Sunday was a big day. We actually divided our team in half and went two directions.
The cover photo is our farm team. These guys are working their tails off. The photo depicts the lunch break when the guys all sit in the shade to eat nshima and rest/recover a bit. The only American in the photo is Jose, he is the guy on the left of the picture in the S2S hat. Jose has asked me a couple of times if I eat the nshima, and I have to tell him honestly that I've still never tried it. The easiest way for a "mission trip" to go sideways is to start dealing wtih stomach stuff. So I've always been very careful about my food intake. That's the reason we have always included a full 50 lb bag of snacky stuff on our trips.
Interestingly, that snack bag has turned into the center of what we now call "team time", where our entire team will gather around that bag after a long day and share high's and low's for the trip. It is a chance for all of our African friends to experience American snacks. Lisa and I have always done pop tarts, granola bars, candy, etc. A favoriate has become Teddy Grahams dipped in a container of store bought frosting...American sugar at its finest. We did our first team time last night and the Reese's were a big hit!
Anyway, all of the African guys are eating the nshima under the tree...and I think Jose is growing bolder. Let's see how long it takes before he gives in and tries it :) I don't think either of us brought a full 2 weeks of snacks, so maybe we will both have a lunch issue about day 10-12.
But what a day the guys had at the farm! They built up the foundation of the poultry building with several layers of concrete block. I was immediately told what an all star Jose was at throwing those blocks around. And then Jose also told me how tired and unusually sore he was.
They also got the foundation of the caretaker's house poured. And they put on the corner support beams for the fence posts. As I type this, they are already out at the farm and I think there will be a really cool progress photo for tomorrow. I've actually been told the ready-to-lay chickens will be delivered on Tuesday, so the guys will really need to make hay on that building while the sun shines then next 2 days. I love it when I can introduce the African guys to our Iowa or American lingo. My mother used a lot of those, and "make hay while the sun shines" was one of her favorites.
While our skilled construction guys were out at the farm yesterday, the rest of our team completed our first day at one of the local churches. One of the central themes of all of our trips has been what we call Feast Days. Yesteday we were at Hope Baptist Church, right here in Chipata, only about 15 minutes from our hotel...so that was fantastic! Regardless, it turned out to be a longer day for the church team that it was for the farm team.
We arrived at the church around 9 a.m. Maybe you can find a video on social media of the women's choir greeting us wtih an African welcome song. It doesn't take long to realize that African churches can really sing and dance. We then had about a 90 minute worship servie that included a couple of different choirs. Pastor Ng'uni, who is our Zambian President of the organization, even asked the 25 other pastors who were there for training and spiritual encouragement to come to the front of the stage and do a dance for the 500+ congregants...he wanted the pastors to experience a "moment of joy." It was actually really sweet, something you would certainly never see in the States!
Then I had a message from our S2S leadership to share that was actually fairly long and heavy, not what I normally offer. The basic message is always about sharing, but it usually leans towards Americans sharing with Zambians...which is obviously the structure of S2S. But this year the Spirit led me to emphasize Zambians sharing with Zambians. Honestly, it wasn't a very enjoyable message for me to share (based on 2 Corinthians 13:5 -This is a test) , but it is the one God gave me, so I delievered it the best I could.
After the church service, all of the people in attendance enjoyed a feast of nshima, meat and relish. It was about an hour of fellowship, and I was able to hang out with the pastors whom I was preparing to teach. Just like Jose at the farm, I brought my own lunch of dried meat, cheese and nuts and such.
Then we had a marathon session of pastoral training. Following a similar theme as the sermon, we talked about what it would look like for the Zambian churches to "multiply the seed" out of 2 Corinthians 9:10. In case you are new, S2S is based completely on the model that Paul established in the first century, he called it the Collection for the Saints or the Ministry to the Saints. And 2 Corinthians 8&9 are the Apostle's treatise on the project. Each year it seems that God has allowed us to grow and develop S2S as the Spirit emphasizes another portion of those Scriptures.
You can imagine that was an exhausting day for me. But I am really enjoying this trip format where I come "home" to the same hotel every night. This year we are not experiencing the brutal travel that has marked our first several trips. I'm hoping this new format - one that works well when partnered with a farm construction project - will coax folks like Lisa, brother Rob and maybe even my buddy Frank back into the country.
But for today, I get to be back at the farm. For me, that primarily means riding shotgun in the supply truck with Thomas as we make runs into town and back, trying to make sure the construction guys have everything they need. I can't wait for y'all to see pictures over the next couple of days, this new S2S hub for protein and animal husbandry training is really starting to take shape!
Here we go...
