Our Week in Livingstone

This week was very different for us in MANY ways.  Obviously, we are living in Africa now-so duh, that is a little bit of a change. Ha!  Another difference was living in a guest house (hotel) for the week in a tourist town-Livingstone, home of Victoria Falls, but not being tourists.  It is a different week because the fact of the matter is, we are here for a year…and along with that comes getting used to random power outages, buying bottled water, taking taxis (since we STILL don’t have our car-don’t ask my hubby about that one at the moment-hopefully soon and no more taxis), doing laundry in the bathroom, learning how to grocery shop here, always quite the adventure, converting U.S. dollars to kwacha, sleeping under mosquito nets, using sunscreen and bug spray everyday, feet that can’t get clean, kids who need a shower every other minute (this dirt just seems to get ingrained into their bodies!), wearing longer skirts every day, trying to ignore the stench in the air (B.O. and trash burning), finding safe restaurants to eat at, and there is too much more to list.  Africa is so incredibly different than America. 

But the funniest thing about this week to me was that the weirdest thing to get used to was having a “normal” schedule.  This was weird for two reasons, 1 being Mickey is a firefighter as you all know and works a 24 hour on/48 hour off schedule so that is what we are used to, 2^nd because we have been either living in a motor home and moving every two weeks or we have been traveling.  So…strange for Mickey to eat breakfast with us every morning, then leave for his conference and return back around 5.  Totally normal for most of you, but not for us!  And I have to say…I Loved It!  Which brings me to the purpose of this post, below you will find my perspective and Mickey’s perspective for the week.  It was good, challenging, hard, and fun, for both of us for completely different reasons.

Q: What did you learn this week?

Mickey: I learned that there are several people on this continent, both white and black, who believe that the answer to poverty lies not in providing more aid or charity, but in education and training aimed at equipping those who live under poverty’s yoke.  Farming God’s Way is a weapon on the front line on the war against poverty.  There needs to be more people out there promoting this tool, along with a message of hope that God does provide for you, He weeps for the poor and genuinely wants people to thrive here on Earth and have life abundantly. 

Mandey: I learned that there are so many amazing people all over the world who love God. Sometimes I feel like I am in a little bubble in Ankeny, like we are the only ones.  But being here and meeting some of the folks from the Farming God’s Way conference, I was dumbfounded.  There were missionaries young and old from all over Africa, all trying to reach the same goal-bringing people to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.  This encouraged me so much-love being a part of the greater body of Christ. 

Q: What was challenging this week?

Mickey:  It is really hot and I am melting.

Mandey: It was challenging to be on my own essentially during the day.  Mickey was gone and without cell service.  I have to admit I was a little nervous about venturing out of our guest house, so I felt a bit stuck.  Didn’t have a car, so either had to walk or take a taxi-which walking with two kids in 100 degree weather or spending money on a taxi did not sound fun, so most days we just stayed on our little guest house compound.  We did go grocery shopping one day and I took the kids to a crocodile park.  The kids actually did really great which you will hear about in the next answer, but the problem was more loneliness for me-I am a people person in case you didn’t know.  ;) I love to chat and have fellowship.  So, 5 full days of no “friend” time was difficult.    (God did bless me with a sweet Canadian lady to chat with here and there as well as a night at a local missionaries house, a fellow mom!-more about these two ladies in a different post)

Q: What did you enjoy about his week?

Mickey: I enjoyed meeting people who have devoted themselves to the cause of relieving poverty.  It is rare to be in a setting of 40 plus people who are literally all on the same page about the end goal of ministry in Africa.  “Visioneering” was also fun.  I was able to bounce ideas off other people who have been working in this field for a while and God really helped me formulate a vision for the future, which is exciting.  I enjoyed hanging out with Heiko and Anita Held, who run Embrace the Grace ministry here in Livingstone and are a pretty cool couple.  I also had fun seeing the Cape Buffalos and the Gorge at Overland Missions.

Mandey: I really enjoyed the time with my kids and getting into a routine.  We have been traveling or staying with friends for about a month now-so even though we still don’t have a home, we were able to make it work here.  And in America, with Mickey’s job, our lives are never really routine.  But this week, he got to eat breakfast with us in the morning and he was home at supper time. I started homeschooling both of my kiddos, which went awesome.  They are both so eager to learn.  We spent time in the pool, watched movies together, played in the shaded gazebo area, made lunches together in the kitchen, they napped, I worked out, and Facetimed some friends and family.  I was so worried they would be bored and would spend the week complaining, but they didn’t at all.  God provided us with great quality time together and a relaxing week. 

Q: What did God communicate to you this week?

Mickey: God really encouraged me this week that He has bigger plans for us than just this year, that my family is an equally important place for ministry, that farming is both noble and in my blood and that He can use me with my limited knowledge of farming to benefit a lot of people.  He also communicated that I am a pansy and having an air conditioner in my apartment here was probably smart.

Mandey: That I need to pray more and really believe that He will answer prayer.  As most of you saw, Ev fell and hit his head this week.  His first concussion.  What was my first reaction?  Thinking about what WE should do.  Ice pack. Ibprofren. Turn lights down low.  Rub his head.  Hold him.  Yep, all stuff I could do… Did I pray immediately?  Sadly, no.  It wasn’t until the next morning when I realized my efforts weren’t helping, that he wasn’t getting any better, he was actually getting worse, crying out in pain from his head, that I thought I better start begging God for my little boy to be alright.  And that I did.  But being my stubborn self, I still didn’t think to ask other people to pray until the afternoon (although come to think about it, most of you were sleeping when it was morning time here!).  Wow, did God come through big time after many people were praying.  I had so many responses and I knew so many people were genuinely praying for my lil guy-that in just 2 hours after posting the need, Ev sat up and smiled for the first time all day.  I could see the whites in his eyes, he laughed, and he wanted to eat.  AMAZING.  Lesson learned this week.  Go to God first-ask people to join you.  God hears our prayers. 

Q: Any parting thoughts on Livingstone?

Mickey: The concept of having to do “power sharing”, which is essentially shutting off electricity alternatively to one area of town during peak hours so the other side of town can have power, is a bit odd here given the close proximity to a waterfall twice the size of Niagara Falls.  It’s called hydroelectricity Zambia.  Oh yeah…importing a car from another country into the third world is exactly as jacked up and stressful as you are imagining it to be.  Trust me!

Mandey: There were some highs and lows this week and I continue to adjust to life here.  I love it and hate it at the same time.  (if I am being honest) It was cool to see the Falls and for Mickey to learn so much at the conference, but I am glad to be heading back to Chongwe to set up our home, ministry, and get started on the adoption process.  It will be fun to come back here in January and April when our parents our visiting-the Falls will have a little more water than what it did this time!

Ev and Alea at the Falls!  They weren't too impressed actually since there is not much water right now-it is dry season!

Mickey's whole Farming God's Way group at the Falls-what an amazing collection of people!

Tabonina Guest House-this is the little pool where we cooled off each afternoon, we loved our little suite and all the workers, a great place to stay if you are in Livinstone.