Living Acommodations in the Village

We have heard that people have some questions about our life here, so we are going to start some blog posts attempting to answer these questions. If you have specific questions please leave a comment and we'd love to answer.

What are your living conditions? 
We are temporarily living in a little one room, loft-type apartment. There is a pavilion on Love's Door's base where tutoring, church, and all our team dinners in the village occur. There is a kitchen in the pavilion, and above the kitchen is the little room where we are staying. We have a bed with a mosquito net, two little tables, a chair, and a dresser in our room.

The kitchen below our room is the team kitchen, which we also use because our room does not have one. The rest of the team is in the village Wednesday through Sunday, so we have to share the kitchen during those days. There is no refrigerator or oven in the team kitchen but we do have a propane two-burner stove that we use. We also do have solar panels that are able to provide a couple of lights and power to charge cordless tools and phones.

Here is a picture of the pavilion. Our room is up top and set back in the back third of the pavilion above the kitchen. The rest of the pavilion is open with benches to allow for the many other uses.

There is no bathroom in our room, so we use the team dual chambered composting pit latrine (sounds fancy, but it is kind of like an outhouse where the waste composts for 6 months after the pit is full and then we take it out to use on fruit trees that we are trying to grow). The toilet is surrounded by bamboo reeds, so we hang up a sign that says "in use" to let people know it is occupied.

Please send more questions our way! 

Worship Nights

The past two Saturday's, we have held worship nights in the villages and God has been on the move! The first worship night was held in Sugar village. We spent the first portion of time singing and dancing with people from the village around a fire that was started in a central location. A mixture of Zambian and American songs were played as we worshipped with our whole bodies. We can't move quite like a Zambian but we tried! 

We then broke into a time of prayer African style. This means that everyone lifts their voices at the same time and we all cry out collectively to welcome God to move. We then offered people to come forward with specific prayer requests and we began to passionately pray for each need as the songs of praise continued. 

God worked in such a mighty way in Sugar village! One lady was completely healed of soreness in her back and shoulders. Another lady was healed from back pain and headaches. And another woman was partially healed of her foot pain. There was also a drunken lady who began to have demonic manifestations that threw her body around and tried to throw her into the fire. These demons were silenced and cast out and she returned to a right mind. 

We followed up with most of these people this week and we were able to hear some of the stories of healing. One lady shared how her night terrors have ceased since this worship night. But the devil is still at work trying to convince bystanders that what happened that night was actually satanic. So please pray for the kingdom of Jesus to continue to spread through Sugar village and that the seeds that were planting would grow and blossom.

This past Saturday we held a worship night at Stanley and Lumba's house in Singanga village. We had a much smaller group but the power of God was still present as we blessed this house and claimed it for Jesus. A few people from the surrounding houses joined us. One lady named Lizzy was present and she began to have demons manifest in her. She first became so weak almost to the point of passing out and then her body was thrown around violently. We prayed over her and were able to cast them out and she returned to a stable mind. And she was in church this morning testifying to the power of God over the evil attacks that have been bombarding her! 

Awesome things have been happening! Please pray for us as we continue to hold worship nights and call on God's authority to be present. Please also pray for this area that the devil would lose its grip and people would be set free as we take this area for Christ's kingdom. 

Thanks!

The Power of a Greeting

I hear people in the States often complain about the shallowness of greetings. We say "How are are you?" and we fully anticipate the returning "I'm good, how are are you?" It is never expected that anyone would ever respond with anything other than "good", "fine", "busy", "okay", etc. We don't actually ask to know how people are but rather just to acknowledge the other person. I have also been annoyed with the shallowness of many of these brief greetings, however, my short time in Zambia has given me a different perspective.

In Zambia, everyone stops to ask how the other person and their family is doing. The response 95% of the time is "fine". In the languages that we hear it sounds like "motozi chwani" (Lozi language), "muli bwanje" (Nyanja language), along with the greetings in Tonga, Toka, and Bemba that are in this region of Zambia. Yes, there are a lot of languages in this small area! Zambia has a population that is 1 1/2 times the size of Michigan but it has over 70 languages! 

It is easy to dismiss all of these greetings as being empty banterings. The fact that they all use the word "fine" instead of "good" sounds even more shallow to my ears. However, I am learning the power of a greeting. In Zambia, it really is an act of acknowledging a person and recognizing that they have value. It may be displayed through being the first to give the greeting when crossing paths with someone who is older to show them respect. It may be recognizing a person's value by tipping a hat, extending a handshake, stooping down to one knee to greet someone sitting, or giving two hand claps as you say the greeting to another passing by. It is all about the action of respect, acknowledgment, and expressing that you notice this individual and believe that they have value. It is even more powerful when we are able to speak that greeting in the other person's heart language. The smiles get bigger and the value is displayed as they realize that you are not just another white tourist rushing by not caring to take the time for a simple greeting.

And that is what the kingdom of God is all about. God noticed us and had so much compassion that he sent His only son Jesus to this earth. He was sent here to speak our language and to notice the outcasts who were labeled as widows, orphans, uneducated, sinners, tax collectors, and aliens. And Jesus demonstrated the ultimate act of love by dying for us that there would be no separation between God and His children.

And the kingdom has advanced through slaves being able to sit at the same table as their masters to partake in the Lord's Supper. Through divisions of wealth, race, and education being torn down as we are all one body of believers. And we hold to the message that everyone has value, is made in God's image, and deserves respect because of what Jesus did.

So this simple greeting is profound to me. I do think it is amazing when people are able to sprinkle truths about God in their greetings so that it becomes even more of an intimate experience. But I just really want to be the person that takes the time to notice the people around me and thereby express the value that God places on each of His kiddos!

Monde

On Friday, November 4, we were able to head out to Singanga village for the first time. We will be living in this village for the next year. It was so good to meet everyone and begin to learn the culture and the way of life.

As we rode out to the village in the back of a truck, we were greeted by several children and adults alike. At one point we met two teenage girls who were walking along the rode. After we had introduced ourselves it struck us that one of these girls was our sponsor child. We officially met her later that Friday afternoon and were able to spend a lot of time with her on Saturday and Sunday. 

This girl is amazingly beautiful! Her name is Monde and she is 15 years old. She is now in school and in the 5th grade. She has excelled at reading and writing and speaks English well. She seems so hungry to learn. It was sweet to see Monde burst into a contagious smile when she was with us. We found out later that she had been told that we were coming so she got her hair done for this special occasion. It brings a smile to our face and joy in hearts when we hear her call us uncle Benjamin (pronounced ben jah meen) and Auntie Allison (pronounced al ee sohn)! 

We are currently back in town to gather supplies before our permanent move to the village Tuesday evening. We are looking forward to making this our new home. 

Love you all!

We're Here!

We made it! After 24 hours of travel, including a 14.5 hour flight from New York to South Africa, we arrived Wednesday around noon Zambian time (6 AM EST). We went from 40 degree weather to 105 degree weather in a single day!

Currently, we are staying at the team house in Livingstone. On Friday, we will head out to Singanga village where we will stay until Sunday. During that time, we will be able to get an idea of our living situation and be able to come back to gather supplies and groceries for our more permanent move to the village next week.

The people and the team have been wonderful so far! Today, we were able to go along with a part of the team to the school in Ngwenya village, which is near Livingstone. While we were there, we helped tutor children who are part of the Family Table group. This group of about a dozen children receive a bag of mealy (corn meal) each month and tutoring once a week. It was great to interact with this group of kids and give them one on one attention.

Please pray for us as we try to figure out how to navigate the culture and get used to the heat. Also, pray for us as we head off to the village and arrive to the place that we will spend the next year. We do feel the weight of the task that we are attempting but we know that our God is bigger than any obstacle!

We really appreciate all of the love and support to get us to the start of this journey!

We're Off!

We are currently sitting in the airport in Grand Rapids. Our flight takes off at 6AM! We should arrive in Zambia sometime tomorrow morning. We will definitely miss all of our friends and family back home, but we are looking forward to jumping into what God has in store for us in Zambia.

Looking forward to updating you soon!