Mabukabuti (Good morning in Tonga)

Learning how to make porridge in the village

       
         I finally arrived in Lusaka, Zambia on Monday around 3 am after enduring a 3 hour power outage in Nairobi which messed up all the flights of course. Luckily with the delay I made my next connection and made it to Cure around 3:30! I slept a few hours and then had a full morning at the hospital before getting on the bus to Choma. I stayed one night in Choma and then today was spent with World Vision Zambia staff and meeting my sponsor child, Melody. There aren't words at all to describe what it was like. I will definitely post pictures once I am home. I was able to see the medical clinic and school World Vision built for their ADP area in Zambia as well as go to Melody's home and be welcomed into her family with dancing, singing, and tears, and MUCH JOY. It was incredible. We talked and played games and cooked and danced. Her mother, through tears, thanked me with the most sincere thankfulness I have ever heard in my life, for giving the the support they need to raise their 7 children and sustain their small farm. And with tears I thanked them for showing me what it means to be thankful, I told them how Melody had been a picture of that in my life, for so many years. How although I had never met them, they taught me what it meant to be thankful for each and every thing the Lord provides for us. From our most basic needs to the abundant gifts he bestows on us. Melody and her family taught me their exists beauty in this world I couldn't even fathom before beginning to sponsor her.
     The most special moment for me was when I asked her what she wants to do after secondary school and she replied, I want to be a nurse. The whole day I held in tears, but especially in that moment. I was able to share even my heart for healing with this precious sister. She will make an incredible nurse in Zambia some day, maybe even for Cure International.

    I could write forever about my time with her...but I will save more for later. I arrived back in Lusaka late this evening and am eagerly awaiting the Go Team's arrival around 1 pm tomorrow. And then 3 full weeks of long days and tiring ministry sustained by the power and strength of our God will begin! I am so excited.

 Then they said to him, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” 

John 6:28-29

Melody's grandmother dancing out of thanksgiving

Jesus calls us only to believe, that is our work, our job, our purpose. It is through our believing and trusting in him that we share our lives with others and through that, the incredible news of the Gospel of Christ Jesus. 

Melody's mother helping us cook, with two of her sisters watching

Melody's dad teaching all about his farm