Trudging Feet but Thankful Feet

Wow, I can't believe it's only been a week since I've written anything last. It's been a busy week of conferences in two different cities. Our first was in Chipata. We arrived on Thursday with the intent on being able to prepare on Friday and teach on Saturday. We found out Friday morning that the conference was supposed to start bright and early that day. Since most of the youth had work and school it didn't actually start until about 3 in the afternoon, but Lauren and I had a few moments of panic. We were able to get together as a team and hammer out a few more details with our lessons. The lessons for that conference were on prayer, forgiveness, God's calling, friendship evangelism and HIV/AIDS.

By Sunday afternoon we were headed to Lumezi to do another conferences. This one started late in the afternoon on Monday, ran all day Tuesday and Wednesday morning. Throughout this trip I have always shared a room with my teammate Lauren. This has been very good for us because we use our time in our room to debrief and talk through things and bounce ideas off of each other. In Lumezi they had decided to send us all to different places so more families could enjoy hosting visitors. While I was okay with the idea of being separated from my team at night, it ended up being more taxing than I had thought it would be. By Tuesday I ended up breaking down. I was tired. We were continually meeting new people. I have been struggling to remember some of the basic greetings that we have learned as well as trying to interpret the different accents. My brain was tired. After a quick team meeting, Drew sent Lauren and myself off on a walk so that we could talk to each other and just have some time alone. We talked about some of our different struggles, but ended our walk saying all the things we were thankful for. Seeing so many stars at night, working toilets, beds to sleep in. It was a restful time and made the rest of the conference much easier.

On Wednesday morning, one of the lessons that Drew was teaching was HIV/AIDS. As we had noticed all through this conference and the previous conference, the girls were very quiet and not contributing a lot. So after he had started the discussion he had Maureen, Lauren and myself take them off to another area so they could feel free to talk more openly. I think it was a very good time. I had started reading the book the Drew gets a lot of his teaching from called HIV Hope. Even though I was only about seven chapters into the book, I was able to use a lot of content from there in our discussion. I think it was good for all involved. In the afternoon we drove to Lumdazi for a short time of rest. We will be going on to Musa for our next conference on Friday. It has been very good to rest. Last night I sat down and read a book that I have been saving for awhile now. It was so good I read it all in one sitting, which was wonderful. After we are done in Musa will be going to a training farm in Komoto and staying there for about two weeks.

Please pray:
- that we will continue to be able to take time to talk as a team and just have time together.
- that we will continue to have safe travels and our car would stay in good condition
- that as we talk to the youth we would be clear with our words and be able to talk about things that are important in their lives.
- that our team would continue to remain in good health.
- that I would be able to get enough to eat and drink and that the food would sit well with me. The only thing I haven't been able to eat so far is the fish (I think the smell doesn't agree with me), but the food doesn't always sit well in my stomach. Maureen has been very gracious in making sure that something is prepared that she knows I will be able to eat, like rice instead of sheema. Even though I don't mind eating the sheema, apparently rice agrees with me better :)
- I got some mosquito bites last night, so please pray that my malaria medication works!! :)

They wanted their picture taken, so I happily obliged :)

Our conference group in Lumezi on Wednesday morning, there were about 30 people there.