It’s officially been a month since we arrived in Zambia!
We landed in Livingstone, Zambia, on Thursday, May 7th at about 1:45 pm local time (7:45 am ET). From there, we ventured into town for a quick stop at the grocery store to buy a few snacks, and then proceeded to the base to get settled into our tents. The base is about 30 minutes southeast from Livingstone town, right next to the Zambezi River (which is the river that holds Victoria Falls, just a little ways upstream).
The first few days were pretty low key. We did our AMT orientation, so basically just the logistics of our classes and daily schedules, played volleyball, and got settled on base. Afterwards, we did a couple team building exercises (including the human knot, which is where everyone bunches together and randomly grabs hands with two other people, which results in a tangled mess of people, and then you have to figure out how to get untangled). We have a really amazing team of 8 guys and 14 girls.
The following Monday, we left for our first expedition. We left early in the morning for what ended up being about a 15 hour drive, after getting lost a few times, having to pick a different spot for our campsite, and then having some locals escort us to the new spot. It was definitely tiring, but we got to drive through the mountains, which was so beautiful, and most of the drive was on Zambia’s main paved road. When we finally got there, we had just enough time to set up our camp and have dinner before bed.
Our camp and ministry area was in Shianzimbwe near Chirundu in southeast Zambia near Lake Kariba along the Zambian border in the Chipepo Chiefdom. Our campsite was near a school and in an area surrounded by mountains. Tuesday morning, we stayed at camp to do some GPS training, during which we ended up encountering three Zambian men. They were asking us for money to get to the hospital in Chirundu, where one of them had a son who was ill. We asked if we could pray for his son, and we ended up praying for all three men for a good chunk of time. It was cool because a moment that wasn’t about ministry ended up turning into ministry. After lunch, we split into teams for a couple hours of hut-to-hut ministry. My group made it to two huts. The first group had heard of Jesus but didn’t know anything about Him; the second knew Jesus but didn’t have personal relationships with Him (which in my past experience, is often the case). We didn’t have a lot of time to spend at the first hut because they were heading to a funeral, so they didn’t accept the Lord, but we planted a seed, and they did want to learn more.
Wednesday we had our only full hut-to-hut ministry day. It was a very full day, so I know that I do not remember it all, but I believe my group made it to about 5 huts, at each of which we shared the Gospel and prayed for the people. On occasion we find Zambians that are strong in the Lord, and at one hut was an older blind couple that were just that. Not only did we pray over them, but they also prayed over us. On our way to our first hut, there was a group of kids near our camp that wanted us to tell them a story, so we did a little bit of kids’ ministry as well. In the end, we had a large group of kids follow us back to our camp, and we then played with them a little before dinner.
Thursday, we started the day with more hut-to-hut, for about four hours. My group made it to two huts, and we also talked with some young men under a tree. On our way back to camp, we spotted this elderly lady carrying some supplies back to her hut, so we offered to help her. She was a little spitfire and would randomly start dancing. After ministry, we drove about an hour to the Lake Kariba dam. We once again drove through the mountains, and on the way down, we could see the lake. So pretty. The view from the dam was beautiful, as well, and half of the dam is in Zimbabwe, so now I can say I’ve set foot in four African countries (Zambia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, and South Africa). That night after dinner, a group of kids showed up at our camp to sing for us, which was so sweet, so we then spent some time singing and dancing with them until pretty late into the night.
On Friday, we had a large evangelism meeting, which are normally done at night, but I am glad that the bulk of ours was during the day. We held it in the centralized location of Pembazana, which is near a church that is pastored by a Zambian pastor that was out with us and helped translate for us. It was about a 50 minute walk from our camp. Half of our group did adult ministry, and the other half did kids’ ministry. I went with the kids ministry, which there were also some adults. After finishing the stories and songs, we asked if anyone needed prayer. Several adults, young adults, and children came forward, and for the first time, I witnessed the manifestation and casting out of demons in two women. I’m still not sure if I’ve fully processed that that happened. I didn’t used to believe in demonic manifestations in our modern day until I got involved in missions. Zambians (and most Africans in general) are very spiritual, and therefore, they are going to have some type of spirit in them, whether it is the Holy Spirit or an evil spirit. Witchcraft is also widely spread, and many Zambians get what they call charms (jewelry) from the witch doctors, which they believe will ward off evil spirits and disease. Unfortunately, this commonly has the opposite effect. Even the Zambians that believe in Jesus often view Him as just another spirit, and therefore will worship a combination of Christianity and witchcraft. One of the women that manifested a demon even had marks from the witchdoctor tattooed on her chest and forehead.
After ministry, we walked back to camp, where we had lunch and then hosted a soccer game against the Zambians. We had played a soccer game a couple days prior, which was against teenagers and we actually won it. This time, however, they brought out the professionals, whom even had matching shirts, and we got slaughtered. It was fun, though. We did some quick ministry with the crowd at the game and then had dinner. After dinner, we went back to Pembazana (we drove this time) and set up a projector to play the Genesis episode of the Bible series. I never would’ve imagined watching a film in the middle of the bush, but it was cool because I’m sure most of the Zambians had never seen one. There was estimated to be around 800 people there. It was definitely hectic and crazy, and we were near a bar, so there were some rowdy people that came. But a lot of people gave their lives to Christ, and we also prayed for a ton of people.
Saturday morning, we packed up our camp and left to go back to base. The drive only took us about 9 hours this time, and most of us slept for a lot of it. We also had a little dance party towards the end of the drive. Once back in Livingstone, we stopped at ShopRite (the grocery store) and then went out for pizza for dinner before heading back to base.
For the past three weeks, since coming home from our first expedition, we have been just enjoying life on the base.
For each AMT (which is done twice per year), Overland brings in guest preachers to minister to us, as well as the staff. The first two weeks since coming back have been guest ministers weeks, so we had nearly non-stop preaching during our class times, and a few nights we had evening church services, as well. This past week, we have continued to have predominately ministers, with one actual course (Mission Theology) mixed in. One of our guest ministers had us partake in communion and wash each other’s feet, which was a really cool experience and something I’ve never done before. One Saturdays, we’ve done everything from children’s ministry at N’Songwe village (a village just down the road from our base) to go into town, where we went thrift store shopping, grocery shopping, and went for coffee.
So I thought I would give you a little more details on what our lives look like on base. One of the things that jumped out at me about Overland when I did my short-term trip last year was how communal base-living is. While it can be challenging at times, it’s like being a part of a huge family, where we do everything together. You definitely have to discipline yourself to setting aside alone time with the Lord, because everyone is very social, but the base is big enough that it’s not too challenging to find a good spot to have your alone time. There is a special place on the edge of the gorge called prayer point that is set aside for that purpose.
During the week, our day starts at 7 am. Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays we do devotionals as a group, and Tuesdays and Thursdays we have physical training, which is typically running a 5k on Tuesdays and on Thursdays we hike down and back up the gorge, which is really challenging (I hesitate to call it hiking; it’s really more of a combination of hiking and rock climbing). At 8 am, we have community breakfast (which we take turns in groups making), and at 8:30 we have community worship. We then have class from 9 am to noon, at which time we have lunch, and then class from 1 pm to 5 pm. Dinner is at 6, which we also take turns making. (Staff members or Zambian workers make lunch). Saturdays we have breakfast at 9 am, and then the rest of the day varies, sometimes we do ministry in a nearby village, go into town, or help around the base, but we usually do some type of physical training, like play volleyball and have a handful of free-time hours to relax, study, do laundry (there are washing machines on base), ect. Sundays we have breakfast at 9, church on base at 10:30, and then normally the remainder of the day is ours, with the exception of making dinner or dishes, for those on those rotations.
Since I’m sure you’re wondering what we eat (most people do), it’s basically normal food, other than the occasions that we have n’shima (local dish made from cornmeal) for lunch. Breakfast during the week is normally oats or cream of wheat served with fruit and/or yogurt, (or hardboiled eggs on occasion) and on the weekends we’ll have pastries/muffins/pancakes and/or scrambled eggs. For lunch, we may have n’shima a few times during the week, depending on the base’s food budget for that week. Other things we’ve had for lunch include egg salad sandwiches, soup, pb&j’s, grilled cheese, and leftovers. Dinner always includes a main dish, vegetable and/or salad, and yummy homemade bread or rolls. We’ve had roasted chicken, homemade pizza, pasta, sloppy joes and French fries, stir fry, chili, stew, fajitas, and the list goes on. On expeditions, our food is much of the same, just things that are simple enough to cook in the bush. One day last week, the Zambians did make maponi worms (caterpillars) for us to try. I did convince myself to try one, and they really were pretty good; just tasted like crispy chicken skin. When in Africa… 🙂
Over the course of the next couple of days, we will be leaving for our second expedition. This expedition focuses on learning under a sector manager. Overland divides the world into sectors (I believe each sector is about 1,000 square kilometers, if I remember correctly), and each active sector receives a sector manager, who commits to stay in that sector for 5 years and is the primary influence in that area to evangelize regularly, hold Bible studies, and train up local Christian leaders to take over after the sector manager leaves. It’s a truly amazing missions system. Most Overland missionaries’ plans (and mine as well) is to start out as an expedition leader and then transition into sector management, which is the ultimate goal of Overland. Without more sector managers, Overland cannot expand into new countries. Currently, Overland has a solid presence in Zambia, Brazil, and Cambodia, and is starting sectors in Mozambique, Congo, Angola, and the Polynesian Islands (and I’m sure there are more that I am unaware of).
Our expedition focuses on learning exactly what sector managers do and how they run their sectors. We have been split into 6 groups, based on how many people each sector manager can accommodate. I will be with the base Pastor, a sector manager (who is Zambian, so he will also serve as a translator), and one another AMT student, and we will be out for three days doing Bible studies, hut-to-hut ministry, and hopefully a night meeting. I know that it is going to be an extremely challenging experience, but also one that is transformational.
When we return from our expedition, we will be jumping right into our Wilderness First Responder course, which is an extremely busy, intensive, and legit medical course taught by an American doctor. After the two-week course, we will be certified first responders with the option of going on to become certified EMT’s.
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