We all have 12 month multiple entry visas, which apparently
means we are able to come to country as many times as we want in a year, but we
can only stay for 30 days at a time. We can apply for an extension that will
let us stay for 90 days, but we still must leave the country after that.
Thankfully, we live only an hour and a half away from the Zambian border.
The drive
to Zambia was very nice, with the only exception being the border crossing. However,
after fending off all the moneychangers, we finally made it to Zambia! We
arrived at a nice little hostel, had dinner, and went to bed. The hostel was on
beautiful grounds, had a campsite, and a shower that hosted my first warm shower
since moving here (yay!). It was interesting talking to the hostel owners. They
were Italians who were born in Mozambique and spent most of their lives going
between Mosambique, Zambia, Malawi, and Italy.
Our second
full day in Zambia we had to opportunity to go to Filius Jere’s house and then
to the new church hall. At Filius’s house he showed us pamphlets he translated
into Nyanja. Besides using his radio station to broadcast Beyond Today
episodes, he also works on translating UCG’s booklets into Nyanja for members
and guests to easily read. I was quite inspired by that and want to find a way
to translate the booklets into Chichewa so our brethren here who don’t speak
English can access the booklets as well. The church hall in Chipata was
fantastic! It’s not big, but it will seat around 100 people (most people sit on
the ground, not in chairs, so it’s easier to fit more) and behind the building
there’s an outdoor kitchen area where we talked with women who were preparing tobwa,
the maize drink I talked about in my previous blog. Similar to Malawi, maize is
grown everywhere. Wherever there’s an open spot of land, there’s maize. The
church hall was surrounded on three sides by maize, groundnuts (peanuts), okra,
and pigeon peas (lentils) that were tended to by the members. Filius told us
how they organically fertalize the fields with compost and a special plant. The
results were amazing! The maize ears were bigger than ones that had been
treated with chemical fertilizer. I loved seeing how involved the members were
with everything. The congregation’s youth and a few adults built the hall themselves.
It was so inspiring to see a family that God had grown together in just two
years.
We didn’t
know until arriving, but the Sabbath we spent there was the first time they had
ever used the hall. There was a great celebration that included dedications and
thanks, personal speeches about how different individuals were called, skits
about keeping the Sabbath, a youth rap on the 10 commandments, a question and
answer session, and, of course, food and tobwa. Filius had invited the land’s
previous owner to services and the dedication where she was given a seat of
honor and two live chickens. The members lovingly gave Lewis, Lena, Brennan,
and me two doves that we named Peggy and Lil’ Nugs. Brennan got to experience,
for the first time, what it’s like to speak while using a translator! When we
were introduced to the congregation, we were introduced as “our brethren from Malawi”
or “the Malawian brethren,” which I found pretty funny. The day as a whole was just
amazing.
The
next day we drove home and reminisced about our time there. I was so inspired
by the community God built. How can we bring that back home with us? 
