Monday in Zambia

This is the first day of Camp Life. Prior to my trip to Zambia, I would've described this as a week of day long VBS. But let me tell you....in no way is Camp Life VBS. There is major spiritual warfare in Zambia and in reality, these children's lives are at stake. They have endured more in their 16 or less years of life, then I'll probably ever have to endure. They need to know that their Savior, Jesus Christ does want to offer them a hope and a future, because without Him, I don't know how they get through a day.

Our theme for the week is The Lord is My Shepherd. Psalm 23. I've memorized that Psalm and studied it before, but NEVER will that Psalm be the same to me. You'll learn why as you read on.

Monday morning we got to our Camp Life site and we prayed with our Zambian partners. We then waited for the children to arrive. Bus after bus after bus arrived with children singing all kinds of things. Some singing "Jesus is Power". They turn everything into a song in Zambia. I absolutely love it...even though my voice wasn't made to turn everything into a song.



For some of these children, they have attended Camp in previous years, for others this is a first time for them. They started getting the kids into groups of 10-15 per group. We had about 1000 kids show up Monday morning. You could specifically ask for boys or girls and a specific age, but I didn't list a preference. God entrusted me with fourteen 11-16 year old girls. Their eyes speak volumes. These are some of my girls.




You can believe this next paragraph or you can choose not to believe it, but let me tell you...it's real. Demonic activity is very real and evident in Zambia. This is why Camp Life is NOT VBS. There are witch doctors in every town, casting spells on these kids and marking them with tattoos (they cut the skin, then put herbs in the cut and it heals as a raised mark on their skin). They claim these children's lives for the enemy. These kids have nightmares...almost every single one of them do. Some have nightmares because they have been abused, they have lost both of their parents to AIDS or malaria, but some have nightmares simply because the presence of evil is prevalent in Zambia. Most of them dream of being choked or being held under water.

Greer shared with them in our large group time the first phrase of Psalm 23. "The Lord is MY shepherd". We taught them to say it in English and I learned it in Nyanja. "Mulungu ni mu busa wanga" Trust me my Nyanjan is not good!

Greer encouraged them to go home tonight and kneel by their beds and say out loud "The Lord is my shepherd!" He encouraged them that there is power in the spoken word of God. That any witch doctor or demon has no power over them if they truly believe that Jesus is their Shepherd. A shepherd guides and protects his innocent, tired and weak sheep. This is exactly what these children are....young, innocent, tired and weak.

Here's the huge answer to prayer. The kids came back on Tuesday and one after another reported that they had no nightmares last night. For some, they have had nightmares for as long as they can remember, but God fought the battle for them. They believed in faith that God is their Shepherd and He proved Himself faithful. One boy gave testimony that when he was walking home at night another person was being robbed and beaten by some other people. This boy boldly said out loud, "The Lord is my Shepherd" and the people stopped beating the other person and let this boy pass on by. Quite possibly, this boy had angels walking on either side of him or perhaps there was just a visible hedge of protection on this boy's life. Do we believe God like this? Do we trust Him like this? That a simple phrase such as "The Lord is my Shepherd" truly has power to defeat any enemy or trial that we might face. I am here to testify that these kids believe. They saw God's Word work in very real ways the first night they went home. God's Word gave them hope for possibly the first time in their lives.

More to come my friends...this is just the icing on the cake.

What did we eat?

No, I didn't eat any bugs while in Africa...at least not willingly. I might have swallowed a bug or two at Camp accidentally. (smiles)

Every morning we had a granola bar, cereal or toast. For lunch every day we had water and PB and J. Let me tell you that I probably haven't had a PB and J in 5-8 years, but after eating them for a week, I've had two since I've been home from Africa. They taste pretty good when you're hungry in Africa. Every night we had to make 8 sandwiches each. (2 for me, 2 for my apostle, 2 for my evangelist and 2 extra) There was a competition about who could make the best sandwiches. I do think that Sean (our villa mate friend from Texas) won each and every night. He mastered covering every corner of that bread with pb and jelly.

In the evenings we met together in a conference room/club house for dinner, testimony time and meetings. We had chicken, french fries and salad 3 out of 7 nights, pizza 2 of the nights, and beef tips and rice the other 2. The food was adequate at best, but hey, it's a mission trip. I'm not there to critique the food. We returned to the villas still hungry most nights, especially the teenage boys. Almost every night, we had a pb and j sandwich as a nighttime snack.

Enjoy the pictures of our pb and j time! This became our bonding time and laughing time each night. Some of us were neat with our sandwich making, some were perfectionists (covering every corner), some just wanted to get it done and some ended up with jelly all over the floor each and every time!






Who's joining me next year? It really is the trip of a lifetime!

Sunday (Day 2) in Africa

In the past, the Americans have gone into village churches in Lusaka, Zambia, but this year they decided to bring Zambian church to us. 100 Americans showing up at a village church pretty much overtakes the church, so Greer (head of Family Legacy)had a Zambian praise team come and Pastor Tedi preached. It was incredible! Completely amazing how you can worship God in a language you don't even understand. This was just a glimpse for us...seeing how Zambians trust and worship the Lord.

After church, we headed to the market to do some shopping. The bank ran out of money to exchange so we had to wait about an hour before we had any money to spend. These market vendors have absolutely nothing. They are willing to trade their handiwork for just about anything...money, gum, pens, candy, tshirts, sunglasses, hats, etc. My prized purchase is a wooden giraffe that I probably bought for around 10-15 dollars. It took this particular Zambian 6 days to make this by hand.

Here are some pictures of the market.




After our shopping adventure, we headed back to our villa to change clothes and then off to meet our Zambian partners (evangelists and apostles). Our Zambian evangelist is our main "partner" for the week. He/she assists with translation and just about everything else that needs to be done throughout the week. Our apostle is more of a back-up helper. He/she helps when we have our blessing or one-on-one time with the kids. One of our responsibilities during the week is to take each child individually and find out about their home life and any other details of their life that they're willing to share. We also use this time to share the good news of Christ and also to pray with them individually. More on my "blessing times" tomorrow.

Here we are...ready for our lives to be changed.
Sean (villamate from Texas), Molly (Carney's niece), Brian, Jack and Kathleen, me, Jill, Shannon and Shelbi
Graham is not in the picture...he was probably taking the picture.


Here's my evangelist, Mercy, and me praying. In Zambia, everything is covered in prayer before you even take one step. You pray before you start and you pray when you end.



Here's a snapshot of Mercy and me on Friday. I had been crying most of the day, good-byes are never easy.



Here's my apostle, Bertha. Same thing...the picture was taken on Friday and I had wept several times during the day.


The stories of my 14 girls are coming tomorrow. Thanks for being patient with my blog. I'm still trying to process everything and the best way for me to write it down is in logical order. Well, logical to me that is. Check back tomorrow.

Day 1 in Africa

So we arrived Saturday afternoon with just a few glitches. When we arrived in Johannesburg, South Africa, the airline said that I did not have a ticket. It turns out that my ticket (just that leg) had not been paid for. Brian stood by my side and assisted with the decision. We decided just to purchase that leg because I didn't want to spend the night in South Africa without my team. Really, they wouldn't have left me, but they could've if they didn't love me.

We arrived tired and only one piece of luggage didn't make it. Here's some pictures of our times at the airport. Sleeping, listening to the ipod, and playing travel Scrabble thanks to Brian's purchase.





Here we are getting ready to play Scrabble at Starbucks. I would've beat the boys for sure if some Englishmen didn't decide to get involved and tell us that "ax" actually has an "e" on the end of it. Come on that was triple points. Well, we never finished the game and I would've won because I did finally get my "e" for the word axe. My competitve nature coming through....Big Nanny would be proud.



We found a Starbucks and here's J.T. (Jack and Kathleen's son) just being silly. We had been travelling for days, and we needed every bit of humor we could get! I've never laughed or cried so much in a week's time.


Here's our villa in Lusaka, Zambia. It is in an area (subdivision) called Mulungushi Village and life doesn't get more plush in Lusaka than here. Let me tell you that we were living plush for Africa, but not plush compared to the U.S. We did have electricity and occasionally hot water. There was a lot of dirt and dust at all times. I was dirtier in Africa than I probably have been in my entire life...but I'd do it again in a heartbeat. More pictures to come and you'll see why.



The boys room




This is "His Big Blue Bus" and it will become our transportation over the next week.

One of the Best Decisions of My Life

I never would have thought that my trip to Africa could rank in the top 5 things I've done, but it definitely does. The obvious top 4 are marrying Derek and adopting Stephen, Matthew and Elizabeth. I must say though that my trip to Africa is probably number 5. The memories of my trip are sweeter than words could ever express. The giant leap in my faith in Christ cannot be documented by words.

Here is the team Thursday morning, July 3rd. We met at Thompson Station Church around 8:30 that morning. I am here to tell you that these people died somewhere in Africa. The group that returned is not the same group that stands before you in this picture. On the drive to Atlanta, we talked about what we hoped this trip would be for us. Many of us said that we wanted it to be life-changing. My other request was that I would have joy like never before. Well, it was life-changing and I saw joy like I've never seen before. Zambian Christians know how to BELIEVE God and how to WORSHIP God!

I'll never, ever be the same! Praise the Lord! More details to come.

Family Pic before the Trip

Here we are an "abundantly blessed" family of five. I hope that my trip to Africa will forever change the way my family "does life". Our time here is short and I want the Jordan family to stand up and be counted. We want God to use us however He wants and wherever He wants.

A big thank you to my partners in ministry. Thank you for praying and giving so that I can go!

Love you all!

Zambia Bound

We're leaving at 8:30 Thursday morning for Atlanta. Our flight leaves for London at 6:30 Thursday night. We have to change airports in London. We have about a 10 hour layover in London then off for a 12 hour flight to Johannesburg. From Johannesburg, we fly to Lusaka, Zambia! YEA!!!!

Pray that we're not totally exhausted by the time we get there. Thanks for praying for us! It's going to be great!