Well I Finally Showered...

Today I was overwhelmed by thankfulness. Here each of the staff members, before they do anything, say Pslam 118:24, "this is the day The Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it." It has been such a wonderful reminder and especially today for some reason it just really sank in. This day is a gift from The Lord. He gave us life and a brand new day and that is something to be celebrated. I think so often in the U.S. we forget that. We forget that each day is a gift from God and we should treat it as such. 

I am already learning so much from the staff here. Not only growing in The Lord and learning more about Him and being more thankful but also about the culture here. Today we did training for the July Camp Hope and we went over the curriculum and practiced translating some things. (The Zambians translated. We spoke. Haha) 

What the three of us realized though was that in order for them to translate we have to speak very clearly, annunciate all of our words, and project our voices. It was interesting to learn that certain words we say are hard to catch. For example, sentences with lots of "s" in them often slur together on our end and then it's hard for the translators to catch it. 

Side note: the translators are partnering with the missionaries coming over to lead the camps and each missionary paired with a translator will lead a group. The translator is there because 1. Not all of the children speak English and translating it into Nyanja is important for them. 2. Cultural differences and for any questions the missionaries may have. They are to be a team and work together to tell these children the truth, hope, and love of Jesus. 

So we finished up the training for the day around 3:30 in the afternoon. We left around 9am. Time is an interesting thing here. We were told about Zambian time and how it was different but we are still learning that it is very different from the U.S. Like here, you can set a meeting for 8 but people will not show up until 9. It is way more relaxed and laid back which is complete opposite from the go go go of America. It has been very refreshing to not have that though and be in a more relaxed environment time wise. It is all very interesting to me and still trying to learn about everything. 

Now to the shower situation. First of all our accommodations are so great and so nice and I am super thankful so please don't think I am complaining because I'm not. I just want you guys to have a mental picture of our room here. So we each have our own bed so you can imagine that the room is pretty big. Our bathroom has no door, no shower curtain, and no curtain rod. The shower head is on a pretty short cord which means you have to hunch over to get water on you. Oh and it's cold water. So the girls and I have become really close in the past few days and I have to be honest and say I delayed the showering process as long as possible. I'm not about that cold shower life. I did take my first shower in the dark though due to power outage. Shower by flashlight. This is Zambia. 

The Lord is definitely teaching me to be thankful though because the past two nights around 10:30 our water goes out and then we don't have any at all and then suddenly a cold shower doesn't sound so bad. Learning to be thankful and rejoice in all circumstances. 

Because... "this is the day that The Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it." -Psalm 118:24

Oh also Brooke, Lauren, and I have also decided to call ourselves the Mzungu Musketeers. Mzungu means white person or foreigner and so we get that a lot here. Clearly. And there's three of us so it's perfect! 

All The Little Nuggets!

Y'all. This place. Zambia. Where they don't say y'all. I've been trying to think of the perfect words to describe Lusaka and I am still just in awe of the culture, of the people, of pretty much everything. It is a very large place. There are so many different areas of Lusaka. Kind of like Dallas or Houston in the sense that it has different suburbs inside of it. We are staying at the Every Orphan's Hope (EOH) office which is in Helen Kaunda.

The people here are so friendly and there are different little shops set up on the sides of the roads. People are outside all the time. I mean all the time. It's so great. We are constantly seeing little nuggets running around and all the kids going to school. Seriously I love it! The kids go to school at different times here depending on the school they go to. It's really interesting and each school has a different uniform. 

Today was our first full day in Lusaka. It was an adventure! We started off by doing a devotional with the EOH staff which was amazing. I could just tell by talking with them for a few minutes that they truly love The Lord. Jesus shines through each of them and it is so evident in the way they speak, the way they welcomed us as sisters in Christ, and the way they serve one another. I can't wait to get to know them more and learn from them. I can already tell I will be learning so much this summer!

We have met six of the EOH staff so far.  Mary Ann who is the My Father's House coordinator, Abigail who is in charge of the Chongwe homes in My Father's House, Agatha who is in charge of the Lusaka homes in My Father's House, Moses who is in charge of Camp Hope and Orphan Sunday, Humphray who is in charge of transportation and IT, and Caison who is the accountant. They are each so wonderful and I am so excited to spend the summer with them!

So after our daily devotional we headed to the grocery store, Spar, to get some food for the next couple weeks. It was an experience. Here they do not keep their butter, milk, or eggs refrigerated at the store. We are guessing because it is so fresh but Humphray said that's just how it is. Also the honey and peanut butter did not have seals on them. Again, we are assuming because they are fresh. We stuck to what we knew mostly. We did get some Squiggles which is their version of Nuttella. We had to try that out! It's actually pretty much the same. 

We also met Peter today. Peter also works for EHO and does some of the cleaning and lawn care and I love Peter. He makes me want to serve more. The way he takes pride in his work and has the biggest servants heart truly reflects The Lord. He works as though he is working for God in everything he is doing no matter what the task and that is so cool to see. He has been working for EHO for about three years he said. He radiates Christ and puts others before himself always. (At least that's what I saw throughout the day.) I'm so pumped to get to know him more and hear about his life. 

We also went to a meeting for the July Camp Hope and met some of the church coordinators for that. They were so kind and I could tell that they have been working really hard to prepare for the camp. I am so pumped to see all of these people serving together and telling these kids about Jesus. It is going to be so cool! Knowing that we can't change their situation but we can give them hope in Jesus. That's what brings us all together.

God I am so humbled to be apart of the work you are going to do in these kids lives this summer. I pray hearts will be changed. I pray we will be able to be servants for you; that we will be like Peter and truly think of others before ourselves. I pray that for myself, the other interns as well as all of the teachers for Camp Hope this summer. 

To close that meeting Moses suggested that one of the women lead us in a song. Of course we didn't know it but it was so beautiful hearing them sing. Being able to just stand in awe of our God who is the same as He is in the U.S. and hears my Engligh prayers and them praising Him in Nyanja at the same time. It was such an awesome moment and made me love God and all the people He's created even more. Zambia has already taken hold of a special place in my heart. 

From Dallas to Dubai to Lusaka...My New Home!

My two month adventure to Zambia began TODAY! (Or yesterday I guess. Time zones and 15 hour flights are weird.) It started off with heading to the airport where of course we had to rearrange some things and get rid of a space bag full of stuff from our suitcases. Intern Mama Cheryl had some new treats to go home with and the poor men that helped us were sick of us by the end of it. Our friend Bobby, the guy who checked our bags, gave us some extra pounds on each of our suit cases. Talk about the grace of God right there! I also met a sweet man named Matthew, who works for the airline, and he found out we are going to do mission work and asked us to pray for him too!

Once we made it past checking our bags and security, all we had left was the flight itself. First of all the plane was huge. When we walked onto the plane there were these rows of seats that looked SUPER comfy and I’m talking to Brooke about how nice they are and how it’s going to be so great and she says “Oh girl I hope you don’t think these are our seats because this is first class.” I said lolz of course it is. My life. So that was a funny moment on the plane. Secondly, there were so many interesting and different people and so many adorable nuggets! Brooke and I made friends with the guy next to us who does global missions and is from South Africa so that was really cool! He gave us some tips about Dubai and Africa and told us all about his organization. Then two movies, some reading, some questionable airplane food, and a few attempts at sleep later we were in Dubai!!

We arrived in Dubai around 12:30pm their time which is around 3:30am in Texas. Talk about a time change. It is one of the most interesting places I have ever been though. After getting a little settled the three of us decided to adventure to the Dubai mall which is a major tourist spot. Y'all the Dubai Mall. I can't even describe how many different shops, floors, and just how pretty everything was. They had a giant aquarium inside that you could just walk by. How cool is that?! And a ton of adorable stores for tiny tots. If you're looking for some cute kid clothes, the Dubai Mall is the place to be. The number of different cultures and people walking around was crazy. We also saw the Burj Khalifa, which is the world’s tallest building and it is tall. They're not joking about that. We also went to these really cute shops called Souk Al Bahar which just had little knick knacks and cute little restaurants as well as a really cool chair which we decided to take a picture in and I think we started a mass line of taking a picture in the chair. Leave it to the Americans.

We then decided to go to the beach so we had to find a taxi to get there but weren’t 100% sure we would be able to get a taxi back to the hotel but sometimes you gotta risk it to get to the beach! After hanging out on the beach for a while and taking in all the scenery and all of the desert hotness we hailed a taxi and got back to the hotel safe and sound.

Fast forward some hours to the next morning where we head to the airport and board our plane to Lusaka! Who even knows what schedule our bodies are on anymore after all of this. I think I am finally starting to adjust but 7 quick hours later we were in Zambia! (After a 15 hour flight, 7 hours was nothing.) We got off the plane and stood in line for a little bit to get our visas and then headed to get our NINE bags. The three white girls in the Lusaka airport lugging around nine massive suitcases. Sounds about right. When we finally got a cart for our suitcases I was determined to hold onto it because our intern coordinator, Cheryl, had told us that men would try to come and take our cart to take it to the car and put our suitcases in and then want to be paid so I was already in that mindset of don't let go of the cart. Brooke and Lauren are in front of me and they both see the men, Moses and Humphray, who are picking us up from the airport but of course I didn't. So Humphray comes up to me and asks if I need help and I say, "no I've got it thank you." and keep walking because I was so focused on keeping the cart. Then Brooke says "Michaele you know that is Humphray right?" I was so embarrassed. Haha I said I am so sorry I had no idea that was you and explained the whole cart thing to him. Luckily he's a jokester and made fun of me a little and we laughed about it. Day 1 and we already have jokes. Haha Humphray and Moses both are so sweet and so genuine and it was so much fun getting to know them a little bit today.

After they picked us up from the airport we headed to the office which is our new home for the next 60 days!! It was a lot bigger than I was expecting. It pretty much looks like a large house. What would be the living room area is where all of the desks are and then there's the kitchen and then down the hall is our room with three beds! And there are three bathrooms! Talk about spoiled! Haha but really it is so great! After we got settled in a little bit, Humphray and Moses took us to grab some dinner and some bottled water (gotta stay hydrated.) We picked up Mary Ann, another EOH worker, on the way and all went to this place called the Mint Lounge. It was so good! So good to have actual food and not airplane food and the weird stuff from the Dubai hotel. (They eat some interesting things there.) Never have I ever been so happy to see chicken in my life! Then we got to go to Spar which is the market; we exchanged some U.S. currency for some Kwacha which is the Zambian currency. 

It has been a crazy, fast, exhausting, and exciting last couple days!! I have loved every second of it and can't wait to see what the next day holds! I know God is going to do some amazing things and continue to provide as He already has! So thankful for a bed, being off a plane for a while, the first real meal in days, and to have spent my first day in Lusaka with some new great friends! 

Please continue to pray for me, Brooke, and Lauren as we begin serving here in Zambia; that we will serve willingly with a servants heart and focus on building relationships with the people here. Also for health and that we won't get sick or anything. We are so excited and know God has amazing things in store for this summer!!

We Aren't Okay

Hello hello!

I haven't kept this lil blog of mine as up to date as I would have liked but I'm finally getting around to it and I'll try not to neglect it too much in the future.

These past few weeks have been a whirlwind of starting my training for Zambia, starting fundraising, applying for jobs, thinking about graduation, oh and trying to work and do school in the process. It's been cray y'all. But through all of this God just continues to show me each and every day that He is enough and He will provide.

Let's start with the training. It has been so awesome! We are reading a book called When Helping Hurts by Steve Corbett & Brian Fikkert. I have already learned so much from this book and the response questions at the end of each chapter as well as from my fellow interns. It is always awesome to get to hear other people's responses and especially the ones I'll be spending 2 months with in another country! 

This last chapter we read really focused on what poverty is. It's rooted in brokenness and I loved how they said it. "Every human being is suffering from a poverty of spiritual intimacy, a poverty of being, a poverty of community, and a poverty of stewardship." We are all broken and all in need. It's been so great to be humbled so much already and know that I'm broken too and I'm not okay either. The book says it best when they say, "I'm not okay and you're not okay, but Jesus can fix us both." 

I can't do anything in my own strength and God is continually showing me that and continually showing me that He can.

For my fundraising, I am making teacup/mug candles (which are super cute btdubs) so that has been going super awesome! I also sent out letters which I initially wasn't going to do because honestly I felt bad asking people for money and them not getting anything in return. But as I prayed about the finances I realized I was limiting God. And as I have received so much support already from sending out letters I have also received letters back. People are asking their churches to pray for my trip and they want to know how God is moving in Zambia and that is so awesome!

I wasn't thinking about God impacting other people's lives when I sent these letters out but He absolutely has and it is so awesome!! I was honestly starting to have doubts about funds and if I would meet the $6,000 that I have to raise. A conversation with my mom didn't help much either because she was also having doubts. 

I thought of the story in Mark 9 where the father asks Jesus "if" he can heal his son and Jesus responds, "If I can? All things are possible to him who believes." The father responds, "I do believe; help my unbelief." I love the father's response because this is exactly how I feel. I know God will provide for me but I need Him to help my unbelief. 

God has continually provided and I can already see it growing my own faith and my parent's faith. My mom was blown away by the amount of people that have already donated to help fund my trip. She said, "Well I just need to shut my mouth don't I?" It is so cool to see God using this experience to move in other people's lives already. I am so thankful for each and every donation! And that God has moved in so many hearts already! So far I have received about $1,400 from donations! God is so awesome!! He continually puts my doubts to rest.

In applying for jobs and thinking about graduation and the future, God continually gives me peace about the unknown. He loves me so much and I'm so so thankful. Through this Zambia experience already, my faith and trust in Him as already grown so much. Now when I think about the future, my trust is fully in Him and I know He will provide for me. Whatever that looks like I am fully dependent on Him and Him alone.

I'm not okay and I'm broken but Jesus can fix me and He continues to do that each day.

Please keep praying for my fellow interns and me as we continue on in this journey! And keep checking here for more updates! 

Thanks and gig'em!

Africa Here I Come!!

If you just said, "I'm sorry what?" after reading the title of my post, then you and I are in the same boat my friend! That was my reaction to the news exactly. Among excitement of course!

So here's how this amazing opportunity came to be a reality. I applied for this awesome internship in Africa this summer with a stellar organization called Every Orphan's Hope back in December.

I have always wanted to go on a mission trip but always felt like I wanted to go somewhere for longer than a week. Not that those aren't great! Not what I'm saying at all! Everyone is different and I felt like this would be a better fit for me. I prayed about it a lot and as my friends know asked for A LOT of prayer from them. (Thanks by the way!)

So once I felt like this was where The Lord was leading me I applied and just had to wait for confirmation that this is where He was leading me. I prepared for both outcomes; whether I got it or not I knew God was good and His plan for my life would be better than anything else.

But on Friday I got the BEST email I've probably ever received in my life! Seriously though. It said I'd been chosen as one of the four interns for the 60 day long internship in Zambia this summer and I am so excited!!! I can't wait to see how The Lord uses me! I am so humbled that He's chosen me to be part of His plan. I am so aware He doesn't need me at all and that makes me even more thankful that He would choose me.

So what I would like from you guys is prayer! As I start my training and begin preparing to go to Zambia, that The Lord would show me areas where I need to grow and show me the sin in my life. Prayers for the people in Zambia as well as the other interns going with me.

If you want to track what's going on and how training is going as well as what happens what I go to AFRICA(still so excited sorry for the unnecessary caps), it will all be posted on this blog! Feel free to read it but it won't hurt my feelings if you don't.

Love!

FREEWAY WEEK

This week was the week of Freeway. The week where we hand out free snacks on campus with Bible verses on them to show that God's love is FREE! It was such an amazing week. The Lord seriously provided.

Day after day The Lord provided. There were nights when I thought I was going to have to deliver all of the bins of snacks to campus and then the next time I looked the document would be filled. He provided so much this week and it was so awesome. the very first day I had to carry a bin by myself(and they are HEAVY) so I was just dragging it on the ground because the building wasn't too far away. Then this nice guy just saw me struggling and asked if I needed help. It was great! I love how The Lord puts people in your life when you need them.

There were days when I had gotten a not so great amount of hours of sleep but The Lord is good and He provided time for me to rest in Him and get my school work done.

Friday, the last day of Freeway, was when I finally got to work a table a spend some time actually talking to people. I had been so busy running around, taking snacks to tables, and making sure everything was in order, that I missed out on the part I love the most about Freeway. Getting to talk to people and tell them why we're doing what we're doing is the reason I wanted to be on of the Freeway committee heads in the first place.

Working the table on Friday was so great and so much fun! It reminded me what all the work was for this week. I got to talk to people and it was so great to just love on them. I got to talk to one guy who ended up being an atheist. It was really interesting to see how he views Christianity and to get to talk to him a little bit.

At the end of the talk I had gotten to share my faith and I know The Lord used that for a purpose in my life. It is so cool to be able to look at things that happen in my life and see the The Lord using that to teach me and shape me. Getting to share my faith was really cool and God used that to show me areas where I need to grow.

Memorizing scripture is something I need to work on and that is something that only comes from being in the word. I was also reminded that my purpose here is to share the Gospel and further God's kingdom. It's hard sometimes to do that here in everyday life. It's uncomfortable and sometimes people don't like it which makes me not want to do it. That's why I need God to remind me everyday why I'm here.

My challenge this week is to be in the word more and to memorize more verses. I was reminded today that the way to get to know God is to know His word. It's so true and such a good reminder.

So sorry if none of these thoughts made sense or flowed. I just wanted to have them.

God is good.

Resting in The Lord

"Why is it easy to work but hard to rest sometimes?" -Audrey Assad, Lament

This week I was going and going pretty much every day. It was a week of work and to some extent that has become routine to me. I work and go to school, which I consider work as well.

It has become so routine though, that it is east to work and sometimes hard for me to rest. I feel like it should be the exact opposite though. When I do rest however, it is laying on the couch, watching 3 episodes of Gossip Girl with my room mates.

When in reality I need to be resting in The Lord. This is what the bible says and I have not been trusting and living in that truth.

Matthew 11:28-29 says, "Come to me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls."

God says for us to come to Him and HE will give us rest. HE is the ultimate provider of all we neede. HE will give us rest; all we have to do is come to Him and trust in that.

The problem is we don't come to him because we think, "oh yeah I just need to take a quick nap" which is not necessarily a bad thing. However, when we use these other things like naps, TV, or any other things we use to rest as a substitute or filler for resting in The Lord and spending time with Him, that is when they become a problem.

He knows exactly what we need and when we need.

He created the universe for crying out loud. I think He can handle my life.

That's my challenge for me and for you; rest in The Lord not the things of this world.