Since it’s been awhile since my last post, let me give you a brief update.  I spent the last few months really investing in a few solid friends I had made.  I had lots of down time just sitting around chatting with friends, teaching them to play Settler’s of Catan (and then playing more games than I can count!!) and preparing the youth for my departure.

The last few months were not what I expected, but I’m thankful for the time I had with each person and the conversations we were able to have.  There were several words of encouragement shared and just an openness of life with each other.

I had a wonderful going away party from the church, as well as my circle of missionary friends.  It was a blessing to have such closure about the ministry I had been doing for a year.  The last church service was such a blessing and I’m thankful for the goodbye I had.

I then headed off for a short visit to Hong Kong to catch up with my wonderful friend Jess!  I figured, I’m already traveling, why not visit her?!?  While I was a bit overwhelmed with the amount of people, the time was amazing and such a blessing to sit by the beach, watch some fireworks, eat American food, enjoy some Starbucks, and chat for hours on end.  Hong Kong is a wonderful place to visit and I’m thankful for that privilege as well.

I then began my journey back to America.  An adventure to say the least!  After some unpleasant flights and lots of time confusion, I think I’m finally getting back to normal.  Whatever normal may be!  At least I’m emerging from my cocoon!

Now I’m relaxing and enjoying time with my family and just waiting on the Lord to see what the next step is.  And I’m looking forward to catching up with all those people I haven’t seen for a year!

This week the pastor spoke about revival. While I think revival is important and that was the theme of his message, it was the specific things that hit me. He gave five actions we need to be taking to create revival. I want to take it further and say these five actions are required of our daily living. They are required if we want to be living the lives God has called us to. We spent the day looking at Acts. These five actions are shown throughout Acts and they are there over and over.

First, we need to be prayerful. How easy it is to say this, but how much time do we actually spend in prayer. When life gets going and we get in a normal routine and there are not a lot of difficulties, the amount of time we spend praying starts to decrease. I have been convicted of this lately. How much time do I spend praying? I’m given 24 hours in a day and what do I do with my time? How much of that 24 hours do I give back to the Lord to spend in His presence?

Second, we need to be united. How much time do I spend building up the church? How much time do I spend dividing the church and causing discord? “United churches don’t fight and fighting churches aren’t revived.” Are my words and actions building up or tearing down the church and my family of believers? It’s one or the other. I don’t think we can live in the middle, thinking we don’t have influence. We do. What are we going to do with that influence?

Thirdly, we need to be evangelizing. We are all called to be sharing the Word. The news of Jesus Christ is the best news in the world. Are we sharing it or hiding it? “All Christians are missionaries, and all non-Christians are the mission field.” We don’t have to go halfway around the world to evangelize. We can do it in our own backyard. How much time am I spending talking with those who don’t know Christ?

Fourth. We have power. Because the Holy Spirit lives in us, we have God’s power within us to reach those around us. What are we doing with that gift? Hiding it or using it?

Lastly, we are called to be holy. My life should be a holy life. My decisions should reflect Christ. People should be able to look at my life and see that I love the Lord. Can they? Do they see Jesus when they see me?

I left church this week feeling challenged and convicted. The Lord spoke directly to my heart. I pray that I will be obedient to the word He has spoken to me. I pray that as I share this with you, you also will be affected and that you will join with me in committing to follow the Lord more closely.

While there I caught up with another American girl I had gone through training with and we started making plans for a trip to Cape Town.  Cape Town is this talked about, magical place I keep hearing about and I so wanted to make it there while I was here in Africa.  So we went!

We spent some time during our retreat looking up different flight options and bus options and finally just decided to do it and go for the bus (lots of people had reservations about us taking this route, but we decided to plunge ahead and risk it).  Saturday came and we caught a bus from Lusaka, Zambia to Johannesburg, South Africa.  This meant we traveled through Zimbabwe and would be on the bus for about 25 hours.  Sadly, we traveled through Zim at night so we didn’t really get to see that country, but we did see a beautiful sunset in this semi mountainous area.  We also got on and off the bus about a zillion times crossing the borders and getting a large amount of stamps and stickers put into our passports.

We arrived into J’burg and decided to fly to Cape Town.  Bus prices are the same as plane tickets between these two cities, so why not fly?!?  So for the first time in my life I arrived at an airport and walked up to the counter to buy a flight out that would be leaving within hours.  What a thrill!  And truly a very easy thing to do.  This was the point we began to see God really watching over us and just providing a way for us to experience this city at a very low rate.  We got a flight out and arrived into Cape Town about 11 pm.  There we were met by an SIM worker who drove us to an SIM guesthouse there in Cape Town.  Another blessing from the Lord as we were able to stay in this lovely little home (pool included, and a washer and dryer) for a very, very low rate because we are with SIM.  And again I saw the reason why I am thankful to be serving with this organization.  They care for and help each other out even if you meet them for the first time at an airport arriving into their city and are just on holiday!!

Thus began our wonderful time in Cape Town.  We had met another guy from the UK at our retreat who was also taking holiday in Cape Town so we spent the week together moving about Cape Town and seeing the sights.  He was great fun and also a blessing as we were able to rent a car and he drove us to all the things we wanted to do!  (Renting a car was way cheaper than paying for a tour taxi driver.)

Among the “tourist” things to do, we saw the Waterfront (gobs and gobs of shopping and eating places), Robbens Island (the once most feared prison in South Africa, which housed Nelson Mandela and is now closed and just a museum), Table Mountain (a mountain that looks like a table on top with incredible views of the city and the ocean), Cape Point (where the two oceans meet), Groot Constantia (a vineyard), the penguins (they live on a beach), and took the City Bus Tour that gave us a history lesson in this city.  We picked up brochures every place we went and were constantly rearranging our plans so we could add more things!  What a joy it was to plan as we went and not have to worry about a schedule.  We didn’t have return tickets of any sort so we were able to keep extending our trip if we wanted!  Our only concern was money and how long it would last!  (P.S.  If you want to check out Cape Town, I think I have any and all information you could ever want!)

As we drove around the highways that follow the beaches and made it to the top of some of the mountains, I was just in awe.  This place is magnificent.  And not just the city part.  But the natural landscape of the mountains so close to the sea and the crashing of the waves along the beaches.  We would stop along the highway and just stare at the water coming in and just be in awe.  I cannot think of any other word to describe it.  I think this is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been.  God’s hand over creation and the forming of the earth is just beautiful.  I was able to step in both the Atlantic Ocean and the Indian Ocean and at Cape Point we saw the two oceans meet and the crashing of the waves.  Unbelievable.

In addition to all these wonderful things, we visited the aquarium and saw sharks and lots of other fish and ocean life.  We also saw baboons and monkeys and ostriches and penguins and seals all just hanging out on the beaches and parks.  I also had fish and chips for the first time and wondered why I had never had this before.  The fish was so fresh and tasted incredible!  Wonderful!

We were definitely sad to leave this place, and the only thing that could have made it better would have been warmer weather so we could swim in the beaches.  But we came at the turning point of winter, so the water was freezing and the wind was insane so we wore fleeces most days.  We had found a travel agency one day, so we had stopped by and bought some return flights back to Zambia.  (As uneventful as our bus trip down was, the flight back was cheap enough and totally worth not sitting on a bus for 24 more hours.)

On our way back to Zambia, we stopped at Victoria Falls to see another majestic creation.  We stayed in a great backpacker place that arranged all kinds of tours for us.  We took a sunset cruise along the Zambezi River and saw an amazing sunset over the water and just sat in awe again.  We saw the falls and got completely drenched.  As it is the end of rainy season, the falls are extremely full and most of what we saw was mist as we got closer to them.  I spent most of the time battling the rain coming down trying to keep my contacts in!!  Another trip will have to be made to actually see the falls and of course, bungee jump off the bridge!!  As we wandered around the trails in Vic Falls, we ran into some baboons and they were literally at my feet as we shared the walking trail with them!

I returned home by bus from Livingstone to Ndola and was so grateful I made it home safely.  I had missed home and my friends terribly here in Ndola and I was making plans all the way home to catch up with my friends!  I found this to be an incredibly blessing as well, as I can see that I am truly living here and God has provided me with community and a normal life here in Ndola.  I also realized how much I love Zambians and how great a people they truly are.  This trip came at a great time, when I was needing some refreshment and encouragement, and God came through for the millionth time in my life to show His faithfulness and love for me.  In addition, He showed off for me with allowing me to see His beauty in this earth.  And this may not be so important to you, but we were able to start every morning off sitting in a coffee shop and just enjoying great lattes and I was so thankful for this as well!  I am truly blessed and so grateful.  God is good.

(P.S.  I’ll try and get some photos up soon, of this adventure, as well as the past few months, but internet is quite slow around here.)

*Now that rainy season is pretty much over, the sunsets are absolutely gorgeous.

*I saw a rainbow the other day that was beautiful.

*The unbelievably beautiful people.

*The way little girls want to be moms and care for their siblings and carry either younger siblings or dolls on their backs with chitenges.

*Precious sounding Bemba and Kaonde praise songs that I love listening to.

*The friendliness and hospitality of people on the street or in homes of friends.

*Chitenges! (the wonderfully bright and colorful designed material used for just about anything you can think of)

*The flexibility and pace of life here, along with the free flowing schedules.

*The love for maize, avocados, and mangoes.

*The belief in prayer and the words they are saying when talking to the Lord.

*The simplicity of life here.  I love not being tied to a computer.

*The cutest babies and kids in the world.

*The trees.  Enough said.

*The extremely toned legs I’ve developed due to hours upon hours of walking.  I won’t tell you my average amount a day.  You might faint with exhaustion.

*My new love for Coke.

*Wicker everything.  Chairs, baskets, bowls, etc.

*Even if its miserably hot in the day, the mornings and evenings are wonderful.

*Speaking a few Bemba words and hearing my friends crack up at my pronunciation.

*Conversations with friends that leave me super encouraged and in awe about what God is doing in their lives.

*The amount of laughter that occurs when walking through a compound with a “white lady.”

*The amount of laughter that occurs walking just about anywhere due to all the joking and deep friendships.

*The love for music.

We had so many laughs, my side was hurting by the time the game was over (and a stomachache from the overload of sugar, but its a sin to not consume the mallows when the game is over!!)

Due to minor internet complications, some of you were unable to receive my newsletter by email and I’ve had a few problems trying to get it uploaded here.  But hopefully you can open it in some way to read it!!

So two other friends (Western friends that is) and I decided to get this box of vegetables and split it up and see what kind of joy would come from new foods. This week the box arrived. All kinds of great things appeared: onions, tomatoes, green peppers, carrots, potatoes, corn, and several other things – including eggplant, which I was very excited to make in remembrance of my China days!!

Among these items was a bag of tiny green jalapeño looking peppers. And this is where the great fun began. The three of us decided to have dinner together and opted for a Chinese stir-fry, sweet and sour kinda deal. We included all these random vegetables, along with these tiny little green peppers we were unsure about.

As we began our meal, I was the first to take a bite of one of these peppers. Again, if you know me, you know my extremely low tolerance for spicy foods. Immediately my throat, tongue, and entire mouth were on fire. My eyes were watering and my face felt like it was burning. I grabbed for the water, but if any of you have experienced this, you know that water does not solve this problem. I told my friends the peppers were hot. They asked how hot. I just said I thought they were hot and explained my low tolerance for spicy foods.

So they both speared a pepper and took a bite. And let’s just say that my low tolerance was not the issue. These peppers were HOT. They both also immediately grabbed for water, and we started shoving rice in our mouths, hoping that would relieve some of the pain. After about ten or so minutes, our mouths had finally cooled and we were able to actually enjoy the food we were eating. Quite tasty when you leave out those tiny little pretty looking green peppers!!

However, I received ridicule for the rest of the evening because my warning was not strong enough about the intensity of these peppers. I finished the meal with tears in my eyes, partly from the peppers, party from laughing about the hilarity of the entire situation.

My only question is this: Why on earth are these peppers grown here? Zambian food is one of the non spiciest things I have ever tasted in my life. I’m still pondering that one. So a laugh till you cry evening, followed with the absolutely perfect ending: Harry Potter Number 6!!! And the decision to ask for those peppers to be omitted from future boxes of vegetables we purchase!

This week, after about six weeks, I removed the braids. Again I sat for about eight hours undoing each braid individually.

I have put the story into pictures, so just check it out below. I leave the rest of the detail to your imagination. Such as what one’s scalp looks like after not being washed for six weeks (remembering the scalp has often itched, and therefore been scratched, and the normal process of shedding has been allowed to happen.)

So now I am once again with my normal hair. I had almost forgotten its true color and what it felt like and the ease of pulling it off my neck in this warm climate!

First day of braids.

Braids Calmed Down

Braids removed

Braids brushed out

Quite the full bag of extensions removed!