Christmasish time, no mistletoe, a little bit of wine.

A collection of mini updates:

Christmassyness: (In the last two weeks it has become Christmassy here which is nice)

- First we decorated our house with a combination of things we found in the cupboard and some nice seeds we painted to be Christmassy. 

-On Tuesday Charlie and I took the play-school children out for ice cream (They loved it although it took some getting used for quite a few of the kids, also it turns out wearing a seatbelt is very exciting thing, I realised this when there was a bus full of kids shouting "me belt, me belt" as I clipped them all in)

- On Thursday it was christmaspartytime at the play-school this involved music, hilarious dancing, snacks, presents, games and laughing. A great way to finish the term!

-One more Christmas related item! If you are reading this thinking, I should be Christmas shopping, I have a solution, how about choosing something from the project that is sponsoring our kids, here is their giftlist (www.threeeighteen.org)

Falling off bikes:
- this seems to be a new skill I'm developing!
- today was my 6th fall and the most impressive of them all. I was cycling back from a conference with some friends we had been through a few puddles and then I saw a nice big one and it didn't look too deep so I decided I could go through the middle, my friends needless to say didn't follow me. I ended up sitting waist deep in a very muddy puddle laughing a lot!  

School progress: (it's been full speed ahead, January here we come) 

- many pots of paint + many hours of painting = one finished school building woo woo! 

- lots of lifting + shifting = furniture being in place 

- measuring + stapling + hammering+ drilling + blue tac sticking =  it looking  like a classroom 

- moving resources + organizing things= its almost ready for the teaching to start

Wildlife: (I have included this mainly as evidence that there are no elephants in the garden/ a common misconception): 

Snakes : yes we have seen quite a few recently, although mostly harmless ones (1 in a tree, 1 in the grass near our house and at least 2 by the school!) , 

Beetles:  yes too many to count really lots with cool colours and even a Titan beetle (worlds longest variety of beetle.) 

Ants: yes of all different shapes and sizes always busy. I did get bitten by a very large one this week felt more like a bee sting! 

Elephants: nope none not one, ok, unless you are counting pictures or sculptures of them!? 

Rain : (I love it, this statement about rain may confuse some of you so let me explain) 

1 - it reminds me of being a kid ( I have enjoyed the adventure of running through the storms watching for lightning and getting completely soaking wet in minutes) 

2 -it makes driving more exciting (The huge puddles provide much entertainment while driving) 

3 - it's proper rain ( Firstly the drops are huge and they come down quickly, secondly it's still warm) 

     

Simplicity is the way forward!

In the last few weeks I have been reminded of how full of grace God is! I have been enjoying just spending time in His presence it is such a simple joy that we can so easily skip over. Also in the process of writing the curriculum we have been deciding how to teach the kids in a way that equips them to develop a real relationship with God. Through this I haven been reminded of Gods goodness and His plans for us to live as His children. A current favorite song that the kids sing at playschool is about God being wonderful and him sugaring our tea and buttering our bread, it's a good song with actions and even sweeter in a Zambian accent! 

Since being here I have been asking what is my main purpose, where should my focus be, why have I been called to be here. In day-to-day life its easy to think what impact am I having? how am I serving the people around me? and then come to the conclusion that there is so much more I could be doing. I feel like God has been reminding me that He first calls us to love people. So this has been my focus rather than asking myself what am I doing! I'm asking how am I loving the people around me? For example Last Monday 2 new orphans joined us in the playschool (Alice and Mabel) so I am doing what he has called me to do by loving these kids and helping them realise their value.

All the girls together at school from left to right Esnat, Mabel, Alice, Purity and Gift!

Here is a dangerous book that my brother and sister-in-law gave me for my birthday, it's the story of a 21 year old girl who moves to Uganda on her own and ends up adopting 14 children  

Trist and Naomi did say perhaps I shouldn't get too many ideas from the book. So far I haven't adopted any children although when they run towards you with huge smiles on their faces it's hard to imagine that you wouldn't want to! 

My days out here can be very varied although I am mostly teaching in the playschool, we have just started some teacher training sessions with the teachers from the playschool and two from Kamfinsa school. Which was a scary prospect be when you sit down t plan them it turns out you do know more than you thought and you might actually be able to teach some one something. Here are some other things I have been up to:

Painting ceilings in the classroom, the school building is nearly finished now!

Swimming at the top of waterfalls, my mum was not so pleased about this one!

Relaxing with Charlie and Liz, we are living together which is fun!

Zip wiring across the gorge, not nearly as scary as I thought! 

Eating nshima with the students, it's just Sadza with a different name. 

Other things I have been enjoying:

Lemon creams, they are yummy as you can tell by my face! 

Toasted marshmallows, we eat these pretty often! 

After church greeting everyone and shaking hands, I love community living!

The smell of the rains, brings back memories and just smells so good!

New Bemba words 'balenga' reading  and trying to learn days of the week but they are tricky. 

Life and adventures in Zambia!

So in the past few weeks I have returned to Kamfinsa where I have been teaching once a week. Although the first week I arrived to find the school wasn't open, so I happily joined Liz to help with a discipleship group of 14 woman she is starting running there. It was a great time of worshipping together in Bemba (including some songs I now recognize), dancing together, praying and Gods peace coming!

In the play-school as part of our school day we have introduced 'Time with God sessions' which we have been planning to help the kids have a real relationship with God. During one of the first sessions we were singing a song Thank you Lord for ............ and the children chose something they were thankful for. For the rest of the day children were walking around singing Thank you Lord for (bicycles, food, various people's names) such a demonstration of how to be continually thankful! 

Last weekend we went camping at a place called 'The Sunken Lake' it was a very unexpectedly beautiful place (see the photo) it was a great time to enjoy being outside, swimming, jumping off rocks, a rope swing and campfires! There were around 20 people there (unusually all white)  it was quite a shock to see so many white people in one place!

Esnat, Gift and Purity are well settled into the play school now and getting some more English. Which is great it means there are more opportunities to add in different activities (including parachute games, which all the kids love)

. It is difficult at times to feel like you are having a real impact through the day to day things you do, but as I was reminded recently that even impact on an individual scale has significance. I was told a story about a wise old man and a small boy who was busy throwing starfish one by one back into the sea, after a storm where thousands were washed up. The old man told the boy he could never make a difference, the boy simply picked up one more starfish threw it into the sea saying "it made a difference to that one" and continued along the beach picking up the starfish. 

Yesterday I went along on some home visits to see the guardians homes who have applied to join the new orphan project. We visited 5 homes including one who will be another pupil for the school  (Mabel). It was interesting to see some different places and meet some of the people, practice some more Bemba and enjoy some more off road driving, involving praying that a bridge would hold the weight of the car and finding some very narrow tracks. It will be a very difficult process to make decisions about which orphans we can support. There are over 300 (single or double orphans) who have applied and we can only support around half that amount. We are just praying for Gods wisdom in it all?! 

One of my newest Bemba words is 'katwish ' meaning 'I don't know' which I'm sure will come in useful! We have also impressed some of the bible college students by knowing the Bemba word for window (insolokoto) which some of them didn't even know! 

Some Things

Since I last wrote........

So here's what's been happening with me in Zambia since last time:

Some fun:

- Driving mini buses to town and on dirt roads!

- Funny times with new friends :D

- The kids at the playschool can be pretty funny!

Charlie, Liz and I having lunch, part of Charlie's surprise birthday day out! 

Some challenges :

- So Monday was meant to be our first day of school with the kids from the orphan project (now named Arise) but unfortunately none of them arrived at first we expected it was just some African timing but when Wednesday came and still no children we started to wonder. 

We decided to visit them getting to their homes involved driving on dirt roads, walking over railway lines and saying hello to many people.

When we arrived at each home there were different reasons for why they weren't as school including attending a funeral, going to the wrong school my mistake and being unwell. So hopefully this Monday will be day 1 take 2. 

Some children:

(These are the three children we went to visit who will hopefully be joining our school) 

Esnat lives just over the railway line which is pretty much the border with Congo. She seems pretty shy but very sweet, when we spoke to her grandparents, her and her sister hid behind their hut and giggled. Poking their heads out every now and again. 

Bupe  lives with her grandparents, she is also a little shy but smiles at us and seems very happy. When asked what she wants to be when she is older she announced she wanted to be a  lawyer quite an unexpected choice but there you go!

Purity  is the least shy she even shook our hands! She lives with her aunt. When we visited the first time she was looking after her baby cousin and found it very funny that every time the baby saw us it cried, it was a good game moving the baby towards me and seeing the shock on her cousin's face then moving it away again.  She is HIV positive so is on medication which we will have to give her at school. 

Some praying:

- praying for Mr. Chomba  who was having trouble with his appendix (he managed to do a full days work the next day which hadn't done for weeks because he had been in pain woo woo) 

-praying for one of the workers building the school who had just been bitten by a snake (not sure how he is doing yet?)

-praying for Mrs. Chomba's painful knees (not sure how they are yet) 

Some Bemba 

New words I have learnt in the past few weeks include many ways to say I'm finished or we are finished and it is finished. 

Everyone - bonse  chair- icipuna  panshe-floor  outside-kunse stop that noise- leka chongo it is hot - nakukaba (this is becoming a useful word as it is definitely getting hotter now) 

A funny Bemba word Nannicanni meaning thingy-ma-bob 

So much learning going on!

(and that's only me! As school only starts on 16th September)

Bemba 

I'm making progress we have started a board of new words In our living room and i'm carrying a notebook around with me to write down new phrases. It is very funny to see the expressions on people faces when suddenly this white woman is speaking Bemba. My most common phrase is either muli shani? (How are you? ) or panono ici Bemba (A little Bemba) I am loving learning a new language which was never something I expected to do growing up! 

Names

I have had so many names to learn since arriving, people, places and pets. I am still having to be reminded who people are quite often.

God prepares us

Since arriving I have been realizing that many of the things I have been experiencing here which in the past I would have struggled to do or found very scary God was preparing me for even before I knew I was coming here. He provided the space to practice things like singing, praying for people, speaking to groups of people and worshipping without having a worship group or songs that you know. Most of this through the TSM (Training for Supernatural Ministry) course I did 2years ago (if you haven't heard about it or done I whole heartedly recommended it. He also provided the people I need around me for this adventure to be possible both supporting me from the UK and those who are with me here.

Snakes

We visited a game park for a day where we went into a snake house where we held a few snakes and learnt a lot about which ones are venomous and which ones are harmless. This could prove to be useful information as snakes are reasonably common in the area where we are living. So far I haven't bumped into one in the wild thankfully! 

A great church is hard to find

After going to my 5th church here I am learning that finding a great church is pretty tricky so far my experiences varied greatly in many ways, length of service from just over 1 hour to nearly 4hours, style of worship from very loud and exuberant to quiet and quite dull, language from completely Bemba (translated mostly for our benefit) to completely English. So just praying we find the right one (or 2 as may be the case)?! I miss being at the Kings Arms in Bedford! 

Things I love about Zambia so far!

So I have arrived in Zambia now, I am starting to settle in, since I arrived I have been busy preparing school things, visiting a school in the bush (in a village called Kamfinsa) and getting my room sorted, thought this was a good way to start, a list of my favorite thing about Zambia so far : 

- Being resourceful (everything has a use be it old, broken or natural) 

For example this week I have found seed pods (like the one below) and pieces of straw to be extremely useful tools for painting straight lines!


- How children's success is celebrated in class at the bush school 

This involves the whole class singing well done well done such a good girl/boy wooo woop! (In very sweet Zambian accents) 

- The culture of welcoming visitors warmly

For example when staying in Kamfinsa village with the pastor and his family provided us with water warmed on the fire for bathing, 3 meals a day involving mostly nshima (dried ground maize a staple diet here below a typical meal) and translated the church service into English for us.

- The openess and expectancy that God will come through

I found this in general conversations with the teachers from Kamfinsa school as well as other people I have met since arriving. 

- People's commitment to prayer

Again in Kamfinsa as I was sleeping in the school office next door to the classroom where a prayer meeting is held from Monday to Thursday every week from 4am to 7am. I really enjoyed waking up hear people engaging with God through beautiful singing and powerful prayer. 

- The natural beauty

So many things I could say about it from trees to landscapes to insects which look like large ladybirds spray painted with metallic paint. 

There are many more things I could probably add to this list, I'm sure I will write another one. Will add some photo's soon! 

Thanks for reading! 

En-route to Zambia!

In Zimbabwe! 

So been in Zimbabwe for a little over a month now! My time here has been great mostly consisting of:     

• Family time

• Visiting places I haven't been to for many years

• Bumping into familiar faces 

•  Visiting churches 

•  Reading

•  Catching up with friends from the UK on Skype. 

I am really looking forward to arriving in Zambia tomorrow! I will be getting stuck in quickly,
Visiting a local school to teach for a week 2days after I arrive!

My aunt and uncle kindly offered to drive me up to Kaniki so it will be a nice journey.

Next blog soon keep watching!

Time to fly......

What is happening:

 So I’m going to Zambia TODAY………what CRAZINESS is this? I always knew the actual getting on the plane part would come I didn't realize it would happen so quickly! In preparation I have just been getting everything together and sorting out the less exciting parts like cancelling bills, budgets, returning borrowed items, banking, packing suitcases. In this process of doing a budget I now know that with my current level of sponsorship I can live for only 6months which is a start, but as you know a little way off 1/2yearsish. Please think about whether you would like to be involved in monthly sponsorship. Let me know any questions you have. (gogogoyi@hotmail.com) You could look at it like this:

£50 pounds a month means I can live in a house,

£30 a month means I can see when it's dark and cook food when it's cold (electricity),

£20 a month means I can eat fruit and vegetables (keep mum happy),    

£ 15 a month will buy me enough internet airtime to keep in contact (to say hello), 

£10 a month means I can travel to town, to go the supermarket

£5 a month means I can top up my phone (to text people),   

£1.50 a month means I can brush my teeth with toothpaste,
£1 a month means I can wash my hair with shampoo,

As you can see even the smallest amount will make a big difference. Let me know if you would like to get involved (see email address above)!  

Things I have been thinking about: 

What is our focus?

 

Recently I had a dream with Heidi Baker (she works with many orphans in Mozambique)  in it we were just discussing how to show God’s love to children. We simply talked about giving the children things that were colorful rather than plain things. I woke up and wondered about why I had had this dream. Ever since I heard of Heidi Baker and Iris Ministries I have been interested in what they have been doing. I have listened to Heidi talking about her ministry many times and one thing that always strikes me is her unrelenting focus on intimacy with God being the center of everything and her complete reliance and surrender to God. It is very challenging to listen to and inspiring.

 

George Muller is another inspiration, I remembered a story that Simon (our pastor) often tells of how George  fed hundreds of orphans when they had no breakfast, by simply asking the children pray, at which point a milk cart broke down outside and the milkman gave them the milk. A little while later the baker arrived with some bread, as God had woken him as 2am and told him to bake bread for the orphans. The thing that this story demonstrates is George's first response not being panic, but instead being lets see what God will do. I find that often this is  not my response. When I find myself in difficulty it often seems easier and safer to  pull on my own resources rather than pull on heavens resources and trust that God will be faithful to His promises. The question is, when the pressure goes on what comes out, is it lets see what He will do?

                                                            

The strangeness of self-reliance:

When I decided to go to Zambia I knew the process would be one of learning to rely on God I have also come to realise that I sometimes find it hard to ask and accept help from others.   

The truth is God puts people in our lives to love us and support us, we find more fulfilling friendships when we let people in and offer our struggles as an opportunity for people to share in life with us. Trust in others is the key, if we lack it we will struggle to let people in as we aren’t sure of their response. One thing that holds us back from asking for help is not recognising our value, when we step out often we find people want to hear what’s going on. Our worry can be that people won’t love us if they see the real us, however the truth is they can’t love us until they know the real us.

A final thought during these last few weeks of preparing for Zambia in amongst the stresses of moving country. I have been hit by the truth that is God is forever faithful. I have woken up singing the song 'forever' by Chris Tomlin the other day it is such an encouragement to remember, if when we don’t get how everything fits together we can rely on this truth that He is faithful to His promises.

I am excited about the next part of the journey, actually arriving in Zambia, settling in and starting teaching! I will keep you updated on developments!  

      

 

Preparation time

     

Some news:

You may have noticed I haven't blogged in a while a few things have been happening in the last few weeks. We have a new addition to our house which is exciting, you may remember from my last blog I mentioned my friend Zoe Joy (she blogs at http://zoejoy101.blogspot.co.uk), who moved to Zambia last year, well she has had to return to the UK and is staying with us which is fun, although it does mean she won't be in Zambia when I arrive, which is sad. I have been in the process of deciding whether I was still happy to go with this change but, after meeting with Zoe Joy and a great couple from our church I have decided it still feels like the right decision to be going.   

It's happening!

So with my flights booked, my room starting to get packed and having had most of my injections, I'm starting to feel like it's actually happening (You may think surely you knew that it was happening before now? I did but now it's starting to feel more like a reality). I'm even on the website check it out: 

(http://www.kaniki.org)

To get there I have to leave here? 

So I'm leaving for Zambia (via Zimbabwe) on the 22nd of June, which as people keep reminding me is VERY SOON. I am so excited about the adventures that are ahead although I am really going to miss being here.I have been in Bedford for coming up to 7 years now, which I really can't believe. Since arriving here for university so much has changed! Bedford has definitely become home for me, during university it was great because all my friends were here, gradually over the last 3 years most of my uni friends have moved to other parts of the country.

As I start to think about what life is going to be like somewhere else I can see all the things I am going to miss about being here: 

• Great friendships (people who really know me, enjoying having fun together)

• Church (where people are hungry for more of God, worshipping together, great teaching)

 

• The River (it's nice to walk along and go boating on) 

• Family (it's nice being only a few hours away)  

• Other (I am sure there are many more things that I will miss as well)

 With all of these things in mind I find it so helpful to know that it is not my plan that I am following but it's Gods. It's so great to know that nothing is a surprise for Him and He has everything we need. A few weeks ago during the-lock-in (a worship event where we just enjoy God until everyone needs to go to sleep) God was showing me how our path is already laid out. So we don't need to worry when 'unexpected' things come up, we can just know that He is in control and He will lead us through. He has great plans for each of us - we just have to choose to say yes to Him even when we aren't sure what the outcome will be.    

 

How the journey begins!

So it looks like I will be moving to Zambia in July to teach in a new school which is being built as part of the Kaniki Orphan project (@http://www.kaniki.org/kop). I am quite excited about this although as you would expect it is a little daunting. Here are the highlights of the journey God has had me on to get to where I am now. It has been exciting to look back and see how He has brought everything together in His perfect timing even when I had no clue what He was up to!

The First Call 

I guess it all started with growing up in Zimbabwe. I always knew I would be back in Southern Africa being part of something new. When I walked into a church while at university one of my first experiences of God speaking to me was after a talk on mission. I had a picture of myself in the middle of nowhere teaching and relying on God for the day to day needs of those around me and myself. I just knew this was the place I was meant to be. At the time I was training as a teacher as I had always enjoyed interacting with kids and I knew it was a good skill that I could use anywhere in the world. 

Back in Africa

I finished my teacher training and then had to decide whether to do my Newly Qualified (NQT) year straight away or I also had hear about a course my church was running called Training for Supernatural Ministry (TSM). I decided to get my NQT year out of the way first so that I would be fully qualified and then I could do TSM the following year. The teaching post was only for a year I had decided that I wanted to visit Zimbabwe during the summer holidays to travel around and volunteer with a charity (@http://www.seed-project.org/). I went with a good friend, it was interesting to go with a new perspective. We stayed with my family who are still there. Travelling around was great fun with the usual African adventures of police and and potholes. It felt good to be back in Africa. We then went to an secondary school just outside Harare where we taught English in a room with 5 classes going on at the same time, the staff of the school were so committed with little resources they were making progress. After that we went to an orphan project where we organised games for the children and met the playschool teachers. During this time we were going back to stay with my family it was interesting to see their reaction to the effort we were putting in. It was great to feel like we were really impacting the education of these children. Returning to England I had a renewed longing to be back in Southern Africa teaching. I felt I still needed more experience in teaching and wanted to do the TSM course.

Training

So last year whilst supply teaching I started TSM (not really knowing what it was going to be like.). As part of TSM I was challenged to fully love God with my whole life and put His plans before my own. 
I learnt a lot about myself, my identity, how God see's me, God's character, the kingdom and how we can be part of God's plan! 
I began to see that I had a purpose that was much bigger that I could have imagined I started to recognise my value to God and to others. I saw some of the gifts that God had given me. As I saw the potential of what God could to with my life if I handed it fully over to Him I started to look at what I felt I was called to do. I was reminded of times when God had spoken to me personally and through words others had brought, about teaching and being in Southern Africa. During the course we had many opportunities to be part of ministry teams going to different churches and events to pray for people. 
I took every opportunity to be part if what God was doing and see Him breakthrough in peoples lives. I started to know God closer than I had experienced Him before, I heard His voice more clearly and wanted to spend more time in His presence to hear his voice and grow in relationship with Him. 

Mission trip

In March an opportunity came up to go on a mission trip to Zimbabwe, I was very excited about this but I knew I could not afford to travel there, while praying I felt like God encouraged me to book tickets and then ask people to support me. I found this very difficult to do, I felt like I should be able to do it myself and didn't think people would want to support me. With some encouragement from friends I decided to trust God that He would provide. I was so surprised that by the time I was flying I only had to contribute a small amount to my flights because through people around me God had provided. On arriving in Zimbabwe I went to a conference of church leaders. It was amazing to see how alive and hope-filled the churches were by the end of the conference, as God spoke to the church and individuals. While I was there I decided to look for jobs in the schools in Harare I saw this as my opportunity to live and work in Southern Africa. I looked around many schools and handed out my CV. As I was looking at the schools I began to realise even though this was where my family were it was not the place I could see myself teaching. At that point I felt quite disheartened I didn't understand how something I had felt God speak about was not happening I had come expecting God to provide me the perfect job and I could live with family it all seemed so straight forward I had 'my' plan all worked out by God didn't seem to be going along with it WHY?  I returned to England and continued with my teaching and TSM. Throughout the rest of the year there were little reminders that God had plans for me to be teaching in a rural school in Southern Africa. My experience the previous summer of working in the rural schools had shown me His heart for those children and my desire to be involved in teaching in a school like that. My experience in God providing for my trip in March showed me how much He could be trusted and that people were willing to support me in what He has called me to do. 

A new opportunity!

While talking to a friend about my thoughts on returning from the trip in March. She began to tell me about a school that would be more suited to me. I was quite excited about it but had little expectation that I could actually end up there. As the months went by there were yet more constant reminders of God's goodness and His plans for my life. In July this year a friend (@http://zoejoy101.blogspot.co.uk) explained she was moving to Zambia to help run an orphan project and that they would be building a school which would start in Sept 2013. I was very excited about this opportunity I emailed the people involved in setting up the school. They seemed interested. I knew that it would be a self funded adventure. But because God had already been teaching me about his provision and peoples willingness to support His purposes. I was more willing to explore the possibility. So now I find myself having booked the flights and been offered the job of teaching for a minimum of 2 years!!!! 

I am so excited about this adventure and I am trusting God that He will again remind me of His faithfulness.