Taylor has been doing an amazing job documenting our story, and I wanted to join in and share a few of my thoughts along the way too. He mentioned that on the Sunday before Camp Life we met our two Zambian partners for the week.
The Lord matched me up with my evangelist, Purity...
...and my apostle, Esther.
Meeting our partners on Sunday was our first real taste of Camp Life and the Lord's provision was so apparent from that first moment. I had experienced ongoing doubt and anxiousness about whether I would "relate" to my girls and co-leaders, but the Lord made it very clear that He was in control and would provide exactly what he thought I needed.
Purity and I had more things in common than I could count! She loves to sing, dance, act, and be so silly (my family can surely attest to these similarities!).
She's one of 5 kids and loves spending time with her loud family that loves to laugh! Her oldest brother, Maximillian, was the pastor at our church service on Sunday and her 2nd oldest brother, Darius (a picture of them below), was an evangelist at Camp too!. These were just a few of the many things that were so similar about our lives, even though we live in very different places!
The verses that come to mind when I think of Purity are:
"A cheerful heart is good medicine..." Proverbs 17:22
and
"She is clothed with strength and dignity; she can laugh at the days to come." Proverbs 31: 25-25
Our group was blessed continually by her cheerful spirit and bright smile. This girl was cheerful even after waking up at 4:30am so that she and her friends could walk an hour and 45 minutes from their village to camp each morning! I think, "ugh! I can't imagine having to do that!" and she saw it as a time to talk and spend time with her dear friends!
Also, the Lord used her constantly to remind me that the He was in control...of every conversation, every word, the timing, how our girls responded to the teaching, etc, etc. Every time I would even begin to voice a comment like "maybe I should have said ______ instead" or "maybe ______ could have gone better" she would instantly respond back with "the Lord knows! He doesn't need you to say or do just the perfect thing! The Lord will work how and when He wants!". Convicting, but so encouraging!Here's a snapshot of us during one of our morning pow-wows. We would chat about and pray for our girls before they came each morning and then regroup and do the same each day when the girls left.
With all the busyness during the day, these were special times where we could get to know each other and hear how the same God was working in different ways in each of our lives.
Purity (left) and Esther (jumping rope on the right)
Esther was much more "subdued", but had such passion for the Lord. When Purity and I would step away to do "blessing time" with one of our girls, Esther would take over the teaching. She had such enthusiasm and passion for our girls to know scripture and taught them how to use the EvangeCube (an evangelism tool) backwards and forwards. Each morning she would share about her 1am prayer time from the night before. Every night she would wake up and pray, pray, pray for our girls for an hour and then go back to sleep. Wow!
The verse that comes to mind when I think of Esther is:
"For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks. The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him," Matthew 12:34-35
I just had this picture of her heart being so packed with scripture and knowing the Lord's character, that His truth just spewed out of her mouth. Her prayers were so encouraging to me as she would just pray, pray, pray so fervently and with such passion.
Ahhh! All that to say, both of these girls were amazing and were such a gift from the Lord that week. I was so encouraged by them and had so much fun with them! I miss them, but take joy in knowing I'll see them again someday, if not here on earth, then surely in heaven!
