success!!!!

it was a joyous day today in lusaka for 6 kids, their 2 teachers, and 5 parents (2 of the kids are siblings) when the man at the us embassy stated that seemingly simple statement of

"you can pick up your visas tomorrow at 14 hours."

"what!?!"  i asked, not believing he could have uttered such words without light coming down from heaven, angels singing, or at least a simple drumroll.  but he did.  and i was happy.

so... what does all this mean?

it means that they're coming to america!

it means that they'll get to stay in the house i grew up in for 2 months!

it means that they will experience christmas with me and my family!

it means that they will get to travel to multiple churches and meet some of the people that make their education possible!

it means that they will get to perform at with these guys!

jeromy and jennifer of ffh!

and it means that we've got to get practicing!  eek!

say a prayer cause we just might be coming to a church near you!

meet vinny

why yes.  i did set my accordion in the yard just to take a picture of it.  i am that person, thank you very much.

and apparently i'm not the only person in zambia who has an appreciation for old-timey, slightly (or "really" depending on who you are) dorky instruments.

aw, look at that smile.

the best part is that one of our toughest boys at school was so taken with vinny that the only way i could get him to be obedient was to promise a lesson.  gotta say, i never thought i'd be using an accordion to make children mind.  but, hey.  whatever works.

first week back and...

i am voiceless.  makes for an interesting music teaching experience.  but thanks to my raspy whisper i got to experience:


1. the youngest of my students running up with joy, yelling, "ba leslie! ba leslie!" only to stop dead in their tracks awkwardly when i would respond with an unnaturally low, "hi-(squeak)-iii!"


2. my students proving that they actually learned something in my class last term when i could simply point to a circle on the board and they would yell out, "whole note!"


3. a slightly unconventional music class consisting of a room full of students dancing around and singing praises to God, while i simply smiled and danced along 


4. teaching my drama club members (that's right.  we have a drama club now!) how to play charades (for obvious reasons)  

hopefully next week i'll actually be able to talk and (heaven help me!) sing too!


ooh! and speaking of students and school and the like, check out our new school uniforms!  aren't they great!? 

here's a little video too, which also demonstrates the best my voice has been all week.

learning to say thank you

one of the things we are desperately trying to teach our kids at lifesong is a spirit of thankfulness.  let me make one thing very clear... with most of them this is an extremely difficult task.  


and understandably so when i stop to remind myself where these kids come from.  


since i was little i've been taught the importance of saying thank you, the value of being genuinely grateful for what i've been given.  but for my kids... when those closest to them don't give, but take... don't nurture but neglect... don't love but tolerate... how can they even begin to understand thankfulness?


i've been given much.  i understand that i don't deserve it.  i know i should be thankful.  even when i don't necessarily feel it i still get these simple truths.


they have been given little.  they think they deserve more.  they have never (until now) been taught how to be thankful.

recently i heard a sermon on how we have a tendency in ministry to get weighed down with the need around us and forget to just kneel before God in thanksgiving.

to be thankful that He is a personal God who really truly cares and sincerely loves everyone intimately (wow.  i mean seriously.  have you thought about how cool that is?)


thankful that He has instilled His own heart for others in each of His followers


thankful that He even wants me to be a part of His ministry


thankful that i have the opportunity to work with beautifully broken children who daily draw me closer to Him


thankful that i have family and friends who cheer for me when i succeed, weep with me when i fail, and miss me when i'm in africa


thankful that i get to live in an exoticly different country with the coolest team of people around (seriously, guys.  they're kind of awesome.)


thankful that people will still read my blog even when i leave it dreadfully neglected (right?)

soon after that i was getting ready for bed and was struck with a somewhat sudden urge to fall to my knees and thank my Jesus for... oh lots of things.  i am confident God desires to hear our requests, desires, and lengthy tales of sorrow.  i also know that on that night He only required my joy.  my stories of blessing.  my thanks.


since then i've tried to make a habit of only praying prayers of thanks before bed.  and i've realized that as much as i thought i had to teach on the subject of thanksgiving, i also have a whole lot to learn.  


so now, though my days may be filled with requests for wisdom in how to teach children and patience when they don't always understand, i will look forward to falling asleep each night with a newly thankful heart.

i was up on the roof beams...

painting today, when i heard men shouting.  from my lofty view in the air (did i mention i'm afraid of heights?) i saw two men who looked like they were beating something... or someone!

i tried to listen closely and with every blow came a yell.  (what in the world?!)  i looked around trying to find someone who might be witnessing the same thing i was, hoping i was only imagining what could possibly be a human getting beat to death just on the other side of the fence.

"justin!  do you know what's going on?!  are they attacking someone?"

justin (our trusty builder + the reason i was facing my fears on the rafters with brush in hand) listened for a minute then said, "i think they yelled 'snake'?"

hmm...

straining to see more...

"madam!!!!  madam!!!!"

who me?

"yes?"

"snake!!!!"

"let me see!"

to which they disappeared behind the grasses and then lifted up this beauty:

awesome.

a day on the farm

so i've been wanting to spend a day on the lifesong farm for a while now.  why?  well, cause it sounds fun!  right?  i mean who wouldn't enjoy a day on the farm filled with manual labor under the hot african sun with fellow workers singing songs about Jesus?  not me that's for sure.

if you don't know what the lifesong farm is here's a video made last year that will tell you all about it:

anyway, yesterday i officially marked this item off my bucket list and in the process made a major discovery!  not only is working on the farm fun, it's down right educational to boot!  who'd of guessed?

so with that i would like to present:

lessons on the farm

an ode to hoeing rows in zambia

1. it's way more fun to work barefoot
i started the day off in my tennis shoes and fatigue quickly set in.

but once i flung off those tiresome lace-ups and felt the cool earth (the stuff under scaldingly hot earth) between my toes my energy level shot to new heights.  it's true.


2. killing a snake is a lot more rewarding if you are able to find it after you hoe it to death
yeah.  i think i killed my first snake.  another bucket list item checked off thank you very much.  but my mind would rest much more easily if i could have found the little guy.  (eek!)


3. zambian's are either really good at telling you what you want to hear or i really am stronger than i look
as much as i'd like to believe it's the latter, when one of the biggest women on the farm holds up and flexes her 5-meter-radius-all-muscle biceps while saying, "leslie, you are too strong!" to my 28-cm-diameter-no-muscle-bicep self (i measured) i have a hard time not going with the former.  sad.


4. singing both the male and female part of a song still doesn't sound good, but sure does lift the spirits of your fellow workers
one of my favorite parts of the day... listening to one of the workers jump back and forth to the different parts of a song while everyone else hoed and swayed to the serenade.


5. "good worker" in bemba is mwabomba bwino

and apparently (according to my new friend, sylvie, and a bunch of other unbelievably hardworking zambian women) this is exactly what i am.  who knew? (mom, stop laughing)


6. if you shout "imbwa!" to a bunch of sleeping ladies they will wake up in a hurry
a little joke at lunch involved one of the ladies yelling dog in bemba (we happened to be working on a farm with some uber mean dogs living on it) and an entire row of about 10 napping women jumped up ready for an attack.  it was pretty funny.


7. wearing chitange for an entire day is really kind of hot
this:

is all us workin' women sporting our chitange (the fun printed fabric we get to wrap around ourselves when we want to go zambian)


8. if you tie the chitange all the way around your waste it won't constantly fall off
a helpful tip when you're trying to work in the darn thing.


9. hoeing at an angle, while completely awkward at first, quickly becomes a more effective way to make rows
yep.  didn't know that one did ya?


10. stretch all you want, but after hoeing for 5+ hours in one day you will still feel like you got hit by a freight train the next morning*
*slight exaggeration

all in all it was a great experience that i hope to repeat.  especially considering i still have so much to learn!

like how to tie chitange around my head.

or how to sing "rock of ages" in bemba.


important things like that.

when fiction is all too real

recently i started walking to school.  the americans have been apologizing for using my car, the zambians think i'm crazy for even considering walking, and i am in complete bliss over the whole thing.  it gives me prime praying time on my way to school, and great relational time with the kids on my way home.

today i got to walk with 12 year old moses... not a super huge surprise considering he is one of my favorites (don't tell the other kids).  he and i have been reading through "the lion, the witch, and the wardrobe" together (although he calls it "turkish delight") and i invited him over to read another chapter or two (the reward for making it through the book is to watch the movie).

while walking home he told me that his aunt and uncle have been treating him and his parents very badly (his parents usually live far away, but because his father has been very sick they moved back to stay with moses, who lives with his aunt and uncle).  his mom has been staying home to take care of his dad, which means they have no income on their own, making them dependent on his aunt and uncle who are apparently not thrilled with the situation.

all this to say, when we got home i couldn't find the book so we picked up "the magician's nephew" instead.  we sat on the swing together and he proceeded to read the first chapter... at least until he got to page 3 where polly meets digory, who has been crying.  when she draws attention to this fact he says,

"so would you if... (among other things) you had to come and live with an aunt and an uncle who's mad and if the reason was that they were looking after your mother... and if your mother was ill and was going to... going to... die."

while he read this his voice got softer and slower until he stopped all together.  he looked up at me with a very real pain in his eyes and said, "ba (miss) leslie, i can't.  this book... it's too much."

i asked him if he'd like me to continue reading and he did, so i took the book and he scooted in, leaning against me, longing for just one thing to be stable and secure in his life.  i read on, fighting back the massive boulder that had currently lodged itself in my throat and the tears that were ready to put on a major show.

sometimes i forget how real the pain i used to only read about in books can be here.  it consistently catches me off guard and leaves me feeling terribly inadequate.  i just pray that when these kids look to me for any kind of stability they are lead directly to the One who can give it.