Zambia: Travel with a Purpose

It was just a year ago that I traveled to Zambia but not for a vacation. The reason for this trip was different. Along with three other adults, I was accompanying a group of 16 high school students from my school on a trip designed to introduce them to ministry outside the US. In many ways it was a short trip but with a very loooong flight time.

We left Seattle Saturday afternoon and flew overnight to London. We then spent the day in Heathrow before leaving in the evening for Johannesburg, South Africa. Our flight was delayed some by a major hail storm that hit as we were boarding so they had to de-ice the plane. After arriving in Johannesburg, our stay was fairly short. From there it was a quick flight to Livingstone, Zambia.

Before we drove to our final destination, we visited Victoria Falls. This was the one tourist experience we would have on the trip. The falls are absolutely amazing. Someone told us that as we got close to the falls, we would get wet. They recommended we rent some rain slickers. However, being from the northwest we figured we could handle a little rain. We got soaked. The falls go into a canyon, and we were on the other side. The mist created was very thick and seeing rainbows was not uncommon. The falls seem to go on forever. The students really enjoyed the experience more than I expected they would.

As we were leaving we encountered quite a few baboons that were running around near our van. That would be our one major experience with the wildlife here.

Despite the fact that we were now damp, it was time to head to our destination, a five hour drive away. The major part of this drive was over a road with incredible pot holes. Fortunately there was little traffic as we were weaving all over the road to avoid the potholes. As dusk fell, Ryan, our driver, realized the headlights were not working. How do you avoid potholes when you can’t see them? We had to call back the pickup that had all our luggage and then travel in tandem to see the road.

I was so exhausted when we arrived that I had no emotional reserve left. Fortunately we were sent off to bed, and I slept well and woke up feeling much better.

By the light of the morning, we could see the beautiful setting of our camp. We were right along the Zambezie River. We had a great viewpoint. Our dining/meeting area was thatched, but all the sides were open to enjoy the view. We stayed in cabins. Each cabin had four rooms and two bathrooms with a center lounge and kitchen area. Being the only single man, I stayed in a room with two of our guys who slept on bunk beds while I had the single bed.

Two sisters, Mary and Martha, (Yes, that was their names) were our cooks, and they did an amazing job of taking care of us and giving us food that was not strange to the American teenagers. Our hosts were a young couple from Mozambique. They ran the camp there and the ministry. Our go-to guy was Ryan, a young man from California. He was just finishing a year and a half time volunteering there. He was a great help to us throughout our stay.

The organization we were working with is Reaching a Generation. It is headquartered in South Africa. Its focus is on reaching the children and youth of the area. There are a number of different ministry arms they have, and they wanted to expose our students to as many of them as they could. The students were willing and ready. It was great to see their commitment.

During our first morning we spent the time preparing for our work and learning about the challenges and culture of the area. We were in a very rural area. The nearest town, Sioma, was really just a wide spot in the road with maybe 10 businesses there. Livingstone was the closest major city.

One of the major activities we did was present a program for the children. This is something that the mission does regularly, and they follow a certain pattern. On our first day the students determined how they were going to conduct the program. They began with music. We always took loud speakers with us which we hooked up to the truck battery. The students would do three or four songs, all with motions. Singing was always a fun part.

Next would be a Bible story. Our team decided to act it out as someone told the story. They worked on two stories. One was the Good Samaritan. The other one was the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. The kids loved this one as one of our young men played the part of the statue that the king wanted them to worship. At the end, the statue would be destroyed, and our young man would boldly fall down into the dirt. One memorable time he landed next to a dog who went howling off. The kids loved it.

After this one of the students would give a lesson from the story. Another student would then teach them a memory verse in English which was always interesting. Fortunately we had a great translator with us who always worked really well with the children.

We then divided up the children by age for a prayer time. The older students were always asked if they had prayer requests, and it was always moving to hear what their concerns and anxieties revealed about them.

Then it was game time. Again there was an age division, and our team divided up to work with a group of children. They discovered that the most popular game across all the age groups was duck, duck, goose. Even the “cool” teens loved the game. They would often tap one of the Americans and then outrun them around the circle. They could have played for hours.

Our team did these programs five or six times and really enjoyed doing them. On our first afternoon we went to a newly constructed community building. After we did our children’s program, we did a dedication ceremony for the building. For some reason they asked me to cut the ribbon, and I felt truly honored. However, all the rest of the times we did the programs outside under a big tree. We needed shade. Surprisingly we held at least half of our programs at schools during the school day. Separation of church and state did not seem to be a concern.

I was very proud of our students. They put together the programs and made the decisions about what would happen. We adults just stood back and let them take control. It was very inspiring.

We helped with a number of other ministry activities. Next week I will share about those activities and some of the cultural aspects of our trip. I hope you will join me.