Here is the family I got to stay with and enjoy a heaven sent worship session under the stars
Hello Blog time again
I thought it about time to update you on life here in
Zambia. As I said I spent 2 weeks away from my Luanshya home and travelled to
Kabwe, and spend 2 amazing weeks with a group of people that have really
touched my heart and I will never forget, friends for life. I still am blown
away at how God brings his people together, and how in such a short period of
time we just click and become friends for life. And this is exactly what
happened when I went to Kabwe I felt as though I was going to feel lonely away
from my Luanshya family, but I now have another home in Kabwe. We laughed, ate,
sung together and I can’t wait to go back and visit them. My favourite memories
were one of my friends was convinced I needed to speak more Bemba so he would
speak to me in fluent bemba expecting me to number one understand and number
two respond back in Bemba, one day he was stuck on it and I was getting sick of
saying, “I don’t know.”
So I asked, “how do you say, ‘I don’t know,’
in bemba.” He responded with shishive. So later on this day back in the office
he looked at me and asked me something in Bemba and stared at me with his bold
eyes waiting for me answer, so I smiled, threw my hands up and said, ‘Shishive.’
And the whole room looked at me and then laughter exploded and filled the air.
I
also learned a lot about admin work. Skills that will come in handy for the
rest of my life, I’m sure. I also got to see some our Kabwe communities all
very special places with amazing men and woman being the hands and feet of God
I also had an interesting experience on my way home, I sat
on our famous Wada Chovu coach bus prepared for my 3-4 hour bus ride home, and
I was hungry I had been waiting at the bus stop for 2 hours and was too scared
to leave my bags. So I got on the bus and the 2 seats next to me had things on them indicating I
would have some company soon, and soon enough there were 3 children that joined
me, then 2 adults and there was my thought TIA – this is Africa, fit in as many
as possible until it’s completely full. Anyway they got on and we greeted each
other, then 30 mins into our trip they bring out a pot of food, chicken, pasta,
tomatoes, and as I sit there listening to my ipod to pass the time, the lady directly
next to me taps me on the shoulder and says, "you join us." I look at her with
surprise, but I smile and she leans forward, grabs a smaller pot and scoops a
portion of their dish into the small pot she then passes to me with a spoon and
says enjoy. I thank her and join them in eating this food. God works in miraculous
ways. And this is a clear example of different cultures, here everyone cares,
there's a real sense of community, people greet each other in the streets with a
smile, a mulishani (how are you) and they share their food with strangers. It
makes me wonder would this happen back in Australia, sure there is a sense of
community in places with the people you know, but it usually doesn’t extend to
strangers, people are too fearful, they keep their heads down, make no contact,
stay your own world. But this experience shows me what means to love your
neighbour as yourself is.
Shortly after I arrived
back from Kabwe we had one of our Friday morning meetings, which we called
Hands on Deck, where we have a chance to hear about what God has been doing
within Hands at work, in our African nations and in our international offices. And
God really spoke me reminding me how wonderful he is. We heard from one of our
Hands long term volunteers, she had just been in Kabwe with a group of nurses
from American and she began to talk about one of the communities I just had the
pleasure of visiting, and I was really blessed to see. In her talk she
continued to mention the beginnings of this community how God is at work in
reaching out in this community. This community that has just opened a community
school, and has passionate care workers and that just has a sense of Gods spirit
wasn’t always like this, of course. In the beginning it was a community remote
and hard to, and seemed to be very broken. But God had a plan, he is into
transforming lives and making the broken, beautiful. He took one of the members
of the community, someone who struggling and was in a bad place and transformed
him into a leader, who has helped his community transform into community I got
to see and through him God has brought hope and love into the lives of the
children and families most in need. I was blown away hearing this, after
meeting this man and seeing this community then getting a chance to hear about
what God has done, it really does take my breath away and bring tears to my
eyes. And God is doing this everywhere He is transforming so many lives and we
get glimpses of this and he is really amazing! And he calls us to be a part of
his big plan, seriously there so much that we don’t see, and sometimes we get
caught up in the little stories of our own lives, when we are called to a
bigger and better adventure beyond our wildest dreams, we have a wild God that
has a furious, passionate, pursuing love for us isn't that Amazing!
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