Last you all heard from us we were boarding an 11 hour flight to Johannesburg, the plane ride was very long but we’re super thankful that we made it smoothly and without complications. When we arrived in Johannesburg we were able to learn more about our team members by sharing our stories, which helped us continue to grow as a group. The final flight to Livingstone, Zambia was only two hours, which was a nice break from the long hours spent on the plane the previous days. After passing customs and grabbing all of our luggage we made our way on a bus to Choma. The ride to Choma was very interesting for all of us as we hadn’t ever seen that type of countryside before. The bus ride was when it finally felt real to a lot of us, as we were finally in real life, and not in airports.
Our arrival to the Poetice base was one of the most uplifting arrivals any of us had felt before. Everyone welcomed us with open arms and shouts of joy! We were fortunate to meet multiple native Zambians upon our arrival and they were excited to welcome us to their home. The excitement of the Poetice staff reaffirmed our decision to step out of our comfort zone and onto Zambian soil.
We were then given a tour of the base and were fortunate enough to worship with the Poetice staff. This service was filled with native flair and was a powerful and meaningful beginning to this trip. We were able to worship the Lord in multiple languages! The joy and excitement from everyone involved was uplifting to us and helped pump us up for a week full of service. We ended our time with a powerful session of prayer and we felt that the Lord was with us in that space. It is such a unique experience to pray for and be prayed over by someone you just met that day, and on the other side of an ocean.
We ended the night with an amazing traditional Zambian dinner, including a new food to all of us called Nshima. This dish consists of a ground white corn mash that is actually used as a spoon, and was served with beans and a cabbage/peanut mix. This dish is eaten fully with your hands, which was pretty unusual but so fun for all of us. We were able to eat with all of the staff and just get to know them better and have fellowship and Christ centered conversations with them. We are so fired up to spend our first full day here tomorrow with our team, the Poetice staff, and 200 or so of our new friends.
Addy and Brant