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Showing posts from 2010

Moving to Africa

Well, I wrote up this great informational blog last night, and wouldn't you know... not only did it not post, but it didn't even save. Sooo heres a recap: Yesterday I landed safe and sound with the Hugheys around 7. The airport wait was cramped, hot, humid, and looong, but we made it. First you have to go through immigration, which took about 40 minutes, then we got all of our bags, another 15 minutes, then we waited for customs to check everything we were carrying into Zambia, another 25 minutes. The Zambians shooed me along, but the Hugheys got stuck at baggage check. Unfortunately, with the 6 of them, they had too many bags to carry in. After about thirty more minutes, Erin (the mom) walked out of the airport with some unfortunate news. Every one of their trunks had to stay at the airport where they were opened, searched, and each item counted...for every single one. (we're talking about twenty to twenty five boxes... crazy. But, our amazing Zambian senior staff s

The Things I Do at Work

Today we had a storage day party... party is a bit of an exaggeration, but it was quite the event. See, in May of this year about ten schools donated hundreds of books to our ministry. And now I get to sort through them all! But it's good, because these little orphan and vulnerable babies have seen nothing like this before. I can't wait to see their faces when they get reading books, and math manipulatives, and posters for their walls... it's going to be a glorious day. I kept telling myself, when my back was aching from bending over and sorting through boxes, that this is all for the orphans. :) Also, I realized today that I officially have 8 more days in the Dallas area... yep. I move out of Dallas in 8 days. It's coming soooo fast. It'll be weird driving out of Dallas knowing I won't be back for a year (well except for March for Jenny's wedding), but it's a weird feeling. And the days keep creeping up on me. I'm getting more and more overwhelmed

Joy Will Come

Joy will come in the morning Riding on the wings of the dawn I know Joy will come in the mourning Surely as You are God. Joy will come, believe Joy will come, Joy will come Joy will come, believe Joy will come, Joy will come Joy will come like the harvest Reaping for tears that we sow I know Joy will run to the farthest place Surely as You are God Joy will come, believe Joy will come, Joy will come Joy will come, believe Joy will come, Joy will come What is this hope I feel It's helping What is this peace beyond Understanding You fix the broken heart There's healing in Your wings Joy will come, believe Joy will come, Joy will come What is this whisper small I'm hearing So far above it all It's speaking Your still the sovereign Lord There's healing in your wings. This quick trip has showed me the hearts of the Zambians. They work so hard to get things done for these children. Not only is joy coming to the children, but I se

An Education of Brokenness

First of all, I promise to keep up with this more often when I'm living in Africa. So sorry. This Thanksgiving week, a team of Americans flew to Zambia to work with teachers and discipleship leaders around Lusaka. We are exhausted from trying to pour out as much as we possibly can to them.  I am exhausted at trying to think about what the next school year will look like starting in January! (So much work to do) Today was a very touching day, though--different from all the rest thus far. Today I visited a community school for the first time ever. I've heard of community schools (corrupt places where hundreds of children are listening to one teacher in a very tight space) but I'd never seen one with my own eyes. When we arrived at the place, I got out of the bus and greeted the community school coordinator with a smile and a quick thank you. She welcomed us into this small small building (which we found out later was her house). She showed us that the Kinder and Grade One

Value His Voice

I'm learning a ton about the Lord right now--about His character, His word, and His people. My church is going through a series called frequency: how can we tune in to God? It's amazing how much I've learned about myself during this series. In order to hear the Lord, I have to weed out all the distractions in my life--my thoughts, my worldly desires, and my feelings. I have also learned how important it is to truly care and take value to the voice of the Lord. When He speaks, it's truth, it's safety, and it's direction that you can trust. I figure the Lord isn't just teaching me this for no reason, considering that I found out I will be leaving for ten months in December to live in Zambia. Goodness...so many feelings and thoughts run through me daily. The Lord cares enough about me to teach me the value of hearing and listening for HIS voice, instead of my opinions or Satan's whispered lies. All this at the exact time when I'll be making decisions

Unbelief

Tonight I visited Gateway Church's young adult service called Se ven. I  don't know anyone who goes to the service, but I decided to go anyway. See, I would usually have gone to the porch with watermark, but I moved to Colleyville and it's a thirty five minute drive... so I decided to try something ten minutes away instead. The one thing I noticed right off the bat is how free the people are to worship. In Zambia, the church body would stomp on the devil, shout amen, and dance around the room while singing praise to the Lord. But here, I look around the room and see very few people worshiping freely. I just feel that when you have the presence of the Lord inside you and you feel Him throughout the room, then your hands should be up, your knees should be bowed, and you should be rejoicing with everything in you. Well. This church was the first church I have seen where almost every person in the room was visibly and internally rejoicing to our Lord. Shouting songs of prais

And just like that...

When I signed up to be on summer staff, I knew it was going to be tough; the work load, the loss of energy, the short sleep schedule. But never did I expect that we would work 5 times as hard when the Americans were not in Zambia... to say the least: this week has been rough. My body, mind, and energy level is drained. All eight of us feel the same way too. We are working so hard and it's extremely exhausting, but we keep saying, "Ok ladies, at least we are storing up treasures in Heaven for this." The fortunate thing is that I can still wake up early enough to spend time in the word, and the past couple of days has been awesome! Today I read about David and Goliath. Of course I've heard this story as far back as I can remember, but today it was different for me. "You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the LORD Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the LORD will han

Beauty in the Midst of Darkness

"And provide for those who grieve in Zion to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes" Isaiah 61:3 This week has been incredibly difficult, but absolutely amazing.  I was sick with something--soar throat, upset stomach, sinus issues, headache--each day. But the Lord gave me strength to push through. My boys were incredible. On Thursday, I brought 2 boys in the prayer/deliverance room. Before I walked in, an overwhelming sense of fear penetrated through me. I felt uneasy, embarrassed, slightly fearful, inadequate, etc. But these were lies the devil was feeding me, and I knew that. So I marched in when Paster Mutale asked me to come. There was one more boy ahead of me, so we waited until this boy had been prayed over. The prayer room is an anointed room with oil and the power of God is in that place. I stood with one of my boys and as we began praying for him, he slowly fell to the ground and we continued to shower him with prayer. One of the Zambians, Jackson, sho

Battling Sickness

If woke up at 5:45 this morning with a very sick stomach... it was awful. I was so uncomfortable and on edge. We don't have running water, so I had to get a bucket, fill it with the water from the hose next door and poor it in the tank to flush... this also means bottled water for brushing teeth, and borrowing showers next door. In all the craziness of the morning, Paige (a wonderful staff member) said to me, "Well, this is giving us a perspective on how our kids live." It's so true. These orphans fetch water multiple times a day and for some of them, if they don't get back on time, they are beaten because of it. It's a harsh reality. I got to camp today feeling pretty awful. One of the Zambians, Noah, spoke healing over me and told me that the words, "I am healed" need to come out of my mouth a lot today. Well, when a Zambian prays for you, you know the favor of the Lord is upon you. Even though I was uncomfortable all day and couldn't real

A New Day

I promised I would write about my day today. This will be short compared to the others, but since it's my second post in one day, I figured I could get some slack :). Today was a brand new day for me. in the several weeks I've been here, I haven't been able to have a group, so going to camp and sitting down with my evangelist was amazing. Also, MY MOM IS HERE!! You can just imagine how wonderful that can be. We arrive at camp today and I immediately am asked to help organize groups. I didn't even have time to look for my boys because I was finding Americans and helping to assign groups. In the chaos of the morning, I looked up to see one of my Mapode boys just smiling and trying to get my attention. I drop everything, toss my camera to Kelsey, one of the summer staff girls, and run to my boys. 5 of the little guys come running toward me and it was amazing. I just scooped each of them up and squeezed so hard. We all couldn't stop smiling. I sent my evangelist o

Unexpected Miracles

Man. I am beat. I just feel so worn out and exhausted tonight. Today was the first day of my week with a group. My boys from Mapode (a very very corrupt school in one of the compounds) came back this week. But before I get to that, I must tell you about this past weekend. I signed up to go on a Fathers Heart trip (i.e. go visit my sponsored kid at his house, bring him food and lots of goodies) for one Saturday while I'm here. well Katy, Patty (her mom), Ricky (a friend) and I went out into the communities after buying lots and lots of food. I was so excited to see my sponsored boy Ackson and his family. We had two areas to visit, and they were a little bit away from each other so with 5 food drops, we knew it would be a long day. We got on the bus later than usual and realized that we didn't have enough fuel to drive that day. Our bus driver apologized, but Katy and I were still pretty upset that the bus wasn't prepared before the trip began. Getting fuel pushed us pas

Routines

I can't believe it's the end of week 7...I only have 2 weeks left. It's crazy how fast it flies by. The other day, Andrew asked me how long you have to be in a place to say you lived there. I think it's an interesting thing to consider. Personally, I think once you establish a routine and stop counting days, you can say you live there.  So, I'm claiming now (since I have a routine and I don't count the days--which is why it goes by so fast) that I have lived in Zambia. And it's amazing. I wish I could stop time though--its going by way too fast. This week I was able to visit and audit all the LCA's. One day a piece. I had reeeeally long days, but it was such a blessing to meet all the teachers and to see how school is run day to day. I felt a little too official with my laptop during observations, but it was great to see the strengths and weaknesses at each. Most of the teachers are so sweet and they care so much about the children--some walk 3 hours

Stronghold

"The LORD is a refuge for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble. Those who know your name will trust in you, for you, LORD, have never forsaken those who seek you" Psalm 9:9-10 "The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge. He is my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold." Psalm 18:2 Yesterday was a tough day for me. I woke up, got dressed, had breakfast, went to camp, stacked chairs, lined up kids, ran around getting Americans assigned to their kids, helped get bead necklaces, danced up top to help the Americans with the songs, ate lunch, danced some more, laid on a white table waiting for the end of the day, and walked to the hill for worship. Around the time of laying on the table, I started to feel very convicted. my day was full of running here and there, doing this and that, helping here and helping there (which is my job on summer staff), but I did all these things without a servants h

My New Job...

The Lord is incredible. My heart truly connects to these schools and these children. This past Tuesday we officially opened the Tree of Life school. Cynthia, one of the Americans here who is helping the Zambians cook our meals, came with me all day to help the teachers get their classrooms in pristine condition. She's also a teacher so we worked on these classrooms as if they were ours. It was amazing--the posters, the color, the desks, dry erase boards, name tags, etc. We were extremely dirty and cold by the end of the day though. :) The students were told to have their uniforms on by 1400 (2pm) so we could be ready for the video crew to come film. We went down to check on them and Cynthia ended up staying down on the house side of the Tree of Life, while I went to stay with the teachers. We took some pictures and waited for the kids to get ready. Greer drove up, we met Enoch the Department Head of Education here in Zambia and I told him how hard these teachers had been

A Feeling of Home

So quite a lot has happened in the past couple of days.. the LORD is soooo very good. Sunday morning, we woke up ready to go to Zambian church! It’s incredible how these people truly worship with everything they have… there is SO much faith all around us, it’s incredible. Uncle Teddy came to talk to us about John 9:3-4 when Jesus said, “This happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life. As long as it is day, we must do the work of him who sent me.” It was a powerful message delivered by the head of the discipleship leaders. I was moved to look at every single day as a new day with a new task that God has for me. Greer told us about how his dad used to pray every morning and ask God, “What is my assignment today?” I was convicted, because so many times I am living with the future in mind—planning, adjusting, learning, and directing my life in such a way so that my future would pan out. BUT rarely do I see each day as an important day holding an important task fro

Peace

"But the meek will inherit the land and enjoy great peace." Proverbs 37:11 Well, I made it, and it's amazing... my heart truly beats when I'm here. So yesterday we arrived in Lusaka around 6:15 am. After going through customs and getting on the bus with the other camplifers, we arrived at the summer staff villa 38. I assumed after so many hours of traveling, that I would be allowed to rest in the villa for the day. Well, we were informed that the classrooms at the Tree of Life school were being decorated and set up today. It took less than a second to decide if we would go or rest. On the way out to the Tree of Life, I talked with Kathryn about the school, the kids, and what she has found out while she's been here. (Kathryn will be joining me on staff next summer and will live in Zambia to do education with me) She's been here a month and has spent most of her time with the schools.  She debriefed me a little on the way out to the Tree of Life so I c

Blessings...

Time and time again the Lord reveals himself at the exact time I need. I returned home yesterday from a wonderful four days on the outskirts of my hometown, Lufkin. My four incredible friends and I danced in the rain, ate amazing food, ran from cows, explored an old barn, and played phase 10. It was amazing. I received an email on Wednesday from the accountant at Family Legacy saying that I needed to come in to get some returned mail and my new email address. When I got there I heard the most amazing news!! Ten schools donated thousands and thousands of textbooks and teacher manuals for our schools in Zambia. When I went to organize and go through the boxes this morning, I realized that we were given about three million dollars worth of materials from schools in two school districts in the metroplex areas. AMAZING!!! I'm blessed to be a part of God's movement! Pictures attached show what we sorted through this morning. Two storage units with packed boxes and this is onl

To Be an Explorer

A little background... I love the idea of being an explorer. Five years ago, I walked into my townhome in College Station with a new and different direction in life. I want to say that it sprang from my love for photography and my desire to travel; nonetheless, I surprised my roommates with the shocking phrase, "Guys, I just want to be an explorer." I envisioned myself traveling to a secluded river in the middle of a deserted mountain range, where very few people in the world have visited, taking pictures of the view, and showing people God's beautiful creation--proof that He exists and has an almighty power that no one can fathom. How cool would that be? So this idea of being an explorer of the world began and flourished. For the past five years, this desire has only grown more and more. Not only do I want to take pictures in my exploration, but I want to use the ability God gave me to educate children and adults as well. You see, after doing a study abroad for