Hello again everybody!

It's been awhile since my last blog entry and so much has happened since then. The most important thing that happened was, of course, AFRICA. On April 20 we piled onto our bus at 8:45am and started the drive to the Washington Dulles airport followed by our trailer, jam-packed with 52 suitcases less than half of which were our personal bags- the remaining were filled with things we would be giving away. We boarded our first plane that afternoon and started the long trip over. We had three flights in total with layovers in Amsterdam (this layover was 14 hours long) and Nairobi, Kenya before our final landing in Lusaka, Zambia on April 22. Once in Lusaka we had a 6 hour bus ride to the lodge where we would stay in Luanshya. We arrived at the lodge around 6:45pm, exhausted and honestly smelling terrible, but we were finally there. 

I can't go into detail about every single thing that we did while in Africa or we'd be here all day, but I am going to share with you the people and experiences that were the most memorable and impacting to me. 

On April 24 the U.S and African teams split up into two buses and headed to a school. When my bus pulled into the "driveway" the kids came running from the school building shouting "You are welcome! You are welcome!" They gathered around the bus as we drove to the back of the school and grabbed our hands through the windows. As we got out of the bus they started singing a song and running around shaking our hands or just grabbing a hand and holding on. 

Later that day we got to give every student a new pair of shoes, a dress or pair of shorts, candy, a backpack filled with school supplies and a toothbrush and tube of toothpaste. I was on the crew that helped the kids find a pair of shoes that fit them and let me tell you, reality hit. I got to help put dozens of filthy feet into shoes, possibly for the first time in these kids lives. So often I take my many pairs of shoes for granted and these kids, they had nothing. 

April 25 was the day we went to the farm and the day I met Betha. She was maybe 4 years old, sitting

 alone far away from a group of team members and kids. I took some kids along who were attached to

 me for awhile and we went over to her. She couldn't understand English so I took her and the other 

three kids and we went and sat under a tree. After a while Betha was the only one still sitting by me so I just stood in the shade and held her. I knew she couldn't understand English but I knew how to say "I love you" in Bemba, so I said "nalikutemwa" to her because it was all that I could do. She stared back at me and said the Bemba greeting "mulishani" aka "how are you?" to me. Eventually it was time for her to eat lunch with the other kids and I had to go eat with the team, when I put her 

down and walked away I felt like I was leaving part of my heart behind me. 

April 27 I got my African name: Chimwemwe (Chee-mway-mway) which means joy or laughter. 

We saw a green mamba on one of the pastors bikes and we lost power that night at the lodge. We also found out that $5,100 had been raised for every pastor at the pastors conference to get a study bible in their language as well as enough money being raised for every African team member to get a bike. 

During the second day of the pastors conference on April 28 an invitation was made to the pastors to come to the front of the church and pray as the team sang. So many pastors came forward that they 

had to move the chairs to make more room, they knelt on the ground and prayed - some out loud 

others in their hearts. That same day we also got the opportunity to do one of our dramas for the pastors with an African team member translating for each of us. It was an incredible feeling teaching the African team and knowing that we were leaving something behind for them to continue to pass on. 

April 29 we had a youth conference for which each of us team members were in charge of having an impact group on the subject of having quiet time. God worked it just so that I ended up being able to share salvation with them based on the verse Titus 2:11. It was definitely a God thing because at the beginning I had just been going through the motions until I asked for one of the girls to share a favorite verse for us to pick apart and she said Titus 2:11. I read the verse and just stared at my bible for a few seconds, prayed and plunged in. God proved Himself a much better speaker than me that 

day and praise Him for that! 

We went to a hospital on April 30 and it turned out to be the most emotionally exhausting day of all. We were brought to a room with a tiny, tiny baby boy wrapped up and laying in a cardboard box. He had been found three days earlier, about to be fed to the pigs. That's what they do here when they 

don't want or can't take care of their babies. We got to give baby clothes to desperate mothers who just wanted something - even if all we had left to give was a dress for their little boy. Later that day we were driving through a village on the way to a nursing home when a huge crowd of kids started running around the bus as we drove. One little boy grabbed my hand as we drove and he ran as fast as he could to keep up with us. He came and shoved another little boy who had grabbed my hand out of the way at one point. After we finished at the nursing home he was waiting on the side of the road as we drove through the village and as soon as he saw me at the window he came and grabbed my hand again until we were about to drive out of his village. 

On May 1 and 2 we worked on teaching the African team a few of our songs and they taught us a few of theirs in return which we sang with them before we said our final goodbye that night. We left that night to travel to Livingstone for our two day vacation before heading home. The Zambezi (our hotel) was absolute paradise and Victoria falls was breathtaking. We saw baboons, zebras, giraffes, impalas and a crocodile sunbathing while we were there. The zebras basically lived at the hotel and the baboons were about 5 inches away from my foot at one point, the giraffes and impalas we had to search for awhile to see but we found them eventually. If you ever have the opportunity to go to Victoria falls I would advise you go for the sunrise, gorgeous and a great start to any day. 

We headed back to the U.S on May 5 and arrived home (at the camp) again at 8:30pm on May 6. 

I had the hardest time deciding what I had to cut back on and what I needed to expand on in this blog but like I said, these are the experiences that shaped me the most. 

A HUGE thank you to everyone who helped make this trip possible, not just for me but all of my fellow team members as well. I will have these experiences with me always and the lessons I learned from them. Thank you again. 

In Christ, 

Anna 

{Joshua 1:9}