Greetings from Zambia!!!

Hi Friends! 

Its unbelievable to me that I am finally posting my first blog to you “from the field”.  Actually, this is quite literal right now and I wish that you could see the scene.  Drew and work team leaders Ray Scheepstra and Harry Reinders and I were up late tonight talking under the stars and now I’m sitting on a plastic lawn chair in the middle of the Esther School Road so I can catch an internet connection. Its been spotty so I won’t be able to post much for now, but wanted to give a quick update as I know some people were going to try to keep up with this trip through the blog.

Its a little after midnight here (I don’t even know what week it is there!)  The stars are the most unbelievable thing i’ve ever seen.  Hard to imagine you will all be looking at the same ones tonight.  Drew and I were just chasing an enourmous lizard around the kitchen.  its still in there and Drew says its as scared of us as we are it, but i highly doubt that’s possible.

 
Today was a work day and my body tells me we worked pretty hard although its hard to believe that if you see what we accomplished.  Things just operate so differently here and usually at a slow pace for us.  Tomorrow we have a “plan” to meet the chief in the morning which one of our expat contacts here says to believe only when we see him.  it sounds like we’ll be heading to the neighboring Bible College in the afternoon and will meet with someone else that we’ve had some contact with, so we’re definitely looking forward to that too.  We’re hoping to get our hands on some equipment because the soil is really hard to work and we have plans to get a few things in the ground before we leave – including the 12 fruit trees that Jan picked up.  

 
This morning i woke up before dawn and had some devotional and prayer time in our new “kitchen” then watched the sun rise.  Its pretty amazing to see our home coming together brick by brick.  We had a chance to tweak a few things and talk to Faisal (the Zambian work crew leader) about it some, and i think it will turn out very nicely.  Tonight after work and before dinner Drew and another work crew member and I heard children laughing off in the distance so we took off down the road and ended up at a large clearing between the government school a local orphan village.  There were at least 100 kids of all ages hanging out there and playing all sorts of games including soccer and what must be the Zambian equivelant of basketball.  Many of the kids were apprehensive to see 3 muzungus come walking up, so we kept our distance some.  We did get lots of smiles and waves and talked to a woman who lived down the trail a ways.  I can’t describe the whole scene but it was one of pure joy.  The children are absolutely beautiful and all so happy and carefree.  hard to get your head around it all.  in fact, i’m having a hard time so far processing and articulating all of my reactions and emotions.  I started tonight at group devotions to explain what we saw and how i felt at that scene and i could feel it all welling up so i left it alone for now.  i’m so exhausted and overwhelmed that i can’t quite deal with it at once, but i think it will hit me soon. 

already so far this has been an amazing experience.  We’ve said that we are getting  a more real sense of what will likely be very good and what will likely be very difficult here, but it all comes back to relying on God for everything.  My sense is that is something that most of the people here do very well and we have much to learn from them in that regard.

I hope to post more soon, including some pictures, but should probably head in soon – there’s something probably odd about a big white guy sitting on a cheap lawnchair in the middle of a road in Zambia typing on a laptop at 12:30 in the morning.  Plus i’m hearing all sorts of interesting noises coming from the surrounding bush.  Fortunately, the lizard is locked inside.  Unfortunately, I have to go in there and sleep.

Good night all – and thank you so much to all who are supporting us and praying for me on this trip.  Please continue to pray that God will open our eyes and our hearts to all that He has in store for us this week and next and for continued safety and protection.

 

Kevin