I haven't posted anything from this trip yet, and because of the constant requests and pleas for me to update everyone I have consented..
Not really but whatever.
I have been in Zim for 3.5 weeks now, and am about to leave the Burleson home I have been staying at.
I came out here with my mom, dad, Elijah and Priscilla. We spent the first week with my sister Amanda, her husband Ryan, and our nieces Hope (2 yrs) and Mercy (7 months). The first week we spent getting acclimated to the time change, the Shona culture, and spent most of our time at home hanging out. It has been wonderful getting to hang out with Hope and Mercy. Hope is quite the character, loves to talk and have tea parties with us and just attention in general. Mercy is the chillest baby ever. She rarely cries, is easily entertained and likes to smile and laugh.
Our second week, we got to go to a couple animal parks: Antelope park, Hwange National Park, and Victoria Falls! Vic falls was beautiful, and it was so fun to run around in the mist coming from the falls. Elijah, Priscilla and I got completely soaked.
We have gotten to see alllll the animals out here.. let's see. Hippos, crocodiles, monkeys, baboons, antelope, kudu, turtles, giraffe, elephants, and some mean lookin lions! It's been great to be able to experience the culture here in Zimbabwe while being able to experience the beauty of God's creation as well. And spending precious time with family, on top of that.
I am leaving tomorrow to head out to the bush for a week to stay at a farm run by the Fry's, a missionary family. I will be doing a little bit more of the serving side, getting my hands dirty, and seeing a different side of ministry. All of the ministry thus far I have seen has been in the capital city, Harare that my sister Amanda and brother-in-law Ryan are involved in. I don't really know what my next week will look like, so I am excited to see how God leads me! Please pray for me to be humble as I seek to learn and be a servant to the people here in Zimbabwe.
One of the evenings this week, we got to go to an awesome park called Domoshawa (spelling?). It was a big granite mountain we climbed and got to see some ancient cave drawings. On the way out of the park, the sun had set and it got to be totally dark. We had a flashlight (called a torch) that we used to get us back close to the car. We almost had left the park, but decided to camp out by the entrance and eat our dinner. During this time we got to star gaze and sing worship songs. We had such a great time singing and seeing the beautiful sky together.
That's all for now, possibly more to come!
Please, if you read this far, comment on my blog to make me feel like people read this stuff! Thanks:)
If you read that, and then don't comment, you suck. And you know it.
A few pix:
Here's the back seat of a bush drive/walk we did at Antelope Park.
The fam got to take a sunset cruise on the Zambezi river, right before Vic Falls!
This was taken at a farm we visited, that Ryan and Amanda helped to build back in 2008.
