My oh so crazy life.

“My oh so crazy life has got me spinnin’ round and round, hanging upside down, taking one step at a time, holding your hand all the way. And it’ll be ok. I’m gonna live for today following your way!”

There are so many things running through my head right now. I don’t even know where to start. So bear with me…this might be really jumbled.

Since being back from Mumena I’ve spent a lot of time with my babies in the haven, the kiddos from the basic school that come to my house to play every day, and my Zambian friends. I’ve been soaking up their joy. I’ve been learning to love them with God’s love. I’ve been learning to look at life as a child looks at life, to have the faith that a child has. I’ve been trying to make the most of every opportunity.

Some highlights since our trip: Choir practice! I love being in the choir with the Zambian college students! Staying the night at the havens, singing with Prince and Rajiv, Sunday night church…3 people got baptized! We had a photoshoot with our little haven babies outside and they were so happy and fun! Stephanie, Mackenzie, and I spent a couple hours playing with Rosa and her friends painting nails, coloring, and dancing. They were going crazy and having so much fun and I really started to see their real personalities. They are sweet sweet girls! Mr. Merritt taught us an awesome class about God’s will and how we know what it is. Wednesday night girls devo and Thursday night group devo were such blessings! I love worshiping with my HIZ group! Abbie, Stephanie, and I spent a couple hours talking with Mrs. Merritt and just getting to hear her life story; she is an amazing woman and it’s incredible to see how God has used her and the good and bad things in her life that have gotten her to this place. She’s such an inspiration. Today I learned how to do Cathy’s hair! I wasn’t very good at it haha but with practice I could eventually do it J

This week we visited St. Mulumba Special School in Choma; it’s a boarding school that teaches the visually impaired, hearing impaired, and intellectually impaired children. The few hours that we spent at this school have been the highlight of my trip. Being there was incredible and so fun! I learned sign language, Braille, and smiling/hugging (the language of the intellectually impairedJ). These children were so happy and full of joy! They loved showing us around their classrooms and teaching us everything they are learning. They had the biggest pot of nisma I’ve ever seen…and they had 2 of them. They were huge metal barrels that came up to my stomach and they had to be stirred with oars! Stirring a little pot of nisma is hard enough…I cant imagine the muscles those women have from stirring that huge thing! I was so impressed with the school. Disabilities in Zambia are very looked down on. Families and communities will sometimes abandon or even kill the child if they are born handicapped. But this school truly cares about these kids and they are teaching them. The kids are learning and being loved. 2 deaf girls sang us the Zambian National Anthem in sign language. A blind boy wrote my name in Braille and taught me how to do mathematics. And a mentally handicapped girl named Karen made our day the best one yet. This little girl can’t talk or do sign language, but man can she hug. She would run between every single one of us giving us hug after hug after hug. We all probably got at least 20 hugs from Karen…and she just laughed and had the biggest smile the whole time. We wanted to steal her and take her home with us. The whole world needs hugs from Karen and the joy that she has!

Well 10 days. That’s all I have left with my precious babies. 10 more days to cuddle with Matt and be filled with the light that comes from his smile. 10 more days to watch Kathy grow into a precious joyful little girl. 10 more days to be a “playing mother” to Rosa and her friends who come to play every day. 10 more days to spend time with my Tonga friends Ruth, Brenda, and Deleki. 10 more days to show all our workers how much we appreciate them just by spending time with them during the day. 10 more days to bask in the glory and joy of singing with hundreds of Zambians to OUR Jesus. 10 more days of unbearable heat. 10 more sunsets that that huge hot sun makes. 10 more days of homework homework homework. 10 more days with the Mann Family. 10 more days of home. Home away from home. Home sweet Namwianga. In 10 days we leave Namwianga. We’ll still have 2 more weeks in Africa, but it won’t be the same. I don’t doubt that God will still work in our lives. He’s still going to show me new things everyday and teach me more about Him. He’s still going to love me and give me opportunities to give that love to others.  He’s still going to continue to amaze me. But Namwianga has been my home for 2 months now.

I’m excited to get home, don’t get me wrong. I cant wait to see what God has in store. Home is where the real battle field is. But it’s also the glory field. It’s going to be hard but it’s going to give me so many opportunities to give Him the glory. I couldn’t have done this without Him. Everyone said this trip would be life changing…ha I had no idea how life changing it really would be. I’ve been so blessed! I couldn’t be surrounded by 29 better people. This week God has taken my faith and shown me 134985940 new things that I never knew. I’m a different person because of it. LOVE. GRACE. POWER. MERCY. PRAYER. JOY. PASSION. SALVATION. FAITH. PEACE. I’ve know these words my entire life but now they have real meaning. God’s teaching me so much. It’s definitely not always easy but it’s a blessing and He’s helping me grow into the person He knows that I can be. So blessed!

Pray for our group as we wind down our time at Namwianga! We have a lot of work to do and a lot of people to spend time with! It’s going to be a hard transition for us. Pray for the babies at the havens! While talking to Mrs. Merritt I realized how much work it takes to run the havens. But over financial and physical support all she really wants is prayers for those babies. They need it so bad! Pray for the Namwianga students that got baptized Sunday night!

“Jesus knows all about our struggles. He will guide till the day is done. There’s not a friend like the lowly Jesus. NO NOT ONE. NO NOT ONE.”

A Day in the Life...

Saturday night Ashley, Whitney, Abbie, and I packed a bag, loaded up some sleeping bags and went to the havens to work the night shift with the aunties! Little did we know those sleeping bags would never be touched. We got there around 7 Saturday evening and immediately started feeding crying babies. We were in Haven 1 where the little babies live so there were always plenty of hungry, dirty, or tired babies. Ba Cecelia, the head auntie, talked to us for a little bit and told us that basically the aunties just feed babies all night long. When one cries they feed them. If they’re dirty they change them. They also do laundry all night long. Sure enough, this went on ALL night. Just in the first few hours I had been spit up on dozens of times and peed on.  At one point, probably around 10 or 11, most of the babies were asleep so that was when we could lay down until a baby cried. Then we would get up and feed them. It was usually a nonstop rotation of a baby crying. As soon as I would put one down and start to fall asleep in my little chair another baby would cry. At about 3:30 in the morning I started to fall asleep and got maybe 45 minutes of sleep until all the babies started crying…we found out that a day at the havens starts at 4:30. Bright and early. The aunties were up bathing baby after baby, getting them into clean clothes and putting them in bed so we could come get them and feed them. Some aunties were cooking breakfast while others were cleaning the haven. This went on for a few hours until finally all the babies were clean and fed! In Haven 1 there are about 10 babies who are too old for milk so around 7 it was time to feed some of the older babies. We got them all at the table and fed each of them a bowl of porridge. Then the aunties took them back to clean them and put them in their beds. By breakfast I had managed to get peed on another time and of course lots more spit up. After breakfast time we left Haven 1 and went to Haven 2 where the toddlers live. I can’t even imagine what it would’ve been like staying there over night. It was bath time in Haven 2 and they were getting some of the kids ready for church! They take about half of the kids in that haven to church every week so around 9 o’clock we loaded up the van and drove down the road to the Johnson auditorium. Ashley, Whitney, Abbie, and I all sat on a row with 6 toddlers. Let me tell you, it was crazy. We were crammed and dripping with sweat because it was so hot, and having a kid on your lap makes it ten times hotter (and not having air conditioner). The kids slowly got cranky and tired, and I was so tired…after a night of no sleep I honestly wasn’t really in the mood to sit through a church service with a bunch of toddlers. We took them out about half way through to do a kids class with them which helped with all the heat and crankiness, and then when it was over we loaded back up in the van and went home to the Havens!

                After staying EIGHTEEN HOURS in the Havens I have a much bigger appreciation for the aunties. I met a few aunties, Betty, Violet, and Katherine, and got to talk to them a little bit. Betty was the only one that spoke English so we talked a lot about what she did there. She works the night shift every night, 5 pm to 7 am. She lives at the havens and she’s been doing it for a year. She’s single and has a daughter who lives at home with her parents. She doesn’t work any other jobs because she sleeps all day long. Violet doesn’t speak English but I sat down and did laundry with her one time and I could tell she was so appreciative of me helping her. She kept saying my name and “thank you” over and over again because those were the only words she knew how to say. In Haven 2 we got to talk to the auntie, Jennifer, and she was so glad that we were there to go to church with them.

These aunties have the hearts of a servant. A new mom always complains about not getting sleep because their one baby keeps them up. These aunties take care of 30 babies all night long. They change tons of diapers, they make tons of bottles, and they bath every baby. They do laundry for 30 kids, not 1 or 2 or 3. They are literally on their hands and knees scrubbing the floors every day. They don’t take their job lightly. They are probably always covered in spit up, pee, and poop.  But they do it with a smile on their face and a joyful attitude. They were singing while doing laundry and laughing while feeding the older kids. They truly enjoy their job. I honestly believe that not many people could do what these aunties do. This isn’t a job that you could do even if you hate it. These aunties have to love their job and love the babies that they’re taking care of. They put everything they have into giving these orphans a good life. They serve selflessly and they love every baby as Christ loves us.  A day in the life of an auntie was not east. It’s a dirty job but they do it willingly. It struck me that they are an example of God’s love for us. Compared to Him we’re dirty and needy; we fight him and don’t usually appreciate what he’s doing for us. We’re always crying out to Him for more, more, more. But He gives willingly. He holds us when we’re crying, he feeds us when we’re hungry, he comforts us when we’re needy. He doesn’t leave us in the dark to grow on our own. He’s with us from the very beginning helping us every step of the way. Every baby in the Havens has lost their mother and some have lost their father, but because of these aunties they are being loved and cared for and taken care of. Some of the aunties even have families of their own but they’re willing to give up everything for these babies. “Make me a servant, Lord make me like you.” These aunties are definitely servants just like Christ, and that’s the type of person I want to be; down doing the dirty work with a smile on my face and filled with love and joy.

“Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress.” James 1:27

Experiencing More and More of Africa...

Byepi Mwane! We’re finally back home from our trip! It was a long 9 days but it was so fun and we got to experience so much!

On October 5 we left Namwianga and drove for 2 days until we got to Solwezi which is at the very North border of Zambia. We were out of Tonga land and with the Kaonde people…which means we had to learn a new language. We learned some Kekaonda, basically just greetings, but it was enough to connect with the people! North Zambia is so different from South Zambia where we live. First of all, it’s green. There’s a lot more rain up there so it’s full of green trees and grass, rich red soil, and even some little mountains! It was also a lot cooler, which is nice because it’s becoming summer here so Zambia is really hot. On the drive we saw parts of Zambia that were so different than Kalomo or Choma…the 2 cities in Zambia that we get to see. Those 2 cities are really poor and dirty. We drove through cities like Lusaka which is a big city. They have skyscrapers (mini compared to America but big for Zambia), stoplights and highways, and even a Subway! It was like a whole different world than the Africa we’ve been living in!

In Solwezi, Zambia, we stayed at Mumena Mission Site. This mission is new so there’s still a whole mission team there planting churches and helping the Kaonde people. The first night we got there they welcomed us, made us dinner, and had a devo around the campfire. All the families were so welcoming and loving; being there automatically made me want to join a mission team. Brian and Sandra Davis have 2 little boys, and they’ve been there the longest but are moving back to America next year. This family definitely has made a lasting impression on the Kaonde people. Brian taught us classes while we were there and he is the missionary of all missionaries. He knows what he’s doing.  Rick and Karen Love have 4 kids and they’re going to be there for a long time; at least 10 more years is their plan. Rick has devoted his life to KNOWING the Kaonde people; truly knowing them. You can tell that he cares about the people around him and he’s there solely to share with them about God. He loves those people so much. Karen is just a superhero. She has 4 little kids who she homeschools and she’s doing missionary work. She’s the little mom of the mission site; she welcomed us into her home and made us chocolate cake and really just gave us lots of good advice on mission work. I loved getting to spend time with Karen and hear about the work God is doing through her. Sam and Ellie Rodriguez are an older couple who just moved there in January. They are an inspiration to me; they were so close to retirement but they chose to move away from home and grandkids to live in Africa for a couple year. Then there were 2 younger couples who had just moved there in January also, and they are there for a 2 year apprenticeship. Jeremy and Whitney Davis and Jason and Erin Davis all graduated from ACU in 2008 and are now living in Africa…it’s crazy to think that they are just coming out of the stage of life that we’re in right now, and God’s already doing huge crazy things in their life! They’re just a few years older than us, and they’re living at Mumena getting to work with the Zambian people! Jeremy was so focused on truly getting to know the people; he’s already made a lot of great friends there and he knew so much of the language. One night he said a prayer in Kekaonde that gave me chills. Whitney was such an inspiration to me. We got to talk and spend a lot of time together and I just loved hearing about what she was doing there. She’s also made so many friends there and goes out of her way to spend time with them. Jason and Erin are doing a lot of work on agriculture helping the Zambians learn to farm and raise animals. Both of the young Davis couples really made an impact on me; they’re young and could be doing anything, but they’ve chose to give their life to the people of Zambia.

While we were at Mumena we got to see what a church planting team really does and we got to learn how a mission team works and the strategies that they use. We had a few class periods with the team and they were all so interesting! We learned about mission work in general and what that means. There are so many worldviews and traveling can be hard because you’re experiencing a new worldview; missionaries have to live in their own worldview. They live in the Kingdom of God. That’s the worldview that these missionaries have learned to live in, and because of that it’s easier to accept and work with the Zambian worldview. We learned about team building and different strategies. We also learned about issues that they have to deal with. Witchcraft is a huge deal in Africa. It’s always been something that I’ve heard about and seen movies with ghosts and spirits, but I’ve never actually thought about the reality of it and how it affects people. In class we learned so much about witchcraft and how it destroys the lives of people in Africa. Witchcraft is a strong power that Satan is using to lead people towards him, and it’s really hard to get rid of. The missionaries found that it’s part of the Zambian culture, therefore they’ll have people who become Christians but still practice witchcraft just because that’s part of the culture that they’ve grown up with. Another struggle that they deal with is just getting a village to agree to having a church there. We walked to a village one night that they are working with but haven’t been able to plant a church there yet because the people are very wild and pagan. We went there for a devo around the campfire and sure enough, it was pretty wild. It was definitely a “wow, I’m in Africa” moment. We were sitting around this huge fire with tons of Zambians and they started singing their Kekaonde songs, and before I knew it we were all dancing around the fire while clapping and chanting; that was their way of worship. However, a lot of the people were there just for the entertainment and to see the mazungus or makuas (white people). It was hard for us to see it as a way of worship but we joined in and immersed ourselves into the culture so we could connect with them and try and understand them. It was a fun night and a big cultural experience for us!

One day we walked with Whitney to Konkwa, a village where they’ve planted a church and she’s made some close friends there. Her friend Josephine was so excited to see us coming to visit her; she laid out all her stools and mats for us and she roasted us some ground nuts which were so good! The people in Zambia are very hospitable; they love for you to invite yourselves over and once you’re there they take good care of you. Josephine refused to let us sit on the ground and she never let us run out of groundnuts to eat. It was really cool to get to see real village life. At Namwianga there aren’t many villages close by that we go to, and if we do go to villages it’s usually for gospel meetings so it’s full of people…not just normal simple village life!

On October 8, we spent the whole day at Mehema Refugee Camp! This is the largest refugee camp in the world; they used to have 150,000 refugees living there but in the past couple of years about 70,000 of them have been able to go back to their homes. This camp is full of refugees from Conga and Angola, and some have lived there so long that they’ve had families and raised them on the camp. It was an incredible experience being there. First of all, the camp was nothing like what I expected it to be like. It’s run by an organization that helps them make a living for themselves. When the refugees come they are given land and seeds to start farming and they are given a tent to live in until they can build themselves a house. So they are never just left with nothing. Driving through the refugee camp we saw a lot of hard workers either farming, taking care of animals, or up on the roofs building houses for their families. We spent a few hours before lunch sitting in chairs under a tree just worshiping with them. We heard lot of sermons, sang lots of songs, and performed lots of songs for them. For lunch they cooked us nsima, cassava leaves, and goat. The nsima was literally bigger than my head. And they expect you to eat it all. It was insane. It was good though! After lunch we spent a couple more hours worshiping with them! We all had kids on our laps and at our feet and we just got to love on them! A couple of the missionaries from Mumena helped plant the church on the camp where we were worshiping so it was really neat to get to visit that area! The last song the “Harding choir” sang for them was The Greatest Commands; I was standing up with a little African girl holding each of my hands and looking into the faces of all these refugees who have made a life for themselves and who are filled with the love and joy of Christ. Nothing can beat that. God is good.

We were at Mumena on a Sunday so we all got to visit churches that the different missionaries are working with. I walked to Konkwa church where I taught a children’s class with Chelsea and Mackenzie! It was so fun, and it was really neat to see how the kids were interested in what we were teaching and singing. There were also a couple moms in there watching us and Whitney told us that they had been going to a teaching conference and they are really trying to learn how to teach the children of the church. One group walked to a church that was about 4 km away. One group road there bikes to a church that was quite a long way. They said that it was like on land rafting…for an hour. I cant imagine riding my bike for that long on Africa roads. Then a couple groups drove to some other churches. It was really cool to get to see the actual church planting work that these missionaries are doing. They didn’t just build Mumena and sit back while people come to them. They are going out of their way to reach the people around them. These villages that we went to are literally in the middle of the bush, but they’ve gone out there and gotten to know the people and have slowly helped them plant churches. Namwianga has been established for so long so we don’t get to see a mission team at work. We get to see the Zambians that they’ve trained and how they can now run Namwianga on their own. Getting to experience all these things like the campfire devo, the refugee camp, and the churches has really put into perspective how hard mission work is but also the rewards that come from it. One of the headmen of the church at the refugee camp was left by his wife and kids when he decided to become a Christian and the headman. And the whole day of worship was led by a group of men who were all in their 20’s. They’ve slowly learned how to lead ,and the elders of the church and the Mumena missionaries stepped back and let them be in charge. At Konkwa church our interpreter that helped us in kid’s class is married but his wife refuses to come to church with him. The moms that sat in on our class are really trying their hardest to learn and becoming able to teach their kids in church. There were also 2 older girls in class (12 years old) who were really into what we were teaching and they led the kids in songs. Whitney told us that these 2 girls come to a weekly Bible study that she holds. They are the only ones that come regularly; they are really committed to learning and growing in their faith. Getting to see all these people was really neat because God has used the missionaries at Mumena to reach them. Because of the missionaries’ willingness to put time and effort into getting to know the Kekaonde people, they are reaching some and helping them to strive to learn more about Christianity.

While at Mumena, we slept on the floor and had took bucket baths…that was pretty interesting. We got to spend a lot of time just getting to know the missionaries and their children. They all opened our homes to us and they were genuinely interested in getting to know us and share their stories with us. One night we did trick-or-treating for the missionary kids which was SO FUN! We all dressed up…I was a Greek goddess…and the kids came to each of our doors and got candy from us! Then we got to follow them around while they went to the missionaries homes. Mrs. Ellie made popcorn balls for us and there was a scary maze that we all got to go through! This was our last night at Mumena so Mrs. Ellie also made us 2 chocolate cakes so we spent some time in her house just hanging out with them one last time! 

Getting to visit Mumena was such a blessing! I learned so much about actual mission work. The missionaries were willing to open up to us and be honest. We didn’t just see the easy parts of mission work. We saw and heard about the hard parts; the culture shock, the failures, the setbacks. It’s not an easy life but it’s one that God is blessing them with and will definitely reward them for. The missionary families made such an impact on me and taught me so much. They welcomed us and loved us like their own family. We got to experience so much and see where God was working. It’s amazing to me that we can go anywhere in the world and worship with a body of Christians. We literally have family in any part of the world. On this trip I’ve been surrounded by Tonga people, Kaonda people, Angolian people, and Conga people…but no matter where we are or what language they speak, we all worship the same God! It’s truly awesome.

We took a few days getting home from Mumena just to experience and see different parts of Zambia. We stopped at a few different lodges…we got to swim and have chicken and chips at a place for lunch. We had Mexican food for lunch one day! Not quite Tex-Mex but still very good. We stayed one night at Nsobe Game Park where we got to just relax…we went canoeing and had a really nice dinner! Abbie, Ashley and I decided to explore and go on a walk and it ended up being a safari basically. For some reason we decided it’d be a good idea for just us 3 girls to walk down a road with a sign that said “Game Drive.” I don’t know why we didn’t realize we were in the middle of the African bush and “Game Drive” meant wild animals. We ran into some giraffe and kudu…thankfully it wasn’t any large animals that would’ve hurt us. It was still pretty scary though. There were a couple times where we thought we were just going to die out in the bush. We visited a reptile farm where we got to hold baby crocodiles and huge pythons.  Then we got to spend a day in Lusaka! We went to a market which was pretty cool. It was like a little town inside of all these wooden stalls. They had the normal tourists’ stalls but then they also had barber shops, restaurants, and even bridal stores. It was a pretty intense market. And we got to go to the mall in Lusaka…and surprisingly it was actually a mall. It was probably nicer than an American mall. The clothing stores looked exactly like the stores in our mall. And they had stores like Super-Walmart. It was really weird seeing all this in Africa because for 2 months we’ve been surrounded by poverty and disease. We’ve been the only white people around and we’ve dealt with very different culture. Lusaka was very different though. It was very Westernized. There were lots of Indians and white people. Everyone was rich, or well off, and the culture was a lot like what we’re used to. It was a very different experience than Kalomo of Choma, and especially different than Namwianga.

We’re back at Namwianga now! It was a great trip, but it’s so good to be back home! Thankfully no one got sick on our trip and we stayed safe the whole time. God really watched over us and blessed us. Ellie Hamby got to go on our trip with us which was an awesome experience. Her and her husband lived at Namwianga a long time and she’s really a legend here J It was so good getting to spend time with her and getting to know her! God is just really blessing us here, and we have 2 weeks left at Namwianga and I have no doubt that He’ll continue to bless us. It’s crazy to think that in a little over a month I’ll be home. Time has flown by here. We have 2 weeks left at Namwianga which will be crazy with school work, but it will also be good getting to spend time with our babies at the Havens and our Tonga friends from the college. Once we leave here we’ll go spend a couple weeks in Tanzania and Kenya!

Today I got to see my Tonga friend Ruth at chapel…it was so good to see her! I also got to go to the Havens and see my precious babies! Matt is happy and healthy as always! Cathy’s sick and they’re going to test her for malaria so keep her in your prayers!

Keep our whole team in your prayers as we’re winding down our time here at Namwianga! The amount of schoolwork we have is really stressful, and it’s going to be hard to not pull away from the people here as it gets closer and closer to leaving. Pray that God gives us strength until the very end and that He continues to show us new things every day!

Home Sweet Namwianga.

It’s so good to be back from vacation! Our trip to Livingstone was so much fun, but it was hard being away from Namwianga and our friends here. It was even hard just being back in the tourist parts of Africa. Our trip really made me realize how little of Africa people can see unless they purposefully immerse themselves into the country. 6 weeks ago we got here and I remember driving through Livingstone thinking about how run down the city was and how poor and it all looked. This past week when we drove through I kept thinking about how nice it was and how it looked so much like America. A tourist in Africa can see some poverty and run down cities, but there’s so much worse that some people never know is even there. At Namwianga and the villages that we’ve been to we’ve seen real poverty, and as hard as that is to see, that’s’ why we’re here. Being on vacation made me forget that we were even in Zambia and it made me lose sight of the reason we came on this trip.

Since we’ve been back home everyone got better from that little sickness we had! I went to see my babies at the Havens the day after we got back and it was so good! I had missed my little kiddos so much! Cathy turned 2 months while we were gone and I could tell! She looks so much bigger and healthier. And now she’s smiling and laughing…I’m starting to see her personality and it’s so fun! Matt was also so happy that day! We sat on the couch and he cuddled up on my lap and would just laugh and laugh. It was so good being back there. It’s made me realize how much I’m going to miss that and how I need to make the most of the month I have left here. I’ve gotten to see my friends also! I went to Brenda and Deleki’s dorm for a little while the other day. They were making dinner so we just hung out and talked about our vacation and our families.

On Friday, a group of us went to a village in Kalomo for a gospel meeting! This was quite an experience…we got there at 7:30 pm, went straight into the little church building where a sermon was already going on, and didn’t leave the building until 11:30. We heard 2 sermons, lots of singing, and watched a lot of singing groups (including usJ). There were over 450 people there and it was hot and muggy, but no one ever seemed to get tired of sitting in the room, which was as shock to me because I was definitely having trouble staying awake. When we finally were done for the night they sent us to our sleeping area…a little fenced in area outside where all the other women at the conference were sleeping. We were crammed in with hundreds of Zambian women…and if that wasn’t enough of a reminder that we were in Zambia then the singing and the roosters and the mosquitoes sure were. Some women sang Tonga songs until at least 2 o’clock in the morning and the village roosters started crowing around 4:30. But for the few hours we did sleep we were tight in our sleeping bags with chitenges over our heads so mosquitoes wouldn’t eat us. It was great though! We woke up to some sprinkling rain so for a couple hours we just laid there enjoying the cool morning air and rain drops. We braved the bathrooms which was a little hut with a hole in the ground…imagine 300 women using the same hole…yeah, it didn’t smell very good. But TIA! At 7 o’clock started the meeting again! We had a morning lesson and then they served us breakfast. Breakfast was 2 rolls and a very very full cup of chai tea. I was so relieved it wasn’t chibwantu but the tea was still hard to drink. And here you don’t just throw out whatever you don’t want, especially if you’re a guest. You eat and drink it all. Another lesson started at 9 o’clock. I was already having trouble staying awake just because of the lack of sleep we got the night before, so although I wanted to stay all day and experience the gospel meeting, I was a little relieved when O’Neal came and told us we had to go meet the immigration lady at 10 to sign some papers. We got back to Namwianga around 10 and I slept until 1 when I had to wake up for lunch. The immigration lady of course didn’t show up until 1 either. I went to the havens again on Saturday afternoon and saw my babies.

This morning (Sunday) we loaded up in the bus to go back to the gospel meeting for church! We got there at 9:00 and the building was already packed. They cleared out seats for us, which always makes me feel uncomfortable, but we were grateful and went and sat down! I thought the gospel meeting was crowded with 450 people…Sunday morning church was so much more crowded. Literally every spot on the floor was covered with a person. The isles, the steps, the stage, the room on the stage behind the speaker…everywhere. Apparently there were even tons of people outside. (Now the buildings in Africa aren’t like the buildings in America. This was just a big room with open doors and windows, so people could sit outside and still be a part of whatever was going on inside the building. Also, since it’s an open building there’s no air conditioning.) This building was probably a fifth of the size of the Brentwood auditorium and the attendance this morning was 1,180. It was incredible! There were so many people there and it was so hot, but we worshiped Jesus all morning! 4 hours to be exact! The communion and offering alone took at least an hour and a half. The sermon maybe took 30 minutes. And then the rest of the service we sang and prayed for people who asked for prayers and listened to singing groups (including the Harding chorus of course!) and took care of church business. It was quite an event. I can never complain about being in church for too long now, because I made it through a 4 hour service! It was great though…the people were so nice. I ended up with a little girl on my lap for the last hour. They loved our singing; we sang 2 songs for them in Tonga which just makes them go crazy! They love seeing makuas that can sing in Tonga. And we loved their singing! Nothing compares to being in a room with a thousand Zambians singing praises to the same God. There’s just no comparison. It’s truly awesome. After church I spent some time playing with little girls that live in a village on Namwianga! Rosa calls me her “play mom” and she gave me a picture of her family and a little purse that she made. I took them some playdough and we played until dinner. Then we went to Sunday night church which was great! We always go to Sunday night church at the auditorium right where we live so we go to church with all the college and secondary students. The electricity went out at the beginning so we just sat and sang in the dark which was incredible. Again, nothing compares to sitting in a room with hundreds of Zambians singing to God. 4 people got baptized afterwards! God is good.

Vacation made me so much more grateful for our Namwainga home. It’s also made me so grateful for the experiences we’re getting here; we aren’t just tourists in Africa. We’re being immersed in the culture and truly getting to know the people of Zambia. This country has its negatives, just like America does, but there are so many positives that have made a lasting impact on me. Words cant describe.