Day 7 Brighton's new home, Chicken Program, and Feeding Program

July 28th, 2012
By: Leah Anderson
Hello everyone! I would like to start by saying we are superior to the high school group (the group that went before us) because no one...I repeat NO ONE has gotten sick or hurt! So let's keep it that way! Today we started off by visiting Pastor Brighton's new home. So far there are 3 rooms. The living room is really big and spacious. It will also be used for worship in his new neighborhood. There are 2 other rooms that will be bedrooms. Pastor Brighton said that they are still expanding the house so it's going to be huge! We were suppose to help build the house but the 3 rooms were already finished. He said he is excited about owning his own house with his family, his wife and 7 children. After we visited the new home, we went to Pastor Ngoma's feeding program where we saw 250 chickens that last year's high school group from CPC purchased. Pastor Ngoma's goal is to have 3000 chickens for the program. They sell the chicken eggs to make money and once they reach the 18-month point where the chickens don't lay any more eggs, they give the chickens to the schools for them to eat. We also got to go in the chicken coop! Not everybody went in there but we managed to convince Charis to come join us even though she was a little frightened. It was really cool to see the chickens and hear about the churches' hopes for the program. I was one of the people who prayed for Pastor Ngoma's program so that it will grow successfully. We actually had the privilege to visit Pastor Ngoma's feeding program at the school. When we got to the school, the kids were so excited to see us. We served the food to them, which included chicken, veggies, and nshima. One girl gave us her testimony and how she is HIV positive. She gave us pins and rings that represent HIV. One thing she said that stuck out to me was that no one knows that people have HIV on the outside so it shouldn't affect what's on the inside. We later learned that everyone at the feeding program was HIV positive, but like she said, we can't tell by their appearances. It was amazing to see all the kids with smiles on their faces too! As we were leaving, we were in the van when Allison's sunglasses got stolen off her face. A man just reached through the open window and snatched them right off her face. He didn't run away, he acted like nothing had happened. We stopped the car and as soon as we did that, he ran off. Peter, from the Jubilee Center, got out of the van to try to find the guy and get the sunglasses. Unfortunately, we never found him.

This trip has impacted me in so many ways. I love seeing everyone praising the lord and worshiping him. AT the feeding program, a little boy, probably around 10 years old, prayed for everyone and it sounded like he was an older man. The passion they have for God is unbelievable and amazing! When they all sing, they are not afraid to sing as loud as they can. When they pray, it sounds like they are talking to God in person. This trip has gone by so quickly, yet I feel like I've been here for so long. I've met so many amazing and friendly people that I will never forget. 

Day in the Life

Day 6

By Charis Tshihamba

7/26/12

Today we all visited the homes of the families we met on Monday. On the way to the homes, we made a nickname for our driver, Peter. We were talking about how adorable and fluffy, so we decided to call him Fluffy. My dad and I visited the house of Pastor Joseph Banda and his wife, Catherine. He has five children, two of whom we did not meet. We met his son, Joseph, who is sixteen years old. We saw his daughter, Miriam, for the second time. We also met his baby named Enelos. About fifteen minutes after we got to their house, we went to the market to get food to make nsheema. There were billions of flies at the market. As most people know, I am deathly afraid of every bug, so the market was very scary. On the way home from the market, I heard Beyonce playing from two different homes. When we got back to their home, I watched the baby while Catherine killed the live chicken for our meal. Joseph Jr. came home after a day of school. The two dads were talking and somehow, piano playing was the subject of conversation. My dad told Pastor Joseph that I play piano, so Joseph Jr. pulled out a keyboard. Joseph Jr. played a cool catchy tune, then requested that I play something. I hadn’t played much piano in the past month but I still had a song up my sleeve. Unfortunately, about half of the keys did not produce any sound. I sounded like a young child banging on the keys. It was a bit embarrassing, considering I have been playing piano for over ten years. Miriam came home after the keyboard was put away. She took me outside and taught me how to play a few Zambian games. The ball we played with fell in the garbage hole a few times and got wet. That was when I started creeping into the house. I was ready to stop playing with the ball and start eating. After a day in the life of a Zambian, we went back to our hotel. All of the girls played a card game called Nertz. Allison and I were a team. Neither of us was good at the game, but together, we were decent. After playing cards for a while, the power went out. We played outside until the sun went down. After the card game, we all went to our rooms. On the way to dinner, we spotted an enormous spider, so we ran to the eating area. When we were in the eating area, the moms spotted another spider. This was the same kind of spider. Kathy killed it with her shoe. We looked at the spider and it had cheetah print. It is now called the cheetah spider. Dinner concluded the night. We all went to sleep and I was very paranoid, thinking about the cheetah spider.

Day 4 feeding program and clinic visit

Julie Eide "He is able to do far more exceeding abundantly than all we can ask or think" What an overwhelming.....sobering......amazing.......joyfilled......musical.......extraordinary day!!!!! Our day started with a visit to the local health clinic in George (the large community compound we have been working in). They see about 300 patients each day with only two doctors on staff. They handle everything from AIDS and tuberculosis screening/treatment to infant birthing and malaria. The waiting area overflowed with mothers and their sick children. The eyes of the children are the hardest for me to look at as they seem to tell the story of their suffering more than anything. Yet there they were, mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers all patiently waiting, believing, hoping for help and health. Leaving the clinic we drove to one of the feeding programs that is located at one of the schools in George. This feeding program serves a healthy meal three times a week to 120 children. We were quickly absorbed in to the activities upon our arrival. Some of the girls were immediately lead off by the children to play futbol with the soccer balls we had brought...others sat before tiny little hands to have their hair braided.....while others just held close, those who wanted to be cuddled and loved. A very dull knife and squawking chicken awaited Karen for its be-headal (not a word I'm pretty sure). Emily followed up with be-headal number two and I followed up with the last chicken to be-head (videos available upon our return for viewing:-) Kathy was whisked away in to the kitchen to pluck the dead chickens that had recently been beheaded by the others.....swept the floor....stirred the shema ( similar to grits) and listened to hearts and stories of the Zambian women who running the feeding program. Megan, with her mothers heart, took the children one by one with the help of some of the other girls, to put a tattoo of a lamb and the words "God loves you" on their arms while she anointed them with with words of blessing and Gods love. After eating we asked the Zambian women if they would sing for us....I can not even begin to describe what it sounds like to hear the Zambian people sing.....it is truly an act of worship for them when they sing.....they sing with their whole selves....totally absorbed in their praise.....the result is breath-taking!!!!! Our next stop was the "market" where we were able to shop for traditional Zambian arts and crafts. The whole bartering gig definitely got mixed reviews from our team. I believe the Tamtes made the best bargains of the day. And finally we ended our day at a local pizza shop where we spent some time sharing stories of our day and our conversations. I will end by telling you what one very soft-spoken young man said to Megan as we were leaving the feeding program. He asked if upon our return we could bring some young boys as well as all these girls. Wishing all who are reading this that they could be here with us in this experience. We miss you!

Day 3 school and Family visits

Day 3 By Emily Eide 7/24/12 Hello Americans, This is Emily Eide reporting to you live from Zambia. Today was a very busy and fun filled day. We started bright and early by visiting Pastor Banda's school which is located at his house. We brought pens, pencils & sharpeners, chalk, composition notebooks and erasers for the children. The school rooms were filled with cheerful and bright children. In each room there were two classes being held in separate sections. We had the privilege of visiting three classes. We got to ask questions like "what do you want to be when they grew up" and they also got to ask us questions like "do you snowsurf". In each classroom we made them sing to us because if it's one thing I enjoy hearing most is their beautiful voices. The kids in each class, especially the kindergardeners were so well behaved and thought that going to school was a privilege. I have learned that if you want to make a Zambian's day, take a picture of them. Our next stop was visiting a school of orphans. We were introduced to a class of preschoolers that greated us screaming "how are you we are fine". While mingling, I met the most adorable three year old orphan, named Hope who had a sad look in her eyes. She had braided hair with beads on the end and soon after taking her picture wouldn't leave my side. Her favorite thing was playing with my long blonde hair. I finally got her to laugh after tickling her and throwing her in the air. Sadly when the time came to leave she started crying and they had to pull her away from me. I wanted to take her home with me! Our last stop for the day had each parent daughter team dropped off at the home of people in the church. My family was a widowed mother head of household who is HIV positive with three kids. My mom spent time with Prista, the mother hearing her story while I went out to the courtyard to play with all the neighbor kids. They taught me how to say "how are you", "I have no money", "clothes", and words they wouldn't tell me their meaning of in Nyanja, one of the languages in Zambia. The kids also taught me how to play netball and a game like dodgeball, we play in the united states. The kids play with a ball made out of a plastic bag filled with styrofoam found on the streets. At the end of our visit my mom made the most heart touching prayer for Prista and for the health of her family. To end the evening we ate at the restaurant called the backpacker. For dinner I ate catapillar. I bet you wish you were here :)!

Day 2 workshop with Zambian families

Day 2 By Allison Tamte 7/23/12 Today, we got the opportunity to spend the day with Zambians. Each couple got a Zambian family to talk with and discuss hopes/dreams for our families. We each got a partner to get to know and connect with. Some common dreams parents had for their kids were for their children to go to college and to always look up to God. Some common dreams kids had for their parents were their parents health and happiness for what they are doing. At lunch, they served us a grit like substance called nshima, chicken, and vegetables. We had to eat the whole meal with our hands and roll the nshima in a ball, dip it in sauce, and pop it in our mouths. After lunch we got to sing popular Zambian songs and popular American songs. After we had a fun time dancing and learning new songs, we heard Julie and johns touching faith stories. Finally, at the end, we got to make a pillow for our partner and write encouraging or inspiroring words on it. We learned how similar we all can be no matter where we are from. What a successful day!

Day 1 - Sunday Church Visits

 Blog written by Megan Tampte

"Speak to one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs.  Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ".  - Ephesians 4:15-20

Today we sang, danced, and gave thanks to God at church with the people of George.  Our group of ten split into three different groups to attend three different church services.  We were warmly  welcomed by bright-eyed, smiling children and joyful, friendly adults. A typical church service in Zambia is three hours long and filled with dance, music, prayer and praise.  The Zambian people are vulnerable in their worship.  They do not hold back, they give God their entire heart and soul as they worship. The people of George live in poverty.  They have huts for houses, they walk miles to church, they are largely unemployed and can't afford food.  Yet, as we worshiped with them today, they joyfully thanked God for everything.  The group I was with was able to visit the General Store that was funded with money raised by the students of CPC who visited this area a year ago.  The store is located very close to the church we attended; the profit will be used to fund the local feeding programs for vulnerable children.  WOW! It was fun to see what our church has done to help the people of George.  A young man who was an employee of the store asked that we pray that the store grows and becomes profitable.

Please pray for the people of George, and for us as we continue our journey.

July 20, 2012 - DAY 0 - We are off!

Karen Baumberger, July 20 2012

Well it is hard to believe that months of planning and anticipation have all come to this day now!  In 6 hours we will be on a plane for 18 hours heading to Amsterdam and then directly to Lusaka.  We are all so excited to meet our partners from the Jubilee Center and from International Justice Mission as well as the most wonderful people of Zambia!  I have so many vivid memories from trips past and am working to prepare my heart for this adventure.  What a great feeling it will be to see our friends again and to make new friends.  It is quite remarkable to see how God is using these organizations to make a positive difference in Lusaka. 

This trip was intentionally designed as Inter-generational where we will partner amongst ourselves with our children and we will pair up with a parent and child in Zambia.  What an honor it is to share the experience of God's love and work in Zambia with my daughter! We will begin our journey with church on Sunday to share in worship.  Zambian church is quite an experience; beautiful voices singing, LOUD prayers, dancing, and quite passionate sermons!  I can't wait to hear of our groups experience. 

Monday we will pair up with Zambian parents and children where we will explore our family and community values as well as our hopes and dreams for the future.  The next day we will separate and pair up with the same parent and child from the workshop where we will live a 'day in the life'  in the George community of Lusaka.  We will most likely do chores, go to the market, cook and share with each other. 

There are so many life changing experiences ahead of us; feeding programs for children, assisting in the schools, praying over victims of HIV/AIDS, witnessing extreme poverty, meeting land rights victims and child-headed households, learning from each other, playing with children at an orphanage and within the communities, being a part of amazing joy, playing soccer games (too bad I never learned soccer skills from my brother!), dancing, singing, (this is always quite interesting given how horribly I dance and sing....:>)), cooking, and just sharing life together.  I pray that God will lead us and transform us so we can do the work he wants us to do both in Zambia and at home.

Getting Ready for Take Off!

The Intergenerational Zambia Trip for 2012 is coming up quickly! We have a great team of moms and daughters (and Paul!) heading to Lusaka this Friday. Please keep this group in mind and in your prayers as they prepare for their travels to Africa and while they experience God's love in Zambia!

~ CPC Missions Team