Today we returned from Victoria Falls, our one day getaway. The Falls are glorious and we were blessed to be able to go and also glad to be back in our Lusaka house with our hosts and all the babies.
These are my musings from the ride on the minibus.
9 Team Resolutions (actually mine, but I trust the team will subscribe)
1. Seeing the daily pile of laundry generated by 18 infants and 18 toddlers, we will not see laundry at home as a chore any more.
2. Seeing a village woman with a bag of vegetables on her head, a baby on her back and a jug of oil in her hand (yet she waved to us with her free hand), we will not take grocery stores, carts, grocery money and car trunks for granted. (There are many, many such women.)
3. Since we worshiped in a vibrant church with lawn chairs and (that morning) no electricity, we will see our sanctuary with greater gratitude.
4. Since 11 of us sign up to use 1 shower, scheduled to avoid hot water needed for baby baths, a shower at home will feel like the luxury that it is.
5. Since we paid $8.90 per gallon for gasoline, we will feel less dismayed by $4/gallon at home.
6. Seeing railroad tracks that have barely been maintained since the British left(1964), we will marvel at our own train system.
7. Seeing a flat bed truck loaded with lumber then packed with many families on top of the lumber (a makeshift bus because the normal buses do not go off the main road to the villages), we will appreciate U.S. public transportation.
8. Since we returned to a city partially dark and without some traffic lights because regular "load sharing" is a means of taking electricity from some areas of the city when demand is too high, we will appreciate how our utilities at home are wonderful.
9. Since we worked on rebuilding a group home and the full-time Zambian construction workers asked if we might leave our gloves, we will be dazzled by all that is available at Home Depot to make our projects easy.
We came to serve and support a Christian charity that does fantastic work. These resolutions are simply a secondary benefit from stepping outside our homes and our comfort zones and seeing how the developing world lives.
We think the primary benefit is our help.
But instead it may be the respect and admiration for Zambians who scrape by with so little without losing hope for a better future.
With amazement and blessing,
Pastor Victoria
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4 comments:
Your resolutions are inspiring and your words paint a vivid picture. At the risk of sounding envious, they have increased my resolve to participate in a similar adventure/experience.
Thank you
j
Very Humbling!
yes we are trully lucky and blessed to have confortable lives. If we all just appreciated this and showed our appreciation by smiling to one another!
regards
Madhukar
Victoria,
Thank you for sharing your musings. They helped me "see" Zambia through my computer screen. I read a Dietrich Bonhoeffer quote yesterday that "Satan does not here fill us with hatred of God, but with forgetfulness of God." I'm sure that while you all are helping the people of Zambia in whatever way you are able, the people of Zambia and Zambia itself are gifts to you of a reminder of God in so many forms. The memories of your trip -- like your nine musings -- will help us all fight against the "forgetfulness of God."
Reading your posts is truly a testament to God's limitless love. I am personally touched and amazed by this group's answer to serve. I feel blessed to be part of your community. Seeing the hand of God at work in the middle of what might seem like chaos. You make it sound like its a walk in the park. Thank you.
Happy birthday to Nancy Piper Jankovich. I have been trying to tell Naisbert where Grandma is, but every time I say the 'G' word he gets his shoes and run to the door.
From Naison, Letty, and Naisbert
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