World AIDS Day

Today is World AIDS Day and I think for the first time it really means something to me. Sure I would see the news articles about it before and the concerts and events they'd have to fund raise for it, but outside of that it didn't really impact me.

Today my heart breaks for I've seen the babies and adults that AIDS is killing. They are no longer just faces on some website, television commercial, brochure, or anything else. They are actually human beings. I know their names. I know what makes them laugh and what makes them cry. I've held these babies in my arms and rocked them to sleep or tried to get them to keep down even just a little bit of a bottle. AIDS is no longer just about the statistics to me - it's about friends I have, it's about little precious creations that God designed and loves, it's about families being destroyed and children left without any parents. And yet the resources are sometimes just not here. We've made medicines that can help anyone live a much longer, healthier life - but the education and availability sometimes just isn't here. People are still afraid of the stigma. The doctors and nurses don't always give the medicine because of supply. The tests don't come back accurate much of the time. So today my heart breaks.

Today my heart also has hope. There are improvements being made here - people are living longer and healthier - kids are being given the chance at life even when they are HIV positive. Dow is one of those little precious creations. When we first got here he was in really bad shape.


(This is Dow in June I believe)

He just didn't look like he was going to make it. Praise the LORD though that his little body responded so well to the medicines and today he is a BIG boy.


(This is Dow almost two weeks ago)
I love going to see him every week at Namwianga - to see him as he grows stronger and stronger. So there is hope. God knows each of these precious creations - young and old - that are HIV positive... and I know His heart breaks. Will your heart break for this horrible evil that is taking so many lives? It doesn't have to be this way. When will we wake up and let our hearts break? What will it take for you for the statistics to become more than just numbers on a page, but a tear stained face of a person dying? For me it took coming here to Zambia. Maybe it will for you too?

November is almost over?

Hi everyone!
I can't believe November is almost over. Well there's one more week, but it feels like time is just flying by.

I'm still teaching at Namwianga twice a week and the girls seem to really be embracing and understanding what I am teaching them. I pray that they will guard their hearts with all their might and trust the God will bring them the right man at the right time. I'm not just teaching against our human temptation to sin sexually, but also how the culture here in Zambia has been for a long time. Teaching them that is it okay and even good to say no seems to be so freeing to them. :) I love it.

My Sunday school class is also flourishing. The other week we had 80, yes EIGHTY, youths there! Now granted youths here are from age 11 or 12 up to age 35 so that increases the percentage of the church population that I get for Sunday school. :) We are studying Hebrews 11 looking at why the men listed in it were men of great faith. Every week we review all the people we've already learned about so that it helps stick with them more than just on one Sunday morning. I have them ask two questions every week to themselves. The first is what will I be remembered for? When I leave this place (Kalomo in their case), what will people remember me for? The second question then is, "Will I be remembered for my faith?" I have them simplify the people we look at down to one thing that they are remembered for. I am trying to help show them that what they do now, who they are now will have a great impact on their future. Who are they choosing to be now and how do people remember them? They seem very attentive for the most part and are getting more use to answering questions so it's definitely an encouragement to me.

My Saturday afternoon youth Bible Study at the church is still on the smaller size. I like it though because I feel like I am getting to know those who are coming better. I usually print something off for them so they can take notes/answer questions/fill it out and they seem to really like that. :) The church keeps trying to lecture the youth into coming on Saturday. I don't know that if I got yelled at every week I would really feel like coming either. I am trying to encourage the ones I do see in town during the week to come on Saturday and it seems those I meet with personally are more committed to also coming on Saturday.

Mutali and I are still meeting weekly for discipleship. She is very bright and starting to see that God has unique, special plans just for her - even as she is here in Kalomo studying to take her grade 12 exams again. It's an inbetween stage that many youth struggle in. They finish school, but want to get better grades on their grade 12 exam so they can get into the university they want to, in the major they want to - so they study for a year and take the tests they want to again. But then it's another YEAR before they get the results back so there's this year or two where they don't really have any focus. It's really hard for a lot of them to apparently get back on track because they spend a year or two just sitting around and then it's hard to get back into being a full time student or working full time again. They definitely need all of our prayers that God would use their unique abundance of time to get involved in the things He wants them to.

I am also starting to meet with another young lady, Memory. We have just started to hang out, but she also is very quick. :) I am excited to get to know her more and to possibly have the honor of discipling her.

Other than that I have been getting more into my artwork again. I am currently working on a mural that's an entire length of one of the walls in my room. I'm really liking how it's turning out. I feel so blessed to have time again to do these kinds of things and it makes me thankful so much more for how God has lavished blessings into me. I certainly don't feel that I deserve the gifts He's entrusted me with. I pray that I will be faithful to finding how He wants me to use them every day.

Well I should get going. I have some finance work to do. I wanted to get this out and up though as it seems my blog lost my last blog from the other week. I miss you and love you all! As much as I am enjoying my time here I am excited to coming home to all of you! Please pray that I would know when exactly I should come home. I'm tossing around some different possibilities, but really just want to know what God wants me to do. Okay, for real, I'm going now. I have loved all your encouragements, questions, and stories. They help me feel more connected to home. I pray you are all doing wonderfully and gearing up for the holidays with an expectation for God to show up in the midst of them! Because if we look for Him we'll be surprised how much He plans little things just to show us how much He loves us.

By God's Grace & For His Glory,
Abbie Morehead

P.S. There's a bunch more pictures on Facebook of all my adventures here in Zambia! If you don't have Facebook and want to see them, either ask your kids to let you on theirs ;) or let me know and I will try to get them up on another site as well.

November 5, 2009

I've found a god groove in my work. I know I've found a good groove when it doesn't feel like I'm working that much, but my weekly work hours report says I'm putting in over fifty hours per week.

Teaching at Namwianga is still proving to be a challenge, but the girls are really just soaking it in so I do feel this is where I'm suppose to be. They cancel classes and change the schedule so much, but don't find it necessary to tell me. In some ways I'm upset, but on the flip side it allows me to just show and say I'm going to meet with my girls at the normal time... I think have a schedule is just so important for communicating the importance of what's being taught and at the same time teaching the students responsibility for following a schedule. So I continue to show up and they continue to say okay, we'll go get the girls and tell them they're still meeting with you. :)

I know that Satan does NOT want me to share the truth with these girls - he desperately doesn't want them to be free and to know the love they crave can only be found in God. God loves each of them so so much and has plans for each of them. I know that I am making Satan angry by sharing about sexual purity with these girls because they are being empowered to stand up against the sexual sin that has weaseled it's way into the Zambian culture.

Even though the lack of organization and communication on the administrative level at the school astonishes me, I know that I just need to be faithful to what god has called me to do and that He will take care of the rest. I want to be more prayerful too over these girls. I want them to be covered in prayer, but I know the will only happen if I take the initiative to pray for hem. Even here I find myself getting "busy" with tasks... getting things done which I have something tangible to show for. Prayer is hard for me because I don't have anything tangible to show for it most times. Yes, God answers prayers and His provisions daily I know are answers to prayer, but other things like writing curriculum, working out, making journals for girls, going and meeting with people... those things others see as works I am doing. But I know that those things - those tasks - should not be my focus. Relationships and my relationship with Christ should be first priority. It's easy to get caught up in the tasks because pretty much everything we do here is considered missions work. I've lately just been convicted to be in prayer much more than I am... to make it the way of my life - not just part of my life - but that my legacy would be one of prayer. Prayer is such a powerful weapon and God longs to meet with each of us. Will you join me in committing to live a life of prayer? If we do I know we will see so much more that God has planned for us all along!

Teaching at Namwianga

Happy Friday afternoon! I am just getting back from teaching one of my two classes at Namwianga. I have the 11th grade girls in two sections (11A on Tuesday and 11B on Friday) and am teaching them on sexual purity. I have spent a lot of time working on the curriculum I am now using and this is probably the most nervous I've been teaching for many reasons. The first time I met with them (last week) I just used the time to introduce myself and the class and then gave them time to write any question they had about sexual purity, sex, relationships, marriage, etc. I told them I didn't want them to put their names on their sheet of paper and that I wanted them to spread out around the classroom so they wouldn't worry about their classmates trying to see what they were writing. I told them to fold their paper in half when they were finished and that I would come collect it, but I would not read any of the papers until I got back to my house. I wanted them to feel safe that they could ask anything and not feel like they would be singled out or secrets told to the rest of the class. I was hoping to get at least a couple good questions I could incorporate in my teaching. What I got blew me away. I want to share with you what they wrote, word for word, their own questions and stories. We hear facts all the time, but these girls each I see face to face. They are my classes and real girls with real questions and pasts. Please remember them in your prayers.

Here it is: *WARNING: This is verbatim what they wrote. It may be shocking and language we wouldn't even think of using at a Christian school, but please see it as their young hearts crying out for someone to guide them and help them. Thank you.

-How can I put it? You have a boyfriend and he pressures you into having sex with him. No matter how much you deny him he still won’t let it go and always says that he love you. He tries by all means to sleep with you and says the words “I love you” so convincingly that you end up having sex with him. Do you think that you can become pure again? Because the fact that you slept with someone before marriage haunts you every time and the thought that God won’t forgive you for break the rules haunts you.

-What do you do if you have got a boyfriend with a short temper?

-Is it normal to have a boyfriend who is younger than you but taller than you?

-What must I do if my parents love and trust me but they don’t expect me to have a boyfriend?

-Is it good to have a boyfriend when still in secondary school?

-I have a boyfriend at home. Here at school I am going out with a grade 12 since soon they will be closing. About 10 boys have been coming to me asking me out. What should I do?

-Since I came to this school I have got no close friends and my only friend for real – she is closed to me. She knows everything about my sex/dating life, but I don’t know about hers. Some times she tells me about herself in an indirect manner and she laughs at me about the things I tell her. Should I continue with her or what?

-Boys like touching my body and I have strong feelings for men. What should I do for men to stop doing these bad things to me?

-I had my first boyfriend when I was 13. We were never intimate in any way except that he disliked seeing me with other guys. Our relationship wasn’t the way I expected it to be, though we never broke up. I heard from my friends when I was 14 that he had a new girlfriend. That same year, another boy at my school asked me out and I accepted him. It wasn’t me who accepted, but my cousin accepted on my behalf since they were friends. I got used to him and felt comfortable with him around me and were intimate. We use to kiss and hug a lot. We even bathed together, but we never had sex or touched each other in our private parts. He went out with me for a year. Then, he dumped me and I have no idea why. I never asked him. I do club, listen to music and read the Bible.

-How long do you need to take before saying yes to a guy?

-Is it normal to be single?

-What can you do if you love a guy and he does not propose to you?

-For example, if you are in a relationship, then the guy dumps you when you still love him, what can you do?

-What can you do if the boyfriend is telling you to do things you do not feel like doing? e.g. Like sex and kissing

-Is it right to say yes to a guy you don’t have feelings for if he keeps on troubling you?

-Is it right to have a boyfriend at this age?

-If the boy just loves you for sex, what should you do?

-But some people say, “If you have not done sex at 15 and above years, then during your time when you will be married it will be hard for you to do sex.” How true is that?

-A lot of girls believe that if they cannot have sex then they should masturbate. Is masturbation right before God?

-Is it right to have a boyfriend even when you don’t kiss and have sex?

-At what stage should a girl start to date a guy?

-Is it okay not to have feelings for the opposite sex?

-What can you do if you are sexually abused by someone you trust, for example your dad, and you are so scared to tell anybody?

-My friends have boyfriends, but I don’t have one because I fell I can’t have one, but they pressure me to have a boyfriend.

-What can you do if your boyfriend asks you to have sex all the time you meet and when you refuse he stops talking to you and you love that person so much?

-How can I make him understand that I love him and I want to wait to have sex until after marriage?

-I always ask myself everyday, “What is life without sex?”

-Why is that my friend enjoys life with sex?

-How can I avoid such friends (who enjoy sex) and get my boyfriend to stop telling me about sex?

-What can I do for me to avoid sex?

-Which age is normal for a boy/girl to have a girlfriend/boyfriend?

-Is it allowed to kiss/smooch when you are in a relationship?

-How can you know that the guy you are dating is serious?

-There are sometimes when a guy is deeply in love with you and he trusts you a lot. Then all of a sudden you meet someone else and you are interested in the other one than the first guy. Is it allowed to dump the first one and go to the one you have just met because he is the one you love?

-My boyfriend is not a virgin but I am. He is loving and caring. Sometimes he asks me about sex, like when am I ready to have sex. Recently he asked me whether sex would keep a relationship stronger. I told him no because I had a feeling that’s what he was up to and I’ve seen it with many girls. Once she has sex with her boyfriend he dumps her. Truthfully I sometimes think he wants sex from me. So my question is, is it really sex that he wants or am I just thinking ahead?

-Can God forgive you after having sex because you did not know what you were doing?

-I want to ask this question, a certain friend of mine was forced to abort her pregnancy because it was her elder brother’s pregnancy. Thieves attacked them and forced them to have sex and then she fell pregnant. Will god ever forgive her for accepting to kill the baby?

-Is God able to forgive people who have sex before marriage?

-Can God forgive or punish people who have sex with other married men and then blackmail them saying that it’s their child while it’s not because they are prostitutes?

-What is being impure?

-How does someone become impure?

-What leads people to be impure?

-Is it wrong to watch pornography movies as a Christian at the age of 18 years?

-Is it wrong to have sex at the age of 18 years?

-For example, I have a boyfriend. Is it wrong or is it right for me to kiss him? (smooche)

-I want to ask this: What is the right age of having a boyfriend?

-What is being in purity?

-What are the disadvantages to a person who is in purity and how does it affect him/her? What are the advantages?

-How can a person come closer to God and be a pure Christian?

-Is it wrong when you choose to stop going out with a guy after you have sex, but you stopped when you heard about instructions and good advice? Is it forgiven?

-Is it right to have sex with a guy who is willing to spend his entire life with you?

-What advice can you give to me if I am dating a guy my parents don’t like?

-What can I do in order to stop being friends with boys who make me feel emotionally high each time I see or chat with them?

-What advice can you give me if I am keeping something that affects me seriously from my parents?

-Is it wrong to tell a boy that you like him?

-What are people in a relationship expected to do?

-How can you know that the boyfriend you are dating is given to you by God?

-At what age can God allow someone to be in a relationship?

-What can one do if she likes playing guys and she wants to change?

-Is it right to kiss, but not to have sex in a relationship?

-What can one do if a friend snatched away her boyfriend?

-What can one do if she happened to find out that the boyfriend kissed another girl?

-What can one do to stop her boyfriend from drinking and smoking?

-Is it right to drink when you are depressed?

-How can you tell or prove is a guy really likes or loves you?

-How far should I go with a guy in a relationship with the absence of sex?

-What the most recommendable age for dating?

-Is it right to date a bad boy because you’re hoping he may change in the future?

-How much of my heart am I suppose to give in a relationship in order for me to prevent a heartbreak if all doesn’t go well?

-How can I date a boy my friends do not approve of and still keep my friends around?

-What if you had sex with a guy out of making him love you?

-Is it wrong to like a guy and you know that he likes you too, but not because he wants to have sex with you?

-Is it wrong to be in a relationship when you are still in school?

-What if you love someone and that person is not a Christian? Can you end the relationship or can you try to change him? What if he does not want to change for the better?

-Having sex before marriage is a sin, but some people say practice makes perfect. How can I advise such people?

-What of those who are pregnant before marriage and they abort because of parents?

-What of those who had sex before marriage… are they going to get married in life?

-I started dating my boyfriend some few months ago. People in my neighborhood say he is a sex addict. The problem is that I don’t know what to do when he asks for sex. I love this guy very much and I am afraid of losing him. What should I do?

-When is the right time to have sex?

-Is it a sin to allow a boy or man to touch any part of your body?

-Is it allowed by God to allow a boy or man finger f*** you or giving a boy or man a blow job?

-Is it sin to regret having the features on your body?

-Is it sin to want to be someone else, like maybe something…

-Can you be my playing mum? I have liked you.

-What would I do if I found out that my best friend is dating my boyfriend?

-Is it right for some to be having sex with the guy they do not like?

-If I like someone and that person does not like me, is it right to let go of that person?

-Is it right to have sex with a guy because you love them?

-What would happen to a girl who starts having sex at any early age, like at the age of 12?

-Why do older men rape young girls?

-Is it right for a Christian to, at times, play songs like hip-hop, R&B, and regga?

-Does sex affect any of your sex organs? Can it cause some to have sharp pain in the side?

-Is it right for a girl to tell a boy that she loves him?

-If you see a big girl going after a young boy is it right to tell them that they are not doing the right thing?

-At what age is one person suppose to start dating boys as in according to the Bible?

-Why do people get mentally affected when they have sex at a tender age?

-I love this boy, but the problem is that he has dated my sister before so is it wrong to date someone who has dated your sister?

-How do you know that a guy really loves you?

-Is it wrong to kiss before marriage?

-How true is it that the first time you have sex it hurts?

-How can you avoid falling in love with the wrong person?

-Why is it that most school relationships do not work and most of them just end up in hatred for each other?

-Are there faithful boys in this world or maybe each and every boy is unfaithful (in relationships)?

-Is it wrong to date a man who is like 12 years older than you?

-What can you do if people/friends do not approve of your relationship with the guy you love?

-What can you do if you feel your friends are looking for a girlfriend for your boyfriend?

-What is the whole purpose of having a boyfriend at the age of 18 and below because obviously by then you are not ready to get married?

-What can you do when you fall in love with the same girl (guy?) as your best friend?

-Is it wrong to have a boyfriend?

-If you have sex with your boyfriend when you are still in high school but gets to get married to him, is that a sin that you had sex before marriage?

-Is it right for a girl to ask a guy out?

-Is kissing a sin?

-Why do some people date their cousins and is it wrong?

-Is it true that it’s better to break your virginity when you are still young because it hurts more when you grow up?

-What are the advantages and disadvantages of dating a classmate?

-How can you tell that a guy is just playing with your mind, but pretending to love you?

-What causes fear between two people when they like each other?

-Is it wrong to have three boyfriends at the same time?

-Since most guys play with our minds, is it wrong for us girls to play with their mind as well as dating them for their money?

-Is it wrong to flirt?

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These girls just want someone to be honest with them and to know that God still loves them. It screams so loudly to me - the statistics in Zambia say that 90% of girls will have sex by choice or by force by the age of 14. I think of my girls from BLAST... 90% of them?!? I can't imagine that.. and yet that's the reality these girls live in and men here view it as their right to have sex with whomever, whenever... Zambia is still an animalistic culture. God, please show me how to show these girls Your love and amazing plans for each one of them!

This week I made journals for each of them... well not the journals themselves, but I made a cover for each of them with their name... I made EACH one different... yep 35 different designs! I'm hoping that they will use them to journal their thoughts and questions as we work through this course together. Here are a couple of pictures of the all the journals!

And Finally Caught Up! Oct 28, 2009

September really went by like a blur. The days leading up to Paul arriving I spent trying to get everything in order at the house and getting a comprehensive list of projects together that would be the most beneficial use of his time. I also put in the schedule time for just us to spend together, times to meet the people I’ve been building relationships with, and times to go out to the places where we’ve been doing ministry since getting here. Most of the days I don’t remember too much. I was too nervous and excited.

Paul’s flight was arriving in Lusaka on the 10th. Paul had never flown before coming to Zambia so I was anxious about how he would do on the plane. Come to find out he loves it. J Anyway, since his flight was arriving in the morning Rob, Mutali, and I headed up in the Cruiser on Wednesday the 9th. Rob had been in America and while he was gone Christa had been driving the Cruiser around. She forgot to keep track of the fuel and when we got in the Cruiser on Tuesday we started praying we would make it to Choma since Kalomo was out of diesel fuel! Well, we made it past Maquaila, but soon started sputtering and the Cruiser shut off. Sure enough we were out of fuel. Rob called a taxi driver’s number he just happened to have in his phone from Kalomo. The guy came and picked Rob, drove him to Choma, found a fuel container in the market, got fuel with Rob, and then drove back to the Cruiser. Now that’s the reader’s digest version. This whole debacle took close to an hour and a half so Mutali and I had lots of time to hang out. We even started watching a movie on my laptop. Rob put the fuel in the Cruiser and then discovered it still did not want to start. Thankfully the taxi driver who had taken Rob had waited around to make sure we could get going. For those of you with diesel vehicles you know exactly why it wouldn’t start! When you run a diesel vehicle out of fuel it is bad news! You have to actually bleed the line to get it to start again. Rob had no idea where the fuel pump was or even how to bleed the line. Remember this is a 1987 Land Cruiser and it’s had all kinds of work done to it so things may not have been put back together exactly right. ;) The taxi driver was looking under the hood and saw another taxi driver friend of his coming up the road. He flagged him down and, PRAISE THE LORD, that guy knew what you needed to do to bleed the line and even where to look to find the fuel pump. Rob also got a hold of the mechanic in Lusaka who had worked on the Cruiser after Rob had blown the engine and confirmed the location of the fuel pump. My job was to hand them the right size wrench. It only took them a few minutes and the line was bled and the Cruiser roared back to life. Thank goodness. I was worried we’d have to take a bus or worse – have Paul figure out how to get to the bus station his first time ever being in Lusaka and ride the bus to Kalomo by his self.

We ended up getting to Lusaka though right as it was getting dark. Most shops close around 5 or 6 pm so we decided to defer the errands we needed to do until Wednesday and went to Rhapsody’s for dinner. It’s a nice restaurant although they’ve changed their menu since I’d last been there and I found there was less on the menu that interested me and things had gotten more expensive. Mutali had never been to Rhapsody’s and really enjoyed the fancy dinner.

We took Mutali to her uncle’s after dinner, which was quite the adventure. Please note Zambians are not the best at directions. I love Mutali, but she’d never been to her uncles and her mom gave her vague directions. So there we were driving around in the dark, dark night trying to find her uncle’s compound. Let’s just say it’s really off the beaten track… like I wasn’t sure the road was going to be wide enough for our Cruiser to make it. It’s a huge compound though and we found out her uncle is a banker and raises like 5,000 chickens to sell to various vendors in Lusaka for meat. He’s doing quite well, but he definitely wanted to have land all to himself. After we dropped her off Rob dropped me at the Reedmat Lodge. It took me forever to get to sleep. I was just too excited.

Paul’s plane was scheduled to land around 7am. Rob picked me back up (he had stayed at another lodge to avoid anything even looking shady) and we made the drive out to the airport. Rob dropped me off at the door and went to go park. I walked up to the window where you can see people getting their luggage and sure enough there he was!!! I got all jittery nervous and anxious for him to just get his bags and get through the checkpoint! Rob got to the door just before Paul got through the checkpoint. There was quite the crowd waiting for people so I waited to get a real hug until we were out in the parking lot. I felt like it was our first date all over again. Paul didn’t know it, but he was really shaking! I kept asking him if he was okay and he just kept shaking his head. Neither of us could get that stupid, silly grin off our faces. You know the one I’m talking about.

First stop coffee and breakfast. I could tell Paul was in a daze. I was in a daze. He was really here in Zambia! I tried to think back to my first day… the day of craziness running around Lusaka and me thinking it was way too much like America to really be Zambia. Paul had an advantage though. He had head me describe all of this to him over the past 5 months so I don’t think it was all as much of a shock to him as it was to me. After breakfast Paul and I went to the supermarket, Game (The Zambian version of Wal-Mart), and to Mica (a hardware store) while Rob did his own errands and picked up Mutali. The goal was to make it out of Lusaka by lunchtime so we would get back to Kalomo by dark. The 10th is also Christa’s birthday so we were also trying to get home at a decent time to celebrate it with her.

Well we almost made it out of Lusaka. We stopped at a take away place for lunch and while we getting back into the car some of Rob’s friends found him. Rob likes to look for movies from the street vendors. Mind you they each have a stack of like 60 movies! There’s no Interpol here so these discs have around 10-15 movies on them… the quality is definitely lacking though and many are in English with English subtitles that you can’t turn off. So we sat there while Rob shuffled through all the piles. He didn’t find any he liked so there went that twenty to thirty minutes. We finally got on the road home and stopped at banana corner to get produce and pick up a couple baskets for Christa. The baskets Zambians make are amazing and great quality. You can’t really understand banana corner until you see it for yourself. There are a crowd of women with bananas, apples, oranges, and tomatoes as well as some people with curios (touristy gifts). When you stop they all try to shove their hands with their produce in your window so you will buy from them! It’s quite the site. Rob finally found some bananas & we got back on the road. Paul & I both napped here and there on the ride down to Kalomo. The town before Kalomo, Choma, has a grocery store and Rob wanted to stop to look for ice cream. While he went into the supermarket Paul & I went over to the Choma Garage hardware store. This place is known for having supplies you can’t find pretty much anywhere else in Zambia. I knew Paul probably was tired so I said we didn’t need to get anything really that day, but just more so to introduce him to the manager & see the place.

We got back in the car, but when Rob went to start the Cruiser it just went “click, click, click.” Not a good sound. Welcome to Zambia, Paul. We pulled out his tools even though he had an idea that it was the starter solenoid that had gone bad. He took a look under the hood and under the Cruiser and sure enough the problem was with the starter. He drew quite a crowd of Zambians while investigating the problem. Apparently it’s quite the spectacle to see a makua doing his own automotive work. The crowd turned out to be handy though as there was nothing Paul could do to fix it at that moment so we needed a push start. J

So we finally got home and Paul and I got to spend time that evening just relaxing and unpacking his suitcases. I’ve never liked living out of the suitcase so I insisted on him unpacking everything so he would feel like it was home for him too. He was staying in my room and I was staying in Isaiah’s room since Isaiah knew me and then Paul could have his own space to relax. It also gave us a safe place to keep all of Paul’s tools. I didn’t mind until I realized Isaiah coughs and moves in his sleep A LOT! I would wake up thinking he was up coughing and getting sick, but when I’d get out of bed and go over to him he’d be fast asleep. He still sleeps on a plastic wrapped mattress in case of an accident, but it means I got to hear rustling plastic pretty much all night. He’s a busy dreamer that kid. I got use to it though after a couple weeks. J

The time with Paul here really just flew by. He fixed our water pump, installed a sediment filter, fixed the leaking plumbing, re-plumbed the back bathroom so it ran off the water pump instead of town water, built a garden spigot for Clifford to use, put a hot water tank up for my bathroom, and numerous other plumbing projects. He built me a bookshelf, bathroom shelves, and put hooks up for me to hang my bags on. He built the Murphys floor to ceiling pantry shelves and laundry shelves. He fixed many, many electrical issues and even put in new lighting and electrical sockets at the church here in town. I got to help him with all of these projects and he was so great – he always took time to teach me what he was doing so I now feel competent in doing plumbing and electrical work. I could try to build something, but for some reason that still feels a little daunting to me. Paul also helped Jako out by trying to recover info off their hard drive that crashed and helped Robby Banda at Namwianga with their server issues. Robby was very, very excited for Paul’s help.

While Paul was here we also took a few days to get away, just the two of us, down to Livingstone. We were actually at a stand still with projects and needed to get some supplies for which the closest place that might have what we needed was Livingstone. So it worked as a vacation and a supply run. We took the coach bus, Mazhandu Family Bus, which has 7 daily runs from Lusaka down to Livingstone and back up to Lusaka. Most of the buses do not have air-conditioning anymore so depending on where you are seated you can have interesting smelling people around you. The road between Zimba (the next town south of Kalomo) and Livingstone is being redone so all traffic has the taken the temporary dirt road off to the side of the construction. It makes for an interesting ride hitting all the bumps and holes.

We got down to Livingstone though by evening and checked into a backpackers down there, which is right in town. Jolly Boys Backpackers is a really clean, safe place and they offer dormitory style boarding. This was what Rob asked us to do so that we would have accountability in place with it just being the two of us down there. At first Paul was a little hesitant about staying at a hostel, but by the end of our time there he wanted to stay longer. J It definitely was mainly people around our age range with a lot of different areas to just lounge around. There was a nice pool, a little restaurant there, and just a relaxing feel to the whole place. And it was also nice that it was right in town so that we didn’t have to get a taxi to go get supplies or go out to eat. Every night we had an excellent dinner and enjoyed just walking around town in the evening.

One day we spent at the Victoria Falls hiking around there. It is a lot different in the dry season, but you can do a lot more there than you can during the rainy season as we got to walk across the top of the Falls. Paul was quite nervous for me, but I did fine and we got to see some truly breathtaking views. We also got to hike down to the boiling pot where the river comes into a circular area and spins around before finding its way downstream. The power of the water is just incredible! It was hot the day we went though and by the end of our time there I was quite tired and sore. It was definitely worth it although I do hope Paul gets to come back and see the Falls during or just after rainy season when the river is full and there is just an amazing amount of water going over the Falls!

I also got Paul to go to the curio market with me and we got all of our Christmas shopping done for everyone back in the States pretty much. It’s all bartering and I’m learning how to barter better. Paul was a good sport although I don’t think he realized when we started just how long we were going to be there and how many shops (there were around 70 shops) he was going to have to see. Paul did feel a little better later that day as I let him go to all the hardware stores in town to get the supplies he needed for our projects back at the house. J

It was so nice to just get away and spend some time alone. We are reading the book Saving Your Marriage Before It Starts by Dr Parrot and Parrot. It is a great book and we’d recommend it to anyone engaged or newly married. It has helped us have several really good discussions and has improved the way we communicate with each other. Spending time as just the two of us was very refreshing for me and helped me work through some of my temper issues that have surfaced since getting to Zambia. I had to realize that I was using Paul as my venting person too much and taking my anger out on him because I viewed him as a safe person to blow up at… I know he loves me and he’s in it for the long haul, but I was taking advantage of that. My anger use to get the better of me a lot, but I thought it was something I had grown out of in college. Yet, being here in a new environment with so much being different, Paul was seeing my anger resurfacing. We had several good talks about it and how I could better handle it. It still is not always easy for me and I need a lot of prayer to just be able to continue to give it to God.

We got back to Kalomo and got back into the swing of projects and I got back into my teaching at church on Saturdays and Sundays. Saturdays I’m still only getting around five to ten youths to teach during Bible study time. On Sundays I’m averaging forty to sixty youths! I know it’s not about numbers so I’m trying to be diligent in serving both meetings with the same enthusiasm. We got back into Kalomo on Saturday and on Monday the Murphys had to go to Livingstone with Megan who had come to visit for 10 days. She and her husband are praying about moving their family to Zambia as he is also a doctor specializing in pediatrics. She is great and I loved the brief time I got to know her. The Murphys were going to Livingstone with her to do the touristy things and to just spend some time on vacation as a family. They were not sure how long they were going to be gone, but the earliest they’d be back was Wednesday night and the latest would be Saturday night. Since it was just Paul and I staying at the house they asked if another Zambian female would stay at the house with us – just for accountability. Not that Paul and I would do anything inappropriate, but so that the neighbors would see someone else there and people would not start rumors. We ended up asking Mutali since the Murphys have basically adopted her as another daughter and she has been the most consistent in meeting with me for discipleship. She is such an enjoyable person to have around as well. She is very easy going and can just hang out and read so you don’t feel like you always have to entertain her. She loves to laugh and has a great understanding of English so it was nice to just have another friend around for the week. She loved staying with us too because she got to have American style food for the week, a hot shower, and sleep in her own room with a fan all to herself. These are all luxuries most Zambians don’t have in their own homes. She was so appreciative of all of it although now she does say when she comes over that she misses having a fan to sleep with at night. J

Paul continued to try to help Robby at Namwianga and worked on small projects around the house. We were nearing the end of his time here though so needed to make a decision on the satellite system quickly. Getting our satellite system out of customs and installed was one of Paul’s top priorities. He had been great about being patient, but we were reaching the end of our window to wait for the customs charges to be cleared. Robby sent paperwork the ministry of finance to try to get an exemption for our satellite to be cleared. Namwianga has all their paperwork in, but is now just waiting for their status to be approved and to get their new identification numbers. We were praying that it would be clearly because if it wasn’t then we’d have to pay seven times the amount of what it would cost to get it out when the customs duty charges cleared. We had originally thought we’d go up Wednesday, but I talked Paul into waiting one more day. We got on the first bus up to Lusaka with the hope of getting the satellite and some hardware we’d need to install it and catching the last bus back to Kalomo. It was quite the ambitious plan as the first bus leaves at 8am and arrives in Lusaka between 1 and 2pm. The last bus back to Kalomo is at 7:30pm… not a lot of time to get everything done! We knew though that it was all in God’s hands and what seems impossible or unlikely to us was definitely possible for God. Well on the way up we got a text message from the Murphys saying the Robby Banda had texted them saying the exemption had come through that morning! We called Robby when we got into Lusaka and sure enough, the ministry had approved our exemption for our satellite system! How awesome is that? God is so good! We got lunch, picked up supplies, got the satellite, and made it back to the bus in time. The satellite JUST fit under the luxury bus (the one with air-conditioning and nicer seats!) so we were able to get everything home the same day. We didn’t get back to Kalomo until a little after one in the morning. Mike Jones offered to get us and give us a ride back to our house with all our packages. He’s great. Paul and I were both exhausted, as it was a very long day.

Paul also started not feeling well that day – some sort of stomach bug where he just wasn’t hungry and didn’t feel well. I told him the satellite installation could wait until he felt better, but if you know Paul you know his response – no it’s going up today! So we got up and starting getting all the parts together to install it. It did end up taking us over a day to get it to actually receive signal, but by Saturday evening we had satellite Internet! It is awesome although some days I don’t really want to get online. I’ve gotten use to not really having the Internet so sometimes I feel overwhelmed by it or I know I can get sucked into just randomly surfing the Internet. Bleck... I hate that I waste time like that. It’s teaching me more time management though as my office is also my bedroom so I have to motivate myself to do the work I need to get done. It is awesome though to be able to talk online with everyone again and to be able to video chat with my family! I use iChat on my Mac so I use my gmail account: abigailcristin@gmail.com and my AIM account abbiemorehead on there. I also use Skype as it seems to have the best video quality ability and my account on there is abigail.cristin and am most times logged onto both. I would love to talk with any and all of you – although probably not all at the same time. J I am also on Facebook more and am working on posting pictures from my past 6 months on there. It tells me I can share the link for the album with people not even on Facebook so next round of pictures I put up I’ll make sure to post that link on here.

With the satellite up Paul was also able to reinstall and upgrade Namwianga’s server. Robby was immensely thankful and he was just as sad as I was to hear that Paul’s time in Zambia was coming to an end. The Murphys came back on Saturday night and found out on Sunday that there was a pediatric HIV clinic or something close to that in Livingstone taking place Monday to Friday. So they did all the laundry, repacked the Cruiser, and left Monday morning to go back to Livingstone! Mutali actually went with them this time to help babysit the kids so Maureen came and stayed with us for the week. I have not gotten to see her much as she has started working at a hair salon in one of the market areas in town. She works from 8am to 6pm Monday to Saturday so I completely understand her not having time to meet. It was nice to have her for the week even though I didn’t get to see her much except for in the evenings for an hour or two. She also loved having American food for the week, a hot shower, her own bed, and a fan! She also loved our library we have at the house here. I have been learning from Maureen and Mutali just how much I have to be thankful for. Paul spent most of the week working on Namwianga’s server and tweaking the Internet to make it work the best it could. On Wednesday we also went to Mapampi, Mike and Linda Jones’ orphanage out in the bush. We rode in the back of the lorry on the 2 hour trip through the bush. He got to meet Anna, the baby girl I had cared for back in July. She is getting so big now and has the cutest little chubby cheeks. Paul got to be helpful again and get the last set of bunk beds for the 4th house into the room they needed to go in. It took a little finagling and pulling out the pins that held the top on the bottom and cutting one of the legs, but he eventually got it in the room. We got to see the activity center they are building too. Their place out there is amazing and God is doing some awesome things through them. The kids there all seem so happy and know that they are loved. It’s hard to really understand the orphan situation here though. Families mostly live all near each other, but when the mother and father die or the mother dies and the father can’t take care of the baby, the baby is then considered an orphan. They usually still have aunts and uncles and grandparents, but none of them can take care of the baby. And it’s not that they don’t want to as many still come visit the kids at the orphanages. It’s a matter of their living condition and finances and having kids of their own to care for. So the child is placed in an orphanage where they can receive the proper care and nutrition and love and schooling. For Mike and Linda they keep the children until they are close to what is considered adulthood here in Zambia. Again it’s a little confusing because you’re considered an adult – that you can take care of yourself and work and earn a living – and yet you’re considered a youth until you are 35 usually. Some orphanages give the kids back to the families once they are 3 or 4 as they are past the crucial stages where they can get sick easily, need a lot of care, and need proper nutrition that they often can’t get in the bush. This is the case at Namwianga although sometimes there isn’t family to take the child back and then they moved into a house at Namwianga for older kids. Other orphanages chose to keep the child through their primary schooling years believing having a stable environment for the kids is important for their development and if the family couldn’t care for them when they are young what changed so dramatically that they can provide the proper care for the kids when they are older. All of these questions are things that I had never thought about really before coming to Zambia. I see the benefits and negatives of both styles, but am just glad that there are people and places here to care for all these babies and children who need someone to provide for them.

The rest of Paul’s time really just flew by and before we knew it we had to go back to Lusaka to take him to the airport. Since the Murphys had been traveling like crazy Paul and I decided to just take the bus up to Lusaka and that I would take the bus back myself. It is safe to ride the big buses and when we had gone up to get the satellite we had found a taxi driver, whose name is also Paul, that gave us excellent rates and was really trustworthy. Paul felt okay about letting that taxi driver drive me back to the bus and that I would get on the bus safely and back to Kalomo. It was so hard to say goodbye to Paul. Before he came I had missed him, but I had no idea what it would be like to have him here in Zambia. I had only experienced Zambia on my own – or well with the Murphys – but not Paul. Having him here reminded me what a good team we make. I think I had previously just taken it for granted. My only real ministry job before Zambia was with Brian at COS and everyone had said we were a one in a million pairing. We just worked so well together. When Paul came into my life it was like that again – although also different as Brian and I just had a work and friend relationship. Paul is like my puzzle pieces. He fills in the holes in my puzzle and adds parts onto my puzzle that I didn’t even know existed! It’s like when I got glasses and realized I had been missing out on so many details in life… when Paul came into my life I realized there was so much more there that he helped me see! Having Paul in Zambia showed me that we were an awesome team no matter where we were. I really feel like we could move anywhere in the world and be fine because Paul just knows how to make things work and how to fix things. He is so supportive of me and giftings together really make a great team. Yes, I was able to talk to him most days while he was in America and I was in Zambia the first four to five months I was here, but having him here let him see first hand the things I had been trying to explain to him. When I had met Paul I questioned God… we had seen each other for 9 years at Creation and ran into each other more times than could just be coincidence… yet we never felt an attraction for each other until Creation 2008 when I had already committed to coming to Zambia! Why God? Having Paul here though helped me to see some of His reasons. If Paul and I would have started dating before I committed to coming to Africa would I have really come? Of course I want to say yes, but I don’t know. If I had met Paul after being in Africa would he really have understood what life was like here and how it changed me? I know God could help Paul understand, but I believe Paul being able to come here will be something that will be something we always remember. I know it has changed both of us for the better. We have talked since about what do we want our life to look like in work, in ministry, and just in our personal lives. I think we both see how each other’s giftings can be used mightily on the mission field. We have talked about coming overseas for a month out of the year to help establish missionaries. Seeing what Paul can do to make things works inspires me and he is great in that he teaches me and others who want to learn. I can actually do wiring on my own now and feel confident doing it! J It’s a big promotion from flashlight holder – although that is a VERY important job as well… especially for the guy doing the work in the dark! But what if Paul and I helped missionaries get their homes ready and functioning so that they can be freed up to do the ministry work they feel God has called them to do in the place they are? Just something to think about and remember in the future.

Anyway, getting back to Kalomo was fine, but I was really sad. I missed Paul more than I thought I was going to. It just seemed empty without him here. I enjoyed just being able to do my work sitting next to him while he does his work. I don’t like thinking about not seeing him for 6 more months, but I know God will help me make it through it and that I will definitely not take for granted getting to be around each other day in and day out when we get married!

It took me about a week to get back into the groove of things. I had to take some times to just adjust my schedule and focus and to give my sadness to God. I found though that I had a sense of peace still. I know that this is where God wants me to be for this time of my life and I know He has Paul where he wants him. Since Paul has gotten back things have started opening back up for him in regards to his business as well! I think it was just good for him to get away for awhile, spend time serving God in a different way, and giving his business back to God… not that he wasn’t trusting God again, but he really couldn’t do any work for his business while he was here so he had to really trust God 100%. Things are starting to take off and it’s so exciting to see the doors God is opening.

Back to Zambia… can you tell I’m a distracted blogger today? Sorry my ramblings are all over the place. Anyway, Kalomo has gotten hot! It’s in the 90s most days and the sun is much stronger here so it’s a beast by the afternoon! Thank goodness for my fan. I also love when Zesco (our electric company) actually stays on. It seems we’re load sharing again with who really knows… but it means me regularly lose power for a couple hours a day… and it’s usually right around dinner which makes it interesting to have a normal evening meal time! The Murphy’s two oldest girls, Acacia and Christianna are back to doing school and Isaiah and Katriya even have some preschool time with Christa in the morning. Rob is starting to meet with more mission organizations and make connections with them. It’s fun to see things start to take off and doors starting to open. I am finally teaching now at Namwianga as well. It took awhile for things to actually come together but I am teaching 11th grade girls on Tuesday and Friday evening. The grades are split into two sections – A and B. So I have 11A on Tuesday and 11B on Friday. I am hoping to get pictures next week so you’ll be able to see all these beautiful young ladies. I am teaching on sexual purity and they seem to be interested in learning about what I have to share so far. I’m trying to focus it more on the emotional and spiritual side of sexual purity as they hear a lot of about the physical side of purity already. For girls I think the emotional side is where we much more easily get pulled down. Other than Namwianga on Tuesday and Friday I am still meeting with Mutali on Mondays, trying to find times to meet with Tendai when she’s not crazy busy, teaching Saturday afternoon Bible Study, and youth Sunday school at church. I have finally caught up on my financial work and now my blog! I will try to keep on top of it more now that we have actual Internet. I am sorry for how out of touch I have been. Thank you all for your continued support! God is good all the time and all the time that is His nature! Please let me know how I can continue to pray for you all as I think of you all often and miss you!

Aug-Sept 2, 2009. Sorry this took so long to post. I'm working on catching up I promise.

Happy 2nd day of September! If you know my Momma you know she has pretty much always had the tradition of trying to be the first person to wish each of us kids “Happy first day of the month” every month. It became a game to see if we could tell her before she would tell us. I actually got a phone call from Momma & an email from Dad in which they both wished me a happy first day of the month. Dad even reminded me that this is my 5th month here in Zambia! How crazy is that?!? It feels like maybe just a couple weeks ago I was packing all my stuff & stepping onto a plane to fly halfway around the world. As I look back on my time here though I am so thankful for how God has grown me & what He is doing through me. I feel so blessed that God called me to Zambia. I cannot imagine my life without Zambia in it. This time here has already changed me permanently. I do miss you all so much & miss being a part of Church of the Saviour & BLAST a ton, but I know this is the place God wants me to be during this time of my life.

The past few weeks have seemed like a blur… a lot of activities, meetings, and things to do which is different for me since being in Zambia. I am learning how much I enjoy just being with people on some days instead of always focusing on a list of things that I think need to get done. It has been a productive few weeks though and I have definitely learned A LOT during these past weeks.

On Friday the 14th I went to Livingstone with Mike and Linda Jones. They had some errands to run and needed their lorry looked at by the mechanic because their brakes were acting up. Rob ended up coming with as well as he was planning to go to Livingstone to do some outreach to the street vendors in Livingstone. Since there’s only three seats in the lorry though he rode in the back all bundled up in blankets. When we got there we all got coffee, which Rob usually never has. Well Rob had two lattes and he was AWAKE and READY TO GO! It was pretty funny because he couldn’t slow down his talking and his eyes were just huge. It’s probably a good thing that he doesn’t normally drink coffee because he’s pretty wired without it. J After Rob headed off on his own way Linda and I explored the shops in Livingstone. I found a pair of stone zebra bookends in the market place for a really good price. I’d been after bookends since getting here and the zebra ones were only in one shop out of like 40! I got groceries in Shoprite and then Linda, Mike, and I had lunch at a grill place right in the middle of town. It was almost completely empty, but the food was quite good. Mike had been running errands to the bank and social welfare in the morning, but the people he needed to see at social welfare were not in all morning so after lunch we all went back to social welfare. They finally got to see the man in charge as they are still trying to get the kids from their old orphanage if it does in fact close down. After we finished there the lorry was finished so we took a taxi to pick it up. Then, Mike was finally able to pick up the bunk beds they had come down for that were going out to Mapampi, the hardware supplies he needed for several projects, and to exchange our water pump again as the one he had gotten ended up being broken from the start! We originally wanted to be on the road back to Kalomo by 3pm, but of course we didn’t get on the road until almost 6:30pm. Everything just takes longer here and places don’t always have what you’re looking for so it means going to several places to find that one thing you need. I had a good day with Mike and Linda though and got to talk through a lot of things with them. I feel so blessed to have them here and value their insights and prayers tremendously. It helped so much just to be able to talk through it all with other people who are actually here with me and live life right alongside me. As Linda told me, God must be preparing me for something really big with everything I am going through right now. I know God knows what He’s doing and I do trust Him – I just sometimes don’t understand why exactly I am going through the things I am. I try to have patience and see God’s reasons in it, but I just get so frustrated and discouraged sometimes. And it’s the things that I didn’t expect to be causing the stress that are proving to be the biggest challenges. I don’t really want to go into it any further here to protect those involved, but I do treasure all your prayers so much.

Saturday I spent most of the afternoon at Maureen’s. It is very relaxing to hang out with her at her place. I think it means a lot to her too that I come and visit her at her home. After her dad passed away, in keeping with Zambian culture her uncles all decided who should get what possessions. Since her dad worked for the council here, they had to move out of their house because the council owned it and since her dad no longer worked for them her family couldn’t stay in that house. They pretty much “lost” everything, but yet they have so much in their hearts.

On Sunday we went to church & again after the service we had a meeting for the youths. It seems that the way they motivate people here is by lecturing them and making them feel guilty for what they aren’t doing but should be doing. They rarely seem to hear about grace here. It is a lot about living up to expectations not that it seems to be working. This time it was about not coming to Saturday afternoon Bible Study that I help teach and they seem to like to use me as one of the biggest reasons why they should be coming – that here I am living in Kalomo & I have come all the way from America just to teach them – not that that’s really my purpose in being here or what I feel I’ve been called to do here, but that’s what the church leaders tell the youth. Yet, these lectures seem to have very little to no effect on the youth. They still don’t come on Saturdays & when they are lectured they just stand there not seeming to be affected at all by what is being said to them. It makes me wonder why they are like they are & what it would take to have them become interested in a youth program. It is one thing I did not expect here – I expect apathy in America, but to see it in the faces of so many youths here in Zambia is not something I was prepared to face. I don’t know how to reach them as I’m not really a part of their culture & that really frustrates me. I know though that the only person I can really change is myself – only God can change someone else – so it’s been a good eye opener to the need for prayer in areas I did not really think about here in Zambia before I came.

On Monday we headed back to Immigration once again to get another 30-day stamp. We have still have not received our work visas even though they supposedly meet twice a month. Immigration has become an easy thing though as we have all the proper paperwork in now & she can’t create anything extra for us to do while we wait to get our visas. After Immigration Rob & Christa needed to run errands and I was suppose to meet Mutali at the church at 9:45 so I rode around with them until we went to church to meet Mutali. They still had more errands to run so I walked back to our house with Mutali. Mutali is 18 years old, the youngest of three girls, lives with her mom (her dad passed away a few years ago) who is a teacher at Kalomo High School, and is studying math so she can pass her grade 12 exams and go onto college. She has been to America as part of a youth choir she was a part of when she lived in Zimba (the next town south of Kalomo). She speaks English very well and has a good head on her shoulders. She has a grounded outlook on life and definitely understands at least the basic foundations of Christianity. I hung out with her for most of the morning as we spent time just getting to know each other and reading the first chapter of Galatians together. She stayed for lunch with us and even came to Namwianga in the afternoon with Christa, Acacia, Christianna, and I. She seemed to really like helping with the babies and I enjoyed just hanging out with her. She said there’s not much for her to do at home so she really enjoyed spending the day with us. Rob and Christa actually know her and her family from when they lived in Zimba back in 1997 so it’s fun for them to get to know her again as she’s now a young lady.

On Tuesday Rob, Christa, Acacia and Christianna went to Zimba for the morning. I stayed to watch Isaiah, Katriya, and Shamariah. Shamariah napped from 10am until just about 2pm so I spent most of the time just playing with Isaiah and Katriya. They are so fun to play with as they develop more into their personalities every day. They are learning more words although when they get tired it’s harder for them to remember to use their words instead of just screaming. (They’re actually in my room right now playing with themselves in my mirror. They like dancing and making funny faces at themselves in my mirror. It’s pretty fun to watch them make themselves laugh.) I was able to also get some computer work done while they played together with legos. I helped build them each a plane/space ship and they were content to play imagination with them by themselves. It’s fun to listen them make up stories and play pretend because they aren’t necessarily speaking the most understandable English, but they seem to always understand each other. I made them one of the snacks my Mom use to make us – banana boats! You know what I’m talking about – bananas with peanut butter and then raisins and chocolate chips as the sailors! J They thought it was great although Katriya licked all the peanut butter off her banana before eating it. I tried to make it a special day for them since they were sad they couldn’t go with everyone else to Zimba. I decided to make chicken patties for lunch along with cucumbers and apples. Isaiah discovered he loves barbeque sauce – even on his cucumbers! When everyone else got home I came back to my room just to lay down for a little bit and ended up taking a three hour nap. I hadn’t realized I was that tired, but I definitely felt better after napping. In the evening I worked on my talk outline for the session I had been given during the upcoming National Youth Convention for the Pilgrim Wesleyan Church.

On Wednesday I visited Maureen again and took Christianna along with me since Maureen had asked if Christianna could come visit the next time I came over. It seems that everyone loves Christianna. She has such a joyful spirit and I rarely hear her complain. It’s a good walk there and by the time we got to Maureen’s Christianna was pretty tired. We shared roasted ground nuts together and caught up on life. Then, Christianna and I headed to town to stop at Mike and Linda’s to pick up a couple receipts of the Murphys that Linda had from when we had gone to Livingstone the week prior. We hung out with Linda for a little bit as Christianna was hot and tired from walking all the way back from Maureen’s. She was so cute though about it and still wanted to play games with me the whole time. She kept taking detour paths and then cutting back to the main path we were walking down. She called them shortcuts even though most times they were longer than the main path. She would run though so that she could beat me to the spot where the winding path met back up with the main path. I let her win pretty much every time and she thought it was great fun. We picked up a couple things in town and then headed back home to grab lunch with everyone before heading out to Namwianga.

We spent the afternoon out at Namwianga playing with the babies. It’s so fun to see how much they’ve grown each week. Many of them are learning to sit up and some to even stand. They moved a bunch of them around to different beds and cribs depending on which ones have learned to roll over and which have learned to sit up. I love playing with Sam. His laugh is just great. Although now he’s learned that if he cries when I put him down or when I come into his room that I’ll most likely pick him back up. He use to just be a happy kid all the time and never cry. The second I pick him up he throws his arms around me and just giggles. After I had spent time holding several different little ones they all seemed like they wanted to just cry so I pulled 5 of them out of their cribs and sat them on the floor against my legs and that seemed to make them happy. They seemed a little surprised to see each other sitting up so close to them, but they quickly learned that they could hold each other’s hands and make each other laugh. I think Megan is glad to have the other college girls here for a year from Oklahoma. It makes it a lot easier on her to feel like the babies are all getting loved on and cared for on a daily basis.

On Thursday Tendai came over for the morning. We had Bible study time on Galatians 1 and 2 and I challenged her to read 3 and 4 for the following week. She brought over a Zambian fruit which I don’t remember the name of now. Anyway, you put the seeds in boiling water and they dissolve into sort of a yogurt like texture. You mix in some sugar and then can add yogurt or granola if you want. It was pretty good although it was really really tart! I can see so much of myself when I was younger in Tendai. I hope she really takes to heart our times together and that God will use me or bring another mature Christian female into her life. She has the potential to be an amazing leader, but also some character issues that, if not resolved, could potentially lead her down a really scary path in life.

For dinner on Thursday I made stuffed peppers. They’re one of my favorite things to make back in America, but I forgot I was cooking for mainly little kids. Christa has made some spicy dishes, but it seemed that the stuffed peppers were just a little too much. I didn’t add that many spices, but the green peppers apparently weren’t cooked long enough to make them bland enough. I loved them though. Zambian vegetables are great – we definitely are blessed with great produce here. It’s one of the things I already know I am going to miss back in America.

On Friday I spent most of the day on the computer trying to get my purity course that I’m teaching at Namwianga this next term down into the format that I can teach from. I hadn’t realized how much reading and research and notes I had been collecting until I tried to get into one concise document. I wanted to blog on Friday, but it ended up taking me Friday, Saturday and Sunday to get my purity curriculum to a point where I felt good about it. I also had to write a youth Bible Study on Friday for Saturday and to finalize my talk for the National Youth Convention in Choma that I was leaving on Monday for.

Saturday I wrote, wrote, and wrote. I took a break in the afternoon for Bible Study at church for which there were only 3 people in attendance. It’s still hard for me to see how the youth here can be so apathetic. We discussed again changing the Bible Study from Saturday afternoon to Sunday morning and presenting it during the Sunday School time at church. On Sunday there’s approximately 60 or so youths there so maybe that would be a better way to utilize my time. If they just aren’t interested at all though am I still just wasting my time and putting energy into something my audience isn’t even really going to listen to or apply to their lives? I don’t know. I’m still just trying to process it and see where it is God wants me to invest my time here.

On Sunday we went to church and then I spent the afternoon preparing for my week ahead in Choma. I wasn’t sure if I was leaving on Monday to go up with the youth or if I was going to just go up on Tuesday morning with Rob when he was scheduled to speak, but I decided I should pack just to be on the safe side. I really was unsure what exactly to pack. With having the week be for all the youth throughout Zambia I did not know what the standard would be for dress code and I had no idea where they were putting me up for the week. Given, the National Director, said they would find suitable accommodation when I arrived. So I had no idea what would be safe to bring, as I had no idea who I might be sharing a room with. I decided to just pack for how I normally live for a week and hope for the best. Rob was scheduled to speak Tuesday and Wednesday so if it just wasn’t safe or acceptable I could always come back with him. I finished packing and finished my purity curriculum – 14 pages long! Well at least I’ll be prepared! J

Monday morning I called Mr. Simuuba (the Headmaster of the Secondary School at Namwianga) and was able to go out to Namwianga to meet with him. Well he ended up not being there when I got there – it seems to be a trend with Zambians – you call, they say sure stop on by, you get there in a little bit and they’re already gone! So the District Headmaster was in (mind you he didn’t speak or seem or understand very much English) and so Rob and I met with him. They still did not have their schedule for the upcoming term together – it starts on the 7th… yea about that planning ahead idea… so I gave him my number and name and asked him to call when they had an idea of when they wanted me to teach. We then stopped by the Gregersens where their carpenter, Joe, has been building us a dining room table and chairs (10 of them) for oh about two months. When we ordered them they were to be done in 10 days. We knew that wasn’t going to happen, but the multiple months were also not expected. Well long story short – the table was too high, the chairs were too short, things were not built how we had asked them to be – the varnish wasn’t done – the table top still wasn’t on. So Rob needed to have a conversation with him about how we could fix these issues and get the table and chairs finished so we could have an actual dining table and chairs instead of a makeshift wobbly table and plastic stools. It was suppose to be a quick check in on Joe and discussion – well over an hour later we finally left! I’m glad I packed on Sunday. We stopped in to see George, the director at Namwianga, to check on where they were in the process for filing for their new VAT number. He told us they finally had all their paperwork in order and would be sending Robby Banda at the end of the week to Lusaka to file it all. We would then find out how long it would take to get their VAT number, which would let us know a timeline for actually getting the satellite system out!

We got back home and I quickly ate lunch and then waited for Mike Jones to pick me up. He was giving the youth transport to the National Youth Convention and they had asked me to come up with them on Monday since neither of their district chair people could make to the convention. Since I was packed and ready I said I could definitely do that. I got to catch up with Mike a little bit on the way up to Choma and hear his thoughts on the satellite system and Paul’s quickly approaching trip.

When we got to Choma we discovered we were some of the first people to arrive. There were a few youths from one of the northern provinces that is apparently pretty far away and one of the district chair people from Choma who seemed to be in charge of what ever was already set up. I sat down with Anderson, who is from our church in Kalomo and is the National Youth Sports Director for the Pilgrim Wesleyan Church of Zambia. He seemed to also have some sort of responsibilities in the registration/financial part of the convention. He asked me to help him and with not having anything else to do at that time I told him I’d love to. Wow. I don’t think I had any idea what I was really getting into.

There was no system really in place and no one seemed to be sure of who was in charge. Eventually some paperwork showed up which were a huge stack of profile sheets for each youth to fill out when they paid (although some had already paid and wandered off before the sheets arrived) and a chart to fill in their name, district, local church, and how much they paid. Anderson collected the money while I filled in the chart and nametags. We had each youth fill out a profile sheet before they paid and registered with me… it helped because then I had a sheet, which spelled their name although sometimes the penmanship required that I still asked hem to spell their name for me. I wasn’t allowed to give them their nametag either, which seemed strange to me, but I was told we needed to keep the nametags until we passed out mattresses later. I was told to put all the nametags in a bag until later.

Well about 3 or 4 hours later when they had determined most people had shown up we walked over to the room where all the mattresses were kept. Since the school isn’t in session they put all the mattresses in a storage room. Everyone congregated outside as those in charge tried to figure out how to give mattresses out and make sure each person got their nametag since their nametag also counted as their meal card! We ended up having to sort all the name tags by district: Lusaka, Zimba, Kalomo, etc. and then having them line up by district. I was given the task of listing all the names for a second time on a mattress distribution list! If I wasn’t good at Zambian names before this week I was getting the definite impression that I would be excellent by the end of the week. Of course as we were doing all this about another 40 youths showed up so they had to be registered and written down for mattresses. However, by this point we had already run out of nametags so I had to mark who also needed a nametag the next day when we could get more printed in Choma.

So about 10:30pm we finally started the evening program, which meant dinner was not until about 11:30pm! I had not ate since noon so I was starved by the time dinner actually came. There were about 175 youths plus leadership there. Since they were from all over Zambia it was decided that the sessions would be done in just English. That was helpful for me. However, outside of session time everyone talked in their tribal language pretty much all the time. I was the only non-Zambian there so unless people were speaking directly to me I felt pretty lost. It’s amazing how tired your brain gets, too. I know a little Tonga so some conversations I can pick up on, but for the most part it just sounds like noise to my brain. It’s really tiring because even when I was with a group of girls they would speak in Tonga to each other until they had a question for me or something they wanted to tell me. I wasn’t upset or angry about it as I know that’s their native tongue and what they’re use to, but it did leave me feeling left out quite a bit.

Sometimes I don’t notice skin color anymore. I had to ask Mutali, one of the girls I’m meeting with regularly that came to the National Youth Convention, how much I stand out. She said that I really stood out and that people were always watching me. I realized then that I had become so use to being around Zambians all the time that I did not notice the distinct differences between me and them most of the time. However, since I was the only white person among 200+ Zambians and with most of them never meeting me before I realized that I really was going to be like a fish in a glass bowl for the entire week. I prayed that God would use me in the lives of the Zambian youth and that I would learn as much as I could from them by spending a week with them.

Before I came the National Director told me they’d find adequate accommodation for me upon my arrival. Well I found out when I got there that I’d be staying in the dorms at the Choma Secondary School with all the other girls. I was a little nervous about it but, Rob was coming to teach Tuesday morning so I figured if it didn’t go well the first night then I could go back with him on Tuesday and just come back to Choma for when I was speaking. There are about 12 or more bunk beds in each room. The rooms are very basic. Cement block buildings with windows and fluorescent lights. There is one outlet per room and the bathroom is located at one end of the building. Most Zambians sleep two to a single bed and that goes for even when they are at home. It seems that the Zambian females are very free when they are in their rooms so clothing seemed to be optional. I quickly learned though that these ways of living do not apply to me. When I would get ready for bed it seemed that all the girls would freeze and just watch me. They especially were freaked out when I took my contacts out. They all wanted to see me do it again for them. The first night I did not sleep much at all. It reminded me of being at camp. Even though youth here range from 11 years old to 35 years old the girls in the room I was put in were full of excitement and wanted to stay up all night dancing and talking. I eventually got a couple hours of sleep, but was woken up early by everyone getting ready.

The bathroom situation is something I really wish someone had warned me about. Now I’ve seen the pit latrines and understand about the situation in the bush, but I was not prepared for what I found. At the end of each dorm building there was one bathroom. It had five sinks, three washing basins, a shower area, and three toilets. First, none of the toilets flushed nor did they have toilet seats. The showers also did not seem to really work. So I found out that many Zambian females just go near trees when they need to go to the bathroom. This made the yard areas around the dorms… well you can imagine. Next, they all bathed themselves in the sink. They just splash water on themselves from the sink. Since they don’t need to wash their hair like us white people it works for them. Apparently this is how most bath at home. It however creates standing water all over the bathroom floor. They also apparently go to the bathroom while bathing so there’s a whole extra level of newness for me. They also don’t have plugs for the drains for the sink so they’ll use whatever they can find – plastic bags, soap wrappers, etc. These then get left lying around so as the water does drain out of the bathroom (there’s a drain at one end), the drain gets clogged up and the water rises. They also wash their clothes as they bathe themselves. At first it really shocked me to see all of this at once. I tried to hide it, but I’m sure my face gave me away. Since the showers were broken though and it was hot and dusty out I also needed to shower. I think it shocked the girls more that I also showered in the sink area with the rest of them just as much as seeing the bathroom situation shocked me. It was a little unnerving to be watched though and I tried for most of the week to shower when most of the girls were not around. It was definitely a growing experience though in learning about Zambian culture and trying to live like them.

The other big stretching point for me was the food. I am so thankful for all the different kinds of food we as Americans get to eat – and that we most times take for granted. The Zambians have n’sima for lunch and dinner every day. For breakfast they have two slices of bread and a cup of tea (no sugar or cream provided). For lunch it was usually n’sima with cabbage as a relish. In the evening it was n’sima and usually cabbage plus either beans or meat. The meat was also very tough. One of the churches that came paid by bringing one of the father’s cows. When you don’t have money here it is common to pay with chickens or cabbage or beef. I think the cow had seen many younger years though as it was quite tough. I always ate what I took though as it is very disrespectful to them if you take something and then don’t eat it. They seated me at the table with the guest speaker, his wife, the National Director, his wife, the Assistant National Director, and the speakers who would come just for the day they were speaking. It was quite an honor to sit with them and I enjoyed hearing their conversations over the meals during the week. They spoke in English most of the time and I greatly appreciated it. By the end of the week though I had had my fill of n’sima! I cannot imagine having it every single day. Of course most of them don’t know anything else so there is nothing else to compare it to. I definitely had too much cabbage though and was glad to cut that part out of my diet at the end of the week. J

On Tuesday I was asked/informed that I would be in charge of registration for the whole week. I actually really liked this as it fed my administrative gifting and helped me feel like I was able to provide a real service while at the convention. Over the course of the week we ended up reaching around 225 in attendance. I also helped Anderson with the financial books for the convention. He was in charge of the money, but I helped him make sure the numbers added up as far as collection of money and then what was spent every day on food and various supplies. I ended up showing him how to use Excel on my laptop to put all the data into a spreadsheet so it would be in one place and not on a paper, which tended to get lost. I also became the person though that carried all the paperwork around. Since I already was taking my computer with me everywhere (for security reasons) I had my laptop bag with me. This apparently was a sign to them that I had room for all the profile sheets, registration materials, and any other papers they could find that dealt with administration. My bag got quite heavy by the end of the week! Still it felt good to be back in my element of organizing and keep track of all the administrative details. Somehow I also got put in charge of letting people into the dining hall. The “rule” was that they had to have their nametag to get into the dining hall. I also had my registration chart with me though so if their name was on the chart they could also get in. The way I was to let people in varied every day. One day they even thought it would be fun for me to call all the Zambian names one by one to let them in. Ha! I know I butchered more than one name. They were very gracious though and only snickered at me instead of busting up laughing. I think they admired that I would at least try. It did help me learn many of their names though and they liked it a lot when I would call them by their name when I would walk by them around the school campus.

Also on Tuesday, when Rob showed up to teach he told me he was flying to America the next day to deal with some things at home. He was suppose to teach on Wednesday as well on building and maintaining a strong marriage, so he let me know that he was giving that topic to me. First, I’m not married and second, I’m not Zambian so I really didn’t know how that was going to work. I talked with Given, the National Director, and he asked me if I would teaching on dating and courtship then to the younger youths while the person who had been assigned dating and courtship would talk to the older youths about marriage. I said I could handle that. I had been working on my purity curriculum so I had plenty of background stuff already pulled together to talk on dating and courtship. Here it is a little different though as I have learned. First you date meaning you go out with someone to see if you like them. If there is interest by both parties then the boy asks the girl’s family if he can court the girl. If the family agrees the boy and girl start courting. If they decide they want to marry the boy has to again ask the girl’s family’s permission. There is also a bride price. I forgot the word for it, but the family sets the price the boy must pay in order to marry the girl. It can take several years to get what is needed for the bride price, but once it has bee paid then a big daylong marriage celebration is planned including all kinds of dances performed by various friends and family. It is an interesting system, which I can see positives and negatives in.

My talk on Wednesday went decently. I was given the 11 to 16 year olds of which there were about 30. I knew there were more, but many tended to skip different sessions. In fairness the sessions went from after breakfast until lunch, after lunch until dinner, and then after dinner until about 11pm. It’s a long day for an adult, let alone an eleven yr-old. Thursday and Friday they finally broke it up with sports in the afternoon, but every day they went over in sessions. I don’t think we had a single meal the entire week that was on time. Welcome to Zambia. Anyway, my talk went pretty well as the kids that were there seemed really interested in what I was sharing. For the most of them it was the first time they heard about the emotional side of dating, courtship, marriage and sex. They hear all the time about STDs, HIV, abstinence, and all of that stuff, but from my research here many of them are not taught about the emotional side of romantic relationships and sex. At first they didn’t have any questions, but as I taught and asked them questions they became more open with me. I loved seeing them work up the courage to ask a question and then seeing the delight on their faces when I would give them a real answer. Many of the younger youths who did not make it to the session came up to me later and asked me to tell them what I had taught. And many of the older youths asked what I had taught about and asked me their questions. I had not realized that they would have so many questions or would be so interested in what I had to say. I had the perception that what I had to share may not be relevant to them or that they might have heard it all before. It was an honor to be able to share my thoughts and what I had learned from the Bible about relationships and sex with them. I think my commitment to being there all week had shown them that I really cared about them so they were willing to be open with me.

Thursday was the day I had been originally asked to talk. Given had asked me to speak on influence and team building. I had spent a lot of time deciding on which passages I wanted to use and to learn from the Zambian youth here in Kalomo how they viewed influence. To most of them peer pressure is seen always as a bad thing. They have been taught by missionaries for many years about not giving into peer pressure when it comes negative things in life that their view of peer pressure is only one sided. I wanted my talk to empower to them – to encourage them that peer pressure when used in the right way for right things is actually a good thing. We hear often about not leading people astray and not sinning, but we forget there’s another side to that. If all we do is harp on all the negatives that we shouldn’t be doing it does not leave us feeling encouraged. We all slip up. We all make mistakes. If we’re always taught to look at the negatives we shouldn’t do, well when we do end up doing them we get stuck feeling bad and guilty. I’m not saying we should be okay with sinning, but our focus shouldn’t just be on not sinning. We NEED to focus on the good that God focuses on. He doesn’t focus on our negatives – otherwise He’d probably get discouraged, too because as humans we fall into the negatives more than we’d even like to admit. God focuses on the good, the plans He has for our future, and the hopes He has for us. I concentrated my talk on using your influence for the good things of God… to use peer pressure in a good way. I focused on how God calls us to be different from the world and how that difference will influence others to do what God is calling them to do. I started with Matthew 5:13-15 about the salt and light. I asked them how are they using the way God created them to affect the world around them or are they letting the world change them. Who is influencing whom? If you just leave salt sitting on the shelf it has no value. The analogy is that Christians who make no effort to affect the world around them are of little value to God. God loves all people, but He also desires to use us to reach those around us. That is our purpose. That is His plan. We are His plan. We are to be like the city on the hill, the lamp on the table. The city cannot be hidden, the lamp is not put on the table and then covered. They are seen and provide light. I challenged them to live for Christ so that everyone around them can see the difference in their lives.

Once I felt they understood about how their influence can be a good thing and how to use their influence for Christ I moved onto team building. I have been on good teams and bad teams so I wanted to address this topic from both sides. I asked them if they could think of what it takes to build a winning team, what it means to be on God’s team, and why it is important to be on God’s team. I used I Corinthians 3:7-9; I Corinthians 12:12, 14-27; Philippians 3:12-14; and I peter 2:4-10. The first passage from I Corinthians 3:7-9 talks about the man who plants the seeds and the man who waters the seeds have the same purpose. They are on the same team. In the same way God’s work requires man different people with different gifts to fill different roles. We are all on God’s team, but we have different giftings and callings on God’s team. If we all do our part we will succeed with God, but if we all think we need to do exactly the same thing in exactly the same way we will not accomplish the plans and hopes of God. We need to set aside our selfish nature and seek to be used by God. When we do, we will accomplish things, which have eternal value and significance. We may not think our part has much importance, but on God’s team there is no mundane roles or wasted work. I challenged them to ask themselves if they are seeking their own glory or living to glorify God. To be on a successful team each team member must understand and embrace their role on the team as well as be supportive of all their team members’ roles and contributions.

I then transitioned into I Corinthians 12:12,14-27. This was an extension almost of chapter three. It talks about all parts of the body being needed and how parts of the body cannot say they are that part. We are all needed to God. We cannot say we are not who God created us to be. We cannot say our role is useless or unimportant. God gave us our role so it is vital to Him. We all should also look out for one another. We are to take care of each other so that we can work as a fully functioning body in every part of our body. We at the same time cannot say that we are more important than someone else or that they are not needed. The whole body needs every other part to be whole. When we all work together we can accomplish so much more for Christ. The best teams exist because everyone works for the same goal. Philippians 3:12-14 talks of the goal we should be striving for. We should be pressing on to eternal life with Christ. I challenged them to ask themselves how they are working to achieve the goal laid out by the apostle Paul in Philippians and how they are doing in supporting their fellow team members. Paul speaks of putting his past behind him. Are we putting our past behind us AND are we putting others’ pasts behind them? Do we continue to see each other as the sinful creatures we once were and the past mistakes we made or are we seeing each other the way God sees us? When we move on from out past we embrace the grace Christ extends to each of us. When we are on a team we can’t dwell on the past. It won’t help the team improve or do better the next time. Instead we need to focus on the future for that is all we can change. On a team we are accountable to each other to focus on the future and to help each other become better. As members of God’s team are we keeping each other accountable?

I brought my talk to a close using I Peter 2:4-10. We are all stones that God uses together to build His house. Even if others have rejected us or we have sinned in the past, God still has plans for each of us! We belong to God if we chose to believe in Him. It is ONLY in HIM that each of us can be assured the final, eternal victory will be ours. And it is given to us in grace – not because we earn it but because of what Christ did on our behalf. God does not reject anyone. He wants all of us to be on His team. His team, we know, has secured the victory in the end. My final challenge for my talk was for them to ask themselves what team they want to be on.

All throughout my talk I felt like they are a completely captive audience. I’m sure my recount of my talk doesn’t really do it justice because it was one of those times again when I felt like God was speaking through me. The passion He gave me and the clarity of words was incredible. I would say that talk has to be one of my top five talks ever given. I could see it in the Zambians eyes – it made sense to them. They weren’t just listening and being polite, but they actually got it and it made sense to them. I have no idea what sort of impact it has today on their lives or if they even remember a word I said, but I have to trust that if a time comes when they need to remember about influence and team building that God will prick their conscience with something He spoke through me. It’s such an honor and blessing to be used by God in the lives of the Zambian youth. As much as I love the administration piece of ministry, I know that fills my human nature. I know it’s a gift from God, but when I teach and I have put adequate time into it and my heart is in the right place – to be used by God to teach His Word to others – it’s indescribable really. I don’t know exactly the words to use. It gives me such an energy and I feel incredible afterwards. I don’t always remember what I said and how I said it, but I can see it in the audience’s eyes – something has penetrated their heart and it’s definitely not me. I love it.

Thursday afternoon and Friday afternoon we played sports. Our Kalomo guys won volleyball on Thursday and our girls won the 100 meter, 400 meter, and 800 meter races which also meant that Kalomo district won the trophy for most overall! On Thursday they also let girls play soccer! Of course I was thrilled so even though I didn’t have my cleats or gloves I jumped into goal. Well it was an experience. It kind of reminded me of watching little kids in like AYSO soccer. Girls don’t get to play much so everyone followed the ball one way and then everyone followed them another way. The other team we played had several breakaways. I decided diving was probably not a good idea so they did end up scoring once. They thought that was absolutely incredible – to score on the girl from America. I really wanted to dive, but thought I shouldn’t push myself too far with my knees.

On Friday night they gave out awards. Even though there were only a small number from Kalomo district, we won guys volleyball, the girls 100 meter dash, the girls 400 meter dash, the girls 800 meter dash, and the award for most athletic wins. Our kids were really excited.

The week opened my eyes to so much. I got to learn about their culture in a very up-close way. I think I also showed them how missionaries truly care for them by sacrificing an entire week and living just as they did. I learned more of their worship songs and got to be a part of casting out several demons in Jesus’ name. I felt at home and in my element. There were moments in the days where I’d feel like and outsider and wondering what I was doing there, but as I look back on my time with the youth I see how privileged I was to be used by God in their lives. I learned just how hard they work, how much effort they put into what they do, how much they want others to be proud of them and see the good in them, how competitive they get in sports, and how, despite the outward differences, they really are just like American youth. Or maybe American youths are like Zambians youth. The heart level is the same – and that makes perfect sense seeing as it is God who created us all. Being here has been such a blessing and I know it will impact the way I live the rest of my life.

Coming home on Saturday was an adventure all of it’s own. We finally left the Choma secondary school once everyone else’s transport arrived… another part of being with the leadership of the conference. We get into town to find a taxi to take us back to Kalomo. It’s only a 40 minute drive so I’m thinking I’ll be home by 11:30am… riiiiight. Well we have to first go around town dropping things off at different people’s houses that we borrowed for a week and then had to go greet people at a wedding and then go get groceries from the market. Ok, an hour later we’re finally looking for a taxi. We find a guy and load our stuff. Well then instead of getting on the road to Kalomo we go back into the market in the taxi and find out they want to find two other people to go to Kalomo so we’ll have a full taxi and he can make more money! So drive around the market for 30 minutes and finally find one other lady. They give up finding anyone else and we go back to the taxi station. The guy that had been in the car gets out and a younger kid gets in to actually drive us back! Apparently this is a common practice in Zambia. So we finally get on the road… but this kid won’t drive over 60km/hr and then he gets on his cell phone and his speed slows to 40km/hr. I’m wondering if I’m ever going to make it home, but at least we’re going home. Until wait! He sees a taxi friend going back up to Choma and both cars come to a screeching halt. They both back up (on the road mind you) until they get back to each other. They talk about something in Tonga for like 5 to 10 minutes and then they finally say goodbye. So back on the road to Kalomo… the lady in the car with us gets dropped off first, but we have to wait until her ride shows up so the taxi driver can get paid. Sure. Finally, we get back on the road and I finally get dropped off at home. Ah. Home. After paying the guy and unpacking best I can I fell on my bed and just slept. I would have showered, but the power was out so there was no water. Oh the joys of living in Zambia. I don’t think I’ll ever take water and electricity for granted again. And I definitely won’t take efficient traveling for granted after that Saturday.

Sunday and Monday were normal days. Church on Sunday and Bible study with the girls on Monday. Monday was also catch up day with getting things from town, doing finance work, and trying to catch up on emails. I enjoyed some uneventful days after the busy week prior at the conference. Tuesday was another day of relaxing and just reflecting on what I learned at the conference as well as how what I learned should change the way I spend the rest of my time here in Zambia. Tuesday I tried to find Tendai to hang out with her, but she seemed to disappear. I had a feeling she would distance herself sooner or later. She has so much potential, but Satan knows that as well. I know what it’s like to feel like both sides are pulling on you very hard. Without a solid foundation in Christ, the pull that Satan exerts can be very alluring. I hope that I am able to maintain my relationship with Tendai and that she will be able to grow in Christ. I am worried for her though. If you remember her please pray that she will give her whole heart to Christ and plant her life in His.

On Wednesday we went to Namwianga like usual. I had missed my kids. They’re all getting so big. I love to see their personalities develop. It was a great time with them. As I held each kid I took time to pray for him/her and to tell them that they are a masterpiece to God. I know they may not understand the words I’m saying to them, but God does and I have to believe in their little hearts they are being touched by God.

The hard part of Wednesday came on our way home. Rob was not with us as he was in America so it was just Christa, the kids, and I. As we were driving home we came upon the bridge everyone gets the creepy crawlies about. Driving both ways (to Namwianga and back home) the road slopes down pretty steeply to this bridge. There are no guardrails and loose sand piles up on the bridge. It is definitely only a one-lane bridge so it is crucial that you slow down upon approaching the bridge. Well as we got to the bridge there was a man standing on the bridge waving his arms. At first Christa and I thought he just wanted us to let his friend on a bicycle to cross first, but as we stopped we saw smoke rising from the river. Now the river is low this time of year as we are well into the dry season. I jumped out of the Cruiser and sure enough there was a lorry flipped upside down. I could see one man trying to turn the lorry off so I knew it had just happened. That’s when I realized the man on the bridge was bleeding pretty badly from his head. I looked back to the riverbed and saw there was a motorcycle in bad shape down there and a bicycle as well. There were a couple men sitting on the bank and one laying in the water in obvious pain. I yelled for Christa and she went down the embankment to check on the men down there. I tried to calm the man on the bridge down while dialing the Gregersens number. I got a hold of Linda and she said she would get a group of men together to come down to help. Other people started arriving and the lorry finally shut off. That is when I smelt the alcohol on the one man’s breath. The man who was bleeding from the head finally confessed that the driver had been drinking heavily. He was traveling way too fast and they tried to get him to slow down. He got mad and just went faster. The lorry was out of control and as they got to the bridge they collided with the motorcycle and the bike and flipped off the bridge. I felt sadness and angry sweep over me. There is already so much pain and loss in this country. How could someone be so selfish as to drink and drive? And why would people knowingly get in a lorry with such a person? I asked the men if anyone else was missing and I finally got from the one bleeding from his head that there was. The man down at the truck had apparently told Christa there wasn’t. I made my way down the embankment as quick as I could and yelled for Christa that there were men under the lorry. As I reached the stream the man lying in the water was trying to get up. I had three men come and help carry him up the hill. That’s when I saw the one boy. His chest had risen above the water, but it was evident that his neck had been snapped as his head was stuck under a cement bag and the rest of his body under the lorry. Christa checked for a pulse and he did not have one. The men said there was one more missing, but we couldn’t see anyone. The women who had shown up started to wail and some of the men from the accident started to try to walk away. Another car had stopped, one man had gotten out, and the other went back to Kalomo with the car to get the police. Here you can’t really call the police and expect them to come. You have to go get them and bring them to where you need them. I had tried to keep the kids in the car so they wouldn’t see. There wasn’t much else Christa and I could do so we decided to take the two worst – the man that had been writhing in pain in the stream and the man bleeding from the head – to the Kalomo hospital since that was the nearest medical facility open at this time in the evening. The man who had been driving tried to come with us, but I forcefully told him to sit down and stay put. The man that had gotten out of the other car that had came upon the scene agreed to stay until the Gregersens and the police showed up and to make sure that the driver of the lorry disappeared. As Christa got the Cruiser restarted and the kids settled with the two men in the back I cleared the bridge. There were truck and motorcycle pieces strewn across the bridge and glass everywhere. The adrenaline started to fade as I was clearing the bridge and it took everything in me to hold back the tears and keep composed. As we drove up the Namwianga road I offered to take the kids to the house and start dinner as it was getting late. Christa agreed and dropped us off at the path to our house from the Namwianga road. She took the men to hospital and I walked all the kids home to start dinner. It was hard to stay composed, but thankfully I was able to. Once Christa came home I came to my room and finally broke down. It is just a tragic loss that didn’t need to happen. In the days later we found out both men that we took to the hospital were okay. The one who had been writhing in pain was a 9th grade boy whose mom was a friend of Linda Gregersen. However, there were two dead. One was a friend of the boy we took to the hospital. He also was in the 9th grade and his mom was a very close friend of Linda Gregersen. He was just trying to get a ride back to Namwianga to get home. It’s a senseless loss. He was apparently a bright young boy and I can’t help but wonder what kind of future he might have had. I know God has a purpose in everything, but tragedies like this are just sometimes hard for my feeble human mind to accept it as part of God’s plan. Please pray for everyone involved in that accident and everyone who travels that road. Pray that they would make wise choices in their driving as well as in life.