Welcome to Africa!!

So it’s been one week since we left Denver and started our journey to Zimbabwe. We arrived last Thursday and everything with our 3 flights went well. All of our bags made it and getting through immigration was great. A few of the highlights, however, we felt a little sick in London (Justin is still getting over whatever he had when we left….it’s on to the sore throat, runny nose, cough stage), a few times of tears for me (Krista), and one really big time of tears in the Johannesburg airport when I realized I had left my Iphone on the plane and they couldn’t find it. At this point, we were running on maybe 7 hours of “flying” sleep in two days, and that, added to the thought of being gone for a year, which I was constantly thinking about at this point made for a very interesting episode in the terminal. Luckily no more British Airways reps were around for my emotional breakdown, although maybe if they were, they would have given their phone to me. Justin did a great job of trying to calm me down and we eventually made it to Harare in one piece.

We arrived around 1:00pm on Thursday, were picked up by one of Tatenda’s pastors and went to the house that we would call home for a few months. We showered, rested for a little bit, ate dinner, and then were told that we were leaving to go to a funeral in the bush on the way to a two day conference further into the bush. So, not knowing really what to expect, we packed up our sleeping bags and mosquito nets and headed out to the bush in the minibus with 12 other people (we learned later, the band). A truck with a bunch of sound equipment and food and people came along too. We arrived in the “bush” around midnight (one small brick house, and one traditional African hut in the middle of lots of dry, arid vegetation), thinking that we would just go to sleep, but we quickly learned that a funeral in Africa is very different from one in the States. They set up the sound equipment and some lights, all connected to a portable generator, and began singing and dancing, and more singing and dancing, and some preaching, and more singing and dancing, until SUNRISE!! We were shown a place to rest at 4:00am in a small brick house, but didn’t get much sleep as the band was right outside and then the sun started coming up making the room super hot. Oh I was not loving life at this point :-). After two days of traveling, this isn’t what I would prefer, especially knowing that the next day we were off to go further into the bush for two days. What the heck are we doing again?

So, we maybe got an hour of rest, woke up, and were served spaghetti noodles and cow liver for breakfast. Oh yes, from a cow that was slaughtered that morning, which we later saw the rest of as they rolled him up to the small brick house and brought him in piece by piece. Awesome! That afternoon, 14 of us piled in the minibus, with a trailer attached to the back full of sound equipment. Justin and I, the band, and another preacher were off to Chimbuwe, a village 9 hours away from Harare really close to the Mozambique border and at only 1000 feet elevation, which means very very hot (in the Zambezi valley)!! We had no idea the drive would be that long and also didn’t know that most of the drive would be on a very bumpy dirt road (which is a main road for them)! I almost had another breakdown, because I was still exhausted and thought the trip would maybe take an hour. When we arrived in Chimbuwe around 9:30pm, we were shown our small concrete room for sleeping which was probably the hottest place I have ever slept. That night, however, I was so tired that it didn’t matter. Sleeping in pools of sweat was no problem that night :-).

For our first day of the conference, Justin preached three times and I spoke for about 15 minutes before one of his talks. He spoke on Hebrews 11 and walked through what it means to have faith, how we serve a good God, and abiding in Christ using the vine and the branches passage out of John. It was outside and there were probably a few hundred people there – some who had walked 3 days to get there!! There was lots of praise and worship and preaching from a couple other pastors too…..and did I mention that it was hot….and it didn’t cool down at night. I can’t be sure, but I might have been suffering from a little heat stroke. We even ran out of bottled water, but luckily had our bottles from the States that have a built in filter. That night was another really hot one with little sleep. The next day, Sunday, we had the conference in the morning with lots of praise and worship and dancing and some preaching. We left Chimbuwe around 11:30am, and this time for the ride back, we had a few other passengers – 19 people to be exact! This time, the drive was better, because we knew a little more about what to expect…flat tire and all (oh yeah, we got one and all the men, including Justin changed it without a jack….who needs a jack when you have 10 strong men).

We made it back to Harare around 9:00pm and you could feel it getting cooler with every mile closer. Ahhhh, back to a cool house and an actual shower and bed…..we were pretty dirty and dusty from 3 days out in the bush. We cleaned up and went straight to bed…yes a good night’s sleep after 5 nights without one! Welcome to Africa!

Yesterday, we rested and unpacked and hung out at the house all day. This week we have a fairly busy schedule again. Tuesday and Wednesday we will visit 3 churches and speak at 3 support groups for women and men there (lots that are HIV+). I have prepared some stuff to talk about our identity in Christ and how we need to find it in Him, and how there are several places in Scripture that point to how we are loved and valued. Then on Thursday, we are going back out into the bush with one pastor. The three of us will be there until Sunday doing some open-air preaching and encouraging people in the village one on one. Again, no idea how long the drive will be and what our sleeping arrangements will be like, and I’m sure it will be hot. Pray I don’t have another breakdown :-)! We learned today that the village is probably 600km away, and that is probably not going 60km/hr.

So, that was our first week here in Zimbabwe. Are we really here for 10 more weeks? We’re already learning a lot about ourselves and God is breaking us in ways that I would really prefer He didn’t, but it is growing our faith and my dependence on Him.

We’ll try to update you in another week. We won’t be back to the internet until we get back on Sunday night.Thanks for your prayers. We'll try to add pictures next time. Learning the internet system here :-).