South African Team from Beyond Adventure helping with Vitamin Distribution

During this past week we went into the Nyawa Chiefdom and distributed just over 6 tons of vitamins to approximately 30 villages.  A team from South Africa from the Beyond Adventure School accompanied us and was a great help in the distribution.   

It was the first time that I helped lead a South African team, it was fascinating to watch the differences.  South Africans are up early, well too early for my liking and have already exercised!  They all have a bath before breakfast and are well dressed for being in the bush.  They have an amazing sense of humor and joking around continues all through the day and nobody get offended or hurt.  Other teams will wake up right at breakfast time and never bath until the 3^rd day in the bush and will wear the same clothing for a few days.  Some have a sense of humor but there is always a time and a place to joke around.

I am not complaining or anything, just noticing the differences of culture.  We have such an assortment of people in our world and I think it makes it exciting and mysterious all at the same time to watch and learn about people!  

Teacher Training Thursday

As I walked out of the “Handyman’s Paradise” a local hardware store I was asked if I was going fishing or doing some gardening??

Every two weeks teachers from our 19 pre-schools come together to pick up curriculum, school supplies and teaching aids.  They also get to learn a pre-school learning outcome and then make some sort of educational toy or musical instrument. It is a time for us to collect their monthly registers and see how things are going in the everyday running of their schools.

This week we made lacing cards that are good for working the small muscles and train fine motor skills.  We collected pieces of cardboard and used fishing line.  We also made hoola hoops from plastic a pipe and conduit joiner that is normally used for drip irrigation.

During a typical teacher training day, this is what happens:-

·         A DAF truck leaves the Overland Mission Rapid 14 Base at 6am and drives to the half way point, a village called Chibalani.  Teachers walk there and wait for the truck to pick them up.  Some teachers leave their homes at midnight so they can reach Chibalani in time.

·         They get to Nsongwe Village at 8:30am where tea and bread is ready for breakfast.

·         At 9am we come together for a time of singing and sharing from the word of God, to encourage, challenge and motivate their hearts.

·         At 10am the theory part of the training starts

·         Lunch is served at 1pm and then we hand out curriculum, supplies and all that’s needed for the next 2 weeks

·         We also so a time of “make and take” where we use, mostly recyclables to make toys, musical instruments and other teaching aids for the children

·         By 3pm everyone gets one the truck and heads home!

There is a lot of work (driving, cooking, preparing, purchasing of supplies, printing, coloring and laminating) put into this training yet the fruit outweighs it all!

Knowing that lives are being changed, adults being given a hope for tomorrow, children are being given an education and an opportunity to enjoy learning.  God is being revealed for who He is in the hearts of the people and His kingdom is being established!

Elephant stops Traffic

While driving back to the base, there was a lone elephant just standing in the middle of the road. Most times while driving by they just cross and move on over allowing all the vehicles to pass by. Well this little guy, probably about 10 years old was all alone and showing some attitude.

Some cars and taxi's beeped their horns at him and he started to swing his trunk at them and stop his feet, so they knew he meant business and all we could do was just wait until he moved.
About a good 10minutes later he did mosy on over and all was good.

Elephants have great memories. If a blue car tried to tick them off a few weeks ago, the next time they see a blue car they can tip it over. Even though many gardens are destroyed all the time and people have been chased, injured and even killed by elephants, the Zambian locals still give them their space!

After almost 18 months of being in Zambia and seeing elephants all the time I am still in awe of them and can never get enough of the wild life here!

Loving through respect!

Last Thursday the LIFE team and a few volunteers went out to a village called Munyemunyemu, which is in the Mukuni Chiefdom.  It was about two and a half hours from our Rapid 14 base. 

We set up camp at the school and distributed about 2 tons of vitamins to the villagers during the day.  We showed the Jesus Film at night and many people were challenged in their faith.  We ended the night with dancing and celebrating the love of Jesus.

On Friday morning about 6:30am I woke to go to the long drop and saw a woman walking towards us with boxes of vitamins on her head, I wondered what she was doing and why she was here so early, I thought maybe she was overwhelmed and came to ask for more direction in taking them.

The rest of the camp was just starting to stir and as I walked back I asked her if she was okay. I got one of our Pastors to translate what she was saying.  She said her husband told her she needed to return the vitamins to us.

At first I was shocked and abit irritated at the ignorance of her husband, she was pregnant and all I could think of was that her body needed those pre-natal vitamins we had given her.

While she was still talking I realized that she was just being obedient to her husband and as much as I thought it was wrong because vitamins can bring you no harm, I needed to respect the situation.

 
In the last few months of me being in Zambia I have had some moments where this strand of thought has come up over and over again.  It is so easy for me to not understand or not agree yet when I think about why this comes up one word comes to mind! RESPECT!!!!

I did not agree with the woman’s husband and did not know why he asked her to bring back the vitamins we gave her, yet I needed to respect that decision.

For so long respect has been greeting people when I should, being kind when it is needed and esteeming others that are an example.  However now I am seeing that respect is a lot more than that, it is knowing that someone is making the wrong decision or seeing others not being treated fairly and still being able to find a common ground with them through the grace of God in our lives and then His unconditional love!  The more I learn about the work respect and put it into practice the more I learn what it is to love like Jesus did!

Overland Missions aquire 100 tons of Vitamins to be distributed in Rural Areas of Zambia

I have been working on a vitamin project for quite a few months and finally they have arrived!  I had the pleasure of escorting the 4 containers to the base, while driving by the village it was interesting to see the expressions on the faces of the children.  Some screamed and ran closer to their huts while others ran excitedly towards the trucks.  It is very unusual for 4 huge semi trucks to be driving through a village!

 

Overland Missions acquired 100 tons of vitamins/supplements to be distributed in the rural areas.  After many months of pharmaceutical clearances, meetings and inspections with health officials, we are now able to distribute them.  We did our first distribution in Nsongwe Village which is closest to the base with 294 huts; almost 2 tons of vitamins were distributed.  About 300 adults showed up at first and when asked what a vitamin was nobody knew.  So we started by teaching what vitamins were and why they were important for our bodies.  

Just this past weekend 13 Overland Staff members and 8 volunteers traveled to the village of Chunga, Siamasimbi and Ndele where the surrounding villages came together.  In the day we distributed vitamins and mingled with the children and at night a ministry team was able to share the love of Jesus with the people after they got to view either the Jesus Film in their mother tongue or the Book of John.   

There were many salvations and healings, praise God!

It was an honor for the Overland team to spend the quality time with each other on expedition, encourage one another in our faith and to have fun bonding as a team!

One of the vitamins we have is an anti-oxidant with Selenium, this is a mineral in your body that gets depleted when you have HIV/Aids, we have educated the people on this and we are hoping that villagers will be diligent in taking these vitamins.   

The life expectancy in Zambia is 38 years of age, if we can teach them to be healthy and build their immune systems many people would be able to live longer and there will be less orphans in Zambia! 

In the month of August we have reached approximately 2400 people that came from 36 different villages in the Mukuni Chiefdom.  We will also distribute them to all orphanages, clinics and hospitals in the 4 chiefdom's we work in. 

I send out a monthly newsletter but often at the end of the day I have a funny story or a new thought or experience that I would love to share. It may just give you a greater understanding of what life in Zambia is like. I love working in Zambia for Overland Missions and I love Jesus and being able to establish His kingdom!!