Hello friends! May has been such a busy month, I don't even know where to start! Because of the busyness, I feel like the whole month was a blur, in a good way!
Pastor Jeff had been in Zambia with us since the middle of April and stayed until the end of May. He spent his 6 weeks helping us design and build our new boma, and helped teach and preach on Wednesdays, Sundays, and during bible school! We had a great time together and I loved being able to pick his brain regarding all things ministry and life related! This was Amber, Pastor Jeff, Tommy, and me eating a homemade steak and fry dinner!
Bible school has 1 more session until we graduate!! It has been so sweet building relationships with these pastors and growing with them! As I am writing this, I am reminded of Paul when he writes in Romans and 1 Corinthians that we are all one body of Christ but each of us play and have a different part! I definitely see that as 26 of us are currently in class and offer and bring different things to the table!
One of the students, Boyd (and his wife) just had a child! I got to visit them this past weekend and love on their sweet boy! Here's a picture :) he is only 2 weeks old!!!! The village where they are from is one of my favorite villages to visit, so I am excited to watch this sweet babe grow up and get to love on him!
Our first missions team has come and gone!! It was an amazing two weeks with them here! I loved having other girls around that are my age and just getting to talk and hang out with them! Here is our girl picture, from the local falls that are right by our house at base! There were many healings and most of all, so many salvations! There is one salvation in particular that my group got to encounter that left us all in tears afterward when we got to see God working so mightily. His story and picture are below:
A guy named Brian, who spoke perfect English, came into the start of our meeting on Friday and asked this question "how can you believe in Jesus but not physically see him?" We just all looked at each other, and knew this was going to be a great conversation! We talked about the Holy Spirit and faith (and more)! At the end of the convo, Brian was ready to receive Jesus as his Lord and Savior, and asked if we could pray for him. He began to explain that he had been addicted to drugs and alcohol most of his life and really needed some help. As we prayed, you could feel the Holy Spirit working mightily in Him.
Fast forward two days, and Brian shows up to our first church service in this new village. He asks if he can give a testimony in front of everyone of how he has been 2 days SOBER (for the first time in 15-20 years) and how great God is. He then comes up to me afterwards and asks if he can borrow a chitenge and shirt of mine to get baptized in!!! I was blown away by how God completely changed his life upside down! This is the powerful God we serve and a testimony of his love and grace for us!
This is Brian with Pastor Samuel. He is indeed wearing my clothes and I am so proud of him!
We are gearing up for our second team to arrive in a few days! The fun and busyness will continue!! Getting to witness people accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior, and see many healing and salvations, is just the best! I have felt so much joy the past few weeks and I am looking forward to the rest of this summer with going to new villages and continuing to disciple our other villages!
We are still doing our girls high school purity program! I had Pastor Jeff bring over some WWJD bracelets and the girls were SO excited to have 1- something from the states and 2- to have a daily reminder to be like Jesus! WWJD stands for "What would Jesus Do" so we were able to have a little encouragement with them and hand them the bracelets! This was them showing off their bracelets!
I want to thank all of you for continuing to support me in this journey! This month, it has been 1 year since I left for the mission field (minus being home for the Holidays) and I literally could not do it without your financial support or prayers!! THANK YOU!
Xoxo,
Amanda
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