I feel like I often start by telling you where I am when I’m writing my blog...and today is no exception! At the moment I am sat in our new living room, by the open fire (it’s cold at night at the moment), looking up at the beautiful thatched roof (something I have always wanted to have) and generally being blown away by how much has happened in the last 48 hours or so. In fact, the last few couple of weeks have been pretty non-stop and amazing...so let me tell you about it...
I arrived in Lusaka twelve days ago and since then have slept in five different places and driven about 1000 kilometres back and forth around Zambia. We started off with a few days in Lusaka, the capital city generally getting ourselves organised. (By we, I mean Jon & Jude and their three boys, Ethan, Josh and Jacob and of course, myself!) It was great to be back in a big city with shops where you can buy things like shampoo, internet cafes where the internet goes quickly (well, quicker than it did in Kimilili) and even has a wireless connection, a cinema where I went to watch the new Harry Potter film (yey!) and take away pizza shops!! There are so many things I take for granted living in a big city like Manchester...and it was good to have them on hand again. I have to confess though, I found the whole busy city thing a little crazy as well. There was so much traffic on the roads and it just didn’t feel as safe or friendly as Kimilili!
We also spent some time meeting friends from different parts of Lusaka who are interested in the work we have been doing but not necessarily in the Chingola area where we were last year. We spent time looking at the next three months and setting out a rough plan of how to get through all the things we think we need to. I say rough plan, as we don’t really know yet quite how the next few months will pan out so have to leave plenty of room for manoeuvre in any plans we make.
As with last year, carrying out this exercise left me with a feeling of, eek! How on earth are we actually going to achieve even half of the things we want to in the time we have?? This year we are going to be involved in work in three areas; Chingola (where we were last year), Nchelenge (where a good friend who worked with us last year lives and has begun to lay foundations for the work we are doing together) and Mkushi (an area new to us and where we are going to be based for the duration of our stay). So, it feels like we’re going to be stretching ourselves a little further this year...but, whenever I take a look at it through my eyes and I get a slight feeling of “but...how?!” I have to remember just how God pulled it all together last year. I know I was feeling like this a year ago and I know that God had already been at work in Chingola and brought us alongside the right people at just the right time for his plans. So, I know we can trust him to do the same in Mkushi and Nchelenge...and rather than worrying about it, I’m determined to enjoy the privilege of being a part of his plans!
So, after we had caught up with some old friends and got ourselves organised we set off for the 5 hour drive to Chingola. It was long and uneventful so not worth me boring you with now apart from to say it was safe and we made it! We were camping for a couple of nights on a friends farm and sadly arrived just as it was going dark. So by torch light we put up the tents and got settled.
The next day we had arranged to spend time with Joel, Vincent, Ponde, Capsa and Ranger, the five guys we were working with last year. It was great to see them all again! Sitting under the shade of a big tree we spent the day catching up with them, hearing the ups and downs of the time since we last say them and overall it was really encouraging. Not everything has gone smoothly, but they are carrying on. 16 of the 17 groups in villages are still meeting, and although the cabbages didn’t make as much money as they could have done (many reasons to do with climate and market and what not!) they broke even and none of the guys have been stuck financially because of them...in fact they have had their time this year while the cabbages have supported the worker they employed, so although it has not provided a long term support, it has got them through a year and allowed them to focus more on the Life! project than they otherwise would have been able to, which I think is something to be hugely thankful to God for.
Last Friday we left Chingola and drove about 3 hours to Mkushi where we will be based this year. We were meeting a friend along the way who knew the way to a Bible college where we had been offered some short term accommodation, with the possibility of staying for the 3 months if we wanted to...it was an unknown quantity really...out in the bush, but we knew there was no water or electricity (we had been promised a generator could be arranged). The college is 45 kilometers or so from Mkushi town, but it turns out that the guy who knew the way...well, he didn’t so much know the way. We set of from Mkushi at about 6pm and arrived at 11.20pm having driven 175 kilometers around bush roads!!! It was the most ridiculous journey, made even more difficult by the fact that the kids understandably were getting fed up and we had to stop every now and then to feed Jacob (the baby) or just let him out of his car seat as he was going nuts! Anyway, eventually we made it, having retraced our steps a fair few times, picked up various people along the way (who apparently also knew where we were going!) until we met Pastor Michael who we were meant to be meeting the next day and who actually did know the way! I reached a point where I had to laugh or I may have started crying!!! I lost count of the number of times I saw a gate, or a sign and thought “This has got to be it now?!”...by the time we did actually get there I think I had given up hope of ever arriving!
The college was pretty basic, but we were all able to have a room with a bed and mattresses appeared from somewhere. It was quite odd turning up in what felt like the middle of nowhere, finding a group of people waiting for us (who then disappeared once we’d said hello), getting the camping stove out, cooking some tea, unpacking our sleepnig bags and finally collapsing in a bed and not really knowing where on earth I actually was! It was funny to wake up in morning and actually see our surroundings. Pastor Michael (who did know the way) returned in the morning to meet us and find out more about what we are hoping to do and to tell us a bit more about him. Following that, we discussed accommodation as, although the Bible college is potentially a great resource to have and central to the area we are hoping to work in....we really felt we couldn’t make it our base. There was quite literally nothing but empty rooms. It would have meant spending a lot of time and money getting it to a point where we could decamp and make it liveable and workable as a base. The pastor was very gracious and understanding and said he had a few other ideas in mind anyway in case we had not wanted to stay long term at the college. He told us to stay put while he went and investigated one. He came back about an hour later and told us he’d found somewhere that even had a fridge! It sounded hopeful, so we packed up again and set off, back along the roads we had driven round and round the night before - this time taking a much shorter route! We ended up in the most amazingly beautiful place at a cottage way, way better than I would have ever imagined. There is a farm about 12 km from the tarmac road and the owners have a huge & beautiful house, but they also have a smaller, but also beautiful cottage on site that they rent out, currently available! The cottage has water pumped up from the adjacent river and also has electricity, thanks to the hydro-electric generator at the dam in the river. The verandah and living room look out over the river and dam and it is the most beautiful view. The farmers have two boys, roughly the same age as Jon & Jude’s eldest two, who promptly invited the Witt boys into their toy room and tree house! There’s plenty of space for the boys to run around and play football, although being scared of the two dogs is preventing them from adventuring outside too much. We honestly couldn’t have found something more amazing and having gone from thinking we may have to live in the most basic accommodation, God has promptly silenced all our worries and doubts by providing us with a real haven and place that can be a retreat for us in between our excursions to the bush...something that I personally find really helpful!
Alongside all this, when we met with Pastor Michael and a friend who he brought along, it has become very clear to me that the mountain we know we have to climb has already been climbed by God! There is already a group of people who have been coming together and praying to find a way of reaching and working with those in the bush and not knowing how to do it. I can’t sum it up here or put into words the way it feels. From Friday night, when we were driving round and round wondering if we were just making the biggest mistake ever setting off into this random place, we are now seeing God really amazingly piecing everything together. The more people we meet, the more I am blown away by all the links between the few contacts we had and the way it is all being put together - by a mastermind far greater and more capable that us!!! Even after seeing God do the same last year it is still humbling to realise that he is graciously using us again and has been working far longer than us to make his plans come about. It’s also so very exciting...it feels a bit like we’re standing at the edge of a cliff about to jump off, or sitting on the edge of a plane about to skydive...actually, maybe we’re in free fall at the moment having already jumped and God is pulling the parachute cord for us! Either way - it’s exciting and I can’t wait to see God continue to roll out his plans.
I think that is pretty much it really. We have spent the last few days settling into our new home, unpacking all our stuff and sorting things out. We have a few meetings coming up this week that will hopefully hope us distill the way forward, or at least the next step.
While we’re here it looks like I’ll be the link with the guys in Chingola...I’m sort of co-ordinating a conference in late September looking at practical ways villagers can reach out to their neighbours. There’s 3 guys coming out from home for 2 weeks to be involved and it’s my job to work out the logistics of meeting them, getting everyone in the right place at the right time and making sure everyone is fed. A lot of the content of the conference is already planned, but all the on the ground plans need putting in place. So, I’ll be back and forth between here and Chingola every few weeks so have much driving to do, about 300km each way...please pray for safety on these long drives!
In myself, I’m doing well. I’m adjusting to life in Zambia and living with the Witts, but it is all very different to life in Kenya and living in the guest house. I really miss all the friends I made there and the community feel, I miss bumping into folk I know as I walk along the road, I miss knowing a bit of the language and I miss all the fun and laughter around the guest house! However, like I said, I am grateful that I had the chance to be there for four months and the fact I’m missing it now only highlights how much I enjoyed being there!
Since leaving Kimilili, it’s been a bit of a roller-coaster couple of weeks and it’s hard to believe that it’s all happened in two weeks. Despite missing Kimilili, I’ve been loving being back here but all this moving around has meant that I am now officially exhausted. Early nights for me!
Oh, I’ve forgotten to tell you one of my favourite things about the place we’re living. The farm owners have a couple of dogs and also a lamb that was orphaned so they have hand raised her. Babarella, as the lamb is called, is now convinced she is also a dog and it’s not unusual to turn round and find a sheep in the living room! Love it!!
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Thank God for:
- a great last few days in Kimilili and safe travel to Zambia.
- provision of somewhere so lovely to live.
- the work he has clearly already begun in different areas of Zambia, way before we even thought of coming along, and for letting me be a part of it!
Please pray for:
- me to be sensitive to his Spirit as we begin to work with new people in new areas and for me not to rely on myself, but on Him!
- safety as I drive many miles.
- me to adjust to the different routine now I’m in Zambia.
