Omelette

... at last, I got my replacement passport from the British High Commission in Lusaka 2 weeks ago, only to be told by the Zambian Immigration office that I had been rejected for my work permit.

After a rather stressful week and interesting interactions with a immigration officer who got me the necessary paperwork to leave the country.....

Here I am sitting in my friends lounge in rainy Bedford, England, wondering how I got here and what the next few months might look like. People have been so lovely offering spare rooms galore, meals, space to be and talk and taking me shopping (I have dropped 4 dress sizes! Yeah!).
In the middle of chaos and things not being either in my control or in my plan, one can be left wondering... WHAT THE HECK IS GOING ON!

I know it's not just me, life is all too often unpredictable and throws all sorts of challenges and things at us that we have no idea of how we are going to get through.
Nearly 2 years ago my brother came up to visit for the weekend, we went for a walk on a sunny Sunday afternoon and he sat me down on a park bench and told me he thought he may have cancer.




The next year was full of hospital waiting rooms, a very sick bro on my sofa and much hand holding as he went through chemo.

It was hard.

Without friends praying, talking and helping practically, I'm not sure how we would have coped.

The thing is we did.

He had 4th stage cancer, that's the variety you don't wanna get, it was in his neck, opposite shoulder and liver.  He now has no cancer, we believe Jesus healed him.

Having gone through that and seeing how he is really thriving in his new life up here in Bedford, (I mean the guy is really loving life), we met up this week and reflected on the past 2 years and I have to say, 

I don't know how it happened, but 

going through that unpredictable, pain filled darkness has produced so much beauty.  

 I gives me hope that even when I don't see the path ahead, I know my heavenly Dad is holding my hand and has a plan that is far better than what I could have come up with.  The trick is to keep holding on to that hand.

Just before I left Zambia I was talking to God one morning and heard Him say
"if life throws eggs at you, make an omelette"

So, here is to eating omelette for the next few months, in England.
Let the new adventures and fullness of life roll.

Whats in a word?

My friend was teaching this weekend in English, her second language and accidently said
"Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a dongle, I mean donkey".
Apart from being funny, it got me thinking about communication and words a bit.

Tim and Gemma, my fellow brits, are back and there are so many phrases i havent used for 4 months that sound funny now Im hearing them again.
Things like,

• she got herself in a real pickle - (did she? really?a jar of branston or inside a gherkin?)
•  Putting your shoes and socks on (hopefully not in that order?)
• Its my pet peeve (your pet what? i have a pet dog) 

and my favourite

• its not really my cup of tea.

Ah the joys of living in a 3 language community.

Eggs and things

"It takes different strokes to rule the world" I believe Arnold once said!

It's amazing how small things make little difference to me but mean the world in a different culture.
Here are a few from here:

It's rude not to go around and greet everyone when you enter a room with a handshake and a curtsy.

It's rude if I don't greet absolutely everyone I see (even in the distance) as I walk around the village.

Some friends were doing games with some kids and did the 'egg and spoon race' game.  When the first egg broke the kids started to really cry cos it was food. (Note to self, food is never a game here).




I got invited to a wedding at 11am, people started arriving at 2pm, it got going around 2.30-3pm.
Wedding gifts should be wrapped in a t-towel and presented in a wave type movement.

Thighs are referred to as "uncooked meat", should be covered at all times as they are private areas and should only been seen by your husband/wife. Below the knee shorts/skirts are decent.  However, a lot of cleavage is fine.

Have you ever thought why we think like we do?

Living here is opening me more in how to love better.

I want to be a loving person.
Loving someone isn't about me,
it's not really about how I want to give and receive love.
It's all about finding out how people feel loved and doing that.

Love is patient, Love is kind, it doesn't envy, it doesn't boast, it's not proud, it isn't rude, it's not self seeking, it's not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love doesn't delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
Love never fails.

6 months in Africa

On Friday I've been here 6 months - wow! That went quickly!
How do you sum that up?

Fun, challenging, spider, healings, Kids, laughter, no money, schools, stuck in mud, secret lakes, church in the bush, photos, blogs, friends, nshima, pig for Christmas, Zimbabwe holiday, crickets, star looking, More schools, unexpected gifts, curries, nandos, singing early in the morning, no tv, smelly feet, dodgy Internet, phone calls and Skype dates, many visits and short termers, dogs, chocolate, African quest drinks, Maka-Maka, icecream, coffee, reading, paperwork, theft, bank problems, Christmas hygge meals, new year fireworks, tears, power cuts, mustaches, maggots, snakes, ridiculous jokes and shared humor, Miranda, ssssss, Gilmore girls, village walks, bikes, swims, red skin, more kids, letters from home, container clothes, $1 business plans, haircut in 7 minutes, passports and work permits, police stations, hospital visits, neck scarves, data entry, push cars, shoes, boobs, handshakes, African rain, courgettes, drive thru tomato shacks, fun afternoons, adventures, the farm, Catherine, folded underwear, red earth, potholes, chapel, homemade bread, sausages, airplanes, Jesus, curtains, sunshine, wordless communication, the rat, misunderstandings, naps, eggs, bandanas, sofa, African markets, movie nights, biscuits and Chocolate cake, frikadeller, cabbage, turmeric, sun cream, boys, candles, ants, shared fruit trees, chicken!

Wow!


What a 6 months!

Overcoming fear

Please accept my apologies for the absence of blogets in the past few weeks.
The long and short was I got a bag stolen that had my laptop, camera, passport and other bits and bobs in it, so little access to such luxuries has made blogets challenging.

But I'm back thanks to a wonderful little iPad.

This week I flew to Lusaka to get all the relevant new paperwork sorted and realized in doing so had to confront a few fears that i have lived with for years and have been until now easy to disguise.

Although I have flown all over the world I get anxious and prefer to not do it alone. I like my own company but the thought of staying in a hotel/holiday place on my own was until now something I would avoid at all costs. My biggest fear by far in all of this was eating in a restaurant on my own, the thought of it brought a minefield of paranoia and anxiety.  Whilst in the uk I had tried to make steps out of this by purposely going to costa on my own with a book, both time I tried were frankly horrible.

So what do you do. . .
I have to go, I have to get this paperwork....

Flying went very well, small plane but smooth journey this time and I even enjoyed it.
Lusaka Backpackers is a warm and social setting, made a few friends last time I was there, few anxious moments but ..... I enjoyed it.

And then the big one.
I'm sat in my room, I'm hungry, I could stay hungry or just go for it....
Half an hour later and a Nandos chicken salad later, I eat and leave, but I have this sense of crossing a line.
The next evening is my last in the capital and I dream about what I would really like to eat.... Of course,  fillet steak with mushroom sauce fills my mind.  I figure the longer I think about it, the harder it will be. Can I recommend "spurs" if you are ever in southern Africa, it's gooooood food and I enjoyed the whole experience, I sat in peace, enjoyed the atmosphere and loved people watching as I waited for my,delicious by the way, dinner. I finished and just sat, breathing it all in.

I have lived with irritating fears my whole life, some of them related to memories but some just because.
I'm on a quest to not live with them anymore . 
They stop me enjoying every moment, they hinder my love of life and I wasn't born to be held by them.

Here's to increased freedom and being able to laugh at how stupid they were after walking through them and enjoying it. 

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.