Naya Mona
Naya Mona
Amaka yenu Tata
Inkumbu shenu pale nebo
Yaweh
Mucheni chenu
Muli nsansa Tata
Namipela amalumbo
Yaweh
I have seen Your power Father
Your mercy upon me Yaweh
In Your presence is fulness of joy
I give You praise Yaweh
....I love this song. It's my favourite zambian worship song in Bemba. On our last sunday in Luanshya our team taught the church the song "Blessed Be Your Name" by Matt Redman. That song took on a much more powerful meaning for me while being here in Zambia. Because I have seen them praise God in the face of diseases that are eating away at these beautiful people. They loved it!
Chrissie (one of the other 2 leaders with me) & I stayed with Pastor Jacob and his wife Annie and their adopted children this weekend. I didn't want to leave. We had such a great time. They were so incredibly hospitible.
There is so much to say and I'm having trouble limiting my words.....I don't know where to start this week. I'm overwhelmed by what I have seen and experienced here and it's about to come to an end in one short week.
I think for now, i'm going to sum up with NAYA MONA. I have seen. I have. I've seen God in such a different way in this country. I hope it has changed me. I hope to share many stories with you upon my return to the US.
Please pray for us as we're travelling and spending some time in London. Please PLEASE pray for me as I go through immigration on the 5th of March.
Love to you all.
living in the tension
hello again.
well...it has been very hot the past 3 days. it was nice of the rain to let up for a few. we're expecting another downpour this afternoon. we'll see. it is the rainy season here so rain is to be expected. it's also made us start battling the common cold. no fun. that is something you could be praying for: the general health of our team. it's that time when we're getting tired and run down. we're on the homestretch now. we have 2 weeks left here in Luanshya and on the 25th we'll be heading to Livingstone to see Victoria Falls and go on the typical, African Safari. You could also pray for safe travels there and back. We will drive back to the capital, Lusaka, on the 1st of March and debrief in London for a few days and head back to Seattle on March 5th.
i was talking to one of the students this week and she was saying that home based care was difficult because she was getting used to seeing people suffering. she expressed that she didn't want to simply get used to it and she wanted it to move her the way it did the first time we all encountered it. she was also feeling angry at the suffering and trying to reconcile God's compassion at the same time. in thinking about how to respond the thought came to me that perhaps it is God's grace on us when we aren't reduced to complete wrecks everytime we see people suffering. i wonder what would ever be accomplished specifically in the area of dealing with the AIDS pandemic if we were all sobbing on the floor and furious with God. perhaps it's His grace allows us to be moved to action, forced to deal with our conflicting thoughts, and have our faith deepened through it all. it's this tension that we must have the grace to live within. hard - most definitley. good - for sure.
the weeks have been flying by. we have built some long lasting relationships. i am hoping that YWAM seattle will be sending more teams in the future to Zambia. we've had the priviledge of sharing the farm with 2 other teams at different times. One, a team from YWAM Atlanta and another, a team from Calgary, Canada. There is no shortage of people who care about this country and how badly it is being destroyed by AIDS and the lack of knowledge they need to deal with it; at least in the area of prevention. There is still the common belief held here that if you have sex with a virgin it will cure you of AIDS. This is a
sad, sad lie that we need truth to reverse. simple education could change the face of this nation.
the team is doing well, aside from the colds some of us have. they are constantly striving to stay unified and engaged here as our time is winding down. of course, we alway welcome your prayers for us in that way. and thank you for the ones you've been praying already.
the next 2 weeks our schedule will look a bit different as we have the opportunity to share in a high school (we've been at orphan schools mostly). we are bringing them some books and pens and sharing about social issues and of course we'll probably be talking a bit about AIDS prevention as well. the students are being stretched and it's really cool to see them rise to the challenge. they're doing awesome and are so creative and full of new ideas.
i miss you all and can't wait till i can be in better contact with all of you. thank you for your patience with my lack of commnication.
much love to you all from zambia,
amanda
zambia...oh zambia...
hello to all my faithful readers!!
first of all, let me apologize for not blogging until now. the internet connection here is slow at best and we have 4 computers in which to share among a team of twelve who are all very eager to check our emails. we get to the internet "place" every friday so that's the only time i get to check in.
you're probably wondering how it's been going. well, it's hard to believe we've been here for 3 weeks already!! much has happened as we've grown used to our surroundings and the culture here. zambia is a very beautiful country filled with very beautiful and kind people. they are a peaceful nation and the people who live here are very proud of this fact, as one would be, considering what many surrounding countries are facing here in Africa. however, AIDS is rampant here and very ovwerwhelming. our team has been faced with much suffering which has lead to many good, but hard, discussions...every monday and friday we go from house to house, sometimes more like, shack to shack, doing homebased care. we imagined this being what homecare in north america is, but what we actually do is go with volunteers from the community to each house, sit and hear what each "client" is sick with (the list is long...TB, HIV+/AIDS, malaria, etc etc) and then they tell us "now encourage them". We're getting used to this, but it's hard not to just sit there shell shocked by the huge amount of sickness that we're not used to seeing in front of our face. sometimes we cry when praying for patients, sometimes they cry, most of them are "positive", which is what the volunteers tell us in hushed voices. there is a lot of shame that comes with being positive so we don't just blurt it out matter of factly.
something that has been a huge encouragement for myself in dealing with all this suffering is what Eugene Peterson writes in the introduction to the book of Job:
"in our compassion, we don't like to see people suffer. and so our instincts are aimed at preventing and alleviating suffering. no doubt that is a good impulse. but if we really want to reach out to tothers who are suffering, we should be careful not to be like Job's friends, not to do our 'helping' with the presumption that we can fix things, get rid of them, or make them 'better'.......
.....instead of continuing to focus on preventing suffering - which we simply won't be very successful at anyway - perhaps we should begin ENTERING the suffering, participating insofar as we are able - enterning the mystery and looking around for God. in other words, we need to quit feeling sorry for people who suffer and instead look up to them, learn from them, and - if they will let us - join them in protest an dprayer. pity can be nearsighted and condescending; shared suffering can be dignifying and life changing."aside from homebased care we are doing a lot of help on the farm, digging out gardens which will be responsible for feeding orphans, going to many schools and doing programs with the kids as well as learning their songs and stories. so fun.
we've had the privlege of attending a zambian wedding....whoa! so amazing, they really love to dance here. they bridal party dances their way up and down the aisle. one day you'll see both pictures and video of that.
the team has been amazing, resilient, hard working, encouraging...i'm having a great time...they are too. we are thankful for your prayers and emails. we could NOT be here, having this experience and having our worlds shaken without you guys at home being behind us. thank you.
we're suffering from minor sickness...colds, etc. i, personally have been in good health up to this point. i wouldn't mind your prayers that this continues. we have about 3 1/2 weeks or less left here in luanshya, then we will be taking a trip to livingstone to see Victoria Falls and we are having our debrief in London, England.
Much love to you all and more stories to come....
