Mwamonanomba! {check it out! ~Bemba}

Completely forgot to mention previously how freakin sweet sick nasty awesome the South African team is/was. They work so well together and were super friendly and welcoming to us. They fed us soem nights when we hadnt even thought about what we were going to prepare cuz we were so busy and they continued to give us love and support and friendship and fires and smores the whole 2 weeks they were here. They left early Friday for livingston and I miss them so stinkin much. By the end of our trip here we have seen 10 teams/groups of people come in and work and leave. It gets so crazy around here sometimes, but I just love all of the excitement and getting to know so many people from different places.

Monday we woke up bright and early at 6 and headed out. It was Clarissa and I, the Tableview South African team, then our interpreters Vasco, Webi, Moses, Elija, Isiah, Antone, Alice, Josephine (who told me every other minute that she wanted me to be her in law:)). To get to our campsite you must drive towards Lusaka on a fairly paved road then past some huts then a bunch of nothing then turn off onto a gravel roal then turn off onto a pothole filled dirt road then pass some more huts then turn left directly into the bushes. Some villagers immediately came to the clearing to greet us and dug us a long-drop. The kids had made stunning bracelets andheadbands out of folding chip-bag paper together. They also had a game similar to jacks but made with these beans you find falling off of trees everywhere, and I was so bad I lost every time and the kids kept laughing at me cuz I coulndt catch on at all. After unpacking tents we had scrumptious peanut butter sandwhiches then formed into small teams of 4 or 5 and headed out into the village. We basically walked around looking for houses that were occupied so we could chat with them invite them to the gathering that night. We met several teachers for the small basic school that Muwawa provided and then a grandmother who didnt know how old she was but only that she was born the year of some not-so-famous king. We sat on mats with her in the dirt amidst her 18 grandchildren and Peter (the Korean sent from his American home to start a church in South Africa) told them stories about Jesus. It was so incredible being apart of spreading the gospel to such a not-reached group.

The church here had only been planted a few weeks before we arrived and our project was to actually start the building process and invite more people. We did manage to get several poles up with the help of the locals by Wednesday afternoon. Came back together for dinner and then the bonfire started at 730ish and we danced and sung in Lozi for so long. They were so excited to be around eachother and everyone was joyfully singing and dancing with everyone else. We had about 120 people which included several mobs of crazy children. Bradley shared the story about Joshua and the walls coming down but had all of the children and some adults running around the fire in circles blowing fake trumpets and had all the villagers screaming on the last day... it was such a sight to see! After we had several, maybe 20 or so, people come up for prayer and healing of ailments. We ended up singing a little afterwards but its very dark and people live very far away so mostly people left.

7am Tuesday morning we had delicious oatmeal and then headed out in our same groups, mine including Lubasi, Jose, Clarissa, and Peter. This time we went straight for the fields and offered to work along side or for the people. Peter picked potatoes, and Jose, Lubasi and I ended up using some hoes to break up dirt which ended up being super hard and sweatfilled work. But it was a really great witness to be able to just tell the people to rest for a while and enjoy the day. One of the girls I took the place of was 14 and she had joined her friend who had 3 children and was about 20 or so. They said you had to start working at age 5 if you didnt go to school. Crazy, hey? Then we moved on and helped a lady get water from the river to her garden which was about 10 rows long. Then we did that for 3 more families. It seemed so old fashioned and what you see in movies but we really just took some crappy broken buckets, dunked them into the river, and carried them to the plants and poured it out. Because we had so many people it didnt take too long but I cant imagine doing this everyday with just 1 or 2 helpers. Africa Works is an organization that came in a few years ago to teach them these things and how to plant, before that most of the people sat around either making beer or doing nothing.

After this we headed back in for leftover speggetti for lunch and then right back out past the fields we worked in to the other side of a small river which we had to cross. The only part of the river that had a bridge was the very middle because it was too deep to walk on. So Dani and Clarissa go helped to the bridge carried by Peter and Jose and the carried off to the other side as well. We found one of Josephine's friends (one of our interpreters from Hope church) and visited her in her home. There were 4 small houses around hers which were all filled with her children and grandchildren. Then we walked a while down the river and talked to some more people farming and met this one guy who had a water pump that looked like a stair-stepper connected to a hose which is how he watered the far away parts of his garden. But it cost 2.5 million kwacha so he is quite in debt now but hopefully this will help in the the future. By now we have a small following of village children who had obviously never seen Makua before because i tried to greet them and they all ran away. Most kids here would back up or run away or scream or even cry the first time you tried to get near them which was quite hilarious for us. We met another grandfather who had 4 houses surrounding his house and they were all filled with his children and grandchildren. HIs houses bricks had been dug up only hundred feet away where we had come into Muwawa (which is the same stuff the dig up to use for orads in Mongu) but were made in 1962 and his house was built in 1980 or something crazy like that. Peter bought some eggs from one of them and then we walked about 30 minutes back to our campsite.

There ended up being a lot of kids hanging around our site so Bradley and Louis found some sticks and string and made us a volleyball netish thing and they kids went crazy for it. Which was a load off because before this we were playing a game where they throw it to you and you have to hit it as hard as you can with your head, and I kept missing. But it was fun just playing with them even though all we could say to eachother was 'good' and 'sorry' when we hit eachother. What I really like about the culture is that even if you didnt hurt the person and they just fell on their own, everyone still says sorry. How cute! We had some nice Afrikaans borovorse and Lozi nshima for dinner then started the fire again at 8. We had about 100 people show up again. After the stories some villagers gave testimonies on healings the night before but still more came, about 30, for healings. Some came with stomach problems and walked out saying they were instantly healed. Still some were tested blind or only seeing a few feet in front of them and then walked away being able to see far away! Then others hobbled over and we saw earlier that day couldnt lift their feel then actually danced away towards the fire! Oh the power of prayer and healings. What a great and miraculous God we serve!

The headmaster of the school allowed us to visit so Wednesday morning Tarryn wrote us a great skit for Clarissa, Jason, Dani, Lubasi, myself, Jose and Tarryn to be in telling a story about pharoah and Moses. Vasco, Alice, Peter, Josephine, Elija and joined as well. Isaiah helped interpret and Lubasi started us off in worship. The kids at first were grade 5-9. After, we sang them a song and they loved it and kept asking for one more. They only go until about 12 then everyone comes to eat and thegrade 1-4 comes in at 230 when we came back and did everything again. The younger ones were so much more enthusiatic about the songs and the skit and then at us teaching them new ones. It is like you are a movie star going into this placebecuase they all come up afterwards to say encha and shake your hand. When traveling back to the campsite, Tarryn and Ashleigh had most of the entire class following them singing 'Ke mulana mulana wamalana' which is 'he is king, king of kings' all the way through the village. Some of the 7-9th grade girls showed up at the campsite a little later and I after going through as much introductory thigns as we could do in English, I got Isiah to come intepret for me. I never realized the culture gap until after I tried to tell them a finny story and halfway through I realized it wasnt funny so I had them tell me stories. They told of a man whose family was hungry so he went to the forest and sang to a tree but ate all the food it gave him until the son follwed him out then the next day the son and wife ate all of the trees fruit. But while they were telling it they were all bursting out into laughter. The next story was about a fork and a kaluloo but a bit inappropirate expecially for such young girls, but it just shows the differences in our cultures. We had bioled condensed milk with chocolate for desert which was some of the best sweet stuff ive ever tasted. The bonfire started at 8 again and we had a massive group of kids but since the holiday was over many people had to start working again so they were tired and our numbers were less ' than 80. But after Marc and Moses' story we had an alter call and about 30 adults and children were saved! Praise God so many were added to the family!

Thursday morning, our clothes and faces are now black from the sand and we have run out of coffee and chocolate so luckily we start packing up to head back to civilization. Many children and adults came to sit around for hours since 7am watching us pack and load up our stuff. Some of the kids tried to sing the pharoah songwe taught them which was super presh and others traded axes and hoes for SiLozi Bibles. When we arrived back at Mutoya after taking a few wrong roads (its okay Louis, everyone does it even with their gps right in front of them:)) and the orphan school was still running so we went down there and got a big welcome back hugs from teacher Margret and most of our students. The new American team from Liberty had also arrived and was helping to distract the children. We finally got to take showers, some of us for almost an hour *cough Tavo cough*. Hung out, made more beads, went to the last prayer meeting (still need to be able to meet with the enduna over muwawa without paying him 1.6 million kwacha before he kicks us out of the village.)

Friday we woke up for our last day of orpahn school. Everyone was in fight and whine mode but it was so relaxing and fun playing with them, teaching them new songs, acting out our Bible story time which we should have done from the beginning cuz it was so much fun even just for me. I cut shapes out of potatoes and we painted with them. Since they were already painted I also had them handprint my shirt which was even fun for the older lady Joyce who usually cooks proaige for us. We mostly played on the jungle gym which is still a big hit since it was finished and we opened it last week. Then little Mike got in trouble for hitting Nyumbe because Nyumbe was almost choking me to climb up my back and so Mike was protecting me. If I end up with him in my carry on back to American, dont be too surprised cuz it was hard to say bye and see him go out the gate that last time. Did the final lamenations, then taught the American girls how to do the beads, then went to Jess and James for a delicious dinner of steak and of course borovorse with potato/butternut/carrot side and some strange green goop pudding for dessert.

This morning we slept into a late aweome 815 and then prepared for leading the youth later on. It was a very relaxing morning because most everyone went out on the boat trip at the harbor. We played the trainwreck game during youth after Anthea taught an art lesson using charcoal. Then Clarissa and I taught about how awesome it is to be apart of a youth group and loving one another, accountability, encouragement and bearing eachothers burdens. The Liberty team shared some testimonies then performed a sweet skit something like the 'Everything' skit which the kids liked. We had some fellowship after and then LU team was all giving Lozi names by one of the youths Faith. Worship practice was fun and exciting as always and 2 Americans stayed to also sing with us. Please keep praying for the worship team because they are still very new to music and working together with intruemnts and voice keys and may get a bit frustrated with eeachother at times. Back to Mutoya to get our last load of laundry off the line and have a great spegetti and pudding and rusk and coffee dinner with Jess and James. Clarissa watched a movie with Monica and Lihanna and Shontell and I watched some other movie. I will defintiely miss all of the youth, they were very upset that we were leaving and a I have a feeling it may get emotional sometime tomorrow. Even during dinner I started tearing up because everything was just so good here.

Last post for a while. We will head to the services in the morning and then buy our bus tickets then hopefully hang with Mutinita and Onella and Lulu again to get icecream then head to Mutoya for a bry with the young adults, share our testimonies, fellowship, then at 10ish we should be heading out for Lusaka. Then we will bus to Livingstone and we should arrive there sometime in the early afternoon able to see some sights before nightfall. Tuesday we will have all day to visit then sleep and head back out to Lusaka Wednesday morning. We will stay close to the airport Wednesday night and head out on our plane Thursday afternoon for Joburg.

So much has happened and I still cant comprehend that it has already been 5 weeks in Zambia. It has become so much like home and comfortable. So many things have been started and will be continued and I am so excited to hear about how everyone and everything has grown after we leave. Praise God forever!

Our Redeemer Lives!!
Colossians 1:13-14!!