The Wonders of the World

As many of you may have already heard, the past two weeks I’ve been on a sort of expedition or adventure.  At the suggestion of one of the head missionaries at the Zambia Project, I left Mongu for a couple weeks for a time of refreshment and rest in Cape Town, South Africa.  During this time, I was to attend a women’s conference put on by Hillsong and to do my very best to rest up for the rest of my journey in Mongu.  On April 8^th, I and three other missionaries embarked on what turned out to be a five day drive to Cape Town from Mongu.  We had some unexpected occurrences, including but not limited to: four tire changes (or maybe it was five, I honestly lost count), three elephants crossing the road while we drove at night, a stop by Victoria Falls in Livingstone, and some awesome Afrikaans folk in Southern Namibia.  To say that it was an adventure would be an understatement.  But the adventures did not stop there as we arrived Cape Town and we had a daily view of the beautiful Table Mountain, named last year as one of the ten natural wonders of the world.  I also had a glimpse of the culture shock which many missionaries endure when crossing from a place of such desolate poverty into a place which sometimes has such posh lifestyles.  Even amidst all this beauty and strange emotion, I encountered yet another wonder: the soothing and gentle whisper of God, reassuring me of who I am.  Reassuring me of who He is.  Reminding me of His heart for the orphan and the widow.  Reminding me of my purpose and my value.  This truly was a wonder to my dry heart; as streams in a desert, His words watered my soul daily, bringing peace in what seemed to be a world of chaos.  His gentle voice began to wash away the hardness that had begun to develop in my heart, not hardness against those in need, but hardness against the attacks the enemy has waged against me since I arrived in Zambia.  So many days in Cape Town I sat…just sat…in wonder.  In wonder of His love.  In wonder of His grace.  In wonder of Him.  His Presence is the greatest wonder that I could encounter on this journey and the one which brings me the most peace.  And so I drank in the beauty and refreshment that He sweetly lavished on me.  As I return to Mongu this week it is my deep desire and hope that the wonder I have experienced in His presence will not be a fleeting moment as when one looks at a natural wonder, you see and then it is gone when you walk away, but instead that these wonders would carry with me as one who lives at the foot of Table Mountain, drinking in its wonder day by day never loosing that sense of awe.  

Welcome to My Day

It’s still dark when my alarm goes off.  I quickly hit it to make that obnoxious noise stop.  Then, as I do every day, I lie in bed and think about my day.  What will happen at school today?  Do I have what it takes to teach these kids?  At VOH school we take our roles as educators very seriously.  Young Katongo tells us that he has no one to talk to at home so school is the place where he has an outlet to speak his mind.  Mubila has positive affirmation and two guaranteed meals a day at school, which is not something that is necessarily always true at home.  Little Joseph feeds on every word we say to him, nourishing his mind on each morsel of information he can grab a hold of.  Naomi is learning how to receive adult interaction not only on a regular basis but also without being the center of our attention at all times that she is with us.  Each day at school is vitally important.  And each morning that weighs heavy on my mind, keeping me in bed all the longer.  When I finally roll out of bed and get ready I make the trek up our immense hill to school.  Immediately I am met by children wanting to talk or to get a high five.  I go and talk to my fellow teachers about what is going on in Mongu or about the children or about our weekends, whatever is the most interesting that day.  After we spend some time together, it’s off to work.  We spend the day playing games, singing songs, and teaching the children everything we think they need to learn.  It’s loud and chaotic and fun and wonderful.  At the end of the day, I leave school exhausted, hoping that I find enough energy to complete whatever evening activities lay before me.  I collapse onto my bed, waiting for the noise in my head to stop before moving on to my evening activities.  I look forward to my times in the evenings with the other medium term missionaries and catching up with people over Skype.   Then I prepare myself to start again tomorrow.