one week down...and off to the bush!

hi, friends and family! :)

WOW - this has been such an amazing week. thank you all for your thoughts and prayers for our travels so far! these first few days have been incredibly hectic: last thursday morning (may 19th), brian ledwith, lucas kane, bryan carey, and i flew out from roanoke at 6am, making our way through dulles and jfk airports before noon. then, we hopped on a south african airline plane for a 15 hour joyride to johannesburg (except for lucas' front tooth falling out and zero sleep, it wasn't as bad as it sounds!). we arrived in south africa at 8:30 am local time (that's 1:30 am central) and ron barnard, our team leader and pastor at the dwelling place christian fellowship church up in virginia, met us at the gate to take us to a nearby hotel to meet up with the rest of the team. a 3-hour nap and a shower later, we went straight back to the airport to catch a night flight to lusaka, zambia. my favorite part of the trip thus far was when, as we were landing, a flight attendant literally announced, "it was a pleasure to serve you this evening. this is the end of the safest part of your journey. have a good night!"

things got interesting pretty quick! in lusaka, we waited for about an hour in a moderately sketchy airport to get visas and grab our checked baggage, but alas...mine didn't make it! fortunately, the rest of the team's did, and i had all i really needed in my carry-on (my glasses, passport, etc.). as ron reminds us often, TIA - "this is africa!"

from there, we piled into a bus that comfortably sat maybe 14 (there are 19 of us...that was fun) and set out for mongu, the capital of zambia's western province, on what was initially projected to be a 6-hour bus ride through the night. the ride was epic - i tried african cookies and juice for the first time (ain't bad), saw a strange racoon-dog-like creature scamper across the one-way road as we were driving through a wildlife preserve, and witnessed my first gorgeous african sunrise (a couple of us instinctively broke out into the first few lines of lion king's "the circle of life" - it was that amazing!). 9 hours later, we arrived in mongu at the missionaries' base, mutoya, and settled down into tents to succumb to jet-lag and sleep the rest of the day away. laying down horizontally never felt so wonderful!

the next day, the team and i got to attend hope church. a few others from the team and i helped out with "kids church" during the second Lozi-only service. i expected it to be moderately difficult since most of the kids only spoke lozi, but we actually had a great time - smiles, hugs, and twirling till you're too dizzy to stand up straight knows no language barriers! i learned from marinette later that i'd likely be helping with kids church during that service, so i'm thrilled that i got to meet a few of the kids already!

for the rest of this week, the ladies and i have been teaching lessons, making crafts, and playing soccer with the kids at the zambia project's orphan school, village of hope (VOH). the one-room schoolhouse is right here on the base, and they have two sessions: "tiny tots" and kindergarteners in the morning, first- and second-graders and the "R group" (newbies whose learning level hasn't yet been identified) in the afternoon. i'll likely be working with the main teachers - stephen, margaret, jason, and patricia - at VOH from monday through friday as well!

the kids at VOH are indescribable. many of them are orphans, although some have parents who are either out of the picture or just haven't put their children's welfare at the top of their priority list. many of their outfits have holes, stains, and torn off logos from constant wear, and their hands, feet, and clothing are caked with black sand. mosquitoes land in their hair, ants trek up and down their legs, flies congregate at the corners of their mouths and eyes, yet they laugh and scream and run and play as if they were princes and princesses - which they are.

in an hour or so, the team and 6 zambian translators are headed out to the bush to a little town called maicalupei (mike-a-loo-pay), which is about two hours away and 200 adults strong. today, the plan is just to settle in and set up camp. from thursday through saturday, we'll go out into the village in the mornings to share the gospel with the men and women who live there, and in the afternoons, we'll get to play and hang out with the kids. according to the south african missionaries who lead the zambia project, maicalupei is incredibly open and excited to receive us tomorrow - we'll see how it goes! our wonderful translators tell us that we might be the first mcua (mah-coo-ah - i.e. white people) that some of them have ever seen before. i'd appreciate many prayers for our journey out there, as we set up tents and dig latrines, for jess and jacob's minor toe and leg injuries, and of course that we portray the correct picture of jesus christ to the people of maicalupei.

we'll come back from the bush probably on sunday, then it's back to hanging out with the kids at school and hopefully getting into a regular rhythm at mutoya! thank you again for your support and prayers, and i send my love to you all! :)

in His peace,
stephanie