Let It Be to Me...

It's been pretty chill around here recently so I don't really have much to write.  I've just been handing out fritters to the school children a couple days a week and playing with the kids from the orphan home for about an hour almost every day of the week.  We had a beautiful Christmas service at church where the children sang and expressed the true Christmas message: that Jesus came to give us the gift of life!  So for lack of exciting news, I'm going to post a little song I'm writing instead, its not finished yet, but here goes...

There is peace in Your footsteps and life in Your hands,
Joy in Your presence where by Your mercy I stand,
So I stand here boldly asking one thing,
O Lord let it be to me as You please.

Many are the plans O Lord You have for me,
And I will follow Your voice even when I can't see,
For You alone are good, You're faithful and true,
O Lord let it be to me as You please.

I will stand in the fire and stand in the rain,
But I will fear no evil nor any pain,
For I know Your love and so I can sing,
O Lord let it be to me as You please.

This is my song of surrender,
My song of release,
O Lord let it be to me as You please.

The Greatest Commandment

Over the past couple weeks I've had some time to think.  School ended last Friday with a big party which included lots of games, prizes, and beautiful smiling faces.  So this entire week I've been recovering from a sinus infection, playing with the kids from the orphan home, and, well, thinking or praying.  Contemplation can be a dangerous thing if left to its own devices, but in this case it has been quite beneficial.  You see, I've been praying about "serving" God.  What does that look like?  What does that mean?  I know, sounds weird coming from someone living in sub-Saharan Africa, but those are the questions I've been asking.  And I came to some interesting conclusions... "If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames but have not love, I gain nothing" -1 Cor 13.  "No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing, but I have called you friends" -John 15.  "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.  This is the first and greatest commandment.  And the second is like it: you shall love your neighbor as yourself" -Matt 22.  So here's the friendly reminder I received, God is not looking for servants who will cause His kingdom to come.  He is perfectly capable of that all by Himself.  He is looking for sons and daughters who will act without being told what to do because they have the motivation of pure love.  He is looking for sons and daughters who don't notice the difficulties or the time spent or the hardships because they aren't seeking a reward, they are seeking a person, a relationship with someone they love.  What does it look like to serve God?  Well, "we love because He first loved us" -1 John 4.  From what I gather, serving God looks a little something like soaking in His love and then pouring it back out to Him and to the rest of His children.  Not only is it the most pleasant way to serve Him but I am convinced that it is also the only sustainable way.
Grace and Peace

This is Africa (TIA)

I wake up to a stunning view every morning and each time I look out from the veranda at the school I work at I see something even better, but hey, TIA.  There are three languages spoken in my presence every day and, I was told, there are 72 tribal languages in Zambia, but hey, TIA.  The teachers’ bathroom simply means a hole in the ground with mashasha walls that’s far enough away so the kids don’t walk in on you, but hey, TIA.  The temperatures are often in the high nineties or low hundreds, but hey, TIA.  The people are praying for rain because here drought means hunger, but hey, TIA.  The power goes out randomly and almost every day for a couple hours at a time, but hey, TIA.  It isn’t uncommon for children to play in the streets or sadly for them to be hit by cars, but hey, TIA.  In the villages young boys go through terrible circumcision ceremonies and young girls go through horrendous coming-of-age ceremonies, but hey, TIA.  Malnutrition and sickness is rampant, but hey, TIA.  Amazing miracles happen, like a boy that should have died was discharged from the hospital with the doctors saying there was almost nothing wrong, but hey, TIA.  Whole villages are sometimes saved in just a few days, but hey, TIA. 

I didn’t write this to sound depressing or anything like that.  But this is what Africa looks like on the outside.  When you look closer you see God’s people feeding children who would otherwise go hungry or become malnourished.  You will see God drawing people away from sin into the glorious wonder of His grace.  You will see a generation of laying down lovers who have given up everything to follow Christ because there is no other way to follow here.  It isn’t easy in Africa.  The spiritual warfare is as strong as anything you’ll see.  But God is good and He has a plan, even in Africa.   And He will cause all things to work out for good because this may be Africa but HE IS GOD!  

Week One..Done!

After about a week and a half in Mongu, I can confidently say it's great here!  The heat is a bit overwhelming and the kids can get pretty rowdy.  The school days are long.  But the scenery is beautiful, the teachers are wonderful, the kids are adorable and sweet, and I have that still small voice whispering in my ear that this is exactly where I need to be.  I've been working Monday to Friday at the school from 0730 to 1530 helping the teachers, teaching art and Bible to the tiny tots and sitting in on the 2nd and 3rd grade class.  In the evenings I have small group or prayer or time to relax or type up end-of-term grades.  My days are pretty crazy for the most part but the Lord is faithful to confirm His promises to me whenever I need it (which is like every day...).  :)  Watch the Photos tab for some pictures that I'll be posting!

Love you all!  Grace and Peace,
Rose

Welcome to Mutoya!

First off, thank you to all who prayed for my travel to Zambia this week!  Praise God everything went extremely well even though it had the chance to all fail from the start.  I woke up Saturday morning to a very beautiful sight of snow covered ground, and big clumps of snow falling from the sky.  Winter had come early to bid me farewell!  As sweet as that was, it also tried to wreck my plans of departure as the airport ran out of the correct de-icing fluid because they weren't expecting snow this time of year.  But right before we taxied back to our terminal the weather cleared up enough for us to take of.  I say us because I was joined by a couple from Louisiana who are checking out the project. We then flew for about 16 hours to Johannesburg where we were welcomed by a spectacular display of lightening.  We spent the night in Johannesburg and in the morning we went to the airport where we met my pastor and his wife and we all flew together to Lusaka.  From there we took a bus for 8 hours to Mongu.  Now I'm here, safe and sound and very thankful to be done moving!  Starting tomorrow I'll be working as a teacher's assistant in the Vilage of Hope School.  Thank you all for your support!

May God's grace and peace be with you!
Rose

Obnoxious Optimism

The other day I was having a conversation with a friend of mine about the differences between pessimism, realism, and optimism.  We hit on the subject of obnoxious optimists, you know those people who are in your face that everything is rainbows and daisies, nothing is ever wrong or could ever be wrong.  I was shocked a few days later to find that I am, by definition, an obnoxious optimist.  Oh yes.  Me.  I found this out when I went in to work one day after not sleeping that night because of a really hard conversation I had had.  I told my coworker what had happened and followed it up by saying "But its okay, I know it'll all work out."  The truth is that it will all be okay.  No matter how poor the circumstance God will cause all things to work for my good because I love Him and have been called according to His purpose.  He knows the plans He has for me, plans to prosper me and not to harm me, to give me hope and a future.  He will never leave me nor forsake me and nothing in all creation (not even me!) can separate me from the love of God.  He is able to do exceedingly abundantly more than I could ask or think according to His power which is (already) at work in me!  So no matter how bad a day I'm having (and I have some pretty bad days), no matter how many people are yelling, no matter how many times I get hurt or how confused I am, I can always say with confidence, "Its all going to be okay!"  Because I know that "the Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid, what can man do to me?"  That doesn't mean that you'll never catch me crying or unsure of what to do, it just means that I know that the Lord will bring me through.  He makes all things beautiful in His time. :)

Grace and Peace,
Rose

Departure!

So it's been a while since my last post, and I've been waiting to find out more information to give y'all.  Now everything is official.  After several plan changes etc. I have my tickets to depart these United States on October 29th and I shall not return (Lord willing) until September 12th of next year! 

The Zambia Project

While I'm in Africa, with the exception of the first month which I will spend in Capetown SA, my time will be spent at The Zambia Project in Mongu, Western Zambia.  I thought you might be interested in knowing a little bit about it.  So here's some information (most of which can be found at The Zambia Project's website).
Fast Facts about Western Zambia:

• Population is estimated at roughly over 1 million
• Literacy levels in rural communities are <8%
• Less than 1% of Western Zambians have a flushing toilet
• Most communities don't have a clean water source
• HIV/AIDS, TB, Malaria and Malnutrition commonly take children  or leave orphans
• 3 out of 5 children do not survive to their 5th birthday
• The average life expectancy is 29
• The authority (headman/chief) in a village is called the Nduna
• The main spoken language is Silozi
• Many villages still have witchdoctors
• Most people in this region have never heard a clear presentation of the Gospel!

The Zambia Project's vision is to have a Christ-centered church in walking distance of every community.  They work to implement sustainable growth in communities that will last even if they're gone.  Their projects include:

• Well-digging
• Church-planting
• Discipleship
• Village of Hope orphan school
• Save-A-Life: a program to prevent severe malnutrition
• Medical Outreaches
• Community Development (i.e. planting gardens for better nutrition)
• Hope Art: a program that employs widows while also creating revenue for the VOH orphanage

Welcome!

Thank you for visiting my blog!  I hope that this will be a place for you to not only connect with me and what is going on in my current journey to Zambia but also for you to be encouraged and strengthened in your own journey.  Please feel free to post comments and stay in touch about your journey, I'd love to hear!

So what is my journey to Africa going to look like?  First of all, it will look like a lot of walking in faith and grace.  What we see is temporary but what we cannot see is eternal so I'm going to need a lot of grace to walk in the things I cannot see to make an eternal impact wherever I go.  This is true not only of this current trip to Africa but my whole life.  If I recognize my circumstances, my destiny, and my surroundings according to the flesh I will quickly become discouraged because it is GOD who supplies all my needs not the things that I can see!  Next it will look like love.  The love of God is the end all.  Everything else passes away.  As I journey to hug on orphans and widows and to show the love of God as He enables me, I know that He will also be giving me a deeper window into His love.  Next it will look like freedom.  "The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me because He has anointed me to bring good news to the afflicted, He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to captives, and freedom to prisoners."  All of this seems pretty weighty and honestly kind of subjective when it comes right down to it, but like one of my friends says "Go big or go home!" The physical particulars of my journey are far from set but that doesn't stop me from knowing why I'm going or what I'm going to do while I'm over there.  I'll be sure to let you all know as soon as I find out more!

Grace and Peace,
Rose