Sunday morning we woke up, put on our church clothes (and a fleece because church would be outside) and walked to the "boma" down the street. The boma was a thatched open-air building where some Zambian friends of the ministry were holding church service for the Americans. Preaching, reading scripture, and praying in English made us realize how much intentionality is required for the Zambians to want to pursue God. I have a hard enough time understanding the complexities of scripture in English on occasion, I can't imagine if I was studying with Nyanja or Bimba text!!
The service was great. No laser light shows, no concert hall sound systems, just people who loved the Lord getting after it with songs like "Lets Stomp the Devil" which of course had dance motions.
After church we quickly changed clothes and hopped on a bus to an area called Arcades. Remembering that we are in the capital city, this was a blend of African market and urban retail. The area has a market in the middle of the parking lot, surrounded by banks, a grocery store, and even a Subway. No Starbucks though, I guess there are still some areas on this planet where their presence cannot be felt (not to mention, who in Africa would pay 3 days wages for a cup of coffee? I'm just saying...).
We ate a burger at Mike's then popped in an internet cafe to send our dads quick Father's Day greetings. While emailing our families we began to be broken down as we pondered the children we would be ministering to, remembering that so many have no father besides our Father in heaven. This realization made us all the more thankful.
We circled the market about 37 times while Amanda was picking out a purse. Thats a joke, but not a far fetched one. The ladies were actually laughing each time we came by.
We finally found "the perfect one" and loaded up the buses to go to the GO Center. The acronym "GO" is for Gospel Outreach, the facility rented by Family Legacy to host Camp Life. This afternoon we would be meeting our Evangelists and Apostles.
Our Evangelists are our right-hand man, our cultural advisors, and our reassurance when conversations or situations got tense. Our Apostles served the group constantly, kept track of them during blessing times, and tought them the Evangecube, a visual evangelism tool.
My (Taylor) guys were Evangelist Patrick and Apostle Heavy. Patrick is a year or two older than myself, and Heavy is 36. Both love Jesus so much, and are real servants to these kids.
Amanda's partners were Esther and Purity, whom she will share more about soon.
We got to know our partners better, and had an opportunity to ask them questions about what our kids go through, and what to expect. There was a divine connection almost instantly that is remeniscent of what I believe the early church was like. We had a common bond: Christ and Him glorified. That was all we needed!
We loaded up once more on the bus and went back to Mulungushi for dinner and our evening ministry project: bagging letters for necklace name tags. Tomorrow is the first day of CAMP LIFE!!!
