Zambia Day 12

We made it back to US soil.
We’re now in JFK for our longest layover, but I don’t think any of us mind because we’re not ready to go home. The 15 hour flight wasn’t as bad as before; probably because we were all so tired that we slept more. I definitely feel like I left a big piece of my heart in Zambia and like our Overland leaders became like family. This trip has given me a lot to process and think and pray about, but I will definitely be back to Zambia soon.
So to sum up our trip, we had two Overland leaders, Mariel and Brooke. Mariel has been with Overland for a few years, while Brooke just became full time in August and was also there to learn more about leading expeditions from Mariel. Overland divides their mission field into sectors, and each sector receives a sector manager to continually build disciples and also build up leaders in the local community that can take over the manager’s leadership, as opposed to Overland having to stay there full time forever. So we worked closely with Nate, the sector manager of Moomba, and stayed at this camp in Mulobezi, which is in south central Zambia (when you look at it on a map, it doesn’t look like we traveled very far at all, so you could easily spend days traveling across Zambia). Our job was to share the Gospel in the villages (because obviously 11 people can do it much faster than just one man) and spread the word about Nate’s weekly Bible studies. It’s awesome to know that Nate is there to complete the work that we started because often times people think (and it may be true sometimes) that short term overseas mission work is pointless because you don’t know what happens to the people after you leave. But that’s not the case with Overland, which is amazing.
Although there are many things about this trip that didn’t go as I hoped, I know that God still did amazing things and that this is only the beginning for me. I also know that it’s hard for me to truly comprehend how big some aspects of our trip were, like the opportunity to meet with and be blessed by Chief Moomba, or the fact that the predominant church denomination in the area (Church of Christ) doesn’t allow women to speak in church, and yet they were ministered to by a group of all women.
Although this trip also didn’t do in me what I hoped it would, it did confirm my heart for missions. It’s not easy, and it’s only going to get harder, but I also know that I could never even dream what God has in store. Game on.