In case you missed this past weekend, Missions Director Shawn Rich talked with us about the Zambia 2013 mission.  You can listen here:

We went to Twapia for a children's outreach where we had worship, games and fed the children from the neighborhood. It was awesome to see how the children were embraced, hugged and loved by our team. Each one of us were surrounded by the kids holding our hands, sitting in our laps and jumping into our arms.

As we were playing, one of the adults ...

We visited the Kikongomeme leper village in Kasempa with Pastor John Chilengi to bring them mealie-meal, oil, salt, sugar and dried fish.  There are thirty-one lepers in the colony and we brought each of them a blanket with their name embroidered on them.  The blankets were provided by my missional community from the School of Kingdom ...

After 34.5 hours of travel we landed back in New Orleans at 11:30am today.  I always enjoy seeing the team greeted by their family and friends at the airport after a trip.  It's always a time of excitement, laughter and love.
 
Returning home can often be challenging though.  I find missions trips are a great example of a ...

Yesterday morning we traveled to Skiunzwe with Pastor Best to visit the local Vineyard Church. Just as we have seen all over Zambia the music and worship was full of passion. The mixture of drums and voices were beautiful. 

Once we completed worshipping, Robb gave a teaching on David and Goliath.  The translator was wonderful.  He ...

Yesterday we made the long drive from Ndola down to Livingstone. Honestly, for a 13 hour bus ride it went by pretty quick.  With all of our luggage and 15 people we were certainly packed in but the entire team were troopers and no one complained.

Today we split up into two groups.  Robb, Janet, Ana and I (Shawn) went to a branch of the ...

We divided up into three groups this morning to attend services. Robb taught at Twapia with Janet, April, Rhonda and Susan along to attend the service. Robb taught on David and Goliath, explaining that we can overcome our obstacles with God.  The ladies received chetangas and Robb received an African shirt as gifts from our Twapia friends...

We’ve spent the last two days at the Vineyard Church of Ndola working with Pastor Damas Kamfwa.

Yesterday was a children’s outreach in the morning. This was similar to Twapia in that we took jump ropes, frisbees and beach balls to play with the kids and spend time with them. Brooklyn met a little girl named Christina. They played ...

Today, our team was blessed to participate in the monthly children outreach program at Vineyard Church of Twapia.  As we pulled into the church, the children ran beside be bus cheering, screaming and grabbing our hands and arms out the windows.  Brooklyn and I (Michelle) thought we were going to be pulled out on opposides sides of the bus...

After working with Seeds of Hope yesterday we headed back to the guest house to wash up and have dinner.  Afterwards we headed to Pastor Damas Kamfwa's church the Vineyard Church of Ndola for their mid-week gathering.  Two months ago Pastor Damas started a Vineyard Book Club where he has folks reading different books on theology, the ...

Today we worked with our partner Seeds of Hope International Partnership. We were at their facility and toured the gardens and assisted with the construction of the bio sand filters. This included bolting the forms, mixing the concrete (using shovels and back breaking strength) and filling the forms. It was a very labor intensive process however it...

Now that the rest of the team has arrived in Zambia, I (Shawn) will be sharing the blogging responsibilities with Michelle. She will capture team member experiences and share our journey from that perspective.  Please enjoy!

Today we headed to work with our partner Seeds of Hope International to install bio-sand filters. Upon our arrival, we ...

Well we are all together once again.  The larger team made it in about 12:15PM (5:15am New Orleans Time).  It was great to see everyone arrive at the airport and there was much excitement.  Yesterday we spent the day getting settled in, hanging mosquito nets, getting groceries, fixing small things around the house and prepping ...

When we are traveling on missions trips I like to have our teams debrief each day in order to share stories and experiences with one another.  In order to get conversations going, I ask folks to share one “highlight” from the day and one “lowlight”.
 
This blog will be the highlights and lowlights from our first week...

Today we headed out to the Leper Colony to share a word with our friends there and give them each a gift.  One of our Missional Communities bought a blanket for each person at the Leper Colony and another Missional Community had the names embroidered on them.  Along with a blanket we prepared a bag with fish, cooking oil, salt, sugar, ...