A modern day hero

Let me introduce you to Anne-Mette Frederiksen.
She is Danish and twenty years old.
She has given up friends, family, comfort and an easy life to come and live in Zambia for the next 2 years.
For a few days a week Anne-Mette gives up the comfort of living in Kaniki to go live in the bush, I mean the bush-bush, no electricity, no fans or mosquito netted windows, cooking over a charcoal fire, miles from the nearest road, living in a mud hut, only 2 people speaking good English, you have to fetch water everyday - bush.
She has started a youth programme for the teenagers there.

Anne-Mette's hut

 One of the first things you notice about Anne-Mette is that she is humble, unassuming and loves Jesus, He is her friend, you can see Him in her smile and they way she talks about others, the way she touches an old lady’s hand as she talks with her, the way she wants to be around people just to make them happy, the way she is often the first to wash up or help with serving a meal.
She is very aware she is a 20 year old, is not a Doctor or teacher or been to university yet.

But, she is willing to give her whole self and does so - which I think can be more impacting somehow.
She reminds me of Gladys Alywood, another of my heroes.

Anne-Mette is a challenge to me, she is realistic about the challenges of bush life, her fears and apprehensions, but she is goes anyway, “because God said to go”.

She is a challenge to not let fear hold us back from living the adventure of life. 

There are many things we dream about doing but can easily talk ourselves out of. Starting our own business or taking a change in career, talking to the guy at work sitting on his own every tea break, speaking up in a group where you feel intimidated, doing something good for someone outside of your social group even tho your friends may ridicule you.

I want to always hear my heart say 
“This is scary and Im scared.........but...........lets do it anyway.”

I believe we were all born do do something amazing.

Too much

"And can you get 12 batteries and 70 bread rolls..."

3 hours later my friend was back with a bus full............
of bread rolls...............
20 in a packet.................
70 packets...................
thats 1400 bread rolls.....................

my first reaction was to laugh, a lot, but my friend looked worried, so I quickly reassured him that it was ok and we would use them and I wasnt mad.

On monday we took a bus full of bread and a treasure hunting map and had some fun.

(www.kevindedmon.com/about-treasure-hunts/)

First clues pointed to the local orphanage and the workers there, about 100 men and women were in a dark shed eating lunch and were pleased to have a little more on their plates.
We went to the local clinic where about 30 mothers and their many kids ate bread to their hearts content.
Then to a bus pick up spot where about 15 men cheered very loudly at some lunch, to the bush where random passers by and many kids hung out and munched away as we played with balloons we had also brought with us.

At the end we took the remaining rolls to the village on the border as there were still many left. We drove past the police building, a small ramshackled place and thought, ‘I bet no-one takes bread to policemen’.
We handed out many in the office and reception then saw hands reaching out of a 8x8inch hole in a door.
This was the cell, there were about 15 men with standing room only in a room no bigger than 3x4metres with this one “window” in the door.
We handed rolls as fast as we could as we were told by the officers not to feed these men as they were prisoners.
All this anger rose in me as i argued that they needed food as much as anyone else and tried to buy my team a few more seconds.
These men were so grateful and I was broken by a this harrowing experience, I cant stop thinking about them.

I love that God loves us no matter what we have done.
I feel so privileged to have been there, sent to give practical love in a forgotten place.

We are planning another visit next week.

Best thing since sliced bread....

Its funny how everything starts looking like home at times?

So this weekend I had a visit from my friend Emma Doxat-Pratt (EDP to her friends).   EDP has been working on the King's Arms Project Nightshelter team for the the last year and is my first visitor from home.

Ive loved having her stay, her energy, positivity and hard work have been a real joy to be around. 

Our adventures started with us asking God one morning what shall we do today?
We thought we should go "be a blessing" to people, so went to my favourite village and visited some friends there.  Two people got healed when we prayed and we had lots of fun walking around and chatting away.

The rest of our time we have chilled out, went swimming, went to chapel, snuggled with dogs, watched Gilmore Girls and Miranda, cooked an amazing curry with Brownies for pudding, slept, laughed, caught up on news from home and generally had a great time.

Yesterday I decided Id take Emma to the local school in our lunch break, we got there, looked around and then thought,
"lets go to the village in the bush Anne-Mette is staying".
So we got in the car and ventured on the terrible mud road out there. 
About 5km in, the mud got a bit squishy,
by about 5.5km we were stuck fast, car wont budge, calf deep in thick, warm, squishy mud...............
Eventually a kind truck driver stopped, chatted, pushed and then had to rescue us by pulling us out with a rope!
(Its amazing how warm mud can feel so nice between your toes!?)

Emma then ran the KOP office for the afternoon with Lister and Mrs Chomba, they saw 3 people healed of pain.

So Id like to say Thanks Emma, You have been an absolutely stonking great blessing and I have so enjoyed your company.

(And thanks to all who sent greetings, cards and presents with EDP.)
xx

Just sayin..........

Its feeling a bit chilly today... no, seriously it is  

Weather for Ndola

Sun

Mon

Tue

Wed

25°

19°

26°

18°

26°

18°

25°

17°

More on the Attitude of Gratitude

So Ive written a little on (what I call) "the Attitude of Gratitude" in previous blogs.
This week I wanted to introduce you to Ann Voskamp.
 (She blogs at www.aholyexperience.com)

I was sent this book by my friend Carly for my birthday a year and a half ago.





















The challenge of the book is to count the good things in your life.
I started making a list of 10 things everyday that I was grateful for;  a cup of coffee from a work colleague, the smile from the bus driver that made me smile back, dear friends who text to say hello, washed dishes, a day of good health for my sick brother.

One Thousand Gifts (or "the blue egg book") is a book that's written poetically, it makes you read it slowly and for someone like me who isn't a big reader, it really helped me digest its content.

I found that taking time each day to actually document goodness in my life made me think more positively, made me live more gratefully and made my heart more thankful. It shows you from Ann's life how you can really live in the moment and get energized by the life in it.

I realise I have stopped looking at what I don't have so much and have started celebrating what I do have and MAN! I am happier for it.
Although I do grumble, its less, although I do wish for things, they don't consume me in the same way, I see more goodness around me and am starting to see just how good life already is.

I can honestly say this book changed my life.

So I present it to you.  Buy it, read it, be happier because of it.

www.amazon.co.uk/One-Thousand-Gifts-Voskamp-Ann/dp/0310321913/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1357829738&sr=8-1

(Its even been translated into french).

xx
ZJ

Precious little bundle

Malene hugging kids!

Yesterday 5 of us from home went to our little bush church.  Malene, Naomi and I took part in the kids church, such a privilege, I basically played my guitar and got to hug kids for the next 3 hours, its a hard job but someone has to do it!


We then went to our friends hut for lunch.  It took about half an hour to walk there through the bush to her remote hut, it was baking hot and I got a little sunburnt. 

Lunch including "snot"

Lunch was Nshima (pap/sadza), beans, ocra (aka snot) and mini yellow eggplants.
Our friend hasnt enough food for the next few months, she has planted some seeds but there wont be enough, she knows this but still shares what she has even though she is looking after 7 kids and her aging parents, she believes they will get through and God will provide, so she shares.
This blew my mind a little.

This is a real photo from yesterday with no added effects

On the way home it rained torrentially, we got absolutely, to your underwear, soaked.  I loved it!





 When we reached the car, one of my guardians was there with a friend and their 7 children. The road had totally corroded in the hours worth of rain and it was literally like driving in a river with pot holes bigger than a bus and bumps that meant speed was not an option. I was handed little Ben through the window, he is 17 months old and is HIV+, as I held this little bundle of precious cargo tightly for fear of whiplash, he somehow fell asleep.
My heart melted and I remembered God really doesnt forget anyone, not even a poorly little mite on a rainy day, not a hard working mum with too many mouths to feed and not enough food in the middle of the bush-bush in Africa.
He loves, He cant help Himself.

Again Im challenged to live with the Attitude of Gratitude.
I am so much happier when Im thankful for what I do have, than when I think about what I do not.
My friends here have life and joy in the middle of desperate surroundings, I want to learn this.

Thoughts this Christmas

So Ive been told its Christmas, Im not sure if I believe people, its 30*C most days, not a drop of snow in sight, no winter socks needed for bedtime, no scarves and gloves, Jack frost isnt nipping at my toes.
As I sit with my ice cold guava squash, Im thinking "What is Christmas about when you are far from home and the ones you love?"

some of my Kaniki family in Zambia 

Seeing as its Christmas, Jesus' birthday, I thought Id attempt to try and answer a question Ive often been asked....

ZoeJoy, what do you mean when you say You meet with God?
I mean, you talk about being friends with Him? what does that look like, feel like?

For me its a relationship that has grown like any other friendship.
I talk to Him and over the years Im learning what His voice sounds like when He talks back.
What it feels like when He is trying to get my attention.

Sometimes when I read the bible its like certain words jump off the page, not in a wooooow-strange way, but its like they make my heart feels alive and I know He is speaking to me.

When I sing to him, (Christians love to sing!) I try and visualise He is there and sing to Him, to allow Him to use my imagination (which He created btw) and see what He is doing or wants to show me.  This helps me enjoy Him.

When I talk to him (pray) I also like to visualise He is there and interact with Him there, often He likes to just sit and listen and be with me, sometimes He speaks there too.

This week I am trying to learn about what chills me out and calms me because I realise when I give myself the space to do this, often this is where I find I meet Him easiest.

Its Christmas, the place where we celebrate Jesus' birth.
Why dont you give yourself the space to find out why Christians are so into Him this coming year.
(Id recommend an Alpha course-most churches run them).

Have a great Christmas, 
Have a great time with family and friends.
Thanks for your friendship with me.
ZJ

ps "eight" is still available on i-tunes.  These are all songs Ive written when spending time with Him.

www.itunes.apple.com/gb/album/eight/id560137363