teach their students every day, they wage war against the institutional brokenness in each child’s life. Although a check can buy much-needed teaching resources and help build a school (which is AWESOME), it can’t erase every barrier that keeps kids at VOH from reaching their full potential. When I’m trying to teach Mwangala how to write her name correctly, I push against the permanent damage that her mother, father, and community have done to her. We’re swimming upstream, fighting against what malnutrition at a young age has done to these kids’ brains already and what their current hunger is doing to them now. We physically combat the terrible examples that their communities have taught them by being the best examples of God’s love that we can be. We teach in “Kid Power” that physical and sexual abuse is wrong and shouldn’t be tolerated, while we know that half the students’ lives are directly affected by it and they really have no power against it. At parent-teacher conferences next Wednesday, Stephen will sit down with guardians who don’t care whether their kid shows up for school or not, much less how they’re doing in math.

It’s critically important to remember that it is not the people in these communities who are the problem. What Jesus said hits the nail on the head: “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms” (Ephesians 6:12). Evil is real here, and I see its effects in the kids’ eyes every day. Sin and corruption worm themselves into every aspect of these kids’ lives, just like the sand gets even under their fingernails and in their noses and between their toes. Mongu doesn’t just need a check or a wire transfer. It needs more willing Christians to invest their lives into its people, teaching them how to walk in the light, the Way, the only real way to live at all. We need to do what Christ told us to do – “go” and feed the hungry, house the homeless, visit the sick, teach the orphans, and fight like there’s no tomorrow against the values of this world and what’s considered “normal” in the villages of Mongu. That’s how we wage war.

There’s just so much fighting we have ahead of ourselves, though. What’s helping me make it through is remembering that Jesus has already conquered the world. This world and its desires are passing away, yes, and it’s also taking along with it its pain, sickness, hunger, hiding, and darkness. But while we still see real suffering in the world, we as Kingdom people are called to bring a little bit of God’s Kingdom down here to earth. Sleeping around with men for food and money might be efficient and practical, but we need to teach that true rewards come to those who are faithful to God. We just need to trust that God will fix the world, and he’ll use our faithfulness to do it. When I look at the battles Stephen and Margaret fight in teaching these children every day, I marvel at how they can even bear to go on – don’t they know how much institutional brokenness they’re fighting against? But they are making a difference in these children’s lives, and God will use their faithfulness in serving Him to further his Kingdom and to bring himself glory.

Discussing kids with Stephen and Jane took all week, but now I feel like I know these kids more intimately than I ever thought possible. So although I sometimes would honestly rather just stay in the shade at the bottom of the hill all day rather than hike up to the tent, breathe in dust and dirt, and try to teach with little to no resources, I know that my faithfulness matters more than my comfort or cynicism. For some of these kids, school is the only consistent thing in their lives, and it’s the only place where they feel safe and valued and loved. It’s such an incredible feeling to walk to the bus stop and hear a child running up to me at ramming speed, yelling at the top of his lungs, “Teacher Stephan!” Maybe we as medium-term intern teachers at VOH don’t feel as though we’re making much of a difference in these kids’ lives – the battles we wage are so huge, and we’re only here for a blink! – but maybe God’s got this after all.

hope church and a new orphan house

hello, all!

i hope that yall are all doing absolutely fabulously! i'm finally getting over the worst of whatever i had last week (mumps? the flu with a secondary infection? an african cold? who knows...) and am fiiiinally able to get out of the house and jump back into school, church activities, and helping out around the base. 

resurfacing back into life after being completely MIA for a few days has let me see how much activity goes on around here in just one week. the south african, australian, and dubai teams are for the most part gone (a few team leaders are staying behind to scope out how teams from their churches can get involved with the zambia project in the future); brian, lucas, and lucy (all medium-term interns) have left; bryan's traveled halfway up to the DRC to the middle of the bush to visit unreached villages for 3 and a half weeks; and james and jess (a married couple in charge of the training school) are back to work with the zambia project on a semi-permanent basis. students from all over zambia, too, are arriving to work with wycliff translators to transcribe their language for the first time (the first step in translating the bible into different languages is figuring out how to write the language down!), and the base is also preparing for potential church leaders from the bush to come stay and attend bible school in august. and that's just been in the past week!

i know i've only been in zambia for a couple of months, but i've seen amazing progress within the zambia project as a whole just while i've been here, as well. when we went to mawe kulipe in mid-may, felix (one of our all-star translators and a former five-star soux chef) shared his dreams of opening a restaurant in hope church's new building. his goals were to provide the church with more income, easily cater meals for church events and meetings, and invite people from mongu into the church for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. since we first talked about it in mawe kulipe, hope church has moved from its 2-year tent home to its first permanent residence (which used to be the most notorious night club in all of mongu) and felix's restaurant is now booming. his next project is to open a bakery inside the church to employ youths in the community and to provide hope church with even more money for outreaches.

felix serving lunch to catherine and wes on the veranda outside his restaurant at hope church

lucas, elijah (the little one), and mobi enjoying a couple apple max's at felix's

ali, one of the waiters at felix's restaurant and an all-star kids' church leader

lucas and rapheal hanging out in the church courtyard after a sunday service

in addition to providing a space for semi-dustless worship (walls are incredibly underrated - yay for a permanent building!) and for felix's restaurant, the new site for hope church is now also home for patricia, elvis, and their family. patricia and elvis work for the church full-time: patricia as a teacher at VOH school and a young adults cell group leader and elvis as an events facilitator and construction supervisor at the church (there's still quite a bit left to be done in converting the run-down night club into a suitable place for worship!). their three sons are a constant source of joy, hugs, and shenanigans for all of us at church!

patricia and elvis

  

bryan and elijah, patricia's youngest, outside patricia's house

oh, brotherly bonding - gibson, ethan, and elijah out on the terrace

 

bryan with the boys

when paul and marinette talked about the zambia project in virginia last october, they shared their plans to build 14 orphan houses in mongu, 22 classrooms for the VOH orphan school just outside of mutoya, and 6,000 churches in the western province. their vision was (and still is) huuuuge - and lack of adequate building materials, construction and transportation costs, and delays in getting orphans and orphan houses sponsored are big set-backs. however, in just a few years, the zambia project has already built one beautiful brick orphan house for 7 orphans, is building 4 classrooms for VOH, and have planted 110 churches. 

with enough answered prayers in the form of people and finances, though, miracles can happen in a matter of hours! just last week, the teams from south africa, australia, and dubai laid the foundation for 3 new church starts (one in imalo, where dubai and i were), finished 2 water wells in mawe kulipe and nalulau (the one that we started a few weeks ago), and ran an all-day clinic for a week to provide much-needed medical supplies and consultation. we also received some good news only yesterday - construction for the new school will likely finish by september, just in time for the new term. hallelujah, baby!!!

a little closer to home, short-termers from south africa and australia helped lihana with construction at the malnutrition clinic, putting in floor tiles, painting, and finding glass that will actually fit the window frames. it also took only 2 days for a few medium-term interns, hope church leaders, and south african short-termers to build a new house for moonga (a student a VOH school) and her extended family:

wes yawning, acting shocked, or singing opera (we're not sure) at the construction site

 

george, a youth pastor at hope church, putting up stakes for the walls

local kids checking out all the activity

moonga (right) hanging out with friends and cousins at the construction site

 

good work, team!

early this week, hope church leaders officially dedicated the house to moonga and her family, along with a gift of 2 warm blankets and a set of extra clothes. when students at VOH were drawing pictures of their houses and families at school this week, jane, one of the medium-term interns here, asked moonga what her house was like. moonga was shy for a few moments, thought about it, and eventually looked up to jane with a huge smile and said, "my house is beautiful." moonga had never had something so basic and fundamental as a house before - and the zambia project helped make that simple dream possible! 

it's bizarre how real things are here - i get to work with, talk to, touch, and hug widows, orphans, the unreached, the malnourished, the impoverished, the sick, and the dying every single day. i can't tell you how weird it is to hug a child and know that they don't have a mom or a dad, they won't get to eat dinner in a few hours, and they'll be cold tonight because they don't have adequate housing. on the other hand, though, i get to know amazing men and women like felix, patricia, paul, and marinette who give their lives to God and Christ's church every moment of every day to address these problems, not just on sunday mornings or during their five minute quiet time before they go to bed. despite the frustrations and struggles of not having enough - enough money, food, clothing, warmth, walls, time, medication, clean drinking water - the people who work with the zambia project are making progress and success solely because of God's grace. now that's a reason to praise God!

you're all in my thoughts and prayers, and i love and miss yall tons! in His peace,

stephanie :)

sports day!!!

what on earth is better than throwing a community-wide sports day at an orphan school on a friday? not much!! last week, VOH hosted a kids' day at the top of hill for all the students, their parents, the staff, and the community where we did three-legged races (zambia had never heard of this one before!), egg-drop competitions, hula hoop races, and good ol' fashioned foot races.

this may be my favorite post so far cause i get to brag about all my kiddoes with pictures rather than just words! hope you enjoy :)

this is nyambe, probably the most devious and hilarious child in all of VOH. i haven't asked him outright yet, but i'd bet that he'd say that his main mission when he gets up each morning is to wreak havoc for the teachers when he gets to school (he consistently succeeds with flying colors!). nyambe is in 1st grade and has been with the school for 2 years now.

wamulume is one of our all-star 3rd graders at VOH. it took about 3 weeks for me to remember and pronounce his name correctly, but his story was etched into me the first time i heard it. three years ago, wamulume's dad died, making him a double-orphan in a town where he had no other family to take care of him, no support network, no funds to eat or go to school, nothing. shortly after his dad passed away, he walked alone from the small village where he lived to mongu, where he knew his mom's family was from. it took him over 12 hours. by the time he got into town, he was found with broken flip flops, with swollen feet, and severely dehydrated. missionaries working with VOH picked him up, heard his story, and now makes it possible for him to grow up in a nurturing family, eat three healthy meals a day, and get an education that he otherwise never would have received.

oh, given! given is 6 years old and in our "tiny tots" morning class with teacher margaret. given was malnourished when he was very young, so his belly button sticks out about 3 inches (a physical repercussion of lack of nutrients during infancy), he's limited in how much he can run, climb, and play, and his learning capacity is permanently damaged. since given has been at VOH, he's shown dramatic improvement in how well and long he can exercise, learn, and retain knowledge. he's our tiny tots sweetheart!

 

this is panda, another one of my awesome 3rd graders. panda suffers from years of neglect and abuse, and his ability to learn has been substantially affected. for the last two years, however, panda has received nothing but love, good food, and a solid support system from VOH school and in one of the zambia project's orphan houses.

 

simenda is the 2nd grade, afternoon counterpart to nyambe. (i learned his name first at VOH because i had to call him out so often for misbehaving!) simenda's favorite things to do are to break rules, climb trees, jump on the trampoline when he's not supposed to, play rough soccer with the big 3rd graders, and get (and give) huge bear hugs.

nathan (age 4) is the younger of paul and marinette van coller's two sons and an absolute joy! (paul and marinette started the zambia project's work here in mongu 11 years ago.) he lives on the base with his older brother seth (age 6), mom, dad, and their new boxer puppy hilux. he and his brother are home-schooled in the mornings with naomi, the children's director for the zambia project, and they join their friends at VOH for sports, music, and more instruction in the afternoons.

 

mike is a character! he knows what he wants and how to get it - but he's so adorable that you'd almost do anything for him, just to see that smile and get a big mike hug. lori, mike's sponsor and a medium-term intern from last summer, will be visiting mike from the US in just a few weeks. he's so excited!

what a beauty! :) this is queen, a grade R sweetheart.

jemimah, given, medium-term intern zach, and i watch on the sidelines...

....as teacher stephen awards our awesome 3rd grade medalists john (middle), wamulume (right) and mikisi (left) their chocolate metals for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place in a foot race.

there's nothing like a staff foot race to round out the day! from left to right: stephen, VOH's headmaster and the teacher i work with the most. naomi, the children's director for the zambia project (kid's church, VOH, child sponsors, etc.). patricia, an afternoon teacher at VOH, the young ladies' adult small group leader, and an active volunteer at hope church. david, one of the main workers at mutoya. this is possibly my favorite picture of all time! :)

the whole community had a blast at sports day - but since term ends in less than 3 weeks and examinations are just around the corner, now it's back to work for both the teachers and the students. wish the kids luck in their studies and on their tests (and for us teachers in getting them prepared!)!

all my best and in His peace,

stephanie :)

imalo: africa wins again!

Hello, all!

Dubai and I got back from Imalo late Wednesday night wonderfully changed after the experience, but not after learning some very valuable lessons from Momma Africa:

1.Everything takes right around four times the amount of time you think it will.

On Sunday we headed out from Mutoya at noon, prepared to travel for about 3 hours so we could arrive at Imalo in enough time to set up camp and start dinner by sunset. Since our group was so large (46), we borrowed one of the massive trucks from one of the South African teams that are also here this week and split out team in two: half of us piled into Graeme’s truck, the other half in South Africa’s with their driver, Ken. Sounded like a brilliant idea at the time…until, that is, the South African truck got stuck in a bogged field halfway to the village. We did try to dig out the wheels with our hands and (eventually) a borrowed spade, but (could’ve guessed this) we failed epically. Ken’s truck is big…scooping out mud by the handful can only take you so far! Thankfully, Sir Graeme eventually came back from dropping the other half of the team off and valiantly attempted to drag us out of the mud with his truck…and got stuck himself. So we were sitting ducks in muck for the rest of the afternoon and night until we were rescued at about 11:30pm, thanks to a rowdy group of locals who borrowed a high jack from a nearby school’s construction site (we didn’t ask questions!). Finally, we stumbled into Imalo after midnight with just enough energy to down bread and butter and snuggle into our sleeping bags for some shut-eye. 

Since I was the only American on the team, the whole US freedom part of the 4^th of July came and went entirely unnoticed (no worries – the American middle-term interns threw a belated celebration later with burgers, hot dogs, fries, watermelon, and even firecrackers and ice cream!). Instead, the team went out to 4 or 5 sub-villages in the morning and played a huge soccer game with the local kids in the afternoon. The next morning, we all waded through a river up to our chests to talk with 3 unreached villages (the x4 theory makes another appearance: our guide, Phillip, thought we’d take 30 minutes to get there but we made it in 2 hours). They’d never even heard of the gospel before, simply because villagers and visitors had been “scared” to cross the river that separates them from the center of Imalo. We knew it would be cold and dangerous for them to cross the river to get to our campsite for that night’s service, so we invited them to worship with us the next morning. 

We planned to pack up and leave Imalo by noon on Wednesday, but (Africa wins again!) we didn’t get back to Mutoya until after 8 that night. The other half of the team, poor things, got back even later. But even with all the frustrations of being delayed, useless in waiting, misinformed, stuck, and cramped in the back of various truck beds, the entire team and all the translators all arrived back in Mongu safely and in one piece. I say God deserves a round of applause for that!

2.13-year olds will be 13-year olds, whether you’re in America or Africa or the UAE.

 

Our team was young – reeeeal young. We had thirty or so kids from ages 13-18, three married couples in their early- to mid-twenties, one or two thirty-somethings, and 6 Lozi translators from Hope Church. We spent the week teaching the boys that girls eat first in the bush, always, and convincing the girls that going 3 days without a shower really wasn’t the end of the world. Neither was getting dirt under your nails. Or having an ant crawl on you. Or eating porridge 2 days in a row. Even with all that, though, the team's optimism, excitement, and laughter has been such a beautiful reflection of the joy that God has for us in dark places that I wouldn't have asked for anything else!

3.God's awesome.

4.People are really interesting.

With Ruani, the translators, and I, our team represented countries from most of the globe: South Africa, Zambia, America, Dubai, England, Ireland, Algeria, Zimbabwe, Singapore...you name it! One girl even grew up on an American ship with missionaries who sailed around the world giving out Bibles to different countries.

Apparently, these kids are a pretty accurate reflection of Dubai’s population as a whole. Dubai is a melting pot of ex-pats, with only 17% or so of the population authentically “locals.” Many of the kids moved there recently because of their parents’ jobs (Dubai compensates their teachers, lawyers, and doctors amazingly well), but they all knew one another so well that you’d swear they grew up together since kindergarten.

Hanging out with the adult leaders, however, was probably my favorite part of being with the team in Imalo. In just one conversation, I got to talk with one guy, Ricardo, about everything from his experience leading a praise band in the Nashville music scene (small world!) to how desperately impacted he was one morning when he saw a tiny boy struggling to carry two full buckets of water from the village’s well back to his hut by himself. We got to brainstorm together ways that he and his wife could use their obviously God-given talents of managing venues and performing worship music in a way that would directly support the Zambia Project’s efforts to address the incredible crisis of impoverishment in Zambia.

I got to talk with Roma about the fruit of self-control and how people from all over the world, even in the Middle East, expect and even demand (subconsciously, at times) to get and consume as much as they want, whenever they want, at any time that they want. She could tell that the kids (the youth group she leads back home) simply weren’t used to this idea – they wanted exactly what they wanted immediately and without constraints, whether it be food or sleep or restroom accommodations or warmth. She wasn’t used to that idea, either – and neither am I! Roma had asked God to teach her self-control on this trip, and she could definitely feel his work in her and in her kids: each person only got one piece of chicken, we all had to get up early, everyone used the same hole in the ground, and no one could hog the campfire’s warmth because we only had one fire for 46 (and one for 146 at night when we had our services).

It’s funny how we’re all struck by the same gospel in different ways, sometimes, but often in ways that are exactly the same. The fact that we come from such varied backgrounds only makes us as a universal church that much more creative in the way we approach solutions to the problems that we see collectively. Ricardo and his wife can still praise God through worship while contributing the funds they receive from record labels to mission fields like Zambia, and everyone – no matter your age, race, or language – can read Galatians 5 (fruits of the spirit) and confront what is misaligned with God’s will in themselves.

5.Flu-like symptoms precede 99% of every African malady.

Although Imalo was cool and the team was wonderful, I didn't get to be with them as much as I wanted this week. Unfortunately, I came down with something the very first night we were out in the bush. Good timing, huh? Luckily, Dr. Phil (i.e. Phillip, one of the team leaders) gave me some medicine to tide me over until we came back to Mutoya, where I'm now on a general (and pretty legit) 5-day antibiotic. I'm doin just fine, but I'm takin it easy for a little while just to give my body some time to snap back to 100%.

The fabulous news about being prescribed bed rest? I get to sit with my Bible and dig into the depths of verses like:

“But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ – by grace you have been saved – and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.” Ephesians 2:4-7

“And [God] has put all things under [Jesus'] feet and has made [Jesus] the head over all things for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all." Ephesians 1:22-23

"For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life." Ephesians 2:10

…and, of course, there’s also the perk of having a wonderful boyfriend that caters to my slightest inclination or desire (chocolate included) & being first in line to lick Tyler’s and cake batter and icing bowls!

For the rest of the month, a few of the other medium-term interns and I will be working hard at the school getting the kids ready for their end-of-term exams that're coming up at the beginning of August. Starting probably early next week, Bryan will be taking a couple of guys from Hope Church to visit a remote village for 3 weeks, sharing the gospel with them for the first time and hopefully bringing a few key leaders back to Mongu in time for this winter's pastoral training at Mutoya. Prayers for safety, discernment, patience, and God's voice in both of our lives, please! :)

Can't wait to talk with yall all soon (and more pictures to come!) - miss you and hope that yall's summers are beautiful! 

In His peace,

Stephanie :)