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.