Good morning family and friends,
I pray that you are all doing well this morning and that Christ brings to your mind all the blessings He has, is, and will fill your life with. It’s incredible to wake up each morning and to be able to look out my window and see the majesty of the land that the Lord has created. I have so much to update you all on! It’s been quite busy here since I last wrote you. I have created a blog as well so that I can keep all of my updates from my year here in Zambia in one place. I’m hoping that once I get better internet that I will be able to post pictures on there, too. You can visit it at abigailcristin.blogspot.com. I will also be trying to use that as my online journal of sorts so I’ll be making more updates on there than I put in email just to save on my kilobyte usage for now as that is how I am charged for my internet through my phone.
So this past week Rob went to Lusaka on Tuesday by bus (it’s a 5 to 6 hour bus ride) to pick up a Land Cruiser that we had found for a very good price from a guy, Basil, who does ministry work in Lusaka. There were some concerns about the radiator, but we were told the mechanic had fixed them. However, Rob broke down two hours out of Lusaka, which put him in the middle of nowhere. Basil came and picked Rob up and towed the Cruiser with their Lorry (flat bed truck) back to Lusaka. They took it back the mechanic and the mechanic told them he could fix it. Rob didn’t feel at peace though about taking it so after talking with Basil, Basil agreed to refund Rob since he had a couple other people interested in buying the Cruiser. This apparently never happens in Zambia so we are praising God that He connected us with a fellow missionary who was so gracious in coming out to pick Rob up and to refund us the money. Still we were back to square one with no vehicle. Rob knew other friends in Lusaka though and was spending the night with them before coming back by bus to Kalomo. He shared with them what he had been through and they actually had a Land Cruiser also for sale for the same price. It was even a few years newer than the one Basil had so Rob took it for a test drive and to a mechanic. The mechanic said it was in good shape and so Rob made an offer on the Cruiser, but the person for their mission agency who could approve the sale wasn’t around so we had to wait. So Rob came back by bus on Friday while we waited to see if they would accept our offer. We got word back over the weekend that they would sell us the Cruiser so now it is at the mechanic getting a couple things tightened. We need the first Cruiser to sell so that Basil can give us back the money we paid him so that we can use that money for the purchase of the second Cruiser. Please pray that it would sell and we would be able to purchase the second Cruiser, as we really need a vehicle to be able to get out into the bush to work with the villages.
With Rob gone pretty much all week my week was kept busy by helping Christa with the five kids. She has started home-schooling the older two (Acacia and Christianna) so the Isaiah and Katriya have free reign of entertaining themselves for most of the day. They are so fun and play so well together. They like coming to my room and playing on my bed or coloring with me. Isaiah loves to learn new words so he is constantly asking me what things are. Katriya loves to have books read. She could be content I think listening to someone read to her all day. They are still learning to dress themselves and put their shoes on so often Isaiah’s pants are on backwards and their shoes are on the wrong feet. It is so cute though. They’re also going through the potty training stage so they get all excited about going to the potty since they get raisins as a treat for remembering. Christianna is a great helper. She really just wants everyone to be happy and so she has a great servant’s heart. You can tell Acacia is the oldest as she likes to be the one in charge and has a great imagination. She is always coming up with new games to play and will surprise you with the creativity she has about the way she sees the world. Christa was very thankful to still have help around the house and I enjoyed getting to know her and the kids better over the week. I’ve also started cooking for the family. I’m going to be making dinner for everyone once a week and then breakfast and lunch will be on my own. That way we don’t have to worry about me paying part of their grocery bill. I like being able to cook again for a big family. I can get all kinds of vegetables, meat, rice, and pasta in town so I’m pretty much set. Plus, I can get almost anything else I need that they don’t have in town here up in Choma, which is only about 45 minutes from us. Mike and Linda go up often so it’s easy to get rides with them when they are going until we have our own vehicle.
On Friday of last week the neighbor girls invited us to come to school with them since it was a physical education day for them. It was a lot of fun to go and see their school. There were so many kids there! It’s a private pre-k through grade 7/8 school, which is run by the SDA church in town. Their school runs all year long. They go to school for 3 months and then have 1 month off. All the kids seem so excited to be there. I got to meet several of the teachers. They were very friendly and spoke English well, which was a great blessing.
We left the school in the afternoon to meet Rob at the bus stop. The kids wanted to surprise him. When we met him at the bus stop Christa wanted to go to the market, but Rob was exhausted from his week away. However, we were out of eggs so Christa said if she could just get eggs that would work for now. So she went across the road to the mini-mart to get eggs while Rob and I waited with the kids. Just as she was coming back, the missionaries I had met the other week on the way out to the orphanage with Joann came around the corner! It was such a God timing thing! Yako and Amber have been married for six years and just got pregnant for the first time. Yako had said they wanted to meet Christa since they heard she is a doctor. Jenny was with them as well and so was the other guy on their team, Nate. Nate is from Iowa and has been in Africa since January. I got to hear from Jenny & Nate about the work they’ve been doing and how Jenny’s been adjusting while Christa & Rob got to talk with Yako & Amber. Christa invited them to come over sometime soon so she can do some of the prenatal stuff with Amber so I’m looking forward to getting to hang out with Jenny again. We have had a strong instant bond and she makes me feel like there’s a little piece of home here with me. Her enthusiasm and energy is infectious. I just enjoy the time we’ve had together and thank God so much for bringing her into my life.
On Saturday morning I went with the Murphys to the market area in town. Acacia and Christianna wanted shatangis (I’m not sure on the spelling), which is what women here use to carry their babies. It’s basically a piece of cloth that they wrap around their back with their kid laying on their back and then comes under one arm and over top the shoulder of the other side. So basically it looks like those backpacks with only one shoulder strap. Acacia and Christianna like carrying their baby dolls around in them. So we were walking around the market looking at different patterns and we ended up running into one of the women Rob & Christa knew from Zimba when they were here in 1997. Miss Daisy now lives in Kalomo and works with World Vision in their medical department. They got to catch up with her and we exchanged phone numbers so hopefully we can have her over soon as well. I’m eager to see how God may use her in our ministry as we want to partner with other mission agencies like World Vision instead of trying to do it all ourselves. It would just be like reinventing the wheel. She speaks English very well too, so we might see if she will help us learn Tongan.
Saturday afternoon we went with Mike, Linda, and Pastor Richwell and the Praise & Worship team from the church we’ve connected with to the bush to show the Jesus Film. Rob, Christa, and all the kids came too. It was quite the adventure and the kids did so well. We all rode in the back of the lorry out to the village. The village was a little over an hour drive into the bush. We had to leave at 3pm to get there while there was plenty of daylight so that the people in the area around the village knew we were coming. Apparently if we show with just enough time to set up that puts us there close to dark so the village people do not think we’re coming. While Mike and a couple of the men on the praise and worship team set up the screen on the side of the lorry, Rob and I went to the nearby soccer field and started kicking around a ball with his kids. Slowly, more and more Zambian kids started showing up. I got to play in goal because all of them would rather shoot than play defense. Some of them had really incredible shots! They are fast, too! Rob said they were really impressed with me because they don’t see a lot of women play soccer and then on top of that a white woman playing soccer and then on top of that a white woman playing as goalkeeper. I stopped a fair number of their shots too and every time I would they all would go “OOOOOO!!!” And then I would punt it to make them at least work a little bit for it and every time I would punt they would yell “OOOOOO!!!!” as well and start laughing. Rob said that it was a sign of how impressed they were. It was so much fun to play soccer again and felt like I could really connect with the kids even though I knew very little Tongan and they knew very little English. I took it easy on my knee though for all of you concerned with how my knee is holding up. J We played for probably two hours and then I led them all back to the church where we were showing the film.
When we got back to the church there were maybe 50-100 people there. The praise and worship team led the church in a couple of songs. They brought their speakers and keyboard so as they played more people started to come in from the bush. Their normal song lasts about 7 minutes on average so I’m catching onto some of the songs. Pastor Richwell tells me what they are singing in English so as I catch onto what they’re saying I can sing too and actually know basically what I’m saying. J Some of their songs they sing half in English and half in Tongan too so those I’m really catching onto. There is a lot of dancing and motions for a lot of their songs so even when I do not know the words I can still participate. The village kids thought it was great that I knew some of the songs and motions. A couple of the girls that came and played soccer came stood next to me and just kept smiling at me. They looked like they could be in middle school and I could tell that they just wanted to sit next to me even if I couldn’t speak their language. When we were playing soccer I had tried to get them the ball on purpose every so often and you could tell it meant a lot to them to be included and to have attention paid to them.
As the praise and worship team ended the size of the crowd had grown to about 100-150 people. Pastor Richwell introduced the film and then we all found a seat either on the ground or short benches they had made with bricks and boards. I am impressed time and time again with how long the Zambians sit in positions and on things which are, to me, very uncomfortable. After playing soccer my legs and back were sore and after about 2 hours of sitting on the short bench I felt like my body was on fire. But God was good and helped me to be able to still pay attention to the movie. The girls that had stood with me during the singing sat next to me and throughout the movie kept inching closer and closer to me. The Zambians seem fascinated with my skin and hair and the girls seemed to want to have constant contact with me. It was so sweet though because I would look over at them and they would get the biggest smiles on their faces. The Jesus Film was in Tongan, but is all from the book of Luke so I was able to follow along fairly well by just pulling from my memory about the book of Luke. By the end of the movie there had to be at least 200 people there. It was quite dark by this time and the Zambians seem to like to dress in really dark clothing so it makes it really hard to see them at night so I’m not sure how many were there. Pastor Richwell gave an alter call after the movie as the Praise & Worship team sang a couple of songs again. There were probably 20 adults that came forward. Pastor Richwell led them in prayer in Tongan and then asked Mike, Rob, and I to come up and help him pray over the people who came up. It was an incredible experience. You could feel the presence of the Holy Spirit there. Pastor Richwell directed me which people to pray over. As I finished I turned and saw Pastor Richwell and Rob casting a demon out of a woman. I watched for a minute and then felt like God was telling me to go over and help them. I had never cast out a demon before, but Rob and I had discussed it the other week and he told me that I didn’t need to be scared. You just say in Jesus’ name I command you to come out. I’ve read in the Bible about it and have always believed that Jesus gives us the power to cast them out in His name. It is always be His name, not our own. So I went over and joined them and a minute later the woman stopped shaking and muttering and was able to stand back up. It was such an amazing thing to be part of and definitely not scary at all. She said that she didn’t want Jesus to ever leave her and so we all prayed over her that the Holy Spirit would protect her and live forever inside of her heart. You could tell that she was just different. I’m not sure how many other demons were cast out, as that is the only one I helped with, but I also spent time praying over all the kids there and in the surrounding area. Rob said that praying over the kids is one of the most important things when demons are being cast out because the demons then have to go somewhere. They cannot exist without a body to inhabit so praying over the kids is vital because they are often the most susceptible then. We ended the time there with that village in prayer and praising God. We all helped packed everything back up and then I rode in the back of the lorry with Acacia and Christianna in my lap. Isaiah and Katriya had fallen asleep on Linda’s lap in the truck during the movie and Christa rode up there on the way back as well since it was colder out and she had the baby obviously. Rob sat on the Rubbermaid tote that they had brought with their dinner and blankets in it so it wouldn’t fly out. The sky is absolutely incredible here. The Milky Way looks huge and the sky is just filled with stars. We could see the big dipper, which is the only constellation that you can see in the southern hemisphere from the constellations in the northern hemisphere. So if you see the big dipper at night you can know that I am looking at the same starts as you! J The praise and worship team sang more songs most of the ride back. My backside is still a little sore from the rides in the lorry though as some of the bumps were quite big!
Sunday I went to church, but the Murphys stayed home since we didn’t get back until after 11pm and the kids are use to going to bed at 8pm. Joann was there too so I got to talk with her some after the service. During the announcements, they announced that they are starting a Saturday youth group from 2 to 3:30pm that will meet every Saturday. They said something about me, but I didn’t quite catch it because it was half in English and half in Tongan. After the service though one of the church leaders pulled me aside. He explained that while he was in charge of the youth group meetings he wanted to know if I would speak this Saturday and any Saturday that I wanted to. I asked him if there was a program and he said there was, but he wanted me to share first what God had put on my heart to share with them. Then, after I finished all that I came with to share then they would start the curriculum he had created. I tried to explain to him that I really came to learn what they felt was important to share with the youth, but he insisted that he knew God had put things on my heart to share with them so he wanted me to share those things first. I finally said okay so now I am speaking again this Saturday, but I’m not sure exactly what on. I know that God will reveal to me what He wants me to teach on though. I feel so blessed to have another opportunity so quickly to share with the youth again! I have been praying that God would open the doors for the ministry He desires me to have here and the relationships, which he wants me to build and without me trying to start anything the church is starting a Saturday youth group! I’m learning so much here. God is really showing me that if I am just patient and ask Him to bring what He wants for me into my life that He is faithful to in His timing.
That’s been my past week. Yesterday was mainly a day of rest and recovery as my stomach felt a little upset yesterday, too. I hope you all had a wonderful Memorial Day weekend. I’m sorry this email got so long! I didn’t realize I had so much to share since the last time I had written. I will try to keep these a little shorter and keep my longer ramblings on my blogspot so those of you who do want to know all the details can still get them, but the rest of you won’t feel so overwhelmed with these lengthy emails! God is so good though and so I can’t help, but to want to share all of it with all of you who are supporting me from back home. I should get going though. I’m going to see if Rob can fix my bike today. It won’t change gears, which makes biking on sand roads quite difficult.
Paul is still working on the satellite system for us so hopefully (keep praying) by the end of next month I’ll have better Internet to be able to video chat and post pictures and video. It’s a matter of getting enough money together to purchase all the satellite stuff and ship it here.
I will leave you with a couple of prayer requests as I am learning so much about the power of prayer here. First, is for health for our team. It seems as if the sickness just keeps rotating from person to person on our team. So patience in dealing with sick kids and for all of us to return to full health soon would be amazing. Secondly, that we would be able to get this second Land Cruiser this week and that the first Land Cruiser would sell quickly so that we can get the money back from Basil. Thirdly, that God would show me what He wants me to teach on and that He would bring out the youth of the town that He wants to be there this Saturday. Also on Saturday, Mike and Linda are going out to the bush again to show the Jesus Film so prayer that God’s anointing would be on them and the team that goes with them as they will be staying overnight Saturday and preaching on Sunday as well since this village is further out into the bush. Fourthly, that God would continue to be the center of Paul and mine’s relationship. We miss each other a lot and while he calls every day (bless his heart), it is definitely hard to be a part from each other. God has blessed us with great conversation and I know we are growing in our relationship with Him and each other. It’s stressful sometimes though so I know we would both appreciate your prayers for us. Finally, hopefully Christa’s medical license will come through this week so that Rob can pick it up when he goes to Lusaka and that we would be able to get our permanent work visa process rolling. I treasure your prayers immensely.
I look forward to hearing about what is going on in your lives (even the little detail stuff J). I miss you all so much.
By His Grace & For His Glory,
Abbie Morehead
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