Month Number Two

Month number two is a wrap, and we head back to the states in just 23 days. 😦
It’s crazy to me that when I first signed up for AMT, I wasn’t sure how I would feel living in Africa for more than 10 days, but that changed extremely quickly. I couldn’t imagine life anywhere else.
For our second expedition, I was paired with one fellow AMT student (Ashley), the base pastor (Pastor Larry), and a Zambian sector missionary named Paul. Our expedition was the shortest of the bunch, only 48 hours long, but it was still a wonderful experience.
We left Tuesday morning for a three hour drive into the Mosokotwane chiefdom. Upon arriving at our first stop, we had just enough time to have lunch before beginning our first of three Bible studies. Villagers slowly trickled in until there were about 23 men and women in attendance. We began by Paul leading a few songs, and then Pastor Larry introduced us. Prior to our trip, Pastor Larry assigned Ashley and I each a passage of Scripture to prepare a sermon on. I was given Galatians 2:11-21, and I was the first to preach at the first Bible study. I had prepared a full page of notes for my sermon, but I elected not to use them. I forgot a few minor elements, but overall, it went extremely well and everyone enjoyed it. After I finished my sermon, Pastor Larry preached. Following the Bible study, we drove about ten minutes to a local Pastor’s house, where we set up camp for the night.
The next day, we arose early, packed up our camp, and drove about another two hours to our next Bible study location. This one had about 14 men and women in attendance. Paul led some songs and Ashley and Pastor Larry spoke. We then drove another two hours to our third location. Our final Bible study ended up having about 25 men and women in attendance. As was the pattern, we began with Paul leading a few songs and concluded with Pastor Larry preaching. I preached again, which also went very well. Once again, I did not use my notes, and I covered everything that I had planned to cover and then some. It was apparent that the men and women at this Bible study were especially hungry for the Lord, as they shared Bibles with one another and many of them took notes. Before I started my sermon, Paul and I spent about five minutes trying to explain to them how to spell my name because they wanted to write it down.
At the conclusion of the Bible study, one of the local Pastors in attendance asked if anyone needed prayer, and a few men and nearly all of the women in attendance came forward. We split up and went individually down the line to pray for people. I prayed for three women; the first wanted healing for back pain and headaches. The second wanted to accept Christ, and Ashley also prayed for a woman that wanted to accept Christ, which was truly amazing because other than a brief portion of my sermon, there was no Gospel presentation or salvation invitation. We didn’t know that there was anyone there that wasn’t already saved, so it was definitely a move of God. The third woman that I prayed for wanted prayer for wisdom and boldness to continue sharing the Gospel, and as I prayed for her, I could clearly tell how hungry she was for more of God. We then set up camp at the Bible study location.
Our final morning, we drove about half an hour to meet with the interim chief, before doing a couple hours of hut-to-hut ministry. As we were walking to the first hut, we were flagged down by an elderly lady and a younger woman, whom I presumed to be her daughter, to pray for the elderly woman. She said she has a skin disease and body aches. She was clearly very old and not of good health, so we wanted to be sure that she knew Jesus, since her time on earth is probably very limited. So we asked her if she knew Him, and she said no. So I presented the Gospel to her, and she prayed to receive Christ. It was such a move of God of us being in the right place at the exact right time. We then went to four other huts with a combined total of 6 adults. They all said they knew the Lord, so I encouraged them that they are loved by God and that they also have the power of God inside of them to be able to share the Gospel and pray for themselves and their families. We also did some songs and the parable of the lost coin with a couple groups of kids. We taught Jesus Loves Me to both groups, and some girls from the second group walked away singing it together, which was awesome.
Overall, it was a great expedition, despite its length, and it really presented me the opportunity to step up in leading and preaching. Pastor Larry told me that he strongly believes that I have a calling to teach and should nurture that. Ashley and I were also totally in charge of food on this expedition, so I got some great bush cooking experience. We made a really delicious vegetable stew straight over the fire one night.
After coming home from our expedition, we spent a few days just relaxing and waiting for the rest of our team to come home. Then the following week, we started our Wilderness First Responder training course, taught by a doctor and two paramedics from New Hampshire, which we had for two full weeks, including several night classes. Although it was busy, it was a lot of fun, with a lot of hands-on time. We learned all the medical basics from burns to brain injuries to heart attacks, as well as the practical side of splinting, lifting patients, and CPR, and I think each of us had the opportunity to play a patient (I had a lethal brain injury).
For our last two days in WFR, we had mass scenarios (multiple patients with a common situation, like an explosion) where various staff members served as patients. The first was at night and was somewhat of a practice run for our final scenario on our last day, which was a big determining factor in whether or not we passed the course. Everyone did AMAZING for our last scenario, and our instructors were so impressed that they did not make us take our final exam, and they said that we were more organized, calmer, and worked together better than many EMT teams. So we passed with flying colors, and we are now certified Wilderness First Responders and certified in CPR. We also have the opportunity (if we so choose) to go to their school in New Hampshire and take an additional course to be certified EMT’s.
At the end of our first week in WFR, we got to go to Chobe National Park in Botswana (right across the border with Zambia; same place I went last year, if you followed my expedition), which involves a water safari and a land safari. We didn’t see any giraffes this time (surprisingly), but we got even closer to elephants (Chobe is known for their thousands of elephants), around 5 feet from our truck, and we even saw female lions from a distance. (Lion photo credit of one of our WFR instructors, who had an SLR with a long zoom lens).
The following weekend, as a reward for completing WFR, we were given a fun Saturday. In the morning, we went and had the buffet breakfast at a resort near Victoria Falls (I also went here last year; they have giraffes and zebras on their property, but we unfortunately didn’t get to see them). Afterwards we went to Victoria Falls, which was amazing. In order to stay in Zambia for three months, we had to get work permits, which gives us the resident discount at Victoria Falls of $1. 😀 It was so awesome to get to see it full, since I came at the end of dry season last year, meaning the falls was largely barren, and we got absolutely drenched. We also hiked down to what is called The Boiling Pot, which is around the corner from the Falls, under the Zimbabwe bridge. After Vic Falls, we went to the house of a missionary family for a braai (basically a cookout). It was a great day with my team.
The following week (last week), we knocked out the two classes I was looking forward to the least (and neither were as bad as I thought): vehicle mechanics and workshop. Vehicle mechanics ended up being mostly classroom time, with a small portion spent just looking at an actual vehicle. (I think that class is normally more hands-on, but because our AMT had three weeks of guest ministers, which is normally one, they’ve had to consolidate most of our classes). Workshop was 99 percent hands-on, most of which was spent working on our group project. It was supposed to be making a steel staircase, but the materials did not come in, so we helped to start building the framework for flooring for the upstairs office space in main center. We did still learn how to weld and cut and grind metal, which was kind of scary and definitely not my talent, so I am glad that we did not do the staircase. Some of my teammates that were better at it used our practice scraps to make AMT letters, which was cool.
Our last month is going to be extremely busy, but hopefully we’ll still be able to find lots of time to enjoy our remaining time together in AMT.