What a whirlwind tour of Zambia. We are all on the brink of exhaustion...actually, I don't know if that is true; but we are really tired and weary. We now have 2 days that are designed to feel like R&R, as we have invited the wives and children of our Zambia 5 to make the trip to that more touristy part of the country. But even those events are demanding. I'm also having lots of summary types of conversations: talks about staffing, about budgets, about projects, etc. The reality is that our organization has virtually tripled since I was last here 2 years ago. And yet, it is still Rob and I at the helm in America and the Zambia 5 carrying the load on the ground in-country. Please pray for these conversations between board and staff...and even pastors and affiliate organizations. It is clear that God is doing something exciting, and we don't want to mess up His plans (if that is possible).
Now, back to Livingstone. This is my first trip to this city. As I said, it is a very different feeling community. It is the tourist area - Vitoria Falls, Zambezi River, etc. - and the vibe is definitely different here. But tucked in amongst what feels like a more affluent part of the country we have only 5 churches. These 5 churches are all denominationally alinged, so they are used to working together. And it feels like their memberships are not from the professional tourism ranks. All 5 pastors report nearly 100% vulnerable among their members.
Many of the people in these churches cannot find work. As a result, they resort to breaking up rocks. Yes, you read that correctly. Apparently it goes like this. They get up early in the morning and dig up a few larger rocks (think football/basketball size) from the ground. Then they work on those rocks all day with a small hammer, breaking off small gravel-sized pieces. At the end of the day, if they have a couple wheel barrows full of the gravel sized rocks, then they can sell them at the market and hope they get paid enough to feed their family the only meal of the day that evening. And then they do it again tomorrow.
I'm still not sure why there isn't work available in this seemingly bustling tourist area, but I'm hopeful we can understand this local economy a bit better over the coming months. Regardless, there is much need among our brothers and sisters in this place. Uniquely, this is the only place that we don't store corn. So we are still buying bags of corn from the local markets each month. And as the U.S. economy plays havok with the world economic stage, 2 things have happened. First, the Zambian kwatcha will buy a lot more corn. And second, the price of corn is way down. So for 2025 the outlook is good for feeding as many of the needy as possible in this place. And while we re doing that, we already have a proposal for some more development type of work in this locality. Let's see how God leads and works over the next few years here.
We are going to get up early and drive out to see Victoria Falls tomorrow, before we make the 7-8-hour bus ride back to the capital city. So many people, when I tell them I'm going to Zambia, ask if I am going to see the falls. I can finally answer that question in the affirmative. After that, we send Anita back off to Ghana (that will be a very sad parting) and then we get one more night to pack up our bags and get ready for the grueling travel back to Iowa.
Ready or not, here we go!
