Before I write about today’s events, I want to mention what God has been teaching me since the moment we left America. I have seen in a new way what it looks like to love Christ. Both in London and here in Zambia, Coptic families have been so eager to take care of us. They prepared for us for weeks and they somehow still manage to smile despite the heavy labor they have been doing for us. I think that they can still smile and sincerely welcome us, despite the fact that we are a huge group and inconvenience, because they are serving Christ, not man. They truly live out the fact that God is our father by treating us like brothers and sisters. Please keep them in your prayers.

Today we split up into several small groups and went into different parts of Zambia. My group went to John Liang, one of the toughest ghettos which is about thirty minutes from where we stay in Kenyama. I cannot really explain the poor conditions they lived in. I don’t have words for it, and its not really as important as the spiritual condition of the people I met. We met people who had such a strong faith in Christ that I started to question why we are serving in Zambia. The Zambian people are incredible. Despite their illnesses, their lack of basic necessities, their surroundings (there is a bar every few feet in John Liang), they have been able to depend on Christ for their needs. I started to realize that while we often say these people do not have enough, the real problem is that we have too much. Christ called us to live simple lives and to focus on Him. I think that we often struggle to connect with Christ because there is so much extra stuff that complicated things in our lives, especially in America. I have learned so much about simplicity and joy from the Zambians.

When we went into the open markets to preach, we also met many people who had never heard of Jesus Christ. If you are like me, you are a privileged person with more Bibles in your home than there are people, and you have known the good news of Jesus since you were a child. I tried to imagine what it would be like if today was the first time I heard the name Jesus or if, as an adult, I found out that the same God who created the entire universe became a human and died for me. I could not imagine not knowing Jesus Christ. It made me so glad to have Jesus and to be able to share Him. I did not do much today other than learn things that I should have already known by now. I spent the day learning about how much God loves each of his children and how much more I should love and honor Him.

To my family at home, you are deeply missed…

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