Dear Friends and Family –
I hope this letter finds you enjoying a cool, crisp autumn day! October was month in which all systems were GO! for us AMT students. The month was packed with a variety of classes, an expedition, holidays, and slumber parties in the village!
In the middle of the month, we took a break from our welding course and went out into the villages for 5 days of ministry. We left Base with a specific plan of action of where we are going to go and how its going to be organized. Lesson learned: things don't always go as planned on expedition (or Africa, for that matter.) We set up camp in the same village, Nyawa, and spent the first evening preparing the next few days events under the shade of a giant thunderhead cloud. (yes!) The next day, Angie & Stephanie stayed in Nyawa to host a women's meeting, while the rest of the team piled into the truck to visit a village 2 hours away called ChilliA. Once there, we split the team yet again – leaving Josh & Sharlene in ChilliA while Matt, Dan, Laura, Wezi, Luke & myself continued further down the road to host a meeting in ChilliB. Can I just take a moment to say how much I love African praise & worship?! Every service has a completely different feel to it because of the songs and dances that vary from village to village. The meeting in ChilliB went extremely well and we left the church to the noise of thunder in the distance (if you haven't noticed yet from previous letters/blog posts – I love weather.. a lot!) Meeting up in with Josh and Sharlene in ChilliA, they told us of how much of a success their services at the schools went that afternoon and we had another short service before saying goodbye to the Chilli's & made our way back to camp in the orange glow of dusk. The next day, we traveled to the village of Siamuntu to host a meeting before the opening of the church that Pastor Sween (from Nyawa) was planting. We arrived to find the village almost completely empty, except for a few kids throwing sticks/rocks at a snake in the tree. After lunch & an intense game of Uno, we received news that the reason the village was empty was because there was a funeral about to take place. We accepted the invitation and experienced a Zambian funeral. After the funeral, underneath the shade of a giant baobab tree, we had a meeting with the family and friends of the one-year-old who passed away. We prayed for the mother of the child as well as for many individuals who needed healing. The meeting produced a lot of testimonies of healing and a sense of peace among everyone there. We got a goodnights rest and went back to Siamuntu Sunday morning for the very first church service – another four hour long church service! After the service, we had lunch with the whole village! Giant pots on Nshima, cabbage and relish mixed with messy fingers, smiles, and stories. Later that afternoon, some of us did another meeting in Nyawa and settled down at camp for some amazing bush cooking. It's quite amusing to see how you have to adapt meal plans to open camp fires and a little bit of dirt. The next day, we packed up camp and said goodbye to Pastor Sween & Nyawa and made our way to Sons of Thunder Farm, which is run by friends of Overland – Jeff & Lisa. They gave us a tour of the property including their gardens, school, clinic and then took us to their orphanage of 49 energetic, sticky little kiddos all practicing their songs for Zambian Independence Day. The next hour was absolutely chaos – races, laughter, cameras, songs, band aids, dancing, piggyback rides, swing sets and tag. We are so thankful for their hospitality and just giving us a day to hang out! All in all, it was yet another amazing expedition back into the bush!
AMT is now in its 'finals week' type of thing. I find myself sitting at the tables, surrounded by scribbled out notes, packets of worksheets, opened books with creased corners and a cup of coffee thinking "wait.. I thought I left school?"
I have an update on the blog about the diesel mechanics/4x4 classes/welding. We finished welding with a final project of making a bike rack. Easy, right? Mmm nope! But luckily, we did end up producing one bike rack! So, good job to the teams making it past frustrations and pushing our welding skills to the limit. There has also been Preaching101, which involved a bit of "popcorn preaching" fun and required us to write and preach our own short sermons.
The GPS navigation course was a blast! We learned how to use hand held GPS's (not the automatic ones that talk to you in your car) and then superimpose our tracks and routes onto GoogleEarth and literally see where Overland has traveled and where we do ministry out in the villages. Woohoo technology! The practical for that class involved following already made routes and then making up our own for other teammates to follow. I ended up on some 5k hike out to the middle of nowhere thanks to my teammate Josh, but I at least I am really good with the GPS now. :)
This week we wrapped up our African Culture and "Come Back Alive" courses. For Come Back Alive, we each had to teach separate chapters out of the book and make sure that we remembered what we learned because then the next day – we had the practical! Dan & Laura split us into 2 teams and gave us a GPS coordinate, 3 matches, beans, rice, 2 pots & 5 feet of rope, then sent us out into the bush to make shelter, fire, and cook lunch! My team was Josh, Luke & myself and I would have to say we did a pretty good job making our own little shelter hut thing, and lunch was delicious – so kudos to us! While we were out hunting for big sticks and rocks, we noticed storm clouds creeping closer and closer to us. Laura came to check on us (and grab a bit of lunch) and told us we needed to now make a sturdier shelter that could house all three of us and keep us dry "just in case it rains" (she says as thunder echos in the background.) Well, luck was on our side and the storm took a little detour in enough time for us to finish our 2nd shelter and pack up camp & move onto the next practical activity. This time, the 2 teams met up and we were faced with a mock SOLO scenario in which Stephanie had fallen out of the giant baobab tree and we had to treat her broken femur & neck injury and then, transport her the 1 ½ K hike back to Base. Oh my gosh.. carrying her on that litter was quite a task! We all had to figure out who was strongest holding on to which pole and just steadily carry her through the back trails, the whole time – racing a massive thunderstorm behind us. As we arrived on Base, we took one last quick breather before we marched her in chanting some random songs. Less than one minute from walking through the entry way of the Main Center, the rain started and then three minutes later – it was POURING! Josh and I just laid in the backyard and let it drench us. We were all exhausted and dirty, but joyful to be back at Base after the days event. The team then took turns running around the Base, playing in the rain, zipping up our tents, and throwing our leaders into the wall of water falling off of the thatch roof. It was the most intense storm I've seen yet here in Zambia, and reminded me of the good ol' Texas summer thunderstorm.
Also in October, we broke up into pairs and spent the night in the closest village to the Base – Nsongwe. Each pair was placed in a home of a family that attends Pastor Dragans church, which Overland works closely with. Stephanie and I were placed with Humphrey & Listar and their two daughters Yvonne & Katherine. It was one of the moat fun nights I have had out here! But we also had a project to accomplish while doing so that was part of our African Culture course. We then late had to write a paper about our night's stay, so I thought I would just post that on the blog for those who would like to read it.
Holiday season is upon us as well here in Zambia! As I mentioned earlier, Zambia's Independence Day was this month on the 24th, so Happy Independence Zambia!! And, we celebrated Halloween out here on the Base as well! We all did our best to come up with costumes with our limited resources and then spent the night just laughing with one another, eating homemade pizzas, and watching movies together out on the couches under the stars.
There was also another thing worthy of celebration which just recently took place – MY 23rd BIRTHDAY!!! But the day of the 6th now also holds another noteworthy event in my life. I was baptized as an infant, but this past year, I have just really felt the need to get baptized again.. the full blown, under the water, dunking. AMT has taught me a plethora of things these past three months but the biggest thing I am walking away with is recognizing and embracing my new identity in Christ. It's something that has totally changed my faith. I finally felt a peace about my prayers about being baptized and decided to do it here in Zambia, in the Zambezi River with the team who has watched me embrace this new adventure in my walk with the Lord. So, the morning of my birthday, we all made the journey down to the bottom of the Gorge and Dan & Laura baptized me, along with my Zambian teammate Wezi, in the shallow eddy of Rapid 14. We then had communion down there on top of all the big, black boulders and Laura brought her guitar, so we just had praise it worship down there that morning, listening to our voices echo in the against the steep walls around us. The day was a normal AMT day, full of classes and such except for when Matt & Josh made sure that the Overland tradition of getting wet on your birthday continued (apparently, the baptism didn't count) and I found myself running from them and four pitchers of water. After getting drenched by them, I dried off for about 5 minutes, before Wezi got me with a hose. The tradition continues on, I guess… ;) That night, I was presented with a beautiful cake made by Stephanie & Sharlene that had clouds on it! Thanks ladies!! :) The really fun thing is that even though my birthday was technically over on the 6th, the celebration carried on to the next day when we went on our pilgrimage to buy supplies for the Base in Namibia! Everyone still continues to wish me happy birthday and sing to me (I think I had happy birthday sang to me as a group at least 5 times) as we did our bulk grocery shopping and restocking parts for the warehouse. The day ended with a 2L box of vanilla ice cream in my lap, 10 spoons, and 10 happy teammates/dear friends huddled together in the back of the truck on our way home. (OH! AND! I woke up to RAIN early around 4am on my birthday! So thanks for the prayers!)
Today, we are loading the truck to leave for our last, finale expedition – by ourselves! We've had to calculate how much food we need, pack it and plan out the four days of ministry. We leave tomorrow morning for Chibalani and Mandandi villages.. without Dan & Laura or a truck - this one is all us! I have a feeling this journey to the bush is going to produce some pretty funny stories :)
After expedition, we only have THREE more days here at the Base before we graduate on Friday the 21st! Aaah!! I can't believe it. The day after graduation, all of us are scattering into different directions – the majority of the team is returning home to the states but – Stephanie, Angie and I are traveling to Lusaka (Zambias capital) to catch some trains and buses to make our way northward to Zanzibar. I knew that when I came back to Africa and into AMT, that I wanted to do ministry afterwards but didn't have a real direction as to where. Overland has a pastor who they work closely with in Zanzibar and I was really interested in seeing what ministry looks like on an Swahili speaking island that is 99% Muslim. It just worked out that Stephanie and Angie want to journey somewhere else in Africa as a short breather after-AMT. They plan on spending roughly a week there while I stick around for about three weeks working Pastor Khaflan & just learning as much as possible during my short stay there.
Expect a post-AMT update next weekend & I will give a bit more details about Zanzibar, as well as talking a bit about what God has really been showing me at the end of this journey here and where He is guiding my steps to go next!
Thank you all for keeping me in your thoughts and prayers this past month. Thank you for all the encouraging and inspiring e-mails, as well as all the wonderful happy birthday wishes I received in my inbox!
Please pray for a safe last expedition to the two villages which we are staying. Pray for the men and women who are going to hear the Gospel for the first time, and that the Word moves them in amazing ways. Pray for the team as we prepare our hearts for the villages and for a cooperative spirit among all of us. Pray for Dan & Laura as they finish grading all the AMT papers and plan their own personal return back to the States to their friends and family who haven't seen them in many months.
Thank you for your constant support and contribution to spreading the Kingdom here in Zambia & Africa!
With Joy,
Liz
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