We finished the meetings in Mongu on Sunday, and because we were going to be leaving early yesterday (Monday) morning the people farewelled me Sunday afternoon. I was only there for a couple of days, but they really took me into their hearts. Everyone wanted hugs and photos, as well as several group pics.
Yesterday I was up at 4, to be ready to leave by 5.30 to be on the bus at 6. It was raining through the night, which was nice in terms of temperature but created a bit of a challenge in getting to the bus. However, it stopped in time and we were able to get to the bus terminal with no problems.
The bus itself was something else. The company had installed an extra line of seats down what should have been the aisle, leaving only a tiny gap for people to squeeze through to get to their seats. There was no way I was going to be able to manage it, so we ended up with the very front seat, which had enough room for our knees but not enough space to stretch our legs out at all. To make matters worse, the seat cushion was totally flattened, and the iron bar at the side of the seat (meant to hold the cushion in place) was pressing into my hip the whole way. Add in the potholes (it’s not that the road has potholes, it’s more that the potholes have a road) and it added up to a very uncomfortable (and painful) nine hour trip! I kept telling myself, “You’re a missionary. Suck it up, Buttercup!” but I have to confess it didn’t help very much.
The driver, who was obviously on commission, was not content with the extra seats – he kept stopping to pick up still more passengers, putting them on steps, on fittings, anywhere else he could stash them. At one point I wondered whether he was going to start asking us to have people sit on our knees (he didn’t, and would have received a sharp answer if he had.)
We finally arrived at the town where Muzamai and his family live, checked in to my hotel and then went to their home for lunch. Muzamai’s wife Janet is delightful, and so are his children. It was already around 4, so after eating I went back to the hotel where I did a bit of reading then crashed. I was in bed at 8.30! I NEVER go to bed that early, in fact rarely before 11, but I was totally whacked.
The hotel was quite nice, up to western standard. What I particularly liked was that breakfast was served in a lovely garden area. I would be happy to stay here if I ever came to Zambia as a tourist (which is extremely unlikely.)
The trip from there to Livingstone was only about 60kms, and Janet came with us, so we came by car instead of bus – a quick, comfortable ride on decent roads. When we arrived there was a bit of drama, as apparently there is some kind of convention in town, and all the hotels were booked. It took Muzamai quite some time to find one that had rooms available, but eventually he was successful and I am here now. Tomorrow I have to cross back into Zimbabwe to catch the flight to Johannesburg, and then connect on to Nairobi. Meanwhile, I have to repack my cases to try to fit everything in. I need an elastic case!
I arrive in Nairobi at 10.30 tomorrow night, so it is unlikely that I will be posting tomorrow.
This morning was my second meeting here in Mongu. In my morning prayer time the Lord showed me a lady in the meeting, what she would be wearing and where she would be sitting, and gave me a prophetic word for her. He doesn’t often work this way with me – usually I am scanning the congregation during the worship, and the Holy Spirit will keep drawing my attention to a particular person and give me a word for them – but when He does this it is a real encouragement to find the person where I had seen them, wearing what I had seen them in. It makes it very easy to deliver the word with confidence.
As usual, there were plenty of items by just about every group in the church. I love the enthusiasm of African worship! This photo is almost a perfect representation of Africa in the current time: a guy in suit and tie enthusiastically playing the traditional drum.
I felt prompted by the Lord to share my story this morning. I’m always a little hesitant to do so in a missions situation, because of the cultural differences, but it was well received and afterwards Muzamai said that it would have spoken to a number of the people who have had difficult childhoods and as a result feel that God could not use them. It was recorded, so if you would like to watch here’s the link:
There was originally going to be a meeting this afternoon, but they decided that they wanted to take me around to show me some of the sites in Mongu so cancelled the meeting. Unfortunately the driver who was supposed to take us got caught up with something else, so we didn’t do the site-seeing. Disappointing on both counts.
The rain that has been threatening for the last three days finally came. Temperature dropped by at least ten degrees, making it very pleasant until the rain started. The storm was short-lived, and the temperature is now much more comfortable than it has been.
Before we left, everyone had to get photos with me – from group pics with every different group in the church, to selfies with what felt like a hundred different individuals. They have embraced me in an amazing way.
Tomorrow is another early start, but not quite as early as coming here. Muzamai tells me we will need to leave about 5. Tomorrow night we are going to his home so that I can meet his wife and family, then on Tuesday morning we will head back to Livingstone.
Well, today has been interesting. As most reading this blog will know, my standard sermon preparation is “Lord, what do You want to say to Your people this time?” – and then listen to what He says. This morning I had nothing – or almost nothing. Just two verses: “Break up your fallow ground” (Hosea 10:12) and “I will restore to you the years that the locusts have eaten” (Joel 2:25) I had absolutely no idea what God wanted to do with them, or even if they were meant to be in the same message or two separate messages. I needed the Holy Spirit to do His thing, or this was going to be a disaster.
The ground in Mongu is sand – it’s like driving on the beach, except that the sand is finer. The car that took us from the hotel to the church bogged – fortunately it did so at the gate of the place we were going, so it was not really a problem for us, but I couldn’t help wondering how long the poor driver took to get out. For our return this afternoon we used a four-wheel drive, and even it battled at times.
The welcome when I arrived was amazing – the ladies all came out singing and dancing, and all wanted to hug me or shake my hand. That was repeated in the service, with everyone crowding out to welcome me, until the ushers finally managed to get them into a semi-orderly line. I felt quite overwhelmed.
The building was a simple structure – tin roof held up by some poles, bamboo walls, mats covering the sand on the floor. For those familiar with Moe church, I felt at home as it was L-shaped, and I was preaching to two different sides.
As for my message, the Holy Spirit did His thing (of course!) and it led into a time of repentance, after which I ended up praying for almost everyone in the building (of course!)
There was supposed to be another session this afternoon, but the delegation that came from the other outreach church had some problems with their lunch being delayed, and by the time that was sorted it was too late for the second session. African time strikes again!
Just finally for today, I mentioned in yesterday’s post about my flight with South African Airways being cancelled, and the need to change the second leg of the flight so I can connect. I had an email from SAA saying that instead of rescheduling my first leg to Thursday, they could put me on a Fastjet flight on Wednesday going at almost the same time as my original booking. I responded, but because of the problems I have been having with email, I was not sure that it had gone through. So when I discovered that they have a WhatsApp number, I contacted them through that. Even though it was outside of office hours, they got back to me this morning and assured me that it is all fixed, I just need to turn up at the Fastjet check-in on Wednesday. Praise the Lord, and top marks SAA.
I forgot to mention in in my post yesterday that there was a little bit of excitement when the bus had to stop to allow an elephant to cross the road. The road at that point goes through one of the wildlife reserves, so it was probably not that unusual an occurrence, but still quite a thrill.
I’ve actually had a few random encounters with wildlife since I have been here in Africa. There is an area along the road from Nairobi to Kitale where large numbers of baboons can be seen almost any time. Adams told me that it is an area where the truckers stop to have dinner, and the baboons come to feed on the scraps that they leave behind. Probably not the ideal baboon diet, but free and plentiful.
Also along that road, on this trip I saw a herd of zebra grazing along the road side. Beautiful animals, and fascinating. I read once that they are able to control their body temperature by raising the hairs of the black stripes to allow air to circulate to their skin, while the hairs of the white stripes remain flat. Custom designed by our amazing God!
And at Victoria Falls there are monkeys everywhere. They are actually considered a nuisance, as they try to steal tourists’ phones, cameras, glasses and anything else they might be able to grab.
As well as wildlife there is an abundance of domestic animals – cows, goats, pigs, occasional sheep, and various kinds of poultry. In Kenya particularly it is quite common to see cattle and goats being herded along the road side.
A cultural observation, not wildlife related, that I thought you would enjoy: as we were driving along during my first week, Adams saw a young boy carrying firewood and said, “Oh, he must have been naughty.” He then explained that when he was a young, if a child was naughty or stayed away from home for too long, he would always grab some firewood to take home with him, in the hope that his mother would be so grateful for the wood (a valuable resource) that she would not punish him for his misbehaviour.
On another note, this trip has been different from any other I have done. Normally I like to stay in the homes of the pastors where possible, as it gives an opportunity to build the relationships that are an essential part of what the Apostolic Network is all about. But this time in most places I have been in hotels, because for various reasons staying in homes has not been possible. It does have some advantages, particularly in the “alone time” that I as an introvert need to maintain my energy levels, but it’s still not my ideal way to do missions. But it is what it is, and God is able to work through any situation.
And to finish today’s rambling, I had an email from South African Airways to say that the first leg of my flight back to Kenya on Wednesday has been cancelled, and they have reassigned it to Thursday. This means that they will also have to change the second leg, and I am waiting to hear back from them on that. Please pray that it will get sorted quickly. (God must be planning something really great for Kenya this time – the amount of challenges to the trip that have come up is amazing.)
This morning was another early start – up at 3am to be ready to be picked up at 4, to be on the bus to Mongu which was supposed to be leaving at 4.30 but actually got away around 5.
Mongu is in the Western Province of Zambia, roughly 500kms from Livingstone (in the south), a journey which took 10 hours in the bus. The area circled on the south of this map is Livingstone, and the area in the west is Mongu.
Our driver had obviously not mastered the concept of driving gently over speed bumps, nor of dodging potholes, and as a result the ride was a bone-jarring experience. (Though in his defence, many of the roads here are more like collections of potholes, with little bits of road here and there in between.) On a positive note, this bus at least had room for my legs and I was able to sit in reasonable comfort.
This Western Province is apparently the least developed in Zambia, and on the way we passed quite a few traditional style villages with little mud brick huts. Muzamai shared that it is also one of the least reached with the Gospel. One praise note is that a while back Muzamai asked in one of our video prayer meetings that we pray for the opening of a new outreach in one of the outlying areas. That outreach has now been established, and the people from it will be coming to this conference.
It is stinking hot here – that kind of oppressive heat that feels like there is a massive storm brewing, but it’s not coming. I have a fan in my room, but really it’s just moving the hot air around.
Food here so far has been African – nsima, which is the Zambian version of ugali, a thick gluggy “porridge” made from maize, is eaten with everything. It’s tasteless, and I’m not particularly fond of it, but I’ll eat it if I have to. It’s usually served with chicken and veg, particularly something that looks and tastes a bit like silver beet. Then there’s Coke. After my first two weeks in Africa, I was actually craving Coke, but in the last three weeks I have drunk more of the stuff than I would in a year at home.
Tomorrow I get a rest day, then on Saturday and Sunday I will be taking two conference sessions each day. Meanwhile, after a 3am start this morning and a 4am start yesterday, I am looking forward to getting to sleep until my normal 5am start in the morning.
Today I travelled from Zimbabwe to Zambia. The flight was at 8.50am, so I told Samson and Valerie that I would need to be at the airport by 6.30, and stressed that this had to be “Mzungu time, not African time.” I was up at 4 to finish packing my bags and get in at least a bit of prayer time before they were due to arrive at 5.45. And yes, they were there right on time.
Before we left for the airport, Samson surprised me by handing me an envelope – they had actually taken an offering for me on Sunday! (This was after they had taken care of me all week, and been reluctant to accept the small contribution I was able to make toward costs.) I tried to donate it back to the church, but he refused, suggesting that they would be insulted if I didn’t accept it. This is certainly not something I expect from our African pastors, and I pray that God will bless all those who gave a hundredfold. I couldn’t help thinking of the stark contrast between this generosity of spirit and the attitude of a pastor in another country, who flatly refused to contribute anything to the cost of my ministering to his people. (As a result I am not going to that country. If they put so little value on the ministry, they would not gain anything from it.)
My flight from Harare to Victoria Falls was with Fastjet. I definitely give that company five stars. Their service was fantastic. My ticket said that I was only allowed one checked bag, and no cabin bag just a personal item. I thought my cabin bag would have to be checked as excess baggage, and that I would have to pay a fee. But no, they were able to do something called “Drop and Fly” in which I took the bag to the plane, then someone took it as I was about to board and stowed it at the back of the plane, and I collected it when I disembarked. The check-in girl was very helpful as she explained this, then had someone assist me to the departure lounge.
The flight, which actually left about ten minutes early, was only an hour, so I didn’t think there would be any food service, or that if there was it would probably be a packet of chips or similar. Instead, we received a “snack box” containing a small pack of biscuits, a fruit drink, a muesli bar, and a pack of biltong (yeeesssss!) Puts some other airlines to shame.
Victoria Falls is on the border between Zimbabwe and Zambia, and when I booked the flight (and also next week’s flight back to Nairobi) I didn’t realize that Victoria Falls International Airport is actually in Zimbabwe – which meant that I had to get from the airport to the border before I could meet with Dr Muzamai here. Muzamai has a ministry friend in Vic Falls, and arranged for him to pick me up at the airport and take me to the border, around 20kms. At first he went to International Arrivals instead of the domestic terminal, so there were a few anxious moments, but eventually he caught up with me.
Once we got to the border and I cleared Zimbabwe Immigration, I then had to get a taxi to the Zambian side. Once there it was chaos. A man came to help – at first I was none to certain about him, but he did get me through Zambian Immigration ahead of the queue and helped me find Muzamai once I was through. Of course, he wanted payment for his efforts, but in this case I thought it was worth it.
Me with Muzamai
Muzamai and I came by taxi to a hotel, where I am staying for the night. It is stinking hot, so I am very grateful for the air cond. Tomorrow morning is an even earlier start than today, as we have to be on a bus at 4,30am to go to the western area of Zambia, where I will be ministering at another conference over the weekend.
Yesterday we went out to one of the outreach churches, at a place called Muchagoeyi (you try to pronounce it!) I thought I was just going to see the location, so I wore street clothes – jeans and a sleeveless top. The latter I very much regret, as my left arm is badly sunburned from the drive, about 2 hours each way on a very hot day.
When we were about half way there Samson said, “If we can get some people to come along, would you be able to minister to them.” OK, sure. This is typical Africa, things can pop up at a moment’s notice. “Be urgent in season, out of season” is definitely the motto here.
We arrived to find a small shelter – basically a few sheets of corrugated iron for a roof, held up by sticks – inside of the beginnings of a brick building. There were a few people seated when we arrived, and more straggled in over the next hour or so. Samson asked me to bring a “short message” but then when I thought I had finished, he asked me to go on. Then when I finished the full message, I ended up praying for everyone there.
The area is the home of both Samson and Valerie, and his mother (who is a year younger than me) is the pastor of this church. The church has been given 14ha of land, which they are developing as their church home, but also planning to develop an agriculture/ farming project to raise funds for the ministry.
This is my last night in Zimbabwe. As I think about my impressions of the country, it seems to me that it is a nation that can’t make up its mind whether it wants to be African or American. In some aspects it is much more western than some of the African countries I have visited – in dress, in food, in major shops. But in other aspects it is much more primitive – particularly in the garbage dumps along the streets. The local currency has been devalued so much (today’s exchange rate was 6,300 Zim dollars to 1 US dollar) that they have simply given up and mostly use US currency (although local currency is still in circulation.) The roads are some of the worst I have encountered, and road rules appear to be totally non-existent. I’ve talked already about the frustrations of “power shedding”, so I won’t go over that again, but yesterday morning someone took advantage of the power being off to steal the electrical cables from around the community where Samson and Valerie live! Still shaking my head about that one.
Finally for today’s post, a bit of good news. Adams went to the Kenyan Immigration office in Nairobi early this morning, and was able to sort out my visa woes. I now have the visa for Kenya and Uganda in my hot little hands. Praise God, and big thanks to those who prayed, and to Adams for his huge effort on my behalf.
“Load shedding” (another name for rolling blackouts) has been a constant challenge during my time here in Harare. The wi-fi is powered by electricity, so when power goes out, internet does too. My room does not have a desk or table, so I have to work with the computer on my bed – but my bed is not close enough to the power point to be able to charge it while I am working. Which means that at the times when we do have power, I have to choose between charging the computer or working online. Hence no blog for the past couple of days, because I have just not been able to juggle the timing.
Over the last four days the church here has been holding a missions conference. It started on Thursday night with a dinner, at which I and an apostle from South Africa, and another guy (I think he was also an apostle, but not quite sure how he fitted in to the picture) were given opportunity to introduce ourselves and speak briefly.
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Then on Friday night I was the guest speaker. It was a great meeting. I delivered a pretty heavy “take up your cross” type message, and at the end four people came out for salvation! Who says you have to sugar-coat the Gospel in order to get people saved?!
Yesterday I was not feeling very well – upset tummy and very, very tired. Power was out again, and I basically slept through the morning (mercifully it was a fairly cool day.) Samson and Valerie had planned to take Thomas (the guy from South Africa) and me out to a restaurant for lunch, but at that stage I really only felt like a sandwich, and wondered if I would even be able to handle that. Samson prayed for me, and said that we would just go for a sandwich and the restaurant could wait till today. But when we were on the way, I just felt the challenge of “Where’s your faith, girl?” I said, “No. We have prayed. I believe I have been healed. Let’s go to the place you had planned.” So we did, and had a very nice lunch, and I felt fine. Praise God.
Last night Thomas took the session, and again it was a powerful time in the Lord. This morning was the church service, still part of the conference, and I ministered again. There was an awesome anointing present, and a number of people were powerfully touched when they came out for prayer afterwards.
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Tomorrow we are going to visit one of the outreach churches, about 100kms from here, and on Tuesday to the other outreach church, about 150kms away. Then on Wednesday morning I fly on to Zambia.
One ongoing concern has been my visa for Kenya/Uganda. I completed the online application over two weeks ago, but every time I have tried to pay for it online it refuses my card, even though I am entering everything correctly and my card details are the same as my application details. Another option they offer is to pay it through one of three different banks. When I was in Tanzania I tried to do it through one of those banks (the other two were not available) but they said they knew nothing about it and couldn’t do it. After trying – and failing – to pay with my card online every day for a fortnight, I finally had the idea to ask Adams if he could pay it at a bank in Kenya, and I would pay him back when I get there. He successfully made the payment on Thursday, but when I go to the site to complete the application, it is not recognising the payment. Adams has phoned them, and they have said they will fix it, but as I write the problem is still ongoing and I am running out of time to get the visa before I go on to Kenya on 13th. Prayer warriors, would you please pray into this situation for me.
Today marks the end of the first month of my six months in Africa. In that month I have:
* Ministered 23 times in seven different churches, five different cities and four different countries.
* Travelled approximately 22,130 kms (not counting local travel), including approximately 20,300 by air (on nine different flights), 1100 by car, and 724 in a 20-hour bus trip.
* Slept in seven different beds (eight if you count the bus) and changed currency four times.
I think I can safely say it has been a big month!
There have been a few physical challenges, particularly leg cramps which come up every so often, and challenges with weather and unstable infrastructure. With only a few notable exceptions, the people have been friendly and helpful. In particular, every time I have had to climb steps into a plane there has been someone who has grabbed my bag to help me up.
I can’t believe this month has passed so quickly, and I’m looking forward with excitement to what the next five months will bring.
Particularly I want to thank all my friends at home, and the pastors of KOGMI Apostolic Network, for their ongoing prayer support. I am very conscious of you all holding up my hands, and I appreciate you so much.
The power never did come back on Tuesday night in Blantyre. I had a horrible night with no relief from the heat, and got maybe three hours sleep at the most. I ended up packing my bags by torchlight in the semi-darkness of early morning.
After we had a quick breakfast at 6am yesterday, Bishop Thomas’ brother picked us up to take us to the airport. We timed it well, arriving just before check-in opened at 7. I had three flights: the first from Blantyre to Llongwe (still in Malawi) was about an hour late. The second, from Llongwe to Lusaka, Zambia, was also late, and was a surprise as I had had no indication that the flight was going via Zambia. At least I didn’t have to get off the plane this time, just sit for half an hour while the cleaning crew went through and new passengers came aboard. The final leg brought me here to Harare, Zimbabwe.
I had some concern about the visa. I thought I would be able to exchange some Aussie dollars for US dollars at Blantyre airport, but none of the currency exchange places were open. However, the Immigration here were happy to accept my card, so there was no problem. Bishop Samson and his wife Valerie were waiting for me at the airport, and brought me to the hotel where they have booked me to stay.
I had hoped to stay with their family, but they have a full house at the moment so that was not possible.
When we got to the hotel, guess what? No power! The guy who runs the place assured me that he had a generator, and if power was not on by 5 he would get the generator going. By 5pm the power hadn’t kicked in. By 6pm the power hadn’t kicked in and I was getting cranky. Found the guy and he said “I will bring you a solar light.” By 7pm, no power, no solar light, and I was getting really cranky. At the same time, there was no water – I presumed this was because the water operated on an electric pump, but it turned out they had not filled the tank. Finally got a light and they brought some water for a bath, which I desperately needed, being hot, sweaty and stinky from the travel and the heat. The power finally kicked in around 9, and I was able to charge my phone and laptop, both of which were very close to being dead as I had not been able to charge them on Tuesday night.
One of the things I really have troubles with from my African brothers and sisters is their tendency to tell you what they think you want to know, rather than straight out telling the truth about a situation. If they had honestly said, “We don’t know when power will be on and we don’t have a back-up”, I would have been prepared.
Meanwhile, in the afternoon Samson and Valerie and I had a nice time of getting to know each other, then they came back in the evening to check that I was ok.
Today I am having a quiet morning. This afternoon I will go with Samson and Valerie to see their home and meet their family, and tonight there is a dinner to introduce me to the church. Tomorrow I begin to minister here.