In Zambia

Saturday, Feb 17

Leaving Johannesburg, South Africa

Lost ticket: reprinted. Two carry-ons bags overweight: now checked baggage. The joys of travel. We had a great flight to Zambia. We were all bumped to Business Class for the 2 hours flight north. (I have never had a whole team bumped up.) All of our bags made it to Zambia as well, with about 500 lbs. of supplies for World Hope.

Jeff and his two daughters met us with a van and a trailer. We stopped at a small shopping center so the Johnson's could buy some groceries while we exchanged some money.

We arrived at the Guest House in Choma at 8:20 PM. We had a great introduction to the World Hope staff here from America.

Sunday, Feb 18

We walked the 10 minutes to church and get in on the last of the Adult Sunday School class. At 10 AM church began and went straight through till Noon. Specials included a musical number from the men's ensemble, another special from a women's ensemble, and a skit from the youth group. We had a wonderful worship experience. (I introduced each team member, and the congregation had a few laughs over some of our last names which were too hard for the translator to speak. How hard is "Atwood"?) At the close of the service they made a long receiving line and you end up shaking hands with everyone as they leave church.

Following lunch we had some orientation to World Hope's work here and some cultural information about Zambia. In the afternoon we divided our team in third's and went to their adult cell groups. Bible study leaders Jan, Barb and George lead the interactive Bible studies of about 20 -25 people in each home.

Electricity went out from 5:30 – 7:30 PM, so our dinner and debriefing were in the dark. We were all tired and then got silly with the jet lag late at night. Off to bed.