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!