Another exciting week...

We have been in Zambia for fifteen days. We are all still just as excited today as we were the first day for all of the things that God will be able to do through us in this country. We have been busy with our school work and field work every day since we arrived. Yesterday was the first day that we had a break from our schedule so most of us went into the local town to buy stuff with our recently acquired "Kwatcha" (local currency that currently trades @ 5,000 Kwatcha/dollar). It was nice having a “day off” but most of us spent the day studying for our classes or reading our Bibles.

On Monday of this week we were split into 2 groups so that we could go with the World Hope staff on their regular visits to HIV/AIDS patients. In one of the groups we visited a man named Edgar who had been taking medicine for about 6 months. He initially told us that he was depressed and angry that he was HIV positive but after a while God gave him peace about it and he was able to share his entire story with us. He told us how his wife had left him and how he had lost his child when she was only several months old. But he told us that through all of this he remained faithful to God and he still trusts God to watch over him and to take care of his needs. When we were about to leave the one thing Edgar told us that he needed was a Bible. I was shocked when I heard him say that, I just assumed that he had a Bible because of the way he talked. It made me think about how much I take my Bible for granted. There are so many people in this country that don’t have access to a Bible. I have at least three Bibles at home and I rarely read them, the people here read the Bible whenever they can find one but there might be one Bible. Later in the week, we spotted Edgar walking past our Guest House and we were able to provide him with a Bible. God is good!

On Thursday our entire group went to a village to work with the people and learn about their daily life. When we first arrived everyone gathered in their church and we sang and prayed together then we were introduced to some of the leaders of the village and the church. Then we all went outside to work on different projects. The villagers were in the process of building a piggery (a stable for pigs). The women of the village along with the girls in our group made a long line and moved the bricks from one pile to another one closer to the builders. The men on the other hand, started mixing mortar for the brick layers so they could continue their work. Some other women in the village had been working for over 4 hours to make food for the entire village. Some of our own team members helped them make the food. When our respective projects were done our team members mingled with the people and talked with them. Some of us played soccer with the children, others sang songs with them, and some of us just sat there and lived life with those beautiful people.