Hey everyone!
It's been just about 3 weeks since I've landed back in Zambia! Being back has been great and as busy as ever! This was the pretty sunset as we were driving home from the airport after we had a flight tire! Haha!
It truly feels like no time has passed when I was gone and I was able to pick up where I left off with no problem. I am grateful for that!
Here's a recap of what has been happening the last 3 weeks!
We had a full session of bible school! Hope and I landed on Friday morning, and school started bright and early Monday morning. This is our second to last session before teams come and before they graduate. This session, we had 16 students and were teaching on Stewardship and Christian Doctrine.
Left: I am in the middle of telling a true, funny, dramatic story!! Haha
Middle: Alice (a short term missionary with us) bought the whole class Coke's one afternoon! the JOY on their faces was priceless!!!
Right: Bible school group photo!
On Easter weekend, all the missionaries split into smaller teams and went to different church locations. With all of us splitting, we were able to preach to 21 different churches!!!! The village I went to, Katete, hosted 6 of our other churches, too and we had a good time. I have 2 main take aways from Easter I want to share.
The first is this: Thinking about all the different people, from different places all coming together to worship and celebrate the Resurrection of Christ was just incredible. And, thinking about the other 15 churches that gathered in 3 other locations is mind boggling to me. It truly is the body of Christ coming together.
The men and ladies always sit separate hence the two pictures :) Men on the left, women/kids on the right!
The second takeaway I have is: Communion. I have never thought about doing communion out in the bush before until Tommy suggested we do it. I bought some grape juice (kind of like Kool-Aid), and we broke up some shortbread cookies to make sure we had enough communion for 200+ people. Getting to first preach about the Passover and the history of the Passover, the Crucifixion and Resurrection of Christ, and then the Power and Authority that the resurrection holds was so special. And, to finish our time together, we had communion. It was powerful!!
Left: My favorite kuku with her cousins, saying that I am also their granddaughter! Right: Handing out communion in a line to be as efficient as possible.
We dropped off our friend Larry at the airport. He had been a short term missionary with Trail from January - April and we loved having him here with us! He has SO much joy and it was a blast being around him. While we were in Livingstone, him and Tommy started playing some pick up basketball with a few local guys! We also ate at a true authentic Chinese restaurant and it was so yummy!
This week is a bit of a slower week before we start our last session of bible school next Wednesday and as we prepare for our first summer team at the beginning of May! It still is busy with meal planning, printing all the Bible school books, going grocery shopping, dealing with immigration, and such!
The high school girls and boys asked if they could come to base last weekend and clean the vehicles and the church for service on Sunday. It was super sweet to be able to serve with them! We have still continued to do the Purity group, For God's Glory. Each week after church we meet with them and we'll start back meeting at the high school this Saturday!
A prayer request:
Zambia is currently in a pretty bad drought. We've been praying and praying for rain (usually rainy season is Nov-March) but there has barely been enough rain to harvest any crops that people have planted which ultimately means they won't have direct access to food. God has been answering our prayers because the last few days it's rained on and off, but if you could continue to pray for rain and crops to grow.
Another praise report! Back in September, I think I shared about this sweet girl. We first met her last summer and she was possessed. She was going crazy and needed God to intervene and heal her. We prayed and knew God would completely restore her. When we saw her last, she was HEALED! It was a huge PRAISE! What a mighty God we serve!!! Fast forward to 2 weeks ago, I saw her again on Easter weekend, and it amazing to see her!!! She is doing great and even brought her friends to come and meet me!
I want to thank you all for the support you've shown and given me over the past 4 years!!!! It's wild to me that 4 years ago, what I thought was just a 2 week mission trip was going to DRASTICALLY change my life. I am so grateful!!! I truly couldn't have made it here without your financial support and all the prayers! So, thank you, thank you, thank you!!
Much love!!!
Amanda
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