Zambitious Tidings

Hello again. Our team now been gone for about ten days, and it feels like so much has happened already.  At times I feel my head spinning from experiencing so much that there is to think about and learn from. During one of those times, as I reflected and sought the Lord in quiet time I remember asking “Is there one thing, something I can concentrate on?” Immediately these words came to mind: “fix your eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of your faith” (Hebrews 12:2). I feel God has been drawing me to understand to a greater degree the core of the issue, the gospel… a reason that I feel I often struggle just like others with fear or pride is from not seeing and understanding the amazing truths of the Gospel, that I have sinned and continue to sin; the wage of my sin is death, yet Christ died for me paying the penalty of my sin that now I can have enjoy eternal life by God’s love and grace, not my works, not from myself… Praise the LORD! The gospel… powerful… the gift of life, the reason I now live… the amazing news that is hard to fully understand…the good news that compelled our team to travel around the world to Zambia share… It has been a joy to grow in my understanding therein, as God teaches me about the Gospel and many other things here in Zambia.

            Of late we have been preparing for Door of Hope. We participated in training over topics such as spiritual warfare, one verse evangelism, journaling, team-work… We have also been able to serve in helping prepare for Door of Hope. It felt great yesterday to be able to serve for and with the Zambians, friends who have served and blessed us so much. Yesterday we cleaned sleeping bags and many dishes from the storage area. Aaron made scrambled eggs for lunch for us, and for dinner we prepared French toast. Last night and today, we sorted through many items that will be brought on the trip (donated clothes, food…), organizing the stuff, dividing the stuff to go to the two locations: Mumbwa and Chibombo. I will be going to Chibombo with Nathan, Todd, Silas, and Zambian staff and students.

ZAMBIAN ALLIES

            It has been cool to get to know the Zambian staff more as well as meet some of the students that are joining us on the Door of Hope trip. They are encouraging and inspiring. Paul is a student majoring in law. He desires to become a judge to aid the Zambian judicial system, which is tainted some I hear. Iden is a student planning on going into civil engineering. He just finished his first year in natural sciences (the first year program). He desires to be a civil engineer to help improve the poor infrastructure of Zambia, such as in Lusaka.

            I got to serve and talk with Mr. Banda yesterday cleaning sleeping bags. Mr. Banda serves here at the Nav. headquarters: cleaning, manning the gate, doing maintenance, and providing other needed and helpful services. He alternates with his partner Mooya, so that one of them is always working. So, on average, each of them works about 84 hours a week, serving the Lord, supporting their families… Mr. Banda has a wife and 7 kids, two of which are married with kids, the rest of which still live with him and his wife. He bikes an hour and a half to go to work or back home. It is cool to witness his humble faithful service.

            It is cool to see that even though Gershom and Abel have now finished their staff two year program (‘Gap’, know as ‘Edge corps’ in the US) and are planning on going into their careers, they continue to serve the LORD, sacrificing their time and effort for the Navigators, as they are transitioning to the next stage of life. It is a blessing to live with Sam, Gershom, and Abel who serve the LORD, and are laid back and flexible for us.

FUTURE OUTLOOK

            I’ll give you a future outlook of what’s ahead of me. We leave tomorrow morning for Door of Hope and return Sunday or Monday. I’m nervous and excited for this trip ahead. After Door of Hope, we will visit Livingston, for two days I believe, for some team time in which we will visit Victoria Falls and go on a Safari adventure. After that Todd and Silas leave to journey back to America. After Livingston, the current plan is for Jon Chen and I (instead of Nathan as originally planned since he is leaving two weeks early) to head up to Copperbelt University (CBU), while Nathan, Aaron, and Dan stay in Lusaka. The Copperbelt University Navigators’ ministry died in 2007 (2007 was the previous/last time there was a Navigators’ ministry with Nav. students there). In August of 2011 (last year), Chapo (and his family: his wife and son) went up to Copperbelt to begin to rebuild the ministry there. Two months ago Abel and Ngambo (Navigator staff in their twenties) went up there for 4 days to aid him. In late June, Jon and I will go up to aid Chapo in pioneering the ministry there. When I first heard, my reaction was actually one of excitement, excitement to be able to join Jon Chen in this challenge. Now, I feel excited still, nervous, and sad some to leave my team-mates and new friends behind. I trust that God has good things in store for us.

ZAMBIA FACTOIDS

            I’ll share a few things I find interesting about Zambia here. With electricity, cell phone usage, and internet usage what people do here is buy a certain amount and when it runs out (or is about to), they buy more. So, for example, for internet they will buy a certain amount of GB (gigabytes) and for cell phone usage a certain amount of money’s worth; tis a different mentality. They use cash mainly here. The water (for this part of the city) goes out sometimes randomly and then eventually comes back on. This has happened a few times, one time for a day. When the water goes out we still have the water in the hot water tank for our abode to be able to use till the water comes back on. There is a slogan that our team liked: “Be free. Be Zambitious.” or “Be bold. Be Zambitious.” Our team thought of “The Zambitious” or “The Zambitious 7” as a team name.